bobby

1. Pavel Valentenko - Russian blueliner was the first habs prospect to finish his hockey season, as his RSL club team was eliminated in the first round. Pavel played the whole season in the top European league as an 18/19 year old which is a significant accomplishment. He only scored a couple of points, but that was more than Kostitsyn or Grabovski did in the same league at the same age. He was really good at the WJC for a first time participant, and like Alexei Emelin a year earlier, the outstanding Russian player against Team Canada in the Gold Medal game. As a fifth round draft pick, he certainly outplayed a lot of higher rated defensemen at the Tournament, including several first round picks. 2. Cameron Cepek - Likable Californian suffered through a season from hell, which mercifully came to an end when the WHL regular season finished. He missed significant time again in his third WHL season, which is probably not a surprise in light of his size and the style he plays. This time it was a jaw/concussion injury, and Cepek was noticably more subdued in his play when he returned. If there is a positive to be drawn from the season for Cam, it may have made him concentrate more on his skill and positioning as a defenseman, as opposed to the more physical style he played prior to the injury. As a seventh round draft pick, he is a longshot to make the NHL in any event, and was not able to show any sign of beating the odds so far. 3. Alexei Emelin - Tough year for Alexei after such a promising 2005-2006 season. He was hurt as well, and it cost him a fair portion of the RSL season along with a place he had secured with the Russian National Team a year earlier. There is some possibility that he could suit up for the National Team yet this year, but it doesn't seem to be a strong one. As well, his club team which had such a Cinderella season a year ago, was merely average this year, and didn't progress beyond the first round of the playoffs. He remains a good bet to come to North America within the next couple of years, particularly with the Canadien's defense in upheaval. 4. Philippe Paquet - Really established himself in the NCAA in his sophomore season, and was showing some signs of breaking out offensively late in the year. Unfortunately the Golden Knights dream's of a Frozen Four appearance ended abruptly with a 1-0 overtime loss in the elimination round. Next year looks like it could be a breakout year for Paquet, he has established his defensive game and will be allowed to open up offensively, with some graduations on the blueline. All in all, he looks like a great prospect for a 7th round pick, and may turn pro as soon as the end of next season. 5. David Fischer - Golden Gophers suffered the same sudden death fate as the Golden Knights, a week later. Fischer's first collegiate season was underwhelming for a first round draft pick, but he made a huge jump from high school hockey and seemed to be feeling his way along for the most part. To his credit he maintained his spot in the lineup and adapted his game to suit the role he was given. Next season figures to be much more telling as far as the lanky blueliner is concerned. The Gophers figure to lose two or three of their top defensemen with Mike Vanelli graduating, and Erik Johnson and Alex Goligoski likely to turn pro early. That will put David in the top three on the Gopher's blueline. So far, like Cepek, Fischer gets a deferral in grading, albeit for a different reason.

Like last game? When he was -3 with 0 points. You moron. Read the Russian forum. I'm outta here. You guys are just too clueless to warrant the time and effort.

Canadiens won't let Price go back in the draft, but if Halak keeps playing well, and Price wants to play hardball in the negotiations, they may move him to one of the bottom teams (all of whom are suffering for a good young goaltender) in exchange for a high draft pick and other considerations. They still have Yann Danis and Michael Leighton as backup material for the future, and Chis Heino-Lindberg is playing well in Sweden. If they could get a top young forward prospect out of the draft in exchange, and possibly pick up Antoine Lafleur with a later pick, it would make sense. But the odds are still greater that Price simply signs once his junior season is over.

There are some Russian fans on Hockey's Future who live in Russia and speak both Russian and English perfectly well. They confirmed that Kovalev called Carbonneau a racist along with all of the other things. They said the journalist is pretty well known and respected in the country and so is the publication she writes for. They also said that the audio interview was the same as the written story. These people aren't Habs fans, or anti Habs fans. They have no stake in the matter. Someone brought the story to their attention and asked them to translate and confirm it. They did and also dismissed the claim that the journalist or the media outlets she works for were sensationalist or unreliable. I believe them, they have no reason to lie or twist things. Kovalev does. And did. Jack Todd and a couple of other journalists who follow the team said that it was exactly like Kovalev to do something like that. I don't have any reason to doubt them. Kovalev also changed his story a couple of times which is usually a good sign someone is lying. You want to think Kovalev is a great guy and a credit to the uniform, go ahead. I don't and I just stated why I don't. But no need to stoop to petty personal insults. You want to believe that Kovalev out of the blue decided to befreind some guys from the Gaspe and give them the royal treatment for a couple of days, be my guest. I've got a great used car that I hate to part with, but you seem like such a good guy, I'll reluctantly sell it to you. For a fair price of course. B)

Well, call my a cynic, but I have a little difficulty imagining Kovalev just picking up the phone book one day and dialing up a few residents of the Gaspe. They can barely speak French out there, much less English or Russian.

