The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Really a good post. You accurately capture something that I've maintained about this ream all along, that it is fundamentally likeable and chock-full of appealing, fun players that sensible fans pull for. Bruised by the psychodrama disasters of the Kovalev era, Gainey rebuilt this team for gumption and CHARACTER. Only hysteria over wins and losses can lead people to lose sight of this. PK Subban just raises that 'likeability' factor up a notch. His game, potential and charisma are the stuff of future legend, and barring injury or cap mismanagement, or perhaps his own mushrooming ego, he will be THE defining player for the Montreal Canadiens for the next 15 years. I know that sounds like hyperbole...but I don't think it is. Easily the best Habs rookie since Koivu - the real Koivu, not the injury-damaged one. At the same time, you're also right that our core maybe isn't quite good enough to blast open games. There are X-factors here - what if Subban really starts to explode? What if Eller, Kosty or Pouliot really begin to buzz? - but these are more cases of wishful thinking than probabilities. (If Cammalleri had ever heard of assists, he might become that gamebreaker, but it looks like he is a pure lurk-in-the-weeds-and-explode sniper, and it's hard to demand more). We still need a legitimate power forward in the top 6. Absent that, expect lots of harrowingly close games, lots of near-death experiences along the lines of 'shit, what ifwe head back to Montreal with an 0-2 record??' and things like that. Also expect enough moments where Pleks, Gio, Gomez, and Cammy and our vastly improved bottom-6 snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Gonna be another roller-coaster...as it is for most teams in the cap era. But whatever happens, it'll be a fun ride from one of the most entertaining and likeable teams in hockey.

I'm surprised Gionta isn't showing more, given the "C" on the jersey and all. Then again, he's a complementary player more than a guy who makes things happen single-handedly. That's Gomez's job. So I think you're probably right. He'd better turn it around double-quick; hopefully tonight's Thanksgiving Turkey (MAF) gets him going.

Yeah, what's with Gio and Gomez? Is Pouliot dragging them down, or something? They're garbage out there.

They keep losing to us for one simple reason. Their goaltending sucks. And ours is first-rate. :hlogo: Price looked strong in TO and was the difference tonight. Fess up, Price-bashers. Gionta and Gomez HAVE to start picking it up. Good that Gomer got the GWG but he was invisible all night and that was *not* a serious NHL scoring chance. We can't expect to win without two of our top-4 defencemen and with two of our most counted-upon forwards MIA night after night. PK Subban - when was the last time a Habs rookie got booed, not for any specific play he makes, but simply because he is who he is? Star power for sure. I'm just worried that if he keeps taking that amount of punishment an injury is inevitable. Major relief to head home at .500. Thank you Carey Price!

To this day I don't understand why they don't trade Jordan Staal for an upgrade on the wings. Seems simple enough - deal from your position of strength (C ) - to address your weakness. They remain a strong club, but the 'Halak-stole-the-show' narrative covers up the reality of a beatable team.

Be sure to check out Topham's amusing preview here. http://www.lionsinwinter.ca/2010/10/meetin...oo-preview.html I especially like the ready-made excuses in the event of a loss

Letang publicly stated that the Pens now hate the Habs as much as they hate the Flyers and the Caps. In a way, I loved that comment - talk about respect. On the other hand, I shuddered at the thought of a ferociously mobilized Crosby-Malkin coming at us. A good test for us, then. If we can respond and meet the Pens as equals, especially without Halak, we'll be making a statement that we really are a good team. If we end up getting rolled, then it will tend to confirm Crosby's bitter post-series remarks about the Habs getting massively outchanced and outplayed and not deserving to win - even though they have yet to face us with Markov. Cammy will be pumped. Gio and Gomer will be looking to play for 60 minutes instead of 20 like last game. Kosty will be needing to make a statement. Subban will be his usual wild self. Eller can make the league start to sit up and take notice if he does something. This could be a debacle but it also could be great. :hlogo: Go Habs go!

The difference between those guys and Darche is that they have talent and he doesn't. If he is not an honest player then he is no player at all. if I'm the Habs I give him no more than two more games like that before I subtract him from the lineup and give him 'The Talk.'

