The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Blowhard is giving a lot of love to the Habs, Gallagher especially. Weird time to be a Habs fan...not used to them being "Canada's team." TB's D didn't look very good to me. Let's hope that continues.

The all-time champ was Daigneault. Holy crap, he looked like a proto-human out there.

Too bad about the limp PP, but overall les boys looked pretty good. Pleks, DD, Briere and Gorges seemed especially sharp. Subban didn't look particularly good, by contrast. I really think our playoff experience could be the difference. Most of our key players have been around the block a few times now. That's gonna serve us well. Team has business-like demeanour that I really like.

Emelin has had a decidedly mixed season, but I think he needs a bit of a pass. Some injuries can be tough to recover from when you have to dive right into mid-season. The other point is the one I think DON is making - namely that it is wrong to evaluate a player entirely on the basis of their limitations without also considering their strengths. Too often we fans do this. "DD is overmatched physically" - as though it doesn't matter that he has been a PPG player for the last 2/3 of the season. "Emelin has problems in his own end" - as though it doesn't matter that he is also a wrecking ball out there, on a team that has long needed physicality in its own end. Next we'll be hearing complaints that Patches doesn't get enough assists. The fact is, the Habs have had two great seasons in a row. Critical thinking is welcome, but the negativity on internet forums doesn't seem to have caught up to this New Reality: we are, overall, officially a good team.

I would like us to be a team that is sufficiently ruthless that it would fire a coach who has had considerable success with the team, just because it's an upgrade. (Remember Lamourillo firing Julien?). But I doubt MB is that sort of guy. Anyway, Trotz can't speak French, so it wouldn't matter if he has a career record of 1000-0 with non-stop Cups, he by definition cannot coach the Habs. The end.

I want TB to have as many problems as humanly possible going into the series. Bishop, Hedman possibly hurt? Fantastic. Malone busted on a coke charge? Awesome. I could not give a crap HOW we win, I just want us to win. After all, no one gave a sh*t about our problems when our best scorer was deliberately smashed into a metal stanchion just in time for the playoffs, or when our best player had his eye gouged out on a flagrant high stick while on the cusp of leading the team to an upset by his dominant play. F*ck the Lightning and their problems. Let 'em all keel over from Norwalk flu for all I care. Habs29, you seem to think the Habs have been cosmically put upon ever since Houle. But it seems to me we got miracle playoff runs out of Halak and Theodore, not to mention beating the Bruins in '04 and again in '08. I'd argue that, in fact, we've had a higher portion of playoff success than you'd expect since the year 2000, given our regular season records over that span. My feeling is that when the Habs get on a roll in the playoffs, the excitement in the whole community sweeps the team along like a tsunami. Nothing can match the sheer ebullient intensity of Montreal when it comes to playoff hockey and that can give us a crucial edge in a tough series.

7 mil for 7 years matches the rumours about what V is looking for, so that could work. We'll see.

Joe, Vanek fits a profile that we have nowhere else in the system: big, high-end, scoring winger. I've said before, if you're gonna break the bank on a UFA, it has to be for an elite talent that fills a fundamental organizational need. Vanek will absolutely be an overpay, but we see what chemistry he has with Patches and DD, and what he adds to this nucleus - I have no problem with going "all in" on him. When it turns out to be an albatross in the last couple of years of the contract, well, it'll be up to Bergie to find a way to cope with that. That's how it goes in today's NHL and every team has a bad contract or two. Vanek will bring HUGE results for years to come and that should balance out any problems in the latter years of the deal.

I'm not sure what PK's problem is lately. I hope to hell it's not a conflict with the coaching staff. It's one thing to dislike the coach - quite another to start playing badly because you're so alienated. If the latter is what's going on, then he will not be a Montreal Canadien for the long-term, because Bergie is too old-school to fire a successful coach just to accommodate a player. But presumably it's not really that. We should remember that PK is still just a kid, despite his incredible achievements, and is probably just going through a comparatively low-confidence period. Of course, being continually ragged on by coaches who tell him that all his instincts are always wrong in every way - and having that message reinforced by innumerable "experts" - likely doesn't help. What does PK know, after all? He is merely a superstar talent. As for Ottawa getting blown out on the way to missing the playoffs: it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of pr*cks. Enjoy golfing, losers.

Well, after a season like this it's hard NOT to think we're looking a gift horse in the teeth when we criticize DD. It's absolutely true to say that he will never be great in his own end and that he will never be a physical player. It's also absolutely true to say that he is a legitimate top-6 offensive talent who works very well with talented linemates to put points on the board. It's way too premature to say that "he will never be" a playoff performer. I think Commandant called it: as long as you're not expecting him to be your #1C, there is nothing wrong with keeping him on the team. I see no reason why he cannot be a contributor to a Cup champ, as long as it's understood that he a support player rather than a true "core" guy.

