redondo

LOL reading this thread sounds like we just traded Cammalleri and Price for a bag of pucks. Chill out people, let's at least wait until Gauthier's done dealing to assess the damage. I for one am reserving my judgement, Moore is not a bad pickup for a team that has been icing an entire line of rookies out of necessity rather than choice. I understand the cap implications, but obviously Gauthier is not done. I'll be far more worried if the Frolov rumors come true......

McKenzie says it himself that this Turco thing makes no sense - and I agree with him. Why the hell would Gauther wanna do that, even if it could work capwise?

Presuming it was true, showing interest is one thing, and offering an adequate return on an asset is quite another - what makes you think that Gainey just didn't like what was offered in return, and decided to keep both goalies instead of risking losing a potential franchise netminder for short term gain. It seems like a sensible thing to do, given their age, ceiling and cap hit. I'm also highly suspect of Toronto media breaking anything Habs-related, not only from the point of view of accuracy, but impartiality as well. Think about it.

I also don't think the timing was half bad - this is just speculation, but Bob may have been ready to step down during the last offseason, but after the disaster of last season's collapse, I think he felt it was his duty to drastically change the culture of this team and not leave a rotten core to his replacement. Well, mission accomplished, while I am still not a fan of how he spent so close to the cap (and in general his cap management), most of us still like the new one much better, and he did leave Gauthier with enough good pieces to make some improvements on his own without having to (potentially) take a fall for a hi-risk retool that could've not worked. If you look at his short-term goal in terms of improving the culture and the base to build on (having recognised the failure of the 1st rebuild to make us a contender), rather than icing a contender this year at any cost, his behaviour this year in general makes sense. He also went and semi-fixed his own mistake in Laraque, rather than leaving that ballast to his replacement. And if you think Georges was vocal after universally respected Bob Gainey essentially fired him, you can only imagine what he'd have to say about just about anyone else - again, another quiet move that further helps stabilize this franchise. Having heard Gauthier's comments and slept on it, I feel a little better about this choice, thought he still wouldn't be my first choice for a GM. But there is enough there to suggest continuity, and since I liked Bob, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic, let's leave the man's actions to speak for themselves before we judge.....

+1

Let's hope they go thru a full-fledged interview process as opposed to knee-jerk promotion of Gauthier or Martin. I am also hoping that the process is less political then the hiring of the coach was - as long as that remains the case, we will always be relegated to second choices. Good luck to Gainey in his personal life, he deserves a little bit of privacy going forward. As far as replacement, I am hoping we can do better then Gauthier. I'm not very high on Tallon either, but personally wouldn't mind one of the Savards coming back (Serge or Andre), though it's very unlikely. In the meantime, all bets are off as far as which direction this franchise may take now. I'm with the majority on the board, not very optimistic to say the least.....

If we'd won this one, it was really an opportunity to drive a stake thru their hearts. I know there are still plenty of games to play, but personally I don't think the Bruins would've recovered from this to challenge for the playoffs again. Instead, we breathe new life into them and make it harder for ourselves, again. You can talk about the 33 year old rookie on one of the top lines, a bunch of kids on the 4th, Cammi out, and the fact that we stole a game from the B's last week we had no business being in. But the fact is you gotta take these chances when they present themselves, this team just does not have that killer instict, honestly the last time they remotely showed it was when Michel Therrien was the coach, and even then only in spurts.

And that's that.

I really don't see how we get Pleks resigned unless there are some major moves made beforehand, and the clock is ticking. IMO Gainey should get fired if he holds onto him and then loses him for nothing as a FA. Either trade him at the deadline, or move a few other contracts so you can resign him. But I am skeptical about seeing him in a habs uniform next year, here's hoping I'm wrong.

I think this should be a multiple choice poll, because it's not as simple as "trade whomever you can and tank" or "trade for help so we can claw our way in". In my opinion, if you can get rid of some suspect contracts, that's what you do, not to get a higher pick, but to improve the cap situation and manouverability for next season and beyond. If anyone would take Hamrlik off our hands that's a no-brainer - as CC mentioned in another thread as solid as he's been it may prove to be addition by substraction because you get to play Spaceman on his natural side OR if you can get rid of Spacek's contract you do that instead, but not both at the same time. If you can do one of those two and get either an expiring contract or a lesser one, or a pick/prospect in return you can start thinking about keeping both goalies for the short term, and delaying that decision for another six months to a year (also Halak might fetch you more as a signed roster player than as a pending RFA, he's playing more now so there's really no reason for him to consider KHL, especially as the economic climate over there changes). Finally, we're seeing signs of what people were afraid of at the start of the year - our small lineup is wearing down, they are getting hit, injured and slowly deplated. You can have all the heart you want, but you do need some protection and cannot completely negate lack of size (see Koivu, Saku) - I would consider picking up another Moen/Kostopulous-type guy or two, maybe even scourge the waivers for one (Gainey has done it before).

