The Chicoutimi Cucumber

I agree, I don't quite grasp the idea that Hamrlik is so easily disposable, when clearly he will take a pay cut on the next deal no matter where he signs. Why, then, assume that the Habs will cheerfully cut him loose? I think people lump Spacek and Hammer together as overpaid old geezers and therefore guys we don't need. Both are, in fact, valuable ingredients, but Hammer in particular still brings a strong all-around game that we would be foolish to just chuck out the window. Hell, I'd re-sign Gill as well, assuming he could take a bit of a cut. Having said that, Chris's analysis was predicated on freeing up $7 mil by NOT re-signing those guys and channeling a good chunk of that change toward a higher-end UFA defenceman. IF there is indeed a near-elite UFA option then that would at least be worth considering. You trade some depth (Hammer + Gill) for, hopefully, a talent upgrade. That's a high-risk option, though, when you factor in that this D had, all told, delivered the goods and that there's no guarantee of said UFA signing with us.

Actually, I'm a Gomez fan and have tended to be one of his bigger defenders on this board. But this season, his rushes have been almost mind-numbingly futile and the dismal numbers back that up. He did have a little spurt for a couple of weeks but seems recently to have slipped back a notch (notwithstanding his unexpectedly creative setup of PK's GWG). So I think he needs to look in the mirror, at PK, Cup rings or not. Of course none of this means that I interpret the above clip as proving that he *was* mad at PK. Indeed, the whole thing is ridiculous in my books. But it offered a chance to vent about Gomez

Given the absolute, gutter-gougingly piece-of-crap waste-of-cap-space season he is having, the only person Gomez has a right to be angry at is himself.

Souray was a fun player to have, but geez, even with us he was injury-prone and one-dimensional. Sort of a MAB on steroids. He's like Kovalev in that sense: more about entertainment value than winning. Although I foolishly wanted us to re-sign him, I haven't missed him since, and consider his replacement Hammer a far better overall acquisition. Theo: I loved the guy, his style and panache and balls-to-the-wall performances. His utter collapse remains one of the greatest mysteries I've witnessed as a Habs fan - never seen anything quite like it. Interesting choices, I'll give ya that.

Hee hee! Well, consider me chastised. Notice, though, that I didn't say we can't be competitive with all these injuries. I don't see them as an excuse for missing the playoffs - although we're now down to the bone, where one or two more key injuries would indeed bring us to that point. What I find intensely frustrating about these injuries is that way that they will contribute to the ongoing narrative of mediocrity/'bubble team' surrounding the Habs in the media and among the fans, who will of course forget the missing parts when assessing team performance. Like you, I'm a huge believer in systems and total team commitment over raw talent. But it remains true that there is no substitute for talent and that you need a certain level of it. The team I saw in November was a team on the cusp of really getting good. Whether it could have sustained that is an open question. But the team I've seen since then is exactly the one I predicted the moment Markov went down - a team that wins its share of games but has to scrap and claw and stare into death's door on a recurring basis: in other words, a playoff-worthy team but only just above the bubble. My aggravation here is more about being denied the chance to see what this team's ceiling really is. In short, these injuries might be artificially keeping us in 'bubble team' territory. As one who is sick of the Habs getting no respect I find that frustrating. You're right, though, this is nothing compared to the horrors of 2000. Considering the job he did with possibly the worst lineup ever iced by the Montreal Canadiens, it is a mystery to me how it took Alain Vigneault so long to get back to the NHL. But that's another story.

I think ForumGhost makes a fair point. It ain't the sheer quantity of injuries so much as the quality of the players injured. This is the third season running that we lose our best player to major injury (Markov). It's the second season running that we lost our most explosive offensive player for a significant stretch (Cammy). It's the second year out of three that we lose a crucial role-player/leader to a catastrophic season-ending injury (Lang, Gorges). If a sniper were out there targeting players to 'take out' from the Habs, he couldn't have done better - unless it were to zap Price and Subban, God forbid!!!! But seriously - this stinks.

It's a nightmare. The best parallel is with that notorious 'barberpole jersey' game in 2009 when we lost Lang and some other key player(s) (I forget the details). We are now missing our best and our steadiest defencemen, as well as 2/3 of our second line. The optimist says that this is the chance for our depth to shine and other guys to step up (e.g., Desharnais - who I continue to believe in - Kostitsyn and Pouliot). The pessimist says you don't win when the list of wounded includes your best sniper, your emerging power forward, your top defenceman, your heart-and-soul #4a blueline minute-muncher, and perhaps your wily checking C (Halpern). I mean, this is ridiculous.

