Wamsley01

Why? He got 2.75M last season when he was an RFA. You think that he is going to get only a 1.25M raise? His next contract will be a lockup long term deal. I would be shocked if he doesn't get $5M.

It is what it is I guess. Nothing we can do about it and because the topic is filled with biased language based viewpoints. I want the best team/management/coach that the Canadiens can get. Unfortunately that is not reality.

Same with 1992, 1993 and 1994 where the team who hosted the All-Star game won the Cup that season. Pittsburgh, Montreal and the Rangers.

?? Actually, the Lightning were the first team in history to go on and win the Cup after eliminating the Habs and the Canes did it back to back in 06. Outside of that it has never happened in Canadiens history and those two seasons are actually the outliers.

The cock tease has finally put out!

Goaltending? I wonder if the Devils have been weak in goaltending prospects for the last two decades. The Habs have Eller, Subban, Price, Weber, Pacioretty all in the NHL and under 23. It is hardly a concern. If they had a top 5 ranking we would be looking at a powerhouse in a year with major cap problems in 2-3 years. When you have the young talent the Habs do, you only need to produce an upper tier NHL talent every 4-5 seasons. Guys like Kristo, LeBlanc, Bournival are the depth guys that keep your cap safe. They are just as imporant to long term success. If they unearth a gem like Halak every 3-4 years, it is a massive bonus.

We will never know if it would or not, but the difference between losing Markov and Gorges lies in the adequate replacement. Markov was replaced by Subban and Gorges was replaced by Sopel. There was no replacement for a scoring power forward. So ultimately the Markov/Gorges replacement replaced 80% of their ability (with the way Subban played in the playoffs I think it is fair to say close to 100%). Who replaced Pacioretty's 30 goal production on the Gomez line in the playoffs? He had 4 goals and 2 assists in 3.5 games against the Bruins this season. Moen and Darche had 3 points in 7 games. How would Gomez/Gionta have benefitted from playing with a dominant scoring winger with size? I don't think it is a stretch to think Pacioretty wouldn't have made a difference over 7 games.

If you use this logic than every series win becomes a "what if". The fact that the Bruins were the ones who removed Pacioretty from the series and were the MAIN BENEFACTORS of that action is unavoidable. It isn't like they removed Ryan White. They removed a player who was dominant this year in a series that came down to 3 Boston OT wins + a 1 goal regulation win. There is a better than average chance that Chara's act altered the outcome of that series.

It is great to take the moral high road, but it only works if the league defends that high road. They don't, so you do what you have to do. The Bruins are playing tonight because they ignored the moral high road.

Philly and Boston have earned their reputation over decades. It is the equivalent to a brand standard. Philly/Boston fans expect this type of team and have been conditioned for exactly this. If they iced a team like the Sabres of 06/07 the first thing they would mention if they did not succeed would be "toughness". If I gave you two guesses who the most popular Bruin is, it would likely be Lucic or Chara. If that exact roster played on Montreal, who would sell the most jerseys? It would probably be Thomas. A two time Vezina winner in Montreal would own the city like Roy/Theo/Halak and eventually Price will. Every city identifies with different things. In Boston they are always searching for the next Neely, Montreal it is the next Roy. Even if Pittsburgh lead the league in PIMs, that is not their franchise identity and is unlikely to be sustained long term. Anaheim had that reputation for a couple of years, but it moved when Pronger/Brian Burke moved on. The media might attempt to desensitize us to the facts, but Chara altered the outcome of the season with his reckless act. He did it on a night where once again the Habs were embarrassing the Bruins with skill and speed. This was on the heels of a ridiculous brawl where they attempted to send a message with goonery and a period after Boychuk low bridged Subban. I have no problem with a player like Emelin who toes the line. I am not going to get all holier than thou about "I don't want that guy on my team" because I loved EVERY MINUTE of Chris Nilan, Claude Lemieux and Chris Chelios. Better on my team than on the other. I don't want to define my team by these players, but if the other team has nukes, there is nothing wrong with having a couple of your own to assure the other team doesn't use theirs.

