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Report - Habs Rookies Lose 3-2 With Pictures


theflower

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Hi guys,

I just wanted to say I was at the game today and it was pretty fun. At times it was a little boring, but nonetheless, with the exception of a few knucklehead Leaf fans sitting behind me and making fun outloud about Frechette after he was hit knee on knee and levelled to the ice, they were lucky I didn't get up and drill them both in the head to be honest. Other than that, I had a good time. I took my sweet digital camera and uploaded a ton of pics about 120 I think to my flickr website at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greezybro/

Feel free to have a look and tell me if you like any. I was shooting like a mad man not really looking at the shots just firing away in hopes of a few good ones. Anyway onto the player reviews. I must start by saying that I was really focussed on Grabovski most of the game, as I think he is about the only player who has a chance of making the big squad, so some other players got less attention, to be fair I am keeping most player reports short unless something important happened with them.

Mathieu Aubin - Played a good game, honestly though, he does need at least a few more years of seasoning at 19 years old, I would put him at playing in Hamilton for at least 3 years and after that who knows. He does have good size and he has decent wheels, I just don't know if he will ever be NHL material. Grade - B

Kyle Chipchura - Well, what can I say, he continues to impress me with his skill, his speed, his grit and frankly he reminds me of a carbo, muller, jarvis type more and more. He does alot of the little things right and he uses his head, which I think is his greatest asset. Nevermind his leadership abilities. After the game, when walking towards the dressing room lets just say he let out some words loudly to describe how unhappy he was with the outcome. He definitely has a winner, leader type A personality. I for one see him on the Habs in 2 years and perhaps a future Captain. Grade - A

Mathew D'Agostini - This kid just better and better each time I see him. He looks really quick on the ice and he has great vision. He also has good hands and a quick release that I noticed during his goal. For 19 years old, he has a future in the NHL, although in what role who knows. In about 3 years time he may be a 1st or 2nd line player, but 3rd or 4th would probably be he is more likely destination. Grade -A

Mikhail Grabovski - Other than John Mitchell who I hate to say it, was outstanding in this tournament for the Leafs, Grabs was special on the ice yet again in so many ways. The first period was all Toronto and they really did a good job bottling him up, but after that he was flying around the ice. I tell you, if his English was better he might have got alot more opportunities. He has a great knack for finding open ice and space to move in and honestly with some talented players, I think he could be scary good. It would be a travesty to keep this guy in Hamilton and frankly, If I see ribs playing between Kovy and Sammy over this guy, someone must have lost their mind. He is the guy for that line without a doubt. His only problem will be whether management is ready to move Ribs and maybe Abs for some defenceman to allow this kid to come up. As it looks to me there may not be a spot for any rooks on the team we have this year and that would be a disappointment. Grabs has been playing in the 2nd best league in the world for some years now, Hamilton would be a major step back for him in his growth. Grade - A

Sergei Kostitsyn - Another good night for Kosty Jr. You can see some chemistry between him and Grabs that I didn't see in Game 1. He looks good on the ice and you can see he is clearly a future NHLer. I think if their is any chance he can play in Hamilton this year over London, he will only get better and fast. From what I have seen, he is a really quick learner and thats a good thing. He did take a few lazy hooking type penalties which I did not like but still he played well enough for me to forget about that. The Grabs-Kosty-Aubin line was the best on the ice for us and Kosty was a big part of that. Grade - B+

Guillaume Latendresse - Some people are not going to like what I have to say about him, but frankly he is not the real deal. The french media are dying for a French-Canadien hero and from what I have seen he is not it. Don't get me wrong, he has talent, he is good with the puck, he has good vision, he has good hands, now the bad, he at least in this game took some bad penalties and the worst thing is, HE CANNOT SKATE!!! In the old NHL he could have made it, now unless he gets someone to teach him how to skate and maybe have him lift weights to get his leg strength up to that of an ox, he is way, way, way too slow. We were commenting as we watched the game that it looked like he was dragging a horse and buggy behind him as he laboured up the ice. It was awful to watch. Where did he learn that stride and who the heck taught him how to skate should be shot, honestly, I couldn't stop laughing. All that being said, his other abilities might be enough for him to make the pros, but personally, he wouldn't play on my team, not in this NHL anyway. Grade - A (Skating - F)

Ben Maxwell - He gets my "lock" to be a future habs vote. I was so impressed by this 18 year old, I can't begin to tell you. He is multi-talented and he just looks great out there. Works hard every shift, moves around the ice with ease and he clearly has alot of talent. I personally think, he was the steal of the draft for us and we really got a stud in this kid. He seems to have a presence on the ice like a veteran, he played with Chips alot and he was outstanding. Ben Maxwell you are the future, don't stop doing whatever you have been doing, because if you keep going like this you are going to be a really good NHLer. Grade - A+

