BTH
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Posts posted by BTH
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Even with Markov, the Habs need another 20+ minute d-man (Gill wouldn't be bad).
Even with a top 3 NHL-ready pick, the Habs need another first line forward.
And then they can contend for the Cup, I guess.
Markov, the pick, and a decent d-man alone should be enough to make the playoffs next year. I don't think they'll find the first line forward but they'll have quite a bit of depth and quite a bit of youth. For a 28th overall team, the Habs have a lot of pieces to work with. They definitely have a shot to rebound into the playoffs next year. This season will have been worth it if it brings the Habs a franchise forward.
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I checked the standings yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see the Habs in 15th in the East and 28th overall. Keep up the good work, guys.
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Wasn't that clown supposed to have quit a couple of years ago???? What the heck is he doing back again?
Maybe writing more nonsense about the Habs is what he meant by "science fiction" writing.
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Don't blame the journalists. They are pointing out facts.. PG won't talk to them, or anyone else. This is verifiable stuff.
The only argument you can make is "its good he doesn't talk to anyone". I disagree based on the relative success of his approach vs the rest of the league. That said, you are not crazy to debate it.
Toronto based media comment on how they can get Sather in to talk, Lemaire, etc. but good luck getting ANYONE from the Habs.. they are all sworn to silence by PG.
Maybe they're right, maybe they aren't, but their primary interest is themselves, not the team, so their complaining about Gauthier's privacy being bad for the team is just annoying to me, especially coming from someone as contemptible as Jack Todd. Their complaints would be better received if they weren't so blatantly entangled with ulterior motives. The case to fire Gauthier could feature so many better arguments than Todd is capable of making.
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Glad to hear Pleks is "safe", but I think you need to be very careful about a guy Philly didn't want and didn't work out in Columbus. If he doesn't work out here either, he will be even harder to trade, so we will be stuck with him, ala Gomez. Cheaper, but much longer.
Some teams could afford this, but we can't. We already have too many bad contracts on the books to potentially take on another one.
If Markov comes back, I think Gomez is the only crippling contract Montreal has, and he's almost definitely gone next year. Kaberle, Plekanec, Cole, Kostitsyn, and Gionta all have decent contracts to me (with Gionta's being the worst but still nothing 29 other teams don't also deal with).
I wonder if Eller and Kostitsyn alone could be enough to get Carter..
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They need Carter AND Plekanec but I don't know what Montreal would trade. Eller, Kostitsyn + a 1st next year (banking on the Habs being improved with Carter)?
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Jack Todd is a journalist. It's in his best interest to apply pressure on the GM to speak to the press more. His best interests is all he's thinking about.
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Its not just homegrown talent...we could have signed those UFA's or traded for a player of that quality. I realise you can win without a real star but more often then not teams have either a couple top players or a glut of stars just under that tier.
A player that's top 3 in his position becomes a UFA once every 5 to 10 years. The odds of acquiring one by trade aren't much better. You always have to wait for one of those players to suffer an injury, have an off-year, or develop a reputation for being a terrible team player before his team even considers trading him.
I agree it's rare, but let's face it the habs have done a lousy job of evaluating centers. Richards, carter, Giroux (all picked by a single team !!!), getzlaf, datsyuk, elias, oshie, stasny, krejci, kopitar, parise, keslar, pavelski. we're not top ten picks. I realize these are not all elite centers, but are upgrades from the ones we drafted. Other then pleks and koivu in the early 90's, name me a decent centre we picked and developed. We did pick grabs, but gave him away. For some reason this organization has done a real crappy job when it comes to selecting or valuing centers or guys with size. Other teams trade picks to get the guys they want at the draft, we only seem to do that for US defenseman.I think almost every team in the league struggles to get elite players and big first line centers. Having drafted Koivu, Plekanec, Ribeiro, Grabovski, Leblanc, and signing Desharnais, I think Montreal's ability to develop centers in recent years has been pretty typical or mediocre. That's four guys right there who have proven to be capable of 50-70 points in the NHL. The Habs lost two of them because they were headcases. There are exceptions but if you want an 85+ point player, your best bet is to have a terrible season. An even better bet is to have multiple terrible seasons in a row like the Pens, Hawks, and Oilers did. If you're consistently in the playoffs, you can't expect to draft better than 2nd line players. You might luck out once every 5 years but you can't expect it.
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Agreed. I don't buy that he's the best offensive C in years...was only commenting on Stream's post.
And for what its worth...it's also sad to say Pleks might be the best C in years.
Frankly it's sad we haven't had an 85 point C since when?? Hell, name the last 100 point Hab...how sad is that? I can live with good balanced teams like the last 2 cup winners but we rarely even get that these days...
