revin5

Berard just cleared waivers.

All I can say about Downey is that he wasn't raised robotic.

I was all for trading Souray back in early January, when we could have traded for players.. now we'll probably get prospect and picks which won't get us far in the playoffs. Back then it was all but settled that Souray was absolutely 100% going to California as soon as he became a free agent, but from what I've heard he would prefer to be out there, but would consider playing here anyways. If we can keep him, then we should (so long as we don't lose Markov because of it). Now that we traded Rivet, Gainey just has to pull the trigger on one more trade, a rental, and we'll be stocked for the playoffs... so the question is.. what do we need?

I agree, Rivet bled for the team, but just think what we can get with 2 million cap room and an extra first pick.. rent-a-player.. and then sign Souray and Markov (this makes at least 4 million in free cap spacee after we let Niinimaa walk at the end of the season).

When he's given a defensive he he takes hooking penalties, when he's given an offensive role he takes charging penalties.. which would you prefer see?

1. Garth Murray for Richard Zednik 2. Craig Rivet for Kristopher Letang and 4th 3. JP Cote and Duncan Milroy for Gary Roberts Provided the Roberts contract doesn't put us over the cap. Lineup: Higgins*-Koivu-Ryder Samsonov-Plekanec-Perezhogin Roberts-Bonk-Kovalev* Begin*-Lapierre-Johnson *Injured (Latendresse plays for Higgins, Zednik for Begin. They can sit once the playoffs start.. maybe platoon Lats and Perez.. Zednik play on the fourth once Begin gets injured again blocking a certain goal in game 2 of the finals) Markov-Komisarek Souray-Streit Dandenault-Bouillon Niinimaa

Kovalev plays with the puck too much to be on a line with Samsonov.. they are the same type of player.. only Kovalev can't keep up with Samsonov's speed.. if you slow sammy down.. well there goes his advantage. I've been campaigning for this since the beginning of the season... Bonk-Kovalev.. play them against the top line. Bonk plays more Kovalev's game anyways, he's always looking for the pass to the best place to score from... and Bonk is always in the right place for everything. that's why Pleks works pretty well with him.. but Pleks is fast enough to keep up with Samsonov, making them a pretty dangerous combination.. about the only player I think can bring out Samsonov. So throw a shooter on Kovalev's opposite wing (Lats, Perez) so we can get some of those sweet cross-ice goals like the Preds got against us tonight (3rd goal?). I think there was a thread about how having an effective 4th line can change your game.. that's why I've also been arguing that Johnson should be on the fourth.

Jean-Clone Bergeron

Samsonov-Plekanec-Perezhogin Will have 2 goals tonight and will be our #1 line for the rest of the season. At least until Kovalev comes back and Carbo decides to put him abck with Samsonov and Pleks whereupon both of them shut down. He will then do the smart thing and put Kovalev on the third line with Bonk and Johnson on the fourth line.. then Montreal wins the cup.

Perez is usually in the right place, hits like a truck, can win individual battles, can pass through traffic, has a great shot and he's pretty damn fast. The only reason I can think of not to put him on the top line is his tendency to hook.. that's it. Johnson doesn't deserve to be on the fourth line.. but anyone else we put there is wasting what we do have. Think of him as the worst of the best.. when you put him on the fourth... we can immediately play the fourth more minutes.. because it's more trustworthy.. how many goals do you think the opposition is going to score against Begin/Lapierre/Johnson? Not many right? .. that means we use that as a shuhtdown/energy line.. and our third line becomes a good two-way line (Bonk makes any line defensively responsible). The way I see it.. our top line will not beat every other top line in the league... but if we can have our fourth line better than everyone else.. and our third.. well then the first and second suddenly have a lot less to worry about.

Samsonov-Koivu-Perezhogin Higgins-Plekanec-Kovalev Latendresse-Bonk-Ryder Begin/Streit/Murray-Lapierre-Johnson Call whichever line you want line 1.

Ryder should be moved to the left wing. When he was scoring all kinds it was always from the left-hand side of the slot, near the edge of the circle. Put him on left wing with Kovalev and leave it at that.

1. Samsonov didn't play with Thornton. For the majority of the time they were split up with Thornton on the first line (later) and Samsonov on the second (earlier Thornton played on the bench). 2.Could be a trade that has some cap issues. So they place him on waivers (then get some nice cap room to make a trade involving prospects for UFA), place him on re-entry, take half the cap hit and then make a trade (different then the firs scenario), either to the team that took him, or a completely different one. 3.If 2 isn't true, then Carbo has to go. Samsonov has been playing well (basically as soon as they took him away from Kovalev) and then got benched for it.

Samsonov, Koivu, Streit Higgins, Plekanec, Perezhogin Latendresse, Bonk, Kovalev Ryder, Lapierre, Johnson