smon

Apparently Gainey is saying that he will go to Sweden to talk to Sundin, right now he simply talked to him by phone about the team's interest. Perhaps the Tanguay deal will help show Sundin the Canadiens are serious about going for a Cup. It's mentioned in Mike Boone's blog at Habs I/O.

It's a nice deal, I was hoping for Jokinen, but Tanguay is a real solid player to pick up. He can be a point per game player. It's a good move by Bob Gainey. If things work out well he could be a Habs for a long time, if not, well nothing ventured nothing gained.

I was actually really impressed with Kovalev's regular season (who wasn't?!), but I thought in the playoffs he just didn't carry the team like he did at times in the regular season. True, he had to play against tough defense, but if he had risen above that...look out. Ultimately, the vaunted line of Kovalev, Plekanec and Andrei K didn't come through in the playoffs like it did during the regular season and that really hurt the team's chances. Even on the nights when Kovalev was on, Plekanec and Kostitsyn struggled. I was more disappointed with the veterans playing poorly on the blueline such as Streit, Markov and Hamrlik than I was with the young guys like Higgins, the two Kostitsyns, Plekanec and Price who can only get better for next season. Streit is really the question mark in all of this - he's a veteran in terms of age, but he was playing his first NHL playoff. Still, Brisebois did a far better job on the PP than Streit did, something unimaginable in the regular season. Streit couldn't hold the blueline to save his life.

A big centre who uses his size effectively. I don't really care if it means as a top-two line centre, or as the checking one.

Possibly, but is any player going to want to come back to a team that didn't even dress him (let alone give him good icetime) for most of the playoffs? I doubt it.

I think Koivu proved his worth last series. There are some people who start demanding that he be run out of town whenever he doesn't live up to their expectations. But he's shown time and time again that the Montreal Canadiens are simply a much better team with him than they are without him.

Stock himself said that he doesn't know, he's just speculating that they probably don't get along to explain why they were never put together since Kovalev was acquired until now. Friedman seemed dismissive of it, though.

Yeah it was the best case scenario. The thread worked - Streit, Andrei Kostitsyn and Kovalev were two of the better players last night, right?

:ghg:

In the general tone of the series, yes Kovalev has not had any secondary scoring, but his line has hardly been producing.There was plenty of secondary output from other players last night, such as Higgins and Koivu, and the end result was still a loss. The powerplay has to improve. How? Guy better figure that one out. You're bang on about playing our style of speedy game, too. But it's really up to the team to go out in game 7 and set the tone early. It's a little worrying that the past 2 games Montreal has scored the first goal in both but still managed to lose - squandering leads, poor defense and not much scoring are a bad mix.

Let me try and frame it in a different scenario. If Theodore was continuing to play poorly, and I looked up threads where Avs fans were complaining, or dare I say even go to an Avs forum and start mentioning how much better Price was, or Huet was, now wouldn't that be a little spiteful? A little unnecessary? Or a little antagonistic? Whatever. Anyway, Price is made up of hopefully tough stuff. But even if it doesn't come through Monday night, that doesn't mean his career potential is shot. Far from it. Look at Crosby and the Penguins falling miserably to Ottawa last season. They learned from it this year and steamrolled them in four. It's part of the maturing process.

It's been a common thread throughout this series. The Canadiens are not playing with heart. In a skill-wise comparison with Boston, they're better. But any hockey fan knows that it isn't enough in the playoffs. They're not doing the little things - chasing down the pucks, winning battles, and even making basic plays. Last night, Thomas played atrociously, but somehow the Bruins made up for it and won the game. How? They had more guts, plain and simple. I know that Montreal is a young team, but the real kicker is that the young guys actually played well for the most part. Higgins was actually lights out and battled intensely alongside Koivu (tying up the game 11 seconds after Koivu made a blunder with Kessel). Plekanec hustled and played hard. Same could be said for Sergei Kostitsyn. Now, Andrei Kostitsyn, Josh Gorges and Mark Streit, that's a different matter. But what really hurts is the veteran players that didn't give their all. Guys like Brisebois and Hamrlik were bad, but at least there was effort. No, I'm talking about Markov and Kovalev. Don't get me wrong, I know Kovalev is the big reason why Montreal made the playoffs in the first place, but he's done nothing to rid himself of the playoff choker tag. And Markov has been at times one of Montreal's worst defenders on the ice. But I don't believe in the "Euro" label, just look at our captain Koivu who played his heart out last night and I would hope showed his many detractors his worth to the team. I remain hopeful for game 7, as all fans should. There's a possibility the team will wake up out of its collective slumber and finally show some heart, take it to the Bruins and get 'er done. But the team's going to actually have to start paying the price if they want to get anywhere in the playoffs, now and in the future. Still, you know what guys, we're all Habs fans and we've got to support the team. We know that they are better than what they've displayed, and they know it too. All hope is not lost. As I mentioned, the young guys who stepped up last game plus a return to form from certain veterans could finally be what it takes. In front of a soldout Bell Centre, let's just hope our team rises to the occasion.

