Log in & Sign up
You are not logged in.
Boone's Online Eeee-mail
Share the agony and ecstasy of Habs fandom and read live blogs from every game with Gazette columnist Mike Boone.
The Other Wing
The Other Wing features regular Habs commentary by some bloggers we like.
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
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.
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Statement
Can someone shed some light on the status of Chipchura, is he injured? Dont know what purpose Larque is suppose to serve, havent done anything so far. Is Chipchura being another scapegoat like Ryder was?
I ,for one, believe we will win tonight. O'Byrne will look good for his first game back and I hope Andrei has a good long look at Ovechkin and learns something.
Well, we're gonna lose big time...
Despite having a grand return of O'Byrne and Laraque, it doesn't really matter... I mean, against the Caps?!
Anyways, I'm not watching the game, not because I don't want to, but I got plans for this evening
...so enjoy!
Metropolit's Fu Manchu moustache are in, like Roy's mullet for the 90s
Well, Markov was supposed to be somewhere in January...I think the end. Gionta is 5 weeks from when he hurt himself. :/
Anyone know if J.T. Wyman has been on the wing or on defense more?
O'byrne can and will be a great defenseman for the Habs...mark my words....I look forward to his return. The rest of the team has to pick it up bigtime tonight or we'll be toast after the first period..Price and the return of O'byrne can't do it alone....sadly ,I just don't think we'er good enough, still no big centre, thats our downfall in my opinion,don't care what language he speaks !! GO HABS GO !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl4gzfm1rWU
What's your call? I say Dorsett is pulling a FULL-ON Sean Avery.
Anyone have a link for tonights game?
Thanks in advance
www.atdhe.net
Worth saving to your Bookmarks/Favourites - ;)
The majority of the teams considered elite in the NHL have all gotten there by being bottom dwellers first. The best examples are Pittsburgh, Washington and Chicago. The main exceptions to this rule would be Detroit and San Jose but even then San Jose is garbage in the playoffs. Detroit in my opinion got pretty lucky in drafting Zetterberg and Datsyuk so late, i'll give credit to their scouts but I highly doubt they had any idea they'd turn into the dominant players they are now otherwise they would have picked them higher. San Jose has plenty of star power because Doug Wilson is probably the best negotiator in the league, the guy acquired Thornton, Boyle and Heatley in exchange for a bag of pucks (Michalek and Carle being the best pucks in that bag).
The salary cap has basically exacerbated the situation by not allowing teams who don't have high draft picks to bring in as many high priced free agents as they want (which the Habs never really did anyway).
The fact that the speed of the game now seems to favour younger players allows teams who get quality top 5 picks for a couple of years to get good really fast.
Before you cite examples of the Islanders and Lightning as bottom dwellers who didn't get better, Stamkos (2008) and Hedman (2009) were the lightning's only top 5 picks since they picked Alexander Svitov (who?) 3rd overall in 2001. So in two years of finishing at the bottom the lightning most likely picked up a franchise center and defenceman.
Tavares was the Islanders first top 5 pick since DiPietro in 2000 mainly due to inept management. Tavares right now is leading all rookies and Okposo is starting to develop into a quality winger.
Right now Montreal has basically one potential franchise player in Carey Price. Price bashers will disagree but I'm just going to side with the talent scouts on this one.
What I'm saying in all this is that to build a contending team in a salary cap era without top 5 draft picks is definitely an uphill battle that requires a lot of luck. I'm happy Gainey was able to bring in Cammalleri and Gionta. Gomez is a quality player that is way overpaid but he's better than he's shown so far this season, I think/pray he'll heat up soon. The team definitely needed a change in the locker room. Hopefully AK46 can realize his potential which would definitely help our offense.
I would rather the Habs finish dead last than finish 8th in the east and get swept in the playoffs because that's how a team either stays the same or gets worse. Tyler Seguin or Taylor Hall would look great in bleu-blanc-rouge. That or trade the whole team besides Price and Markov for Kovalchuk, sign him for 15 years and build the team around them. End rant.
100% I made a post like this a couple weeks backs... Only to get blasted by the (dreamer fans)
I agree wholeheartedly however New Jersey is the anomoly. Then again they picked Parise and not Kostitsyn. Has anyone checked out how Getzlaf, Penner, Richards and Carter are fairing? 2003 alone is reason enough to sack Timmins and Gainey. Worse still, is that last trade deadline not one of our impending UFA's was traded for picks or prospects. The fact is that Gainey is trying to do what other people have already been successful with, however he's too late. It's like a chess game where BG is always a move behind and always playing from a weaker position. Best we can hope for is a stalemate. Thankfully there's no OT in chess.
