Guy Carbonneau

Want to impress the girls?

Being listed in the Canadiens' media guide adds two inches ... to your height.

The team has Josh Gorges at 6'1". That's an exaggeration, but you can't overstate the size of his heart.

Gorges, who turns 24 today, won a starting job last season by working his butt off from training camp on. The native of Kelowna has a nice skill set for the new NHL: good skater, makes a smart first pass, does not panic, despite taking a pretty good pounding, decent point shot.

Gorges played junior in the Dub and is the former captain of a Memorial Cup team. He does not shy away from heavy traffic and is right there to back up teammates if things get hairy.

No, Gorges is not your d-man to contain Alexander Ovechkin. But he teamed with Francis Bouillon to give Guy Carbonneau 15 to 18 minutes of solid hockey per game.

The media ignored Gorges until December last season before he became a go-to guy for honest and intelligent game analysis.

Canadiens got Gorges and the draft pick they used to select Max
Pacioretty in the trade that sent Craig Rivet to San Jose. It was one of
Bob Gainey's better deals, and Gorges was rewarded with a three-year
contract this summer.

Toward the end of their 50-minute season review/look ahead, Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau were asked whether two goaltenders could be kept happy next season.

"Happiness," Gainey replied, his habitual sly smile playing at the corner of his lips, "is an unattainable state."

Well, how about contentment?

Gainey was too diplomatic to reveal the degrees to which he was satisfied or dissatisfied with his hockey club. But the Canadiens GM bristled when it was suggested that some deemed the team too soft for the playoffs.

"A lot of people think alot of things," Gainey said, his tone leaving little doubt what he thought of the general expertise level of vox populi. The Canadiens, he added, are built on "speed, quickness, intelligence and opportunism."

"We want to play a fast game," Gainey said. " We're quick, we're exciting. We're going to play to score, and we're going to play to beat you, within the rules."

It's an Hermès.

Guy Carbonneau's wife bought it for him in Dallas.

Its won-lost record is 2-0.

Carbo says he'll wear it a couple more times then sell it on eBay or put it up for auction at a charity golf tournament.

Then he plans to buy one or two more.

In the hockey portion of his press conference, Carbonneau said he could gauge Roman Hamrlik's effectiveness by the degree to which you don't notice him:

No mistakes; simple, effective passes, rather than trying to squeeze the puck through three opponents.