Anything with a healthy Markov is an improvement. Wiz was a bridge, not a legit replacement. He is nowhere near the puck mover, defensive player and does not possess the offensive instincts Markov does. Outside of Subban, Hamrlik was the only one who made regular intelligent pinches and back door plays. Wiz was Souray light. Spacek/Gorges/Weber Markov/Emelin Subban/Gill That is a better defense than what they had last season. If 18 minute Hamrlik was going to play for 82 games, then maybe it isn't, but Hamrlik tired and playing 23-25 minutes is a mistake machine and that was the role he played for the majority of the season+playoffs. Even if this is a lateral move today, there is room for improvement over the next 2-3 years. In order for that core not to improve over the next 3 seasons you would need to have Subban/Weber and Emelin have their career progression halted in their early to mid 20s. The two guys who will suffer some decline in that 3 year period would be the most replaceable short term contract guys in Gill and Spacek. Now contrast that to this years D. Hamrlik is definitely declining and Wiz is 27 and signing him would be paying him for 50+ points he put up this season, anything less than that constitutes overpaying (ala, Gomez). Add in Spacek and Gill and there is ZERO room for improvement outside of Subban/Weber moving forward. If Gill can help bridge the gap until TInordi is ready to apprentice on the blueline then it can continue to move forward. It is a defense that can provide the basis for a prolonged contender run if Emelin is 75% of what he is expected to be. Guys like Emelin are exactly the types of players that show up in Detroit out of nowhere and everybody wonders "who the ###### is this guy?". Nobody outside of Montreal has been waiting for this guy or knows who he is. I understand the reluctance to believe Emelin is coming, but if he does it alters Gauthier's off-season plan dramatically. Plus, anybody who owns a Sergei Kostitsyn jersey can just peel of the name plate and replace it with EMELIN.

But this is how Stanley Cups are won. If we all got to wait until a player develops to make our decisions, we would all be GMs. Everybody looks at things in hindsight and says, wow, what a genius that GM was in allowing veteran A to leave when he had youngster B to fill the hole. C.C, I don't see optimism in this post, I see "I am going to protect myself from pain, just in case the worst case scenario unfolds" attitude that has permeated through this franchise for the better part of a decade. It happened all season. They are done now that Halak is gone. They are done now that Markov is gone. They are done now that Gorges is gone. They are done now that Pacioretty is gone. They are done now after blowing that 2-0 lead on the Bruins. They are done now trailing 2-1 late in Game 7. They had 9-10 different occasions where the citizens of this board buried them and left them for dead, are we going to spend another season of this? This team should have beaten the Bruins and now the Bruins are favourites to reach the Cup Final. The Habs have a young core, two potential superstars and now positive rumours of Emelin coming over is met with more negativity. Over and over this fanbase buries its young before realizing that they are still kicking. What if Markov gets injured again? Well what if Weber is Streit 2.0 and Emelin does come over and is a solid 4th with a mean streak that keeps teams honest? What if Pacioretty returns fully healthy and continues to develop? What if Desharnais is actually a legit top 6? What if Gomez just had a bad season and bounces back to 60 pts? What if Kristo/Tinordi/Leblanc are further ahead than we anticipated? What if Price makes another leap next season? For every negative possibility there remains an unknown positive that could happen. You are painting a picture like the Habs need their main core to have career seasons like 2008 in order to be good. In September nobody thought Pacioretty would amount to anything or that Subban would be more than a 6th guy easing into the league. Price was a major question mark and most thought he wouldn't be able to handle the pressure. Every team still playing is getting performances that they didn't expect in September. Tampa didn't even have Roloson. Thomas started the season in a tandem. Couture wasn't expected to be a top 6 forward. Vancouver didn't expect that they would be in the Conference Final with zero production from the Sedins and Kesler playing his face off. Be positive. You were the one saying this was a stealth rebuild two years ago and now that it is working and you seem to be right, you are pointing out how it could fail. This is the best position the Habs have been in since the 1998 season. I am going to sit back and enjoy. I have spent years looking for reasons they will fail and it didn't make me feel any better when they ultimately did fail,

You find me ONE play where a player rubs another player in to the stanchion with the puck "20 feet away" and I will buy your argument. If the puck was at Pacioretty's feet the majority of people on this board would have said it was an unfortunate accident. That is not the case, I don't care about his intent, it was dirty. I did watch Claude Lemieux and his infamous plays took place on other teams. His career ended in Montreal because he was diving and making an ass of himself. Was he dirty with Montreal? I don't know, was Domi dirty with the Rangers? He has no resume stains from his Ranger career. Post Canadiens resume is unimportant. It comes and goes? The Bruins have been this type of team for the better part of 40 years. So have the Flyers. The "Big Bad Bruins". The "Broadstreet Bullies". These are IDENTITIES. They aren't passing phases. Three players on the Habs have registered 200+ min since 1970. Nilan, Odelein and Brashear. Nine players on the Bruins reached that mark. O'Reilly, Milbury, Jonathan, Blum, Markwart, Miller, Byers, Nilan, Nazarov. TWENTY FIVE players on the Flyers reached that mark. Carcillo, Cote, Eager, Brashear, Kordic, Daniels, Antoski, McGill, Dineen, Berube, Carkner, Chycrun, Tocchet, Brown, Cochrane, Linseman, Holmgren, Wilson, Busniuk, Dupont, Bridgman, Schultz, McIlhargey, Kelly and Saleski Sure the Chelios/Propp hit was dirty, but I can't think of another infamous Canadiens hit? Kostopolous? Maybe Odjick? Todd Ewen was a mad man, but he never did anything on the ice with the Habs that was anywhere as dirty as Chara or the infamous McSorley SlapChop. Nilan's greatest hits were in brawls with the Habs, there are no Dale Hunter, Dave Brown style assaults on his Montreal resume. It doesn't come and go. That is an unfair representation for my lifetime anyway.

