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Goalies are awesome. I read somewhere that either Gilles Meloche or Gilles Gilbert (I can't remember which one) thought that being a goalie was punishment for something he's done in a past life.

There is a 0% chance of Anaheim wanting Ribeiro.

Agreed. Dubé is the reason I listen to CKAC for Habs game broadcasts.

YES! You are officially my hero, Doktor Kosmos, I love the jazz Don Cherry...

Markov has 9 points in 10 games. How much do you want him to "show" offensively?

I personally hate shootouts, but it dawned on me Saturday night that they are probably a good idea for the general health of the league: I was watching the game, and my Dad came into the room and watched the last five minutes and OT with me. My Dad doesn't really care about hockey - he didn't even see a game he was 30 or so (he is an immigrant), and even then didn't really take to it. He briefly was interested during the Oilers runs in the 1980s, but stopped watching after that Oilers team was broken up. Anyway... so here comes the shootout Saturday night... and he was absolutely enthralled. He LOVED it, he thought it was so much fun. I'm assuming that there are thousands more people out there like my Dad who are kind of/sort of fans, but really like the shootout. And ultimately, these are the people the NHL needs to please. People like us will watch anyway.

I personally don't really care about HD... is it really THAT much better of a viewing experience? Just curious...

It looks like we'll be picking in the 20s somewhere... Esposito will go Top 5 or Top 10 worst-case. If you're moving up that much specifically to get a certain player, then you'd better be damn sure he's going to be an impact guy... or it had better be because of special circumstances (i.e. the Canucks moving up to get both Sedins). And as good as Esposito looks, I'm wouldn't call him a sure thing. So no, I don't think Montreal should move up especially to get him. Now, if Gainey pulls off a Pollock-esque trade and somehow ends up with a Top 3 pick, that's a different story... Why is that? I'm just curious about your reasoning... :hlogo:

Born, raised in the NWT, went to England for school. Back here temporarily.

Vishnevsky is a late bloomer... he was an absolute beast as a junior (drafted #5 overall in '98), but took a LOT of time adjusting to the pro game (and perhaps the larger rink). He's been playing at a pretty high level since last year... he's good enough to play 20 minutes a game on most teams in the NHL.

Watch "The Wire", it's evidently not very far off from the Baltimore reality...

I don't even remember anymore. I was living in England and was starved for information on the Habs, and I ran into this site. Don't remember how or when.... I just did. Glad I did though... these message boards are absolutely amazing. People are actually reasonable here, and use "evidence" when backing up their claims!

Je n'habite plus au Québec, donc je n'ai pas la chance d'écouter beaucoup de télé/radio sportive Montréalais... mais j'aime beaucoup écouter CKAC pendant les matchs, je l'aime mieux que CJAD.

Bad analogy. I understand and agree that statistics don't tell the whole story, but record sales reflect people's personal tastes and NOT the quality of the musician(s) in question. Hockey statistics are much, much, much, much closer to being accurate records of players' hockey ability. And plus, that argument only works if the Backstreet Boys began their career in Czechoslovakia, sold the most albums there there for about a decade, only got their first North American record contract at an advanced age, then dominated North American music market until they were as old as the Rolling Stones. Don't forget that Hasek lost quite a few good years in Czechoslovakia (where he was goalie of the year from 1986 to 1990). Roy might be a better goalie, he Hasek was certainly not a "flash in the pan".

