IN THE HEARTS OF MEN

thats odd cause i thought we actually had the better of the chances to score in the opening 30 minutes. they did dominate possession of the puck and pinned us deep on the forecheck cause the D wasn't making plays quick enough... price did not however have to stand on his head!

Did Carey really keep us in it? He made arguably 2 big saves and one was late. T.O did miss the net on some golden chances though. we were out shot and definitely lost the possession battle. With that said I'm not sure we were out chanced throughout the game. We did hit 3 posts and had a goal called back, not mention some big saves by bernier kept it close. Gilbert was and is a turnover machine Gallagher looked sluggish I thought

DLR at 3rd line wing... Highly unlikely.. He'll centre one of the top 3 lines and expect Hudon to shift to wing or Dumont* to 4th line C * sly's boy toy

51-18-10-3 115 points 1st atlantic 1st in the league 255 goals scored

looks like DLR is sticking around... Kassian has broken nose and foot....

marinaro now saying that tinordi has joined the team on the ice and barberio and tokarski will not!!

and markov and subban compliment each other on the ice..... we can gradually make this change as the habs will most likely start with beaulieau moving up with petry first. I don't think beaulieau is ready to unsurp markov from the top paring yet.

writing is on the wall if neither are practicing today but just heard on the radio from marinaro that only tokarski and tinordi are not on the ice. ***MB to talk at noon

booooo

i'm guessing tokarski will stick at practice today and go down tomorrow

i think columbus has much to prove still, the isles will be pretty good and caps have made strides on the D side of their game thats always been lacking (good goltending). i think a fresh voice in DET will have good effect on the vets their and youth 1) habs TB NYR 2) wash isles det *in no particular order

I'm interested to see how beau lieu fairs tonight with top pairing minutes with petry. My ideal line up would have beau lieu with PK and marky with petry. But I'll expect that move to happen gradually u less Nathan and petry really hit the ground running...

Kassian looks good tonight and semin seems engaged... He's pretty cheeky with the puck...

Your pro scout sounds like he's employeed by the leafs... assessing players before even getting a chance to see any sort of body of work. to say that about essentially a kid who just changed positions would like i already said be very pre mature... the scout would have yet seen the new C even play the position of C for any length of time and would be basing his assessment on opinion or his previous play at wing un less he was following the oshawa generals late season or their playoff run. and if so should of been impressed by the shift to C. mike is a completely different player at C!! also, he was not brought in to oshawa to be their #1 offensive C. he was brought in to fill a need as a huge 2 way C and clearly did so with great success and still finished what 10-12 points back of cassels. i wouldn't doubt the difference between the 2 was PP points alone i would be interested to see which of the Centers on oshawa had the most TOI in the final 1/4 of the season and playoffs .... because to me that plays the biggest factor in who actually is the #1. just using our habs C as an example of DD playing with our top forward on our top line but clearly plex was our #1. like i said before i believe DLR leads all C with TOI and mike will push for that #2 spot. and it will not take more then 15 games. i think hudon will move to wing... the habs will force sly's hand here to make sure this doesn't fall off the development blocks...

your bet is on but just minor changes. the bet is for $50 and donation is fine... McCarron* plays at least 60 games?? *its very annoying that autocorrect on the Mac continues to change mcCarron to macaroni

-correct LY was his 2nd season back. i probably should of followed up before posting that but i figured his unwillingness to sacrifice his body with bone crunching hits was directly part of confidence in his knee. i can relate since i 've had my ACL/ LCL done. -i think its safe to say that jacob if and when cut will play the most of all C's. I watched a lot of bulldog hockey living here and their C's LY were very weak especially after jacob's call up. i said DLR would be the defacto #1 just from TOI alone TY and McCarron #2 and i don't think it will take more then 15 games to get there.. Also mike's body of work at C doesn't go to far back but far enough to be a first team all star and play an mvp calibre ohl playoff and help win a memorial cup. to say he'd never be a #1C is a little pre mature to say the least. he just turned 20 and his development is progressed by leaps and bounds since his draft year. optimism is required at this moment i believe! i do agree that he won't put up 90 points like Sid or stamkos but his game is more tailored to 2 way play then strictly offence. if you believe that hudon will win a head to head match up consistently vs McCarron by all means... but i'll put my eggs in Big Mc's ability to play staunch defence, winning his battles along the boards, stifling the opposing teams best C while winning all his face-offs and chipping in on the scoreboard.... to me hudon is just another DD 2.0 and McCarron is a whole other beast.... to me, mike McCarron needs to just continue power skating and work on his start and stop quickness and he's nhl ready. All this while keeping his gloves on! work on hockey not fighting in the A.. -hudon is still with the big club because of a respect factor and because he's in his 2nd year of pro hockey, not because he's out performed McCarron, quite the opposite actually. yes hudon had more points then DLR LY but he wasn't even close to being as good... if you watched the bulldogs it would of been the equivalent to choosing DD over plex.

-we must also keep in mind that very very few athletes return to post-op play and have good seasons let alone great ones. most players are average at best their first season back. year 2 for emelin will be a proper assessment of his play... -jacob dela Rose is much better and a year younger then hudon as well as mike macarron. the bulldogs/ ice caps have had little to no success because of their horrible Centermen play. yes hudon scored a boat load of points as a rookie on a bad team but expect jdr (if cut) and big Mc's play at centre this season to propel them into the playoffs easily... also note that ice caps leading goalscorer Carr flanked mccarron all rookie and preseason camp with habs.. ***nothing against hudon as he is responsible as well... i just think his size will play a factor in the habs development decisions... and JDR and macarron have gone or are ahead of him in depth

And DLR might yet stick with the Habs again as he did LY at only 19..lets if and when he goes down... But highly unlikely he gets limited minutes if sent to ice caps

Mike mccarron will be playing a leading role with the ice caps immediately at C. JDR is going to play 19+ which will make him by all accounts with TOI our number 1 I will not be suprised that Hudon moves over in order to stay in the top 6 Bergiven and MT will force sylvain's hand from the get go. Big Mc will not play wing again and JDR 2 way game is light years ahead of hudon

if JDR goes down to hamilton he's gonna be fighting for 1C with mccarron. hudon will move down to 3C and dumont 4. hudon can also move to wing...

and eller scores a brace....

Galchenyuk set up semin today for the first goal of the scrimmage....

just to chime in a little bit here... but at no time in any single season of his NHL career has Lars Eller been given the opportunity to succeed in a top 6 C role the way DD has. the closest he has come was a stint of say 15/ 20 games playing with sophmores AG27 and BG11 at the time and they did fantastic until broken up in order to get DD out of his slump... now I'm not saying he'd succeed cause i don't believe he has elite vision of the game... but his opportunity to succeed or ultimately fail was never really given to him yet.

dont be surprised if one of sherbak mcCarron or Carr force a trade.....

sorry but I'm with brian, i would like to see his minutes stay at 22-24 minutes and have petry's minutes increased to the same. have the general's minutes decreased on the PP and PK... 5 on 5 markov petry beaulieau PK tinordi pateryn gilbert emelin PP PK petry marky beaulieau