Scratch Hossa from Habs plans

I am eager to see who will be Carbonneau's "Whipping Boy" this comming season now that Mr. Ryder is gone on to get the respect he deserves.

I say Higgins. He was not too impressive last year. Was practally invisable in the playoffs.....

It was funny how everyone was on the Ryder bandwagon the first three years he was a Hab.

Higgins will suffer the same fate.......

$7.4 million on a one year deal. Oh yeah, Hossa is more concerned about winning than money. Closer to the truth is: Hossa saw that teams weren't knocking his door down with mega-buck long term deals or one like Vancouver is rumoured to have offered Sunin. So, a year from now the free agents list may not be as bountiful as it was this year. He may be the only top dog available. That would be the time to cash in and Hossa knows this. Playing for Detroit this year can only enhance his value. $7.4 mil this year is nothing to sneeze at, but next year....Ka Ching!

Watching the Wings playing last season left no doubts in my mind that here we had, 3 years after the new officiating regulations were put into place.... the first concrete and most complete exemple of how teams should want to play the game if they want to become and remain top teams and cup contenders in a newNHL.

I see the high-tempo two-way offensive game displayed by the Wings as being a formula without equal in the new on-ice environment of the NHL.

Its all about being offensive literally and collectivelly ... with and without the puck.

Teams having the most speed and puck handling habilities down their lines have the most chances to succeed when adopting the pro-active anti-passive system of play that is required to compete at the highest of level possible in this league.

Most traditional hockey fans would now probably have expected a team like the Wings to bring in some basic toughness and grittyness to round up their profile for the next season but Ken Holland is no traditional hockey fans and his team will keep moving ahead because of it.... and now with a dash of Marian Hossa to make shure of that.

For those who want to criticize Bob Gainey for not being as good a GM as Holland or Pollock, you are comparing apples with oranges.

Holland and Pollock, great GMs, inherited winning teams with solid organizations. Gainey, however, took over a totally dysfunctional team left over from the latter part of Molson's ownership days. The Habs did not even have a scout for the province of Quebec. In a short period of time, he's built one of the best organizations anywhere in the NHL. There is not one GM who could have done a better job, especially in this lunatic asylum of a Province.

Here's my theory:

As far as overspending goes, a good GM needs to balance the payroll to provide a good balance of salaries not just in a single year but over multiple years. As players improve and their salaries increase, it only makes sense to plan to let players go as their projected value exceeds a GM's ability to pay it under the cap (eg: Streit). Imagine all of our players have better years this year, and the next, etc. Even without adding new players or retirement, as they contracts expire we would eventually blow out the cap.

A good GM needs to identify their core, lock them in for their best value years and then let them go if they don't become a core player (eg: Ryder). The reality is that a GM also needs to overpay for the top talent required to compete for the cup. They also need to provide a steady influx of young undervalued recruits to be able to overpay for the top end talent.

We have seem to have all of these ingredients except the top end talent and we also have room under the cap. Once we're done signing our remaining RFAs, we should have 7-9 million left; we're currently at 10.9 million available. This suggest we can sign a player you or I might value at 5-8 million, ie: top end talent @ 7-9 million)

I say spend it if the owner will allow it and your core is locked in. There is no bonus for building a cup winning team under the cap. There is no award for points per million spent. We have a great team locked in for this year and finishing the year with 10 million of cap space benefits no one but the owner.

Now, even if we miss the boat now, we have a second kick at the can in Feb at the trading deadline so I won't be too upset if we come up empty but finishing the year with cap space in a year you are poised to make a run while missing a key ingredient, that would be powerfully uncool.

I know this all WAAAYY off topic, but I work here in S. California as a supervisor and as such, wear a suit and tie to work everyday. I have searched in vain for a "Montreal Canadiens necktie" Does ANYONE know where I can purchase one???? (Yes I look on eBay all the time). Any help would be much appreciated!!!!

I am re-posting my post from below, as I hadn't meant it to be a reply to any particular post.

To all the Gainey bashers who've been posting.
Bob, IMO, is doing a great job. Regarding the comment below that Detroit has never gone thru a rebuilding process, I guess the poster is young....Detroit went decades without winning the Cup. Where did they learn their winning tradition??? Scotty Bowman, who learned it in Montreal.
Sadly, there were many reasons why the Habs were in the state they were before Gainey came along, ownership issues, poor management and drafting, and the Canadian Dollar. All of those issues have been dealt with, and BG has now rebuilt the Habs to be a team to be reckoned with. Where did Bob learn?? From playing for and watching Scotty Bowman. The past decade is what it is, but what Bob is doing now will reap years of winning seasons and restore the Habs to what they've been throughout most of their history. Once we have won a Cup or two, which will happen very soon, we will be regarded at the same level as Detroit, and vets will take a pay cut to sign for the chance to win a Cup, just as Hossa did today. As it is, were are now on the short list of many elite players. Why, because they see the potential this team has.
To use a quote from the movie "Field of Dreams"..."build it and they will come"....well Bob is well on his way to having this team built.
Just sit back and enjoy and watch them come.
Best wishes to all Habs fans, whether you agree or disagree.

Guys, its not the GM its the player and their agent...commmmmmon its very simply they simply would like to play somewhere else because they are all seissup - they're afraid of the media, taxes, schools, language, i don't know if i would be a hockey player that can be a hero in montreal, in its 100 anniversary year, after the year the habs had....wow....i will definitely take it

Team 990 had James Murphy from Hockey Talk on and he said that Gainey now has many trade talks going on and a few have ceased but others are ongoing.

Ive been/am critical of Gainey, but this time I approve of him. Some of these contracts being given out are just completely ridiculous (Redden, Streit, Theodore, Finger, etc), and a lot of them are by first timers who don't know that much about hockey. I mean Id like an impact player but not at any cost.

It's a smart move by Detroit to sign Hossa for only one year, plus Hossa is showing that he wants to win the cup badly. Imagine if Detroit and Pittsburgh are finalists again next year, and Pittsburgh wins the cup. Then it would be poor (in the Stanley Cup cents) Hossa.

Another cup for Detroit.

I would just like to make clear that my critical comments about Bob are related to his position as GM, not the person. We all are aware of the tragic events which have impacted his life, and how he has absorbed them with quiet dignity. I cannot imagine how I would react to such horrible occurrences. As a player, and as a man I have the utmost respect for him. Bob Gainey exemplifies the word CLASS.
BUT, I withhold the right to be critical of his record as GM. Please do not confuse the man, with the job. Thanks.