Yeah, we wouldn't want anybody to show any emotion on the ice. For God's sake - what is wrong with the NHL?

I think you're jumping the gun on Sergei. He's hot now, but let's wait and see how he does over the longer haul, shall we? The same could be said of Latendresse, who apparently contributed to his own injuries this season by showing up to camp - wait for it - out of shape. As for Streit, you are obviously bang on; that was a huge mistake. Of course, many of us failed to see the mistake at the time, dwelling instead on Streit's dodgy play in his own end. Funnily enough, I don't really miss Koivu. We had him for his entire prime and he was clearly on the downside when Bob cut him loose. The present team has sufficient leadership and character and him sticking around may have made it harder for that leadership core to take over. None of this takes away from Saku's tremendous contributions as the lone bright spot in the darkest era in Habs' history. We emphatically should not retire his sweater, but there should definitely be a Saku Koivu Night or some other means of honouring him properly, sooner or later. I'm surprised to realize this, but the two that I 'miss' - by which I mean, that I'm kinda nostaligc for - are Kovalev and, somehow, Komisarek. In hockey terms, I take Gionta over Kovy is a micro-second, but for sheer entertainment, Kovy never disappointed. (Even his bad seasons took on the character of a tragi-comic psycho-drama). The career arc of Komisarek, meanwhile, is a major disappointment to me. I really thought he was going to become a fearsome, punishing, elite shut-down defenceman and the backbone of our D for years to come. Clearly I could not have been more wrong, but Komisarek seems to epitomize for me all the hopes I felt for Gainey Rebuild 1.0, and all the disappointment that it ultimately brought. In the end, it's not Komi I miss so much as the hope he represented. In my mind he is the symbol of a uniquely bittersweet phase in my experience as a Habs' fan.

MaxPac - if he plays like that every night, then we really do have the power forward we've been needing for all these years. A very good sign.

You know, it's the third season in a row that Habs' management makes a mid-season move to add a defenceman, resulting in a massive boost to the PP. Two years ago, it was Schneider. last year it was MAB. And this season the Wiz. Hopefully the Wiz turns out to be a long-term solution, not a band-aid, because while his defensive play is clearly not top-drawer, he's a legit top-4 guy and should be sewn up for a few seasons - especially given the uncertainty around Markov.

I believe I know the one Habsy means - one of the absolute worst attempts to clear the zone this season, a pass from behind the red line right across the front Price's crease and onto the stick of a Ranger. It was so inept it defied belief. That was served up by Wisniewksi. A bad 3rd period, but hey, that's what all-star goalies are for! If it hadn't been for Lunqvist we could have had five or six, so it evens out, and I'll take it.

There's no question that when the Habs are off their game, they tend to lose battles and avoid the dirty areas. And there's no question that we could use a big down-and-dirty power forward in the top-6. At the same time, I take Wamsley's real point to be that it's futile to make sweeping judgements about the team on the basis of a bad game or a slump. The fact is, when we're ON our game we do all those things more than adequately.

According to H I/O, the team is basically full of sick people suffering from colds and flu. They were just out of gas last night. That's explain all the "lazy" penalties. No cause for recrimination here. The main thing is to get rested up and come back playing properly.

Didn't see much of this game. Can't say I'm sorry. It sounds like one of those no-show nights that all teams have from time to time and that you just have to file under "Forget It." Hopefully the boys get their act together next time out.

I'd agree, but the Habs-fabs swarming of the ballots to the point that Komisarek made the team tended to devalue the participation of ALL the Habs at that particular game. This time around there can be no question that Price fully deserves it.

According to Arpon Basu, Gill is the real leader on this team (scan to the bottom): http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110108/mtl_habshub_habit_110107/20110108/?hub=MontrealSports If this is right, then he's invaluable. And he should definitely be re-signed.

Yup, I too have a thing for the undersized but highly skilled and smart hockey player. Go DD go! I'm no expert on coaching, but judging from the HBO special Boudreau does not seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. I wouldn't put TOO much weight on his coaching practices.

It's a weird world where Eller goes from being a healthy scratch to a first-line winger. I'm just saying. I'm becoming a fan of that Desharnais line. Look forward to seeing if they can keep it up, and if Patches can build on his best NHL game yet. And I look forward to the hysteria if McDonagh plays well. Price is fully deserving of his all-star nod this time, and I'm betting it won't go to his head like before. Nice to see his ridiculous excellence acknowledged. What a comeback season for the young thoroughbred.

