Log in & Sign up
You are not logged in.
The Puckcast
Weekly commentary and inside info about the Canadiens straight from the Gazette's experts.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
The Other Wing
The Other Wing features regular Habs commentary by some bloggers we like.
The Rules
Habs Inside/Out encourages lively debate, but there is a zero-tolerance policy regarding racism, profanity and behaviour that we deem to be offensive. We will, without warning, ban those who do not abide by this simple rule, so as to maximize the enjoyment of readers and participants of both sexes and all ages.
Most Commented
Most commented posts from the last 7 days:
Habs Inside/Out main RSS feed
Mike Boone's RSS feed
PuckCast RSS feed
Other Wing RSS feed
Site concept and design by User Generation
Resources
Player info:
League info:
Habs Inside/Out: Absolutely everything about the Montreal Canadiens
For editorial inquiries, contact Gazette sports editor Stu Cowan (scowan@thegazette.canwest.com).
For advertising inquiries, please contact your Gazette sales representative (gazadv@thegazette.canwest.com).
©2008 The Gazette, a division of Canwest Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.
Gainey has amassed an incredible wealth of depth and prospects and is now, finally, in a position to trim and shape HIS team exactly as he wants it...
Look for the usually very quiet Gainey to make some big splashes this off-season... Huet was only the first of many aggressive decisions on the horizon for a team that turned a corner this year...
Those hoping for a big name free-agent solution over the past few years were praying for miracles... Gainey has fostered a situation in which miracles are no longer required.
http://barteredsoul.blogspot.com
Sorry Boone and others....
"Bob Cole and Greg Millen will call the Detroit Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins’ Stanley Cup final for Hockey Night in Canada."
(From Kukla's Korner)
sidhu - Ohhh Baby!
The Original 24 Cups
What? No Brian Burke?
Was the award given to Gainey because he got two teams into the playoffs, Montreal and Washington?
Burke did nothing this year that really changed his team, the only deal he made was to dump Macdonald's salary, and Weight did very little for the team. Gainey, did great, but its hard not to go with Paul Holmgren, who put together a very strong team, the only thing is, he is already looking at cap difficulties.
9410 - The only thing I would add is that Burke tried to cheat by bringing back Selanne and Niedermayer from "retirement" and therefore save a ton on the salary cap. I'm elated that it didn't work out. Gainey's professional ethics have to count for something.
The Original 24 Cups
Holland has done a great job in Detroit but there is one deal that may come back to haunt him. At last year's trade deadline, he gave up a seond round pick and Shawn Matthias for Todd Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi was a total bust but Matthias just might turn out to be a winner. He has good size, can skate, hit, and score. Plays centre.
The Original 24 Cups
I can't argue with these selections although solid cases could be made for Toews (Kane), Nabokov (Brodeur), and Phaneuf (Green). It's also hard to believe that Ovechkin is player of the year in his third season and Malkin is runnerup in his second season. (not to mention Crosby) Wow. Youth has been served in the NHL.
Of course, Lidstrom is the exception to that rule. I sometimes feel that the hockey world doesn't always give him his due. Flashy forwards seem to get more ink than defensemen. Let's assume that Lidstrom wins the Norris this year. That would be his 6th in the last 7 years. Nine first place all star teams. In fact, he has never been on the 2nd team, only the first. Three Stanley Cups with a chance at a 4th this year. Not to mention that he has only missed about 30 games during a 16 year career. Amazing. Highly skilled, great hockey sense, leadership qualities, clutch playoff performer - Lidstrom is the total package. Obviously, Bobby Orr ranks 1st among all time defensemen. But when it comes to picking #2, I think you have to give Lidstrom some consideration along with players such as Bourque and Harvey.
The Original 24 Cups
he's absolutely in the mix as one of the all-time great defenceman
How can you say Lidstrom does not get his due, and then say he has 9 first all star teams, and 5 Norris trophies?
9410 - what I was implying was that the hockey world tends to over emphasize forwards such as Crosby and Ovechkin. Defensemen seem to get less ink and attention. Just one man's viewpoint.
