DC Wirefly National Marathon

People from the greater Washington DC area, next march 24th 7AM will be your 2nd annual Wirefly National Marathon.The event is produced by the Greater Washington Sports Alliance. This is a very important event because the new course will start/finish at the historic RFK Stadium home of the Washinton Nationals (the former Montreal Expos) and will be USATF certified as a Boston qualifier. So this is a very important event for all those of you who runs and are looking to qualify for the upcoming Boston marathon. But even if you do not take part at the race itself, you should go there and support the runners and the wonderful organization. They need you to be there and without you the event will not be the same. By supporting them you will help the event become more and more important and eventually make it a must see and a tradition. And best of all, the registration is open right now!

All kinds of useful information are displayed on the very complete official website: news, route map, results, training advices and there is even a brend new team challenge for the Wirefly National Marathon. Nothing is left out on the website, everything you need to know is out there. This is also a very good reason to go visit the greater Washington area. Also on the website: press releases, video and news articles. A ton of important information like the schedule for road closures are also available so you won't get caught at the last minute in the traffic jams.

To qualify as a participant:

You must have previously completed:

• a marathon in 5:00 or
• a half-marathon in 2:30 or
• a ten-miler in 1:50 or
• a 10k in 1:05 or
• a 5k in 31 minutes or better (half-marathon only)

Because of traffic considerations, the course is limited to the first 5,000 entrants with qualifying times between January 1, 2001, and March 18, 2007. There will also be a pace group to lead the pack.The United States Naval Academy Marathon Team!

The event will be also an occasion to raise funds for many foundations such as the Special Olympics of the District of Columbia, Fort Dupont sports arena and Prince George Tennis & Education Foundation only to name a few.

Be there or be square!

This was a paid payperpost ad.

Oilers retired Messier's jersey.

The Edmonton Oilers fans present for the official ceremony made the Rexall Place tremble during the jersey retiring of Mark Messier yesterday. Messier was very emotional during the ceremony and broke in tears.

Messier won the Stanley Cup a total of 6 times and played with many hockey great superstars such as Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Grant Fuhr only to name a few, during his long succesful career. A portion of an Edmonton road was also named after him earlier this week. His legacy will live on for many many years in Edmonton.

Xoxide.com

When I was younger I was really a pc game addict. I could play for hours without interruption, I was buying the latest pc performance products. All this to try to gain an edge on my opponents or just to showoff my friends that came to my parent's house to visit me. The more flashy design my CPU case was, the prouder I was. I could change my CPU case once or even two times in a year just to get the latest flashy and/or coolest design of the neighborhood. I could spend all my hard earned allocation money that my parents were giving me on my computer just to make sure that I was going to impress my friends with my new stuff. Hopefully I have grown up into an old grinch and don't spend as much on this as I used to. But once in a while I make myself a present and buy something cool for my computer but I tend to buy more practical stuff than flashy stuff now.

At Xoxide.com, they offer you exactly that. A wide selection of black computer cases is displayed on their site. Some have more neutral designs, some have pretty neat designs. You have to browse them among their selection to see what I am talking about. But their range of products doesn't end there...

They also have a pretty wide range of products. Take for example their case fans section. You have the choice between 40mm, 60mm, 70mm, 80mm, 92mm, 100mm and 120mm fans. If you don't find what suit your needs after that, I don't know what will quite frankly. Another example: among their cooling accessories you have once again a pretty neat range of products. From hard drive coolers, VGA coolers or chipset coolers. I will not go thru all the sections because it will take me all day to mention every products displayed on Xoxide.com.

Whether you need power supplies, keyboards, gaming gear, cables, power supplies, computer lighting or speakers, go ahead and browse the range of products of Xoxide.com. Almost every gamer need will be satisfied, believe me.

this was a paid payperpost ad.

N-Y Rangers 4 - Montreal 0

The New-York Rangers took advantage of the fact that the Montreal Canadiens players battle a case of flu and played the day before to blank them and win by the score of 4-0 at Madison Square Gardens.

My early week predictions are falling into place as the Habs won one then lost one this week. Young goaltender Jaroslav Halak didn't had any offensive support to back him up and did all he could. Unlike David Aebisher 2 days ago, Halak didn't give any awful goal. He was cleanly beated by Jaromir Jagr, Marcel Hossa twice and then Matt Cullen added a empty net goal at the end.

The team will have to roll up their sleeves because the next game is coming fast and will be against the top team in the Eastern conference: the Buffalo Sabres.

