Seb

Couple things: There is technically a possibility that the Habs have a prospect on each Mem cup team, but the tournament would HAVE to be: Shawinigan (hosts), St John's, London and Vancouver. But it'd be pretty cool! And while I don't follow major junior too closely, I had seen at one point or another, that all of these teams are considered contenders to mean their respective league titles (and in Shawinigan's case, just hang out till the tournament starts, but they're pretty good too, apparently). Would be sweet. Second thing, and I'm ready to announce this personal opinion of mine right now: Subban is Higgins 2.0. Fast, skills, charisma, astronomical expactations, but still a nervous player. Will be useful, but won't be a superstar. It came up a few weeks ago, and I said then that I would seriously consider trading Subban as the main piece in a package for an established franchise player (E Staal in this case). I still would, and in fact, I hope the team takes a real close look at Subban and makes up their own mind about it, because his value is sky high right now.

1:30 in the NJ end? A few shots, Kaberle looks good on the PP so far, IMO. He only needs to be average at 5 on 5.

We'd pretty much have to take that deal. It's an expiring contract, versus on with two extra years left. I thought, until yesterday, that teams valued expiring contracts to some degree, but not PG I guess. Hopefully other GMs think like him. It'll never happen though. (hope for a reverse jynx here.)

Oh lord, please don't pass up the opportunity to buy out G-Love.

lol it's pandemonium around here. This is meh to me. The Habs needed someone to run the PP. They needed it bad. This is an inexpensive (asset wise) solution to that. Let me ask you this: What if Kaberle gets the PP going? And no, 4.25mil is not difficult to move in the off-season, even if things go poorly, for a guy who had 38 points in 58 games for Toronto last season. Anyway, we'll see. He sucked hard on a team that sucked hard. Bring him to MTL, shelter him a bit, and see if he can get the PP going. Gauthier isn't throwing in the towel on this season, and he shouldn't. He's doing his job. It's up to Kaberle now to prove whether or not he's over the hill.

(you are the 10 000th reply in this thread. Congrats!) Yeah, it's a tough call for sure. But look 5 years down the line. Who do we have coming through the system at forward, or center specifically. And what about D? I agree you should build from the back end. But in this instance, if you have an opportunity to trade a promising youngster for an established, true #1 C who has won the cup. Do you do it? So much would need to happen, but it would be interesting. I seriously doubt Carolina would even deal Staal. BUt it's a fun discussion.

With the Habs' depth at D, I'd seriously consider a package involving Subban for Eric Staal. Provided, of course, the cap space situation can be worked out and what else would have to be included. But the element of risk associated with Subban developing into a top flight defenseman versus getting a proven stanley cup winning #1 center who big and skilled. He's all-world. Can we confidently say Subban is all-world? (Of course, I said seriously consider. This also depends on how Markov performs when he comes back, because we need one of Subban or Markov at the very least.)

No source here, but I remember 3-4 years ago, (I think it was) Pierre McGuire said Emelin was the best defenseman not in the NHL at the time. No way he got worse in the time since, as evidenced by him coming over and being a viable option for JM. I don't like McGuire and his sensational approach to his job, but often when he has a broner for a player, the player is usually pretty good. I'm excited about Emelin, I just hope he gets the chance to play. Same with Diaz and Weber. Three rookie defensemen (4 last night) on one team, along with a sophomore, should spell doom for almost any team. These kids have promise, and they will only improve as the season progresses. I'm excited. If the Habs can get through the year without trading any, they won't really need to add any Dmen in the off-season (Markov, Gorges, Subban, Emelin, Weber, Diaz) other than a 7th guy. And the pipeline (Tinordi, Beaulieu) isn't bad either.

If Gomez didn't make so much damn money, I'd say his story is a sad one. I say hang onto him, mid season trades should be to improve the team, not to improve the cap situation. Gomez's salary drops to 5 mil next season (I think it's 5). That's 2+ million against the cap for free, which is worth something to some teams. If he's to be moved, it'll be this off season, at which time the Habs won't have to take back nearly as much salary.

My goodness, anyone see this Dumba kid who plays for Red Deer? It'd have to be a Beaulieu-esque drop off for him to reach the Habs, but if the Habs draft with a BPA mindset, he'd be pretty entertaining to watch.

I think he'll probably take Eller's spot for the first few games, because I think they'll give Eller a week or two to prepare before getting back into contact games. Should give everyone an idea of where Betts and Engqvist fit wrt to the 4th line center position. Could be a year-long competition, too, which I think is good too. Depth is awesome, and necessary. So I like it.

Wasn't Avtsin cut from every game last year also? And any word on whether he'll get into one this year?

So pumped. Also, I read the language barrier article on the Canadiens site, regarding Avtsin and his integration in North American culture, and it's extremely reassuring. I'm excited to see what he does this year, and a friend of mine got a place downtown Hamilton, so I think I'll be heading down there for a few games once the Hamilton season starts. SO PUMPED.