Without getting into who was right or who was wrong here, I think people calling each other out is exactly what you need at this point in time. Not pick on a single person consistently, but let people know when they need to work harder (and that's most of the team right now), and don't give anyone a free pass to coast, Markov, Price, anyone. The season is getting short.......and many of us are getting sick of the culture of enabling mediocrity that has permiated this club for a decade now. Enough. Yeah, one should be able to look in the mirror, but if you can't, your teammates should let you know where things stand.

I hope not, I don't think he's playing that bad - he's still rounding into shape. I have hopes for SK, he can be a hell of a player if he can recapture the bit of nastiness he had in his rookie season. You can say that about a couple of guys this year I guess (Lapierre?).....but even more importantly, I'm sick of losing good guys for nothing. Certainly a guy like Perezhogin would fit nicely on one of the first two lines right about now....

Based on the quote, this is a non issue - it's related to on-ice performance/dedication, and I'm not sure if it was warranted, but this is what vets are supposed to do, in limited doses... Price'll be fine with a little criticism, he's not Roy yet. The only thing this really proves is that Markov is ready to be our next captain.

Looks like our boy Georges may be going to Sweden..... Well, one for the road then....

+1 I don't want to jinx it, but so far Pouliot looks just great - the greatest testament to him is that he makes you not care what Latendresse does in Minny. And that fight was awesome, I think now that Laraque is gone the guys really want to show they won't be pushed around. Let's hope it lasts.

Well, just found out about this, not much more to add beyond what people had to say. Two things about Gainey from me though: 1. People make mistakes - one of the measures of a man is how quickly he can get beyond his ego, realize, and then correct that mistake. I know the majority of this board was extremely excited after Gainey followed up on the beatdown by the Flyers to sign Laraque. I was too, always thought the contract was way generous, but IF Laraque has brought what he was expected to (here and elsewhere) to the table, it wasn't an outrageous concept. As far as Gainey is concerned, the initial contract for Georges obviously was a mistake, but dumping him now is a way to correct it. Dumping him over the summer would have been even better though, and logical too, so that's two strikes against one positive in my book. 2. I said it this summer, and I still believe that Gainey's mission after last season wasn't as much to drastically improve the team on the ice to be an "instant contender" as it was to fundamentally change for good the attitude and spirit in the dressing room, and organization in general. The kind of player he was, it is obvious what went down last year must have sickened him. The kind of man he is, I think it is infinitely more important to him that once he's done with his tenure here (which I think will be sooner than later, but on his own terms) he leaves in place a good fundation, and an atmosphere as close to the one the dynasty teams had in the 50s, 60s, and 70s as can be possible given the different era and circumstances.

Really? I missed that one, where did you hear that?

Gotta have it....and we will. GO HABS GO!

I take it from the rest of your post that you meant to say that the one who will have to go is Halak, not Price..........

I just re-read the interview with Pouliot, and one thing stuck out - he said that he actually changed the way he plays in response to the trade, and that he'd never been a "crash the net" guy before. I never saw him play in Minny, but if this is true, it makes it that much more likely that he can sustain this type of play, and also goes towards explaining how a guy with this much talent didn't have better results prior to the trade.

LOL Dandenault "I may have missed your call I was out mowing the lawn"...... Boss?

I hope not.

Well, the Tampa-Devils game got suspended. Theoretically that should give them more rest since they didn't play the full game, however I'm guessing that waiting two hours to find out there was no game is no fun. I think they're prime for the taking, if the Habs would show up.

Actually I don't think that's too far fetched - given his form/contract I would give it a shot.....it would be great to get Spaceman going again! Hey, it helped Brisebois get from horrible to just mediocre.....

In general most GMs don't trade guys they just signed as free agents unless they totally suck, the whole thing falls apart and/or want out (see Samsonov). Mara hasn't been great, but if we start trading guys who signed as FAs liberally nobody will want to sign with us again. There is a reason you don't see this much around the league. Also, leave PK where he's at, he's doing well, but with only a half a season of pro hockey it really isn't enough of a sample size to be able to say he could definitely help the big club. Worst case scenario, you risk ruining his confidence by bringing him up too soon (see Latendresse) AND you lose a legit NHL d-man (such as he is) in Mara on an already thin D-corps. Let PK stay a year (and hopefully dominate) in the A, deal with (and hopefully overcome) some roadblocks, then see what he does in camp next year, IMO.