I may sound like a pessimist lately but we don't have much to be excited about other then 3 things: Price, Subban and MaxPac...Even the farm system looks only okay...Sure Beaulieu, LeBlanc look like they good be good and maybe Kristo and Tinordi...after that it's sketchy. This was a top 5 farm system for years until recently...shouldn't we be better today and how did it become a bottom 6 farm team if we weren't exactly winning (and thus drafting late). Not actually looking for reasons, I know how/why...just venting...
It's no surprise. Elite talent is rare when you don't pick in the top 10 of the draft. The only high pick Montreal's had in in years was Price and he turned out to be the cornerstone of the franchise. Finding Pacioretty and Subban in the late first and second respectively was a nice bonus but if you want an 85+ point center (there are what, 5-10 in the league?), you aren't likely to find one without a top 10 pick. This season they'll get a golden opportunity to turn their organization upside down. They need to draft one of those NHL ready stars that have been becoming more common in recent years. If they mess up this pick, they're screwed.
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"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People," Thomas' statement read. "This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government."
"Because I believe this," the statement continued, "today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."
How could it not be about politics when his stated reason for not going is political?
According to the Bruins 2011-12 Media Guide.
Tim Thomas
Person you would most like to have dinner with: Glenn Beck
That says it all right there.
Ouch. But I wouldn't be surprised if NHLers on average are significantly less liberal than the average Westerners.
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the archives section goes back very very very far in time. look again.
yeah, I know, but it can be difficult to find specific trades. I don't know if the threads are titled Philadelphia or Philly or Flyers or which team Stealth was with at the time, etc.. But anyway, I managed to find a few of my favourites.
The one that took me from endless rebuilder to a team trying to make the playoffs:
To Dallas:
Simon Gagne 91-89-88 Con:84
To Philadelphia:
Jack Skille 82-84-80 con:84
Jere Lehtinen 81-83-81 Con:91
Poti 79-82-81 Con:81
DAL 1st 09
Which was quickly followed by getting Price.
The five-way trade looked like this:
To Detroit: Roberto Luongo (98/97/93 CON 85), Brenden Morrow (81/80/77 CON 77) + Robert Goepfert (70/70/69 CON 70)
To Phoenix: Riku Helenius (91 POT, 76 CON), Nikolai Khabibulin (95/91/88 CON 85) + Patrick O'Sullivan (75/68/73 CON 81)
To Calgary: Kyle Wellwood (78/63/75 CON 81)
To Philadelphia: Miika Kiprusoff (97/97/90 CON 87), Brad Stuart (78/88/82 CON 83) + Matt Stajan (74/71/74 CON 74)
To Atlanta: Jonathan Bernier (84/77/80 CON 82), Jiri Hudler (86/61/76 CON 76), Daymond Langkow (81/75/77 CON 81), Karl-Heinz Thoms (65/76/72 CON 75) + Dal 1st 09
The only blockbuster I found between me and Stealth was when I traded him Pitkanen:
To Flyers:Jim Carney -$280k (52-76-73) Con 89
Michael Blunden -$450k (80-77-74) Con 73
Trent Hunter -$1.8 mill (76-75-79) Con 81
New York's 2008 1st
Montreal's 2009 1st
To Canucks:
Joni Pitkanen -$2.5 mill (78-96-84) Con 85
Todd Harvey -$900k (64-79-70) Con 66
Rob Niedermayer -$1 mill (71-75-73) Con 72
Mark Rycroft -$1.9 mill (67-72-72) Con 66
And then one of my final trades was splitting Legrand into three:
To Buffalo:Alexandre Legrand
Aatu Meronen
Vaclav Nedorost
To Philly:
Nikita Filatov
Michael Grabner
Michael Reiner
The Forsberg, Smyth, and Bertuzzi additions were exciting but that team never wound up going anywhere.
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A lot of HWL threads have been deleted, right? I'm trying to find my old blockbuster trades with Captain Stealth but I can't find them...
I don't remember any of my trades, only that I made a thousand blockbusters, mostly with Stealth, Maca, Stream and KoZed, and that I made a thousand boring trades with Brian.
I believe there was also once an epic 5-way trade involving Brian, I think I traded him Kiprusoff and I got somebody really good from Atlanta. (Or maybe I traded Brian a younger goalie for Kipper, and the reward for doing so was the young player from Atlanta.)
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By any chance are there any battle rap fans in here? It's been growing very quickly, I think KOTD has real potential to become a new WWE.
The newest event was shot on the famous RED camera and the footage has become increasingly professional when you consider how far they've come in like 3 years. The new trailer they released tonight is incredible.
And yes, that's Raekwon the Chef, co-hosting the event. Harley from Epic Meal Time also co-hosted. Classified was there too as a guest judge.
