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About last night ...
posted by Mike Boone at 8h05 EST on Jan 30
There was so much to like about the game. A few aspects that caught my eye:
• Cristobal Huet is in the zone. There were no acrobatic or spectacular saves among the 35 stops he made to record the shutout because Huet is seeing everything, he's square to the shooters, his positioning is superb, as is his rebound control. He even made a few good passes. Huet is giving Canadiens the hottest goaltending I've seen since I started blogging.
• How about that D? You expect Mike Komisarek to have a huge game against Ovechkin, but save some kind words for my man Josh Gorges, who held his own against the hulking sniper. All six defencemen did a great job of keeping the slot clear and moving the puck out. Almost all the Caps' shots were from bad angles.
• Discipline. Two penalties in the game. They overlapped, Canadiens killed the 5-on-3, Sergei came out of the box to score shorthanded and when his two minutes were up, Steve Bégin chased down a lead pass and fed Saku Koivu for the third goal.
• The power play. Two more goals last night, and perimeter passing that's frustrating to watch if Canadiens are trailing but very pretty when the team is ahead and looking to pad its lead.
• Christopher Higgins didn't score but was a monster on the boards and in one-on-one battles for loose pucks. That line will explode if Michael Ryder finds his game (which appears increasingly unlikely).
• Bégin, Bryan Smolinski and Tom Kostopoulos are the best fourth line Canadiens have had this year. Three smart veterans who hit and play with energy.
• When some Capitals thought about swarming Sergei K. after his kneeing penalty, Maxim Lapierre got right into it for his linemate.
Now let's just hope Kovy's thumb is OK, and it's on to Washington tomorrow night.
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On the Habs trading front, take it for what it's worth by the indomitable Bob Gainey:
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080131/CPSPORTS0101/80131071/-1/CPSP...
yo did anyone else forget that mathieu dandeneault was on the team??
i was just reading the paper and they were like "dandeneault sits again" and i'm like OOOOHHH YAAAA he was pissed he got benched.
I don't get why my powers that be post was deleted, but ok!!!
thats what the guy from sportsnet thought would happen.
Well I was pretty much ready to see smolinski retire or get traded waived or whatever but that line with Kostopolus and Begin are really playing great now...That may turn out to be a very important line come playoff time Shut down and pop a few here and there. And kostitsyn jr has a pretty mean streak in him looks like he is starting to come out of his shell. He is the real deal. GO HABS GO.
8. Nashville trades winger J.P. Dumont - a UFA July 1 - to Montreal for a second-round pick in 2009 and rookie centre Kyle Chipchura. Unless Dumont signs before Feb. 26 he'll likely be dealt. The surprising Habs can use a top-six forward and native son Dumont fits the bill.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA PIERRE LEBRUN ON SPORTSNET
IMO even a second rounder would be overpaying..LMAO CHIPCHURA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH
Teach - This isn't meant to be critical towards them but in all honesty I can't really say that Sportsnet is on the leading edge of hockey coverage in any respect.
The Original 24 Cups
haha nice
haha what?
now im scared lol. is that true? or what he thinks should ahppen?
that's what he thinks should happen in a perfect world. I almost fell off my seat laughing that he actually thinks we'd give up that lol.
Haha ok. To be honest tho, i would trade Ryder and a 2nd round pick for Dumount and a 5th rounder
No arguments there, except we could give a 3rd rather than a 2nd IMO. Ryder is not Chipper.
but, where do you see chipper in the habs plan? when does he come up?
Who is going to be our 3rd line center in the years to come? I guess you're thinking Lappy?
Our old pal Michael Farber had this to report on his SI web site. Habs fans will like the ending line....
"The NHL recently announced a "green" initiative, which surely is a socially responsible thing to do. Of course, if there were a real commitment to the environment, the league wouldn't have changed the schedule for next season and increased travel.
One eco/hockey-suggestion, annually made in this space: all playoff series become 2-3-2 to eliminate excess trips.
Another less serious eco-suggestion: Let the Boston Bruins mail in their results against the Montreal Canadiens. Boston is 0-6 vs. the Habs this season."
Heard some yo-yo's on the radio discussing possible lecavailer trade.
The proposed package for lecavalier would be 2 of higgins, komisarek and Plekanec
as well as halak and o'byrne.
would ya?
i would do it , and keep komy
Insane and ridiculous. After the trade who would Lecalvier be playing with. Let me see it would be Lecalvier and the Hamilton Bulldogs.
mjames
You can't be serious. After the trade you would end up with a poor imitation of the current TB Lightning team. Is that what you want for the Habs. One other thing Lecalvier does not want to play for Montreal. He has the sun, girls and money and NO TAXES in Florida .
mjames
LOL, no way in hell would i do that trade LMAO Pleky is a number one center, same as vinny Higgins is slacking so ....Komi? A player like him comes along once every ten years, just like Vinny.
Put it this way
I'd rather have Komi AND Pleky for 8 million then Vinny at 7. And Halak and someone else also? RUBBISH!
no
maybe back in november i would have done it...
but the team has blossomed so well that chemistry is pretty high up. Lecavalier Richards St-louis Prospal...great players...poor results...they're in dead last...soooooooo that says something.
http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=huetew1.jpg
Check out this photo of Huet from last night's game. He's intense!
Breaking News on the radio , an arrest warrent has been issued for Guy Lafleur in conjunction with his testimony in his son's case , hard to believe.
Follow up : Lafleur will turn himself in on Friday morning accompanied by his lawyer.
Mike Boone, your man Josh Georges impresses me more and more with every game. RDS had an interview with him in the first intermission but I missed. Anybody, what was he asked and what did he say? (pretty sure nothing to safisticated, but I am interested to know nonetheless)
Missed it. I was at the game.
for the most part, he talked about how the key to his and the team's recent success was to play a simple game and not get too fancy, as that's where you tend to make mistakes.
Some of the talk on here has been about the Habs picking up a more experienced D-Man at the trade deadline. Names like Blake, Foote etc have come up. I'm wondering about Danny Markov. I know when he became a UFA last spring the price he was asking was too high and he didn't have any takers. I don't think he is playing with an NHL team right now, maybe he's in Europe. What do you guys think about maybe approaching him with a deal?
He's signed with a Russian team if i remember right , dementia.ca. Good thinking though.