Canadiens goalie Carey Price resists the attack of Nashville's Steve Sullivan on Saturday.
J. Masotti Jr., Reuters
• AUDIO: Mike Cammalleri | Travis Moen | Josh Gorges | Ryan O'Byrne
It was supposed to be a day off after a late-night flight home from Nashville. But stink out the joint in a 2-0 loss and you practice, says head coach Jacques Martin, who ran his club through a 75-minute, up-tempo practice in Brossard that concluded with eight minutes of drop-dead (almost) wind sprints. Not as bad as in Vancouver on Oct. 8 the morning after the Habs' 7-1 shellacking on the West Coast, but surely enough to sear the lungs and send a message.
"Embarrassing," Josh Gorges called the Nashville effort. "Unacceptable," said Travis Moen.
Live updates from practice are archived by Stubbs on Twitter here.
No sign of Brian Gionta, who missed Saturday's game with a lower-body injury that's been plaguing him for some time, apparently. Neither did Max Pacioretty practice, though the team offered no update on that.
Lines used in Brossard: Cammalleri-Gomez-Metropolit; White-Plekanec-Pyatt; Latendresse-Lapierre-Moen; Laraque-Chipchura-Kostitsyn (you read that right). On defence: Gorges-Mara; Spacek-Hamr; Leach-MAB; O'Byrne-Carle.
O'Byrne, having sat out six weeks with a sprained knee, is eager to be cleared for a return to action. He hopes that comes Tuesday, then it's Martin's decision when he's back in the lineup.
Both Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak were banging, even breaking sticks today after being drilled by pucks. Halak got the worst of it, taking one off the collarbone and then seemingly the chin, under the protective flap on his mask, while Price was doubled over and splintering his Warrior stick after having taken one awkwardly in the upper thigh, lower abdominal region where hard contact changes your singing register in the choir.
Share the agony and ecstasy of Habs fandom and read live blogs from every game with Gazette columnist Mike Boone.
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I really dont like these lines...can't we just try and stick to something for a couple of games at least. This has been going on for the last 2 seasons, its ridiculous already. Everyone knows Pyatt and White are not staying on the second line, whats the point.
go habs go!
What top 6 forward can we get in a trade? Do we need one or should we be calling up SK74?
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
not a huge fan of the guy, but spezza only has 1 goal this year. hmmm....
This is what happens in Montreal. We lose and the chicken littles of the city start calling for trades, goalie changes, firings, etc. In my opinion, Carey Price is growing and a great goalie. So is Halak. There is no goalie controversy. The team has not stepped up... and for the AK27 lovers, I'm pretty sure we'd be booing him by now if he was still on the team.
www.TrueRivalry.com
I agree,people want everybody traded or fired then the traded players go on to flourish somewhere else.Then the same posters cry because the players they wanted out of town turn into quality nhlers. Like the old saying goes"those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"
I envy NYI and TB. Just getting one top pick, Tavares or Stamkos can make such a different. Please don't trade away our drafts or prospects for another stop gap player. Just suck it up as some suggest. If by trade deadline, we are out of the playoff, we'll go for full rebuild and trade away Hamrlik, Plekanec, Kostitsyn, Latendresse, etc.. and play our prospects accordingly.
of course a top pick can make a difference but let's not get carried away. Nash is great but columbus is not. fleury took a while to get going. ovechkin turned washington around but look at the supporting cast. dipietro injured. it would be nice to have a big pick, but i agree - no more role players. we seem to have a solid core that needs a second significant scoring weapon (and markov back, of course). that means a proven top-6 fwd using some of the prospects we have, even if we love em, and no griping allowed if they do well elsewhere. when that kind of acquisition happens is the big question, and i have a feeling most of my hair will be pulled out by the time it does
As much as each Habs loss pains me to the core I am strong enough to sit through a few seasons of bottom five in the standings finishes. After all, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!!!!
and balder
What a hilarious bunch of whiney, snivelling armchair critics. Always with the blame. Always got to find the guilty party and make an example of him. Children.
(I had a whole bunch of other positive, bleeding-heart-liberal, upbeat garbage here but decided to erase it..maybe some other time)
I love this site...even the Negative Nellies...you all really stir the emotions. Looking forward to meeting a bunch of you this weekend...even the Negative Nellies ;)
the whole team seems in disarray now, defence hurt, gionta out, goalie contraversy, powerplay and penalty killing very low. i think its about time we appoint a captain and get some leadership on the team. i dont even care who it is as long as who ever it is takes this team by the scruff of the neck and smartens them up.
