smon

You know, neither are that hot, but Markov's one is definitely hotter than Ovechkin's..kinda surprising eh Great, so you're into that stuff? Now that is just too much information. Man, some people...

Speaking of Gretzky...here's where Ulf Samuelsson knocks out his wife (no kidding) Guess there's no hard feelings, he's working with Phoenix now I believe

Well, the third line forward description might fit Scottie Upshall - but to dismiss Ryan Parent as just a minor league defenseman is not at all correct. Parent was drafted 18th overall in the 2005 draft and just turned pro this season.

Higgins is not a possibility at centre because he hasnt played there for several years...if faceoffs are a problem now, then it'll be even worse.

Like I posted, TSN.

Well, TSN has reported that Forsberg already rejected Dallas, Nashville, Detroit, San Jose, Pittsburgh and Calgary. The teams that he is considering are Philly, Colorado, Ottawa, Anahiem and Vancouver.

That's ridiculous and you know it. How exactly do the "numbers don't lie" as to Hamrlik's leadership?? There's no leadership numbers Souray was the assistant captain, was he not? Oh, but Hamrlik's leadership "numbers" are better? Anyhow - to each his own, but I thought Souray was a better leader and stuck up for his teammates - that's the intangibles I was referring to.

That's a pretty bold statement, I can't say I'd agree - I'd like it, but with Gainey I've gotten my hopes up before for no good reason.

I think you're right about that one. Hamrlik doesn't bring the intangibles that Souray had and he has not been as good as he was during the first part of the year. On the other hand, I loved that Souray was sticking up for his teammates, but he has a bum shoulder and getting into fights usually cost him time on the shelf. I think you're right in that Souray is not as missed because the team has done very well offensively without him, largely thanks to Markov picking up the slack as an offensive blueliner. Still, in the ideal world I would have liked the team to kept have both, but the way Gainey handled the situation was a bit bizarre. First- not trading him, second- screwing around with a lowball offer, and then third - a desperation throw the money at him offer.

Well, that's the nature of free agency, lots of players want to play in their hometowns and Souray was no exception. Can't really blame him for that. If it came down to dollars and cents, I think Montreal offered more.

Well, Ward is not Patrick Roy. But he's certainly more clutch than Huet. I do understand where the sentiment is coming from, Huet has done a good, but not great job at goalie. I would say his durability is really the big question for me as to whether he can put together a full season *knock on wood*. He's certainly provided good goaltending when required, but I don't think he's on the same level as the Brodeurs and Luongos of this league, since he has never really stood on his head for an entire playoffs run (who knows, maybe he will this year?). Still, Huet is easily in the top 10 goalies of the NHL.

Pierre...funny guy. "oh man, that Emelin...what a monster he's going to be. And the Canadiens already have a monster in Komisarek. Two monsters on the same defensive corps! Oh man" (just kidding)

^ Very true.

The thing about Holik is he's a UFA, so it doesn't really matter that much about his contract since it is expiring at the end of this season. I think the Devils will grab him, provided that Atlanta actually starts selling. Anyhow, I doubt the Hossa scenario - he'll be traded for a package similar to Smyth at last year's deadline.

Latendresse has raw talent, but I still think he needs at least 2 seasons to kick it into gear. Power forwards are notoriously hard to develop, and there's a lot of areas where he needs work. Still, he has a pretty good nose for the net for a third liner, which is why he's with the team, but I'd like to see him play a more physical game, and quite obviously skating is something he will work on.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Koivu's been having a terrible season, so I really don't know what the argument is about. Trading Koivu? Not going to happen. However, unlike some, I have faith that he will snap out of it sooner or later. I don't believe that he's washed up and over the hill either. Anyhow, those absurd statistics are all well and good, the real issue is actually the PIMS..I digress. The main issue that I feel most people have with Koivu haters is the sheer energy they devote to bashing him. It's unrealistic to expect a player to be superb game in and game out, every player goes through slumps, and it seems like all these guys were just waiting in the woodwork until he slumped. Koivu's sure having a hell of a one this season, but Kovalev did the same last year and bounced back, and I fail to see why some just don't/won't/can't believe that Koivu can do just that. It's fairly obvious everyone around the Canadiens feels the same way. He's 33, not 41. Have some faith. And if you can't, then fine, but it's all getting rather boring with the same threads constantly going about Koivu. No one knows why he's struggling this year (heck, he probably doesn't know) just like no one knows why his entire line is doing poorly, either. Maybe Carbonneau will shake that line up a bit.

The shooting percentage is kind of the problem though, it hardly proves that he can score 56 goals...no one can if they score on only 7.8% of their shots.

The Senators are in far worse shape, but Montreal needs to get secondary scoring going more from Higgins and Koivu. The Kovalev line will need support.

Well, the Canadiens just fell apart after that powerplay - I wouldn't blame the collapse on Koivu, but rather the the entire team. Koivu could certainly be blamed for the lazy penalty the one powerplay goal, but it's not like he caused the team to play so poorly. The team simply has to learn to regroup and not be so flustered after a single goal...

Gorges as a core player is just laughable to me. Here's what I would put it as from guys on the current roster or AHL (in terms of guys the team will be built around for the future): Forwards - Plekanec, Higgins, Latendresse, the Kostitsyns, Chipchura. Defense - Markov, Komisarek Goal - Price

That'd be ironic. Perreault's a real useful guy when it comes to faceoffs and generating some offense (even Don Cherry loves him), but his problem is he isn't really good enough to be a top-six forward, and teams don't like using one-dimensional offensive guys as their checking line centres. So, he doesn't really fit in anywhere.

Well Huet hasn't yet shown the durability of an elite goaltender - he's good though, no question. Should Montreal re-sign him? Hell yes, if there's any chance of contention next season and as has been pointed out earlier, if Gainey wasn't intending to re-sign him, why wouldn't Halak actually be playing? Seems to me like they toyed with the notion by playing Price at the earlier parts of the year, but it turned out that he couldn't handle that much of a workload right now/

Well, it kind of proved that the path Montreal chose was the right one. I wasn't a big fan of Gainey's modus operandi at the time - after who knows how he would have played this year for Montreal? But it worked out in the best way for the Canadiens with Hamrlik...and for Souray, he certainly hasn't delivered for Edmonton who had to have known they were taking a big chance on him - Souray's shoulder problems are well documented.

Well, realistically he is obviously not going to go to jail - chances are he may not be convicted, charges might be dropped if his son owns up to what he did, etc. His son's the real wackjob if you read the charges against him. Still, Lafleur should know better than to drive his 23 year old son to hook with up a 16 yr old at a hotel when there is some kind of court order against it.

I'm no expert on the Blue Jackets, but there are several things that are obviously wrong For starters, Smolinski's contract is expiring at the end of this season and his talent level is nowhere near Fedorov's - why wouldn't they just keep Fedorov for the remainder of his deal till the end of the year then? Next, Corvo is actually a useful offensive blueliner who is not in his late 30's. And, the Blue Jackets are all of 1 point out of the playoffs right now, so chances are they keep Fedorov.