PMAC

According to Pat Hickey of the Gazette Dino Sisto was cleared of any misconduct regarding his absence from the Habs playoff games, but has still been fired from CJAD. Paul Romanuk is a canidate to replace Dino, but Hickey suggested Dick Irvin. Wouldn't it be great to hear Dick call all of the Habs games on the radio? I cant imagine that he will want to take on that kind of travel schedule though.

Stanley Cup Champions-- not flukes, although I really wish Calgary had won.

Originally posted by Riberio Actually, I did not compare the '93 Habs to the Lightning. If you read carefully, what I said was that IF you accept the definition of "fluke"-- which I was arguing was wrong, then the comparision could be made. But, now that you mention it... André Racicot, Kevin Haller, Paul DiPietro, Gary Leeman, Jesse Bélanger, Ed Ronan, Mario Roberge, Donald Dufresne, Todd Ewen, Gilbert Dionne, Stephan Lebeau, Jean-Jacques Daigneault none of these guys had long careers and Ramage, Savard, and Bellows were near the end of their careers. The Habs had a great talent in net, leadership from Muller, and LeClair delivering the best playoff of his career. One could almost call their win a fluke especially since they won 10 OT games in a row BUT, as I SAID NHL Conference Champions and Stanley Cup Champions are NOT FLUKES they are the product of months of sustained high-level effort-- the teams' previous and subsequent performances are irrelevant. [Edited on 2004/5/29 by PMAC]

Originally posted by FanPuck 33 In my opinion, and in most dictionaries, "fluke" means lucky. By your criteria the '95 Devils could be considered flukes because they won the Cup which many people weren't sure they could do and then missed the playoffs the next season. By your criteria the 1993 Habs were flukes because they went out early the next season. I said it before, I'll say it again... a conference champion has earned their place. You may win a few games on luck, but not three playoff rounds. Carolina and Anaheim struggled the year following their cup appearances due to weak goaltending and forwards who could no longer score... it does not mean they had no talent in the previous playoffs.

Stephen Brunt in the Globe & Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...BNStory/Sports/ says: " It's no fluke the Flames and Lightning are here. You don't win three playoff rounds on luck, or kismet".

First of all, I wasn't trying to make this personal. I was only trying to say that its OK to dislike a team, but it is not reasonable to expect everybody on the Forum to agree with you regardless of whose opinion is "right". Secondly, I don't see any complaints about the Flames: how many people thought that Calagary is an elite team that would make the finals??!!! How many people thought that the Flames would make the playoffs??? How many games was Calgary completely outplayed in these playoffs, only to win because of goaltending? Finally, I find your questioning whether or not I am a Habs fan or a "true NHL fan" pretty offensive. There is nothing anti- habs about hating a TEAM that benefitted from the incompetence of the Habs former management. As to whether or not I am a "true" NHL fan, who gets to decide what makes a true fan? Everyone cheers for teams and the league in their own way.

Riberio: I understand your pain. I usually hate any team that beats Montreal in the playoffs, or trade, for years if not decades. I still dislike the Nordiques and NorthStars and they don't even exist as franchises anymore. I will always loathe the Avalance. I still hate the OIlers for the Eighties. I have HATED Calagary since 1989 and after this series I will continue to hate them. :mad: I'm making an exception this time because my aunt, from Calgary has cancer and it is a dream of hers for the Flames to win the Cup again. I cheered for Tampa to beat Philly only because I despise Philly and I hope they never win another cup until LeClair, Desgardins and Recchi are long retired. I don't think Philly is a bad team; I just want some revenge for the Rechhi trades. Now that the hated Flyers are out of the way, the world can return to its natural order and I can get a hate on for Tampa. I hope that you are right, and that TB falls flat next season. My point is that its OK for you to hate Tampa, but dont try to convince everyone that they are a terrible and undeserving team. No sport has a playoff system more gruelling than the NHL. Conference champions deserve their victory. There are three words that describe teams that win games at the end that they probably should have lost: fluke, winners, champions. As the old saying goes, good teams win games they should have lost.