Query: Is Carey Price over the 55 shot barrage? If you checked out Stubbs on twitter yesterday both Price and Halak were getting peppered with head shots at practice yesterday. No wonder why we've been shut out so much. Our guys have no clue where the net is.
i know the guys should occasionally have a day off, but i would have liked to see an optional skate, just to see who would show and work, because clearly a lot of them need to do a whole lot better. do they need the rest, or do they need to keep working?
Summit Information
<http://maps.google.ca/maps?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=45.496203,-73.572425&spn=0.003264,0.006899&z=17>
Hello everyone, here is a Map to show The Bell Center---Novotel Hotel---& Hurleys Pub
Just click on the link above and print it off. Hope this helps you.
See you all at Hurleys Friday night for the game.
When you check in at the Hotel, leave word at the desk of your room # so we can get in touch with you. Andree and I should be at the Hotel by 3:30pm or so.
Is everyone going to be upstairs or downstairs at Hurleys?
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
Friday night, Big Screen room. On Saturday night we have the 2nd floor reserved for us.
Thanks for the info!, Ill be there in my Price Jersey!
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
As Habs fans we would probably be most comfortable in the basement!
Hopefull Hannah
Jacques Derriere
"When I was a baby I wish my first word had been "QUOTE", then right before I die I could say "UNQUOTE" - Stephen Wright
HAAAAA!
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
Everyone talks about trading the Koz Brothers but here's who I have my money on as leaving through trade, unless this team turns it around big time:
Pleks and Hammer.
Pleks won't be resigned but has value, even if he'll be a FA at the end of the year. Some team at some point will need a two-way C who's playing well. Time to trade him while he has value.
Hammer is playing real well but has an albatros of a contract. Let's trade him while he has decent value because if he starts to look like he did last year, we'll be stuck with him next year. Again some team will want a good vet playing decent even if his contract is high.
Don't know who they would get and I'm not delusional enough to make silly trade proposals à la Hammer and Pleks for [input name of random superstar]. But let's not wait until Pleks leaves on his own and Hammer starts showing his age.
Unless the kids REALLY begin to turn it around, Sell High.
If you're not delusional, why are you trading 2 players that are actually playing well?
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
There will be no Stanley Cup parade next Summer in Montreal so rather than finish 10th in the Conference, trading our best players gives us a better chance of finishing 14th or 15th, hopefully in the 25th to 30th over-all range.
Because one is in a contract year, playing well and likely won't be resigned and the other has an albatros contract and is playing far better than he was last year and will likely show his age later if he continues with the same minutes.
Sell High. I will just go nuts if Pleks is kept and then lost for nothing at the end of the season so the team can make the playoffs and proceed to get creamed.
Again, I would be willing to wait a (very) little time to see if the kids magically begin to develop. But not long. The delusional folks are the ones suggesting we trade the Koz Bros and Halak for Ovechkin.
Unless you think this team has Cup aspirations, then trading these guys is the thing to do.
No thanks on the tanking. I'd rather build for 10 more years than win cause we suck. 10years of 8th place is better than 1 year of last place.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Tell you what: when we start drafting low picks like the Red Wings, then I'll agree with you. I think we have a ways to go though.
We can only trade away Hamrlik when Markov is back. No way we do it before that. We'd become worse than Toranna 67ers.
In a perfect world:
Markov comes back. Hamrlik and Halak are afterwards traded for 1 top six forward and 1 defender. (Halak + pick/prospect for Sharp, Hamrlik for a younger D.
Plekanec is resigned for another 3 years. Kostitsyns either stay and play like top-6 Forwards, or are traded away for another asset. Lines are:
Giant Mexican Squid (GMS line)
Sharp Turtle Tits (STT line)
Moen Metro MaxPatCHes (3M line)
Gui:( Yaps CHips (Onion line)
Markov - Mara
Spacek - Gorges
bottom D pairing
Price
Sanford
With the number of minutes Hammer is putting in, he'll be:
a) Injured; or
b) Really starting to tail off
by the time Markov comes back. I think it'll be too late by then. Trade him now. I'd like to be able to see this team as a potential playoff contender but it's kinda hard right now.
all right, but without Hamrlik AND Markov, this team will be atrocious, and when Markov's back, we'll miss playoffs by 5 points and will not get a lottery pick
Trading away Hamrlik would mean - we gave up on this season already
Here's the way I see it:
If Hammer is injured or really slowed when Markov comes back, then I might as well have Shawn Belle in there who played quite well. I think Carle will improve if played. And if Hammer is injured or slowed, you won't get a top 6 forward for him and Halak.