NHL final trades

The trade deadline is now expired and here's the last trades of the day:

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquire Yanic Perreault from the Phoenix Coyotes for Brendan Bell and both teams exchange draft picks.

The Detroit Red Wings acquire Todd Bertuzzi from the Florida Panthers for future compensation.

The Buffalo Sabres acquire Dainius Zubrus and Timo Helbling from the Washington Capitals for Jiri Novotny and a 2007 1st round draft pick.

NHL trades update.

The trade craze has started and there are so many minor trades that it is difficult to post them all. Here are some of the more important trades that have occured today.

The Philadelphia Flyers sent their 2007 1st round draft pick to acquire goaltender Martin Biron from the Buffalo Sabres.

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Georges Laraque from the Phoenix Coyotes for Daniel Carcillo and a 2007 8th round pick. Pittsburgh also acquired Gary Roberts from the Florida Panthers for Noah Welch.

The San Jose Sharks acquired Bill Guerin from the St-Louis Blues for Ville Nieminen, Jay Barriball and a 2007 1st draft pick.

More to come... still 1h30 until the trade deadline.

www.unsigned.com

I like music and I like to discover new artists now and then. With www.unsigned.com I was overwhelmed by the number of artists that are present on this website. Each artists or groups are listed in categories such as rock bands, blues bands, country, dance, rap bands or any genre you might think of.

Once you have chosen a genre, a huge list of artists that don't have a label are displayed. You browse and choose one in the list. Once you choose one, the artist pedigree appears: picture, info of where is the band/artist from, where and when is their next venue, their names and sometimes a short message from the artist himself talking about what he is all about and what are his goals.

You can listen to one or a few tracks of the artist so you can appreciate his music and get to know him thru his work. I ignored everything about www.unsigned.com and am pleasantly surprised by the number or artists and quality of some of the products listed there.

I give them a big 9.25/10 great site!

I will probably bookmark them and come back often because maybe the next big idol is awaiting to be discovered on that site.

this was a paid payperpost ad.

NHL trades update.

A quick update of trades that happened in the last 24 hours.

The Vancouver Canucks acquired Bryan Smolinski from the Chicago blackhawks in return they have conceded a 2007 2nd round draft pick. They also acquired Brent Sopel from from the Los Angeles Kings, giving them a 2nd and 4th round 2007 draft picks.

A 3-team trade between the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks was done also. Kyle Calder goes from Philadelphia to Detroit, Jason Williams from Detroit to Chicago and Lasse Kukkonen from Chicago to Philadelphia.

The New-York Islanders acquired Richard Zednik from the Washington Capitals in return they received a 2007 2nd round draft pick.

Some more trades could be done before the trade deadline at 3PM today.

A scary 5-4 win...

The atmosphere was electric at the Bell centre yesterday night and the sellout crowd was extremely noisy. They saw the Montreal Canadiens litterally explode and take a 5-2 lead after 2 periods.

BUT with the help of goaltender David Aebisher, the game almost slipped out of their hands to finally finish in a scary 5-4 Montreal win over their arch-rivals Toronto Maple Leafs.

I will now tell you what I really think of David Aebisher. That goaltender should thank the heavens that he has a multi-million dollar job in the NHL because this guy is a major clown. He allowed 3 extremely bad goals that should've been routine saves. Heck, even my 61-year old mother would've made those saves without using her hands at all. I do not know what holds me back from taking my steel crowbar and break one of his legs to make sure he doesn't appear in goal for the Habs ever.

I know this sounds harsh but when you are paid that kind of money and are in the middle of a tight playoff race, when your teammates are giving a hell of a performance in front of a electric crowd despite a flu bug hitting one third of the team. You DO NOT have the right to let them down like he did. I don't think it was a lack of concentration from his part. The guy lacks of both talent and balls. This sport is all about commitment, dedication and standing tall for your brothers pushing in the same direction and I am sorry but David Aebisher should not have the right to even wear the Habs jersey ever after what I saw yesterday night.

I will stop my ranting right here because I could go on for hours and it is not good for my mental health. Bottom line is that the guys began to dive in front of every Toronto shots to avoid further sabotage from Aebisher. Extra kudos to Radek Bonk who played a hell of a game putting his name on the scoresheet for one assist. Bonk and some others blocked many shots to save the thin 1-goal lead in the 3rd...someone had to block the shots and Radek did it. I didn't even mention the dedication of Steve Begin who came back from a foot fracture after only a week of rest, still in pain.

This is dedication and will power. David should be aware of that and take the restaurant bill with a large smile tomorrow noon in New-York. The team staff ordered that all the players should stay together tomorrow because of the trade deadline of tomorrow at 3 PM.

