Zowpeb

First, lets get Pleks signed. Second, let's not lump him in with guys like Datsyuk, Savard, Zetterberg, etc...at least until he has 3 seasons of over 80 points. Christ, we're not even half way through this season, let's see if he can even do this for a full year first. I think some chill pills are in order around here.

Jebus...why don't they just package up Halak with D'Ago and, if necessary, some of prospects/SKost/picks to go out and pick up guys like Cogliano, O'Sullivan or Perron, Oshie...don't misunderstand, I'm not saying they'd get all 4 guys (I'm not even saying they'd get 2 of them really...just get something done). Those guys slide into the 2nd/3rd line RW or 3rd line C role better then anything we have. They balance our scoring and are cheap, quality, young players. Trading Halak + in a deal that helps both teams just makes sense. I hope Bob has EDM and STL on speed dial as the deadline approaches.

I'm not going to disagree about the $$ value for Pleks BUT I don't see Plekanec getting more then Frolov. Frolov has produced at a higher clip, more consistently, over his young career. He's also more of a "game breaker" (your words) then Plekanec.

What do you call a blonde, naked, standing on her head? A Brunette with bad breath...

This is what happens when you have mouth pieces like Lapierre and guys like Laraque who won't make a point of fighting for the team...Laraque fighting may mean a few more penalty minutes but it might start opening the eyes of the more incompetent refs. I also often wonder if chippy smallish players tend to not get calls as often as they should...and the Habs have a few of those. It may seem counter-intuitive but I've noticed something like that happening for years... The league has long needed to do a better job of reviewing referees. Teams should have the option to send in tapes of concerns to the league...with clear consequences for refs with a lot of issues. There have been enough games this year that a definite trend/pattern is showing...

It's because he's the most recognized athlete in the world...he's also the first athlete to break the $1B barrier from what I hear... It won't last because the reality is that they depend on readership and most "fans" are guys...and guys just won't really care.

Why in the world would anyone trade for a player that is going to leave us for nothing??? Most people have realised Sergei has NO trade value right now...Cogliano is still a young player with a lot of upside. Akost and Cogliano are probably valued pretty closely...maybe, MAYBE an edge to Akost. I suspect Kostsytsin has had more PP time and their point totals are still within 10% of each other in each year. Really, all that happens when I view Kosty's performance is that I get disappointed at his development. He could have been as good as Kopitar...

I've been questioning Gainey for some time and I'm not questioning his handling of this issue... There are more Gainey apologists then there are critics...and I think any comment that says "just wait for people to blame Gainey" shows that some fans are apologists who refuse to consider that Gainey has, does and will make mistakes.

I know he's a player every team needs...and he's always more appreciated on yours then as an opponent. But I find his antics are becoming tiresome. He's now drawing bad penalties because the refs know what he's all about. I think it's only a matter of time before fans and teamates start to lose respect for him. He needs to be forced to watch Claude Lemieux tapes for a few days...he may not have been a "fighter" as much as he was an agitator but Lappy is more of Barnaby's mold and that's annoying as hell. I don't really buy the theory that his "role" is different either...why do you think so?

No one ragging on Lapierre for his penalty? I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with his play...

Just a simple question here: Is Martin re-creating the Habs into the mold of the Panthers? As I recall they had no offense either...and for what it's worth, they did have SOME talent on offense that always seemed to underacheive.

So a separate 10 people, outside of the on-going provincial investigation, have been arrested in Quebec. How far reaching does everyone think this will go?

