Toren

Good man. Even though he called him "Sako" and he called Komisarek "Kosamari". He brang up good points, like how hurt he must have felt, and how great of a person and a player he is. He also said the only reason that his was a problem was because there was a camera recording the pushing match. He also finished off that he would have taken Saku Koivu any day on his Boston Bruins, because he's a great player, a great person, and a great captain.

10 minutes in and Komisarek is already -2. 2-0 Leafs. This is getting ugly fast.

They can make fun of us all we want. We've won more cups during their current dry-spell than Sundin has real teeth left. And we're the last Canadian team to win a cup. Meanwhile, they hold parades when they lose in the conference finals.

The sad part is that it wouldn't have been the biggest mistake they made in the past few years.

Parade's already been planned. Either win or lose, beating us will be the only big thing they do all year. Too bad. Leafs fans really want a picture of a cup that's in colour.

That's absolutely amazing. I tried everything I could. I even did Johnny Johnson from News Radio. JJ Evans from Good Times. I see how it works now because I finally stumped the system with Mr. Fargis from Family Guy

They're already comparing this guy to a young Steve Yzerman. A smallish pivot who's strong in his own end (a hard trait to find in a young player) that has above-average skating, agility, and offensive skills. He'a also is quite accustomed to playing a crash and bang game. If I had my merry little way, I'd like to see a line of Kastsitsyn-Higgins-Perezhogin in the coming years. Upside to this line would be an absolute abundance of speed and offensive talent. Downside would be an absolute lack of size, but that's not really different from now. [Edited on 2004/2/21 by Toren]

Well, all I know is that Gainey won't be making too many Houle moves. Which is exactly what we need. As far as the buyouts go, I don't beleive we have to pay Czerkawski or McKay after this season, because they were only signed for 2 years. Audette is a different story. I beleive we eat 3/4's of "Audebt"'s 3 million dollar salary for the next season.

Great. Kovalev. Anyone else think we've invested enough salary in underacheiving veterans?

Julien is the right coach for this team for four big reasons. 1) His defensive system allows a team like ours that doesn't quite have enough offensive kick to compete in the NHL and compete for a playoff spot. Having a top goalie helps, too. 2) He is an excellent teacher to the younger players. You guys wanna go younger, well this is the guy to do it. Plus, he knows a lot of the young players extremely well even before he got the job. He know how to push them, and what to expect out of them. 3) He's got a great eye for talent in players. Look at Sheldon. Julien gave Souray some chances to play big minutes on the top pairing and be a staple on the 1st PP unit. He's good at giving players chances and watching them succeed. 4) Claude Julien is one of the smartest coaches in the game right now. It's been said that CJ is the smartest coach the Habs have had in since Lemaire, and that's a huge compliment. Just as you want the young players to grow and mature, so must Julien. He's just coming to a year in this league, and so far, he's done a good job. He wasn't given a team that should make the playoffs. We were ranked by The Hockey News as the 3rd worst team in the Eastern Conference. Well, who's in 7th place now? If Bob Gainey likes him, then he's passed the hardest test of all. Cut the guy a break. He already looks like Bill from "King of the Hill" :ghg: [Edited on 2004/2/21 by Toren]

Well, I'm sure any of you who've read my recent article know how I feel on the matter, so I won't go repeating everything. Saku is a guy who plays with one thing most of all - heart. When you boo him, you're hurting his confidence. The last thing we need is Saku to do the one thing I've NEVER seem him do in his entire career, and that is give less than 100%. We also need Ribeiro, because having two legitimate scoring lines is essential to compete in this league. Ribeiro isn't enjoying this whole booing fiasco either. So, when you boo Saku, you're pissing Ribeiro off. You're pissing Saku off. You're pissing the whole team off. Remind me why those "fans" are at the game now? Let me take a quote from Ed Jovonaski and say it to anyone and everyone who booed at that game. "If you're a season ticket holder, just sell your tickets." And for any of you who are going to Canadiens games this year, if you hear anyone booing someone on the Habs when they touch the puck, I want you to stand up and start cheering as loud as you can. I know I certainly will be from my home on sunny/rainy Vancouver Island. :ghg:

I think the real story in that article is how ugly the damn Bruins 3rd jersey is. Man, what the hell were they smoking... Oh, and on a side note - I boo for the rest of the eastern conference. [Edited on 2004/2/21 by Toren]

Yeah. If you think I'm an idiot and have stupid points, don't be blaming the other HW guys. But be nice, because I'm sensitive and my feelings get hurt easily. :ghg:

This game will really shot what our boys are made of. A win here proves that we've got a lot of character, and can survive through the injuries of the playoffs. A loss, and our chances of getting a playoff spot are that much smaller. Huge game today, but all of them from now on are... Hopefully I won't be getting tears all over the goal-by-goal. Unless they're tears of joy from a Jose Theodore shutout *knock knock knock* :ghg: [Edited on 2004/2/21 by Toren]

That's rough. I'd rather see him take whatever time he needs, be that two or three weeks. Because he'll be really depressed, which will make the team really depressed, and that's not our game. Lot of personal leave given out for the Habs this year.

Rangers are beating the Islanders 4-1. We need the Rangers to win big time today. A win in our game and a Rangers win will square us up for 7th place.

It's better than 1 step forward, 2 steps Dykhuis.

Begin scores again shorthanded to make it 4-2. I guess we're back in it. Let's hope we pick now to start scoring.

Begin scores to make it 1-1. It was a classic Begin goal. Rush to the net, good things will happen. Like pucks bouncing off you.

That reminded me of Dan Cloutier in the playoffs when Niklas Lidstrom blasted it from center ice and Cloutier tried to glove it. That play should have been nailed into Theo's head. Get in front of the puck, don't leave it to just the blocker.

Well, these are the moments that make or break teams. Someone or everyone will either step up and make a contribution, or we'll crumble and see our 12-point lead on a playoff spot deteriorate. I'm not worried, but that could change fast. Let's hope for the best. :ghg:

Big guys and knee problems don't heal well together, so hopefully he doesn't need too much time.

Word around the media is that Souray caught a rut in the terrible Florida ice and damaged his ACL. Speculation says it's a sprain, 4-6 weeks. Maybe it's small and he'll be day-to-day. Worst case scenario, it's an ACL tear and a season-ending injury. They'll have to wait until the swelling goes down before they can get a better prognosis. And there's always an upside to everything. When Sheldon's contract comes up, we don't have to pay him as much because he's missed over 75% of his games in the past 3 years, and this just strengthens the point.

Well, we gotta wait and not push the panic button. Two good scenarios can come out of this. Souray could be back soon, and we won't need a trade. Or, we could call up a guy like Hainsey or Beauchemin and they could play incredibly well and the team could put in that extra effort to fill in the hole left by Souray. The worst thing we can do is panic and let a team take advantage of us on a trade. Either that or pick up a bandaid defenceman off waivers, like Wade Brookbank. When Rivet's healed up, we should be good to go. We've still got a strong defensive core. Who knows, this might be Markov's time to shine, or maybe Patrice will learn how he scored so many times before. :ghg:

We've got Hainsey (who may still be another year away) and Dykhuis. Say what you will about Karl, he's a good depth guy and a good man to have as a reserve defenceman.