The marathon continues tomorrow in Madison Square Garden, New-York.

Critical week: walking on very thin ice.

A huge week for the Montreal Canadiens begins tonight. The Habs will play 4 games in the next 6 nights, a crucial sequence for the team that can't really afford to do worse than split those 4 matchups. At least 3 wins out of 4 will be needed to keep the boat afloat in the Eastern conference race.

In that sequence, the team plays the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell centre tonight, then back on the road tomorrow versus the New-York Rangers, then in Buffalo and finally in Boston. All those games are critical matchups and will shape the standings for the rest of the regular season.

As much as I wish that they win all 4 games, my 2 cents tell me they will split those matchups and rake 5 points out of a possible 8, winning 2, losing one in regulation and losing one in overtime or shootout.

Let's see if my crystal ball will be accurate at the end of the week....

Thachuk goes to Atlanta

The trade deadline is tomorrow and some teams are making their moves right now. The St-Louis Blues have sent Keith Tkachuk (on the image) to the Atlanta Trashers but got a good deal out of it.

The Thrashers have sent Glen Metropolit and 3 draft picks to St-Louis. The Blues will have all the leisure to reconstruct their franchise with young players with those 3 picks.

I will be on the watch until tomorrow and inform you if any other significant trade occurs until the trade deadline.

Gainey surprizes the analysts.

The Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey surprized many hockey experts yesterday by trading defensemen Craig Rivet and a 5th round draft pick in 2008 to the San Jose Sharks instead of trading Sheldon Souray who was everyone's guess for an eventual trade. Montreal obtained defensemen Josh Gorges and the Sharks 2007 1st round draft pick.

Rivet played 12 seasons in Montreal and was the player with the most experience with the club among the roster. Gorges is a lot younger at 22 years old plus the Habs grabs another 1st round draft pick AND will save money under the salary cap.

If someone says to you that he knew that Rivet was going to be traded instead of Souray, that person is clearly lying to you... ;)

John Chow dot com

I am not used to review other blogs, in fact this is the first blog review ever in here. I will give it a shot and hope I will get a few seconds of his attention and a free linkback from him. You can get a linkback from him if you review his blog.

Alright here we go. John Chow dot com. John is a fellow canadian from Vancouver and I bumped into his blog totally by luck. John is blogging about various technology topics ranging from software to technical products.

John has way more experience as a blogger and as a tecchie than me. Some of the posts on the blog I can't even understand what it is about or what it does (mainly because I am far from being a tecchie myself) but he is a good communicator and vulgarize quite well his subjects. He doesn't hide behind an avatar, you can see him on pictures wherever he goes and he posts them on the blog. A very good thing if you ask me.

The white background color makes it easy on the eyes as well as very good looking sport cars at the top of his page. The structure of the page is clean and not obstructed by annoying publicity every square inch like some other blogs.

John seems very aware of new things happening around the blogging world as well as cool and easy ways to increase a blog exposure. I personally would be dumb not to bookmark and read his blog because he is 10 miles and a half ahead of me on every aspect as a blogger. That is why I managed to climb to only PR2 once and asking myself right now why I fell back to PR0 today and not him. (help me John please I am begging you)

In fact, John doesn't need me or a review from me at all. I consider myself a beggar in front of him. All the benefits will eventually be for me IF I read,understand and do what he says.

My rating is 10/10! I cannot find a single annoying thing about him or his blog, a very rare thing.

Keep on blogging and helping newbians like me John!

Opening the rumor mill!

Now this is absolutely awesome. I make money blogging right now.

PayPerPost.com is announcing today some big news coming in the next few weeks and is telling us to guess what it is. We have to make a guess on what those big news will be...well alright.

The second I read this I was laughing out loud. I haven't had a clean laugh like this in a long long long time! I really wish I was living in Florida because I would apply for a job in their dynamic team and annoy them until they would finally hire me! I am flat broke and would dream to have a job with such a team.

Now for the big news, and what I think it is...

If I was to be narcissic, I would say that it has something to do with the email I have sent to the PayPerPost.com CEO Ted Murphy last Friday night just before I headed for my nightshift. In my email I told Ted about an idea I had for us, the posties. My proposition was in my opinion a good idea and a way for broke posties with low page rank blogs (just like me) a shot at more cash, all that without costing a penny to PayPerPost.com nor any of our beloved advertisers.