And really, do you want the team to just make it into the playoffs and then get creamed? I would rather tank myself.
We all want this team to win the Cup but really....
Here's another angle: if the Habs are pretty much out of it by the time Markov comes back, why rush him? Hell I would let him take his won sweet time because getting him re-injuredfor next year would be dumb.
how much do you sign price(rfa) and pleks(ufa) for?
Would take some more calculations (my concept was too spimple)
But right now we have 10 D: Markov, Spacek, Hammer, Urologist, Leach, Rhino, Gill, Gorges and Carle. We need only 6.
Plus, up front: perhaps Metropolit is not re-signed and bunch of other guys traded.. hard to predict.
well i like to compare price to cam ward.... Ward is making big bucks next year. If the habs are serious about Price they'll want to ink him to a 3-4 deal at an average of 4 million a (price won't sign a longer deal unless you throw 5-6 million a season at him)
Pleks... if he continues his season he'll be getting minimum 4 million a year for a term or 4-5 years. more if a dumb team out there overbids.
the habs have 47 million committed next year and i believe teh cap is at 60 now and might go down next year. Also keep in mind we have a ton of RFA's as well to sign... things from a numbers perspective don't look so good.
I hope Metro is resigned...He's a steal and a great player for what he does.
I see your point. Pleks has become a fan favourite so trading him away would be unpopular but if he refuses to sign or negotiate before the trade deadline then getting something for him is better than nothing if it looks like we won't make the playoffs.
I agree about Hammer as well. He's playing well again but he's eating up a lot of the cap.
OH MY WORD! OH NOOOOO!
THIS JUST IN:
Gui Latendresse was asleep at 6:30 pm on Saturday night as per Tony Marinated on Team990. The team President, the General Manager and the Youppi! should all be FIRED!!! He wants PIERRE McGUIRE!!!!!
Somebody should tell him that "Guidoune" (lol, good one) has been sleeping through the whole season.
Sheesh.
Tell me about it!
Media never wants to take blame for the controversies they create yet they dig deep into the hotel rooms to find something to bitch about! :)
yeah, the 6:30 wake up story was on Bouchard's blog on rds and he was quoted in lapresse about it as well.
what a team guy - "i'm not in the lineup so i won't bother showing up". maybe he and sk can take a 3 day course on using an alarm clock - though that assumes he wants to get to the arena on time, which clearly he did not.
move em, bobbo.
The best one I've heard this morning is that at least, and unlike his teammates, he was awake at 7PM.
At this point, O'Byrne and Markov coming back wont be our salvation.
My .02$
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
In case anyone wonders what the Habs need to succeed!
http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/story/12524878/rookie-sensation-tavares-cha...
Wow, I really don't get all the Gainey-bashing. We lost our best player in the first game of the season, we're down three of our top six defensemen, our current 2nd D-man is walking wounded, and we've got three forwards out injured including our top-line RW. People complain about our depth, btu really, there aren't more than a couple of teams in the league that could withstand that kind of casualties and still be above .500. Cut the GM a break -- his moves in the off-season have been paying off big-time, and are the only reason we're hovering around .500 at all. What would our record be if we had Tanguay instead of Gionta, Higgins instead of Gomez and Pyatt, Kovalev instead of Cammalleri, and Komi/Bouillon/Brisebois instead of Spacek/Mara/Gill?
Something tells me, when Halak plays, the number of shots are low. Maybe because Halak can clear the puck, and Halak can work with his defense, there is some chemistry there. I don't know what Price has to do to get the support of his team. We already changed almost the whole team to support Price, and it still is not working. What's next? We let everyone go again, rebuild around Price one more time?
I am a Halak supporter but the truth is if Halak played against Nashville it would've been 4-0 Preds!!
Why do you make up this crap? BG did not change almost the whole team to support Price. Or, if he did could you please explain where you got this information from. Otherwise you come across as one of those HIO posters who goes to any length to promote Halak and to bash Price. (Don't bother replying about me not liking Halak because I sometimes wonder if he could be a Hasek waiting in the wings!)
Halak's last game he faced 40 some odd shots didnt he?
