xXx..CK..xXx

I kind of agree that Laval would be a great place to groom our next “up-and-coming coach” but don’t necessarily think that it’s something we should have to rely on in terms of hiring a replacement coach for the NHL. There should be a lot of other options as well. There’s arguments to be made but I haven’t necessarily thought so highly of Detroit’s replacement for Babcock Blashil or Philly’s new coach Haxtall. They aren’t bad by any means but nothing so obvious that this “new age” wave of coaching is necessary in order to be successful, whereas Quenevilles and Hitchcocks wouldn’t be better choices. With Levebvre’s terrible track record, that doesn’t excuse him by any means. He should be replaced with someone better. I guess I am one of those who are disappointed in the organization’s limitation when it comes to choosing a coach. It’s a hard argument to be made that we aren’t attempting to hire the best available person (in terms of NHL experienced coaches), when Michel Therrien is fired the moment Claude Julien becomes available. The problem isn’t only that we aren’t in on the potential of hiring a great coach like Mike Babcock, it’s that we are limited to play a certain style. If the pool of English speaking language coaches is 25 and the pool of French speaking coaches is 5, you may have 20 defensive coaches and 5 offensive minded coaches. When we realize that 25 to 5 is the same as 5 to 1, we also realize that 4 of those French speaking coaches should be defensive and only 1 should be offensive. If he’s already hired? Well Claude, you’re the best available in the world. We’re going to have to go with your style. Having a plan B in Laval would certainly be helpful but perhaps it’s even more important for our organization than others.

And what did I say that was wrong? That was before having looked it up, but the Habs have made the playoffs 10 out of the past 15 years and the Sens have made the playoffs 9 out of the past 10 years. They had two deep runs, whereas the Habs generally go further. 8 for the Canucks.

Not going to get into a debate here with a Preds fan but for many years it’s been the Habs and Canucks who have been the most successful teams in Canada. I always thought of the Canucks being our twin in the West. Sure, some people will define success as who has had the deepest run but in general over those 15 years, the Habs and Canucks have been the most consistently competitive teams.

I missed this game

If Julien is the one doing the right thing, we can’t assume all coaches would have. As a result, Therrien couldn’t have been fired earlier with the same results because he was fired basically as soon as Julien became actually available.

I’m always playing devil’s advocate when it comes to Pacioretty but many of the same people who claim that Pacioretty won’t resign with us are the same people who claim that we won’t be spending our available cap space because players like Tavares are pipe dreams. If we won’t be spending all the cap space on resigning Pacioretty to an “overpayment” of 7 million, and we won’t be landing big fish like Tavares, then what will we possibly be spending our cap space on? And if the argument is that Pacioretty himself wouldn’t accept a decent contract offer from the club based on “incidents” from this year, well then it’s a straw man argument, and no more likely than my argument that he could resign.

Seems I predicted the Habs to get 95 points this year. If they can just manage to go 19-0-1 in their final 20 games, I’ll be right on the money.

Yes. Either that or he was dying his hair. Truthfully, I noticed his gray sideburns more than I did when I last saw him.

Galchenyuk Byron Drouin Lehkonen Hudon (sort of) Schlemko

To whom it may concern, I missed the first two periods but am here for the third. I see that it’s 0-0 and hopefully I won’t have to say sorry to Lindgren after this one.

Sucks to be Namestnikov

2 goals and 8 assists in 38 games this year. He may actually be our offensive derenseman.

Who is Mike Reilly?

As if Rychel, Valiev or that second round pick will be the reason this team has success in the future. Right value? Yes. Fired without making the move just for that reason? No. On a seperate yet related note, we also traded Jerabek.

Maroon to New Jersey

You must be in a pretty dark place for that to be the first time you’ve brought it up since.

The trade deadline is so uneventful that I find myself washing dishes simultaneously to keep entertained.

I think Stastny should be on our mind in the off season.

Oh alright, so just as I thought most people are disappointed in Pacioretty because of their high expectations of him. In the end, he’ll be off his career averages by about 5 points, and still lead the team in scoring. Such a tragedy. I am comparing apples to oranges and Pacioretty will likely end with an apples to oranges point total difference when compared to Gallagher by season’s end. Similar to every other season. I say that because Gallagher has been ahead in points and Pacioretty has recently caught up and took over. Once the trade deadline passes over, there will be less distractions and he will likely thrive. The team is out of the running but don’t be surprised when it happens for him individually.

He’s played some games at center. We lost badly in one of those games, not that it was his fault.

Exactly. The team is having a bad season. Not Pacioretty. He would still be the leader in points with a better Habs squad, or top 2, just like he always is. Drouin is doing even worse.

Terrible season while leading the team in points scoring. Meanwhile, Gallagher is having a “fine year”’.

Yeah, after some more thought it doesn’t mean too much. I just felt as though the organization’s priority in having him back would be to save money on his next contract, and here we are still paying half his salary this year when he’s not even here. That’s more of an issue for Molson and his pocket though. It won’t make a difference in regards to the cap.

On another note, retaining his salary seems a little odd if we actually were going to resign him.

As already discussed, the Bruins traded Spooner for Nash. We’re going to need better than that.