Juraj Mikus - Well, whatever aspirations he has for the NHL are clearly well off in the distance. I am not going to say he is a bad player as he is clearly not. He just is a player though, nothing really special about him. Does nothing badly, but then again does nothing great. Good future Bulldog at best in my opinion. Grade - C

Gregory Stewart - I will say what I said again on Friday, this kid looks big and he looks tough. In this game he did not impose his will as much and I was kind of hoping he would. He is a good skater, gritty and goes hard into the corners every shift, I like him and his style of play. Is he a future NHLer, maybe he could grow into a good checking forward. Grade - B

Ryan White - Unfortunately, if we are comparing 18 year olds to 18 year olds, I am taking Ben Maxwell over Ryan White everyday of the week, but they are different types of players and while I think Ryans is still a tweener and needs alot more work, I can see potential in him. I know he is only 6'0" but he looks big to me for some reason and he plays with an edge to him and I like that. I want to see how a few years in Calgary and a year or two in Hamilton help this kid get better, but I like him and think his upside is good. Grade - B

Mathieu Carle - He impressed me with his skating ability, as it was very good. He has to work more on his positional play and to be a good defenceman he has to use his body more. It seemed when he went in the corners he preferred to stick check guys for the puck as opposed to burying them. On the upside though, when he takes off with the puck he looks silky smooth. Obviously at 18 he has alot of time to fill out and get bigger. I like what I see in him and clearly his is a good future prospect for us. Grade - B

Cameron Cepek - did not play

Jon Gleed - He played a pretty decent game. Again I don't see a future for him with the Habs, but in Hamilton he has a good one. He took a few dumb penalties which hurt us and he is an average skater at best. The upside on him is that he has a little mean streak to him and I like that, but thats where it ends for me. Grade - C

Ryan O'Byrne - He is the only other guy I see in this camp that has a chance to make the Habs. I will tell you he is raw, maybe not big enough yet and he still needs to fill out in the middle, but where are we going to find a 6'5" guy that can skate backwards and forwards so well, has a decent shot and good puckhandling skills. This guy could be a monster with the right coaching. The fact is we are a little thin on defence and frankly, I would prefer this guy over Streit anyday, because he is young and clearly ready to learn on a new level. He plays smart positional hockey and seems to be a very cool customer on the blue line, these are huge traits to have to be a good NHLer. Grade - A

Carey Price - I take back what I said the other day about Price's glove hand, today it looked great. He played very well in net, and yes he did have a few dicey moments, but more than anything, I think those big nets were the problem. The reason, I think Price was rated so high is really because, he is an excellent positional goalie. Infact he reminds me of a young Huet, with his quietness in the crease and his very effortless style of goaltending. I am looking forward to his growth and I hope he gets to Hamilton by next year. All things look good for the kid. Grade - A

Of course the rest of the players were there as invitees, but I am going to give a big shout out to the play and the effort of one Frederic St. Denis. He scored a goal in the game, was a very exciting offensive defenceman in the game. In alot of ways he reminds me of Cube squared. I want to say, he earned an invite to camp with his play, and I for one will be cheering for him to get a chance to go to training camp with the Canadiens. He was one of the better players on the ice the whole game through. He is very quick, he moves very well with the puck and defensively he is quite sound on both his positional play and his checking. I like the kid, Bob give him a chance and sign him for Hamilton we could use him. Grade - A

Thats all for now guys I hope you like the read and I hope you all share with me training camp in Montreal as I would love for you all to keep the rest of us Canadiens fans outside of Montreal informed on our beloved Habs.

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Dude,

That is an absolutley fantastic journey through your eyes of our youth. I for one appreciate the honesty of your perspective and willingness to say what is hard to hear/read (see Guillaume).

I am super pumped about some of the more exciting things you discussed such as Grabovsky, Chipchura, Maxwell, O'Byrne and Kostitsyn. Some of the other outsiders also sound intriguing and here's hoping Price has another good developmental progression-type season.

Thank you very sincerely for going through all of the effort to bring us this much closer to our future.

Peace.

p.s. And check out Kosty Jr. wearing Stephan Lebeau's old #47, I love it!

Edited by The Saint
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Dude,

That is an absolutley fantastic journey through your eyes of our youth. I for one appreciate the honesty of your perspective and willingness to say what is hard to hear/read (see Guillaume).

I am super pumped about some of the more exciting things you discussed such as Grabovsky, Chipchura, Maxwell, O'Byrne and Kostitsyn. Some of the other outsiders also sound intriguing and here's hoping Price has another good developmental progression-type season.

Thank you very sincerely for going through all of the effort to bring us this much closer to our future.

