The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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Posts posted by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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Weiss seems like he'd be a good addition, notwithstanding the positional issue. Indeed, his smallish size and all-around game suggests a perfect fit for our team
Given that JM probably knows him well, this is a rumour that I'd be inclined to think credible, despite the source. Indeed, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that Weiss *might* even make Gomez dispensable 
Anyway - an interesting idea. -
Another nit-picky beef about last night: the choice of Pouliot and Kostitsyn for the shootout. Both those guys are the opposite of players you go to with the game on the line, and in both cases I was eerily, absolutely confident that they would NOT score. In that situation, I go with the Plekanecs and the Giontas and Gomezes any day of the week. Puzzling decision by JM IMHO.
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Great to see Saku - who, I can't help but notice, was up to his familiar late-career trick of taking bad penalties
- but the game was basically a dud. The Habs just didn't have much inspiration tonight. Nice to see them gut out a point nevertheless.I was surprised to see Mario Blueberry suggesting that Lapierre could be out of the league at the end of the season. I'd thought he was more highly-regarded, talent wise, than that. Interesting.
The Habs kept shooting high on Hiller and, all too often, missing the net. Could be a case where the scouting report actually worked against them.
Koivu, Koivu. I was touched by his return. Nevertheless, although still useful, he is not the player he was, and things probably have worked out for the best all around.
EDIT: I'd meant to ask - how come the Habs didn't do the usual thing and have a little ceremony honouring Koivu before the game? That would have eliminated the awkwardness of him calling his teammates out on the ice and cutting short the standing O at the beginning. Then, with the 2nd star selection, half the people had left the building. It seemed as though the fans never really had a chance to properly settle the account with Saku. But I wasn't there, so maybe my impression is wrong.
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Good call, Wamsley! I guess that would have to be Saku's finest hour with us. Another that comes to mind is his shootout winner to cap the 5-goal comeback victory against the Rangers. It was just so fitting that it be Koivu to seal the deal.
Habs29retired, I'm with you on the 'might have beens.' So few people remember just how dominant Koivu was before that horrible knee blowout. The leading scorer in the NHL, 50 games into the season. No one ever seems to mention that this was the superstar that never was, all because of a ruined knee.
Despite being tragically damaged goods, Saku always stepped up in the playoffs. Carolina had to gouge out his eyeball to stop him. Joe Thornton was owned by him in the dance - twice.
Some fans used to gripe about Koivu, but for me the real shame was the Habs never provided him with the supporting cast he deserved. What should have been a truly magical career was martyred to injury and managerial incompetence.
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Will Geof Molson end this "the-head-coach-has-to-be-bilingual" thing ?
And if he dares ending it, I suspect Kirk Muller would be a great fit. He wore the C for the Habs and still generally loved and respected by the fans around here.
I sure hope Molson takes this bulls*t by the horns. And yes, I'd love to see a seamless transition from JM to Muller at some point - now that would really speak to an organization that has its act together.
Who knows, maybe Muller could get away with it. Certainly if Louis Leblanc or one or two other impact francophone players materialize, and the very French Gautheir remains GM, it *might* be saleable to the ravenous jackals of the French press and thus, fans. Might.
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Fun game. The Sens are a sad case, though, and I think Wamsley did a good job of breaking down why that is.
Everbody had a good game, but I was especially impressed with Pouliot, particularly in the first half, when he played with real authority and imagination on seemingly every shift. I'd love to think that he's finding his groove, but as Boone points out, he and Kosty are consummate teases. And Gomez really cranked up his game after a confused first period - watching him give and go with Gionta was a taste of the old Jersey glory days.
I'd also single out Patches, for not missing a beat, and Eller and Desharnais, who both did lots of good things. And kudos to White for standing up for the cheap-shotted Moen.
A great night that should work wonders for the confidence of the young guns: just what the doctor ordered going forward.
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While I agree it doesn't matter what Martin did in Ottawa to justify him being a good coach today, I think Muller could also benefit from being around experienced veterans a while longer. He spent two seasons with Carbonneau and now almost two seasons with Martin. If he's willing to stay, I'd love both Martin & Muller back next year. After that, let's see if he's up to the task of head coaching, and maybe even Montreal.
