REV-G

Just curious, does anyone know if George Parros or Douglas Murray are playing this year? Also is Mike Komisarek doing well with Carolina?

Just curious. Does Gallagher have a goal, from the shootout, or is he still listed at 0?

I hope not, for Budaj's sake. He's been a solid backup but no longer good as a starter. Let him play 15-20 games a year but tst should be it. Otherwise he may not have a good ending in Winnipeg.

How do you subscribe to TVA Sports. Is it available thru FibeTV?

Last year I subscribed to Bell ExpressView and purchased the RDS French package so I watched all the games. I live in Oshawa, Ontrio and this year things have changed with TSN losing out on the bid for broadcast rights. We now have Fibe TV but when I went to watch the game on RDS the other night it was blacked out in Ontario. Does anyone know what we have to do to see all the Canadiens games this year in Ontario without buying the NHL package??

I think sometimes there is a window of opportunity for moves like this. Certain players or coaches are only available at certain times in their careers. The good ones get locked up for longer periods of time. With coaches having a certain shelf life I wonder if a year or so from now, if we had an opening, whether a raise and a right hand position to MB or even a newly created VP position, if something like that would work?

When MB was interviewing candidates as our potential head coach and we were debating who would be the best coach for us we all had our favourite. I think at the time names like Marc Crawford, Bob Hartford, MT and Patrick Roy were probably the four frontrunners by a wide margin, given factors like experience, abilities and of course the language issue after the terrible Randy Cunneyworth experiment. All of those coaches are now in different places and, for me, I still like MT. Every coach has their own way of doing things, good and bad. And all coaches have a shelf life. But I have to admit at the time we hired MT I would have loved to have had Patrick Roy but based on what we had just been through with Pierre Gauthier and Randy Cunneyworth I can understand that a rookie GM would be taking a huge risk by hiring an unproven NHL coach in Patrick Roy, with all the questions at that time about his temperament and ability to make the transition from Junior to the NHL coaching ranks. But today those questions have largely been answered and I would love to have Patrick as our coach. Bring him home before Quebec City gets a team and he ends up there. So more out of curiosity I want to ask the question, what would have to happen for Patrick Roy to become the head coach of the Canadiens? I don't mean what has to happen on our end, that's obvious. My question is, is this even possible before his contract with Colorado expires? He signed a 4 year deal. One of the high profile French reporters intimated on Tuesday night that it was possible. He referred to the Pat Burns situation, when he left Montreal and signed in Toronto. Had his contract with us expired or did we let him go at his request? So could Patrick become our coach sometime in the next year or so if we have an opening? Tell me what you think?

Eklund is reporting Parenteau for Briere just about a done deal. IF there's any truth to this, what do you think of it?

What I can't understand is why MT hasn't planted Bourque in the press box for a few games. If they did it to DD and he has responded to some degree then why not RB? I've stated before I like MT's plan for making players earn their ice time. Bourque seems to be coasting and playing the perimeter. It's time to do something with him. I wonder if MB or MT have sat down and had a Gainey/Kovalev type conversation with him?

When we hired MT to be our coach I was not unhappy with the choice, given who was available at the time, even though back then I thought Bob Hartley would have been the best choice. Today I am very glad we have MT and not Bob Hartley and personally, given the unique situation of being a head coach in Montreal I would today take MT over most other candidates and hands down I would take him over the current head coach of the New York Rangers, Alain Vignault, who likely would be our head coach today had he been available back then. . MT's benching of PK Subban the other night in Philly is an example of why he is the right guy for us. Overall I really like his method of sitting a guy if he has done something willfully wrong. I am a big fan of PK but if Ryan White gets sat in the press box because of taking bad penalties then PK deserved to be nailed to the bench for 10 minutes after he took a selfish penalty. An example of what happens when this isn't done by a coach is what is happening in Toronto right now. I live in Oshawa and the talk radio shows in Toronto are blasting the Leafs and one of their big disappointments is the way guys like Phil Kessel are not being made accountable for his lackadaisical play. He and others who they claim is their core for the future don't just take a shift off but according to the "insiders" and radio hosts he is taking weeks and a month off at a time and they say the team has not made their top players accountable at all. They bench 3d and 4th line players but when guys like Kessel and Phaneuf make blatant errors or don't show up they just let them keep playing. I believe their system and team are flawed and they may be waiting a very long time before they even contend. So did MT do the right thing by sitting PK the other night, even though he is arguably our best player, or one of our best? Absolutely yes. Under MT I do not believe we will have a team of "fat cats". He wouldn't stand for it. I may not agree with all his decisions but I think overall he is trying to be fair and put the team, not a player, first. We are so much better off with his approach. Our team, especially our core going forward, should be hard working and dedicated to the team as long as MT is our coach! What do you think?

Just curious......has anyone heard any trade talk between us and Colorado? Eklund is saying something is going on.

