2002-12-17 - 1:50

Hey, Dougie

I'm into countdown mode now, since I'm flying home on Saturday. I'm sure that this week will fly by.

Today went quickly, since I had to leave work in time to catch the hockey game. The Habs were back in Ottawa; and this time I had Aaron and Loralei in tow to witness a Canadiens victory.

Compared to their previous appearance in Ottawa, the Habs played a much stronger positional game in their own end and didn't have nearly as much trouble clearing the puck. They didn't exactly apply the pressure offensively; but they played well wnough to win.

Petrov capped a perfectly exectuted two-on-one and Gilmour banged in a garbage goal in the second, which had our rather pro-Montreal corner of the arena buzzing. You can always count on Canadiens fans to be obnoxious when the team is winning (as I can ably demonstrate).

At times, Gilmour definitely looks like the old man that he is, not having the legs to chase down every loose puck; but I'll give him credit for coming through when needed tonight (and surpassing 1400 points).

In the third, the team seemed to come out too intent on simply protecting the lead, rather than pressing. That may have worked, if penalties hadn't finally caught up with them, as the Senators previously pathetic power play brought them even with two late goals.

As it should be, though, the Ottawa fans were shut up for good when Perreault completed a beautiful scoring play with 18 seconds on the clock.

Theodore also came up big along the way, which bodes well for the team's future success.

Even though I didn't manage to get in any fights with the Ottawa fans, I still can't complain about a solid 3-2 win.

J.