I finally saw Mike Ribeiro's little act from Sunday night and it was even worse then what I was expecting. I don't think I've ever seen an NHL player act more like a little girl on the ice then he did. If he had suffered an injury like Malarchuk, Berard or McCleary I'd excuse it. But for an alleged pinched nerve? Yeah right! If you aren't man enough to deal with your "pain" like a man, then you deserve all the scorn and ridicule that will follow you around for the rest of your career.

Then last night Alexei Kovalev decides to try his hand at acting as well. I suspect everyone has seen the play in question. Kovalev has the puck in double overtime, Travis Green hits him on the glove with his stick, Kovalev starts shaking his hand, Kovalev runs into Sheldon Souray, Kovalev loses the puck, Glen Murray scores the winning goal on a breakaway.

The reason I think Kovalev was acting with his hand shake was that Green hit him on the most protected part of the glove. He hit him on the hand close to where the index finger meets the thumb. That's probably the best protected spot on the glove because it is where the top padding meets the side padding. And Green didn't exactly hit him with full force either. It was more of a jab then a hard whack.

It wasn't the officials not calling a penalty on Green that cost the Habs the game - it was Kovalev's faking in an attempt to draw a call that cost them. But the Habs shouldn't be complaining about the officiating. Their first goal shouldn't have counted. Mike Ribeiro was in the blue paint and interfering with Raycroft's stick when the puck arrived on net.