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Between Bonk, Pleks, Ribeiro, and Koivu (not to mention Grabovsk and Lang) the Gainey era was surprisingly well-endowed at C. Too bad he threw away Ribs. But even so, compared to the current era of forcing a W to try to play C, forcing a C to play W, and pretending that Danault and/or Old Man Pleks are top-6 pivots, that was a golden age.

Islanders also need a 3C... Could even create a bidding war between the two since they're both fighting for a wildcard spot.

Yeah I don't see their relationship like that at all. I think Molson's only direction is to make the playoffs. I also think that MB lays out his ideas to Molson and Molson accepts them at face value. If Molson was truly involved or had any hockey inclination at all the Subban trade would never have happened. I don't see MB being fired and this relationship will continue as it is. If Molson cared about winning the way the fans do then he would hire a great hockey mind to run this team. As long as Molson is president I don't think anything will change.

Saturday, the Habs and I look to continue our win streak against our greatest rival, the Boston Bruins. The game marks Claude Julien's first game against his former team and for some reason, I truly believe that will have zero impact on Saturday's performance. Both teams are coming off of their bye week. Tuuka Rask, who has been playing well as of late tends to play out of character against the Habs quite often and so it will be interesting to see if this will be the case, or if he will continue his recent strong play against us as well. Danton Heinen and Charlie Mcavoy, among others, are having stellar seasons. On the Canadiens end, look for recently named all star Carey Price to continue his solid play. Look for Pacioretty, Plekanec, Gallagher and perhaps Galchenyuk to have relatively strong games as well, as they often do against the Bruins. Victor Mete will also make his return to the lineup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MONTREAL CANADIENS Pacioretty - Danault - Lehkonen Byron - Plekanec - Gallagher Galchenyuk - Drouin - Hudon Deslauriers - De La Rose - Shaw Alzner - Petry Benn - Jerabek Mete - Schlemko Price Niemi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSTON BRUINS Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak DeBrusk - Krejci - Spooner Heinen - R. Nash - Backes Schaller - Kuraly - Acciari Chara - Mcavoy Krug - Carlo Grzelcyk - Miller Rask Khudobin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What, you’d rather be drafting a guy like Pasternak, with a late pick than the huge, massive physical players like McCarron and Tinordi??? What kind of Canadian hockey fan are you?? Truclance, character, grit, that’s what needed, skill, mill, who cares about that!!

That top line comparison is just sad on paper: the Bruins are sporting two Canadian olympic team members in Bergeron/Marchand, and a guy on pace for 35 goals in Pastrnak. We counter with Pacioretty-Danault-Lehkonen. Good thing games aren't decided on paper I guess.

Yep, as I said in a recent game thread, every win this season now hurts the Canadiens future.

When I look at the lineup, and forget the past few months of play, the forward group looks like it could be competitive with four fast lines and some skill. Could wreak havoc for opposing d. Obv this hasn’t been the case for any sustained period. Makes me consider what is causing this and why the team hasn’t solved it. Of course easy answer is lack of #1 C , but I personally think that damage can be overcome or minimized at least. To the eye test it seems there is too much perimeter play and shooting with a lack of pressure on the opposing net. Lots of ‘’one and done’’, lots of shots but not enough high quality chances? Need some net drive, puck hounds. Ideally not just Gallagher. Looks like a lack of smooth entries dues to weak outlet passes, which aren’t catching our fleet-footed forwards in stride? Obv we had that for 900 plus games in #79. Gave away a couple possible replacements and haven’t recovered yet. Thats what I see and would address with some roster adjustments and intensive coaching. The d corps presently is scary though. Mete and Schlemko pairing seems like a high risk situation (as do the rest haha), hopefully the high reward makes it worthwhile. The top d in the lineup tonight would ideally be a #4 depth-wise? Optimistically, I am hoping that a few big game challenges like this next bunch are, is what it takes for this group to rally around each other and hit one of those 10-12 game win streaks that we’ve missed this year and make a season of this yet.

Game 1 of 3 versus Boston to decide whether the Habs are truly out of the playoffs or not. If they win all three they might have a shot again. They lose one, they can fool themselves into thinking they can come back. Lose two or three? It's over.

