PB

This was the motto at the beginning of the season, but once the coach discovered that none of the original players assigned to the second line duty were anything but '' offensive threats '' the musical chair was set in motion......of which, just about anything was tried except for pairing Koivu to Kovalev. The fact that this wasn't even done in time of emergency and even in the mist of the free fall crisis led me to believe that Koivu made it expicit to the coach that he didn't want it to happens.....either that or Carbo didn't wants to abuse of Koivu's patience and make his life more mesirable than it should. Lets face it, Kovalev was a pain to play with last year,....as things are, I would suggest that he is also a serious element of dissuation to any top UFA players considering MTL as a destination.....who would really want to line-up with him at this stage of their career ?

Our average seat prices was ranked a low 27th in the league 5 years ago, our prices increase has since brought us to pay the 2th highest avr.seat price troughtout the league this last season. The shame is that we made the playoffs 5-6 years ago and that we didn't in this last one. Price hiked,you bet.....but no progress. No progresses, despite the fact that during that time we have gained equal spending status with the previledge franchises of the pre-lock-out era and that Gainey inheritated 12 NHL caliber prospects from our previous organisation. Our prices is proportionates with loyalty, hypes and hopes but not with quality. Detroit has consistently put forth quality hochey on the ice qualifying for the playoffs now 16 years in a row and their assistance prices ranked 18th league wide. Buffalo's prices ranked a low 28th.....now that's value. I cant critisised the new price hike but as far as I am concerned I found it's offering of poor value. That's CLASS alright.

The team's speed is rather good, specially on the quick side of things. This aspect was more readilly apparent during Gainey's tenure as a coach, less so under Julien and somewhat even less under Carbo. Gainey's system depended more on speed to be efficient, just as it should when your team has it. Anyway, above the speed and explosiveness as personified by the like of Higgins, a team's good overall speed is in large part the result of a great level of syncronicity found from the group as a whole...... cohesion and syncronicity of intents make for faster and better executions.... this level of cohesion wasn't reached during our last season and both our apparent and actual speed suffered.

As CC pointed out, teams in this league, no matter what, will only be as good as their PP and PK alowed them to be. Thats actually the only beef a had towards Carbonneau as a coach this season, we had the most efficient PP in the league yet he failled to capitalised on it when he imposed a system of play that undermined speed and forechecking......the two very aspects that lead the highest amount of penaltys being taken in the league.....having the most efficient PP is one thing but creating PP opportunitys is another,....Carbo's system lead the CH to have one of the fewest amount of power play oppotunitys in the league....that is for me the only reason why we didn't make the playoffs. Anyway, PP efficienty matters big time in this league where the parity is real, its getting harder and harder for the teams to win only because they have better 5-on-5 and a better overall roster.........BUFF possessed an incredible amount of talents on its four lines yet they are strugling with their PP.......where you to add a Souray in their PP mix......they would simply would have been unbeatable and the books would have long been closed.

Can Canadianbuziness recognise what is a bargain in hochey ? Crosby is no bargain according to the statsmachine,.......the statsmachine has gone crasy already and needs a psy pronto.

The Russian League being on the prowl for Russian speaking players is a bad thing, specially for the CH. Losing Perezhogin is a lost for the CH, both from the new CBA and the new NHL perspectives. It might not seem to big of a lost as we watched him played within the confine of his restrained role in his already restrained NHL's team that were the CH, specially this season,.....but there is no doubt in my mind that the CH's system of play will need to evolve and get closer ASP to a template of play as staged by the DETs and BUFFs of this league,.....and in that respect, losing Perezhogin is a set back. If the CH is planning to move up the performance ladder in this league it will need to have good scoring depth down its lines and entertain a tightcheking style that doesn't sacrifice the team's speed, puck control, creativity and forechecking,......a direction, in which, I believe, Perezhogin potential would have come to the fore and served us very well.

Which top center would come here to play with Kovy under Carbo,.....you see UFAs of pedigree have numerous choices in term of destinations.....Montreal is a little too shaky and unpredictable as it stand right now.....I doubt things to be different when the UFA market opens.

Absolutely. Building a contender depends on how successfull a GM is with his aquisitions. The Draft, the Trade, the UFA Market,......the GM's Saint-Trinity. You dont get where BUFFALO and OTTAWA are today without steadily registering successfull aquisitions from those THREE sources,......its a pre-requisite,.......no teams can ever get there without their organization winning those battles first. Althought we losted some of the prospects that Gainey inheritated from the previous organizations when he took over, ( Beauchemin, Hainsey ) and that some were traded defavourably, (Hossa - Murray) most are doing doing fine, ( Ryder, Komisarek, Higgins, Plecaneck, Perezhogin, A. Kostsitsyn, LaPierre ) and there is plenty of room for hope about the futur if what we saw from Latendresse, Havlak and Garbowski are any indication of what Gainey's own crop of draftees will be looking like. A big successfull aquisition from the UFA market would be ideal at this point, ( better than one obtained from trading of course ) but, as we know much too well, it isn't being easily acheived in here as it is difficult to attrack them since we are not one player away from being a serious contender, yet it will have to be done one day,.......the sooner the better, yes,....is it feasible under our circumstance ? ( the dead weight and all ).....I doubt it.

The provided link by RAFIKZ was a great read for CH's and Muller's fans,....even contained a positive element in it (Schneider). Good initiative by rafikz lead to a good active thread. I also would like to know as to why it was scrapped ?

A little less money to be in a BONA FIDE CUP CONTENDIND TEAM was more like it in Colorado those days..... but hay,....Bob could always give it a try.

Well said ,.......yet I cant be helped but to ponder a little more,......about the negative implications involves with keeping the statu quo going.........or about the opposite choice. Personally, I believe that the choice should be decided following the premise dictated by one crucial factor,.........which option could best be an IMMEDIATE UPGRADE to get the HIGHEST PERFORMANCE from this team next season. Keeping Carbo, as you said, might preserve a certain image of credibility to the organization,.....on the other hand, I would suggest that failure to adequatly compete next season and missing the playoffs again will be of worst consequences than PR imagery. He did let Carbo in the whole season after all (thats more than Lamoriello did with Julien) but Gainey needs to be sharp on his commitment to the club next season. Maybe the best compromise would be that Gainey himself be the coach next year.

Blunt yet sharp and funny....keep them coming bad boy.

I would love him to come here and laid out to Carbo the Wing's system blueprint under which Detroit always plays well and is always a pleasure to watch.......cohesive and tight checking yet plenty of movement and great puck possession, creative, skillful ,......could be an hybrid system between the Red Army and the MTL Canadien of the seventys......haaa life would be good.

The house is a little to messy for Koivu to confidently go out there and personally recommand free agents to joined their destiny to ours. Koivu has already expressed his frustrations with the negative results and poor acheivements this organisation as provided the team thus far ( the lost of prospects, bad untimely players exchanges, signing the wrong UFAs...or the wrong coach....or both,....missing the playoffs ).....and the possible damaged cap space ahead or the uncertainty resulting from not having signed our own best free agents during the season, is nothing reassuring as to what awaits the CH the next couple of years or the free agents adventurous enought to join in.

Agree,..... Pedneault is over the top and Houde is all over the place and nowhere...... any other options would make my day.