habscout

I'm not willing to give up on him so soon. He does have some good offensive ability, there is no doubt. I believe he needs some more experience to adapt to the NHL.

While the Habs did limit the Flyers to 5 shots on goal in 8 PP attempts, they did allow 2 goals. So, the penalty killing was doing well in one sense, but the end result wasn't great. On the 2nd goal Bouillon skated away from the front of the net to leave Richards all alone to score.

I'm predicting a 3-2 win for the Habs. It should be a good game.

I'd rather see the Habs give him extra time to heal for two reasons. First, groin injuries are notoriously difficult to predict how quickly they'll heal, so it's better to be conservative and allow extra time. Second, if Zednik isn't back until Saturday's game, then I believe he will have missed 10 games. If that happens, then I believe the Habs gain a little against the league salary cap, since they won't have to count his salary over that 10 game period, based on the rules of the new CBA. Would anyone like to calculate how much money that amount to? My best guess is 23-24 days out of the approximately 6 months plus 2 weeks [Oct.5 through April 18] that the players are paid their full salaries for the regular season. Zednik's salary is $1,824,000 this season, so 24 days represents around 12% of the season, or about $223,346 worth of cap room. That may not seem like a huge amount, but when it comes time for the trade deadline, it may be helpful in absorbing a big name/salaried player to add to the Habs roster.

I believe that championship teams start with players like Begin. Nearly every Cup winning team I've ever seen has more than one player like Begin, and they are very important to helping their team attain the big prize.

Yeah, I wonder if the folks at TSN will read this? :-)

Hey, you're welcome. I thought this was a good article to add to the preview. I'm not sure if Hitchcock is truly sincere with his comments, or if he said what he said to indirectly help get his team properly motivated to face Montreal, much like Bowman used to do to his Habs teams from the 1970's dynasty. -Norm

It looks like Sunny may be out for the next game. He missed Thursday's practice, and is listed as day to day. It's a strained groin, which appears to be the most "popular" NHL injury this season. Groin injuries can sometimes be difficult to heal, since players utilize the underlying muscles greatly when they skate. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/shownews.js...ontent=o102011A http://radio-canada.ca/sports/HockeyNHL/20...romBlesse.shtml

That shows that the TSN writer/editor is only looking at statistics, and not the right ones. Markov has been leading the Habs defence so far this season, and TSN should have noticed his ice time stats. He's been a great leader and it's a matter of time before he starts increasing his offensive stats.

Danis played a steady game. I don't believe he had very many tough saves to make, and the Habs defence did a fine job in clearing most rebounds for him; all he did was stop the puck, which is all you can ask for a backup. I did like the kids' demeanour, as he did not appear nervous or rattled at anything the Thrashers through at him.

If we're talking about the first two regular season games, then I'll have to state that Bouillon has been outstanding in both. Markov was incredible last night, particularly in his defensive game, as he was able to help neutralize Jagr several times, while displaying some smart plays on offence. Rivet has been steady, and if he continues he won't be the target of the home town boo-birds; I'll predict that Dagenais will take on that role. Souray had an off game overall, but he did make a few good plays later in the game. I'm wondering if his alleged injury late in the exhibition season is taking a toll on him? Komisarek has been playing steady, particularly in his positioning, as he wasn't surprised by any of the Rangers or Bruins speedier forwards. Dandenault has been above average. He appears to pinch in or jump in to the play at the wrong time once per game, so much so that his speed doesn't allow him to get back into the play. He does this more than once per game, but the other times his skating ability has helped him recover. He still needs to adjust to the way the officials call infractions in the "new" NHL, to ensure his team doesn't get penalized too often, but that can be said about nearly every NHL defenceman so far this season.

Oh, I'm looking forward to seeing Perezhogin play on the first line; I hope he can click with his new line mates. I also thought that Plekanec played pretty well on that line during last night's game.

I disagree. This was not a 'good' game. The Canadiens were fortunate to win this one, as they were out played for at least half of the game. They played well for most of the first period, fell asleep in the second, and woke up again late in the third. If it wasn't for Theodore, the team would have been out of it.

I'm hoping for a Habs win, but it will be tough to do in Boston. My prediction is for a shoot out win, 4-3.

I for one cannot wait for the start of the season. The Habs are in a tough position for the first three road games, but I'm confident they'll at least be at .500 for their home opener.

Benoit sounds like a good prospect. It seems that Andre Savard should get some credit for encouraging Benoit to sign with the Habs, as the article indicated that 6 teams were interested in inviting him to their training camps. I believe that the habs relative lack of depth at defencemen [compared to forwards & goalies] makes signing him a good move. It's still very likely that he'll end up in the AHL to start the season, but he could be a good depth player that gets a call up to the pros should he continue to impress at the minor league level.

I'm a little disappointed that Lapierre did not get a chance to play 1 exhibition game. I truly believe that he's the type of player that will ultimately be a great 4th liner for the Habs. I base that on three important factors: his style of play is similar to Begin's, providing high tempo and energy; he has a reputation as an agitator, exchanging verbal barbs with the opposition to get them off their game; he has a decent skill set and has grown into a pro sized body over the 2 years since the Habs drafted him. I believe he's shown committment to becoming a pro, but I'm also not surprised that the Habs are showing some patience with him. I'll predict that he'll make the Habs squad in either the 2006-07 or 2007-08 season.