I like most of the ideas posted. I hope next year's line-up will be something like this-- barring a major trade : Zednik - Koivu - Kovalev Ryder- Ribeiro - Dags/ Higgins, Milroy, or Plekanec (I can dare to dream) Bulis - Perreault (on vastly reduced salary) - Ward Begin - Dowd - Langdon Markov - Rivet Souray - Komisarek Hanisey - Brisebois Bouillon and / or Quintal Theodore Garon

Montreal Canadiens have retired Jacques Plante's No. 1, Doug Harvey's No. 2, Jean Beliveau's No. 4, Howie Morenz' No. 7, Maurice (Rocket) Richard's No. 9, Guy Lafleur's No.10 Henri Richard's No. 16. I suggest that we have a lot of room before we only have a team in the 80's and 90's number-wise I think that Gainey, Robinson, Serge Savard, Dryden (and a very long time in the future, Roy) deserve to have their #'s retired. Esposito ?????!!!! That would be like the Blackhawks retiring Orr's number or the Canucks retiring Cam Neely's. It shouldnt even be considered. Mahovolich at least contributed to several cups

If you are not a fan of Claude Julien then you should at least respect his talent. He took a bunch of mediocre NHL talents and unproven rookies and made the play-offs. He coaxed career years out of Souray, Riberio, Ryder and others and helped banish Breezy-bye and replace him with Brisebois, who can be an effective defenseman AND he was able to meld Kovalev into the team's defensive system without stifling K's offensive talent Then after the Kovalev-Souray collision that cost the game in OT - he got the team to forget about their problems with each other and helped them, by outcoaching the opposition by a wide margin, to accomplish what no other :hlogo: team had ever done come back and win after being down 3-1. I am eager to see what he can accomplish with another year of experience and more talent. CJ is a far superior coach to Pat Quinn and he like Scotty Bowman, Mike Babcock, Darryl Sutter, Jacques Lemaire, etcetera, etcetera ...... would make an equal or better job with the team. Actually, I don't care who coaches; I don't care who plays: JUST WIN :can: [Edited on 2004/5/17 by PMAC]

I don't wish anyone ill, especially a character guy like Stevie Y., but I hope that you are right and Primeau gets on the team somehow :can:

And, if you need further proof of Primeau's prowess: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgaz...8b-c67ac1b0a1ff :can:

I dont't think that McGuire is a habs-- hater. He used to do most excellent commentary on the Habs for CJAD (far superior to Murray Wilson, IMHO, who does an ok job, but tends to repeat the same stock phrases over and over again.

After I posted about Primeau I went to read the Globe and Mail online. The Caption says it all: "Primeau Rises to the Occasion" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...specialNHL2004/ :can:

I agree. What convinced me that Primeau should be on the list is the way he stepped up his game(Game 2 vs TB) when his team needed a boost . Canada needs players who produce when the pressure is on. Maltby is fine defensively, but Primeau is more of an offensive force. All of this will be a moot point as long as we win :can:

As I said before if Perezhogin was a draft pick of the Laffs or a Canadian, the AHL would not have found it so easy to throw the book at him. As far as the World Cup the roster selections should be interesting. Eric Dutsachek(sp) of the Globe and Mail is a reasonable journalist, but I question two of his picks which can be found here http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...BNStory/Sports/ I can understand putting Stevie Y on the list as he can be replaced in he is not physically able to play, but Bryan McCabe???!!! Bryan, pylon, I suck, freaking McCabe???? He's not even the best Canadian defenseman on his own team!!! I know there may be questions about Souray, but surely their is another Canadian d-man better than Bryan McCabe. Also of note: he did not suggest Bertuzzi

If you want to pick the Houle trade that signalled that the Canadiens were about to plummet into chaos this is it. There are a few trades by other teams that were equally bad Eg. the Cam Neely trade from Van. to Boston, but for the Habs none worse. I think that the worst part of the end of the Savard era and the Houle years was the way that the Habs were humiliated in the trade market. The trade noted above, Turgeon for Corson, Tucker for Zalapski and Vuckota(sp) ... I could go on but the memories are too painful. Did Houle ever make a good trade? I can't remember at the moment. Thank God BG is in charge now... he's not infallible: see Audette, Donald with the Stars, but he knows what he is doing, has a plan and sticks to it.

