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The Chicoutimi Cucumber

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Everything posted by The Chicoutimi Cucumber

  1. Hee hee...it's the same garbage year after year. If Cammy, Gio, Gomez, Markov, Price and Subban were Leafs, we'd be hearing all about the 'plucky Leafs' with their 'talented core' and our excellent 'mix of skilled veterans and exciting young stars.' We'd also be hearing story after story about the 'miracle run' of 2010 and see highlights of the Pittsburgh and Washington series rebroadcast ad nauseum and celebrated over and over as some sort of historic achievement or 'return to past glory.' But no; instead it's all 'smurfs smurfs smurfs, Price sucks sucks sucks, fluke fluke fluke, now let's move on and talk about what a Great Leader and Human Being Dion Phaneuf is.' Now I don't expect anyone to rate us as contenders. But to see a Stanley Cup semi-finalist with the playoff goal-scoring leader, one of the best young defenceman - and yes, I said it, best young goalies - in all of hockey, one of the best defencemen in hockey period (Markov), and a dressing room littered with Cup rings, being universally dismissed as a hopeless mediocrity *is* a bit rich. We've made the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years and gone past the first round 3 times in that span. At some point they should wake up and smell the coffee: this may not be 1977, but when it comes to making the dance and doing at least some damage, don't bet against the Montreal Canadiens. All that being said? I predict a loss tonight. Too many missing pieces, with the Laffs and their crowd too likely to be hysterically hopped-up. I'll be happy if we work hard and show some cohesion and most importantly, don't suffer a catastrophic injury either through an unpenalized cheap shot or else sheer bad luck. And a further prediction: expect Habs fans to be rending their garments and calling for heads to roll after that one loss, forgetting that a team without Markov, Hamrlik, Price, and Cammy is simply NOT representative of what the Habs can do. After a while, you realize that some things are just inevitable.
  2. Hee hee...imagine becoming a separatist because you hate the Leafs There's a scenario I never even considered.
  3. Yes, I'm generally resigned to some sort of BS going down when we play the Leafs, especially for a 'big game.' It's either a huge injury (c.f. Markov) or some idiotic call or non-call...a circus is guaranteed, usually in the Leafs' favour.
  4. Yeh, don't be surprised if the Habs start the season on a losing streak because 1/2 the team is working at 50% lung capacity due to the flu. That's what happened in 1995, and it cost Jacques Demers and Serge Savard their jobs.
  5. Yeah, Price is out for the moment. Could be back by tomorrow, who knows. No Cammy, no Price, no Hammer, no Markov...sheesh Looks like we're picking up right where we left off last season in terms of lost man-games. In a way, having Auld get lit up might make people begin to realize the value of Price to this team. Could be a case of short-term pain for long-term gain. But Auld's a pro, don't bet on him folding in his first game with ye Habs - assuming he plays.
  6. Yeah, he deserved the suspension. A dumb play by him, especially given that the supposed headshot to which he was 'retaliating' was uncertain at best. He could have gotten more. The only bugger in this is that we'll be without our best sniper against the hated Leafs.
  7. Zing. The really scary thing here is that a human being can make $32,258.06 for a single day's work Bring back Karl Marx, man.
  8. People worry too much about Markov's contract IMHO. This guy has consistently supported Montreal and repeatedly said that Montreal is where he wants to be. I'm sure if we offer him a contract similar to his current one, he will sign it. And Wamsley speaks wise words (as usual). It is a big mistake to write off a player of this calibre because he's 31. He likely has another 5 years of peak or near-peak performance left in him. The only question mark is injuries...once he returns, he *does* need to put together a healthy season in order to allay fears on this front.
  9. Ouch is right. And think about it...you've just been told you can't make the ISLANDERS. Time to start re-thinking your career options, because it doesn't look like Chicago will be calling any time soon.
  10. That Cammy was apparently reacting to a blindside headshot might be enough to get him off the hook...especially in light of that hilarious diagram http://www.habsinsideout.com/main/37436
  11. The only time I've ever been ashamed of anything that happened in preseason is when the braying jackasses booed Carey Price. The stakes here remind me of an Elvis Costello song: Less Than Zero. Indeed, the Habs may lose out of sheer boredom.