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
31 shots (Flames)
i think it's more about re-tooling than rebuilding. a lot of the young guys (white, carle, pyatt, belle) aren't bad but are not as good as they could be. Now that they have a taste of what's required to succeed in the NHL let's see if they have what it takes to get back.
by re-tooling i mean that we have a core (price/halak; cammy/gio/gomer/metro/moen/lappy/chipper; markov/spatch/o'b/georges/gill) to work with. the team hasn't gelled with all the patchwork changes, but everyone has had a chance to show they are willing to work for the team. if you haven't pitched in or made an effort, regardless of whether the results were there, you are moveable. in my mind Guys who should have been part of the core (AK/SK/lats/lappy) who clearly aren't playing like they want to be should be used to bring in a top 6 scorer. simple as that
I think the team plays a little tighter defensively with Halak than with Price but against Nashville it wouldn't have made a difference who was in nets. I'm not sure if it is purely coincidental at this point...too early to tell. As for building around Price, a lot of the building blocks are currently injured so you are jumping to conclusions.
The only guy who could play with pleks right now would be pleks himself, since he seems to be doing all the dirty work and feeding the slot, but everyone else is a perimeter player that isnt hanging out in the hot spots like the high slot or in front of the net, aka we need a healthy gionta playing with pleks, then put gomez with cammalleri, giving 2 pairs. Too bad we cant clone pleks
Totally agree! Its amazing how few of our players actually put themselves in shooting position in the slot.
Only Cammy and Gio even go to the slot, and gio is usually hanging around the net.
Hearing alot of "lets get rid of Gainey" talk.
You folks do realize, that if Gainey is fired. We really don't have any clue who the Molson's will stick in his place. Lets face it, there are more bad GM's out there then good ones. Personally, I don't find Gainey all that bad. Sure the team hasn't been playing great, but I don't think one can hold Gainey responsible for what happens on the ice or injuries. I mean, most of us were pretty sure we'd have a deep cup run last year. We had the pieces, players got hurt, other under acheived. This year, well it's still early, I'll hold my comments.
In short. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it, despite what some of you will say... you can do worse then Gainey. Odds are good.
"You folks do realize, that if Gainey is fired. We really don't have any clue who the Molson's will stick in his place."
Thats not even the concern. If gainey was fired, what would any incoming GM accomplish anyways? Gionta, Cammalleri, and Gomez are all pretty much signed through 2013-2014, we have no significant salary coming off the books until Hamrlik comes off after next season, and we have no cap space with pending RFAs who are sure to get raises. The incoming GM would be totally handcuffed when it comes to making moves. If our new players dont produce they will be untradeable, and if they produce and the teams doing well, well why would we fire gainey to begin with? Classic Catch 22.
On paper, this team looks pretty good. However, in real time, it hasnt quite worked out. Thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
Mostly because none of our young players have improved, in fact, they seemingly have taken step backs.
If I had to isolate the main cause of the habs uselessness since we won in 1993, I would say drafting has certainly been an issue, but player development has been the biggest issue. Our young players always seem to show us a season of brilliance, and then plateau until we trade them to another team.
Forwards we bring in too young, and defenseman we never bring in at all. We keep signing these aged veterans rather then slowly integrating our defensive prospects from hamilton. We had injuries on the blueline this year, and rather then let our young D prospects run with it, we give them two games and send them back down. Unreal. Carle had no reason to be sent back down. Id rather see him in the line up than bergeron.
Who's to say the same thing wouldnt happen to any D prospect that we bring up? The main reason Max Pac and Dag's got sent up was to help with scoring, then that ran outta gas pretty quickly. I think one piece of the puzzle that were missing is a dedicated defense coach to augment Martin.
Losers Even After Forty two Seasons
I agree. BG gets bashed for ruining Latender, Max Pac, Price by bringing them up too quickly and then he gets bashed for not bringing up Weber, Carle, and Belle for full-time duties.
I think Latender was brought up by the french media.
No one said for full-time duties. Just for injury relief! WHo said they had to play every game? Bring up Belle and Carle, and rotate them. It just seems like were so willing to put in a forward who has no experience or minimal experience, but were more reluctant to put in a defenseman. Only Matt D'agostini really paid his dues in hamilton before we called him up to the show. ITs also easy to criticize Gainey because all the young forwards seem to have a good stretch, and then plateau, followed by a leap backwards. Its hard to see if the young defensemen experience the same thing, because we never see them to begin with!