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The Betts thing I can agree on but the apologies being made for Gauthier are ridiculous...Markov's signing is fully on Gauthier. The argument he depends on the doctors advice and its a doctors fault is simply an apologists excuse. No one expects him to have a doctors degree...he certainly should have known to exhaust multiple opinions on a player with a injury like this, especially before giving out millions of dollars to him. As for an insured salary...well, the organization pays a lot in premiums for this stuff and they're surely paying a lot more now because of this.
There's nothing wrong with being an apologist for something you believe in.
We have no reason to believe that Gauthier didn't get multiple opinions on Markov's health. We have no reason to assume that he was in any way more ignorant of Markov's condition than he should (as in could) have been. Recovery time is never foreseen with total accuracy, doctors are always dealing with probabilities. Suppose the doctors said a player in this state, recovering from this injury, after this much recovery time, etc, etc, will have a 85% chance of being ready to play NHL hockey by November if he follows X workout regimen. In this situation, signing Markov long term and (merely) bringing in Campoli to QB the PP until that time seems reasonable. There is a 85% chance that it will pay off. Of course, if that which has a 15% probability happens, we'll undoubtedly have people that claim the result was inevitable and that Gauthier should have seen it coming.
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Well, he might have scored...on Crescent Street.
lol You really think Scott Gomez is hanging out on Crescent street? What's he doing there, Brutopia trivia night?
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The trading of Cammalleri was also suspect. Again good return based on Cammalleri's play this season, and this season only... but just the timing of it, all wrong.
Also if forced to fire Martin, then fine, fire him... but don't apologize to the media for hiring the guy.
His no speaking to the media except for rare occassions stance also hurts him, and the club, as they allow narratives to spin out of control without quashing them early like Gainey did with Brisebois and Koivu.
Again, I like the hockey moves he's making, but the management game seems off.
I agree with this. But even Gainey was pretty unpopular for his final two or three years as GM.
Huh? Gainey made few bad decisions IMO...Gauthier has been brutal and frankly is one of the most overrated executives in the game. He was awful before coming here and has been awful since arriving. The trades have been ridiculous and listless. The signings brutal. The PR brutal. The lack of leadership is beyond bad. WHAT has he done well???
Him aside the Habs long term problem remains prospect development...they draft well and, aside from blue chip prospects, they have no player development plan. I don't blame Gauthier alone for this since it's been happening for 2 decades.
The 2nd long term issue is media influence over personnel decisions...another decades long problem that real leadership can resolve...
The organization is broken. Rebuild it all.
You're exaggerating.
His trades:
2nd for Dominic Moore
2nd for Wisniewski
Spacek for Kaberle
Halak for Eller+
D'Agostini for Palushaj
Maxwell + 4th for Sopel and Dawes
O'Byrne for whatever pick we got for him
Lapierre for a 5th
Russell for Blunden
All of these are either great moves, good moves, or moves so small that they don't make much difference either way (the final five I listed).
The Cammalleri trade was a good move for the organization, it's just disappointing because we have the feeling that he could have been worth more at the deadline.
The Sergei Kostitsyn trade looks bad in hindsight but I remember it being popular at the time. Kostitsyn demanded a trade many times, openly had problems with the coach, was supposedly a cancer in the dressing room,and looked like a marginal NHLer on the ice. Most of us were happy to get rid of him, and I personally don't even regret the move.
As for signings:
He finally brought in Emelin. Brought Diaz too.
Markov signing.
Gorges re-signing.
Gill re-signing.
Cole signing.
Boyd signing.
Campoli signing.
Nokelainen signing.
Budaj signing.
I support every one of these moves without resorting to hindsight (like Campoli getting seriously injured). They all made and make sense to me. The Markov one was risky, but again, the majority supported that move at the time it was made. Gauthier did not inspect Markov personally, he can, like every other GM, only base his decisions on the medical reports he's given, all of which said Markov would be back months ago. That isn't to say that it's the doctors' faults, just that Gauthier had no reason to expect a setback in Markov's recovery. He could have been more cautious but it certainly wasn't an obviously bad move, and still isn't.
As for drafting, it's too early to tell. At the present time, there doesn't seem to be any major problems with the drafting since he became GM.
What has he done well? Make sensible move after sensible move given the information available at the time. He hasn't been good at PR but no GM or coach would be in Montreal when the team is losing. For all the talk of him caving in to fan and media pressure, this is the guy that traded Halak when he was the hero of the city.
edit - as for Gainey, I supported all his moves until he fired Carbonneau. After that, he went a bit crazy. Maybe the Martin firing was that point for Gauthier but I really suspect he was forced to fire Martin against his wishes.
