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Gainey is really stacking the team with lots of escape routes.

I've actually heard of this guy, he was a big scorer in Junior.

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71 GOALS

Gainey is really stacking the team with lots of escape routes.

I've actually heard of this guy, he was a big scorer in Junior.

Big Scorer? You mean F*&KIN BIG SCORER.

The guy scored 71 goals in 69 games last year. How does this get over looked in the draft? Am I missing something here?

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdispla...pid%5B%5D=70563

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71 GOALS
Gainey is really stacking the team with lots of escape routes.

I've actually heard of this guy, he was a big scorer in Junior.

Big Scorer? You mean F*&KIN BIG SCORER.

The guy scored 71 goals in 69 games last year. How does this get over looked in the draft? Am I missing something here?

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdispla...pid%5B%5D=70563

well they had said he had wooden left foot.. and he was mis-diagnosed with Down Syndrome when he was a kid which is also untrue... totally skipped everyone's radar

he did it as a 20 year old

must have felt weird playing with 15 year olds

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Another year with Koivu and Pleks as our top two centers...I think they just might be the worse top two centers in the league (as a pairing). I really had hoped we were bringing in a top two center so Pleks could slide back to the 3rd spot. Instead, we get another Bonk.

As for Hamrlik, he is probably a wash with Souray (less points, better D).

In other words, the Habs are standing still again. This is not an improvement plan.

I sure hope there is a trade in the works for a top 2 Center. At least we know that Gainey was trying for one, so we know he agrees that we need one. I hope he finds a way or I have the same prediction as last year .. we miss the playoffs or just scrape in.

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The Habs signed the Q's leading goal scorer Thomas Beauregard to an AHL contract today, he will join his former teammate Mathieu Carle in Hamilton next year. Nice signing by Gainey to get the Q's 2nd leading scorer signed, always worth a shot, if he doesn't make it, not much is lost.

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At this point, this can't hurt. Russ Martin was a 17th round pick for the LA Dodgers. Dude's voted to the NL all-star team.

Keep digging Bob, there's gold in them thar hills.

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And that will make French media happy... They always complain that the CH doesn't draft enough french-quebecers... we might not draft alot, but I like the new habit of signing those promising 20-years-olds (remember Cedrick Desjardins last year)

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Wow... Bobs really done alot this summer. And its not even half over. I have a feeling we still havent seen the final product that will hit the ice in October.

:hlogo:

PS. The Habs website has Degon listed on the team roster instead of with the prospects.

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Marvin Degon is another (US-born, hi there RDS) right handed D.

Degon never got drafted.

His father is former St. Peter’s High star and two-time All-American at Worcester State.

06_um_hcky_nu_066-lg.jpg

If I was Marvin I would consider getting a haircut. He's not Finish but I could see him becoming Faerie's favourite player.

281269.jpeg

;)

Go :hlogo: go!

Hamilton Bulldogs - 2007 Calder Cup Champions

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Another year with Koivu and Pleks as our top two centers...I think they just might be the worse top two centers in the league (as a pairing). I really had hoped we were bringing in a top two center so Pleks could slide back to the 3rd spot. Instead, we get another Bonk.

As for Hamrlik, he is probably a wash with Souray (less points, better D).

In other words, the Habs are standing still again. This is not an improvement plan.

I sure hope there is a trade in the works for a top 2 Center. At least we know that Gainey was trying for one, so we know he agrees that we need one. I hope he finds a way or I have the same prediction as last year .. we miss the playoffs or just scrape in.

Why does everyone think the team was so bad last year??

We were in the top 4 in the league for half the season.

15-20 games, might be overachieving or a fluke but not half of the season.

I wonder where the team would have been without the flu bug, and the antics of Samsonov and Kovalev (to name a few).

How quickly we forget

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Another year with Koivu and Pleks as our top two centers...I think they just might be the worse top two centers in the league (as a pairing). I really had hoped we were bringing in a top two center so Pleks could slide back to the 3rd spot. Instead, we get another Bonk.

