IN THE HEARTS OF MEN

markov will not show his full recovery/ potential until year 2 of his return. sure he's a full year post op. however, he's not in his 2nd season yet. what he is showing is fatigue after playing already 14+18 games combined this season approx. im pretty confident that it is not knee fatigue or "slowing down" but fatigue in general as he hasnt played this much hockey in over 2 years (and he's logged substantial minutes every game). i believe he is looking to find his legs again over an 82 game schedule. with that said, if you list the countless number of players who have suffered the same injury from tom brady and A. Peterson to roberto baggio and ronaldo to tim hardaway and baron davis. all of them returned to there prior glory, the question is how long it took all of them to get there!! -tom brady is tom brady still! -A.peterson just ran over all NFL opponents! -baggio (2 acl's) won a golden ball and scored over 200 goals. -ronaldo (3 acl's on both knees) became one of the greatest strikers the world has ever seen -tim hardaway became a perennial all star year after year -who would suspect baron davis blew out his knee in college before making the NBA. -there is a 100% return rate in the NHL to torn Acl's. -there is currently 18 NBA players playing big minutes this year all with fixed knees's! -there's a million nflers with reconstructs! -Alex Galchenyuk went 3rd overall!!!!!!!!! most showed glimpses of there former self for stretches in there first full seaon back but none truly broke out until there 2nd year. Markov is an elite defencemen who was never ever considered remotely fast or agile for that matter! I believe he will be able to play an elite game for at least another 3/4 years (because of age not knee) barring any more catastrophic injuries sustained based soley on his style of play. he is not a bruiser, never been a speed demon. he has the ability to play the game in his head at a slow place. he reads the game, anticipates moves and out thinks his opponents. he's positionally sound at both ends of the ice! he is all class! markov is and will be fine! he actually will get better! then there's the whole "koivu was never the same" after his knee thing. But what body of work had koivu shown us prior to his knee injury. not much if any..... sure he was having a strong 2nd year before blowing out his knee with just over 50P in 50G but he did only score 45 in a full season the year prior in his rookie season. the fact is he never had that potent offensive ability/ talent to dangle like kovy or vision to pass like oates or snip like selanne and we all know that is why he was never able to put up the points as a #1C should not because of a torn knee.... but he was the best damn #2C! BTW im also pretty sure moen gio and cole all have no trade clauses and andrei is..... "the giant"!! no deals to be made here!

i dont think the son of one of the greatest playersto play for Montreal's biggest "old" rival has any interest in wearing "the hockey sweater"!

and i love our 2nd!

getzlaf is no perry! personally i think we'd be making a mistake bringing in getzlaf for a young gorges eller and at this rate possibly grigenko. what i would like to do is throw gomez's cap relief at suter (a defender big and tough that can produce) we have carey price who should be elevating his game even more as he matures and we should be sheltering him suter subban markov gorges emelin diaz with a strong pipeline in hamilton in 2012/13 kaberle, weber, campoli (defenders on the softer side need to go) id also like to see the habs pick up a UFA like kelly or gausted for the 3rd,4th line and really run 4 lines next season

which i did.... and the holland for a goalie who will find absolutley zero chance in montreal over the foreseeable future lol i know

i think kaberle for spacek was a no brainer!! the assets the leafs got 8 months prior shows this. trade high you get what the leafs got trade low and you get what carolina got. its like real estate man, PG made a good "real estate move in my opinon" minus the first 20 games of the season for all the stanley cup champs (entire bruins roster) including kaberle who all sh*t the bed (and you'll see he's played alright since). we talk plus/minus but we must remember that kaberle has played for the 2 last place teams in the league. his plus minus is obviuosly going to stink. no matter what all the haters think kaberle is in fact an asset. and with 2 seasons left on his contract. i would put money down that a resurgent habs team next season will see kaberle's stock rise considerably. maybe not to the tone of 2 x 1st rounders and a 2nd alla leafs but definetly for a good prospect and pick (alla rivet?). it would be foolish of us to think that the habs after a dismal season wouldnt return to the upper echlons of the PP which they've held for the better part of 7 years now minus this year. with that staus comesincreased value of there offensive guys (most notably kaberle) bourque /cammalleri just my thoughts... bourque is a whole other story. both he and camms are streaky! the difference when there both bad one is a liability in the defensive end (camms) and the other isnt. 1 will always be big and strong the other wont. 1 will be paid 6 million. the other will be paid 3 million. 1 team will have a top 10 WHL scorer joining there organization in october the other wont. 1 will have a 2nd round pick to choose from the other wont. 1 has carey price the other has a possible lifer in the KHL

