tokyohabs

With us, or somewhere else? Serious question. I fear for the kid, I really do. Need a 1st-line ctr, a second-line ctr, a top-4 puck-moving d-man...familiar refrains. Kovalev back as 2nd-line wing and pp man.

It's difficult, as low as my expectations were going i, and lowered when Tanguay and Schneider went down, this still feels awful and unacceptable. Don't blame Price, Bob f'd this one up and shouldn't have even started him. Shocking, Bob looks like he doesn't want to be here and wants out, no wonder. Dealing with all the tossers who play for us, I don't blame him!

Well, had a thing about not posting during a series, but no point now. Price, whatever, that is 100% on Bob, who has failed abjectly, totally outcoached by Julien at every turn, every shift. He might have blown his career here, how can Price, or anyother players, respect him after this? Not that any players deserve respect. Not an ounce, not for a second. The nobs on NESN keep going on about the will to win, and they are dead right. Habs do not have it, scum do. Every player has been a massive disappointment. Suppose Higgins has been a bit better than mediocre, though baffling mental errors litter his game; Weber blameless; D'Agostini average for his limited time; but the rest of them are a wash. The scum just key up on our first line - Bob doesn't even seem to be trying to get Kovalev away from Chara. The entire team has accepted everything since the 10 minute mark of game 1, though a decent effort in game 3 but still stupid hockey. My biggest disappointment by far has been Lapierre, done nothing all series except a petulant smack after the empty netter in game 1. He has been bullied and beaten on every shift. Very abject performance by someone I thought should be Captain next year. However, this is not to take away the abysmal play of all the others. Better I notice Lapierre than wonder if the Kosts, Latendresse, Koivu are playing. I'd list Plekanec, but of course I had zero expectations for him going in, and he has more than lived up to those, actually becoming a negative presence even when in possession of the puck. We can talk all we want about being too close to the cap, etc, but they own us today, and there is absolutely nothing that shows they won't own us tomorrow or for many years to come. Gutless.

Yeah, the scum are beyond sub-human. Out here, I have even, once, held a semi-civil conversation with a Leafs fan - through gritted teeth, of course. But never, ever with the scum. Fat pieces of knuckle-dragging sh*t...sorry, that's an insult to knuckles. The nice thing is, win or lose, you can always put a short note in front of any of them, something like '24 Cups', and ask them to try and read it...and sit back and watch the mental contortionist show. Lucky for them all their sports teams have different colours so they know what to wear each day of their fair-weather lives. If they were Pittsburgh, it would be amusing.

I remember now, Brady Quinn. Well, as much as I loathe ND, they had the greatest college player I have ever seen, Tim Brown. Much, much more than I can say for anything out of OSU. Difficult to admit, but every time he played Michigan, I actually kind of wanted him to do well, lose of course but do something sensational. Rarely disappointed.

Not much of a basketball fan, but no, it wasn't nice. Great that they lost though, and lost in typical st*te style. Much worse was the football season last year. I dislike them and OSU so much I even cheer SEC teams over them. What's that big dirty word on your message? Never seen it like that before...ugly, isn't it?

Yeah, too much whiskey. thinking of another wretched team out on the west coast. I like you fanpuck, please don't say you are an OSU fan.

Too hammered to think straight...Mich St*te Spartans...USC Trojans...both nob teams...OK, no more internet

oops, sorry, didn't see that it was a fight on the 19th of October. Oh well, another shot at the knobs at St*te. Condoms, they have a team nickname...mm, too much Big Ten football in my head.

Per game?

