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Canadiens killing Bulldogs


mathieug

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Ok, this threads title is not a quote of mine, I just found this story, worth sharing.

Hamilton is on track to fall into last place overall in the AHL

By Scott Radley

The Hamilton Spectator

Dec 9, 2005

If you're sitting at home thinking to yourself, Gee, this year's Hamilton Bulldogs team kinda stinks, you're right. They do. They're awful.

But if you're looking for someplace to lay the blame, hold fire on most of the overmatched players. That's because the responsibility for Hamilton having a team that's in real danger of falling into last place in the entire American Hockey League before Christmas lies with the Montreal Canadiens and its feeble attempts to ice a competitive squad.

..

Things really hit bottom last weekend when the Dogs dressed only 15 skaters for back-to-back games in what was truly a minor-league moment for a minor-league team. Even owner Michael Andlauer admits he was embarrassed by that one.

"I expect that with our relationship, they will provide us with 18 players and a competitive team," the frustrated owner says, stressing the second half of that sentence. "I don't expect them just to provide 18 players."

That's not happening. Five losses in a row and 11 of their last 12 prove that. And the fact that he has no say in any player decisions means he can't do anything to fix things. Which is part of the reason he's meeting with the Canadiens next week to find out if something can be changed.

..

In the Habs' defence, it's unreasonable to expect to have a stocked farm team every year. Can't-miss prospects aren't easy to find. Drafting is a crapshoot. Most of Montreal's best young players have recently made the leap to the big team.

That's where free agents come in to fill the void, though. Franchises that are serious about building a solid farm team start with the prospects and then build around that with AHL veterans and guys who'd otherwise be heading to Europe. Yes, that costs money, but it works. For two years now, Andlauer's said he'd be willing to spend a few of his own dollars to bring some talent of his choosing here. The Habs so far don't appear interested.

..

Of all the skaters who are Habs' property, only Corey Locke, Andre Benoit and Ron Hainsey have excelled. And Hainsey's gone now, lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets on waivers.

If it wasn't for the players the Oilers sent here as part of the renewed split-affiliation, this team would be truly atrocious. Jean-Francois Jacques, Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Brad Winchester have largely kept this ship sort of afloat. How much? Despite playing fewer than a quarter of the man-games their Canadiens' counterparts have, Edmonton's prospects have provided more than a third of the Dogs' goals.

Nobody's demanding a champion every year. But the team has become worse in each season of the Canadiens' three years in charge.

..

If they aren't willing to do what's necessary to provide a decent product, they need to let Andlauer step in and try. It's hard to imagine he could make things worse.

[Edited on 9-12-05 by mathieug]

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Well I guess that’s the life of an AHL affiliate. It may be tough for Hamilton right now but the Canadiens have had a fair amount of injuries and thus a far amount of call-ups. I hope that the Bulldogs can rebound because success breads success and failure breads failure. So let’s hope the meeting goes well and the Habs sign some more players to aid that team now.

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how many players are from edmonton? ... isnt it 1/2 1/2 deal? so we need to bring a couple more players from both teams ... in any case if the void exists it means that bob gainey will have enough room to send Streit and perhaps another rook down plus some import AHL player if Bobby makes his move later in the season! Hamilton stay cool let the men do their thinG!

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I wrote this at another site,

As for the article, what a steaming pile of crap. I agree the team has not been the same since the intial year, but that was one of the best AHL teams I've seen. The past two seasons the team has been solid, and made the playoffs. I would love to see the team be better, as I am a big Bulldog fan (just as I am a fan of every team that has any habs prospect on it) I want to see the Dogs always be good and win games, but I know that the reality is that the bigger goal is to develop the prospects.

This year we are one of the youngest teams in the AHL, I figured the team was going to be in big trouble as soon as I heard Danis was going to miss a large chunk of the season (since it was rumored to be till january) They needed more of a veteran presence, so Gainey got Aitken, Paul, Vandy, Murray and Savard added Barnes on a tryout but he was released. Those are some pretty crappy vets if you ask me, aside from Murray who I like, but they had to bring in some vets.

This year the system is a little thin since there's next to nothing in the ECHL aside from Halak who's had two injuries and missed most of the season after a great start. Urquhart has decent skills but his lack of strength and fear of getting hit it's hard to say if he would be effective in the AHL. I was at his first and only AHL game last year in philly and he hardly touched the ice and looked scared whenever he was out there. (of course philly spent most of the game running around knocking players down or running into them) Bonneau is likely the future tough guy in Hamilton, don't know how his game is doing in Long Beach this year, havent' seen them play yet. Larrivee wasn't resigned, too bad cause I thought he was ready to make the jump to Hamilton this year, now he leads the team in scoring. Last year he was always working hard, doing the little things right but wasn't scoring that much. Now that most of the top players are gone from last years team, guess he has to do a lot more.

