illWill

I thought that he was right handed as well but he is actually left handed. It would be nice if he were a righty, as we are lacking.

Has anybody heard a reasoning for not signing Biron? He signed with the Rangers for cheaper than we got Auld. I would consider Biron the better goalie and the obvious french-Canadian connection is there as well.

I might be wrong, but the way I remember it is that Andrei played better with his brother around. And even better when they were on the same line.

I like Plekanec as a player, I like the cap hit per year, but I'm on the fence about the length of the contract. It could turn out to be a really good deal or a really bad deal, as any long term contract could be. On one hand I'm glad that we don't have any question marks at center going into July 1 but on the other I had some blind faith that we somehow would go in a different direction and magically acquire a big body up the middle. But now that it`s a done deal, this is our core for the next half-decade. Now we NEED a big, banging winger on one of the top lines! Hopefully Gauthier can swing a deal involving AK and a pick for this type of player. Wonder what it would take to pry Callahan out of NY..?

My phone won't stop beeping from my anti-habs friends sending text messages that read hahahahaha

If I were GM, this is what my opening day lineup would be (assuming trades are made like in xbox nhl10) Cammalleri Gomez Gionta Pouliot Marleau Versteeg Moen Lapierre Metropolit Pyatt Moore Maxwell Markov O'Byrne Spacek Subban Gill Gorges Halak Price * Let Plekanec walk when he wants $5.5m per and sign Marleau for $6.5 or $7.0m * Trade the Kostitsyns and a prospect for Versteeg and Sopel. Hawks get a bit of cap relief and we get a a scoring winger and a seventh defenseman. * Buy out Hamrlik or bury him in minors to save cap space needed to sign above moves and RFA's.

There should be nothing but optimism coming from this playoff exit. Let's all rewind back to last fall when we had essentially A WHOLE NEW TEAM! All the "experts" had us finishing out of the playoffs. We battled through big injury after big injury, controversy after controvsery. If any one of you would have expected to make it to the eastern conference final despite all of that, then you sir should take a bow. I, myself was quite skeptical about any success once all the injuries kept happening and didn't expect much from this team and considered this year a write off. Well we snuck into the playoffs and played pretty much how we played all year, .500 hockey. We just happened to get the upper hand in two of the three series played. Now moving forward, we do have alot of question marks but should be happy where we are. If we move one of our quality young goalies, we will receive good players at other positions (remember we have Desjardins chomping at the bit in the minors). Hypothetically Price"s worth at the deadline would have fetched a great return that would have helped during this run instead of an asset like that sitting on the bench. I personally have no idea which way management will go with this unique goaltending situation, but just HOPE that they make the right decision. And surely we can be happy with the Cammelleri signing and a potential stud on defense in Subban. As far as UFA's go, I think we have to let Plekanec walk. His agent will press too much on regular season stats and will expect a contract worth at least 5m per for numerous years. I have never been on the Plex bandwagon. His "great" 69 point year followed by his 39 point year, followed by this year, doesn't convince me he is ready to earn those type of dollars. I like him as a player but i think that we need to spend that money on a player different from his mold. We need a bigger center, preferably a right hand shot (I've dreamt of Arnott for years). Mara and Bergeron won't be back, and SK will have a new home. All in all, the 09-10 Canadiens gave us all a wild ride that i personally will never forget. I live in PEI and drove 12 hours to game 6 in Montreal against Pittsburgh to see them play the most memorable game of my life. I wore my Habs jersey to bars around my hometown to watch the game, only to see other habs fans doing the same. I got emails and texts during every game from people I didn't even know were fans. I am 27 years old (I didn't understand the greatness of 93) and THIS is the greatest time in my life that i can remember being a Habs fan. I hope that all of you can appreciate what this means to all habs fans out there. One more time......OLE, OLE, OLE!!!!

Halak is certainly not the reason we are losing, however he could potentially be the reason we lose a future game based on that horrible 3rd goal. His positioning was way off and perhaps he is rattled mentally. I think we should go back with Halak for game 3 and see how he does to begin the game. If he lets in two early ones put in Price. We have all seen how a team can respond with a simple goalie change, its worth a shot if nothing else is working. And Price is more than capable of being able to steal a game. He has been working hard all playoffs at practice, Cammalleri had said in an interview that he hadn't been scored on in weeks. I just think he deserves another chance, remember, he's working for a contract too just like Halak.