Since Dudley is a smart guy I'm sure if he's interested he'd get the necessary written guarantee's giving him all the freedom and decision making regarding all the areas and personnel he'd need to do the job. He would go into this fully aware of the history of everyone involved. There are some situations that are ready to be turned around by the right person and some leaders look for them. However there are sometimes fine lines between what is possible versus that which may not change for a long time. So as you suggested, he may know enough and be smart enough to say no.

Interesting. I wonder what reasoning or info there is behind a statement/tweet like that? Does he have some inside info from the Canadiens?

I personally hope that he stays with us. I think our team is stronger with him. But maybe he's not using his full capability with us. Maybe he needs to be a GM, build teams and be the go to guy. Maybe Buffalo needs him much more than we do?

There is evidently some discussion, maybe much discussion, that Rick Dudley, if he wants it, can be the next GM of the Buffalo Sabres. Who knows if that will happen although Dudley has lots of history with Buffalo, evidently still lives there and obviously has player, GM and salary cap experience and has the reputation as being one of the best judges of talent around. Many believe he built Tampa Bay before they won the cup and also put together the Chicago Blackhawks for their cup run. He drafted and traded for players that went against some of the accepted thinking of the day and yet most of his moves turned out to be successful. So the questions are, how much would we miss Dudley, would we be hurt if he left, and if he left who would we replace him with?

I'm glad the question of whether games should be decided by a shootout or end in a tie has come up and is being seriously discussed by the GM's in their meetings. I personally am no longer a fan of the shootout and I would like to see games end in a tie. On Tuesday night I think it was exciting to see the Canadiens work and get the tying goal in the last few minutes of the game. I would have been quite happy for the game to have ended that way. One of the players, it might have been one of the Sedins, said the shootout is like flipping a coin to see who's going to win. After watching the shootout for many years, I'm at the point where I tend to agree. I would like to see it revert back to the way it was for many years when two teams battle all night and if it is an evenly played a hard fought game and the game ends in a tie, then that's the way it should end. I think our overtime format in the playoffs is exciting and shouldn't be changed, and I wouldn't want to see that used in the regular season because the games would be too long for both the players and the fans. Maybe extend the existing 5 minute overtime an extra 2 minutes with fewer players on the ice. But for the games to be decided by a shootout.....it's time to get rid of it. What do you think?

I wasn't suggesting anyone give up on Yakupov, just pointing out how well Galchenyuk is doing in comparison.

I know it's still a little early to be looking at and evaluating drafts that were only two years ago, but I can't help but think that if that draft were to be held today Alex Galchenyuk would be the 1st overall pick. Of course there are still areas he needs to work on and improve but for a 19 year old who is still eligible to play junior you can see him developing, maturing and getting more comfortable every week. I'm not sure I can remember us having a 19 year old with his character, maturity, skill set and consistency. And his character and work ethic and energy have had such a positive effect on those around him. I don't think there's anyone in the league who would take Nail Yakupov over Galchenyuk today. I think Nail is a -14 the last I looked and is nowhere near to the complete player at this point that Alex is. Granted he is with a team that is struggling in many areas. It is a tribute to our drafting once again that we hit a home run by selecting Alex Galchenyuk. And we have years ahead of us to watch them grow as we continue to add to a strong young core that we have. Exciting and fun years ahead.

I really don't get it. Thomas P. misses a penalty shot....Alex G. doesn't do too well on face-offs, but PK seems to be the one always being penalized by the coach and getting these snide and veiled comments made about him. His coach doesn't endorse him for the Olympic team and gives him a reduced TOI last night. I was in favour of hiring MT compared to the other candidates available at the time. And so far I think he's done a good job. He gave DD a really long time to get things back on track. He didn't cut back on his ice time until the last game and then finally scratched him last night. Francis B. has struggled, as has Douglas Murray, but they had either roughly the same or more shifts last night than PK. What is it that MT has against PK? It's getting kind of obvious now based on ice time, usage and comments that that there is a problem. PK is our best defenceman, a Norris trophy winner and he's treated shabbily by our coach. To me this is getting personal and I think MB needs to sit down with MT, if he hasn't already, and point his coach on a bit of a different plan. We lost a superstar goalie and it took us years to recover. I don't want to see things slowly boil and then have it explode into a mess that will be difficult to fix. I was born and raised in Montreal but now live in Ontario so I don't hear the phone in callers who evidently are incensed over what's happening and what MT is doing with PK. So what do you think needs to happen in order to fix this?

Just a thought about Price. I often hear or read that Price had an off or poor year last year. I think Price had a good year but faltered down the stretch and then was hurt at the end. People keep saying that Price is a horse and can play 65-70 games. I wonder if that may be the problem. Maybe he's being played too much and needs to play fewer games so he can be stronger at the end of the season and the playoffs. There may be a pattern to his late season downturn and injuries and maybe his playing time should be something they look at and maybe reduce a little. Adding in the Olympics for him may not be a good thing for our team's success.

