While sipping a last one…

This week marked the return to action of an injured player back after an absence of at least 2 months. The former Avenger Les Perrault made his first appearance with L'Express after having been exchanged before the holidays in a series of transactions that in the short term did not bode well for the Blacks ...Letting go 3 guys (including a major one) to receive two absentees was the price to pay to wait for a guy who is seen by many as one of the best players to have played with us , the good news being that he could be part of our line-up next Saturday ... ( Without putting him under too much pressure , it'll be great to see him again no matter what... )

I would say that I can’t wait to have a complete team more than anything else because in addition we miss our dear Fern who is still out indefinitely for what seems like forever, and I 'm sure it is even worse for him because we all hate being injured and kept away from the game that we love so much ... Although replacements are «good guys» and all, nothing beats having a team that plays together game after game…To think of it, I would be surprised if it happened at least once this year for the Express, in any case we talked about that the other day and no one remembered if it happened ...

For sure it has not happened since the trades and before that the teams were not complete so... Seems to me that for a while, I’ve been feeling like at the time we did the teams by separating the sticks in the middle of the ice , never knowing who I'm going to play with in advance .... in addition there is always last minute «fuck-ups» forcing line-ups changes sometimes only a few hours before the games . All this being the subject of another never-ending story, as there are few guys who have not yet understood that it penalizes their teams to not tell the «league commissioner» in advance within the reasonable time limit to find a suitable replacement ...

That makes me think that unfortunately I already know I 'm going to miss a few games  till the end of the season, and I certainly will not be the only one, but at least the «spirit of the HB» willing, we will have time to play a few together before it counts «for real ». Regardless of the standings at the end of the regular season , it is in the series that it matters!

I must say that I 'm still proud of our bunch because despite our «less than satisfactory» position in the standings, our team spirit remains strong , and I can’t help but to tell myself that by learning from our mistakes , we will eventually bounce back even stronger and we will end up laughing about it like of a bad distant memory !

LARRY