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I'll start off by saying I kind of like her, it's crazy how she came up out of nowhere so quickly. I don't want to make judgements because she only has a handful of songs right now.
But she was all kinds of awful on SNL last week. Flat, emotionless. Just awful to watch.
I didn't like her performance either, nor do I like any other songs by her. But I really like Video Games (not live).
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I agree 100%; I see huge differences between the Gainey and Gauthier regimes.
Under Gainey there was a plan, there was definite direction in where he wanted this team to go, and what moves he was gonna make to get it there. There was little to no panic moves. There was little to no caving to media and fan pressure. When the media criticized Koivu, he came out and said "Koivu is a champion, he does everything like a Champion, he plays like a Champion, he practices like a Champion, he even eats breakfast like a Champion." Then we had the brisebois situation where he critiqued the fans for booing him. However despite this plan, the execution was a problem, there were many questionable hockey moves as far as trade value went, such as Ribeiro, Gomez trades or FA signings such as Samsonov.
Under Gauthier, I see a lot of trades and moves which if taken in a vacuum show the team getting good value in return for the assets given up. That part of the operation has improved. But there is no plan, no direction, a ton of panic moves, and caving to media and fan pressures.
Each guy had problems, but they are not the same problems.
That said, Gauthier needs to go.
I support 100% of Gauthier moves besides coach hiring and firings, decisions that I believe Molson imposed on him. It's mainly those coaching decisions that make people suspect he has no plan. Subtract firing Martin and Gauthier has been a better GM than Gainey was.
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Out of curiosity, are you Nikon lovers using your cameras for photography or videos? The Canon users I know do it use their cameras primarily for video.
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Didn't realize it was me that made this thread.
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I called it. By the end of the season Price will be firmly wedged under the front tires of the bus.
The goalie always gets blamed when the team loses. His track record only buys him so much time.
This is because the most popular goalie stats are really team stats and so good goalies on bad teams inevitably have lower stats than average goalies on good teams. Amazingly, this fact has evaded the public consciousness so that even professional opinions on goalies fluctuate dramatically from month to month based on perception and only partly relevant statistics.
The moment the team becomes a contender again, Price, with the same level of play, would have better stats and be hailed as an elite goalie again, although this will probably come alongside rumours that he is a terribly inconsistent player alternating between hot and cold years.
Before the Cammy trade 7 of our 11 forwards being dressed were over 6 foot. Now we have 8 of 11.
Price's stats don't come close to telling the whole story of the season. Put an average NHL starter in our net instead of Price, and we're probably in a battle with Columbus for last.
Sounds tempting.
Yes it was true in 2009.
However its not true today.
The emergence of Pacioretty.
The signing of Cole
The trade for Eller.
The fact that one of Gomez or Gionta has been hurt for most of the season.
Its no longer true.
It started as a stereotype in 2009, but an analyst isn't doing his job if he looks at the current forward group and calls it small. Especially on the wings.
It actually started as a stereotype at least a decade ago. It was probably true for most of that time but it definitely isn't true anymore. I bet that even if Gionta was traded for Dustin Brown, the Habs would still be looked at as a small or at best average sized team.
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I don't like the way the Gazette writers bash Gauthier for not talking to the press enough. The motive behind the hatred is too transparent. It would be like if we made constant threads about how terrible management is for not regularly answering questions brought up on message boards.
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I'm looking into buying a DSLR in the near future and wondered if anyone here had any experience or knowledge of the market. I'm looking for a 'beginner' camera, but one that's got plenty of room for improvement. My research has so far left me looking at either the Nikon 5100 or the Nikon 7000. I don't know much about Canon's, but everywhere I go, the consensus seems to be that Nikon's are better. That's published by people I don't know. I'd prefer to hear what people I know have to say about the cameras they use.
What are you using it for?
I've never used a Nikon... Everybody I know uses Canon and there seems to a widespread feeling that Canon > Nikon, probably mostly based on attachment to the brand and that's it. They're more expensive but the Canon 7D and 5D are good enough to shoot professional quality. If you're looking for something cheaper and all you aren't shooting any feature movies or anything then the Canon Rebel is probably good enough for you. There's a few different kinds of Rebels, I think the t3i is the most recent.
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We need Quebec back so that they can do the whole french thing
pretty much.
Absolutely... Pierre Boivin was the marketing guru and president of the team up until this year.
I think the Habs miss him massively.
There is a direct correlation from when he left the team to when the relationship between the team and media fell off a cliff.
Yes, they need Boivin back. Then they need to hire Anglophone coaches and GMs. Then they need to ignore protesters and wait for the controversy to pass.
Offensive Tattoo Question
in The Lounge
Posted
Never heard of this before.