I would assume that this site is used by and devoted to, hard core, Canadiens fans. So the people who read and write in these spaces are not once in a while fans, but mostly people who have followed the game closely for many years. From what I've read here for many it is a lifestyle. Personally I've been following the Habs for over 50 years so I too am a very passionate Montreal Canadiens hockey fan. You never know who is responding to polls about whether fighting should be banned or much more strongly penalized. But I'm interested to know what the hard core fans on this site think about what, if anything, should be done with fighting in hockey. I grew up watching the Canadiens during the John Beliveau and Henry Richard era who also had John Ferguson on their team. Ferguson was one of my favourite players. And when Montreal played Toronto the Ferguson Eddie Shack fights were classics. Ferguson I believe scored 30 goals one year, in the 6 team league. He was a hockey player who could fight and in my opinion was one of the best. In the 70's I watched the Broad Street Bullies led by Dave Schultz. So I have had, I'm sure like many of you, a long history with hockey. But personaIly, I have come to the place where I think it is time for fighting to be banned from hockey. Some of my reasons are that I think if we want hockey to be respected and accepted as one of the legitimate top 4, big time sports we have to realize that we look barbaric and we end up putting hockey into the category of roller derby or wrestling when we have staged fights and end up with guys cut and bleeding. To watch John Scott drop his gloves and go after Phil Kessel and then watch Kessel hack with his stick to defend himself against a 6 foot 7 or 8, 250 pound fighter is in my opinion absolutely bush league. It makes us look terrible compared to the NFL or NBA and even the NCAA, all of which are regarded as having and drafting highly trained and dedicated athletes in sports that are accepted as the absolute best in the world. When I see the replays of players being knocked out cold by a punch in a hockey fight it now makes me shudder. When I watched Rene Bourque being sucker punched by Colton Orr last year which resulted in him missing part of the season I can't help but think that this is wrong and should not be allowed. Hockey has to be one of the only sports where being able to fight can help you make a team. It should be on hockey talent and character that opens the door for a player, who has spend years training and practicing and honing his skills, to make a team. Roster spots should not be taken up by someone whose main, and sometimes only ability [John Scott] is to fight. If you fight in the NFL or NCAA you are out of the game and repeated fights get you suspensions. I read this morning where some former enforcers said that if you take fighting out of hockey you will have absolutely no respect between the players and things will get out of control. Well what do other leagues and sports do? They have no fighting but they have taught the players how to have respect for one another. They get along without fighting very nicely. The best hockey every season is in the playoffs and you rarely see a fight. . I know there are many opinions on this topic but I'd like to hear what you think, the hard core fans, as to what we should do about fighting in hockey. Personally, I think it's time for fighting to be removed from our sport.

One of the moves I've wondered about over the past few years is why teams so easily and quickly let Michael Ryder leave? Montreal let him walk for nothing. The Bruins let him walk and Dallas traded him for an older, slowing power forward in Eric Cole and even gave up a draft pick as well. Wherever Ryder has gone he has put up decent to very good offensive numbers, yet after a year or two teams seem to be quite willing to let him walk or trade him? I have a lot of trust and hope in our GM but I have to ask, why would we sign Briere and not keep Ryder? Is it a character issue? But Ryder scored more goals and points than Briere did last year and had more goals and points than Briere over the past couple of years and is a few years younger, and yet Ryder signed with New Jersey for less money than Briere did with us and for the same term. And I heard Ryder was willing and even hoping to stay with us. Is there something we're not aware of? Other than Briere being able to play both center and wing there seems to be more advantages for us to have signed Ryder than Briere. What are your thoughts on this??

These kind of short term acquisitions are simply to help us improve a bit and get us over the next year or so until our drafted players can develop and be ready to step in. I really believe that this is MB plan. So I don't think his plan should be a cause for concern. Our future is bright and heading in the right direction.

We finished first in our division and other than the last few weeks of the season we played very well, very competitive and were fun to watch. I think that at the place where the NHL is right now we are a very good regular season team but are lacking some size and grit that will take us further into the playoffs. MB said something like this recently: "There are players who will get you into the playoffs and there are players who will get you through the playoffs". I think we are lacking a few players who will get us through the playoffs. Personally I noticed that in the Ottawa series. They were a bit bigger and tougher and at that time of the season, for me, that was the difference. So I think your main point is true. We are not a bad team. I'm glad MB isn't trying to do it all this summer. I believe he's adding pieces that will get us through the next two years until some our drafted guys are ready to step in.

Is there any way Pittsburg chooses to move Kris Letang?? While we're waiting for the fun times this weekend to arrive someone posted that Pittsburg may be looking at moving Kris Letang. Do you think there is any truth to this at all? If there is could we ever afford him?? Could he be a replacement for Markov?