The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Well...does anyone really think we're better than the Flyers? If you set out to construct a team to defeat this edition of the Montreal Canadiens, you'd basically end up with this Flyers club. For me, it amounts to a dismally bad matchup, and we should just face the facts and hope we don't draw them in the playoffs again.

Muller's name comes up a lot in the context of the Senators too, who will surely clean house in the off-season. If we lose Captain Kirk, that'll be too bad, but I have a reasonable amount of faith in PG and Martin to bring in a solid replacement. Robinson would, of course, be great.

Weiss seems like he'd be a good addition, notwithstanding the positional issue. Indeed, his smallish size and all-around game suggests a perfect fit for our team Given that JM probably knows him well, this is a rumour that I'd be inclined to think credible, despite the source. Indeed, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that Weiss *might* even make Gomez dispensable Anyway - an interesting idea.

Another nit-picky beef about last night: the choice of Pouliot and Kostitsyn for the shootout. Both those guys are the opposite of players you go to with the game on the line, and in both cases I was eerily, absolutely confident that they would NOT score. In that situation, I go with the Plekanecs and the Giontas and Gomezes any day of the week. Puzzling decision by JM IMHO.

Great to see Saku - who, I can't help but notice, was up to his familiar late-career trick of taking bad penalties - but the game was basically a dud. The Habs just didn't have much inspiration tonight. Nice to see them gut out a point nevertheless. I was surprised to see Mario Blueberry suggesting that Lapierre could be out of the league at the end of the season. I'd thought he was more highly-regarded, talent wise, than that. Interesting. The Habs kept shooting high on Hiller and, all too often, missing the net. Could be a case where the scouting report actually worked against them. Koivu, Koivu. I was touched by his return. Nevertheless, although still useful, he is not the player he was, and things probably have worked out for the best all around. EDIT: I'd meant to ask - how come the Habs didn't do the usual thing and have a little ceremony honouring Koivu before the game? That would have eliminated the awkwardness of him calling his teammates out on the ice and cutting short the standing O at the beginning. Then, with the 2nd star selection, half the people had left the building. It seemed as though the fans never really had a chance to properly settle the account with Saku. But I wasn't there, so maybe my impression is wrong.

Good call, Wamsley! I guess that would have to be Saku's finest hour with us. Another that comes to mind is his shootout winner to cap the 5-goal comeback victory against the Rangers. It was just so fitting that it be Koivu to seal the deal. Habs29retired, I'm with you on the 'might have beens.' So few people remember just how dominant Koivu was before that horrible knee blowout. The leading scorer in the NHL, 50 games into the season. No one ever seems to mention that this was the superstar that never was, all because of a ruined knee. Despite being tragically damaged goods, Saku always stepped up in the playoffs. Carolina had to gouge out his eyeball to stop him. Joe Thornton was owned by him in the dance - twice. Some fans used to gripe about Koivu, but for me the real shame was the Habs never provided him with the supporting cast he deserved. What should have been a truly magical career was martyred to injury and managerial incompetence.

I sure hope Molson takes this bulls*t by the horns. And yes, I'd love to see a seamless transition from JM to Muller at some point - now that would really speak to an organization that has its act together. Who knows, maybe Muller could get away with it. Certainly if Louis Leblanc or one or two other impact francophone players materialize, and the very French Gautheir remains GM, it *might* be saleable to the ravenous jackals of the French press and thus, fans. Might.

Fun game. The Sens are a sad case, though, and I think Wamsley did a good job of breaking down why that is. Everbody had a good game, but I was especially impressed with Pouliot, particularly in the first half, when he played with real authority and imagination on seemingly every shift. I'd love to think that he's finding his groove, but as Boone points out, he and Kosty are consummate teases. And Gomez really cranked up his game after a confused first period - watching him give and go with Gionta was a taste of the old Jersey glory days. I'd also single out Patches, for not missing a beat, and Eller and Desharnais, who both did lots of good things. And kudos to White for standing up for the cheap-shotted Moen. A great night that should work wonders for the confidence of the young guns: just what the doctor ordered going forward.

But Kirk couldn't be our coach. He's not bilingual. That's something the Martin bashers have to consider. Thanks to Montreal's stupid managerial affirmative-action program, the issue is not whether we have the best coach available, but whether we have the best francophone coach available. Even Scotty Bowman would never be hired to coach us now. You also have to ask whether it would be in Muller's best interest to leave a solid organization like Montreal to join what appears to be a basket case in NJ. Come to think of it, even before the wheels fell off, Lamouriello (sp?) had a habit of arbitrarily decapitating coaches. I'm not sure that, if I had a nice comfy job with a good organization, I'd leave to go stick MY head on the block in Jersey.