I love how other teams fans make it to all kind of boards...even HabsWorld. Have some class dude, seriously. Now is not the time to go spouting off about how your Avs did so well in getting Theodore, and how Price could crumble. It seems just a little spiteful.

I don't know how much Carbonneau can do. In regards to switching up the forecheck, yes, he can and should do something to try and bust open the neutral zone and get some offensive play going. But a lot of the problem tonight was shoddy and I mean shoddy defensive zone coverage - blown assignments, players falling all over the ice, and failing to clear the puck. Clearing the puck is the very definition of a basic hockey play. It's shocking that everyone from the 20 year olds to the 35 year olds couldn't put that one together.

Now that I think about it, game 7 could be time for Price to literally steal the series. :ghg: Or maybe, and more realistically, it's time for the rest of the team to pick up the slack and actually play well.

All talk about Europeans and whatnot aside, Montreal has to snap out of it! The #1 line continues to play like a #3 line. The powerplay is still terrible. Kovalev's fallen asleep. Andrei Kostitsyn hasn't done anything since that goal in game 1. The defense is being turned inside out regularly.

Kovalev is doing nothing to rid himself of the lazy Euro label. Killed us on the last goal.

Man oh man, the defense looked like crap. Gorges couldn't tie up a man to save his life, Hamrlik was being pushed around, and Markov was flubbing passes left, right and centre. None of the others did well either.

Really bad play tonight. Cherry actually had a point, Chara's got broken ribs but he played much better tonight.

Wow, that winning goal for Boston really summed up the game..pathetic effort by the team overall, only guy who really showed up was Higgins. Why does Kovalev always disappear when the going gets tough?

"Fatso there forgot to shake my hand" Wow.

Now is the not the time to dress a guy who hasn't played since March. A shakeup in lines is tough because Kovalev really had some nice chemistry with Kostitsyn and Plekanec throughout the regular season...but you gotta do something when neither of the offensive lines is scoring much...Who knows, maybe Saku could be ready for game 6?

Well, you know a team's got problems when the best forward line is the #4 one. The #1 line has not produced much with the exception of occasional bursts from Kovalev (looking at Plekanec and Kostitsyn to actually get something going), and don't get me started about the supposed #2 line of Higgins, Kostitsyn and Ryder...those guys have looked out of place every time they are on the ice. Higgins simply looks terrible at C. Even if the Bruins are clogging the netural zone, Montreal should be handily outplaying them on special teams. Or at least on the powerplay alone. Instead, it looks like the best powerplay in the league during the regular season is the worst powerplay in the league when it really counts. I agree with what several others have posted - the team is looking to Price to steal the game and do the dirty work for them, and that's not going to happen. He can't score goals for the team, anyway.

I gotta agree on this one. Brisebois has done a far better job manning the point on the powerplay than Streit. If there's a guy who worries me, it's Streit. He can't even hold the line on the powerplay, let alone get a shot on the net. It just shows you the value of playoff experience - the veteran Brisebois has stepped it up a notch, while Streit (who has zero prior playoff experience) is definitely playing badly.

I really hope the guy gets a chance to regularly play in the NHL, because if not, then the Primeau thing would be his biggest claim to fame in NA which is a shame for a talented guy. Lucic right now is playing far and above Latendresse. Latendresse could play the same way, but it's hard to get the big guy going it seems. Maybe in a couple of years, which is why I'm willing to give him some slack until then.