HH - in COMPLETE fairness I am sick & tired of people complaining about the FIRST YEAR Gainey & Timmins drafted.
Re the Draft - TIMMINS is the BOMB!
Price is again reminding us how talented he is, and reminding us at the same time he has a VERY long career ahead of him, and about 7 years away from being at his "peak". Price Basher's should seriously slow down at least and think about that for a bit longer.
McDonagh - alas the more time goes by, the more it is clear the deal was FOR McDonagh. I've followed McDonagh since the Habs drafted him, and I felt he was very much a Scott Niedermayer'ish player. Can you imagine McDonagh & Subban on the team next year ? I was very much looking forward to that. I believe this season in 10 games he already has 7 points and is a +10 in what is regarded as a defensive Collegiate league. Timmins +1 Gainey -1 (yeah I am disrespecting Gainey for a rare time on this one). Fact remains Timmins drafted and was VERY high on McD (I remember the Habs where actually trying to move up in the draft to get him, the media speculated it was to get Angela Esposito).
Pyatt is upside in the deal, but IMO McD should not have been the one to go. Hamrlik should have been, and then the salary cap issue would not be as hard to swallow with respect to Gomez while allowing some cap room for another Lower priced D (better then Gill, another -1 "so far" on Gainey)
Sorta rambled.... but this has been on my mind for a while lol
Good post.
I believe that Kovalchuk will not sign anywhere but Atlanta and if he does, it will be with the K.
Price is a great goaltender. He's been dealing with issues that most goaltenders don't have to deal with until they hit the age of 28-29 when they have more life experience. Price is maturing like anyone in the world has the potential to. He's shown what he can do and on nights where he isn't good...those are usually due to EXTREME suck in front of him. Price, in my opinion, is a much better goaltender than M-A Fleury was for the longest time. Fleury has many holes in his game to this day. Price, however, seems to be good at recognizing those faults and correcting them.
I also agree that finishing 8th or even worse 9th in the league is completely unnacceptable because you get nothing out of it... unless you can draft a gem in 15th-19th place... (hopefully, Louis Leblanc will be that gem).
Either you do great, or horrible. If you want a good team, you can't be average or you will never get anywhere.
Price is damn good but it's the new coaching staff that is correcting his game. The game the Melanson almost destroyed.
You can't teach confidence, though. I agree that Melanson was everything but helpful to Price but the kid was also down in the dumps for the longest time.
MAB playing a forward position could be practical but sometimes it's up to the players. Streit admitted that moving to forward didn't really please him. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/story/?id=296204&hubname=nhl-islanders (link for those who are ready to pounce).
Sometimes, it really isn't up to the coach.
cv - with all due respect the way MAB plays D - if he is not willing to explore a forward position MAB may very well be a fool - He has MANY Gionta traits when you think about it. MAB as a 2nd or 3rd line winger IMO would surely help this team with O'B returning.
& in case you missed the memo, IT IS indeed up to the coach... Why don't you ask Sergei Kostitsyn about that ?
;)
Where was MAB in October ??? Sitting at home waiting ... MAB is fighting to prolong his career .. Streit was at the start of his career ... MAB will play wherever they ask him to ... and he wont utter a single word.
Nice to see you are MAB's best friend. You clearly know everything that is going through his head.
i dont need to be his best friend .. put yourself in his shoes .. what would YOU have done if you were home, finally got a deal in November ... after you have been traded so many times ... you just want to play ... its just common sense.
It's not common sense, it's an opinion. Yours, in fact, which you are completely entitled to. Just don't act like it's a fact.
I didnt mean to ruffle your feathers .. please add I BELIEVE to every statement I made ... I guess YOU BELIEVE that Mr Gainey would lose his credibility if he traded Gomez .. it shouldnt be taken as fact.
Was it safe to assume that what I post is always an opinion unless I bring up facts? I do believe that and I'm pitting mine against yours. I BELIEVE that your opinion on the matter is ridiculous. Is that better?
huh ? you clearly just want to argue .. this must be my wife.
I hope she doesn't put up with your crap either.
Could you send me your picture? I've been looking for someone to replace Pierre Houde because I don't think he belongs there. Thanks.
[Edit] I think I need my nap and warm milk.