  12. Praise the Good Lord in heaven, Markov is a fast healer.
  13. If Eller is going to get decent amounts of ice time, then he should stay with the big club. Whether he is on the bottom-6 or top-6 is immaterial. If he is ready to play in the NHL, then he will benefit hugely from NHL exposure regardless of where he is in the lineup. Even Saku Koivu spent a season in the bottom-6 - which led to Turner Stevenson getting more scoring chances than he'd ever enjoyed in his life Only if Eller is going to be a bench-warmer should he go back down.
  14. Huh. Well, I wasn't paying super-close attention, but based on what I saw last night - presumably not one of Eller's best efforts - he looks ready to me, and I'm surprised to find those guys slagging him. Just to echo everyone else, McGuire's roots as a Habs fan lead to considerable distortions in his analysis of the team. He's overcompensating. His descent into a cartoonish blowhard is regrettable, because when he first came on the scene years ago I remember being blown away by the quality of his analysis. Either my standards have risen or his have dropped. Likely more the latter.
  15. Sheesh. This reminds me of what a circus team discipline seemed to be during the Carbo era. Three years of psycho-drama. Not all Guy's fault, of course. But things sure are better now.
  16. I caught my first exposure to Habs' preseason action last night courtesy of Canadiens Express. All I kept saying was, 'whoa! Who's that big, fast, smart guy playing C for the Habs?' Turns out it was Eller. The kid looked pretty good to me even in a losing cause. Based on that one sample, he should start the season with us.
  17. I'll get right on it!!!! And oh yeah, Carey Price sucks!
  18. Remember when we threw away Hainsey AND Beauchemin? Gotta be careful about those waiver snatches. Ultimately, though, if he's not ready he's not ready, what can ya do.
  19. Yeah, all I'm saying is I'm in hurry to ship this guy off to another organization. He could prove a useful asset to ours. That doesn't mean, of course, that he has to make the team this season. I know it's "nice" to move a guy if he's getting impatient, but a 5'6 player HAS to be patient by definition. Keep him around for as long as you can.
  20. It's all a bit anti-climactic for the very reasons you cite. But this may also explain why a big media foo-forah became redundant. Anyway, the Habs have enough of a media circus around them as it is. Maybe quietly anointing Gionta is the way to go - especially when you consider that 99% of the questions from the francophone media will likely concern Gio's unilingualism. Good choices all around.
  21. Eric Engels disagrees with you! Nyah! http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eric-Engels...-Notes/82/30402 I don't claim to be a pro scout. You could well be right, but I just get nervous at the idea of throwing away guys who would likely be considered fine prospects if they were 3 inches taller. Maybe I'm just scarred by all those years of watching GMs favour lumbering hulks over truly talented hockey players in the 1990s.
  22. Dream on, pal. (Actually, he's good for 20-25 goals no matter what. What's delusional is clinging to the hope that he will be an impact player. He may yet become this, but a rational approach to this guy is to expect more of the same: a really spectacular month or two surrounded by apathy and confusion the rest of the time).
  23. Fun to see this kind of optimism for once. And it does seem tolerably well-founded. Could be that Rebuild 2.0 is proceeding better than we hoped. (Having Eller makes a huge difference to the team's youthful depth chart). I've certainly been wrong about this sort of thing before, but I do believe that we will regret letting Deshanais go, should it come to that. I feel like I've seen this movie with Danny Briere and Martin St Louis: players unjustly neglected because of size. The guy has scored at every level and, unlike a Grabovski, seems to have no character issues that will muck him up. I'll concede that he has no future with us as a C, and I'm aware that he's yet another 'smurf,' but I could still see him being useful on the wing, stepping in for injuries to the top 6, perhaps offering relief if Pouliot or Kostitsyn flag, and who knows, in 2-3 years Gio - whose numbers are really those of a second-liner anyway - may be on the decline and need replacing. Might be worth keeping him around on the 4th line, if there's space there, either this season or next.
  24. This makes sense in the immediate term. The problem is that, come the stretch, Moen is precisely the sort of player that the Habs will be shopping around for, should they unload him. And don't forget, as a rookie White is guaranteed to hit a wall somewhere. May as well skip a step and keep Moen around.
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