Adios, Andreas, Thanks. I'd say we did well with Dackell: Acquired for an 8th round draft choice, several seasons of excellent effort and now that the Habs have younger players to fill the gap, he leaves as an UFA.

Ulmer isn't that bad especially compared to some of the other hacks in Toronto, like Strachan. I really think that this has to be a joke-- not even Leaf writers are THAT stupid, even though some of the fans are. I may email Ulmer and ask him. If I am right, I will propose something suitably nasty for you to eat AP:)

I think, gentlemen, that this article is satire... he is mocking the stupidity of Leaf''s fans. 37 years without a cup. Just 63 years more to go before I celebrate my centennial, Canada's bicentenail and the centennial of the Leafs last cup. God willing.

I copied this information from the Canadiens Official Website. GUIDELINES To contact a member of the organization or Canadiens player via regular mail*: Send your correspondence to: Alexei Kovalev c/o The Montreal Canadiens 1275 St. Antoine Street West Montreal, QC, CANADA H3C 5L2 *Note that if you are sending cards or other material to be autographed by players, it is recommended that you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your inquiry. The team cannot be held responsible for the potential loss of any items sent in the mail. [Edited on 2004/5/12 by PMAC]

I love the conservative response whenever Bush has screwed up and it actually gets reported " Oh, Its not that bad if only that nasty liberal media wouldnt exaggerate!" The truth is that from 9/11 until now Bush has somehow evaded serious criticism like it was unpatriotic to say bad things about an incompetent, lying, ineffectual regime. IF the media had done its job before the Iraq invasion and racheted up the pressure for real proof of WMD then maybe this mess would have been avoided. Failing that, perhaps the invasion could have been delayed so that they would have had time to develop an exit strategy. Right now, the only terrorists in Iraq are Americans. Fighting against an occupying military does not make you a terrorist: it makes you a resistance fighter, a patriot. Don't get me wrong, I freverently hope that Bin Laden and his ilk are erradicated from the face of the Earth, but the fiasco in Iraq does nothing to fight terror and everything to show Muslims that the USA will invent reasons to attack them and will show no mercy. As I said before Bin Laden must be happy that Georgie is causing so many new recruits to join the fold. Take a look at the Gulf News www.gulfnews.com to get a idea of a relatively moderate view from the Arab world.

I applaud the effort of the online questionairre --- doing something positive, even if you question its effectiveness, is always better than doing nothing. Unfortunately, I question the usefulness of the exercise. BG is going to TRY to sign Kovalev if his analysis says its worthwhile and if he can get K under contract within the team's budget. The first is probably a lock; the second, who knows? I suggest that fans sending personal letters to Kovalev--NOT email-- telling him how much we loved having him in a Habs uniform and how much we want him back might do some small good in convincing how wonderful a city Montreal is to play in and why he should accept less $$$ to stay in Montreal than to go try to re-establish himself with another team, in a "non-hockey market". I KNOW that this might not accomplish anything, but I'm going to do it anyway, because it certainly can't hurt for the player to know how much the fans really want him. :ghg:

If we trade Theo we have to replace him with another #1 goalie and Garon does NOT fit that description YET. Given more time -- and more playing time-- Garon may yet blossom into a legitimate #1, but it is my guess that he will do it with another team-in a season or two as BG uses what he will bring to improve the team:ghg: [Edited on 2004/5/10 by PMAC]

Thanks to his friendly neighborhood spiderman another Habs fan has a beautiful avatar. Appreciate the help Spidey [Edited on 2004/5/9 by PMAC] [Edited on 2004/5/9 by PMAC]