Mark Streit's salary = $4.1 Million
Marc-Andre Bergeron's salary = $750,000
Big MF difference if you ask me.
PeterStone's has you on this one crabby!!!
If you say so.
MAB is not a great defenceman, but he could sure bring it from the blueline.
I'm by no means calling him a great d-man, lol. The thing is, though, you don't want disgruntled players like last year...
MAB vs BGL at the fourth line?? Which way to go?
Honestly, MAB has scored points at pp, and I´m pretty sure he keeps on doing that...
Think about the first lines. We need scoring...not secondary... We're backed up all the way to Hamilton with fourth liners. MAB vs. Laraque won't make much of a difference on the scoreboard at the end of the day. :(
What to do with that Gomez Contract ...
my guess .. since Calgary is a bottom tier Stanly Cup Contender ... and, the ultimate underachiever ... Scott Gomez to Calgary for O. Jokkinen ... has only 1 year left on that deal ... plus he has been rumored to come here in perpetuity ... this will happen at/near the trade deadline ... tell me why it doesnt make sense.
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST
As much as I´d like to see a finn at the Habs´s roster again, I wouldn´t like to see Jokinen. In my opinion he´s not much of a playmaker... My favourite would be Tuomo Ruutu from Carolina, but he is happy there...
Why would any sane GM take on a 7.3 million cap hit for a 16 goal scorer? Besides Bobo.
I think that maybe you are a bit too focused on this Gomez Salary. This is what stalkers start out doing. You need to get over it and have something else to say cause your starting to sound crazy, and are definetly BORING...
There may be other teams, but only ONE Club De Hockey...
I am responding to another posters proposal. Apparently it is a concept foreign to your tiny brain. You should also take a course in remedial english grammar, the text of your comments would not pass the grade in any ESL class.
Boring? Well that is your opinion, which I would hazard a guess carries zero influence on HIO. I attempted to find anything intelligent, significant, or creative in your limited postings, but alas found nothing.
Please crawl back under your rock.
Everyone is completely focused on his salary...I guess with reason but it's useless to try and reason with anyone who can't see past a stat sheet.
well . i personally only care about his salary because this is a league with a salary cap of which he takes , what, something like 15% ... i also care about the fact that I dont think we can win a cup with him and Pleks as our # 1 and # 2 center ... Gomez the player is fine, and if he were our # 2 ... i would be thrilled ...
Perhaps you are right .. i am focused on the negatives .. maybe the stat that says 24th overall is the one bugging me the most ... especially the following the one that says lost 4 straight to the bruins in the playoffs last year .. followed by the one that says no Cup in 16 years
listen .. as much as I HATE Mr Gainey as a GM .. i will never ever insult the man ... he gave his heart and soul for this team .. and he has gone thru too much personally to be called anything derogatory from us ... Jokkinen makes 5.5M and is just as crap. The advantage to us is he has only 1 yr lefton that deal .. PLUS ... Sutter spent a ton of $$ to make this team compete for a CUP .. regher, phaneuf, Boumeester .. anything close to a first round loss is AN UTTER FAILURE for the Flames ... for us , and our fans ,, it appears that's succes.
Then, Bob takes TONS of flack for having a wavering character because he sends his "go-to" trade guy the same year he gets him. You lose credibility as a GM around the league for pulling moves like that.
uh huh ... as opposed to the credibility he has for trading for a 7.5M$ contract for a guy with 2 goals .. its called .. you made a mistake .. the player doesnt fit in .. time to move on .. does the name Sergei Samsonov mean anything to you ... he had a long career with Montreal didnt he ...
No, you don't understand what I am trying to tell you. When you make a deal for someone, huge salary cap or not, it is frowned upon to trade that same guy away the SAME year you got him. No GM will fault Gainey for going after Gomez, no matter how bad he might do this year because the guy has a decent track record AND everyone knows it landed him Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta aswell.
If you trade away Gomez the same year you got him, you look like a real clown. And yes, those types of moves STRONGLY influence free agent signings for years to come. Nobody wants to sign for a team they think has the potential of trading them away the same year.
Those who worry about being frowned upon are destined to finish 10th, out of the playoffs and with crappy draft picks.
its been done tons of times .. whether they trade for a guy or get his as a F/A .. whats the difference ? remember Donald Audette .. Mr. Gainey signed him in Dallas for a bunch of $$ (F/A) .. and when it didnt work out .. he moved him ASAP .. remember to who ? ( of course that was pre-cap )
Mat Carle didnt last in TB .. he is doing great in Philly ... sometimes things just dont fit.