Peace.

p.s. And who is that wearing Stephan Lebeau's old #47???

can you say Kostitsyn hehe kinda interesting and thanks for the kind words. Doing a game report is a really hard thing. I tell you you forget half of the stuff you wanted to say and I just try to give as much info as I can. I hope some of you are able to use some of those pictures for your wallpapers and sigs and so on. I just was like a kid in the candy store with my dam camera. I was clicking like a fool hehe.

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Thanks theflower,...great report, nicely laid-out and very comprehensible.

I am surprised that you mentioned Chipchura as being a fast skater because I thought

he was a slow skater during the pre-season games I saw at the Bell last year....of course

he might have improved his skating....but from slow all the way to fast seems hardly

possible.

More puzzling is your description of Latendresse as being soooo slow.....last year at the Bell

his skating I hardly noticed.....which I thought was a good thing since I was expecting to be

dispointed by it.

I like how you described Huet's style, not an easy thing to do,...but you nailed it right on,...

and yes, from what I remember of Price last year, your right again about presenting the two under

the same perspective.

Edited by PB
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Sometimes I think we forget the obvious. We lost to the Leafs prospects. What does that say? I know that most people will say, "Ah no big deal, it's just prospect camp." However if we would have pummelled them 8-2, then the big story would be how good we are.

There is all this talk about how our farm system is the best and how we have all these superstars-to-be in the minors, well if that is so why can't they win. If Price is going to be an amazing NHLer, why can't he beat out Pogge or 2 other goalies for a job on the Junior team.

Sometimes I think we see everything through rose coloured glasses and have this twisted vision of how good these players are.....chances are 2 or 3 of these guys will be regulars in the NHL, but listening to some of the comments here you would think that these guys are all going to be 1st line forwards and Norris winning defensemen.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I hope Canadiens fans are not turning into Toronto fans. We have been bad for a quite a few years now and we are always saying, "We're be there in a couple of years, we are building our team the RIGHT WAY, through draft picks." I have been listening to people say that for the last 10 years. Basically Toronto fans have been soooo bad for soooo long that they grasp for anything positive and go with it, we have never been that way, but I start to see it now, I just hope we can put a product on the ice this year that can produce, so people don't come onto this forum after games and complain about officiating and make excuses for why we lose.

Sorry about the rant, it's just something that has been bothering me for years now, I can't remember the last season where all my habs friends went into the year thinking we wouldn't make a run for the cup and surprise some people....yet it hasen't happened in over a decade, we have been a sub par team, in fact in the last 12 years our record is significantly worse than the Leafs yet we always make excuses and say this is the year, and go back to our history and previous Cup wins.

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Thanks for this report. It is nice to have an inside track.

BTW: Anyone know when the cuts are for who goes and doesn't go to main camp and 2; when will the cuts be made public? Today or tomorrow?

Also, let's make our guesses.

D'Agostini, Maxwell, Latendresse, Grabovsky, Chipchura and who else is gonna make it?

Edited by ATHLÉTIQUE.CANADIEN
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Let us not forget also, that Latendresse has been off the ice for a month now... would definetly take some speed off of his stride...

Also, Ryder isn't exactly the best skater in the world either, but he knows how to score goals!

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Thanks for this report. It is nice to have an inside track.

BTW: Anyone know when the cuts are for who goes and doesn't go to main camp and 2; when will the cuts be made public? Today or tomorrow?

Also, let's make our guesses.

D'Agostini, Maxwell, Latendresse, Grabovsky, Chipchura and who else is gonna make it?

I think we'll know really fast.

I agree with all those choices but you forgot Carey Price.

I think that aubin should be invited. ditto Matthieu carle and ryan o'byrne..kostitsyn desesrves to be invited as well.

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Thanks for all the feedback guys, firstly Frechette was the guy who got drilled knee on knee from where i was sitting it happened right in front of me and 2 dumbass leaf fans started to laugh and said get up !@@##, stop crying and making cry baby noises and stuff, it was totally classless in so many ways, they were this close to getting laid out by me for acting like idiots, but then i thought hey...they are leaf fans so they are already idiots.

Anyways as far as the skating thing goes, Chips looks quick, I don't know if its decieving because of his size, but when he turns and steps on an angle to move to a place he surely has a quick first step and thats really what you notice. As far as Latendresse goes and I played hockey throughout all my youth and was the fastest skater I know as a kid and let me tell you I went to power skating and figure skating to get my skating skills up, if you look at his stride for one, it is horrible and for 2, I don't know who he was skating with last year but next to almost everyone on the ice he is about the slowest skater I have ever seen, although in a race against Ribs it might be a dead heat, because he is one of the slowest skaters I have seen. I use them as comparison, because I have seen both of them skate live on more than one occasion and frankly they both suck at skating. While you reference Ryder being slow he is infact not the best skater, but he does have a decent stride. Skating is alll about posture and good release through the legs with your upper body being as still as possible to gain momentum and speed. Skaters like Ribs and Latendresse do and up and down pumping motion when they start to take and and continue it when they get into stride. That up and down motion during their stride uses more energy than a regular stride and therefore results in less speed and more up and down going nowwhere fast skating. Hence why we were laughing yesterday, because he looking like a horse pulling a carriage. In skating power is derived from your legs your upper body is just for balance. Somewhere along the line Ribs and Latendresse have never had good skating teachers and frankly never built their leg muscles up enough.

