happy? birthday.

You only know two things for sure in this life: that predicting the outcome of a Habs game is impossible and that somehow, Nicolas Cage will continue to make movies.

No, I don't know why people keep casting Nicolas Cage, come on people, it's 2010.

No, I don't know why the Canadiens are unpredictable either. It's understandable at this point in the season, when it's safe to assume that the players are tired and/or injured (and let's face it, "injured" isn't news to us this season). We can call this one an almost-win (you know, like an almost-goal, except for a whole game).  Things were going well enough for us until the last two minutes of the game, henceforth known as "please, hockey gods, PLEASE don't ruin this for me, I swear I'll be a better blogger if you just help me out here" time.

imagine this kitty wearing a tiny Habs jersey

Jaroslav Halak played almost as well as he usually does, but I'm a little scared that fatigue is setting in. Also, now that the rest of the league has caught on to how awesome he is, you know that other teams are working extra hard on figuring out how to scale mount KilimanJaro. I think we just found the dark cloud to our silver lining. (But I don't doubt for a second that Jaro's going to remedy this somehow.)

That shootout kind of hurt to watch. Still, I hope it doesn't ruin Max Lapierre's mojo. If he's back to his usual fine form, then it couldn't have come at a better time. Having a guy hit a hot streak at the end of a season is like having a designated driver: sure, he's less fun when everyone else is going crazy, but push comes to shove he's the guy taking everyone home when they're just a bit too ruined to get anywhere without him.

So, I'm sorry, Hal and Travis, that we couldn't follow through on an awesome birthday gift. But you can share your b-day disappointment with okay director Barry Levinson, noted comic actor Paul Rudd,  wicked awesome Zach Braff (maybe a Habs fan, and if he's not then he'll be an easy convert probably), former Hab wife DJ Tanner Candace Cameron Bure, sitcom star and Pixar go-to guy John Ratzenberger, and (I saved the best for last) Billy Dee Williams. So really, it sucks that the Habs lost, but at least two of them share a birthday with Lando Calrissian.