i look at it this way... in 2009 going into march we were 1 game above .500 at 29-28-6 for 64 pts in 63 games after like 21 weeks of hockey. there was a 3 week olympic break and we came back from that and went 10-5-4 to close out the season and make the playoffs!!! fast forward to today... we are 1 game below .500 at 23-24-9 for 55 points in 56 games and thats after only 19 weeks? we have 7 games to get 8 points to put us in the exact same spot we held then 27-27-9. (at week 19 we were 25-25-6 after 56 games good for 56 points) the question is can we go 8-3 or better to get to that fimiliar spot of 2 seasons ago. weve started 4-0! who here would trade assets recieved from a few impending ufa's for another storybook ending to a season and cinderella playoffs like then maybe even doing 1 or 2 better. cause i sure of hell would! its why we watch this damn game of hockey.... so as to have the chance to tell another story of an emotional ride we call les glorieux! and the rides just beginning friends..... strap in and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

f'n right.... im back from italia

camm's scores on a deflect in front of the net!! brutal... i dont think he screened the goalie once in his whole mtl career!

bourque gomez cole DD plex patches moen eller kosty blunden noki darche

there's no way i want the habs to lose... i want them to fight there way to 8th... 2 years ago we sat in 12th place. we had a horrible christmas road trip. returned after the break and went on a run that took us all the way to the conference finals!! dont tell me the habs are getting blown out every night! cause there not. they just need some bounces to start going there way! PG did mention that we have played all but 6 games 2 million under the cap floor!! what did you think are record would be??? with are luck... we'll tank get in the lottery end up with the 4th or 5th and pick a dud! we have to always always fight for glory!! here's hoping rene can bring some goals

i think after you take out the initial shock of a trade mid game... break down the stats -bourque's got back to back 27 goal season's and is pretty much on par in his scoring clip overall with camm and has actually out performed him in the last 2 seasons - he comes over to us and now is 2nd on our team in scoring with 13.. 1 ahead of patches and 3 behind cole - 6'2" 211 LBS is SIZE!! he's a half foot taller and more then 20lbs heavier then camm! now coupled with patches, cole, moen, kosty, blunden, eller, white all sizeable guys - we save 3 million in cap space and vertially get the same goal scoring clip but as PG pointed out more of the dirty goals we're lacking - we swap a 5th for a 2nd pick!!!! - we trade an asset in ramo with zero chance of making it MTL right now and who's signed in the KHL for another candian kid out west (6'0" 170) canadian invitee... top 10 scorer in the WHL (know nothing else about him) *** we win the draft pick swap... we trade assets that has no chance with our team we swap the goal scoring prowess at half the cap and still we cant win this trade in the eyes fans! its a fair swap in my opinion as for trading low.... if cammellerri had 20 goals right now i highly doubt we trade him... fact is gionta's out for the year we are in 12th place and camm's is clearly underperforming at 6 million a year! this was expected if we traded camm's for crosby more then half the fan base would sh$t that crosby's done! point being some fans would much rather hate then love

RC is a goon!!!! i luv it

he needs to play on a scoring line for sure when he returns... no 4th line duty please a sthat will just end up bad! put him with the americans... let them prove something

why does everybody think tanking is the way to the stanley cup??? pittsburgh and chicago!! 2 teams who tanked for ever and finally came out on top and thats it! we dont need to tank to be contenders... right now with this team we need our veteran "stars" to be just that our veteran stars!!! and our kids to continue exactly what there doing only then will we be able to contend!!! plus you cant forget that goal song!!!

agreed he is playing well... however, i said long term he'll get moved never offended..... i just think if we want to do well we got to get him going to as well as the other vets

yes the team is way worse then this seasons addition.. -we have the #1 PK now you just took away our first wave of Pker's in plex and moen -torres is not even close to being as good as AK -clowe is not a 1st liner you have LeBlanc on the 4th line just to name but a few i

DD will not have a place in the NHL as a scoring center long term.... i'm sorry! he's been very good but i think at some point he will be moved to the wing. if not by us then by the next team he plays for! he's also been given patches or cole all season to compensate the size issue. i think putting him on the wing with plex who's a defensive center and giving him familiarity with patches can ease that transition. right now we need to find a way to get all of cammallerri, gionta, gomez, plex and patches firing again! we cant just run with the eller line and who ever cole's playing with! BTW anyone still think cough cough TSN's McGuire that cole needs staal to be good??

