The narrow north-american rink, the dillution of skills du to expansion and the permissive hooking mentality of the pre-NewLNH standard all combined in creating a monster with two heads,... the trap on one side and the dump and shase on the other.... " the greatest game on hearth " !.... absolutely not.

Then came the New Regulations,... on one hand it made the trap an innefective and porous strategy with no futur and on the other it allowed more of the skillfull but "undersized" young players to be promoted from the minor to the NHL.

CAR and BUFF were the first teams in the East to fully explore the offensive potential of the NewNHL while the CH had remained conservativelly driven,... the re-signing of Pierre Dagenais by Gainey and overuse of old formulas (trap + dump and shase) by Julien are but two examples that can attest to that.

Last year despite the change of coaching upon entering our second season in the newNHL,.... our game worsonned while our dysfonctionality when on increasing... were was our speed ? our creativity ? all that was was left of our team towards the end of that season was a bunch of players that had zero confidence with their puck handling habilitys.

I think the CH were poised to do better then they did upon entering the newNHL,... they already had the solid creative and skillfull elements with the Koivu's, the Kovalev's, the Ribeiro's and had a pletoria of newNHL approved talents landed to them by the previous organisation (Andre Savard),... Plekanec, Higgins, A.Kostsitsyn, Komisarek, Perezhogin.... I think that our organisation has failed to provide this group of talents all the supportive and strategic elements they needed to shine at a brither light during our first two seasons in the newNHL.

Despite the reluctance and the hurdles, our players habilitys and confidence with the puck have managed to progress,.. " a long journey " as said Kovalev,... he went on defiling the 'dump and shase' scenario as a counterproductive stategy and an hindrance against the better alternatives that the passing and the playmaking habilitys is able to provide a team,... this lecture by Kovalev needed be heard.... for the good of hockey and that of our franchise in particular.