Neech

That's not how the system works, A. Kost will be an RFA with a grand total of one and a quarter seasons under his belt. He's on pace for 24 goals this year, Higgins had two twenty goal seasons and got a standard RFA contract of two years at 1.7 million cap hit. I think it's likely that Kostitsyn will get a bit more, and I hope that Bob goes for a deal of 3+ years rather than two, because now is when we could lock him for a while cheap. And your idea work because the salary cap figure is an average of the yearly salary of the contract.

I think it's funny that we have a Tony and a Fat Tony.

Yeah, I was surprised that that thread about Plex was even made.

Most people who posted in that thread said about the same thing. Besides the people arguing about Koivu.

I think we should approach it in the same way that we should approach the Koivu situation: wait until after next season to decided on extending them. Kovalev will be 36 next summer, there might not be all that much gas left in the tank at that time.

I always held the opinion that Darren Dregger was a tool, but I didn't think he'd try so hard to be one. This is a load of bull. Bob recently signed an extension to stay here until 2011 I believe, he just had his jersey retired, praising the city of Montreal the whole time, he likes his situation here with the ownership and organization. Plus, he's just seeing his plan start to pay off. Bob isn't going anywhere.

Another entertaining game from the boys, both teams were skating but we actually managed to play defense now and again to limit odd-man rushes. Plex wasn't slumping at all, he just managed to hit his open nets today. Boy, that second powerplay we really put on a clinic with our passing, I bet the Sabres were getting sick from dizziness. Not only did we get a hat trick, but we got something else that we rarely see out of our team: a Habs player won a fight, with a punch. Granted, it might not have been the most damaging, but it sent Pratt to the ice. And he can shut up later on in the game when it's 5-2, you lost the fight, you're losing the game, Lats was smart to not waste his time. I was happy with what I saw out the bottom lines tonight, they took care of business by limiting Buffalo's chances. Lapierre's been very good lately. Our defense was solid as well, Gorges was good again. Haha, Pierre really noticed it as well, when he said his name six times in twenty seconds, it was like he was the only guy on the ice. Overall, a great team game. Price was good when he had to be, his puck-handling certainly took away a few Buffalo chances that might have been there with Huet in nets. And wow, we're in first place in the Northeast division, I didn't think we'd see this day for a while yet. I love this team we've got.

I hope so as well, the type of hockey that the Sabers play is much more suited to Grabs than Slows. Fast-paced.

I think he should get the game off against Anaheim if he's going to get any, they're a bruising team.

They were just talking about Kovalev's status on RDS, his right ankle has been injured for a few weeks and has been causing him pain. He's still able to play and contribute, obviously, but he hasn't been at 100% for a while now. I personally think we should give him some time off in the next few weeks, especially on this west coast swing that's coming up. These games aren't against our conference rivals, plus there will be lots of travelling which will only increase the stress on the injury. We should try to get him back as close to 100% as possible for the final couple of weeks of the season and the playoffs.

Well that is pretty much what you did. You put 'New Jersey-they are in, Ottawa-they are in' and so on down the line, and then you put the exact same thing beside Boston. You actually put more of a qualifier beside Montreal than you put for Boston. God, man. You act like every post should be backed up by paragraphs of reasoning; sometimes, in my opinion, it doesn't need to be laid out for you, because you already know it. But alright, here's my thinking for the Rangers, which I hadn't typed out because I had typed it out many times before at various times, and I figured it would be common knowledge to someone who follows hockey as closely as you: better goal-tending, Lundqvist is far superior to Thomas. A team full of veterans with winning experience. (Almost) the same team fought their way into the playoffs last year. There, ok? Nothing you didn't know already. I agree that Boston is in much better shape than the teams behind it, and I acknowledged the games in hand in my previous post. But you put the same 'they are in' beside them as you put beside New Jersey. In my opinion, it's not premature to say that New Jersey is in, it would take a monumental collapse that is highly unlikely from a team with Brodeur between the pipes. But you can't say that about Boston, who is three points out of 9th place, with Tim Thomas in goal.

I think that's a funny idea, dressing your children up for superstition. Plus you can blame them if we lose! Anyways, this'll be a tough game, we'll have to on our shit if we want to win here. Our defense will have to come up big, and I hope our forwards are flying. My prediction: 5-4 win. Goals by Kovalev, Latendresse, A. Kostitsyn, Higgins, Grabovski

Talbot cracks me up each time I watch it, and then they cut to Gonchar's monotone, "Hey. They treat everyone like superstars." *mumbles* *tosses keys to Malkin, who just stares at them*

I agree that prospects getting a feeling for winning, especially playoff success, it great. I'm sure the Calder Cup experience was a great thing for a lot of our young guys last year. I wonder how many, if any, of the guys on this ECHL team will ever play in the NHL.

Especially this year, that's been my approach. After a loss, or even a few straight losses, I come on here and feel the need to remind everyone: where did we think this team would be at this point? We'd have been happy with 7th, most likely.

Sergei's still in a hotel? I wonder why... maybe he likes it that way, no responsibility, no cleaning or cooking...

You consider this as the Habs winning another championship? I couldn't give a crap about how well the Cyclones do, all their worth to me is how many players they can provide to our NHL club.

It's supposed to be a minor MCL strain, with Hossa missing 1-2 weeks. I certainly don't take the pleasure in this injury that some of you others seem to.

Well it just seemed premature to give a team 3 points out of 9th place the conclusion 'they are in.' That would go for the Rangers too, I guess, but I would definitely pick them as more of a lock to make it than the Bruins.

It's too early to tell whether or not he is a bust is all I'm saying. There's absolutely no use arguing over whether or not he will be a bust, because it hasn't happened yet. I am open to the possibility that he will be a bust, but a 19-year-old is not yet a bust. You have given reasons to believe that he WILL be a bust, but he is not a bust yet. I repeat, Esposito: not a bust yet.

Poor Danis, he could probably be an NHL backup if he got a shot.

I vow to never pronounce your name Hu-ETTE. And to still get annoyed with people who can't differentiate between the French sound for 'Hu' and the English one, which is more like 'who'.

Nah, it's not the season. I don't know how many times I've heard on this board 'this is the real test' or 'this game tells us what we're really made of' or 'we have to win this/these game(s) to make the playoffs.' It would suck to not get at least 6 points out of the next 6 games, but we could get more and blow it down the stretch or get less and make up for it in our final month. The good thing about our roadtrip is that one of our rivals won't being gaining the points that we might give up.

He's 19! I'm not saying that he will not be a bust, but he isn't yet. Pittsburgh didn't think so, they drafted him in the first round. There's no need to type out your reasons to think that he's a bust a fourth or fifth time, I already read them. In several years we will know if he is a bust or not, but we don't know yet. Maybe he will be playing in Europe by that time, or maybe he will be putting up 60 assists playing on a line with Kovalchuk.

It's likely there will be teams out there ready to offer him a multi-year deal, but it's still a possibility that he'll resign with us for about the same money that he's getting now. I don't think a multi-year deal would be worth it with him, seeing that after next season will be when many contracts will be up and we'll be evaluating who to keep and who to let go. So maybe just another one-year deal for him at the same money that he got this year. Then we might see a resurgence of the Koivu Higgins Ryder line, and we'd look pretty smart for keeping him around. But it's more likely that he'll get more money elsewhere and take it, or that Gainey will just decide that his time here is done. My opinion of Ryder as a team player has risen with how well he's handled his struggles this year.