The Chara tilt was one thing, but last night's Ivanas fight was really quite sad to witness. You hardly ever see an 'enforcer' get crushed like that. Not only has he been publicly humiliated, he is also seriously hurt - concussions are no joke. His humiliation, instead of making the desired statement, merely sealed the demolition of his team in a season-opening rival matchup. And it exposed him in front of tens of thousands of people as basically useless at what is supposed to be his job, likely sealing any hope he has of an NHL career (and reinforcing the possibility that fights between goons, while relatively harmless most of the time, can bring dire human consequences, including death, if one of the participants is not up to scratch). Just an agonizing thing on a human level. Awful.

Yup, good game. The only real stinker out there was Darche, who I would not be surprised to see back riding the iron lung before too long. In the category of good news: -Price. Quietly confident, poised, strong. A very, very reassuring performance if you ask me. -Spacek. Looked pretty good to me, notwithstanding the gaffe on the winning goal. Finally back at his natural side, he was much more assertive on the PP especially. Could turn out to be a bit of a secret weapon for us this season. -Eller. Rangy, creative, good vision and strong on his feet. He looks like a bona fide top-6 prospect at this point. Don't wanna jinx him though. -Subban. Yes, a few dodgy moments but damn, he is strong as a bull and makes things happen. And he can just tirelessly eat up minutes. He will help us much more than he will hurt us. No fear of a jinx here. This guy will be an absolute stud defenceman in the NHL. -Good PK, solid chances on the PP. -The depth. In stark contrast to early last season, Lapierre, Boyd, Pyatt, Halpern, etc., all looked ready to contribute in every facet of play. We have hugely improved from where we started 2009 in terms of the bottom 6. Those who say we've stood pat except for losing Halak simply haven't done their homework. -Coaching: ample use of the young guys even as the clock wound down. Kudos. Not so good news: -Gomez and Gionta were invisible until the third period. I'll bet there was a coaching adjustment, but in a tight game we need more from them for 60 minutes especially with our missing components. I didn't think much of Plekanec's game either. -Kostitsyn and Pouliot. The former did nothing, the latter was a liability at times. This does not auger well. -Darche. One more ass-dragging game like that and Ryan White should have himself a job. -Breakdowns. I thought we settled down after the 1st but defensive brain-cramps cost us this game. As Wamsley points out, though, the return of our top 2 defencemen will hugely help. Lots to like. Here's to a new season! :hlogo:

Can't help with the bar request, but I also lived in Ottawa for a couple of years after having spent much of my childhood and youth in Montreal. I just want to say, don't listen to the naysayers - it's really a lovely town with a lot of green space, an unusual per centage of interesting people, and outstanding cultural opportunities for a city of its size (including the best art gallery in Canada and, of course, the gorgeous parliament buildings). I live in the Vancouver area now and I'd go back there in a flash. (Then again, if you're an 18-year-old on the party, then it's true that it's Hull or bust. And while you're getting loaded on La Maudite, be sure to dig the statue of the Rocket outside the Museum of Civilization).

100%. And I do ignore them, as a rule (much as I ignore nearly anything said on RDS relating to French-Canadian hockey players). What does surprise me is the complete absence of a learning curve. 5 out of 6 playoff seasons, a 60% success rate in escaping the first round, you'd *think* that eventually they'd start to acknowledge that the Habs keep proving them wrong. Ah well. This maybe isn't the right thread in which to raise this, but what worries me about this season is the power play. As much as people hate MAB, we forget that his presence was necessitated by a PP power outage due to the absence of a bullet from the point. Now he is out of the picture and the danger is that the Habs - already a dismal 5-on-5 team - will suffer from a gravely weakened powerplay in consequence. This isn't a theme I've seen addressed much and it strikes me as ominous. If we have an Achillies' Heel it could prove to be that.

