Faceoff Factor

Hump-day Hater Report 11-26-08

Mike Wilson | National Hockey League

Nov 27, 11:14 AM | Hype this story!

Claude Lemieux hates retirement

After 5 years of retirement, former Conn Smythe winner Claude Lemieux is taking after Mario (no relation), who was the first to start the professional come-out-of-retirement era, and make a comeback of his own. Lemieux will report to San Jose AHL affiliate, Worchester, this week.

As mentioned above, Lemieux is a Conn Smythe winner and has hoisted a total of four Stanley Cups.

14 other Eastern teams hate Montreal

Ok, is everyone in Canada east of Toronto stuffing the ballots for the Habs? Now I know it’s their 100th anniversary this year and the All-Star Game is being played in the Bell Center, but all six starting spots being held by Canadiens?

Goaltender Carey Price, defensemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek and forwards Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay are all current starters for the NHL All-Star Game in January. I’m not sure how to handle this one…is nominating every Hab to start the game fitting for the big anniversary bash or is it too much? I’ll let the Faceoff-Factor faithful (triple word score!) decide.

Toronto hates Atlanta

Oh, Toronto…when will it all come together?

Last night, the Maple Leafs were “thrashed” by Atlanta in a 6-3 loss at home. Even one of the three goals they did score was a fluky shot off of an Atlanta defender into the net. And Ilya Kovalchuk fought someone…how much more embarrassed can you get when Ilya Kovalchuk fights your team?

Toronto is now near the bottom in the East with a 7-9-5 (19 pts) record, holding only one more point over Ottawa (18 pts). Atlanta, however, moves up from the basement to one of those little stairwells in basements that go outside with an 8-10-2 (18 pts) record. The Florida Panthers (my pick to win the Southeast Division…there’s still time) is currently last with 17 points.

Brenden Morrow hates his ACL

The Stars’ captain tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during Thursday’s game against Chicago. He also recently learned that the extent of his injury, which he initially thought was a few games at most, has now increased to six months. We here in Pittsburgh have no idea what it’s like to lose a valuable player for six months do we?

Mike Ribeiro hates Scott Gomez

NHL.com devised a comparison between the two players who are essentially (and kind of creepily) the same person statistically. Though they both have the ability to score goals, neither do very frequently…instead, they contribute with an unthinkable amount of assists and are both very crafty players in setting up the ice in front of them.

The readers voted in favor (so far) of Gomez (4 goals, 10 assists) over Ribeiro (2 goals, 16 assists) with a vote of 64.40% to 35.60%. I’m sure you can all tell by now, it’s kind of a slow day…

Roberto Luongo hates getting injured

We’ve all learned about Luongo’s adductor strain (which is apparently a fancy way to say groin strain) he suffered in Pittsburgh Saturday, but now the extent appears to be a little shock to Vancouver. The Canuck captain will now be sitting out for 5-6 weeks.

Again, as Pittsburgh people, we know that when you’re franchised goaltender is out for a long period of time with an injury it’s impossible to make the playoffs, yet alone the finals (note the sarcasm). Although, this will be a good test for Vancouver to see if their offense can perform without an All-Star goalie behind them…New Jersey’s handling that situation okay so far.

With that, the HH Report concludes for this holiday week. I alluded to some good hockey in my teaser…don’t forget that FSN is airing both the 2008 Winter Classic and Game 5 of the 2008 Stanley Cup finals (remember those games?) Thursday. As always, look for more haters in hump-days to come.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy hating!