Commandant

SHORTY FOR MOEN! THATS HOW YOU GO TO THE NET!!

I agree with that. Martin and Muller had a good cop/bad cop dynamic. Hopefully Cunneyworth can start to develop the good cop part of that.

The Riders problem was never coaching... its in the GM spot. Eric Tillman was a great GM. He assembled a lot of talent for the Riders. When he left that Talent remained, and they continued to win. Slowly though, the talent left, aged, or otherwise needed to be replaced. Their new management has been unable to find replacements for the guys who have been lost, or who have regressed. Just look how quickly Tillman is building a great team in Edmonton. He has an eye for this game.

Myth http://www.liam.ca/ed20040319.html

We have the lines from practice.... I'm not making a GDT as I made the last one and it as our worst game of the year. Cammy - Plek - Gio Patch - DD - Cole Moen - Eller - Kostitsyn Darche - Engqvist - Palushaj/Weber Gorges - Subban Gill - Diaz Spacek/Weber - Emelin

Christmas? Markov will be back in November. Its October 22 now.

Biggest issue with the team continues to be Forward Support in the defensive zone. If the forwards were better in their own end it would solve everything. If we backchecked better, we'd even end up scoring more goals. Seems counterintuitive? I agree... but hear me out. Think about the type of goals this Habs team has scored at Even Strength over the last 2 years. What do you see? Do you see a team cycling the puck in the offensive zone? Do you see a team winning board battles and then setting something up? Or do you see a team that creates through the use of odd man rushes? 2 on 1s, 3 on 2s, and other quick strike, counter attack style plays. I know what I see, and its the odd man rush that creates a huge part of our 5 on 5 offence. This is a team where 5 of our 9 most talented fwds are 5'10 or shorter, but are speedy. With such a lineup you can't count on a puck possession game. You can't count on playing a strong forecheck and cycle style of game. You just don't have enough big forwards to do it, when 2 guys on every line lack size. So how do you create offence? By using that speed in odd man rushes. So how do you create odd man rushes? Simple.... you need to force the other team to turn over the puck... either have a takeaway, or block a shot and pick up the loose puck, pick off a bad pass, win puck battle, etc.... So in this way better defence.... the forwards supporting our defencemen (what they haven't done at all this year), would help this team not only give up less goals, it would actually help us create more chances at the other end. This is how the 2001 New Jersey Devils were the highest scoring team in the NHL.... this is how Martin's Ottawa teams scored a lot of goals.... this was how we reached the final four to years ago.... this is how we took the first two games in Boston last year... and this is what we need to get back to doing if we want to be successful.

Kristo and Gallagher continue their hot starts Kristo 1 assist to bring his total to 8pts in 5 games. Gallagher 1g 1a so far in the first period as Vancouver is steamrolling Victoria... 6-0 in goals 17-1 in shots after 1 period.

I agree with most of that Lovett Things are early now, but if we are still looking like this in mid november/early december changes will be necessary.

Jodoin is just using the Martin system, which is called "confuse the hell out of the fans (and the other team)"

Who was left out of the pairings? Weber?

Grabovski was gone to the KHL if the Habs didn't trade him.

If you watch the video really closely you can see JMMR in the crowd behind Price, giving Umberger the finger.

Agreed, if anything this team is bigger,, and less soft than last year with Emelin and Cole added. Too bad only one of those 2 has lived up to expectations to date. Hammer was supposed to be replaced by the combination of a healthy Gorges, and Chris Campoli. Wiz will soon be replaced by Andrei Markov and thats actually an upgrade. Sometimes a slump is just a slump.

So this is 2 games suspension <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/js1MyNjOwg0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And this is no suspension and a $2500 fine <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QhMQOLsEqR8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Yup it seems things are different in the NHL discipline room this year.... Stars don't get special treatment anymore. What a load of crap.

Over the course of a season every team has a slump. What did Washington lose 8, 10 in a row or something last season and they still managed to finish first in the Eastern Conference. Our slump is happening in October instead of later in the year. As long as we get out of this soon, we'll be fine, we just can't let it go on too much longer, and beating the leafs would be a great way to end the losing streak. This team is definitely playing with no confidence right now, they need a good bounce or a good break to build off of and start believing. One win and things will turn around. Also for anyone who might believe in the power of the "hockey gods" I can't help but wonder if the Team jinxed itself by celebrating Price's 100th win on the website before it was made official. Can't plan the parade before you clinch the title.

The issue wasn't making excuses for the injuries.... What i was responding to was all the complaints of OMG... Why did JM break up the Pac - DD - AK46 line? It was our only good line. And "how come JM keeps changing the lines, how can they get chemistry if they don't stay together for two shifts" Gomez went down early in the first and didn't come back. Patches spent most of the first in the dressing room. Engqvist spent most of the 2nd in the dressing room. When you have 10 forwards on your bench for most of the night... its natural that the line combos won't stay together, and you'll see some pretty strange combos out there... rotating that 10th guy is the only way to keep everyone fresh. That was what I was saying. We didn't lose because of injuries.... thats not what I'm trying to say. I'm saying don't blame the coach for shuffling a lineup that was missing two bodies for most of the game.

He started the game with intact lines. Cammy on the fourth, but three lines. Gomez only played 3 shifts, and then he was out. By the 8:00 mark of the first we were forced to juggle. And that included a PK which screws up the lines for one rotation or so every time anyways... (ie cause our PK pairs aren't always linemates... see DD and Moen.)

The injury to Carey Price's glove hand in the 2008 Playoffs. After a marvelous first round (including 2 shutouts) against Boston, Price hurt his hand against Philly and then couldn't make a save glove side. The flyers exploited this and took us out in 5 games. The team never admitted he was hurt, but reporters noticed that Price changed his catching mitt after game 2 of the series and the new glove had triple the padding of the old glove. Halak also started game 4 of the series after playing only 6 regular season games. Here is the play i think he hurt his hand.... watch Umberger and him both go for the puck at the same time and umberger's stick gets his glove. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/L8c7cvp0QHc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Awful, awful game tonight.... Pens dominated. Tonight, in a road game... we finally saw the effect of being forced to play all those defencemen is. The Habs can hide a rookie pairing in a home game with last change. Tonight, on the road, they couldn't. We desperately need some experienced D back in the lineup. You just cant be running three guys who combine for ~50 games of experience. The forward lines.... thats what happens when 2 guys get hurt, yeah they were all messed up, but shit happened because of the injuries. That said, even if your line is screwed up and you have no offensive chemistry, its no excuse to not backcheck and miss assignments like the forwards did.

On rivet, callahan was our 48/50 contract.

Team has to pick it up but carey has to have that.

God damnit.

Now he's on pk duty. I don't get it. Why start him on the 4th?