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I’m wearing a new Habs t-shirt my father sent me for Christmas for the first time today..... so let’s see what that means for tonight’s game.... and as an absolute coincidence I remember that it’s my father’s birthday today as well ..... so let’s see what that means for tonight’s game.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS AT MONTREAL CANADIENS - SUNDAY, JANUARY 7TH - 19:00 EST A rare matchup between a west coast and east coast Canadian team on a Sunday. The Habs look to begin a win streak of their own whereas the Canucks attempt to win their 3rd game in 14 attempts. The most notable of game notes is that Carey Price is an apparent game time decision due to the flu. Most of my thoughts on the game and it's relevance to the overall season surround around whether or not he will suit up. Montreal Canadiens Pacioretty - Danault - Hudon Byron - Plekanec - Gallagher Galchenyuk - Drouin - Lehkonen Deslauriers - De La Rose - Shaw Alzner - Petry Benn - Jerabek Morrow - Schlemko Price Niemi Inj. Weber, Hemsky Vancouver Canucks D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Goldobin Vanek - Gagner - Boeser Granlund - Dowd - Eriksson Gaunce - Chaput - Virtanen Edler - Stecher Del Zotto - Tanev Pouliot - Gudbranson Markstrom Nilsson Inj. Horvat, Sutter, Baertschi, Dorsett (ret.)

Good grief, love ya Bob but give it up..

I don't know if Hudon is going to be a consistent 20-goal scorer in this league, or a guy who always makes you think he's going to be a consistent 20-goal scorer in this league...

My head was looking down when he scored and I still haven’t seen a replay. I missed a rare event.

Alzner with his annual goal

A great piece by Brendan Kelly in the Gazette: http://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/montreal-canadiens/what-the-puck-time-to-fire-montreal-canadiens-gm-marc-bergevin

After seeing the video of Andersson throwing away his silver medal, i was just going to post that the Habs should trade for him. That's the type of player I want on this team. Friggin Cup or bust. I want a guy with the "2nd Place is the first loser" type mentality.

Looks like downvoting bandit at work again?

There are players out there that can help he just doesn't have the pieces to make the trades. He has trade the future twice and both times got burned????????????????????????????.

I think all the older vets should be up for grabs. If Eller and Shaw each got 2 2nd rounders Byron, Pleks should get good returns, Benn, Shlemko and Petry should be shopped as well. Casperetty should get similar return as Dueschene galchenyuk (i'm not sure what to do with him) but you could trade him for a similar age and skill center

How the “Russian” grouped viewed the CH??? Really??? More like how the idiotic CH management group viewed the Russian group. Funny how it was management that moved or chose not to retain radulov, Markov, Sergechev, emelin and will probably move the American/Russian galchenyuk this year. Ironic that the Russian has player, radulov was probably our best player last year. who was better in the playoffs last year Radulov or MB’s boy Shaw??? I would rather have signed Markov to even three years than have signed the good old Canadian boy Alzner to one. Hell if vegas didn’t pick him, I’d rather have kept emelin for the last year he had left on his contract than being stuck with 5 years of that pylon Alzner. Funny how emelin is actually doing well with the preds, since he has a coach who knows how to use the strengths a player has, rather than harp on his deficiencies and make him into something he’s not. I would have preferred dumping Shaw and keeping radulov. Don’t care how Shaw is doing in a year we suck. If a Russian took as many dumb penalties as Shaw does, he would have been moved in his first year. It’s asinine a punk like Shaw got term and stupid money while the habs weren’t willing to give term or initially $ to radulov. If I was radulov, I would have looked at Shaw and said I deserve double what he gets and definitely more term. i would have preferred resigning Radulov and keeping Sergechev than trading for Drouin. Hated the deal at the time and hate it even more now.

Frankly, i don't think it matters whether he is happy in Montreal. We NEED a rebuild. I don't think we need an Oilers/Buffalo try and finish last for 3 or 4 years rebuild. In todays' game the two most important positions are centre and defence. We have no centre and a defence that is not suited for today's game. Despite what some posters here said at the start of the year - this just is not a very good team. In fact is an extremely poorly constructed team for the way the game is played today. If Galchenyuk is not going to be given a real opportunity at centre, We need TWO centreman if Galchenyuk is not going to be given a real chance to be a at least a 2nd line centre - I don't see Drouin as a one of those centres - keep him at wing. Galchanyuk has shown he can produce at centre, Drouin has not. At a minimum we need to improve our #2 and #3 dmen - in fact I'd even argue that we need a #1. In today's game a solid skating, puck moving dman that can skate with the pick and help/control the transition game, should be your # 1 Dman. Dump and chase teams don't win cups anymore. In light of that, I don't think Weber is really a #1 and is better suited for the #2 role. I also don't see Petry as being that #3 guy, if this team is going to be a true contender (and Petry is still on the team, he would be the #4). If we keep Weber, maybe Mete can be that #3, not sure yet. Unless we move a significant core (or by some miracle Tavares has a brain cramp and sign with us over the summer - it would be awesome if he did, though I don't know why he would, given how this team is being run), we probably need to move draft picks - hell, even if we move a guy like like MaxPac, we would probably still need to add a #1 pick to get a true top centre. A team whose highest players paid are over 30 and signed for the next 8 years at over $8M cannot afford to be giving up draft picks, when a top centre is not one of those two players. I think if we are going to be a TRUE contender, we need to do a tear down and unload ALL of our veterans that over that 26 year old range - because its going to take at least 3 years for this team to be a contender. We need to accumulate picks and stop moving picks or prospects on band-aids and hail mary moves. While would be considered blashphamous to most I think we should move Weber, Price, MaxPac and Petry to ensure we build a core to secure that top centre and puck moving dman and look to contend in another 2 to 3 years, otherwise, I just see this team being a hamster on a wheel.

He said he's not trading prospects because our prospects can't get him that #1c we need. Not trading picks because he doesn't know where we will finish. If we were first in the division and in a playoff spot he would trade the picks. He knows were not going to make the playoffs, but to save face and not have to hear the fans and media he's not going to come out and say it.

You are wrong, he said that there is no one who can turn this thing around and that he is not sacrificing the future to save this season. In fact, here is his exact quote. “In the perfect world, would I love to add a piece to help them? Of course,” the GM said. “But to sacrifice the future and be taking a major risk to hurt the organization for the long term? I’m not ready to do that. And to be honest with you, the short-term solution, there’s nobody out there that I’m aware of that’s going to come and turn this thing around.”