Besides, I think New Jersey will go for an experienced coach next year like Fat, sorry Pat Quinn.
But Kirk couldn't be our coach. He's not bilingual.
That's something the Martin bashers have to consider. Thanks to Montreal's stupid managerial affirmative-action program, the issue is not whether we have the best coach available, but whether we have the best francophone coach available. Even Scotty Bowman would never be hired to coach us now.
You also have to ask whether it would be in Muller's best interest to leave a solid
organization like Montreal to join what appears to be a basket case in NJ. Come to think of it, even before the wheels fell off, Lamouriello (sp?) had a habit of arbitrarily decapitating coaches. I'm not sure that, if I had a nice comfy job with a good organization, I'd leave to go stick MY head on the block in Jersey.
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I dunno, I have a good feeling about this one. I think the young bloods are going to add some enthusiasm and that the team will hunker down and play hard as a response to all the injuries. That's often the pattern, after all - injuries usually start to tell after a certain span of games. So, count me as optimistic for tonight.
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Have you seen the list of 2011 UFA defensemen?
http://www.mynhltraderumors.com/2010/06/01/2011-unrestricted-nhl-free-agents/#Defense
Lidstrom is going nowhere. So that leaves you with Bieksa, Kaberle, Phillips and Salo.
Kaberle is redundant if you re-sign Markov. The only two who would interest me in any way are Bieksa and Phillips.
Well, there you go. That's a dismal pool. Phillips sounds intriguing at first glace, but holy moly, he's 33 years old, and is -20 (!) with a grand total of 3 points on the season. I know that stats aren't everything, but you'd need a bloody solid scouting report to be assured that he represents a significant upgrade on Hamrlik.
Salo, what a joke that is; which leaves Bieksa and Kaberle. The Habs would be well-advised to pursue Kaberle IMHO and if we could be assured of signing him, he would represent a substantial upgrade. Trouble is, the bidding wars could bump his salary out of reach. This is even more true of Bieksa. Both will end up overpaid, but Bieksa is the more likely of the two to massively fail to live up to the big payday.
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Ha ha, I think the only time I lost serious sleep due to hockey was the night before the 2002 Olympic Gold Medal Game. I wanted Team Canada to win SO bad and was terrified of the consequences for our hockey program if we didn't.
Muller probably will get poached eventually. But see Wamsley's wise point that JM is not exactly a drooling idiot and that we will likely continue to be well-coached in Muller's absence. Also, the idea that Muller is indispensable is surely a bit of a stretch. Almost nobody is. Whatever his merits, I doubt he's Scotty Bowman redux.
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I've always pulled for Desharnais and I'm impressed with his moxy out there on most shifts. Conventional wisdom about size can go blow - I think he has at least a chance to carve out an interesting NHL career, perhaps as a 'polyvalent' player who can add some energy and some offence while being surprisingly useful on the forecheck. Congrats to the Super Smurf.
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I agree. I wouldn't cut him loose so quickly. He has to know he will never see $5M per again at 36 years old.
So the question becomes how much of a discount will he take. I know fans like to scapegoat the closest guy to the puck
when it ends up inside the net on the replay, so the blame moves from Price, to whatever D is standing over top of Price pulling
the puck out, followed by whatever forward is skating by that defenseman, but you don't gut the defense that is leading the league
in PK and has the team 4th in team defense.
What Markov and Hamrlik get are going to determine who is lost or retained.
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.
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Why?
Getting Gomez has propelled this team further in the playoffs than any other team since 93 i believe.
So if you don't like him or his numbers that's fine. However he does have the credibilty to be mad about celebrating if he wants.
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
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http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/313534.html ( the article in RDS saying Gomez should not of been pissed off) Stupid article nontheless
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT6XWwvgVwg&feature=related (can see Pk looking for Gomez, and when he finds him Gomez , says either "its ok, Whatever man, etc and more importantly doesnt look at PK in the face, and PK's faces tells you it all. PRETTY much guaranteed Gomez was Pissed Off
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.
