l.moustakas

Indeed, it will be interesting to see, especially on the powerplay. Oh, and welcome to the forums!

As much as the opposition will want to try to run Andrei Markov, when was the last time you remember seeing him get truly hammered along the boards. He may have been injured often over the past twelve months, but they were almost freak occurrences. Besides, he really is a natural, I expect him to transition almost seamlessly into regular season action. By the way, our preview is up: http://habsworld.net/article.php?id=2244

Canadiens face PA Parenteau, J.T and the surprising Islanders tonight. Our preview is up at http://habsworld.net/article.php?id=2239 As for lines and such, Bar or Brian will do that, right guys?

To be honest, I have grown weary of this Bieska rumour. I simply don't get excited at the prospect of him on the team. At present, the team is rather set on D and, when healthy, are a fairly balanced group. I realize that many contracts expire at season's end, but it is still reasonable to expect Gorges and Markov to be retained while Spacek and Subban still have time left on their current deals. Then, there is always Weber, Carle, Tinordi and O'Byrne who will be knocking on the door to full-time NHL posts. Where Bieska, a UFA next year, and his significant cap-hit fit in is beyond me.

Honestly, I was half-expecting Lehner to get the nod for Ottawa. As for Montreal, I suppose we can expect to see Auld get a start soon enough. Plus, it's former team week for him, as the Habs play the Sens once again tonight, will skate versus Phoenix Monday and then versus Florida next Saturday. Although next weekend features back-to-back games, somehow it seems best as if he were to play Monday, especially since its versus a non-conference opponent. As for tonight's game, I hope that Eller gets a longer look on the G-G line. No disrespect to Pyatt, but he simply does not have the same skill level. Hope everyone enjoys the game. I know I will, I have tickets!

Dear Forum members, Upon reading yet another article preaching Boucher's many innovations and his implementation of a new system, a question came to my mind? What exactly is his alledgedly ground breaking system? To my understanding, it is something meant to be much more agressive and with deeper forcheckers. Which player does what? How exactly does it work?

That was not the most entertaining game ever, now was it. And boy, the Habs did nothing in the way of exploiting NJs rookie blueliners. And yes, I understand Martin does not want to hand the job to Eller, but short of a call-up or trade, who the heck can play a top-6 role? By the way, our game recap is up http://habsworld.net/article.php?id=2234

Defence: White - Greene Tallinder - Corrente Magnan-Grenier - Taormina Bar's key to the game: 1. G and G need to be B(etter) and B(etter). 2. Get to Brodeur early, he's been prone to weak goals lately. 3. The devils are shothanded, so skating hard against them and making them work will work to the habs advantage. No kidding. The Habs should really look to exploit the bottom three blueliners on the team, who are all relatively inexperienced at the NHL level. Oh, and Bar, nice work with the preview, I'm sure Brian`s happy that someone else did it.

Boy, Letourneau-Leblond, Magnan-Grenier. The Devils sure like those long, Quebec names, don't they?

Brian, love the torn hooting. It really is a good read.

That's not exactly surprising, he truly has been underwhelming thus far in his career. Then again, with his little tour and all the hype, little was done to temper expectations.

Change of topic, but according to Hockeybuzz, Fabian Brunstrom has been put on waivers by the Stars. By no means am I saying the Habs will pick him up, but I certainly do recall them having interest when he was on his "Where will I sign tour" a couple of years back. http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Quic...Waivers/1/30801

I do not mean to be picky, but while Price has played well, his puck handling is quite worrisome. He tries to make overly fancy plays with the puck as opposed to opting for the simpler pass. Last night featured a few near misses that illustrated that.

On some level though, I wish they simply had cancelled the game. As much as Lou should have been able to do basic math, as Jean put it, the league should have figured out the whole average-salary loophole a whole lot sooner. The fine of 3 million dollars and the loss of draft picks was, I felt, excessive, especially considering that these contracts existed before and it didn't take psychic to divine someone would dare push said loopholes boundaries. However, now that the Devils have put themselves into this mess (not only by signing Kovalchuk, but also acquiring Arnott, Volchenkov and Tallinder), forcing them to forfeit the game would have been an appropriate punishment. Of course, given the aforementioned fine and loss of draft picks, doing that would just be picking on the Devils at this point. As for the enforcement being too severe, I am not so sure. Not that I'm leaning one way or another, but I can't help but think that if the league wants its rules to be taken seriously, on the ice as much as off it, it needs to present, severe, consistent punishments.