How? I explain myself. When us the posties, take an opportunity, we have 2 choices: keep the cash OR give the cash to charity. I suggested a 3rd choice. How about a postie jackpot?
Everytime you choose to put your opportunity money in the pot you earn a ticket for a random drawing (weekly or monthly) of the jackpot. I even told him that PayPerPost could keep 5% or 10% of the pot to cover the employee time to code it and take care of it. Total cost for the company? Nada! Total cost for the advertiser? Nada also! The bottomline could even MAKE the company some money if it becomes popular among the posties!

But all of this is IF I was to be narcissic and is only a rumor. :)

Damien Nash's tragic death

Denver Broncos running back Damien Nash deceased tragically yesterday after disputing a basketball game in a St-Louis suburb. The basketball game he participated in was to raise funds for a charity cause.

Nash was only 24 years old and the reason of his death are still unknown. This is a pretty young age to die, especially for a high performance athlete like this. We should have more details on the cause of his death after the autopsy later on this week.

I would like to take a second right now to give my support and best wishes to his family, teammates and friends who must be in shock right now.

N-Y Islanders 3 - Montreal 2

The Montreal Canadiens waited too long to gear up and lost a very important game 3-2 to the N-Y Islanders.

After 2 periods the score was 3-1 for the Islanders when Chris Higgins scored and gave hope early in the 3rd period. The Habs played a very good 3rd period but goaltender Rick DiPietro made very good saves to keep the 1 goal lead intact.

Later in the period, the new Islanders acquisition, defensemen Marc-André Bergeron saved a sure goal by blocking a shot with his skates as his goaltender was out of position. That play was the turning point of the game. With that win the N-Y Islanders now total 70 points, same total as Montreal but have 2 more games to play than Montreal.

Erik Guay strikes gold!

Erik Guay has done a really great performance today. Guay has won the Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany downhill event. Guay was half a second faster than second place skier Andrej Jerman. Didier Cuche finished 3rd.

For the first time in 13 years a canadian has won a downhill event on the world cup of skiing. The last canadian athlete to achieve such a performance was Cary Millen in 1994 at Aspen, Colorado.

Congratulations Erik!

Fans still believe

The last Montreal Canadiens 3-game win streak sent the team back in playoff contention at the 7th position of the Eastern conference. Fans all around the city are revigorated by this sequence and already forgot the bad 6-game losing streak.

Tonight's game against the N-Y Islanders is an opportunity to consolidate their position and push back the streaking Islanders who are only 2 points behind the Habs in 9th. So there is no letdown allowed for the Habs if they want to keep their position. In hockey language this is a 4 point matchup. You win you are 4 points ahead, you lose and both teams are tied up.

Jaroslav Halak will start again in goal for Montreal. The young 21-year old rookie goaltender won his first 3 NHL starts and did well enough to deserve head coach Guy Carbonneau's confidence. On the other hand, Guillaume Latendresse could be scratched from the lineup by the head coach. His last performances were ordinary and his offensive production has stalled.

Which Montreal team will we see tonight? The 3 win streak one? Or the 6 losing streak one?

Rockstartup.com

Rockstartup.com is a new web reality tv from the PayPerPost team. The episodes shows the behind the scenes of the PayPerPost team at work.
The shows follows Ted Murphy (CEO and founder), the lovely Britt (communication specialist and hottie) and Randy (VP of sales) just to name those 3, thru different tradeshows around the country as they promote from ground up their company. Generally the episodes are pretty funny and shows that the whole team has the company success in mind almost 24/7. Watching the episodes makes me wish I were a part of this very dynamic team. I wish I had a girlfriend like Britt, not only she looks good, she always seems to be in good mood and pleasant to be around.

My favorite episode is episode 9 showing a postie turning the table on the team with a reverse postie patrol on Ted, the PayPerPost CEO and founder. Here is the episode.



Creating this web reality tv is a very creative way to promote their company and it shows that this team is very creative and will go far. PayPerPost is there to stay. I wish all the PayPerPost team huge success. As I am a postie myself, the more advertisers they get the more opportunities bloggers like me will benefit.

Check out all the episodes of rockstartup, I guarantee you that they will make you smile one way or another. (especially in their poor attempt to lose weight)

Keep on trying fatties! :)

Habs respond to the challenge.

The Montreal Canadiens showed a lot of determination as they trailed the Nashville Predators the entire game. Nashville led 2-0 after only 4 minutes of play and then 4-2 in the 2nd period. But in the end, Sergei Samsonov tied the game at 5-5 with only 48 seconds to go in the 3rd period.

