Audio: Breezer hopes he's in Habs plans

Totally agree.

Thanks for the great link nightmare! I would love it if Puckcast was done in this format.

I would not hesitate taking Sundin just because he is a leaf. Did we worry about taking the Big M back in the 70's. Did the leafs worry about taking Jacques Plante back in the 70's. I would take that centerman (Sundin)in a heart beat. He has been the most consistent forward of the last 10 years and he's still a very good player. Not just a good one!!

REB - Nice post and the forwards don't thrill me either. As for the "D" men our 7th "D" is Mathieu Dandenault as the roster goes now so with injuries we'll be into players with no NHL experience and you know that Carbo wouldn't love that. IMO an experienced big "D" man at about 1/1.5 million who can compete with O'Bey,Cube and Gorges for that 4th spot and pair with Hamy on the 2nd unit of our PK is necessary. Neither of our UFA "D" can supply that.

REB, nice post; -Hossa. I like what I've seen of him so far in these playoffs. He sure knows where the net is. But how much does he want is the question. -Sundin. I Agree 100%. In any case, I doubt he would sign with the Habs. -Langkow; don't know the answer to the question "does Mikey like him" so he could be available. D'Agostini's last chance. -Malone; a hometown boy, loves his team. Pens will sign him big time. 100% with you on the D. No D-men required. We have drafted them for the past few years. The answer has to be down on the farm.

Oranje!!

How about calling half the NHL really bad names and hope for bad things to happen to them? You are no stranger to that, Timo.

Here's a thought for you, Timo: if readers here want to call each other idiots and pretend they're in grade school, flinging mud in the recess yard, that's fine with me. We've provided what I think is an interesting site at Inside/Out, and a few of us work long and hard to offer a good mix of news and comment. We also try to serve as a portal to many other things about the Canadiens on the internet, directing traffic to sites that some might consider The Gazette's competition. That's our choice. The site has grown tremendously, and there's a bit of an honour system at work here – we let people largely police themselves and hope that they act with a bit of decency, realizing at the same time that Inside/Out often becomes a digital boxing ring and that people whale on each other without having to account for what they say. Ultimately, we have the final say on what we keep on the site and what we delete. The same applies with the accounts we keep active, and those we delete. We'll never catch everything, and if some people get their kicks out of trying to elude us, well, here's wishing they had other things to do with their lives. When someone in a comment wishes someone to be injured or killed in a car accident, we'll delete that. Dave Stubbs
Habs Inside/Out
Sports Feature Writer, Montreal Gazette

 

i meant $2M for Streit, not Brisebois

A kicker is just another name for goaltender Doug. Time to update the old hockey lexicon there boyo! It's up there with calling a game a tilt. It actually fairly common lingo with us who still play the game. (We never called it a stretch pass when I was growing up. We just said you were trying to catch the hanger, but I've come to embrace it.) As far as Price is concerned, I have several issues. If you're going to be the annointed one, you have to be convincing in that role, regardless of age. Right now, he is in what I call the Wickenheiser Zone, i.e. a high draft pick who appears to have all the tools for success, but can still break either way. For Lafleur, he got out of the Wickenheiser Zone and the rest is history. For the late Doug Wickenheiser, God rest his soul, he had all the numbers in his favor in the 1980 draft coming out of the WHL. The Habs passed on both Denis Savard and Paul Coffey when they aquired him. But, alas, it never worked out for him in Montreal. Price could be really good. I saw him play in the Calder Cup for Hamilton and in the World Junior Tournament. On both occassions, he certainly deserved to get the MVP awards. Yet, he has some really serious flaws in his game that anyone who has ever played rather than merely watched the game can see need to be addressed soon. First, because he mindlessly employs the damned butterfly style, he gives up his natural advantage which is his size. He goes down early and is often way too deep in the net. Granted, they were often deflections, but think about how many times he got beat high to the corners. With the composite sticks that players use today, mediocre guys can blast the puck. You have to get out to the top of the blue paint and make yourself as big as possible. Try to control your rebounds, but realize that it is the defenseman's responsibility to handle the second and third shots. Second, his rebound control was often miserable and I'm being charitable on this one. Against not only the Flyers, but also the Bruins, he served up some t-bones you don't even get in an average pickup game. Third, his communication with his defensemen needs some serious work. How many times did he go behind the net in both series and we all cringed watching him just baffle the living *** out of his partners. (If Claude Julien had the presence of mind to start Phil Kessle at the beginning of the series against the Bruins, it's even money the Habs would have gone out in the first round.) I guess everyone has forgotten Price's "Bill Buckner" gaff on Glen Metropolit. That turned the whole goddamn series around in a heartbeat. One final point on my mood swings: if you had grown up playing the game from the age of four forward and you waded through most of the crap on HIO, you'd lose your *** on more than a few occassions. But, I should be used to it. When I was at Columbia, I played with alot of classmates that were from Montreal. They just came from the part of town I guess that didn't have any rinks. Final point on the 2008-09 roster: You ice pretty much the same team as last season and the best you can hope for is a similar result: a Conference Championship. Yes, the young guys will be a year older, but the Habs were truely blessed on the medical front, something that is unlikely to be replayed next year. Unless Gainey makes some meaningful moves before the next season, the Habs will end up being entertaining -- not necessarily a bad thing -- but someone else will take the Cup for a walk.

Primadona & a (nice) horse's a#s, hell at this age I'll take it!

No problem. I was just being a ***. Time to put the '07-'08 campaign in the books and move on. I probably agree with you more on Price than it appears. To be fair, none of us, even the coaching staff it would appear, had any clue as to how fried Price must have been. The job of a professional goaltender is way different than others. It's not as if he could tell the management of the Habs that he would like to detox for a few weeks before staring his new job. The real upside to last year, compared to the late Doug Wickenheiser situation, is that Price got a real good taste of what it means to play in the NHL and in Montreal. Lats we'll just have to disagee on, although I hope you're right and I'm wrong. If he can work on his skating with Gingras and is willing to go to the front of the next, there may be a future with the squad. The problem with power skating drills is that they will certainly help him be stronger on the puck, but their ability to help his speed is limited.

Okay, I'll agree with you about Timo, he seriously needs to be measured for a straight jacket. None of us can pass judgement on Price, at the very least he needs to put in a full season as number 1. Breezer got the worst of it last season, especially from some of the "respected" posters, cheap shots at every opportunity. The GM, coaching staff will do their best by our team, Gainey, Muller & Carbo have always and will be totally committed to winning. I liked Breezer's comments in the audio clip, he states that they all had fun playing last season but need to learn how to win. That will be this season's task, no big deal if we don't land the big center, getting the kiddies to take it more seriously and developing some killer instinct along the way is key.

Enjoy your game.