Seriously? This is allowable? (I know it is, but it's a rhetorical question). Anyone have comments on this? I'm not quite sure what my feelings are about this. On one hand, you cannot simply cancel a game that nearly 13000 people attended, it would be a public relations nightmare. On the other hand, it's possibly an even more blatant cap circumvention than the whole Ilya Kovalchuk debacle. http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=337120

It's funny. Any debate on fighting quickly turns into a discussion about the league's application of the rules. And rightly so. There is no rhyme or reason behind the distribution of supplementary discipline. More often than not, it seems that the term of the suspension has been picked out of a hat as opposed to being determined by the rules. Things would be simpler if the league would establish clear punishment guidelines for certain infractions. I understand that there are nuances and the game moves at a blazingly fast speed, but imagine how much easier it would be if the higher-ups at least established some sort of norm. For example, for a hit to the head, automatic suspension between 10 and 15 games, at the discretion of the disciplinarian. Even in this circumstance, there is an element of human decision making, but at least it would stop looking like Maggie the Macaque picked the number. As for fighting, as entertaining as it can be, it prevents the league from properly entering into the 21st century. Beyond the fact that it is a tad barbaric and that it will eventually lead to very serious injury, or worse a player's demise, it also hampers the game's image in the United States. The NHL can usher out as many well-thought out ad campaigns as it wants, but there are some core elements that must be changed in order to modernize the sport, namely the removal of fighting and stricter, more consistent disciplinary measures. (The other thing I would change is the idiotic W-L-OTL system. It should simply be win or lose. It's not a pee-wee league and we need not reward effort or participation, just wins. As for the notion of giving three points for a win and having a W-OTW-OTL-L system, that wouldn't be confusing at all. But I digress, I am severely off topic.) In as much as fighting and the presence of an enforcer relates to the Canadiens, when the team has 6 forwards worthy of playing in the top 6, then perhaps management could maybe consider worrying about acquiring a player who will play three minutes a night. Until then, it can wait. P.S Clearly, I was in a bit of ranting mood. Thanks for reading...

Slight change of subject, but boy, it is refreshing to have so much hate directed at the Canadiens. Mere days after facing off against arch-rivals Toronto, Kris Letang and cie openly expressed their dislike of the Canadiens. On top of that, P.K Subban was booed all night by the Pittsburgh faithful. And, usually, good teams are more despised than poor teams. The year may be another roller coaster, but the Habs may just be on the right track.

Mais, est-ce que c'est juste moi, ou j'avai lu et entendu qu'il s'était fait mettre à la porte cette été? Ou du moins, qu'il avait été remercier de sa position d'analyste? Wishful thinking, peut-être...

Perhaps the streaming video is affecting my judgement, but I wasn't sold on Pouliot's performance tonight. He made one or two nice passes, but I simply do not sense him involved or creative enough. As I mention in the 3 stars (yes yes, tooting my own horn), I felt that most of the top forwards seemed rather inept and are not providing the scoring needed for the team to win regularly. Andrei Kostitsyn can't seem to go to the net. Honestly, I saw him in front of the net once all evening. And Scott, we get it, you like to carry the puck out of the zone. How about trying something different for a change? Gionta was unimpressive, but given his character and history, one suspects he will soon rebound. As for Boyd, he reminds me a bit of Jan Bulis in the sense that he will get far more chances than goals due to his speed, but simply does not have the tools to finish. I agree that both Spacek and Gorges played well. What struck me the most is that Spacek actually got pucks to the net, 3 to be exact, which I find to be a wholly refreshing change. We all talk about Markov's return as being key for the powerplay, but Spacek finding his (long lost) form would be very beneficial as well. Moen's speed and net drive were also most welcome, and he almost scored on a couple of occasions. HW 3 Stars: http://habsworld.net/article.php?id=2222)

I know it's said half jokingly in the article, but the notion of forcing the center to use his wingers is not completely far-fetched. After all, when the likes of Dupuis, Tangardi, Kunitz and Comrie round out your top six, you know Malkin and Crosby are not especially well surrounded. They were already thin last year with Fedotenko, Ponikarovsky and Guerin in the mix, but now you could make the argument that the leafs have a better group of wingers. The Pens will certainly make the playoffs, but a few team's are easily ahead of them in the east. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Thank you for that.

Hmmm... I'll leave the fancy line postings to Brian.

Yeah, I know, wasn't it a Leaf love-fest on Hockey Night? With those fancy sketches of the new players, hoopla about Phaneuf's captaincy and Cherry's usual bias, beyond Hughson and Simpson who are always excellent, nothing about the broadcast felt objective. As for Darche, he was indeed underwhelming. However, he is a player who, for the first time in his life, has a one-way deal and does not have to constantly look over his shoulder at who might take his place on the farm or fear riding the buses after two games. It's a completely new mind-set for him and he can be forgiven if it takes a game or two to adapt. Having said that, if White continues to shine in Hamilton, he will earn himself a quick call-up, although it may be Pouliot or Kostitsyn who is forced to sit a game. Frankly, at least Pouliot used his body a bit, I did not see Andrei go to the net all night. I kind of wish they would get rid of him, he just does not play hard and when he does lay a hit, it tends to be opportunistic and borderline.

No, I'm not an 18-year old sur le party, but the statue idea is good anyway. In any case, I moved to Ottawa for work, and so far it is making a very good impression on me. Rumors of its boringness seem greatly exaggerated. Oh, and I I should mention that I am TV-less and Car-less, which is why I am making this particular query. While I figure I will sign up for NHL Centre Ice Online, every now and then, it might be nice to see a game on a bigger screen.

That's helpful...