I don't really care who wins in all honesty.

Their playoff success? They are up 2-0 on the road just like the Habs were in the previous round playing the team who came back from 3-0 against them last season. Last time I checked, that is two wins out of four and six of the required 16.

The Bruins fans will bring up Paille and Marchand as their proof that absolves them.

The media might have started it, but anybody who dislikes Martin would immediately cling to that as proof that they were right about Martin. Martin has won 500+ games without Muller and played in a Game 7 in which one break for the Senators would have seen him playing the Ducks for a Stanley Cup without Muller. The Devils scored with a couple minutes left in Game 7 to eliminate the Sens. The guy is a good coach. Last time I checked, nobody is claiming that Jacques Laperriere was responsible for the 1993 Cup because Demers had never won a Cup before 93 seeing as Laperriere was on the 1986 Cup Champion staff as well.

There consistency is absolutely absurd. Their rationale changes with the wind. Injury was a factor in suspending Kostopolous. Injury non-factor in Pacioretty's incident. Non-injury is a factor in the Halpern case. Campbell/Murphy are clowns. Like I said. Intent is a red herring intended to allow them to make decisions by the seat of their pants. So is their use of injury to influence a decision. Cooke, Richards and Chara get off scott clean because of lack of intent, but Kostopolous is held accountable for his actions? So stupid.

I love Kirk Muller. To me he will always be the guy who scored the Cup winning goal in 1993 and played the entire playoffs with a broken collarbone, but it doesn't mean I have to overlook his failures and use his successes to confirm his greatness. The Canadiens have won three playoff series since Muller became assistant. The Canadiens have lost four series since he became an assistant and missed the playoffs once. Martin has won two playoff series and lost two playoff series. Why is Muller viewed as the lynchpin of success? Why didn't he figure out a way to defeat the Maple Leafs on the last night of the 2007 regular season or stem the tide of the second half collapse? Why didn't he figure out a way to defeat the Flyers in 2008? Why didn't he game plan a way to defeat the Bruins in 2009? Why are these negatives associated with Carbonneau, Huet, Gainey and the gutless 2009 squad and Muller becomes teflon? Why are all the past struggles ignored and he is given credit for the game plan that stymied the Caps and Pens, while Martin's role is minimized? It is confirmation bias at it's finest. I would love him to stay just because of my emotional attachment to him, but it ends there.

Yeah, I have targeted you specifically. I bring up points for things I disagree with. I don't agree with the majority of what you say, c'est la vie. All I said is that fan perception is a far cry from reality and used this fan base's beliefs from just 10 months ago to show how wrong most of us were. Your statement on Eller was one of the things I chose to use to show how unimportant it can be to project with limited information. I further emphasized this with Plekanec in a later post. My point is not about assessing individual talent and how it can make the habs better, it is on the dearth of talent in the system and how the Habs need to take advantage of it NOW.

No team has an exclusive Cup window. This is not the 1980's. The point of the cap is parity and unfortunately it cripples the ability to stockpile young assets for the long term. So you make your choices and if you make the right ones and build around the right core you can have an extended run like the Wings have. While making that run though you must continue to stockpile assets and re-invigorate the core as the old one ages. This is the first young core that has legitimate Stanley Cup hopes moving forward since the late 80s. I am not going to stress about what other teams have because WE don't know what we have here yet. If I talked to you in 2004-2006 and asked who had a better future with the Canadiens, Chris Higgins, Andrei Kostitsyn or Tomas Plekanec? How many people would have answered Pleks? Remember, Gainey almost included him in the Kovalev trade because at that point Josef Balej was considered better than Pleks. What I do know is that they have a core of young players who have proved they are NHL players. Will DD mature into St. Louis or is he a just going to be an inconsistent 3rd line center? These questions are everywhere on this team and with a plethora of high draft choices like Kristo, Tinordi and Leblanc sitting on the farm who knows how deep their depth really is. We all liked Subban two seasons ago, but did any of us think he would have this type of impact at 21 years old? I am guilty of homerism just like anybody here but I have not had a position player on the Habs like Subban excite me like this in 20+ years. What is his ceiling? Add in Carey Price who is the best goaltending prospect I have ever seen (based on technical ability) and anybody who cannot get excited right now is a total pessimist who fears the worst. As for Gomez, I can't really provide much insight because I don't really know his value on the market. What I would do is make him available and see where that takes me. If somebody bites, there is always the possibility to add a veteran like Arnott at the trade deadline if Eller, DD, Plekanec can't hold the fort. There is no waiting for the core to mature anymore. You have to be aggressive in identifying who it is and build around it. The luxury of having until they are 30 years old to make up your mind no longer exists. There is an opportunity to take the next step and the Habs need to be aggressive about it. Gauthier did it with Price and I expect he understands what needs to be done.