I dunno, I have a good feeling about this one. I think the young bloods are going to add some enthusiasm and that the team will hunker down and play hard as a response to all the injuries. That's often the pattern, after all - injuries usually start to tell after a certain span of games. So, count me as optimistic for tonight.

Well, there you go. That's a dismal pool. Phillips sounds intriguing at first glace, but holy moly, he's 33 years old, and is -20 (!) with a grand total of 3 points on the season. I know that stats aren't everything, but you'd need a bloody solid scouting report to be assured that he represents a significant upgrade on Hamrlik. Salo, what a joke that is; which leaves Bieksa and Kaberle. The Habs would be well-advised to pursue Kaberle IMHO and if we could be assured of signing him, he would represent a substantial upgrade. Trouble is, the bidding wars could bump his salary out of reach. This is even more true of Bieksa. Both will end up overpaid, but Bieksa is the more likely of the two to massively fail to live up to the big payday.

Ha ha, I think the only time I lost serious sleep due to hockey was the night before the 2002 Olympic Gold Medal Game. I wanted Team Canada to win SO bad and was terrified of the consequences for our hockey program if we didn't. Muller probably will get poached eventually. But see Wamsley's wise point that JM is not exactly a drooling idiot and that we will likely continue to be well-coached in Muller's absence. Also, the idea that Muller is indispensable is surely a bit of a stretch. Almost nobody is. Whatever his merits, I doubt he's Scotty Bowman redux.

I've always pulled for Desharnais and I'm impressed with his moxy out there on most shifts. Conventional wisdom about size can go blow - I think he has at least a chance to carve out an interesting NHL career, perhaps as a 'polyvalent' player who can add some energy and some offence while being surprisingly useful on the forecheck. Congrats to the Super Smurf.

I agree, I don't quite grasp the idea that Hamrlik is so easily disposable, when clearly he will take a pay cut on the next deal no matter where he signs. Why, then, assume that the Habs will cheerfully cut him loose? I think people lump Spacek and Hammer together as overpaid old geezers and therefore guys we don't need. Both are, in fact, valuable ingredients, but Hammer in particular still brings a strong all-around game that we would be foolish to just chuck out the window. Hell, I'd re-sign Gill as well, assuming he could take a bit of a cut. Having said that, Chris's analysis was predicated on freeing up $7 mil by NOT re-signing those guys and channeling a good chunk of that change toward a higher-end UFA defenceman. IF there is indeed a near-elite UFA option then that would at least be worth considering. You trade some depth (Hammer + Gill) for, hopefully, a talent upgrade. That's a high-risk option, though, when you factor in that this D had, all told, delivered the goods and that there's no guarantee of said UFA signing with us.

Actually, I'm a Gomez fan and have tended to be one of his bigger defenders on this board. But this season, his rushes have been almost mind-numbingly futile and the dismal numbers back that up. He did have a little spurt for a couple of weeks but seems recently to have slipped back a notch (notwithstanding his unexpectedly creative setup of PK's GWG). So I think he needs to look in the mirror, at PK, Cup rings or not. Of course none of this means that I interpret the above clip as proving that he *was* mad at PK. Indeed, the whole thing is ridiculous in my books. But it offered a chance to vent about Gomez

Given the absolute, gutter-gougingly piece-of-crap waste-of-cap-space season he is having, the only person Gomez has a right to be angry at is himself.

Souray was a fun player to have, but geez, even with us he was injury-prone and one-dimensional. Sort of a MAB on steroids. He's like Kovalev in that sense: more about entertainment value than winning. Although I foolishly wanted us to re-sign him, I haven't missed him since, and consider his replacement Hammer a far better overall acquisition. Theo: I loved the guy, his style and panache and balls-to-the-wall performances. His utter collapse remains one of the greatest mysteries I've witnessed as a Habs fan - never seen anything quite like it. Interesting choices, I'll give ya that.