I don't think that its a fluke that this group is coming together at the right time. When Gainey let half of the team walk and brought in a new core, he brought in talented players that are also winners. Gionta and Gomez obviously with their history together and rings. Cammalleri was one of the best kept secrets in the league before these playoffs, despite doing nothing but score since being in the league. Heck, I remember when BG signed Gill and Moen (rings) and I thought this is exactly what we need, playoff-type warriors. Then at the trade deadline, the only move Gauthier made was trade a second round pick to get Moore. It seemed pretty stupid and insignifigant at the time since he is UFA. But look who is playing solid and scoring clutch goals when we need them. So to reiterate, I believe that management had a certain vision when they put this team together and if you want to win the cup, you build a team for the playoffs.

Well I drove 12 hours from PEI to watch my first ever habs playoff game, so you can bet that I am bringing the noise

I don't think he won ONE battle for the puck this playoffs, what a waste of talent

Perhaps if we had a captain, we'd have some desperately needed on-ice leadership, so we wouldn't give up after getting one goal scored against us and into taking unsportsmanlike penalties. Just a thought.

I love how they booooo'd when that happened. Don't see that anywhere else

The no-call on the high stick on Markov would have had the Habs on the powerplay.

4-1 Habs, Cammalleri with 2 goals

It's times like these that make me sick as a Habs fan. So disgusting to see "fans" boo Price who came out as the third star of the game. I could see if he stunk the place up, but HE WAS THIRD STAR! I guess there are people who are against Price and just want to boo him out of town. I think this is a big mistake. He has had a good year, despite his numbers and anyone who has watched everygame can tell you. We win as a team and we lose as a team, goaltending is the least of our concerns.

This is an excellent point that most people don't seem to understand. They just expect Price to come into the league essentially straight from junior and dominate the best players in the world. Goaltenders don't mature until their mid twenties. All the good that Price has done up to this point at his young age never seems to be mentioned, like his Calder Cup MVP, world junior tournament MVP, all star selection, and backstopping the 1st place team in the east to the second round of the playoffs. I'm sick of hearing people saying he sucks and he's shaky or to trade him. How the hell are we ever gonna develop within the system if we give up on all our young talent? Patience people......patience

My thoughts exactly. I mean, look at the Leafs. As much as they lack skill, at least they are aggressive as a team can be. That is why they get any points at all. Even when I play on xbox and I play aggressive, that's when i get the most chances to score, rather than sit back and "hope" that the opposition makes a mistake that i can capitalize on.

Anybody else find it annoying that we have a team full of speed and skill, yet we play a 1999 style trap game? I thought that sort of system existed for teams that lacked in talent and to keep them in games. We have to be aggressive on the forecheck and that will translate to being aggressive in ALL aspects of the game which will result in more pressure and scoring chances. For the life of me i don't get why Martin wants us to dump the puck and change. Kind of hard to generate goals that way. P.S - Halak is unreal and its a shame that we have two great goalie prospects that can't play every game.

I can't wait until Gionta and Hamrlik return and we see what this team is really made of.

Someone call the cops, there was a robbery

Its pretty bad when we are getting dominated by the Leafs. How its still tied i have no idea. Actually even when we win we get dominated now that i think about it.

First off, I'm a Plekanec fan and love what he's doing this year. However, I am a little uneasy about the notion of signing him to a huge deal for alot of years. I'm surprised that nobody is talking about him "playing for a contract", as he is UFA at the end of the year. This sort of thing happens all the time. A player dedicates himself to the game and plays the absolute best he can in order to get the most money on the open market. If Plekanec could produce for years to come how he is producing now, then a big payday is justified. I just can't forget his pathetic 39 points last year, eventhough he had 69? the year before. It is a huge problem in hockey these days when GM's throw a bunch of money at a player who has a breakout year which "coincedentally" is also a contract year. People are too quick to say "lock him up long term". Those are usually the same people who are complaining about his contract a couple years down the road when they are underperforming. A prime example is Jason Blake getting 40 goals in a contract year as a +30 year old player. Leafs sign him to a big deal and expect him to get 40 every year which is so unrealistic. And when he doesn't they call for his head. I would love to resign Plekanec but only for the right deal. He is comparable to a Marc Savard in skill and ability and Savard just signed for 4.2m/per long term. The only difference is that Savard has consistently put up good numbers for a long time so he deserves such a contract. If Plekanec wants any more than 5m/per, I thnk the best thing to do is trade him at the deadline no matter if we are in the playoff hunt or not. Hopefully he will take a hometown discount and actually want to stay around. I also hope that he isn't just playing for a contract and that it's just his development coming along at this time. It's too bad Gomez will never live up to his contract and I just hope Plekanec doesn't follow suit.

Habs win 3-2 in a shootout

Can we use any of the former players being honoured in the pregame ceremony? I'd take a Richer or a Damphousse in the lineup tonight. But yeah, what a great collection of former habs greats and an awesome job putting it all together. Can't believe all of them are together in the same place in full uniform.