Posts by smyles

Saku Koivu is five years older than Alex Tanguay – nearly exactly to the day – but he seemed like the pupil listening to the prof last night.

And in this case, the prof was 28-year-old Tanguay, a newbie in the Habs' scheme of things, while Koivu is a pillar of the organization.

After last night's game, the Canadiens sent just three players to Hamilton (figuratively speaking; they're not actually leaving for Hamilton tonight):

Ben Maxwell

Matt D'Agostini

Greg Stewart.

The rest of the prospects, including Max Pacioretty, and Yannick Weber, will head up North to Tremblant with the team for their two-day camp in Ste-Jovite.

Ben Maxwell is happy to have survived the first round of cuts, and knows what he has to work on.

(Habs Inside Out video shot by Steph)

Habs' prospect Greg Stewart remembers "the game" last season, when it seemed he could do no wrong, as the moment he knew he could play in the NHL.

He talks about that, and about surviving the cut.

Matt D'Agostini remembers being among the first cuts in his first two training camps.

He's glad to still be here, and hopes he can open more eyes in the remaining games.

Max Pacioretty is just going to take it day by day.

We'll try it again.

Here's Habs' prospect Yannick Weber, surprised to still be in camp, but very happy about it, and flattered by Kovy's kind words.

A few observations from the coach Monday.

There's some video below (shot by Steph; bear with her): a few observations on the plan for training camp - past, present and for the next week.

About keeping some players around:

"We still have three games. And there are still a few injuries, so some guys will still have a chance to play. ... The next three games will determine, pretty much, if those we kept can keep up. The intensity will increase the next three games, so we'll see."

About the effort by the veterans:

"The first six (exhibition) games, you'd think they’d be going at 80 percent. But that wasn’t the case. The veterans worked hard, and that made the young kids look good."

Miss Janet Jackson and entourage were in the house at the Bell Centre Monday, setting up for her show tonight.

And it didn't seem as though they took too kindly to that little minor-league hockey outfit called the Montreal Canadiens (24 STANLEY CUPS!) and its own entourage actually breathing the same air breathed by Miss Janet.

Apparently everyone was getting in their way.

Big Georges Laracque doesn't know much, but he knows that when the bell rings to open the Canadiens's regular season, he'll be there.

Here's his money quote from today, as he ambled out of the Bell Centre shortly before noon.

"The trainer knows more than me. I’ll know tomorrow (when I see the doctor).

"I don’t know what kind of specialist he is. I don’t know why I’m seeing him. I just know he’s a doctor.

"Of course, at the beginning of the season, I’ll be there. Beyond that, I don’t know."

That is good, good stuff.

Kyle Chipchura:

About the goal:

"I felt better tonight. ... The biggest thing is just getting the timing on, getting the puck without feeling the pressure.  I think  keeping it simple, getting the lucky bounce early, helped me settle into the game."

About playing when the Habs are one or two players down:

"That’s my job. If I’m going to make a living in the NHL, that’s where I have to do it.  Feels nice to get into it. ... I think that’s the tough part of the game, when you’ve had some time off: feeling the pressure, your timing, your positioning, playing the angles. "

About the team's performance as a whole:

"Lots of kids on the team: I thought we played well with them. Th guys were starting to step up.  (The Senators) got a couple more lucky bounces than we did. We played them hard, I thought.  We didn’t maybe have the experience they have. We battled hard.  ...  When you play against established players like that, you just have to try keep it close, play them competitively."

According to Carbonneau's little black book:

A l'avant:

Plekanec - Kovy - A. Kostitsyn

Lapierre - Fortier - Kostopoulos

Desharnais - Flinn - Aubin

Stewart - Maxwell - Beauregard

En défense:

Markov - Komisarek

O'Byrne - Bouillon

Henry - Webber

Carey Price is skedded to play the entire game in nets.

(Hope I got all that right; frantically scribbling).

In my admittedly limited experience, don't remember a penalty for "playing with a broken stick" too often.

The ref, in the on-ice call, called it "interference - throwing the stick," because that's what Filip Kuba eventually did with the non-functional implement, and that implement ended up hitting the puck.

So which is it?

From the Sens:

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Senators assigned today five players to
their American Hockey League affiliate, Binghamton Senators. The roster
is now comprised of 25 players: three goaltenders, eight defencemen and
14 forwards.

The players sent to Binghamton, N.Y., are Brendan Bell (D), Matt Carkner (RW), Brad Isbister (RW), Greg Mauldin (RW) and Peter Regin (C).