I want nothing to do with the Nordiques. Experience shows that such a team can create a drain on Habs's revenues and in fact increase the pressure to position them as 'francophone' for marketing purposes. Also, rivalries of that intensity can work against a team. Beyond the career-ending injury to Pierre Mondu, it was often remarked back in the 80s that the team that won the provincial series in the playoffs had nothing left thereafter. Those kind of wars we can really do without. As for the 'French' thing, like Colin I'm fairly sick of the whole canard. While the Habs certainly could have done a better job scouting the province, the real issues are that Quebec is producing shockingly few upper-tier hockey players, and those that do exist have often showed NO interest in playing for Montreal (Briere, Lecavalier). Neither fact is the Habs's fault. As occurs all too often, cries of injustice and victimization rise to the heavens in lieu of painful self-reflection. Quebecers aren't the only people to do this, but I must say they're unusually good at it. I also like how the discourse has subtly shifted from being able to speak French to being Quebec-born. This allows people to just ignore Benoit Pouliot, not to mention Jacques Martin. The players must also be top-line players. That way we can discount Mathieu Darche, David Desharnais and Alexandre Picard. In any case, Lapierre was not a top-line player...And of course the fact that team management is controlled by a francophone doesn't count either. All of this being said, in pure hockey terms I'm reconsidering my complete indifference to this trade. There can be no denying that when he was on, Lapierre was capable of being a devastatingly effective agitator and 3rd/4th line C. Festerling is unlikely ever to become one of the best 5th defencemen in the league. So we gave back the player with the most potential. I am concerned that we gave up on Laps because of an inconsistency which is in fact the calling card of young players. It would not surprise me to find him, in a couple of seasons, being a heart and soul guy despised around the league not just for his yapping but for his effectiveness. It could be argued that Laps quit on the Habs, not the other way around, and that's a legitimate rebuttal to what I'm saying. But was it necessary to push things to that point? It's worth asking.

Desharnais played well most of the night. So far so good for the Ultimate Smurf as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, why anybody watches the CBC feed if they have access to RDS is beyond me. I fail to see why my tax dollars should pay for Mike Milbury to call the Habs 'cockroaches.' Cammy has a virus. This makes me wonder whether the team as a whole has been suffering from it. It happens a lot - the flu works its way through a dressing room - and is often a contributor to a slump. Who knows. HI/O also offers an explanation for the weird PP in overtime. Neither Wiz nor Subban wanted to shoot the puck because the ice in the Bruins' end was so bad, the puck wouldn't sit flat. I was wondering.

AWESOME win!!! And potentially a crucial one in psychological terms. If that doesn't put the wind in their sails it's hard to see what will. Great shot by MaxPac, too. In my now-forgotten earlier post in this thread, I didn't mean to say out core sucks, just that it hasn't been playing well. Ultimately those guys - or what's left of them -are the key. But for now: WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is one tough cookie of a game out there. The Bruins are giving us NOTHING. And unfortunately ye Habs just don't have the horses to make something happen. Gomez, Cammy, and lately even Gio and Plekanec just aren't bringing their "A" games - for whatever reason (we don't know). Throw in the catastrophic Markov injury and a declining or hobbled Hammer and the Habs simply have too much of their core talent more or less MIA. Indeed, all the ranting about long-gone mediocre players (you think Grabs, O'Byrne and SK 74 would make the difference? Really - ?) is missing this deeper point. The fact that our best trio tonight just might be the Desharnais line speaks volumes. It's our core guys that are being substantially outplayed by the other teams' core guys, night in and night out. Until that changes, we will struggle. Same old story. Your best players have to be your best players. The end.

I don't see why small players can't fit into a defensively responsible system. It's like Desharnais himself says - he's not going to muscle guys off the puck, so he has to be intelligent. If his skills are good and he plays a game of above-average vision, positioning, and on-ice smarts - and if he listens to the coaches - then he has a chance to stick. Martin has proven over and over that he will reward players who listen, commit to the system, and can be relied on to deliver. It's up to Desharnais to realize that and respond. The illusion lies in confusing Martin with Pat Burns. Burns had a big, strong team that did indeed grind opponents into submission. JM's model seems to me to be fundamentally about puck support and intelligence. So I'm not quite so sure that Desharnais has to be thrown under the bus before he's even begun.