habscout

Does anyone know if the first round pick we obtained in the Rivet trade, was San Jose's or New Jersey's [from their previous trade for Malakhov] ?

He may have played well in those 2 games, but then he gave up 3 goals in 12 shots against Toronto, in a little over 14 minutes. Then he sat out the next straight 4 games, and then played the Maple Leafs again. That time, he only gave up 5 goals on 30 shots for the whole game. That must have been enough for the Flyers to see to know they had to make a move to get Biron, who will be a good challenger for Niitymaki, who ultimately may be the better goalie. Overall, I'm a little disappointed in this move, only because I had hoped that Halak would remain with the big club for the rest of the season. But, I do not mind Leighton as a goalie. I watched him play a number of games when he was in junior, and have seen him play well a couple of times in Chicago. However, this will be his fourth NHL team and he's only 25; to me he's just a stop-gap acquisition. For that reason, I still would rather have seen the Habs play Halak. Hopefully, Leighton won't be able to get to New York in time for tonight's game, and Halak will get one last chance to show what he can do before they send him down to Hamilton.

Coffee, as a weapon? I guess it's a step up from some accounts of road rage, where people have been shot. http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=614...mp;nav=ZolHbyvj

Here's a sign that the Habs really want to keep Lapierre up with the team for the rest of the season. They put Downey on 24 hour waivers today, as a move to free up space for the return of Alexei Kovalev. I guess the improved play of Garth Murray has helped his cause to stay with the pro club, since he was put on waivers earlier this month, without any takers amongst the rest of the league's teams. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...ortsHockey/home

This article by the IIHF gives ample praise to Red Fisher, an 80 year old journalist who has covered the Montreal Canadiens longer than anyone else alive. Let's hope he can do the same for another 20+ years. http://www.habsworld.net/out.php?3940

Why not ride the kid until he either loses or plays badly?

Well, we Habs fans have to keep some optimism that a playoff berth is still a possibility. I recall the Penguins had a 5 game losing streak twice this season, once in November and in December. You got to have faith!

Bad news for Mikhail Grabovsky, as he suffered a knee injury as a result of a knee-on-knee collision in Saturday's game, a 5-4 shootout loss. The early evaluation is that he'll be out for 2 weeks. http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs...l=1112274690756

I thought Markov played a bad game overall, against Pittsburgh, as he made some uncharacteristic poor decisions in a number of defensive situations.

Kudos to Brian LaRose, for his weekly article "HW Recap". It was mentioned on the Habsinsideout.com website on Jan.31; the URL is listed near the bottom of the paragraph. http://www.habsinsideout.com/2007/01/noise...ally_fi_1/#more

http://www.habsworld.net/out.php?3839 Of course, the actual article came from the Canadian Press, which is why it doesn't have the usual anti-Montreal bias that TSN gives the Habs.

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/blackhawks.asp?id=274800 Near the bottom of this article, it mentions that Montreal had a scout in Chicago, and the speculation is the player they were looking at was centre Bryan Smolinski.

I can think of a few others that were rushed after Tremblay. Doug Wickenheiser for one; maybe if this guy had been allowed to stay in the WHL until he was 20 & possibly a season or more in the AHL , then he may have been more mature and better able to adjust to the pressure of pro hockey in Montreal. Petr Svoboda also made the jump straight to the Habs as an 18 year old. Mikey Ribeiro was 19 when he was kept on the squad too. I think there may be more, but your point is still very valid, that the Habs generally do not bring a player up to the pros until their junior eligibility is done.

I really like Grabovski's ability. He will make this squad next season, and barring any serious injuries should be a regular within the next 2 seasons.

Nice report Dan! If the Habs biggest problem is having too much depth in their system, well that's a beautiful problem to have. :-)

I just added a preview for tonight's game; it's up on the front page now. http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=1307 Personally, I'd like to see Carbonneau try the Kovalev-Koivu-Perezhogin line that once worked, at the start of last season; similary, the Latendresse-Lapierre-Streit line deserves more than just a few shifts together too. If he's going to juggle the lines so much, why not try a few combinations that have worked in the past?

Good article about former habs. I especially liked his story about a fight with Bill Plager at the end of the article. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscribe...p-4449236c.html

I just visited the URL, and there's no mention of Markov anywhere. I've tried searching the site and could find nothing about him either. If you can find it again (maybe it's still in your cache), please post it here. It doesn't matter if the content is in French.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&am...rticleid=287218

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=2727810 Great, great article about a great, great Habs team from the past. One of my all time favourites.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...ee-3ccad162389a http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/16431303.htm Nice tributes to former habs & Flyer Eric Desjardins. His hat trick in game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup final is a special Habs moment that I won't ever forget.

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs...l=1112274690734 If I was Aebischer, I would be concerned. I believe there will be a new backup for the Habs next season, whether it's Danis or Halak remains to be seen. Huet's solid play this season gives the team a lot of confidence. So long as he keeps it up, he will be the Habs #1 goalie for a while.

Congrats to Halak & Kostsitsyn! Dan, you beat me to this post by about 15 minutes!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...orts/columnists Good article about the maintenance of the Stanley Cup silver rings. Every 13 years, a set of previous Cup winning teams has to be removed to make room for newer championships. The decision to do so was done back in 1992, otherwise the Cup would have become too big to carry. One of the highlights is the fact that if Toronto does not win another Cup within the next 26 years, then all their current Cup winning teams will be gone! The remaining rings are on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If Philadelphia makes that trade, then Paul Holmgren better update his resume and start looking for a new job. Pitkanen is one of the few bright spots on that bad Flyers club. He's a franchise type player, and if any team moves such a player away they better be getting back a high value. Lupul isn't bad, and Torres is ok. This type of trade would haunt the Flyers the way the Joe Thornton trade is haunting the Bruins.