maybe im wrong.... but i think the habs are better with gomez in the line up not out of it! that 7.5 million is tied to the cap no matter what so get over it! he's not going to the bulldogs so forget that one to.. this isnt fantasy hockey here. gomez outside of a trade is not going anywhere. and ya we are a way better team with him in the line up then out of the line up! thats my opinion though....

the habs need gomez if we want to make the playoffs as much as the gomez bashers hate to admit! everyone wants to rip on him because of points and what not... but as far as wins and loses?? he has missed significant time for the first time in 3 seasons and look where were situated in the standings. Obviously, other factors need to be considered when assessing our win column. But when gomez is ready he needs to be inserted in the line up and on a top pairing line. Randy has already eluded to this by saying he's a top 6 player. i think randy is building him up and will put him in a situation that will suit him.. putting him with a north south guy like cole is exactly what he needs... gomez is at his best when he rushes the puck up the gut rather then veering off to the boards and pulling up.. I read or heard somewhere that randy is a big media video guy when coaching! maybe he's shown scotty some youtube clips of himself at NJ going up the center of the ice trying to split the d and dishing off to gionta or elias down the wing.... thats what we need from gomez. just this simple tweak to his game and you'll see a mountain of difference cole gomez gionta DD plex patches (DD can play make from the left wing) camm eller AK moen white blunden (noki darche)

who actually has no trade/ movement clauses besides gomez's 3 dont trade me destinations and cole

i dont know... im the kind of guy who never says die ever!!! as far fetched as making the playoffs seem technically we need to replicate half a season comparable to all of boston, NY, philly, van, det, chic, st louis this season all having reached 52 or more in the first half! then you have OTT florida sanjose all firing in at 50 pts! this is definetly do-able considering we've been able to beat all those teams on any given night outside of chicago and detroit in recent times! not to mention we made a similar run what 3 seasons ago to get into the playoffs and go all the way to the conference finals. now im not saying dont trade campoli or weber gill etc.. guys who wont have a spot here beyond this season.. im just saying it aint over just yet break it down: winnepeg had a strong 10 game stretch and have now cooled off pitt's in a load of trouble now with no crosby, neal 6 weeks and staal 4-6! is letang back? toronto... well no comment! buffalo... injuries have crippled them also and i think toe to toe were better ott has played well of late and have shown no signs of letting up NJ is good to and i think stay in the mix 1. BOS 2. NYR 3. Philly 4. FLA 5. NJ 6. WAS 7. MON 8. OTT 9.TOR 10. PITT 11. winn 12. buff we cant all go 25-11-5 to end the season??? is it achievable for us?? well if we can stay relatively healthy which has been the biggest key for us over the years then i think we can and will do it... january is the key! winning head to head games and the confidence boosting return of markov and white in february! DONT FORGET the "NEW/OLD" goal song HAS given me an added ray of hope that something magical is about to happen!!LOL

yes but right now we have a new coach.. our team should be at its most healthiest all season by saturday when gomez returns. and white and markov coming soon.. why not just let it play out. obviously if we have a chance to move gomez you pull the trigger. or if someone comes knocking on the door asking for cammellerri, gio or moen gill campoli you entertain there offer... but actively shopping right now will deter the team from focusing on the task at hand.... which i think is going 8-3 in january!

cole.... the way he's going right now can play any where even D lol!!! fact: erik cole shoots left and plays on the right brian gionta shoots right and plays on the right they can both play there off wing gio gomez cole or play there proper wing cole gomez gio **dont tell me it cant happen... their NHL hockey players and this is not defence either way i believe it will work moen eller kosty are playing great. my opinion is that anybody can go into that spot and play well. AK is running over guys as well as dangling people with the puck and setting up goal chances. eller is shutting down lines and turning up the notch offensively. moen has filled in well in this spot but so did a rookie (leBlanc) albeit for a short stint. i think as all players return. he will be pushed down to play with white cause gomez will not get going with blunden and darche. speaking of blunden. upon white's return what happens with darche? does randy pull the plug on him and really send the french media into cardiac a rest! id put white back to center and flank him with blunden and moen those are my lines and what id do...

you want gomez to get going? i said it since game#1.... put that beast on his wing (cole) and that pint sized energy bug (gionta) on the other side and ride the wave my friends.... the all american line gionta-gomez -cole (DD)- plex- pacioretty (camm)- eller- kosty moen- white- blunden