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Thanks for all the feedback guys, firstly Frechette was the guy who got drilled knee on knee from where i was sitting it happened right in front of me and 2 dumbass leaf fans started to laugh...

They will get theirs. Kovalev will just have to nail Tucker twice as hard next go :P

Somewhere along the line Ribs and Latendresse have never had good skating teachers and frankly never built their leg muscles up enough.

We'll have to get Mr. Miyagi, Kwai Chang Caine and Henri Ducard to teach them to "wax on, wax off" while Miyagi go "Golf 'N' Stuff" and then time to "sand floor", "paint de fence" and "power skate"!

miyagi-773738.jpg

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Great pictures. What kind of cam do you have? I wasn't so luck with the pictures I got during the prospect camp, heh.

I was using my Olympus EVOLT 500 digital SLR. It looks like a real camera with a 300X zoom lens on it which allowed me to get all those pics that looked like i was really close to the ice instead of 15 rows up where i was sitting. At first I had it on the wrong setting then I changed to sport and literally was taking shot after shot in hopes to get a good one. I took over 120 shots and i could have taken 1000, but I thought it would take me forever to upload hehe.

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Thanks for all the feedback guys, firstly Frechette was the guy who got drilled knee on knee from where i was sitting it happened right in front of me and 2 dumbass leaf fans started to laugh and said get up !@@##, stop crying and making cry baby noises and stuff, it was totally classless in so many ways, they were this close to getting laid out by me for acting like idiots, but then i thought hey...they are leaf fans so they are already idiots.
As far as Latendresse goes and I played hockey throughout all my youth and was the fastest skater I know as a kid and let me tell you I went to power skating and figure skating to get my skating skills up, if you look at his stride for one, it is horrible and for 2, I don't know who he was skating with last year but next to almost everyone on the ice he is about the slowest skater I have ever seen, although in a race against Ribs it might be a dead heat, because he is one of the slowest skaters I have seen.

Duuude! Those are looooong sentences. :wacko:

Interesting insight on skating however. ;)

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Sometimes I think we forget the obvious. We lost to the Leafs prospects. What does that say? I know that most people will say, "Ah no big deal, it's just prospect camp." However if we would have pummelled them 8-2, then the big story would be how good we are.

There is all this talk about how our farm system is the best and how we have all these superstars-to-be in the minors, well if that is so why can't they win. If Price is going to be an amazing NHLer, why can't he beat out Pogge or 2 other goalies for a job on the Junior team.

Sometimes I think we see everything through rose coloured glasses and have this twisted vision of how good these players are.....chances are 2 or 3 of these guys will be regulars in the NHL, but listening to some of the comments here you would think that these guys are all going to be 1st line forwards and Norris winning defensemen.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I hope Canadiens fans are not turning into Toronto fans. We have been bad for a quite a few years now and we are always saying, "We're be there in a couple of years, we are building our team the RIGHT WAY, through draft picks." I have been listening to people say that for the last 10 years. Basically Toronto fans have been soooo bad for soooo long that they grasp for anything positive and go with it, we have never been that way, but I start to see it now, I just hope we can put a product on the ice this year that can produce, so people don't come onto this forum after games and complain about officiating and make excuses for why we lose.

Sorry about the rant, it's just something that has been bothering me for years now, I can't remember the last season where all my habs friends went into the year thinking we wouldn't make a run for the cup and surprise some people....yet it hasen't happened in over a decade, we have been a sub par team, in fact in the last 12 years our record is significantly worse than the Leafs yet we always make excuses and say this is the year, and go back to our history and previous Cup wins.

It doesn't mean that the Leafs have better prospects than us because they won the game. Aside for the fact that not all of our top youth played in this game/tournament (Fischer, Cepek for this game, all the guys already with the Habs) and for the fact that it's only a single game... we must remember the ages of the players. Most of our top prospects are 18 or 19 years old. Maybe they were getting owned by some 21 year old Leaf prospects, who knows. A player can develop a lot lot in these early years.

Let's just wait and see. Losing these games doesn't bother me one bit.

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Whatever happens to the prospects we have, I'm enjoying seeing the development. I'm enjoying seeing the rise of those who grow, get closer and finally make the main team.

It's fun. :):):)

:king: :hlogo: :king:

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