As for Hamrlik, he is probably a wash with Souray (less points, better D).

In other words, the Habs are standing still again. This is not an improvement plan.

I sure hope there is a trade in the works for a top 2 Center. At least we know that Gainey was trying for one, so we know he agrees that we need one. I hope he finds a way or I have the same prediction as last year .. we miss the playoffs or just scrape in.

Why does everyone think the team was so bad last year??

We were in the top 4 in the league for half the season.

15-20 games, might be overachieving or a fluke but not half of the season.

I wonder where the team would have been without the flu bug, and the antics of Samsonov and Kovalev (to name a few).

How quickly we forget

Right. We did that two seasons in a row now so no one will take us seriously if we start off well this season. I think that last season we definitely had a playoff team but we missed them for whatever reason (Samsonov, flu bug, Carbonneau - whoever you want to blame it on). This season we have a similar team in terms of talent but now we're a bit harder working so if we go into one of those nosedives halfway through the season we'll have a better chance of breaking out of it.

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Hey habitforming, the reason people think this team is bad, is because they are. You have seen them play i assume. 3 playoffs in 8 years or something? That sucks, half the teams in the NHL make the playoffs. BTH is totally right, know one will take them seriously until they play a full season, make the playoffs and start doing some damage in the playoffs.

No work ethic

Outshot every night

Worst D assembled possibly in the NHL

Can't score

Too small, not physical

The plus side is they had a great PP.

Cool uniforms

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Another year with Koivu and Pleks as our top two centers...I think they just might be the worse top two centers in the league (as a pairing). I really had hoped we were bringing in a top two center so Pleks could slide back to the 3rd spot. Instead, we get another Bonk.

As for Hamrlik, he is probably a wash with Souray (less points, better D).

In other words, the Habs are standing still again. This is not an improvement plan.

I sure hope there is a trade in the works for a top 2 Center. At least we know that Gainey was trying for one, so we know he agrees that we need one. I hope he finds a way or I have the same prediction as last year .. we miss the playoffs or just scrape in.

Why does everyone think the team was so bad last year??

We were in the top 4 in the league for half the season.

15-20 games, might be overachieving or a fluke but not half of the season.

I wonder where the team would have been without the flu bug, and the antics of Samsonov and Kovalev (to name a few).

How quickly we forget

I am not forgetting anything. This team was over performing in the first half, and they still blew it. The season is 82 games long for a reason and the habs didn't have the talent to overcome difficulties. If you remember that first half, you remember a lot of stunning come backs, horrible periods, and lucky breaks. I agree they had a shot at the playoffs last year, as they do this year. My issue is that they continue to be a team that is on the bubble. Any adversity, they don't make it. If things go well, they just make it (7th or 8th spot). This team needs to upgrade if they want to be a top 4 eastern team who is not fighting to make the playoffs, but jockeying for position.

Oh, and the great ride last year was only about a third of the season, followed by wallowing, followed by a disaster. Teams can out perform for that long, especially at the start of a season when many teams are still gelling. They took teams by surprise last fall. Once teams figured out how to swamp our defense with forchecking, it was all over.

But don't listen to me. Listen to Bob. He was trying very hard to secure a number 1 center from the FA pool. He didn't manage to do it, but the fact that he had big offers on the table for the likes of Briere speaks volumes.

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Hey habitforming, the reason people think this team is bad, is because they are. You have seen them play i assume. 3 playoffs in 8 years or something? That sucks, half the teams in the NHL make the playoffs. BTH is totally right, know one will take them seriously until they play a full season, make the playoffs and start doing some damage in the playoffs.

No work ethic

Outshot every night

Worst D assembled possibly in the NHL

Can't score

Too small, not physical

The plus side is they had a great PP.

Cool uniforms

That was last season, right? So this year, based on signings, if we look at the negatives you pointed out, this is how we stack up:

No work ethic: Hopefully, we've improved this situation slightly. Kovy's still around, but Sammy's gone, and as much as he worked (without results) last year, he was very much a perimeter player. The others we've brought in (Hammer, Smoke, Kosto) are all hard workers as well...