I'm just saying that teams normally take credibility blows when pulling off moves that way. Sure, there are always exceptions but doing that to Gomez would have bad reprecussions. Cammy and Gio wouldn't be to pleased for starters. Good luck signing a big name the year after aswell.
is that your opinion ? Well .. here are some facts ... TB did the exact same thing to Mat Carle last season .. traded him for DBoyle ( who they told they would NEVER Trade ) .. then moved him to Philly for a couple of players ... Downie being one of them ... they did in fact sign Tanguay and Ohlund this off season.
You live in a fantasy world where trades are made as easy as slight of hand. There are always exceptions. Why haven't the Habs had a superstar since the days of Patrick Roy and Guy Lafleur?
Mr Vader .. thank you for the lively discussion .. all in good fun .. we are all on the same side after all. I will leave you with this .... you bring up an excellent point .. you know why we havent had a superstar since then .. because we havent drafted one ... because we keep finishing 8th to 10th ... until we get that mentality out of our heads .. we are destined to keep repeating the same mistake.
That and because Rejean Houle traded all of our 1st rounders for a bag of potato chips. He couldn't trade for one either because no one wanted to deal with the guy anymore, presumably because he was a joke.
We are in third to last place in the conference. Do I have any reason for being optimistic? My 30 day gel period is coming to any end.
mjames
Pleky have has quite goodlooking wife.. That´s a reason, for pleky... :)
reasons to be optimistic?
reasons to not be pessimistic?
see my post in the other wing.
I read your piece. With all due respect I really think your are grasping at straws. You are grossly exaggerating the positive. I really hope that Gainey bites the bullet and tries to correct his gross mistakes.
mjames
you have many many reasons to be optimistic ... next season, you are going to see a different team run by different management ...
Before you crap on the boys you should look at the Leafs. They had a 3-0 lead then a 4-2 , then score with 29 seconds left in the game to take the lead. The Canes came back and tied it with 2 seconds left and then the Leafs lost in the shoot out. Gone is the their number one draft choice and their second round choice plus the first the next year. Sorry our team will improve but those Leafs they are such a laugh. As bad as our sesson might get we always have the Leafs to cheer us up. Burke this couldn't happen to a better guy you big mouth, egomaniac SOB.
When we as Habs fan have to resort to comparisons to the Leafs to make ourselves feel superior, you know we have hit rock bottom. We are better than the Leafs? Who cares?
What does the Leafs poor play have anything to do with our team's play? I guess as long as the Leafs lose you do not care how the Habs perform. In other words as long as the Leafs suck worse than the Habs you are happy. That is weird.
mjames
MJames ... isnt that odd ?? We have an interesting fan base in this town ... who cares what the leafs do ? I know I dont ... actually .. at this point thats a bit of a lie ... i want them to win ... win alot .. the only thing worse than the leafs with that first pick is the Bruins.
On another note .. another thing I dont understand is this obsession with squeaking into the playoffs ... so we can have 2 home games ... its as if the fans on HIO get to share in the gate ... what happened to competing for the Cup ?
That must be why Mr Gainey is still employed .. he has very low objectives to attain.
Gainey is still employed because the whole team and ownership are new. At least one thing remained the same. Not for long methinks. I have a feeling the Molsons will embrace the tanking you very much option very soon.
Didnt the Laffs give a first round pick for Kessel? So if the laffs get last then the bruins get the first round... IM pretty sure thats what TSN was just complaining about but i could be wrong
thats what I said .. Leafs lose, Bruins get the FIRST PICK OVERALL ... ugh .. Go Leafs Go.
Patrick Chan had some kind of blood procedure done to his calve muscle . Where he thought he would be of two to three weeks he was able to get back in just four days. Maybe Ganiey should call his camp and find out about this. This might help Markov and Gointa get back sooner. Anyone know the training staff and can asked about this .
Chan may have has an "autologous blood transfusion." If so, this procedure accelerates the healing of inflamed areas and is sometimes used to treat tendonitis. Very hit or miss and I have not heard it used for tendon cuts or broken bones.
We are off to a quick start also. Ian and I are into a good single malt in my room at the Novatel; don't tell Mike!, and will be at Hurley's shortly. (or almost shortly--Ian likes my single malt----forewarned is forearmed!
Now I know why he wants me and Steve to sell tickets!