So this team out there tonight is about the team they'll have.

Gosh, it sure would be embarrassing if they lost to the roster the Habs sent up here, wouldn't it? ;-)

Sens are gone to Sweden tomorrow night; this is their last one on this side of the pond.

Here's something that would get old before the first month of the season, if you had to listen to it all the time:

"THE JUBILEEEEEE FINE JEWELLERS ROLEX TIME OF THE GOAL ........ 17:00."

And in both official languages, no less. It's a mouthful, both ways.

What do they think this is, Yankee Stadium, where there's even a sponsor for pregnant pauses?

Medical update on Mathieu Carle.

It's a concussion, as you no doubt already know.  Carle saw the Habs' doctors last night, and is already back at home in Buckingham, resting.

He'll be re-evaluated in a week.

The Ottawa Senators actually got booed when they were introduced before tonight's game.

By the number of red Habs jerseys mulling around outside, and here in Scotiabank Place, that's not surprising.

The Sens fans tried to drown them out, but you could still hear them loud and clear.

It's a reasonably full house. There are plenty of empty rows, but overall a good crowd – helped by the unwelcome guests from Montréal.

You could get a pair of tickets online late this afternoon for $76 - good seats, too, since they were offering them at half price. The $76 is actually the price of a $65 ticket, with all those hidden charges they ding you with.

Those were the cheapest left; the $17.50 standing room and $20 cheapies long gone.

**Update: They announced a sellout of 20, 282 - pretty good considering there were seats for sale just a couple hours before game time. Lots of no-shows.**

Lines:

Pacioretty - Lang - Beauregard

O. Latendresse - Chipchura - Dandenault

G. Latendresse - Lehoux - S. Kostitsyn

Russell - Glumac - White

D

Gorges - Anderson

Valentenko - Belle

Bouillon - Komisarek

Komisarek and Bouillon are wearing the "A"s.

Willy Latendresse is indeed in uniform here at Scotiabank Place.

Hopefully he and older brother Olivier (also here) will get to play together - Mom and Dad will be bursting with pride - the culmination of 15 years of getting up at the crack of dawn to drive one, or both, to practices.

Here's a Scrapblog with the best memories of the Habs' brief visit to Roberval.

Enjoy.

Scrapblog

This was going on during the afternoon, and leading up to the game.

But by the time the game was under way, it was really getting serious.

Fortunately, there was no flooding of any kind to disrupt Hockeyville, although they likely would have edited out any little unpleasantness by the time the Saturday CBC telecast of the festivities rolls around.

The Habs won, so the Robervalois went home happy.

Probably exhausted, but happy. You know they're having staff parties all over the place, after months and months of hard work brought everything to fruition so swimmingly.

After the hangover subsides, what the heck are they going to do now? Good thing Christmas is coming.

...and this crowd has yet to do the wave.

That's got to be a record

Not the usual digs for CJAD play-by-play team Murray Wilson (left) and Rick Moffat, that's for sure.

They're standing in the near left corner of the rink - i.e. to the left and up from where Habs goalie Marc Denis is tending the net in the first and third periods.

They're as close as can be, obviously; the quarters are much closer than at the Bell Centre.

They're butt to butt with all of the other radio guys, with CKAC's Ron Fournier also buzzing around.

Not sure where/when Grapes and Ron MacLean and Coach's Corner will be appearing in this whole shindig (those watching online at cbc.ca may be able to fill me in).

But they laid a serious egg on the ice at Centre Benoit-Levesque.

And no one - NO ONE - booed that bewigged lady "singing" the national anthems.

They didn't join in, though, until she got to the French part of O Canada.

The screen is HUGE. It's very loud.

I'm wondering what the heck they would have done had the weather not cooperated in such spectacular fashion.

A little colder, the locals could have handled no problem.

But it's dry. And balmy. And fabulous

At precisel 6:30 p.m., after the public-address announcer explained to the crowd how many extended television timeouts there would be, the two teams hit the ice.

They were introduced thusly:

"Accueillons les Sabres de Buffalo et VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS Canadiens de Montreal."

Not that we didn't already know who the home team was.

.

Here's some video of Denis, during practice earlier today.

Players stretching outside, in the parking lot, next to the team bus.

That also tells you what an absolutely gorgeous day it's been here today.

Habs coach Guy Carbonneau has some ties here in the Saguenay/Lac St-Jean area.

In addition to playing his junior hockey in Chicoutimi, he remains president of the QMJHL Saguenéens.

Here's some video of him during the Canadiens's practice at Centre Benoît-Levesque this morning.