If you look at Roy's playoff numbers, you see a marked dip in 1991 and 1992. This confirms what I recall from those playoffs. He simply was not very good in those particular years. I also recall his 1987 and 1988 playoffs being fairly uninspiring. Now, in the period from 1987-1992, Roy was indeed one of the best goalies in the game. I'm not denying that. I'm just saying: that's all he was. Basically, he was a Carey Price who - unlike Price - had had one absolutely dominant playoff as a rookie in 1986. It is only after 1993 that Patrick Roy became more than just a very fine goalie with one stupendous playoff year under his belt, and became a legend. He had proven that he could deliver absolutely dominating goaltending in the clutch on a repeated basis, not just as a hyperactive rookie. And he was able to draw from that experience and that aura for the remainder of his career. He should have won an additional Conn Smythe in 1996 as well IMHO. You don't have to argue that Roy was superman from the moment he stepped on the ice in order to defend his standing as an all-time great. Like I said, he too had growing pains. As for the 1993 Cup team, one of the great calumnies in hockey is the often-repeated charge that that was a mediocre team elevated to a Cup by a great goalie. That squad was in the battle for #1 overall all season long until a late-season slump pushed them to 6th overall. Crummy teams don't compete for 1st overall for 3/4 of a season - and they did this despite one of Roy's worst regular season performances. That said, there can be no question that without St Patrick, they probably don't win the Cup. He was unbelievable.

I guess we'll see. Broken-down veterans are often able to raise their game for the playoffs - even Trevor Linden on his last legs got 7 points in 12 playoff games - so it's wholly possible that Briere will do the same. I do think the idea that he was great at something two years ago shouldn't automatically be assumed to translate into his being great at it now, though. On vera.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Bourque is a paycheque player. He does the minimum needed to stay in the lineup and thus, the NHL. It's really that simple, IMHO.

Patrick Roy was the greatest goalie of his era in my book and possibly the greatest of all time in terms of getting in shooters' heads and seeming invincible. I will never forget being in standing room in the Forum for Game 5 and seeing him raise the Stanley Cup directly facing us, and roaring his (and our) triumph. However, when speaking of mere mortals, Carey Price has had about as good a season as it is possible for a goalie to have. He's big, he's calm, he radiates confidence, he stops everything he's supposed to stop and more besides, 99% of the time. If he can carry that into the playoffs, one thing can be said with confidence: netminding will NOT be the problem. Any fan complaining about him this season needs their head examined. EDIT: actually, Jeff, Roy sucked ass in 1992 if I recall. Especially in the playoffs. People forget that Roy, too, went through growing pains and only became PATRICK ROY after the 1993 Cup run. He was a superstar ever after.

Well, it sure would be a shame to lose in the first round again, after such a lively and mostly positive season - and especially after adding Vanek. Hopefully everyone involved learns from tonight.

I've been saying I don't like this matchup. Never did. Bad vibes from all those years of their being the darling of the French media. Unfortunately tonight didn't make me feel any better. The D needs Josh Gorges back. A quiet stabilizer back there. Couldn't hurt.

Wow.

I don't want them to have ANY hope. False or not

Yeah, they're already on the flight, letting Price compensate for their laziness. It's the POS Panthers, so it will probably work. EDIT: Leafs losing 4-2!!! This is AWESOME

Vanek is making exactly the difference I hoped he would. That line is as deadly as nearly any in hockey. And Desharnais is an important part of it. 50 points despite going 1-for-20, damn. The guy can play. Gallagher is all over the place tonight! What a little beast that guy is

I prefer the Murray type, who can take a regular shift while adding intimidating physicality, to the Parros "pure goon" type, but I think you guys are basically right. We've beefed up and it makes a difference.

Nice one, Neech

So, what's the long-term prognosis for this kid? A normal life? Is playing competitive hockey a possibility? Great news, boy.

I don't blame Muller either, but my point is just that there has been a lot of hysteria among fans over the years in Montreal over "coaches that got away." Yet both Boucher and Muller have turned out to be perfectly ordinary. I have no doubt that both are competent coaches - but no more obviously competent than either Jacques Martin (who did a mostly excellent job with us) or Therrien. Unless your guy is named Quennville, Babcock, Trotz, and maybe Hitchcock or one or two others (Roy?), coaching changes are basically a game of Whack-a-Mole.

We can add Kirk Muller to the Guy Boucher list of INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT AWESOME COACHING GENIUSES THAT THE HABS WERE ABSOLUTE IDIOTS TO LET GET AWAY who then proceed to turn out to be no better than anyone else. There is a (very) small number of genuinely top-flight coaches out there, and the rest are interchangeable cannon-fodder.