Hi everybody

Haha yeah, I noticed the Habs-heavy stance on this site. As an Anaheim fan, I have the luxury of being neutral towards the Habs. When I do have opinion about them, it's always a general hockey thought rather than a "your team beat my team" kind of thing.

For example, I like the way the Habs tend to favor players with Francophonic names in their draft picks and in general. People always bitch about their French-Canadian bias, but shit, how many teams go out of their way to promote locals? I especially like the Canadiens' unrequieted love for Vinny Lecavalier. You're right he SHOULD be a Hab, dammit, and the fact that he won a cup does not excuse him for willingly wasting away in Florida.

I also think the whole Bob Gainey thing was interesting. He's one of the most tragic figures in sports. For starters, he's best friends with a guy who most west coast hockey fans can't stand: when Gauthier was GM in Anaheim the team had some of its most embarrassing years (and nobody has a more embarrassing, "Disney blessed" history than my team). Nobody really understood how big a cog Gauthier was in the hockey machine. He made lousy trades for us and didn't draft well, and--even worse--the team made the finals the year after he left, which made it look like he was the problem all along. Gainey, meanwhile, was in Dallas winning a cup with the hated Stars on the back of Brett Hull's illegal goal. After all the years these two spent in non-traditional markets where the only news was bad news, they goes "home" to Canada and share the most high-pressure job in the country. For Ducks fans who hate the Stars (there are a lot of us), this was "the idiot" and "the cheater" taking over the NHL's most glorious team. All they managed to do was have one good year ending in a crazy Bruins upset, and now Gainey pulls the plug and throws the whole thing on Gauthier? What a dick! Oh well, at least they still have Cammy, right? Oh shit, he blew his knee. Oh well, it's all Gauthier's problem now! Gainey is backing away from the team he "love[s] the most." To use some French Canadian lingo: the guy's a douche.