Hee hee...it's the same garbage year after year. If Cammy, Gio, Gomez, Markov, Price and Subban were Leafs, we'd be hearing all about the 'plucky Leafs' with their 'talented core' and our excellent 'mix of skilled veterans and exciting young stars.' We'd also be hearing story after story about the 'miracle run' of 2010 and see highlights of the Pittsburgh and Washington series rebroadcast ad nauseum and celebrated over and over as some sort of historic achievement or 'return to past glory.' But no; instead it's all 'smurfs smurfs smurfs, Price sucks sucks sucks, fluke fluke fluke, now let's move on and talk about what a Great Leader and Human Being Dion Phaneuf is.' Now I don't expect anyone to rate us as contenders. But to see a Stanley Cup semi-finalist with the playoff goal-scoring leader, one of the best young defenceman - and yes, I said it, best young goalies - in all of hockey, one of the best defencemen in hockey period (Markov), and a dressing room littered with Cup rings, being universally dismissed as a hopeless mediocrity *is* a bit rich. We've made the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years and gone past the first round 3 times in that span. At some point they should wake up and smell the coffee: this may not be 1977, but when it comes to making the dance and doing at least some damage, don't bet against the Montreal Canadiens. All that being said? I predict a loss tonight. Too many missing pieces, with the Laffs and their crowd too likely to be hysterically hopped-up. I'll be happy if we work hard and show some cohesion and most importantly, don't suffer a catastrophic injury either through an unpenalized cheap shot or else sheer bad luck. And a further prediction: expect Habs fans to be rending their garments and calling for heads to roll after that one loss, forgetting that a team without Markov, Hamrlik, Price, and Cammy is simply NOT representative of what the Habs can do. After a while, you realize that some things are just inevitable.

Hee hee...imagine becoming a separatist because you hate the Leafs There's a scenario I never even considered.

Yes, I'm generally resigned to some sort of BS going down when we play the Leafs, especially for a 'big game.' It's either a huge injury (c.f. Markov) or some idiotic call or non-call...a circus is guaranteed, usually in the Leafs' favour.

Yeh, don't be surprised if the Habs start the season on a losing streak because 1/2 the team is working at 50% lung capacity due to the flu. That's what happened in 1995, and it cost Jacques Demers and Serge Savard their jobs.

Yeah, Price is out for the moment. Could be back by tomorrow, who knows. No Cammy, no Price, no Hammer, no Markov...sheesh Looks like we're picking up right where we left off last season in terms of lost man-games. In a way, having Auld get lit up might make people begin to realize the value of Price to this team. Could be a case of short-term pain for long-term gain. But Auld's a pro, don't bet on him folding in his first game with ye Habs - assuming he plays.

Yeah, he deserved the suspension. A dumb play by him, especially given that the supposed headshot to which he was 'retaliating' was uncertain at best. He could have gotten more. The only bugger in this is that we'll be without our best sniper against the hated Leafs.

Zing. The really scary thing here is that a human being can make $32,258.06 for a single day's work Bring back Karl Marx, man.

People worry too much about Markov's contract IMHO. This guy has consistently supported Montreal and repeatedly said that Montreal is where he wants to be. I'm sure if we offer him a contract similar to his current one, he will sign it. And Wamsley speaks wise words (as usual). It is a big mistake to write off a player of this calibre because he's 31. He likely has another 5 years of peak or near-peak performance left in him. The only question mark is injuries...once he returns, he *does* need to put together a healthy season in order to allay fears on this front.

Ouch is right. And think about it...you've just been told you can't make the ISLANDERS. Time to start re-thinking your career options, because it doesn't look like Chicago will be calling any time soon.

That Cammy was apparently reacting to a blindside headshot might be enough to get him off the hook...especially in light of that hilarious diagram http://www.habsinsideout.com/main/37436

The only time I've ever been ashamed of anything that happened in preseason is when the braying jackasses booed Carey Price. The stakes here remind me of an Elvis Costello song: Less Than Zero. Indeed, the Habs may lose out of sheer boredom.

Praise the Good Lord in heaven, Markov is a fast healer.

If Eller is going to get decent amounts of ice time, then he should stay with the big club. Whether he is on the bottom-6 or top-6 is immaterial. If he is ready to play in the NHL, then he will benefit hugely from NHL exposure regardless of where he is in the lineup. Even Saku Koivu spent a season in the bottom-6 - which led to Turner Stevenson getting more scoring chances than he'd ever enjoyed in his life Only if Eller is going to be a bench-warmer should he go back down.