How are the Sabres going to run middlestadt, Eichel, Ror and pay some wingers? Maybe O'Reilly won't be that untouchable.

I like o’reilly, but the sabres have two top centres and are doing worse than us. Getting o’reilLu isn’t going to help turn this sinking ship around. Unless we can also Steal 2 puck moving dman along with another centre with a guy like o’reilly, I want a younger centre like Draisaitl. We need a tweak down of the core. We aren’t just a centre away from being a contender. We really only have one solid top 4 dman today and he is injured, aging and signed to he is 42. We have Petry, who really never has played on a winner, or helped his team contend. We have Alzner, who is a pylon. Than we have a some nice prospects that I hope we won’t screw up the development of. I would move maxpac, Price, Weber, to get a younger stud centre and another solid dman and 1st rounders. But other than maxpac, those are draft day moves. move pleks, Shaw, Petry- basically anyone over 26 is fair game and go for the top pick this year. before MB took over, we were are couple of players away from being a contender and had a D with a bright future in front of one of the best goalies in the world. Needed a top. centre anothe solid D. Even if we hadn’t moved Subban and let Markov and radulov walk, we were pretty close to being a contender of we had given galchenyuk a real chance at centre. If MT was fired the year of Price’s injury and we hired a real coach, things could have been different. Instead, 6 years of MB and close to 5 years of MT and now we have more holes than Swiss cheese. this team is tracking more like the Houle habs, than a team just missing one centre.

I mean... it cost him Mathieu Garon and a 3rd round pick to get Cristolbal Huet and Radek Bonk, and I don't remember Bonk being used as anything but a 3rd line center... Totally worthwhile trade, imo.

Montoya stops all 19 shots he faced and Oil come back to win 4-2. Hopefully he had earned a start and can go on a little streak.

Montoya in again tonight after Talbot gives up 2 on 5 shots! Is that 2 now? Magic number 5?

Neither.. unlike most people, I think MB is safe this year and next.. not that I agree with it, but he's got years left on his contract and no business man, Molson included, wants to pay him to sit at home plus the price of the next GM.

#1 centre?

Is Buffalo desperate to move Okposo's contract? Maybe Pominville (1 year left) or Scandella (2).. still would need to add prospects and picks to get ROR.. Maybe with Pacs being from the NY area they'd be interested.. Pacs, 2nd round pick, Mccaron for ROR, Okposo and ??

The idea that the team would not be better today with Markov instead of unused cap space is absolutely asinine.

If the Habs are certain that Galchenyuk isn't a centre, could something maybe get done with Columbus for someone like Alexander Wennberg? They have identical cap hits (Wennberg is signed for three more years than Galchenyuk) which makes managing the money pretty easy. They're very close in age as well - only about seven months apart. Galchenyuk is more of a scorer and Wennberg more of a playmaker. Wennberg is more established down the middle though and while he may not be a true #1C, he's a quality #2. With Pierre-Luc Dubois establishing himself quickly at centre, Columbus might be inclined to deal Wennberg for a more dynamic winger (that could potentially shift back at some point), especially since they're in win-now mode.

http://www.lapresse.ca/sports/soccer/201801/05/01-5149025-catalogne-messi-libere-de-son-contrat-au-barca-en-cas-dindependance.php This article speaks about how Messi has a clause to leave Barca without penalty (700 million Euros) should Catalogna separate from Spain. I wonder if such a clause be awarded to a player with the Habs if the separatist movement gains traction again like in the 90's? Sorry Mods if this kind of topic isn't welcome

Not really seeing the "stare down" metaphor, myself. Molson has all the cards. Not a single person in the media or the fanbase would be upset to see MB fired. What leverage does MB have? If Molson is waiting, it's not because Moron Marc is staring him down, but because he wants to wait, period.

We should be in the mine set of losing as much games as we can, and doing what it takes to get a top 3 pick. With all the picks we have we can retool this farm system if we can finish in the bottom 3. Plus with the cap space it doesn't have to be a full rebuild.

Yes if we would of did it In 2016 we would of been picking 2nd over all where the jets picked and would of ended up with laine. But we tried to make the playoffs and ended up picking 9th. We shouldn't make that same mistake again.