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Ryder will be in the lineup tonight. Not for the good graces of Guy Carbonneau but for the scouts, namely the Carolina Hurricanes who are salivating at the prospect of getting a 30 goal scorer for nothing after losing Justin Williams for the season. I hope Bob get's more than a bag of pucks in return.
Halak please. Remember last year, when all was lost, and Halak saved the year? And remember when all the Habs needed was a single point from the game against the leafs and Cristobal got the call after a long break?
Price has sucked (grocery) bag for several games now. Please stop starting him. Huet is better. Neither are the great goaltending we were promised.
Can you give a brother a chance? Even if you hate Halak, give him a chance to strut his wares for trades or whatever. But come on, we're not getting good goaltending here folks.
Halak please! Also, some figgy pudding. Shout out to Mr. White.
We are still a building team, Price won the Calder Cup last year, nothing was left for him to learn in the AHL. He has not played bad, he has not played great. He is a young goalie who is learning. I'm glad he is with us, he will be all that much better for it. Patience, patience.
Price has not earned the 1A spot. Huet returned, and it's not like Price pulled a Halak in 06-07 in his absence. Price played like a backup. I'm saying that Halak played amazingly last year when we needed him. Maybe Huet has stolen an OT loss or two, but we haven't seen a win snatched from the jaws of defeat by goaltending yet.
Yes, I too have sipped the Price Kool-Aid, he is the future, the children must come first, etc. etc. But I hate seeing losses piling up, and I think Halak might just light a fire under Price, who apparently feels he has vanquished Huet despite the stats.
Look at the TSN poll for today. Looks like I was ahead of the game on that one!
Should the NHL get rid of the three-point game?
Yes - teams should not get points for losing
64%
No - it helps create parity and an exciting playoff race
36%
The TSN poll would be based on Canadians who watch any hockey they can. The league cares about the population south of the border and creating parity in those markets where success (or the hope of) is essential for survival (sometimes still isn't enough). Parity is good for the game and keeps things meaningful for longer for more teams. Both Montreal and Toronto lost out in the final days of last year due in large part to the new system ( I wonder if that impacted anything in tsn's poll).
You posted about 26 teams being above .500......who cares. Since when does hockey care about .500 (This is not baseball or basketball). You are a teacher so mark on the Curve. Points are all that matters and every team plays the same amount of games under the same system so it is completely fair. They will not go back to the old system as it makes absolutely no sense to anyone who is not a hockey purist (unfortunately many Canadians are). There will be change but it will not be a return to the old system. It will be the even more complicated version that will again lose popularity polls up here in Hockey world but will again be successful amongst those who matter (television, owners and the US market).
If you can't beat em join em.
"you have this when in a game a total of 3 points can be obtained whereas on the same night another game only gives a total of 3 points. Points are all that matters and every team plays the same amount of games under the same system so it is completely fair."
What tyhe heck happened to my post??? Only half of it showed up, no way I'm writing it again, was an analogy that dealt with students in a classroom. sheesh
Anyways, games are not created equal. when one game can be worth 3 points and others 2, it is a joke. Would be the same if I gave 5 students a test worth 100 marks and another 5 a test worth 50 marks without giving those 5 a chance to get another 50. Then marking year end totals on the higher amount of points. Who do you think does better? This is a very simple recap of what I had typed.
Also, don't you think that Canadian fans would be more knowledgeable about this and the historical aspect of the game. Seems they are turning off Canadian fans to...not get american fans. This is why the NHL is declining, their priorities are all screwed up.
Baseball is NOT hockey I agree, but .500 still matters
A win give you 2 points and 1 game, a loss after that leaves you with 2 points and 2 games!
ergo .500
a loss is a loss is a loss. What is this 1 point garbage.
makes perfect sense to me.
This new system is a farce.
Before we worry about this let's get to what matters like the instigating rule, salary cap issues (Anaheim, restricted free agents,trades, consistent officiating).
Teach, I am not the one who made these changes and I was against them until I got used to them...now I like them. There are still people who have issues with the red line being removed and the goalie grid too. The points thing really doesn't do anything that wasn't already happening (teams played for ties before...that is why they changed it). Now at least there is an overtime and a shootout to decide it. Time will not permit a true outcome so unfortunately this is what we get. It could be worse we could base it on a coin flip and a partial score (field goal) could decide our games.
What the HE** is wrong with a tie?????
And I think this is more important than any other issue. It directly relates to the integrity of the game.
but since you brought it up :)
Insitgator should go.
RFA are open game, GM's need to use their head. Know their players, etc.
Salary Cap- Canadian teams getting shafted again. Now that the dollar is high, and they would have had money like the American teams to aggressively pursue UFA's, there is a cap. Now that there is revenue sharing, we get shafted again, as we make the most money by FAR. The revenue we bring in is completely disporportional to our 6 team representation in a 30 team league.
Trades will not happen as frequently with a salary cap, just look at the NFL.
Officiating- do we really want to start talking about it? It is the holidays and I don't want to get extremely angry, I can feel it building up already.