Outshot every night: Can't say for sure, but with Hammer an upgrade over Souray defensively, this should also be an improvement. I think part of our being outshot is we can't get the puck out of our zone since only Marky and Streit could make that outlet pass on D, and half the time Streit was playing Forward. If Streit plays D more regularly (which I hope he does with the fact that we haven't brought in another d other than Hammer who's better than him) and the addition of Hammer, we now have 3 D's who can get the puck out.

Worst D assembled possibly in the NHL: See above. I still think one more solid defensive D would help, but I don't think we're going to get him (maybe in a trade if it happens?? Keeping my fingers crossed)

Can't score: We've lost Souray and ppl want to trade Ryder... I think if the team stays with the lineup we currently have, best case is that next season our offense will be just as weak as it was last year. Worst case is we'll score even less. To compensate for Souray, we're hoping the younger 'new core' is going to step up the goals - Higgins/Plex/Kosty, and that kovy will want to prove everyone wrong and have a great ppg pace this year. I'm not banking on Kovy.

Too small, not physical: we've added some more physical players. Size wise, we're pretty much the same. Johnny was big, but not physical, Bonk and Smoke are pretty much even in this field. Kosto's feisty and physical, so that's good news on that front.

Overall, our improvement will have to come from being more cohesive as a team, and being more than the sum of our parts, because in terms of the individual parts, we're not really improved over last year by much.

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Looks like Hamilton's D will be Cote, Biron, Rivers, Valentenko, Archer, Carle, and Degon. I think Rivers has played F before so who knows. At the very least, right now it does look like they're going to try and have O'Byrne make the roster because we have an excess of bodies on D right now.

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Hey habitforming, the reason people think this team is bad, is because they are. You have seen them play i assume. 3 playoffs in 8 years or something? That sucks, half the teams in the NHL make the playoffs. BTH is totally right, know one will take them seriously until they play a full season, make the playoffs and start doing some damage in the playoffs.

No work ethic

Outshot every night

Worst D assembled possibly in the NHL

Can't score

Too small, not physical

The plus side is they had a great PP.

Cool uniforms

That was last season, right? So this year, based on signings, if we look at the negatives you pointed out, this is how we stack up:

No work ethic: Hopefully, we've improved this situation slightly. Kovy's still around, but Sammy's gone, and as much as he worked (without results) last year, he was very much a perimeter player. The others we've brought in (Hammer, Smoke, Kosto) are all hard workers as well...

Outshot every night: Can't say for sure, but with Hammer an upgrade over Souray defensively, this should also be an improvement. I think part of our being outshot is we can't get the puck out of our zone since only Marky and Streit could make that outlet pass on D, and half the time Streit was playing Forward. If Streit plays D more regularly (which I hope he does with the fact that we haven't brought in another d other than Hammer who's better than him) and the addition of Hammer, we now have 3 D's who can get the puck out.

Worst D assembled possibly in the NHL: See above. I still think one more solid defensive D would help, but I don't think we're going to get him (maybe in a trade if it happens?? Keeping my fingers crossed)

Can't score: We've lost Souray and ppl want to trade Ryder... I think if the team stays with the lineup we currently have, best case is that next season our offense will be just as weak as it was last year. Worst case is we'll score even less. To compensate for Souray, we're hoping the younger 'new core' is going to step up the goals - Higgins/Plex/Kosty, and that kovy will want to prove everyone wrong and have a great ppg pace this year. I'm not banking on Kovy.

Too small, not physical: we've added some more physical players. Size wise, we're pretty much the same. Johnny was big, but not physical, Bonk and Smoke are pretty much even in this field. Kosto's feisty and physical, so that's good news on that front.

Overall, our improvement will have to come from being more cohesive as a team, and being more than the sum of our parts, because in terms of the individual parts, we're not really improved over last year by much.

