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Game Thread | Capitals vs. Montreal | 02/20/07


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On to tonights game, I'm guessing Murray will replace Begin in the lineup. This should lead to one of Perezhogin (my choice) or Latendresse moving all the way up to the play with Saku or Plex depenidng if who Higgins and Ryder play with.

Higgins and Ryder are already playing with Saku and the line is starting to click again. It would be silly to split them up.

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My look @ Zednik's return to Montreal: http://currenthabshistory.blogspot.com/

Yep, he was one of the leading scorers -if not the leading scorer- in the NHL at that time. Too bad that hit had such an impact on his game. He was a good player(*)

(*)there is someone standing next to me, wearing a red, white & blue jersey with a #20 on the back..

:unsure: :ninja:

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The way I look at it is injuries are just an excuse. If this team cannot lift itself off the mat because Kovalev and Huet and Begin are down then what type of damage were we going to do in the playoffs anyways?

They could not stop the Canes from coming back when Koivu went down and were happy to use it as an excuse...

I was not making excuses for losing when I said this injury concerns me. However the fact is that some times injuries are a key aspect of just that - I think the difference is between whining about it and just getting on with it in spite of circumstances. If you lose don't use an excuse, just accept the fact that you didn't get the job done and then regroup.

However my concern is as much the timing as the player. One of the dangers when a team is struggling so badly any type of blow seems to be magnified. Hopefully this isn't the case, but many a team has faced this kind of setback and slipped further into the funk they are already in? The team seems to have been playing better the past couple of games but lady luck is fickle. And when you are struggling to right the ship it can be the strangest set of circumstances that get you back on track, or the worst possible break that can set you back just as things seem to be getting better. This team is trying to find their confidence again and sometimes scenarios like Begin being injured just after coming back can drive them to further exasperation. Add that to the fact he brings a much needed level of intensity to the team and it becomes much more precarious.

However injuries are not an excuse - just a part of any puzzle that leads to success. You can't honestly tell me that if the Penguins were to lose a guy like Crosby in the playoffs, that it wouldn't be a major factor.

Injuries to certain players are a major factor - they can make the difference between success and failure.

Just don't whine about it when it happens - acknowledge their impact yes, but don't whine about it.

I don't know about you but I judge success by one thing...Winning the Stanley Cup. There is 1 Winner every year and there are 29 losers.

What is the difference between Edmonton and Montreal this year? Does it matter that they made the Finals?

Who cares. I will view a 4-5 year window of banging on the door and building to a championship as more success then a one off miracle run.

I'll tell you an interesting story about that type of statement.

I served on the Minor Hockey Association board for the city I live in for a few years, and was in attendance when the Alliance(our district) held the annual meetings for minor hockey in Ontario a few years ago.

At the time the head of the Toronto Minor Hockey Association made a comment that their year had been a failure because they had not won a national championship that season. In other words all the provincial, regional and tournament championships they had won, and more importantly the hard work the league had done for children meant nothing?

The association had been a miserable failure in his opinion...

A sad but true statement that we have come to accept in our sports culture.

However the reality is that only one team can make the claim of champion at the end of a season. For them they experienced the ultimate level of success. Yet does that really mean everyone else was a failure? Even if the runner up pushed them to sudden death in the final game.....

Success goes much deeper than that and is dependant on where you stand as a potential player as far as a championship goes. Obviously pro sports have a more demanding level for measuring success, but the fact is you can have a degree of success in spite of walking off without a championship. Teams who fall short need to be able to estimate how much they've progressed on their quest for a championship. Teams rebuilding are a success if they are closer to contending than they were a year earlier, or a lack of it by any regression. That doesn't mean you accept the continuous losing - however the good managers recognize if they are moving forward, and they don't sell of their best assets for a short term gain just to appease the howling and baying of the wolves at the door!

And like you I want a long period of them being a serious contender - not a one shot chance/wonder, or a typical Maple Leafs state of illusion(and it seems to be happening again now that they've won a few games?)

Fortunately Gainey is a very patient man....

Edited by beliveau1
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I don't know about you but I judge success by one thing...Winning the Stanley Cup. There is 1 Winner every year and there are 29 losers.

I will view a 4-5 year window of banging on the door and building to a championship as more success then a one off miracle run.

Aren't you contradicting yourself? :blink:

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Yep, he was one of the leading scorers -if not the leading scorer- in the NHL at that time. Too bad that hit had such an impact on his game. He was a good player(*)

(*)there is someone standing next to me, wearing a red, white & blue jersey with a #20 on the back..

:unsure: :ninja:

mike johnson? :D

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Samsonov-Plekanec-Perezhogin

Will have 2 goals tonight and will be our #1 line for the rest of the season. At least until Kovalev comes back and Carbo decides to put him abck with Samsonov and Pleks whereupon both of them shut down. He will then do the smart thing and put Kovalev on the third line with Bonk and Johnson on the fourth line.. then Montreal wins the cup.

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Samsonov-Plekanec-Perezhogin

Will have 2 goals tonight and will be our #1 line for the rest of the season. At least until Kovalev comes back and Carbo decides to put him abck with Samsonov and Pleks whereupon both of them shut down. He will then do the smart thing and put Kovalev on the third line with Bonk and Johnson on the fourth line.. then Montreal wins the cup.

wow... you must be some kind of psychic or something...

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Anyone near the west coast having a problem with RDS? I'm not getting anything and it's almost game time! :(

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Anyone near the west coast having a problem with RDS? I'm not getting anything and it's almost game time! :(

maybe there a blackout in your area

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