Jaroslav Halak Suffers Sean Avery Imitation from Own Teammate

It’s one thing for Sean Avery to swing his stick or fists at an opposing goalie’s head.  But even Avery wouldn’t swing at his own goalie!  (he wouldn’t, would he?)

Tomas Surovoy (except for an obituary this should be the last you read of him) swung his stick at Jaroslav Halak’s head after the goalie gave up a goal in Slovakia’s game against the Czech Republic in the IIHF World Championship going on in Switzerland.  Czech-Slovak games are tough enough without players turning on each other.

Watch Halak’s response after the swing.  Either he is an incredibly easy going guy or he is just so stunned that he has no idea how to react.  He probably thought it was a Czech player and was looking to his teammate for help!  It may be tough playing in Montreal but at least there you only have to deal with the viciousness of your own fans.

And how about those announcers?  Can someone who speaks Slovakian please translate for me?  The tone in their voice sounds like they’re watching paint dry!  Their goalie just took an axe chop to the head and they have the reaction of Eyore on a rainy day!

UPDATE:  Apparently the broadcast is Finnish and not Slovakian.  Would they have shown more emotion if it had been a Swedish goalie facing the axe?

Habs Turn to Halak in Game Four

When I first read that Jaroslav Halak was starting game four in place of Carey Price my first reaction was to pat myself on the shoulder for one of my first posts in which I predicted Halak would be the first backup goalie to make a big impression in relief. (I’m not counting Chris Osgood taking over the Wings’ crease because he’s really a co-number-one, not a real backup).

Lucky for me I kept my fingers off the keyboard as Martin Biron (the true goaltending story of this year’s playoffs) won another game for his Flyers.  Only in the lonely world of a blogger can one take solace in at least suggesting that Carey Price might not be able to carry the load but I guess that’s all I have right now.  What do you think, can Habs’ goalie coach Rolie Melanson help Price bounce back and get the Habs back into this series or are we looking at a Keystone State conference final?