I'd like to examine something before I answer: Cammy - Gomez - Gionta Tanguay - Pleks - Williams Kosty - Lappy - D'Agostini Lats - Chipchura - Pacioretty First call ups: Maxwell, S Kosty Tanguay and Williams were signed for a $1.5MM each this off-season...could we have done the same? Even Bertuzzi would have been an interesting signing and his $ value was the same 1.5M. Leave Gill off the D. No Moen, No Metro, No Laraque. All journeymen NHLers with no real history of success unlike the guys above who make the same type of dollars...plus, those guys were all signed for short term deals so there was no long-term implication in salary cap room OR as prospects develop and deserve higher lines. I haven't done the math to check but I have to believe that it would still leave us under the cap... Markov is a key ingredient...probably the best player on the team. You can't lose him and not take a significant impact. But that doesn't mean we spent dollars wisely. Nor does it mean that a good 2nd line RWer wouldn't have an equal impact given that our 2nd line is so atrocious right now.

Uh...Why would Vancouver trade the best goalie in the game AND a 23 year old d-man who already can put up 40 points a year for an aging d-man and a good young goalie who still has a lot to prove???? Give it SOME thought guys...

Koz, there are schools all over Canada that teach in a variety of languages...they are obviously private schools and they are open to anyone who wants to pay to send their kids there. In a bilingual country an immigrant should have the freedom to send their kids to an english, french or immersion school...they have this choice in every province EXCEPT Quebec. It's incredibly amusing to peer into Quebec and see the thinly veiled intolerance to anything that isn't Quebecois. It's NOT amusing that Quebec has allowed such intolerance to creep into their legislation. Just my .02. To listen to people defend these laws as a defense of culture is lunacy. Just walk into any major city and you'll see immigrant areas where english AND french are rarely spoken. Jebus, even Toronto has a segregated black school which was DEMANDED by their community. Not to mention the large number of East Indian and Chinese schools around the city. People don't need laws to maintain a culture and language...they need a WILL to make it happen.

You know that Boyes is a 65 point type player with top line minutes and time with quality players like Kariya, Tkachuk, etc...I'm not sure he's still a 65 point guy on our 2nd line with Pleks and AKost. Maybe but let's put his production in context... Question for me is: can Pacioretty become a better player then Boyes is today in the next 2 years? If so, he'll be cheaper and younger then Boyes is today...not that Boyes will be old, but he could create a cap problem a year or two from now. I think Pacioretty can get pretty close to being at this level. I also believe that S-Kost can still become a 45 point 3rd line guy...why deal him when his value is at it's lowest? Sure, with any prospects there are risks. Plus the "rumour" has us throwing in a 1st rounder...man, that's a lot to give up for a guy who is really shown he's a relatively low scoring top line player with great line-mates and a reputation for being soft (possibly an unfair rep imo). I'd have to be very confident that he is "the guy" who gets this team past the 1st round of the playoffs.

I'm not sure I agree...I think Latendresse would be further along if he learned to dominate in the AHL...he could play 1st line minutes and practice his offense outside of the pressure/spotlight. He'd also learn to gel with some of his future team-mates. I also find his (your paraphrasing perhaps?) comments on "players who don't live in Montreal year-round blah blah blah" as comical and immature. As though it's only a local who can have a passion and work ethic...it's amusing that this is an issue ONLY in Montreal. Let's not mince words...it's a francophone FAN issue. Don't get me wrong, it's great that he finds his motivation and that this drives him. All the better for the team. You call him the "Conscience of the Team" and "a Quebecois"...do you think his teammates care that he's Quebecois?? Sure, it's relevant to the media and a large part of the fanbase, but I don't think Gomez, Cammy, Gionta, Markov, Price, Hamrlik, Plekanec really care that he's a "local"...nor do I think that they understand their "responsibilities" any less because they aren't "Quebecois". I love the Habs. I just can't get around this media/fan philosophy that many local fans have for local/francophone players being raised onto pedestals....