It's good to hear that Theodore is on board. I personally think that 3 year contracts are the way to go. Anything more is too long, as a lot can change over the course of one season, sometimes even less than a season. Now, only Ryder is left to sign. Fortunately, Ryan Malone was just signed the other day, but I haven't heard what the terms of his contract are worth.for one year at $750K. I'm sure that Ryder will settle for a figure between that and the $1M Trent Hunter received.

I don't think you got my point. I'm saying that either Dorion or Houle got the blame for chosing Chouinard over Gagne. It's particularly poignant since there were others on the Habs scouting staff that talked to RDS the day before the draft, indicating that they were targetting Gagne. I don't buy your argument of placing the same type of blame on the rest of the league's scouts & GMs, because my point is based on the article RDS released the day before the draft, which as I stated indicates the Habs were leaning towards picking Gagne, then when their turn came up, something happened and they chose a different player. At the time, I recall that Houle was still hung up on making the team bigger, thus the selection of Chouinard over Gagne made some sense in that regard. The scouting reports did show Chouinard to be more of a shooter, but his skating was suspect. Gagne's report indicated he was better as a playmaker, was a better skater, better all around, used as a checker and on the power play. Chouinard had the size advantage over Gagne obviously, but their stats were approximately the same in their draft season if you average out Gagne's stats over the same number of games as Chouinard. Something to consider was that Chouinard's father was the head coach, so the nepotism should have allowed Eric more ice time than Simon, but I'm not sure that was the case. Gagne suffered a broken hand midway through the season, which is why he only played 53 games, and missed the first 2 games of the playoffs.

http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/186433.html Translation available here: http://translation.langenberg.com/ This reference came up at the end of an article about Stephane Quintal, and thought it was worthy of its own thread. The RDS article mentioned that the Habs fired Pierre Dorion, who was the team's Amateur Scouting Coordinator, and formerly the team's Chief of scouting [June 1998]. It's interesting that it also mentioned that Dorion was the one who recommended that Habs draft Eric Chouinard in the 1999 draft, over Simon Gagne, who was still on the board. I remember reading an article in RDS the day before that draft, that mentioned that someone in the Habs scouting staff was recommending that Gagne be selected if he were available when the Habs picked. I later read that Houle took the credit for the selection, claiming that the Habs needed larger skilled forwards. He also later took the blame, so I'm not sure now who ultimately was responsible for this major draft blunder, Houle for listening to Dorion over the other Habs scouts, or Dorion for suggesting Chouinard at all. Of a lesser note, Trent Mcleary is no longer listed as the Western Canada scout on the www.canadiens.com website, having been replaced by Vaughn Karpan.

http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/186433.html As a player on the ice, I liked Quintal. He was tough, usually did not make many defensive mistakes, and fought anyone when the situation warranted it. Off the ice, he was long rumoured to be a leak to the media, discussing things that should probably been left in the dressing room. Now, as a fan I am a little torn by a player who decides to do this. On one hand, it's good to read a little bit of dirt on players. On the other, Quintal may have been fabricating stories from time to time just to get some extra attention. There's no doubt that the media in Montreal, especially the french media, loved having Quintal as an inside source.

One report from RDS has Theodore asking for $22.5M over 4 years [$5.625M per season]. Wow! I was hoping his demands would be somewhat lower. It's possible that the 2 sides will ultimately close in on a figure closer to $5M per season over 4 seasons. Here is the RDS article, with a Google translation to English. The article was written by Yvon Pedneault, so take it with a grain of salt. http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...ues/186709.html :ghg:

If the rumours are true about Luongo's last offer of $5M per season just before the arbitration, then Luongo's agent should be fired since he screwed his client over big time. As per Theodore, if he goes to arbitration, then he'll be awarded more than Luongo. Theodore has playoff wins and playoff series wins to his credit, not to mention a Vezina; none of these items Luongo can claim and I'm sure that along with regular seasons stats, these facts are weighed heavily by an arbitrator. In my opinion, things like "potential" and International experiences don't count in determining an arbitrated salary.

I found a reference to Ryder's negotiations this morning on a non-Habs website that may explain the delay in Ryder signing with the Habs. Apparently, the Penguins forward Ryan Malone is also a RFA, and his agent is looking for a contract at around what Trent Hunter was signed for, which would be a $500K increase to just over $1M per season. Malone's agent compared his client to players like Hunter, Ryder & Henrik Zetterberg, in terms of production in the 2003-04 season. Now, I believe that all 3 agents for these clients are trying to negotiate a contract similar to what Hunter has now, and that's why the negotiations have dragged out for all of them. Considering the worth of each of these players to their respective teams, I think that $1M contracts are reasonable, but of course each team's cap status varies. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-re...e/s_367183.html

Heh, I think this rumour stands a better chance than the Habs ever dealing Marcel to Ottawa while Marion was there. A more likely scenario has Hossa either being traded to a Western conference team, or perhaps being claimed by Atlanta via waivers, should Hossa start the season in Montreal, falter then be sent down to Hamilton. I believe he is out of options, so if he is sent to the AHL he would be eligible to be selected by any team via waivers.