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/mtl110703.html According to the above story, Gauthier sniffed around Yandle and Suter either at the trade deadline or recently. Yandle is apparently hesitant to sign long term in Phoenix because of the ownership situation. Getting either of those players would be a real long shot, but it encourages me to hear (even whispers) that PG is sniffing around other teams' better players. Yandle had 59 points last year (his 3rd full year in the league), 32 of which were at even strength. Either of these guys would give the Habs that elite defense that CC (I think it's CC) was suggesting would be a good idea (which I agree).

No sense in giving a roster spot to Emelin, he's never played in North America. This way it's his to earn, and if he doesn't, well, see ya!

So I'm studying Markov chains for my stochastics final exam tomorrow, so obviously every time it comes up I think about the Habs. This sucks. But it made me realize that, if Markov returns and actually plays the full year, we actually have a legitimate Top-2 D with him and Subban. There are only a handful of defencemen duos in the league that would match up to them. Add to that Gorges, Spacek and Weber, and likely Gill (with what we've been hearing about his leadership and intelligence, you'd think they would retain him), that's not bad. And I'm not saying Subban and Markov would play together, though they could, but just the fact that we would have those guys as our two best defencemen is awesome. Just procrastinating .

Agreed. Eller reminds me alot of Plekanec, and Plekanec turned out pretty good. Both smart and fast with excellent puck control and good passing. I like the way JM has used Eller, allowing him to learn at his own pace and to grow into his role on the team. He'll move up the scoring depth soon enough and will challenge Gomez as the second line center.

Nice post BTH! I'm at a point where listening to "experts" is more entertaining than it is insightful. Especially listening to them muttering some over used cliche and then giving the most general, nowhere-near-the-truth explanation for why they made the claim. It's awesome. Honestly, I think beating the Habs is easy, because their style of play is obvious, and if you play into it, that's when they thrive. If you want to beat the Habs (of course it helps if you don't allow goals in the first couple minutes), you make it a mirror match. What I mean by that is you play defensively against them: make it a stare down. First team to get frustrated loses, and we've seen it often, that when things aren't going Montreal's way, they have a very difficult time scoring. In the first two games, Boston has given Montreal an early lead with bonehead plays forcing them to try and score and allowing Montreal to sit back. Montreal scores when they capitalize on their opponents' mistakes. Well it's difficult to score on a team who rarely makes them, and thus rarely affords them the odd-man rushes they use to score. Basically, frustrate Montreal and eventually they'll open up. But they don't get frustrated with the lead, so Boston's got to work on that aspect of their game. Anyway, not that I'm cheering for Boston, I'm actually taking great delight in watching Boston try and play a style that evidently is not working against Montreal.

I was so close!!! Well done Chips, let's enjoy some playoff hockey!

I need the Habs to finish 2-0-1. I'd be pretty pumped with that finish too. Likely good for 6th in the east if they do.

Sportsclubstats.com currently gives Boston an 85% chance of winning the division, and Montreal the other 15%. (I imagine Buffalo still has a chance mathematically, but it's probably less than 0.1%, so they didn't include it) Also, Boston has 38 wins and 1 shootout win, while Montreal also has 38 wins, but with 2 coming via shootout. This means if Montreal does catch Boston, it will likely have at least one more win to overcome that one shootout win, for the tiebreaker. So no advantage either way in that regard, unless Montreal loses a couple in OT or SO, or Boston wins another shootout or two.

The difference between Montreal catching Boston and Toronto catching 8th spot is that in the Habs' case, they only need to worry about themselves and Boston. Toronto's odds to make up 4 points are much smaller than ours because there are 3 or 4 other teams that are trying for the same. For Montreal, say Boston plays .500 in their last 14 games, then Montreal needs only an extra win compared to them. If Boston get 18/28 points available, then it will be tough. But if Boston takes another week to get out of their funk, they could allow the Habs to sneak in. A game between the Habs and the Bruins has more of an impact on the division race between the two teams than Toronto winning head to head with one of the teams they are in a race against (such was the case vs Buffalo the other night). The three factors that will determine the end result between Montreal and Boston are: -Boston's game in hand. If they win it, it's really a 4 point gap. If they lose it, it's a big difference. -The head to head game. Classic 4 pointer. -The sort of match play between the teams with the remaining games. If the gap is two points, the Habs need +1 win on Boston to tie (possibly win, not sure of the SO win numbers) or +1.5 to win. If it's 4 points, Habs need +2 wins on Boston to tie, +2.5 to win. Doesn't matter if it's 5 wins or 11 wins in 13 games, as long as it's +1 or +2 over Boston. Should be exciting.

Chara's hearing was today at noon; did they even know the fractured vertebrae diagnosis at that time? Will it come into play? Also, it's not Campbell making the ruling, so how does Mike Murphy compare to Campbell? Any chance Murphy has a smidgen of common sense and sees that, regardless of intent, the hit was illegal, careless, and extremely dangerous because of the location. IMO, these factors mean a suspension is warranted. The length... I think they decide that by spinning a wheel, to be honest. Also, can you imagine a 7 game series between these two teams?

You can get Cammalleri in there, too.

Juniors beat CIS all stars tonight. No word in the TSN article on how Bournival fared. I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning if he's in or out.