The Original 24 Cups
No I agree with your view that we tend to over emphasize the forward position. When Crosby and Ovechkin came into the league in 2005, I thought by far that Dion Phaneuf was the best rookie, his numbers where excellent and his impact on his team was much greater, he has become such a huge part of Calgary in as little time as the other two. Yet he got no nomination for his stellar play, much like Price got no notice for his amazing play this year. That view I agree with tremendously.
I hate how we finally have a good season after more than 10 years and people are trying to find reasons proving that we are not actually a good team. We came first in the conference, we played tough all year and we will only keep getting better.
I dont think whatever Canadiens do that there wont be the reqular negative comments> After all these years we have the making of a very good team but I guess we will have to sign all the free agents to make some happy until the first loss
GO BOB GO
Ex nihilo nihil fit
The little success we might have knowed this year is in large part du to our excetional luck with injuries, all of our opponents had to composed with more adversitys than we did.... I think our series against Boston and Philadephia have showned us more accuratly where we belong competitively speaking.
I think Flyer's Paul Holmgren's team's leap from dead last in the NHL last season to the conference's final this season make him more deserving of best GM of the year,... specially that the flyer's rise has been distinctively obtained as a direct results of Holmtren's specific and multiple moves while our slow rising in here is still to much the result of our youngs maturing that were obtained by the CH's GM predecessor Andre Savard and the scouting man he hired for our franchise in 2002,... Timmins.
Little success = first place in the East
Regular season series vs Boston and Philly: MTL easily won against both
Exceptional luck with injuries: you mean loss of captain and our main big defenseman at the end of the season? A span where the team dominated?
The Flyers owe their success to a) spending too much to attract Briere b) uncharacteristic horrible goaltending by Price c) the team suddenly hitting a scoring slump d) absolutely, unquestionably the weirdest officiating I've seen in a while.
I am SICK of the Holmgren comparisons. The guy has basically been in position since 1998-1999, when he was named AGM, and before that he was director of player personnel. You could therefore say that he is every bit as responsible for last year's LEAGUE WORST record as this year's freak officials-assisted playoff run.
Savard was a great guy. He helped steer the team back on the path to recovery.
Why getting sick over the Holmgren comparaison ... the Sporting News thing is in itself an excersise in comparaison of which the most voted ones are revealed to their readers... it would be much more instructive if the resonning behind each GM's selection were to be explained to the public but it is unfortunatly not the case.
As much as I dislike the Flyers organisation, their fans and most of their sport writers.... one thing remain..... the Flyers went down hard last season and Bobby Clark was put out of his fonctions in the process and replaced by Holmgren as GM.... Holmgren have showned great hability in his new fonctions and mastered a swift recovery without compromising long term viability..... the Flyers finished the season with 96 points (despite the team being ridled with injurys) and acheived three rounds in the playoffs ( all of it happened without having their best player in the line-up but for 25 games total,... all star Simon Gagne who scored 40 goals in both the last two season).
Such turned around is only possible when tradings and new signings occurs in quantity as much as in quality.... thats what Holmtren did.
Starting at the trade dealine last season he got Biron for a second round pick in return.
Then he got a steal from Atlanta, first NHL year Brian Coburn, 22 years old defence, 6'5'' 220 pounds, 8th first round pick in 2003 for aging D Zhitnick in return.
Then he got from the Predators... a 21 year old D prospect Ryan Parent,... forward Upshall,..
one first round pick and an extra third round pick for Peter Fosberg in return.
Before the UFA market opened he traded the first round pick he got from the Predators back to them in order to have exclusive talk with Timonen and Hartnell and signed them both to 4 years contracts.
When the UFA market open he was able to sign the most prolifique forward avalaible in Daniel Briere .... Biron's aquisition earlier by the Flyers played a factor since they have been long time friend ... all and all they had what they wanted ... only the futur will tell more.
Then they aquired young forward Lupul and D Jason Smith from Edmonton in exchanged for one of their young D that didn't panned out.