Matt D'agostini 159 ahl games
Max Pacioretty 37 AHL games
Sergei Kostitsyn 22 AHL games
Guillaume Latendresse 0 AHl games
Yannick Weber 81 ahl games
Mathieu Carle 134 AHL Games
Shawn Belle 209 AHL games
Worst part about the practice lineups is that aside from the 1st line any of the other 3 can easily be 4th lines. Pleks centering 2 newbies...that would be a 4th line demotion for Pleks on any other team I would think, but it is our 2nd line. Scary. It makes it blatantly obvious that the habs need help up front...and SK is not the answer. 20 games in and still unclear who, if anyone, aside from maybe 5 or 6 forwards, has what it takes to be NHL calibre. I think our defense is OK in comparison...just worn out. The only bright spot is our goaltending. Which leads me to believe that if we are ever to get any help up front in a trade Jaro will have to be the trade bait. Perhaps toss is a very useful D like Gorges...although I would not be happy losing him.
20 more games and we should be good! :)
Good post. I agree. We need a top 6 forward if SK74 is not in the plans. I do believe, as mentioned below, that AK46, Pleks, SK74 were the plan for the 2nd line. Nobody else on the team seems close to being ready.
I'd trade Halak and a prospect or pick to get a halfway decent top 6 forward, but I'm not sure who we could get.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Well to get an idea of what we could get for halak you have to consider teams that need goaltending. Detroit and Carolina immediately come to mind as teams that could use halak. Columbus could use halak with steve mason faltering. LA kings have come to realize that Jon Quick may not be the solution, and may find halak an interesting proposition. I could see us getting the most from Carolina because they have the most urgent need.
I doubt there is much of a chance we could pry away Staal from them? We may be able to get Tom the Bomb and Samsonov back however ;)
I don't know why, and I'm probably wrong, I feel that Andrei and Sergei centered by Pleks or Gomez would actually be pretty darn good. Then put Metro/Moen and Laraque(Or MaxPac) and let the 4th line be the Lala twins and pyatt or white or Chips...
Does anyone think that looks more like an NHL team than our current one?
that was probably exactly what BG and JM were planning on doing to start the season. But SK played prima donna, laps and lats have sucked a--, BGL's back got back to normal (ie, broken) and max pac never caught fire (or even a spark). A lot of the moves BG and JM have made seem like long-term planning to me, like this nov-dec is (as always) important, but jan-april is where their focus is. try everything, evaluate as many as possible since the team is messed up anyways, and have a keep or ditch list ready come trading deadline.
Agreed. SK should have made the team had he tried. AK should be playing a whole lot better. Same goes for Lats and Laps. If these 4 guys were giving their best every night, the team would not be so bad. All of them are carryovers from the country club era...maybe a bigger house cleaning was in order. The only nice surprise or over achiever this year is Metro...so we are +1 but -4...if those numbers were reversed, we would be alright.
Ooooo! Ooooo! If Max Pac wasn't in practice, does that mean that he's been sent to Hamilton where he belongs??? I HOPE SO!!
9-11 is a fitting record for this hockey team.
Carolina is 3-12-4 overall and 0-7-2 on the road.
If we dont win tomorrow night after giving up 55 shots and losing 2-0... thats going to say a lot about this team.
But Carolina's on a roll :-P
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Anyone who thought the Habs would be better than .500 without Markov was dillusional. The fact is we'll struggle to be .500 until he gets back. Look at how this team did without him last year. There's actually a slight improvement this time around...slight.
Look at the pens without Gonchar. It's sad but true. Take away most teams best defenseman and the team struggles. It's not complicated.
Add to that the fact that this team has no second line (besides Plekanec), and we're in trouble. This team will only go as far as the 2nd line takes us. If we don't find someone....anyone...to help Pleks, we'll be lucky to make the playoffs. If that means package Halak and the brothers, do it. I'm not sure how much they'd fetch us, but shop them around. If it means giving more time to some of our prospects, do it.
That all being said, they are not as bad as Saturday, but not good enough right now to compete with the big boys.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
We have a very good second line. However they are not playing well at all this season. A.Kost, Pleks, and D'Agostini. But Dags was struggling a bit, and now injured, and AK is just plain useless so far. What we were missing is the 3rd solid player on that line. Metro can step up right now. But O understand Gainey was trying to have our young talent fill this roster spot.
I agree that it might be time to look at acquiring a few bodies to help this out. However I am reluctant to trade the two brothers for something just as useless. This season being a transition year it's a good idea to figure out a way to snap Kost out of his slump. His shots have been weak and usless. All i see from him is perimeter shooting as a last resort, and the shots are easy at best...
There may be other teams, but only ONE Club De Hockey...