The overtime didn't solve the tie and Saku Koivu (on the image) gave the Habs an important 6-5 victory in the shootout.

Goaltender Jaroslav Halak did well despite allowing 5 goals to the impressive Nashville machine and stopped Peter Forsberg in the shootout to confirm his 3rd win in a row.

Next stop for Montreal will be saturday night at Long Island vs the N-Y Islanders.

Challenging Nashville

The Montreal Canadiens faces the Nashville Predators tonight and their new acquisition, Peter Forsberg. Montreal is on a 2-game winning streak and tonight's game is a real test for the Habs.

Nashville is ranked 3rd overall in the NHL right now and is the first stop for Montreal in their decisive 7 out of 8 road games that will determine if the team makes the playoffs or not. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak who won his first 2 NHL starts will start a 3rd game in a row.

Can the Habs upset Nashville tonight and keep their playoff hopes alive?

Adrian Diaconu will face his best opposition ever.

Montreal's own Adrian Diaconu (23-0-0) will face american Rico Hoye (20-1-0) on march 23rd at the Bell centre in Montreal and the winner of this bout will face WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson. This is a great opportunity for Diaconu and he told the press today that this will be the biggest challenge he ever faced in his career.

Rico Hoye said that he doesn't fear Diaconu even if he hits very hard. He also said that he will be victorious because he is taller and faster than the Interbox's protege.

We will get the answer next march 23rd at the Bell centre in Montreal.

Playing with fire

The Montreal Canadiens scored 3 PP goals and took a early 3-0 lead in the 1st period but then allowed 2 quick goals early in the 2nd period but held on and defeated the Washington Capitals 5-3 at the Bell centre in Montreal.

Chris Higgins and Michael Ryder both scored 2 goals in the game and Garth Murray added a goal in an empty net at the end of the game to seal the deal in the 3rd period. Saku Koivu participated in every 1st period goals and ended the game with 3 assists.

-Team record-
The Habs registered a 16th SHG in the game making it a new team record for SHG in a single season.

Jaroslav Halak did good in net for Montreal and won his 2nd game in a row at his 2nd NHL start. He should get the next start later this week. Now 7 of the next 8 Montreal games will be played on the road, a real test for the team who is fighting tooth and nails to get in the playoffs.

Will they make it or break it on this roadtrip?

Big opportunities

PayPerPost is growing and all the bloggers benefit of it. PayPerPost has created a new segmentation system and offers depending on your page rank and traffic. The new segmentation system awards bloggers with high traffic blogs.

You could make up to $1000 for a single sponsored post!

Also, did you know that PayPerPost only charges a 35% service fee compared to ReviewMe that charges a 100% markup. They are taking half your money for every post! You can get high paying opps more often and put more in your pocket with PayPerPost.

Now blog marketing has become more and more popular and bloggers like you can now start to earn cash day after day with PayPerPost. I have been doing it here for a month and I am 100% satisfied. Since I registered, the traffic and popularity of the blog increased while earning decent money day after day and it only took me a few minutes a day to post. Resgistration to PayPerPost is fast and easy, you only wait a few days to be accepted if your blog qualifies. After you are accepted you can take opportunities each and every day. I think that blog marketing is something that will grow more and more and serious bloggers should take a look at it because the opportunities are up for grabs.

Start today and in a month you will thank yourself you did...

Finally, a disclosure is now required for every blogger that want to take those opportunities.

Federer ties a Jimmy Connors record

Roger Federer tied a Jimmy Connors record this week for being ranked No1 of the ATP tour for 160 consecutive weeks. The phenomenal player has 10 grand slam titles to his record and will likely add more to this total later on this season. Roger Federer is ranked number 1 since February 2nd 2004.

The only questions remaining are: Who will end Roger streak? And when will this take place?

Halak helps the Habs

Jaroslav Halak responded very well to his first NHL challenge and helped the Montreal Canadiens who defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 stopping the losing streak at 6 games.

Halak held the fort in the first period making important saves to preserve the 0-0 tie. Then the Habs scored 3 goals in the 2nd period and then did just enough to win the game. Michael Ryder, Saku Koivu and Francis Bouillon scored the game-winner for the Canadiens. The Jackets tried to come back in the 3rd period, scoring 2 goals but again Halak did well to preserve the win.

The young 21 year old goaltender proved that he is ready for the NHL and deserves to start in the next Montreal contest.

Another game, another loss.

Despite shooting 45 times on the net, the Montreal Canadiens lost a 6th game in a row, 5-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes. The last time the Habs lost 6 games in a row was in 2000.