Hee hee! Well, consider me chastised. Notice, though, that I didn't say we can't be competitive with all these injuries. I don't see them as an excuse for missing the playoffs - although we're now down to the bone, where one or two more key injuries would indeed bring us to that point. What I find intensely frustrating about these injuries is that way that they will contribute to the ongoing narrative of mediocrity/'bubble team' surrounding the Habs in the media and among the fans, who will of course forget the missing parts when assessing team performance. Like you, I'm a huge believer in systems and total team commitment over raw talent. But it remains true that there is no substitute for talent and that you need a certain level of it. The team I saw in November was a team on the cusp of really getting good. Whether it could have sustained that is an open question. But the team I've seen since then is exactly the one I predicted the moment Markov went down - a team that wins its share of games but has to scrap and claw and stare into death's door on a recurring basis: in other words, a playoff-worthy team but only just above the bubble. My aggravation here is more about being denied the chance to see what this team's ceiling really is. In short, these injuries might be artificially keeping us in 'bubble team' territory. As one who is sick of the Habs getting no respect I find that frustrating. You're right, though, this is nothing compared to the horrors of 2000. Considering the job he did with possibly the worst lineup ever iced by the Montreal Canadiens, it is a mystery to me how it took Alain Vigneault so long to get back to the NHL. But that's another story.

I think ForumGhost makes a fair point. It ain't the sheer quantity of injuries so much as the quality of the players injured. This is the third season running that we lose our best player to major injury (Markov). It's the second season running that we lost our most explosive offensive player for a significant stretch (Cammy). It's the second year out of three that we lose a crucial role-player/leader to a catastrophic season-ending injury (Lang, Gorges). If a sniper were out there targeting players to 'take out' from the Habs, he couldn't have done better - unless it were to zap Price and Subban, God forbid!!!! But seriously - this stinks.

It's a nightmare. The best parallel is with that notorious 'barberpole jersey' game in 2009 when we lost Lang and some other key player(s) (I forget the details). We are now missing our best and our steadiest defencemen, as well as 2/3 of our second line. The optimist says that this is the chance for our depth to shine and other guys to step up (e.g., Desharnais - who I continue to believe in - Kostitsyn and Pouliot). The pessimist says you don't win when the list of wounded includes your best sniper, your emerging power forward, your top defenceman, your heart-and-soul #4a blueline minute-muncher, and perhaps your wily checking C (Halpern). I mean, this is ridiculous.

Yeah, we wouldn't want anybody to show any emotion on the ice. For God's sake - what is wrong with the NHL?

I think you're jumping the gun on Sergei. He's hot now, but let's wait and see how he does over the longer haul, shall we? The same could be said of Latendresse, who apparently contributed to his own injuries this season by showing up to camp - wait for it - out of shape. As for Streit, you are obviously bang on; that was a huge mistake. Of course, many of us failed to see the mistake at the time, dwelling instead on Streit's dodgy play in his own end. Funnily enough, I don't really miss Koivu. We had him for his entire prime and he was clearly on the downside when Bob cut him loose. The present team has sufficient leadership and character and him sticking around may have made it harder for that leadership core to take over. None of this takes away from Saku's tremendous contributions as the lone bright spot in the darkest era in Habs' history. We emphatically should not retire his sweater, but there should definitely be a Saku Koivu Night or some other means of honouring him properly, sooner or later. I'm surprised to realize this, but the two that I 'miss' - by which I mean, that I'm kinda nostaligc for - are Kovalev and, somehow, Komisarek. In hockey terms, I take Gionta over Kovy is a micro-second, but for sheer entertainment, Kovy never disappointed. (Even his bad seasons took on the character of a tragi-comic psycho-drama). The career arc of Komisarek, meanwhile, is a major disappointment to me. I really thought he was going to become a fearsome, punishing, elite shut-down defenceman and the backbone of our D for years to come. Clearly I could not have been more wrong, but Komisarek seems to epitomize for me all the hopes I felt for Gainey Rebuild 1.0, and all the disappointment that it ultimately brought. In the end, it's not Komi I miss so much as the hope he represented. In my mind he is the symbol of a uniquely bittersweet phase in my experience as a Habs' fan.

MaxPac - if he plays like that every night, then we really do have the power forward we've been needing for all these years. A very good sign.

You know, it's the third season in a row that Habs' management makes a mid-season move to add a defenceman, resulting in a massive boost to the PP. Two years ago, it was Schneider. last year it was MAB. And this season the Wiz. Hopefully the Wiz turns out to be a long-term solution, not a band-aid, because while his defensive play is clearly not top-drawer, he's a legit top-4 guy and should be sewn up for a few seasons - especially given the uncertainty around Markov.

I believe I know the one Habsy means - one of the absolute worst attempts to clear the zone this season, a pass from behind the red line right across the front Price's crease and onto the stick of a Ranger. It was so inept it defied belief. That was served up by Wisniewksi. A bad 3rd period, but hey, that's what all-star goalies are for! If it hadn't been for Lunqvist we could have had five or six, so it evens out, and I'll take it.