It happens, at times you just don't have the bodies to fill an AHL roster. Next year we have a number of guys that can be signed. Chipchura, Greg Stewart, Mathieu Aubin, Alex Dulac-Lemelin, Loic Lacasse, Ryan Glenn plus it's the first year Euro's have to be signed. All picks from the '02 draft and piror have to be signed or we lose their rights. From '02 Korneev and Linhart are the only Euro's that have to be signed or we lose their rights. Plus there's guys like Heino-Lindberg, Grabovsky, Korpikari, Emelin, O'Byrne, who might be ready to make the jump if the Habs wanted to bring them over (or up in O'Byrne's case) and if they wanted to come over since Grabovsky did say he wanted to stay 2 years in Russia, if he hasn't changed his mind. O'Byrne may want to finish out his final year at Cornell before making the jump. Korpikari lost most of last season with injuries and his time spent with the National army. Heino I assume would want to wait and see what his team does with the starter, if they bring him back he'll likely not see much ice time, so perhaps he'll want to make the jump. I am not saying all of these players would, could, or should make the jump, just saying that perhaps this past summer Gainey/Savard didn't feel these guys were ready to make the jump but if they continue to play well perhaps they will look into maybe getting some of this guys over here.

So Hamilton will have to suck it up. It's not like they have been going to the games outside of any Hamilton-leafs games. Since the Habs have been in Hamilton I've been to a bunch of games, watched a ton on tv/ppv and listened to as many games as possible. This year the team will struggle unless changes are made and I wouldn't expect huge changes. Will they make the playoffs? Is this really in the best interest of the prospects? Time will tell. Has Gainey made mistakes losing Hossa and Hainsey? not imo. I liked the Hossa deal much more then most seem to. Skill wise it was a brutal trade but Murray is a great choice to work with the younger guys in Hamilton. I look forward to seeing what kind of impact he has on Mad Max Lapierre. Not saying I wouldnt rather have Hossa with the Habs then Murray in Hamilton but I never expected the team to carry all of Perezhogin, Pleks, Higgins, Hossa, Streit, Hainsey, so you have to cut some guys and other teams will gladly pick up the scraps. Funny I never heard anyone complain when we got Steve Begin for free, or even Franky Bubbles. It works both ways, we lost Hainsey and would have lost Hossa for nothing, so Bob got something in return, something we needed badly in Hamilton, which short term doesn't really show the impact but long term could have an impact. An example would be when Savard picked up Eric Fichaud. People laughed at the signing but Savard got a vet to work with Garon. I heard Garon talk about how big of a help Fichaud was in his career right before he made the jump to the NHL full time. Not saying this will happen again, or that it's all Fichaud, but it helps to have experienced vets and Murray has experience plus he's always working hard.

Hainsey is so much like Hossa. Tons of natural skills but can't put it all together. I fear Kostitsyn is going to follow in their footsteps. Hainsey and Hossa can wow you with their play but at other times be the most frustrating guys to watch. I hope they can make it in the NHL but I had little hope of either making it with the Habs, not cause of their skills but because they dont' fit the mold of the kind of players the team is trying to groom.

Overall who's to say what the impact will be for guys like Locke, Cote, Archer, Milroy, Lambert, Kostitsyn, Lemieux, who are all seeing increased ice time then they would if more vets were on the team. Although Archer is now out for a while and Lambert has been jerked around in the lineup but that's no surprise since he doesn't always want to work hard imo. Hopefully one or two of these guys will really benefit from this time. Watching Kostitsyn on the PK and playing the point on the PP, makes me interested to see how it impacts him down the road (3 years or so)

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Somebody must have read the newspaper. Hamilton 7- Houston 1.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1. HOU – Roman Voloshenko-17 (Patrick O’Sullivan, Erik Westrum) – 12:06 (pp)

Second Period

2. HAM – Maxim Lapierre-4 (Peter Vandermeer, Danny Syvret) – 9:15

3. HAM – Marc-Antoine Pouliot-6 (Andrei Kostitsyn, Dan Smith) – 10:49

4. HAM – Corey Locke-9 (Danny Syvret, Francis Lemieux) – 16:03 (pp)

Third Period

5. HAM – Francis Lemieux-7 (Peter Vandermeer, Maxim Lapierre) - 3:15

6. HAM – Duncan Milroy-8 (Jean-Francois Jacques, Corey Locke) – 8 :56

7. HAM – Michael Lambert-6 (Cory Urquhart) – 9:39

8. HAM – James Sanford-1 (Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Johnathan Aitken) – 9 :53

Goaltending

Hamilton: Yann Danis (17 shots, 16 saves)

Houston: Josh Harding (25 shots, 20 saves) / Seamus Kotyk (9 shots, 7 saves)

Three Stars

1) HAM – Maxim Lapierre

2) HAM – Francis Lemieux

3) HAM – Peter Vandermeer

Partsource Sparkplug of the Game: James Sanford

:hlogo: :ghg: :hlogo:

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