I would agree that we have seen some improvement (depending on what we do with Souray, if we can sign him back in addition to Hamrlik that is a big upgrade). The problem is that it is not a significant improvement. Most teams can point to their moves and claim they improved too, so you have to keep up with the Jones, so to speak, at a minimum.

In my view, the team has a couple of glaring weaknesses. One. Defense, and I don't mean Souray. He was an asset that if we had enough decent defensemen to go with him, could have been used better. We just didn't have enough depth at D. If we added Hamrlik and kept Souray, that would be great. If we lose Souray, it is a wash to me.

We have been and continue to be weak up the middle. We need a top line center. If we got that, moved Koivu to number 2 and replaced Bonk with Pleks, we would be strong up the middle. Down right dangerous in fact. That was one of the key strengths of Buffalo and Ottawa. You couldn't just key in on their top center, because they just nailed you with the next center. Teams could just focus on Koivu and wear him down. As must as Pleks shone in the 2nd half, his stats where never that great, certainly not enough to rank him as a top number 2 center in the league. If our top center (Koivu) is a marginal top line center and our 2nd line center (Pleks) is a marginal 2nd line center, that makes us a marginal team. :) '

Not sure about our goaltending. I hope Huet has a great year and getting rid of abbey should improve our tandem regardless of the backup. Abbey was just shell shocked by the end last year and was hopeless. Shame. I think he is better then that.

I think a lot depends on our youth, but unless we have some star players to go around them, they will flounder, not flourish. If we can find the right center to get Kovalev moving again our chances will improve greatly. There is no doubt that him and Pleks don't work well together. Perhaps he can play with Koivu again.

All in all, I am still waiting to see that center position improve. If it doesn't, I don't see a major improvement in the team this year. Perhaps we make the playoffs, but that is not the sign of major improvement, imo.

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I still think this team only needs, at forward, a gritty 2 way player for the 3rd line...a true 2 way guy who can put up 50 points, play mean, and strong defensively.

I also think they need another good d-man who can move the puck well and just be even average defensively...

This team has the talent to score goals...there are 2 guys capable of 35 goals and 3-4 guys capable of 20 goals on our top 2 lines. The problem is that we don't have the D to get them the puck in good situations...having a 3rd line that can actually be an offensive threat and stay strong defensively would help the balance further and that above mentioned forward would mean Smoke, that Walker type player and one of our rookies(see: Lats or Kosty) would be a very good 3rd line at both ends.

So, in short, I wish the Habs would have been able to acquire both a d-man like Preissing/Stuart/Sydor/ and a forward like S.Walker/Handzus/Blake...and I think the growth of Higgins, Pleks, Kosty and Lats on top of the core vets would have taken this team very far. Combined that would have been an extra 6-7.5 million a year...which they could probably fit under the cap.

Edited by Zowpeb
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We're marginally better on paper. The challenge will be to get the intangibles working for us, instead of against us, this season. The system will be well-established this time and the 'problem' players who were reluctant to buy in are mostly gone. The young players MAY be a year better and it's not totally unrealistic to expect at least one to have a breakout year. And certainly this team is transitioning to a new 'core' and the worst fallout of that may be over. So there is no reason for excessive pessimism. But I think we can ALL agree that this team is not, at present, a contender, and that - as Gainey says - it will be competing with six or seven other teams jostling for playoff sports, unlike the Ottawas and Rangers for whom the playoffs are more or less assured.

One thing's for sure - after two years in a row of playing absolutely GREAT for 1/2 a season, every habs knows that 1/2 season means absolutely SQUAT. That lesson, more than any other, could serve our team very well going forward.

Edited by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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Tom Hedican, the guy who discovered Huet, was an assistant coach of the London Knights while Kostopoulos played there. He calls him Tommy Non-stopoulos because he's the hardest working player he's ever seen. He's delighted that his two favourite players (Huet and Kosto) now play with the Habs. He also calls Kosto a "quiet little shit disturber."

Info via Pat Hickey article from the Gazette.

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