I agree. As a long time fan, the standings no longer make sense. Teams have too many points for the number of games played. Either the games end in a tie as they used to, or the OT winner gets 2 & the loser gets none. The latter would be preferable.
Under the present system, it appears that the HABS play for the tie. They sit back & try to protect leads, & that has back fired way too many times this year. It would be better if they played a puck possession game, & went on the offensive. I find their present system very frustrating & boring.
Krob1000
, isn't this pathetic???
"the Christmas break arrived with 26 of the 30 teams with records of .500 or better"
**************************************************************************
Abolish the stupidest rule in all of sports, the free point for getting to O.T.
and please get rid of the shootout. What a farce!
Yeah, even if it helps us, I'm still totally against it..it just sucks. Diminishes the integrity of the game when you have some games worth more than others, makes no sense at all.
Ok, New Topic
Seeing as how the Canadian Junior Team just made it 1-0 and I find that the flow of the game has been excellent, due to the fact that talent is allowed to play with talent.
How many of you agree with the sentiment that the NHL would be so much better if there were fewer teams?
I'm completely lost as to where this feud all started?
"Canadiens didn't show up in Dallas. Lacking heart and conviction, they were beaten by a superior team"
Yeah, I suppose playing 3 games in 4 nights had absolutely nothing to do with their lackluster play against Dallas eh?!
You are right - it has nothing to do with it.
mjames
"You are right - it has nothing to do with it."
Thanks Scotty.
Please, do us all a favour and go back to hating/attacking Carbonneau.
I do not hate and I do not atack. I merely comment on what I see. I see a coach who can not get his team up to play on too many occasions such as against Dallas. Why is that? Do you know what the traits of a good coach are? Does you pal Carbo possess those traits. The simple answer is no. Please point out where you think I am wrong.
I really do not expect an answer to my questions because I really do not think you are able to. I do not think you can really explain why Carbo can not get his team up to play. I respect the team. You friend Carbo has no respect for his team.
mjames
"Please point out where you think I am wrong."
That's just it. I don't think you're wrong.
After hearing Carbo talk about how it was ridiculous to have a team play 3 games in 4 nights and have to travel 3 hours to get to Dallas. Then to turn around and bench Ryder once again to prove some point, when Ryder would have been fresh legs is ludicrous. Would he have made a difference? Maybe not, but we'll never know will we?!
I used to be behind Carbo, but now it's not possible. Somebody pointed out that Jagr has only 7 goals, and is still playing long shifts. Yet Carbonneau chooses to demoralize Ryder even more, sapping any confidence Ryder has left.
What also gets under my skin. People are lamenting the "bad trade" with Dallas and how could we have traded Ribero (visons of John Leclair still dance in my head...*sigh*), yet here we go again. We're more than willing to dump Ryder for anything, yet when he comes back and kills us (and he will), the same song and dance about "how could we", will be sung by Habs fans all over again!
I hate to say it, but Carbo needs to go and a legitimate N.H.L. coach should apply for the job.
End of rant...*sigh*
I think we all expected a sub-par performance against Dallas (sad to say expected, I know).
However, these athletes are supposed to be in TOP shape, what's the big deal about playing 3 games in 4 nights?
I remember as a kid playing three games in ONE day, and played well in all of them. Sometimes an excuse is just an excuse.
Happy Holidays all! See you back on the 27th...
Don't forget to cheer for the team Canada Jrs on Wed and Thursday too!
Mike Boone, did you hear what Carbonneau had to say after the game last night? It would be interesting to hear if he had any comments.
There are comments on the main page of this site with comments from Carbo (french only).
There were 8 NHL games last night. Guess who was the 3rd star overall as chosen by nhl.com
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?page=ThreeStarsPage&service=page
Mike, I have to disagree with you that Price has given up at least one bad goal per game. Sure in the past week and half or so ya but the bad goals that he let in had no effect on the outcome of the game except for the game last Tuesday. For example last night on Stu Barnes shot it was 3-0 Stars and they were bombarding the Habs and the shooter shouldn't have been able to have that scoring chance but the Canadiens turned the puck over in the neutral zone.
Huet and Price think are both playing decent which is why the Habs need to trade Huet. We can get a good return for him and it would save us salary. Teams like LA, Tampa, Pittsburgh (who i don't think we would trade him to) all desperately need a goalie and in LA's case could give us a Ladislav Nagy or Michael Handzus in return.
Matt J
Please! No more Europeans! I have both Nagy and Handzus in my pool and they both suck!
you are correct sir, last thing we need is another Markov, Hamrlik, Plekanec, the Kostitsyn twins. Or god forbid a Kovalev.
Well, they haven't won us anything. A few Canadian boys from the west coast would provide us with the much needed grit, work ethic, and size.
You mean more Kostopoulos' - great just great another bunch of guys who try hard and are big but can't score as long as they are Canadiens, eh.
mjames
As opposed to a Marek Zidlicky or a Rotislav Klesla, yeah I'd take him..You can pick any crappy Canadian player to prove your point.
My point is I'd take a high end Canadian player over a high end European player any day this century ;)
and that's that. We have lacked a high end Canadian player since we...???won our last stanley cup????