To be honest, I only take issue with 2 of Gainey's trades...one was Ribeiro...and don't get me wrong, I think Ribeiro HAD to go. The return was poor, even with Ribeiro's questionable attitude. It was not enough to truly bother me at the time because I didn't think our "return" had degraded as far as he had. I also think Gainey was proving a point in that deal...this was HIS team and the players needed to shape up. The 2nd deal that really irks me is the Gomez deal. I think it was a brutal deal for an overpaid, underacheiver. I will never understand why McDonagh had to be included. Considering the salaries I think the Habs only needed to include a 2nd round pick with Higgins. Beyond that, I think his deals have been positive when viewed in context. My bigger issue with Gainey is his management of player development...this is a management/structure issue as well as a timing issue. Do the Habs have the right people developing players? Do they mis-handle the speed/timing at which players are promoted? The Red Wings are touted with great draft picks in mid-rounds...in reality, they draft BPA and have GREAT development programs. They also rarely call players up too early. The Habs have either thrown, or are ready to throw: Latendresse, Price, Higgins, Weber, Subban, Pacioretty, O'Byrne into the fire. Lats should have stayed in the QMJHL and then 2 years in the AHL. Price should have spent 2 full seasons in the AHL before platooning in the NHL. etc, etc. The further result would be that the Habs would have players under reasonable contracts into their prime...just like Detroit. THAT is Gainey's failure. It's not that they draft poorly. It's not that he generally makes bad trades. We can all live with a bad deal, a bad pick...those are not routinely bad issues for Gainey. It's that he has allowed poor prospect development for an extended period of time...which gives the illusion of mediocre drafting.

Let me start by saying I think the Nords fans should never have lost their team...it was just one of Betteman's many mistakes. However, I think this move is clearly, and entirely, predicated by Betteman trying to keep a team out of Toronto's territory... In reality, the territory that can best support an NHL team from an economic perspective IS southern Ontario. Their proximity to other NHL teams(ie. rivalry creation against 4 other teams), their population, potential for radio/tv/merchandising is all unmatched in any other part of North America right now. They have already demonstrated that the area can bring in more season ticket sales (over 11,000 IIRC) then likely over half the NHL teams in the league now...and that was just during Balsillie's ATTEMPTS at getting a team...imagine how many would have been sold had it happened. The shame is that there should be a team in the Hamilton, Mississauga, London, or the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph area (which IMO this Golden Triangle is the prime location: 600,000 people and less then 45 minutes between all those towns, giving it ~2.5M people in the immediate area AND it's an hour away from Betteman's precious MLSE). Betteman is thinking that he'll appease fans in Canada overall and keep his ownership group happy by protecting their unwritten, and illegal, code of territory protection. He's trying to play Canadian hockey fans as dupes and pit them against each other. It'll probably work too...he just guaranteed that virtually the enitre province of Quebec will be on board with this. Winnipeg fans will say what about us, SWO fans will say we're left out again...and Betteman will laugh as fans fight at the trough and ignore the leagues economic reality and he gets to protect the Laughs. If Betteman is so openly brazen as to protect the MLSE's ownership to this extent I'm willing to believe that games/draft lotteries/deadline times/etc can be fixed to protect some franchises interests. The NHL continues to lose integrity IMHO...

I think there is also ample evidence that would show many french prospects have fried in the Montreal pressure cooker...I think you've simply picked out 2 prospects over the past decade to try and make a point...go back over the last 15 years and you'll see MANY francophone/hometown draft picks that have crashed and burned. Ever wonder why Ribeiro became a better player when he left? Look at these guys: Carle (2nd round '07), Urquhart (2nd round '03), Chouinard (1st round, '98) and Ribeiro (2nd round, '98), Baumgartner (2nd round, '97)...you just can't pick 2 that panned out and say that they need to draft french guys because they can handle the media better as locals. I also think the Habs have drafted just fine under Gainey and Timmins, especially in the later rounds... Where Gainey needs to take some heat, as mentioned by some, is on the player development side. He is just as responsible for bringing in the right coaches, trainers, etc...but he put coaches in charge who are not great at player development. Frankly, I don't think Martin has a great record on player development either...but I suppose that's up for argument too. Players like Latendresse should NEVER have been pushed onto the big club...I would argue he is BEHIND in his development as a result of the Habs bowing to media/fanboy pressure. The same argument could be made with Price. Let these guys learn to dominate in the AHL for at least a full season before throwing them into the fire. Instead the Habs have routinely rushed players along... If the Habs had better luck bringing over some of their Russian picks they'd be a different club right now too...jmho.