I don't really want to get drawn into a Hasek v. Roy argument... I've already threw my lot in with Hasek, but I can definitely understand why everyone else is picking Roy. Just three things I wanted to mention: -Using that the argument that Roy was a cultural phenomenon and Hasek wasn't isn't valid. I've been to the Czech Republic, and I can tell you with certainty that Hasek is a national hero there, as much if not more than Roy is in Quebec/Canada. Of course Hasek isn't as big of a cultural phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic; he's not one of ours, and Roy is. -It's clear that Roy changed the game more than every goalie in hockey history except for maybe Jacques Plante. But remember that Hasek has changed the game too, albeit not as much as Roy. Next time Aebischer is swimming around in his crease without a goal stick, remember that before Hasek, goalies didn't DARE do snow angels in their crease (at least, not nearly as often). -Roy obviously has the better playoff resume, but Hasek's is still pretty impressive. The '96 Avs vs. '02 Wings argument is pointless; what seems more important to me is that Roy at his peak consistently played on better teams than Hasek did in his prime, and it wasn't even close. Some of Hasek's Buffalo teams were atrocious: in 96-97, Derek freaking Plante led the team in scoring; in 97-98, Miro Satan led the team with 46 points in 79 GP; those teams had the likes of Brian Holzinger, Randy Burridge, Jason Dawe and Michal Grosek playing on scoring lines. Given talent like this, Hasek was never going to win any Cups in Buffalo; no goalie in NHL history would have won any Cups with a supporting crew like that (and Hasek came very, very close). Hasek still, however, put up monster #s in the playoffs: 93-94: 1.61 GAA, .950 SV% (first round loss) 94-95: 3.49 GAA, .863 SV% (his only bad playoff year in Buffalo, unsurprisingly a first round loss) 96-97: 1.96 GAA, .926 SV% 97-98: 2.03 GAA, .938 SV% 98-99: 1.77 GAA, .939 SV% (when Buffalo made the finals) 99-00: 2.39 GAA, .918 SV% 00-01: 2.09 GAA, .916 SV% 01-02: 1.86 GAA, .920 SV%

Higgins = Recchi is an awesome comparison, I don't know why nobody has ever made it before. Good job, juvehab... that was a damn good 1st or 2nd post!

I'm inclined to cut both Rivet and Niinimaa some slack, at least for a while. Rivet has been atrocious so far this year, but was very good last year... so in other words, there's no reason to believe he's going through anything but a slump, albeit a rather long one. As for Niinimaa, he's trying to fit into a new team and someone mentioned in another thread that he's playing his wrong side (which I thought was a very good point). Remember how late into training camp he was acquired... it stands to reason that he may still be getting comfortable in Montreal. I'll be curious to see how they play in the next 10 games...

I see no reason why we must pick a goalie for the playoffs. Look at Carolina last year: their "#2" goalie going into the playoffs ended up winning the Conn Smythe. Or even Carolina from 2002, when they made the finals. Irbe began the playoffs as their #1, then Weekes took over during the series with us, but by the finals it was Irbe again. Or how about Minnesota in 2003 when they made the Western finals? Roloson and Fernandez were effectively platooned, with Roloson playing 11 games and Fernandez seeing action in 9. By the time the playoffs roll around, I'm assuming one of Huet or Aebischer will have separated himself from the other, but if that doesn't happen... well, I'm still not overly concerned (for the the reasons mentioned above).

I always had an irrational appreciation for Andrei Tefilov. Does this make me weird?

I'm going with Hasek. Think about this for a second: he was named Czechoslovakian goalie of the year every year from 1986 to 1990. The next year he went to North America. He had a three-year North American apprenticeship in the IHL, as Belfour's backup in Chicago and in a platoon with Fuhr and Darren Puppa in 1992/93 in Buffalo. From 1993/94 to 2000/01, he was the #1 in Buffalo and was the best goalie in the league, at least according to stats and those 6 Vezinas he won. If you ignore the three years he spent getting used to North America and look only at the years he was a #1 guy... you can reasonably argue that he was the best goalie in his league for 13 straight years. Absolutely amazing.

Honourable mention to Markov's cross-ice one-touch pass (to Koivu) against Colorado that eventually led to Higgins goal. I can't think of another defenceman in the league who can make that play.

Wow, talk about a non-issue. Higgins will get his... there is a 0% chance of him not getting re-signed to a fat (and deserved) contract in Montreal.

Hooray. Now if only we could get Glen Healy on board...

I could care less which goalie starts in the next game. I'm 100% confident in both Huet and Aebischer.

I, for one, am excited to see this line get an extended run. It's no secret that I'm a huge Perezhogin supporter, I'm excited to see him get some extended time with skill guys (no offense to Bonk and Johnson). Hopefully this line blows up.