+3 for Big Mike on the evening, and second star, but still no PP time, and less than 20 minutes (and Bouillon) icetime on the night. Komisarek and Plekanec are the two most valuable players on the team at the moment, in my books. They should both be playing 5 minutes more than they do.

So Kovalev does diddly squat all year, goes missing in action at a key time, slanders the coach and organization to the press while sitting at home collecting his 4.5 million, lies to Carbonneau about the matter, then scores a couple goals and agrees to a team organized photo op and suddenly he is a hero and a great guy? I don't expect you guys to have elephantine memories or great qualities of discernment, but c'mon.....

Well, I'm sure that Gainey probably offered him around for a song at the deadline and there were no takers. Probably offered to put him on waivers a la Samsonov as well, but didn't want to humiliate the guy. So now that they are stuck with him for the forseeable future, out come the spin doctors. Put some earrings on him, dress him up, take him to the dance, and maybe no one will notice what he is. LOL on those fans happening to be from the Gaspe. Doesn't get much more "French" than that. See everyone, Alexei LOVES pur laine Francos!

Carbo must be looking in here.....Komisarek leads all players in TOI in the first period.....

He has a lot of image repair to do if he wants to play in Montreal in the future. Especially since he lied to Carbonneau about the incident with the Russian reporter. Somehow I don't think anything short of giving a year's salary to charity, and carrying a 300 pound cross down St Catherines St. while wearing only a loincloth and a crown of thorns will get Kovy off the hook.

Do you honestly believe that Sidney Crosby earns the same amount of money as all the other rookies who signed for "rookie max"? There is a lot of wiggle room in the CBA rules regarding entry level deals with regard to bonuses etc. Hell, Yann Danis signed a free agent contract for "rookie max" money awhile back. If it was that straightforward, all the players would sign directly after the draft on the off chance they might see some emergency recall time in the NHL and earn some quick cash while still playing primarily for their junior team. There has to be a reason that Price is not signed nearly 2 years after he was drafted. I'm sure that teams like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Washington (where Carey's mentor Olaf Kolzig resides) would move mountains to get their hands on a young franchise goaltender. The Habs, not so much. Halak is the real deal. They may decide to stake their future on Jaro between the pipes and take a king's ransom for Price on draft day.

Like I said....."it didn't start out that way until...."

It didn't start out that way. Until the dickheads descended on it. None of them contribute anything original or informative, they just buzz around like horseflies looking for something to bite.

You shouldn't subtract Komisarek's shorthanded points from his total when trying to assess his offensive contibutions. You should probably give him double credit for each one. Hard enough generating offense playing behind the checking line versus the other team's top line. Doubly difficult to do it when you're playing a man short. But that is what Mike has to do to earn a point in this league. It may be easy for a fan to say, leave it be, Mike contributes in different ways. But players get paid for the points they produce in the league. I'm sure Komisarek knows he could have double the amount of points in a given season with any sort of equitable distribution of playing time and power play time. That means twice the salary, probably, come contract renegotiation time. The team is going to have a problem on it's hands if they don't give him a fair shake. Ron Hainsey was a good friend, and it certainly isn't lost on Komisarek or his agent, how much better life became for Hainsey after he left the organization.

When Komisarek was drafted, it was primarily for his size and his hitting. If someone had a crystal ball at that time, and said "5 years from now, Komisarek will have as many or more points in the 2006-2007 NHL season as any of the other top rated defensemen such as Hamhuis, Colaiacovo, Gleason, Morisson, Krajicek, Popovic, Woywitka, Lynch, Tyutin, etc., and he will have more points than half of the forwards drafted in the first round, (including Chistov and Svitov who were taken ahead of him)", they would have said you were crazy. Or taken Mike right after Kovalchuk, if they believed you. It isn't like he hasn't exceeded expectations to this point in his career.