A busy season to say the least by Holmtren and one that has delivered the goods,.. the Flyers
now have gain stability at key points and have a good mixture of youngs and veterans, skills and size and Mike Richard is now ready for captaincy.... with Simon Gagne expected to be ready for next season..... and with forward Claude Giroux who inked 50 points in 19 games during the Memorial cup run with Gatineau expeted also to be ready.... things are looking good and Holmgren let it be said, made it happened as fast as any GM could ever possibly have..... so I say Chapeau mr. Holmgren.... and I am looking forward for my Habs to beat your team up for the many years to come.
excellent post. Might not make you popular with the I'm a bigger hab fan than you crowd, though
You make excellent arguments. I agree that Holmgren has been effective- he had to make big moves, and he did. And Gainey inherited a team that was improving under Savard- part of effective leadership is retaining the best people from previous management, something Gainey did by keeping Timmins (although Timmins has more than a few detractors on this site).
Gainey has had a couple of big failed signings- Shanahan, Briere, Hossa. He's been cautious, partly because it's his style, and partly because he doesn't want to tinker too much with an improving product (whereas Holmgren had no choice but to start from zero). But I'd like to see him land a big fish- if only to confirm our status as a contending big-ticket team.
BN - good post on Holmgren and what has transpired in Philadelphia. The end of the unproductive Bobby Clarke era was long overdue, espeically after the lockout. Clarke seemed to be in a time warp (let's do the time warp again!) and was only hanging on because he had been brown nosing the Snider family for years. By the way, there are two more names you can add to Holmgren's list: Steve Downie and James van Riemsdyk.
It will be interesting to see how Holmgren handles his salary cap dilemma this summer. That may turn out to be his true test as a GM. I've already let him know that I'm willing to make a 'trade and sign' move for Jeff Carter.
The Original 24 Cups
you state your case well but in the end I have to disagree with you. I think Gainey was a good choice, as Holmgren would have been as well. Being a Hab fan, I like the job Gainey did better.
would be nice to see a reasoned response to your point from people who disagree but you can't have everything.
Yet those who know more than you'll ever know about hockey chose Gainey, go figure.
Funny that Andre Savard is no longer here and Trevor Timmins is. Once again it shows just how smart Gainey is!
I trust Gainey knows what he's doing. It's not the first team he's made better.
Zep - How do you know the Sporting News knows more about hockey than Bouleau noir , are you an insider or you may know Bouleau noir personally. IMO his post made a lot of sense and contained logic. Many so called experts picked the Habs for 14th place.
I'd wager top dollar that Sporting news know more than Bouleau noir . Hell, I'll wager that the scribes on HIO know more than Bouleau noir.
Yes, some of his post contained logic. It's not hard to figure out that not having many injuries last year helped us.
Hey, if you believe Holmgren did a better job than Gainey, that's yours/his choice. We will find out in the foreseeable future who made the better decisions.
I for one am sick and tired of hearing the Gainey bashing (not saying BN is one of them) with NO constructive feedback by those who bash him on a daily basis.
Saying he should have gotten Hossa at the deadline is NOT constructive in any way, it's predicting!!
"Many so called experts picked the Habs for 14th place."
It's one thing to make predictions. It's quite another when actually choosing somebody for their actions.
I'm no expert, and I don't plan on pretending that I am, unlike others that post here.
I disagree with Bouleau noir about Holmgren/Gainey but I certainly don't think he is pretending to be an expert. He stated his opinion, no more, no less. And he stated it quite well.
Yeah, I suppose I'm stuck in the 'stick up for Gainey' mode.
maybe a little :)
So then going from missing the playoffs last year to first in the East this year means nothing? Gainey received 12 votes from the league exec's, Holland received 6, but obviously the league executives can't hold a candle to your knowledge and wisdom about what the GM's do and are deserving of!
I have to agree with you on the injury point. That being said, that is due, at least in part, to the work of the medical and physio crew so it falls under the organization doing a good job of getting people to make sure the risk of injury is kept at a minimum as well as treating any that may occur in the best fashion.