We have to be patient with the kids. Absolutely patient. S Kost, Latendresse, Lapierre, Price, even D'Agostini, Stewart and Pacioretty...I guess maybe O'Byrne technically, although he has shown zero improvement each time recalled, and offers nothing at all. Higgins is not a kid, but was mis-cast, and maybe Bob has got it right with him: 3rd- or 4th-line with decent d-players around him + a decent playmaker, and way less 'creative' responsibilities. Use size and speed. A Kost, some nights great, others invisible. Looking for consistency, but again, needs a playmaker with him, like an interested Kovy or Tanguay, take attention away. Plex, who knows, had one good 7-8 game stretch, did nothing, showed nothing that makes one think he has a consistent 2nd-line ctr career in him. Hamrlik horrendous. Komi looks lost and confused (though much better in the scum game against Lucic and the thugs). TBH to bring both Koivu and Kovalev back it would take a run to the conf finals and their line piling up points (though those are staggering stats up by Wamsley re Kovalev's impact on the team). The past season was utterly abysmal, until a fantastic end. However, I feel that Koivu will be back, merited or otherwise. Though I did see a headline (RDS?) that Gilette is prepping to buy out Hicks at Liverpool; maybe a domino effect that will make him sell us; then Koivu's #1 fan will be gone. Who knows?

Wasn't this our guy who assaulted a Michigan player earlier this year? Check the last paragraph, in a fight started by... http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-3-228/...ys-in-jail.html Wonder what the story is behind the scenes. The condoms fighting one and other, typical. Perhaps he should get the f*ck out of East Lansing and learn something about the game in Cincy or somewhere else...anywhere else...

If Markov comes back healthy for game 3, and we are playing well in general, we'll have a fighting chance, despite what I wrote earlier about us in 6 (dreams). If he doesn't it will be very, very hard. We will have to beat them psychologically. May be illogical, but Recchi worries me more than any of their forwards this series. Markov I think would easily neutralise him.

We win in 6; Price carries us at points; we outskate them & murder them on the pp. Well, I wish, anyway. Take down those f'n scum videos and pics.

Agreed about Price over Thomas, Thomas has looked very pedestrian for a month or so. Shoot, shoot, shoot, lads, we'll get him. Trizzak, to call the Habs picking up the point in the most hostile environment, with the scum running them from the start, with refs unwilling / ordered not to call things correctly, as childish and gutless is nuts. Gorges dumping his man into the net was a bang-bang play, and you are saying what he did is the same as Lucic skating 40 feet and jumping an unaware opponent from behind, gloves still on, third man in, is two sides of the same coin????? Chara skating all the way to the corner and using his reach to go over the linesman and punch Komisarek in the face repeatedly, who did that on the Habs? And these are only the two most egregious examples, off the top of my head. Whatever you would like to imagine, they ran us all night. They instigated, provoked, harassed. If you are ever down on your luck, try applying to the NHL referees association; put that post on your cv, they'll hire you straight away, no questions asked. Or, if you can't skate, I'm sure NESN could use a few more perceptive 'analysts'. And your avatar is ridiculous.

Err...nice Leafs avatar. You're right, we should play a much more gentlemanly and civil game, like, um, they did? I hear the Kings are very civil. Wow, what a game by an undermanned and limping team. We'll get the scum again in the first round, and it will be a full-blooded tilt. Loved Kovalev jumping right into the sh*t at one point, that is what we need. Forget the Pens game, rest up. My Ma texted me from the game, said it was amazing, the inbreds clueless and desperate, sh*tting themselves after 2. Also some of them 'thinking' (with them the term is used excessively liberally) that Lucic was within his 'rights' to mug Komi from behind. Was that the sort of guts and manliness you were admiring Trizzak? I have thought from the outset that Higgins would be better on the 3rd line and Kosto on the 4th; even more so now. Kosto offers zero with Lapierre and Latendresse offensively, essentially reducing them to a two-man attack; Higgins would be a greater asset, and the line is responsible enough defensively all the way through. However, Higgins does at least provide some threat from the 4th; maybe that is the thinking behind it, I don't know. O'Byrne looks to be EXACTLY the same player as when he came up. I can't see one ounce of improvement in him. Dandy one bad play but real character and proper play back there. And this looks to be the kind of game where the brothers disappear. I am very impressed that we are in, based on the last few days; too bad about the season overall, but hey, lowered expectations for the playoffs, like, um, the cup? Go Habs!