I am not going to give Martin 20 games to instill a "system". Gomez and Gionta have a past chemistry. Every line has guys who are familiar with each other. They all had full training camps with each other. Chemistry is not a major question IMHO. Martin came in and critcized players conditioning...yet one has to question whether the current spate of injuries are simply freak coincidences or is conditioning an issue? I can buy into the team needing a few more games to really get the "system" nailed down...especially with some of the injuries. However, I simply cannot stand the fact that fans are giving this guy a 20 game leeway. As much as Habs fans, and media, can be ridiculous in how they "get on" the team, players, coaches, etc...it DRIVES the organization to do better. The current spate of fan "love-ins" that I read are even more annoying then when people get on the back of players for the wrong reasons. The biggest downfall the Leafs have, IMHO, is that their fans constantly fall in love with 3rd line jobbers. There is nothing holding them to a higher standard. This team has been lucky to get to W's. I think they'll be very needed for a late playoff push so they have my kudo's and thanks for getting it done against adversity. It's a good sign. Having said that...they need to get their shite together FAST.

Again, despite my hate of the Leafs, I'm going to choke back the bile and defend some of their players...the mobility of Kaberle, Komisarek and Schenn is NOT exactly immobile...and further, the Habs 2006 D was hardly "immobile". Markov, Streit, Komisarek, Rivet and Dandenault were all on the 2006-07 D...none of those players had terrible mobility.

I think you guys are overly harsh on Komisarek...turnovers are also a function of minutes played, the players role, the type of offense being run, the players around you receiving the pass, forwards back-checking, etc... Komisarek is a fine top pairing d-man on many teams. I also find it amusing that anyone would say Mara "battles more" or is "tougher" then Komisarek. It's incredibly ridiculous IMO. I also find it hilarious that people all of a sudden think Gill is a solid d-man now that he's on the Habs. Or that Komi is mediocre now that he's on the Leafs...and I hate the Leafs as much as any fan. Take off the homer coloured sunglasses guys.

I'm not going to disagree with you on what you're saying...but I think you also run the risk of sounding like a pompous arthouse knob when you assume that "bad ending" = wasn't a hollywood ending. People have been saying there isn't enough origininality in Hollywood movies for 4 decades...and the 2-3 decades before that just about everything was "original" since it was essentially the beginning of hollywood movies with talking pictures. The problem with people crying about hollywood is that it ignores the fact that 90% of the population WANT to see that type of movie. People screaming for more "intelligent" movies ignore the fact that MOST people want to watch movies to simply escape reality. Most people have reality dull, routine, lives where the idealist crowd doesn't live...hence they want different things in their movies. More often then not I want to see a relatively "mindless" movie like Braveheart...but sometimes I want to see one that makes me think/reflect past the movie. It doesn't mean either is bad/good. Both have their place and should be critiqued according to the intent of the movie. The real question is whether the director, and actors, accomplished what the movie was set out to do...any argument beyond that is simply about whether the concept was admirable. At that point you're arguing the merit of someone's "art"...and no one will have a right/wrong opinion.

This is going to go on for years... If Balsillie wins then the NHL fights it saying it's against their charter...and they'll do it with the support of the NFL, NBA and MLB who all want to maintain control of who can/can't own a team. And the major sports leagues SHOULD be able to maintain some level of control within reasonable limits...which I think they're exceeding. If the NHL wins they'll be facing anti-trust lawsuits...which I'm not sure they can defeat. I'm surprised the other major leagues haven't called Betteman and told him to just back the hell down and let the guy in...these court battles are likely going to screw up ALL league constitutions in a big way.