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I think one has to realize, that if someone moves that his career might not play out like if he stayed. There is no doubt that the lingering bad move which one could argue still effects the dynamics of this team, is the Chelios trade years ago. Chelios retired a year ago or so, and this deal still stinks to high heaven.
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.
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Good teams overcome injuries. It is one of the benefits of a consistent system throughout the organization.
Injuries provide players opportunities to step up. Think of how you viewed this team in October and think of how you view it today.
Subban was not expected to lead this team's defense. He was to be groomed and eased in. Pacioretty? Did anybody expect him to come up and play the way he did? The Habs were doomed without Halak, could Price hold down the fort on his own?
Cucumber. For somebody who has put forth the theory that this is stealth rebuild 2.0 and Gainey cut the fat, brought in the coach who would install the proper system and this reminds you of the Pat Burns style Habs from the late 80s, you maintain a negative focus when it comes to injuries and the systems ability to plug in players.
Since Markov's injury the Habs have gone 15-12-3. Since Gorges they have gone 6-3-2.
Things change. Eller could step up for two weeks or Desharnies could complete his adjustment to the pro game and fill a hole.
Every season has highs and lows and unfortunately injuries are a part of that. I saw a terrible Canadiens team in 2000 miss the playoffs
by 1 win and they lost Koivu for 58 games, Savage broke his neck and missed the majority of the season, McCleary took a puck to the
throat and needed an emergency tracheotomy to save his life, Linden missed 32 games, Brisebois 28 games, Rivet 21 games, Brunet 32 games and Corson missed 12 games.
That was the main core of an awful team and yet they missed the playoffs on the last day of the season.
Injuries provide excuses and this team doesn't look ready to use excuses to me.
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.
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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.
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Just heard on RDS that Camms is gonna be out 4 to 6 weeks. Most likely a dislocated shoulder. My guess is that Max Pac will be out for at least 4 weeks as well, and Halpern...well we don't know. But we do know that Halpern's pain tolerance is pretty high, so whatever happened to him, must be serious.
Even though we got the point, this game could be a turning point in our season.
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.
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I've heard some rumblings that Gomez was pissed at Subban last night for his celebration. If it's true, what is everyones thoughts on it?
Yeah, we wouldn't want anybody to show any emotion on the ice. For God's sake - what is wrong with the NHL? -
Koivu - never understood how gainey let a heart and soul guy that had the same type of work ethic and competitive fire as himself. $2.5m for Koivu vs. $7.3m for Gomez. as the only thing I can understand (other then il lans, el le but, bel ae rait)' that the RDS announcer says - aiye yaiye, yaiye, yaiye, aiye!!!
The 2nd guy is Sreit who reportedly approached Gainey to sign for $2.5m in October/November of his UFA year - much less than what Schneider was making and would have negated the need for Spacek.
Lastly SK74, who I think JM's approach right from the outset of training camp was a major fxck up.
The habs really messed up with how they brought up Lats, riberiro, sk74 and maxpax, with practically no time in the minors and created that self of entitlement on guys who never learned to be a professional and just used the wrong approach afterwards. Looks like maxpax has been salvaged, but from the other 3 the only one I miss is SK74.
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.
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Yep i would agree that maxpax also played a great game, I thought he was snakebit a bit on his chances - but it wasn't from a lack of effort. Eller also like very good.
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.
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Yes it was. In the first. The Wiz has really changed our PP, 9 points in seven games. Baffling. But in the second, on the Rangers' too-many-men, the Habs had ten gilt-edged scoring chances and couldn't score.
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.
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We won, great. But who delivered the perfect tape to tape pass on that pathetic attempt at getting the puck out? Instead of getting it deep, he feathered it to a Ranger defenceman. My wife even noticed.
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.
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I think what Chris means, is that Habs need some Dustin Brown / Jarome Iginla / Nathan Horton type players. We all know that Moen wins battles along the board...
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.
Scary thought regarding Muller
in Habs & Hockey Talk
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Muller's name comes up a lot in the context of the Senators too, who will surely clean house in the off-season.
If we lose Captain Kirk, that'll be too bad, but I have a reasonable amount of faith in PG and Martin to bring in a solid replacement. Robinson would, of course, be great.