After A Week Like This...

Friday March 9, 8:45 PM

Just another week in Habland....

La Presse devotes six pages in it's monday sports section to "L'Affaire Kovalev", printing what it says is a word for word transcript of an interview a Russian journalist says she conducted with Kovalev on his birthday (Feb 24)... Kovalev is critical of Guy Carbonneau and some teammates, especially the French ones... La Presse says it heard a portion of the interview....Francois Gagnon offers up a vigorous defense of his paper on The Team 990 morning show, saying the paper has the conversation on tape...Kovalev denies everything, then addresses his teammates before they publicly go to bat for him, some suggesting there is no chemistry problem on the team (Saku Koivu: "Best room we've had in 10 years")...Out of nowhere Jack Todd emerges, describing La Presse as "brave" and a journalist he's never met or read as "courageous"...Todd then returns to work on his life story, entitled "One New Adventure In The Cuckoo's Nest"...PJ Stock, a frequent critic of Kovalev, demands a copy of the so-called taped interview...A veteran Russian journalist, who also happens to be Kovalev's biographer says he doesn't believe the story, and the publication it originally appeared in "constantly makes things up"...The journalist in question says a lot of what appeared in La Presse is not what Kovalev told her, that there must have been something "lost in the tanslation"...Stock and Gagnon battle it out on 110%....Making the best use of a prop in public since Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev banged a table at the UN with his shoe, Stock pulls out a black cassette ('The Best of Boston" had been taped over), taps it on the table and asks Gagnon for proof that Kovalev said what La Presse had reported....Gagnon, for the first time in his professional life cannot get a word in...Stock, outnumbered four to one, makes like Henri Richard versus the Bruins in Boston circa 1959 and wins a unanimous decsion over all of his opponents...Gagnon finally gets to speak (yell) off the air as he chases Stock down the hallway...TQS staff alert security as Stock turns to face Gagnon and fires back...Enrico Ciccone, warming up in the Green Room for his appearance the next night, begins to stretch...Stock manages to get into his Anglo car without further incident...calls a radio friend to tell him that "It got ugly"...Kovalev is described in print as "The Godfather of the Russian Mob" inside the Canadiens dressing room....Andie Bennett reports to pratice and is besieged by the media, wanting to know what had happened between Stock and Gagnon...Gagnon, supposedly enjoying time off with the wife and kids rips Stock in his blog...Pierre McGuire calls in from Edmonton wanting to know what happened between Stock and Gagnon...Stock reluctantly appears on the air at six, obviously angered by Gagnon's blog...Gagnon appears on the air, as scheduled, the next morning at 8:05...says he shouldn't have said that La Presse had a tape, and was hopeful that he and PJ could laugh about the previous night...Dave Stubbs interviews Yvan Cournoyer and Richard for The Gazette...both legends suggest media coverage of Kovalev is out of control and could scare players away....Cournoyer suggesting the French press could "demolish" Montreal as a hockey city...The Habs play the surging Thrashers in Atlanta...29 minutes into the game they trail 6-0...Kovalev is nearly invisible...Carbonneau "gets tough" at practice...Rejean Tremblay bookmarks everything for future use in "Lance et Compte"...

Meanwhile...in New york Chris Simon tries to slice off Ryan Holweg's head with his stick....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdGMaaV-8A

I'd suspend Simon for the rest of the regular season (15 games) , the playoffs, plus 10 games next season.

Time to prepare for some much needed levity at the Irishman of the Year Breakfast. Don't forget we'll carry it live beginning at 9 AM.

Favorite Drinks:

1. The Macallan, 12 years old
2. Jack Daniels Single Barrel
3. The Macallan, 25 years
4. The Macallan, 10 years (60% alcohol!)
5. Knob Creek
6. Tequila (Cuervo shot)
7. Johnny Walker Blue
8. Guinness
9. Heineken
10.Dr.Pepper

-The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
William Butler Yeats

Favorite Irish Musicians:

1. Van Morrison
2. U2
3. The Pogues
4. Rory Gallagher
5. The Chieftains
6. Thin Lizzy
7. The Undertones
8. The Clancy Brothers
9. Luka Bloom
10. Sinead O'Connor

-The most beautiful music of all is the music of what happens
Irish proverb