Rod Brind'Amour scored twice for the Canes, registering his 400th career goal. Chad Larose, Eric Cole and Eric Staal completed the score in an empty net.

Goaltender David Aebisher was once again mediocre, especially on the 4th Carolina goal and coach Guy Carbonneau announced that Jaroslav Halak will get his first career NHL start today against the Colombus Blue Jackets.

Where will the slide stop?

Huet injury update

The Montreal Canadiens announced that goaltender Christobal Huet will be out for an undetermined duration. This isn't a very good news because the first update said that it was only a minor injury. Now it seems that it is a bit more serious. The team didn't need a bad news like this.

The Habs have called up from the AHL Jaroslav Halak, Halak is having a great season in the AHL with a GAA of 2.00

Review my post

PayPerPost is pleased to announce its new Review My Post program. The Program pays you every time someone signs up and reviews a post on your blog. It's a great way to earn money while increasing the traffic and interest in your own site. You could increase blog traffic with review my post.

This program is open to all bloggers and is great for bloggers who aren't interested in doing sponsored posts. Bloggers can simply add this badge at the end of their post and easily earn money and build traffic with no additional effort.

This is a new program offered by PayPerPost and I have registered to it on this blog. Feel free to check out the details and see if your blog can benefit of this program. Every time someone signs up and reviews your posts, you get paid.

We have yet to have a review here but I am sure that in the near future a lot will register and review the posts in here.

You have nothing to lose. You register, review a post and PayPerPost pays you. It's that simple!
No gimmicks, no tricks. Make your paypal account happy and start earning cash today.

This program is exploding and we want your help to grow it even faster!

Kovelev injury update.

Alex Kovalev gave the press an update this week about his injury to his left elbow. He expect to miss another 3 weeks of play.

This is not a very good news, especially when the team is in it's worst sequence of the season. The Habs have slipped back all the way to 10th place in the NHL Eastern conference after yesterday's games.

Rock bottom.

The Montreal Canadiens have lost a 5th game in a row, this time 5-2 to the New-Jersey Devils at East Rutherford.

Sheldon Souray and Sergei Samsonov scored for Montreal.
Brian Rafalski scored twice, Zach Parise, Patrick Elias and Sergei Brylin in an empty net for New-Jersey.

Not only the Habs have lost once again, they also lost their starting goaltender Christobal Huet during the game. Huet injured himself on the 3rd New-Jersey goal in the 2nd period. His case will be evaluated tomorrow morning by the team doctors at the return of the team in Montreal. The Habs now have a lot of key players injuried: Kovalev, Rivet, Huet and Johnson.

A very difficult situation for the team that slid from 4th place to 8th in a matter of two weeks. A playoff berth will be very difficult to obtain if no changes are made until the trade deadline of February 27th.

Unable to score, Habs lose 1-0

The Montreal Canadiens lost 1-0 to the Florida Panthers at the Bell centre in Montreal. For the 9th game in a row the Habs have let their opponent score first, and that's all Florida needed to grab the win.

Florida veteran goaltender Ed Belfour wasn't tested at all in the first 2 periods and shutted the door in the 3rd period with some important saves. Montreal didn't help their cause hitting the post 2 times in the 3rd period during a 2-man advantage and in the last minute of the game.

So Montreal lost a great opportunity to get the win against one of the worst team in the league...very concerning. The meetings between the players and the staff this weekend looked like being already forgotten. The key players had a horrible game: Koivu, Ryder, Higgins, Samsonov and Plekanec all played poorly. Add poor players like Murray and Downey (both clearly lack talent to play in the NHL) in this lineup and the result is horrifying. Some passion, dedication and more talent is needed to win and the team lacks of just that.

Montreal slips down to 8th position in the NHL Eastern conference. Another loss tomorrow and the team might be out of the playoff positions with only 23 games to go.

Kovalev will miss tonight's game

Alex Kovalev will miss tonight's game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Florida Panthers. Kovalev has an upper body injury and missed practice on monday due to the same injury.

Christobal Huet will be on duty in the net for Montreal and will try to stop the losing streak. The Habs now stands 7th in the NHL Eastern conference.

Ray Emery suspended 3 games

Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery will be suspended for the next 3 games for highsticking deliberatly Montreal Canadiens forward Maxim Lapierre in the 5-3 Ottawa win over Montreal.

After Lapierre slid and collided accidently with Emery, the goaltender took his stick and hit Lapierre in the face deliberatly. Emery was signaled for only a 2 minute minor penalty by the referees, but the NHL officials reviewed the event and decided to pull the goalie for the next 3 games.