I don't think D'Agostini belongs in the NHL. I've seen very few positive signs from him. He would make more progress in Hamilton.
I agree about AK46. I'm hesitant to give up on him as well. Perhaps we should just let him work at it. I do think he can be a very good player in the league. What we need is a good player to go along with those 2.
Any suggestions? How about Forsberg? Ok, I'm kidding....I think.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
I think D'Ags belongs in the NHL ahead of Max Pac, Stewart, Chipchurra, Pyatt, and White. Ideally I'd have him on the 3rd or 4th line, but given our lack of depth he finds himself on the 2nd line when healthy. Keep in mind, he's a "perimeter" player who prefers to snipe than grind, so theoretically if Pleks is a playmaker, a third grinding winger would complete that line and AK46 is not that player.
I disagree. I like D'Ags, but I think he's a 2nd liner in waiting. If he could play in amilton for the year, he might learn enough to be useful up here next year. We're basically rushing him and he is only a 4th line NHLer at the moment.
As mentioned above, I think SK74 was the plan, but he messed it up. Now, I'm thinking a trade might be our only option to get a top 6 forward. Do we sacrifice a prospect and/or pick to get it....along with Halak?
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Grrr stupid trigger-happy index finger...
Everything starts with the D. The offense is struggling because we don't have D that can move the puck quick enough. How many times do you see our D passing back and forth to each other 3 or more times. Come on, move the puck forward already. Markov is really the only guy we have that can push the puck forward with some skill or skate it into the zone. Here's hoping Subban or Weber develops properly because we need help.
Signing Gomez to a 7.3 mil.per, GL at 1.5, Gill at any amount shows that Bob hasn't the slightest clue how to run this organization
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Relax, Duane. It's not your money. BTW, you don't have a clue either as to how to run a hockey team. Go star in another Dopian King movie, will ya?
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
you think you can do better? come on rock give your head a serious shake!
I actually like Gomez' play... but in my dillusional mind, I can't help but feel that, with all of the cap space, we could have saved it and offered Kovalchuck a ridiculous, can't say not, contract - like 8 mil per over 5 years (or 8.5)... that way, our superstart earner, would put up superstar points.
All in all though, I do like Gomez, I just wish we had cap space left to try for a bonafide superstar.
i know, i know... keep dreaming.
Would be great to have a player such as Kovalchuk, but these players don't often last until the free agency. They get long-term contracts before they expire, see Nash, Lecavalier, Malkin, Corsby, Ovechkin. (OK, there are exceptions like Sedins, Hossa - but almost the whole league bids for them and the odds are often 1/10)
Moreover, there is a KHL risk with Russian players.
And we needed a center.
Of course, I would have still preferred a player like Eric Staal (and save $4M in salary cap space), but who do we know was available?
I would give Bob a grade C, definitely not an E or F for his work.
Rock I usually agree with you but this time I cannot. Bob did not sign Gomez to a 7.3 m contract, Sather did we just traded for him. Bob had nothing to do with that contract.
Same thing 29. Same thing!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Not the same thing, withour Gomez there is no Camalleri or Gionta.
Gomez is a headscratcher just because of the length of term left on his contract and the cap hit. Even if hes a 65 pts player, he will be tradeable in two years because the last two years only pay him 5.5 and 4.5 million, and believe it or not, there are teams in the nhl that need to make the cap floor some years, and 2.5 million of extra cap hit without having to put out that 2.5 million in dollars comes in handy.
The worth of Scott Gomez goes way beyond dollars and cents, just watch his interviews, he's always loose.
I think Gomez is worth more than just the points he puts up. Don't get me wrong...not $7.5M worth, but he does a lot on the ice and he is a good leader as well. He's been excellent on the PK, and he's handled the puck well. He may still be traded in 2 years, but I can see the Habs holding onto him if things get better.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Way to go Martini, you idiot! Have you goalies get injured in practice you fool..... Niether CP or JH should be a part of these hard practices. They are no way responsible for the mess on the ice!
I'd sooner have Carbo back behind the bench than this fool Martini!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
If it's so easy to build and coach a team, why are there not more posters like you with jobs in the NHL?
It's not as easy to do as some of you think.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Oh come on, Rock!
They're not made of sugar... a bit of banging around is good for them!! You, a pro wrestler, of all people, should know the focusing power of a bit of pain!!
Bring it on!!!
Just bench Latendresse now...he was supposed to be in the press box the other night 'till Gionta coudn't answer, and they double-shift the stiff and made him look twice as bad...gimme a break Jacques