Re. In Defence of MAB (light-n-tasty below):
I agree... MAB does make mistakes, but he's on pace per game with Gomez. So if you hate MAB, hate Gomer too. But all things considered, MAB is worth the money.
For those who disagree... am on my way to Hurley's soon. See you there!!!!
--------------------------------------------------- SEE YOU AT THE HIO SUMMIT!
Did you open up the in-room booze bar already? :) Enjoy!
We brought our own!!
Smart move...It is true that Habs fans are the most intelligent after all :)
Ian says that is to be seen! now we are discussing leaving very shortly so we can get a seat in the place!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LARAQUE SUCKS!!!!!WORST HAB EVER.....................
I wouldn't go that far... but you're close.
Hey, just so you know, you have a few keys that stick on your keyboard. :)
Hmmm... Where the heck is letter "Q" in keyboard?
See you Summit folks tonight! Can't wait!
See you all tomorrow night at Hurley's! I'll probably be watching the Detroit game there if anyone without tickets wants to join me for a "live chat".
Heading out to Hurleys soon to meet the Summiters, hopefully the game goes well tonight, have a good night all those on Habs I/O.
__________________________________________
http://berkshireonthehabs.blogspot.com/
It will be this years version of Markov bailing out Komisarek when he coughs it up
I would love to see us score first and maybe a second goal ..fantasy right.
Given how the CAPS play at home and OV 's first game back at home from his injury (i think) he will want to roar out of the gate get some quick goals and bury us. Hope Carey Price stands on his head and steals one but the Caps are still a powerful bunch despite injuries. This could make for scarey game against our team, heres hoping that they don't blow us out of the rink.
ps..since this game is on TSN get ready once again for mouth piece Mcguire....pfft.
I want to see Laraque thundering up the wing like an 18 wheeler full of tofu, Bergeron scoring with a laser shot, O'Byrne playing intelligent tough hockey and Latendresse scoring two rap-ins (as opposed to wrap arounds). I want to see Pacioretty's shot, Gomez's opportunism and Kostityn's wrister. Pleks should score assisted by Moen and Lap should yap. Yup, that's what I want to see.
I also want Ovechkin to play as only Ovechkin can, wheeling in there like Habs fans going for an injured 18 year-old D-man, and I want to see Price stop his every shot with spectacular glove hand saves. If it all works out like I've planned, it'll be 7-0 for the Habs.
Now I'm off to buy a lotto ticket.
Laraque will come out like he always does, like a pro boxer which is what he should've been, Read the following description and compare it to every time you've seen George on the ice:
He comes out for a while, shuffles around, throws a few lefts and no one's sure they saw him in the building for the rest of the night.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
The eighth-place team in the Eastern Conference by winning percentage at this time has gotten over 60% of the points available to them so far. If this stays true through the end of the season, it means that the final playoff qualifier in the East will need 98 points! I don't think that our team is good enough to get 98 points this year. Therefore, maybe we should get rid of the veterans we don't intend to keep in two years, get draft picks, play the youngsters, finish with a draft lottery pick and hope to God we pick first or second. Thoughts?
How do you get rid of Gomez? We would have to package him with some other players such as a Markov , Price , Halak, or the K brothers. In for us to rid ourselves of Gomez it has to be a lopsided trade in favor of the other team. I know this unpopular but we are going to have feel some pain in order to extricate ourselves from the Gomez fiasco.
mjames
not going to happen any time soon. he is here to stay until we find that elusive super star to take the pressure off him..he needs to play with a player that can make him better at least thats my take on him. he still does great things away from the puck. yes, he is over paid but so are alot of players what can you do.
exceptr other overpaid players SCORE, unlike Gomez. he has 2 goals in 21 games? shameful.
So now we need a superstar in order to get the most out of Gomez. Let me understand this we are paying $7mm for a role player. I thought Gionta was supposed to be the superstar complement. i guess not. Where do you think we are going to get the money to pay a superstar? Since we are talking money where are we going to the money to sign Pleks. Halak and Price. I really do not think you are being realistic in your assessment of this team. This team is currently in third to last place and there is little hope of making the playoffs. This is the third straight year that Gomez has played poorly. What makes you think he will change?
I reiterate we are going to have to feel pain in order to correct this mess.
mjames
We have had this discussion before. I just cannot see this happening. The molsons did not pay over 600m to tank..Playoff revenue is everything.
Tanks? But no tanks.
Amen
Go Habs Go