Jaromir Jagr at 1500

Yesterday, New-York Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr got past 1500 career points. Jagr won 2 Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins alongside Mario Lemieux early in his career.

He is the 12th player in history to reach 1500 points. Jagr totals 612 goals and 889 assists in 1165 NHL regular season games.

The next plateau will be of course 1600 points but 700 goals is also a rare plateau. Maybe Jagr can get to 700 goals before his career is over.

Aebisher can't stop the slide.

The Montreal Canadiens lost once again yesterday, this time 5-3 to the Ottawa Senators at the Bell centre. Again the Habs let their opponents score first (for the 8th straight game), and this time down 2-0 they evened up the score in the 2nd period but 17 seconds in the 3rd period, Mike Fisher downed the last hopes and Jason Spezza 2 minutes later putted the game out of reach.

The real problem aside of not scoring enough lately has been the goaltending in Montreal. The goaltenders (Huet and Aebisher) are giving too many bad early goals. Again yesterday the team was playing fairly well until a bad goal was allowed by Aebisher. The team will be out of playoff position with 2 or 3 more losses in a row and it would be horrible after such a good start.

Is it time for the staff to push the panic button and make a trade?

Samsonov: a fresh new start?

Sergei Samsonov will be back in the lineup tonight versus the Ottawa Senators at the Bell centre. Samsonov missed 3 games being a healthy scratch, coach Carbonneau was really tired of Samsonov's weak performances in term of offensive production (22 points in 53 games) and cutted him of the lineup. After his agent claimed a trade, GM Bob Gainey sent Samsonov to the waivers, nobody picked him and the agent had to shut up a bit. So after a constructive meeting as everybody said after the meeting between the whole staff and Samsonov lets see if his offensive output will increase.

Also back in the lineup tonight: Andrei Markov and Steve Begin.

Can the Habs turn it around and start a winning streak?

200th post!

As I was composing the last post I realized it was the 199th post making this one my 200th post on this blog.

It is not much over all that time but my posting frequency picked up recently. Added content made more multi-post days lately.

More pictures in every post and text color is the new addition lately and will continue in this trend for the next weeks. More content in every post is also to be expected. The hockey regular season is coming to it's finish and playoff races will be very interesting. A particular focus will be on the NHL Eastern conference playoff race.

The blog has reached PR2 and the challenge is sent: reach PR3 and eventually PR4.

So here's where Overtime! needs you: add us in your blog links with link exchange, blog,post about here and help us reach a better ranking.

Habs slips again

The Montreal Canadiens were defeated once again this time 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators at the Scotia Bank place in Ottawa. Dany Heatley and Peter Schaefer scored for Ottawa.

Montreal slips down to 6th place and the team has lost speed, having trouble to score. They have to fix up the attack and special teams because the pack is not behind anymore. Goaltender Christobal Huet gave a very bad goal early on and that surely didn't help the team confidence. Ray Emery did well and picked up a win. Only Guillaume Latendresse scored on Emery on a penalty shot.

Carolina 2 - Montreal 1

The defending Stanley Cup champions Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell centre yesterday by the score of 2-1. Goaltender Cam Ward closed the door and made every save once his team took the 2-1 lead. David Aebisher picked up the loss.

Montreal head coach, Guy Carbonneau scratched Sergei Samsonov from the lineup and Samsonov asked the organization to trade him. The only response from GM Bob Gainey was that they submitted Samsonov name to the waivers... any team that wants him can now have him for the value of his 3.5 millions$ contract per season.

No team has claimed Samsonov to this date....

Manning and the Colts NFL Champions.

Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts have defeated the Chicago Bears by the score of 29-17.

The very first kick gave the fans some action. The Chicago Bears player returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, something that had never happened in Super bowl history.

The Bears led early on but the well oiled Indianapolis machine was too much. The more the game was played the more points Indianapolis was able to score. Rex Grossman could not equal his rival.

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts, 2007 Super bowl champions.

Different situation, different result.

This time losing 2-1 after 2 periods at the Bell centre, the Montreal Canadiens battled back and found a way to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in overtime.

Tomas Plekanec continued on his streak, scored 2 goals, then Mark Streit gave Montreal a 3-2 lead.

Pittsburgh tied the game at 3-3 thru Michel Ouellet. Then in overtime, defensemen Sheldon Souray gave the Habs the win. David Aebisher won another game in net, giving himself some interesting momentum thru his funny goaltending. As bad as he is, this is the best he can give us. Sidney Crosby picked up 2 assists in the losing cause.