He isn't a member of the Canadien's organization, so he can't play for them. He would have to sign a contract, and his current team, the Tri City Americans would have to be eliminated from the playoffs. They lost their first game tonight, but Price was great, giving up just one goal on 30 shots. He was named first star despite the loss. I think the Americans will probably win at least one playoff series, and I have no idea how long it would take to work out a contract. If he waits another few months, he goes back in the draft and could quite possibly go first overall.

Anyone "looking at" Sheldon Souray or Zdeno Chara at 24 would have said the same thing as you guys are about Komisarek. It takes bigger players longer to smooth out their game. Komo never started playing hockey until he was 12, whereas most kids start when they are 5 or 6. Combine his late start with his size, and his development curve at 24 is probably at the spot of most 20 year old defensemen. He has a lot more upside, offensively and otherwise, than smallish 22 or 23 year olds like White and Paetsh, who have been playing hockey since they were old enough to walk. Even more ridiculous to trot out Dan Hamhuis as an example of how "little" offensive upside Komisarek has. Hamhuis was over a point per game defenseman in the WHL, which is the most defensive junior league around, was the offensive catalyst of a couple of Canadian WJC teams, second highest rated North American prospect behind Jason Spezza in the 2001 draft as A FUTURE POWERPLAY QUARTERBACK. Speaking of Paetsch, he lasted into the second round of the 2001 draft because he was considered strictly an offensive specialist and too small and soft to be a top NHL defenseman. He was taken by Washington with a Montreal draft pick that was sent to them in the Linden,/Zubrus for Zednik/Bulis deal. Montreal got Washington's first rounder which they used on Perezhogin. This was long touted as Andre Savard's signature "genius deal". Well, lo and behold, some years later, Linden is playing better than Bulis in Vancouver, Zubrus is outperforming Zednik by a country mile, and Paetsh is a regular defenseman with 24 points this season to Perezhogin's 15. Poor dumb, Andre Savard can't win for losing.

I knew there would be at least one person dull and stupid enough to go through the whole list and hand pick a few examples that suited his purpose. Even if most of those examples where players who are older and get more playing time than Komo. Of the younger players, I think most of them could, or have been, pretty good offensive defensemen. No shame for Komo in being lumped with Shubert, White, or Paetsch in terms of offensive ability. White, especially, will be running the Leaf PP one of these days. Shubert will be a top offensive D man as well. Anyway, it's your worthless time....

When you figure it out sheldon, put me down as FAVORING a ban on fighting in the NHL.

Look at the bright side, it would probably cause Don Cherry to have his long overdue MASSIVE CORONARY. Preferably on air. That alone would improve the game of hockey immensely.

Well, the facts are, as we sit here, Mike has produced as much offense at even strength as Souray and Markov on this team, with less playing time. Most of his playing time is against the opposition's top line, behind one of the Canadien's checking lines. That means he has to be doing something right in terms of the transition game, and posessed of pretty good hockey sense to create that offense. I don't know why that concept is so difficult for you guys to grasp, but it's the last I'm going to say about it.

This is Mike's 4th NHL season. He has 28 career points. Souray had 29 after 4 NHL seasons, and so did Chara. With a bit of luck, Komisarek could match or pass them within the next 7 games.

I didn't say he was "an offensive D-man", I said that he has the capability of being one if given the chance. 17 points may seem piddling, but as I mentioned, that is up there with most defensemen in the league if you take off their power play points. I doubt there are more than a handful of defensemen in the NHL who have more than 17 even strength points averaging less than 20 minutes playing time per game. Give Komisarek and extra 3 minutes or so a game in PP time, and another 3 minutes or so of even strength time, and he would double his point production. Easily/

Plekanec' improvement has been pretty steady in terms of his offensive production. In the Czech Elite League, in the AHL, and now in the NHL. There is nothing to suggest that his last 30 or 40 games are some kind of a blip or anomoly. Perezhogin and Higgins have both imroved upon their rookie performances, statistically. Lapierre and Kostitsyn have both shown linear progress in the AHL and NHL statistically from year to year. There really aren't too many exceptions to the rule.

I'm just thinking if Souray goes to L.A. they might be willing to part with a defense prospect. I imagine if Shelly signs there it will probably be for 4 or 5 years. Pure speculation, but Johnson is an amazing talent, and it looks like Boyle could be as well.