Nilan. Seriously. OK, maybe Chelios, Momesso and Kordic. Very poor decision by Bob I think, but on the other hand, we absolutely need goals against a tough defensive team tonight, Laraque can do some things but score is defo not one of them. Still should have dressed him though.

I'll bet the Surge doesn't cave in to media, etc. Strikes me as very much his own man. Plus he has more wight and authority behind him: been there, done that literally, more than any journo can say. Absolutely needs the deep pockets of the big boys though. I feel if Liverpool win their league, Gillette will try to keep them, and sell us off to raise cash for another big Chumps League push. Saputo also looking to buy??? He who wouldn't pony up 50 mil for the MLS? Just what we need, another soccer owner.

Bob blew it big-time with this one...unless of course we win. My Mom is there in her Habs shirt, enemy territory, well done Ma! GoHabs!

Ridiculous if Laraque doesn't play, just stupid. And not even Stewart? Lucic has license to do whatever he wants again. Nilan, Nilan, Nilan! Who didn't love Chris rattling their bench and pissing off Terry 'Never won a fight' O'Reilly? Robinson for d-coach; Nilan for team spirit coach!

Oh no, we might take a penalty against the scum, tut tut, I say chaps, not very sporting of you now is it then? Let's have at them fair and square, as the Marquess of Queesnsbury would have it. Please, Laraque whack Lucic then just start pounding him, break his jaw and get him out for the playoffs. Turtle, fine, hit him in the spine and the base of the skull until he goes limp. But in all seriousness, we'll probably get pasted and have the scum think, in their inbred-distorted collective psyche, that they are the ones who won 24 cups. So as long as we make them bleed for it...ALL SCUM ARE FAIR GAME! Or squeak out a 3-1 win?

Great thread, thanks Spidey. KILL THE SCUM! Utter destruction in front of the neanderthals. This lower mutated aberration exterminated at all costs. P*ss on their parade big-time, lads. Stewart and Laraque double-shift against Lucic, let's see if the sh*thead will dare throw them down against Laraque. Jump him, watch him turtle. Run Thomas every chance we get.

Thomas has never won a playoff series - what respect has he earned? This is his first year where he doesn't look like a career back-up. He plays for a team that are almost paranoid about letting up shots against on him. They have loaded up with good d-men and defensively responsible forwards. I want to see him up against Washington, Pittsburgh or Carolina - or even Philly's pp - for a potential 7-games and come out on top because of him, to earn this respect. Even beating one of those teams, I'd think a lot more of him. I respect the way the scum protect him, how Julien intelligently designed the team and gameplan to do so. Who is saying that Price and Halak are better than him this year, btw?

He was an excellent GM; but at the time, I remember a lot of people being disappointed in him for making the team a tough defensive team, instead of the free-wheeling attacking team they SEEMED to be in the late 70's (actually an equally punishing defensive team with ridiculously superior talent at forward, couldn't even have happened again by the mid-80's). They didn't like the idea of paying top dollar to watch 2-0 games. Totally unjustified, but there was some of this sentiment at the time around the city. When they didn't win between cups, and at the end of Savard's tenure many people were calling for the Surge's head - completely unjustly, but there you go. McCown is parroting the cheap seats view of things. Nob.

Gotta agree with the sane heads here. We are finished, take these elements away from any team (top d-man, top pp d-man, 2nd-line ctr), including the Wings, Sharks, they will fare very poorly. I think we'll make it by default and get bombed out in the playoffs. I'd absolutely play Weber as much as possible from here on in. Future looks at the very worst flexible, Bob I am sure will take the whole season into account. He also has to take into account what a top line of Kovalev-Koivu-Tanguay can do with a top-level rushing d-man, especially on the pp, utterly devastating. Do they have a full season in them? F*ck the scum, they will flop in the playoffs, any coach with half a brain will see through them and pound away at Thomas, just get the puck in deep, tempt him. They will not make it out of the East.