Nobody is suggesting a 1A backup, but Auld is barely an NHL goaltender. Playing excuses are not legit, he had the easiest workload possible with the Leafs/Isles/Panters etc. The only playoff team he faced won 1 playoff game. .914 SV% is not impressive when you are playing teams that probably have an expected save percentage of about .915. They need a guy who can bridge a gap should Price get injured, I am not convinced that Auld could do that for even 5-6 games like a guy like Enroth did for the Sabres. As for Eller, he doesn't need to be a star, teams don't have 3-4 stars today, if they do they become top heavy and capped out with little depth. The Habs are in a good position because they have two stars locked in for next season at about $4M and legit support players like Eller, Pacioretty, Desharnais, White and Weber who will get better and outperform their contracts over the next 2-3 seasons. Hockey is about elite players and depth. The Hawks won last season because they had Kane, Toews and Keith, but they also relied heavily on Byfuglien, Ladd, Bolland etc. The albatross for this team is Gomez. Not in the sense in which they can provide this type of season again, but in the sense that he eats up the advantage gained by PK and Price's cheap cap hits. If you tell the league you have Gomez/Price and Subban locked up for $11M combined they say not bad, but when the majority of that is wrapped up in the worst of the 3 it becomes a problem. Gomez becomes the thing keeping this team from becoming a Cup contender. Right now he is eating the Superstar savings in 3rd line production. The Habs can maintain what they are right now with him, but if they actually had a $7M player's production this team is among the top 5-6 in the league. As always fans are looking at this team from the perspective of today. This is what happened in the shortsighted prism of October 2010. Is Price better than Halak? Is Subban ready for the NHL? Is Pacioretty a bust? Is Desharnais too small? etc. etc. What if Eller makes the Pacioretty leap in 2011-12? What if DD is the player we saw in Game 6? What if Weber morphs into Mark Streit 2.0? The positives outweigh the negatives moving forward and if Gauthier pulls the right strings this team will have a nice Cup window in the next 2-3 years.

What do you mean, Ference "isn't that type of player" and neither is Chara. You know, because video is unimportant, it is the inane statements that you make in an interview scrum that defines you.

Koivu's rookie season was not like this. It was his sophomore season in which he took off. Subban had the greatest rookie season (non goalie) since probably Chris Chelios in 1985. Same type of playoff introduction followed by a big rookie year. The Habs have Price, Subban, Eller, Pacioretty, Desharnais and Weber. Weber is looking more and more like Streit 2.0 (not because of his nationality). They have a ton of young tools and their veteran core is not really old. Cammalleri and Plekanec are only 29 years old. When they re-sign Markov (and they will) he will not have to log the major minutes anymore. They have a horse to replace his tough minutes. If Gauthier is aggressive this off season the Habs can have a 2-3 year window in which they take a legit shot at the Cup, not a "lets get in the playoffs and hope for the best" type run. This is the best young crop of players this franchise has had since the Roy, Richer, Corson, Chelios run that lead to a 10 year Cup contender.

How can anybody be upset with this season? A little perspective is all it takes to realize what a success this season was. In September the fans booed Price, had no idea who Eller was, had half written off Pacioretty because he wasnt an instant star and were hoping the Habs could weather the storm until Markov returned. DD who? Subban was to be nurtured as the 6th defenseman and eased into the league. Here we are in April after Price had a huge year, Subban made the transition that few 21 year olds can make on D, the Habs played the whole season without Markov, etc. Etc. They provided a glimpse this season. This wasn't a statistical fluke with paper OT wins, improbable 50 save wins and a high shooting percentage with no injuries. This was the beginning of a new era. A system, two legit superstars under the age of 23 and leadership that refuses to acknowledge defeat in the eyes of long odds. Subban and Price are not a mirage. They are the two best players this franchise has had in over a decade. I can handle playoff defeats when I understand limitations and limit expectation. Everything after the playoffs was gravy. The Bruins fans have been conned into thinking they are a Cup contender so this series was everything to them, I will take playoff defeats over the next 5 years more heavily than this.