So Montreal and Pittsburgh perfectly splitted the 2 game matchup, each team picked 3 points out of 4.

Are you ready for some football?

The Superbowl XLI is a few hours away. Colts and Bears will play what will be the game of their lives. Peyton Manning at his first Super bowl appearance will surely give it all to grab a hold of the Vince Lombardi trophy.

On their way, the Chicago Bears, and a young Rex Grossman at quarterback who lacked regularity but did enough to be there. Will the best takeaway defense of the league this season help Grossman upset the Indianapolis Colts?

Kick off is hours away, have a good game everyone.

My poker ''career''

After the first month of 2007 there haven't been much happening for me at poker. I always fell short in tournaments, each time falling 5 10 or 15 positions away from the money a numerous times. The only significant moment happened January 30th: I won 20$ on a regular table with 2 hands in a row.

I didn't got blanked, that's a start. Lets hope February will be more winning friendly.

Poker earnings in 2007: 20$
Career earnings: 870$

Blowing a lead.

Leading 2-1 after 2 periods the Montreal Canadiens have collapsed in the 3rd period to finally lose to the New-York Islanders by the score of 4-2.

Trent Hunter scored twice and Miroslav Satan added the 4th N-Y goal to seal the deal and close up the gap in the crowd of contenders of the NHL Eastern conference.

Christobal Huet back in net for Montreal did not make the important saves and suffered the loss in this one.

NHL Eastern conference race.

1	BUFFALO*	53	35	14		4	74	200	153
2	NEW JERSEY*	52	31	15		6	68	140	125
3	ATLANTA*	54	29	17		8	66	167	165
4	MONTREAL	52	28	18		6	62	154	150
5	OTTAWA	53	30	21		2	62	178	144
6	PITTSBURGH	50	25	17		8	58	170	157
7	TAMPA BAY	53	28	23		2	58	169	163
8	CAROLINA	54	26	22		6	58	163	172
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9	TORONTO	52	25	21		6	56	169	171
10	NY RANGERS	51	25	22		4	54	149	151
11	NY ISLANDERS	51	24	21		6	54	154	150
12	FLORIDA	53	20	23		10	50	153	169
13	WASHINGTON	52	21	24		7	49	163	186
14	BOSTON	50	22	24		4	48	140	189
15	PHILADELPHIA	51	12	32		7	31	125	195

*= division leaders.

Only 6 points separate 4th place from being out of the playoffs. The race definatly heated up. Philadelphia and lately Boston with a horrible January slide is in danger of being out of hte playoffs.

Washington and Florida could easily run out of gas without a significant trade, especially Florida who has goaltending issues since the start of the 06-07 campaign.

The rest of the contenders listed from 4th to even the N-Y Islanders 11th (8 teams) are in a dogfight for the 5 remaining spots. (4th to 8th)
Montreal,Ottawa,Pittsburgh,Tampa,stanley cup defending champs Carolina Hurricanes currently hanging by a thread 8th, Toronto and the Rangers are all alive and will be fighting to the end.

Plekanec, player of the month.

Montreal Canadiens' player of the month of january has been elected and Tomas Plekanec won the award. He has been the most constant in the opinion of everyone. This is the first time that he wins this award since a part of the team. Mostly matched with Kovalev and Samsonov this season, Plekanec took a while to get going but seems to have found a good pace, helping the team keep the head out of the water lately.

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This policy is valid from 02 February 2007


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Scratching for a point.

A very physical game where solid bodychecks were given from start to finnish.Good ol' hockey as some says.

Losing 4-2, the Montreal Canadiens' 3rd and 4th lines have contributed in a comeback that the team lost at the shootout. 5-4 Pittsburgh. Final score.

Radek Bonk scored 2 goals. Mike Johnson, Maxim Lapierre did well.
Grabbing a point away from the Bell centre is non-neglectable for the Habs as every point is important in the standings.

Sidney and company vs the Habs.

A key 2-game matchup this weekend that should catch NHL fans attention is the one between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens. Tonight, in Pittsburgh is the first matchup and it will be followed by another Habs/Pens meeting sunday at the Bell centre in Montreal.

Montreal is only 5 points ahead of Pittsburgh who are 7th against all odds and predictions. Should Crosby and his gang explode and win both games, the gap with Montreal would be reduced to only 1 point. David Aebisher has been given the start in net for Montreal, this is his 2nd start in a row after giving a solid outing in a 3-1 win vs the Ottawa Senators earlier this week.