Jeff Price (no relation)

He doesn't need to "push someone off a top line," He's already on one of their two indistiguishably talented second lines. The habs don't have a defined 1-2-3-4 line set up. They have a 1-2-2-4 line setup.

He's not really fourth line. Moen-Prust-Weiss is fourth line. Briere is for the second powerplay unit and one of our two second lines. Seriously... with Gallagher, Galchenyuk, Plekanec, Briere, Gionta, and Eller, we really can't say which one is the second line and which is the third. They're all decent second-line players. (Patches, Vanek and Desharnais have finally managed to separate themselves from the pack, making them clearly the #1 line). Heck, I still can't figure out where Bournival, Bourque, and White fit in. So much depth...

With the exception of the statement I quoted, I agree with you. Bouillon - I sortof agree. He's not a liability on the ice, however, and he plays tough. If you can get him cheaply enough, he's worth it for depth. At 1.5 million, we're overpaying. Next year, he'll get the league minimum, and at 700,000, he's a great spare D-man. Thing is, we have a bunch of kids that need ice time to develop. Bouillon has become redundant. Briere is not doing badly, and we didn't even sign him for the regular season. We signed him for what he's going to start doing 4 games from now. For what we're paying, he's a bargain.

I'd love to see Muller behind the Habs bench again. Honestly, I also thought Carbonneau was a damn fine coach. Gainey couldn't very well fire himself, though. Every coach has a shelf life. Some day St. Patrick will get fired from Colorado. I'd love to see him come back home.

I'm not a huge fan of Gionta, though he's got heart and skill, we're paying too much for what we're getting. However, it's not Gionta's size that concerns me. I'd certainly be in favor of dumping his salary if it meant we could re-sign a guy like Vanek.

More than three would not have been consistent with any of the other suspensions handed out this year, as the hit wasn't as bad as most other suspendable hits. With that said, I think three games is about right here, but... the hit wasn't nearly as dirty as one a couple years ago from a certain 6'9" Slovak defenseman who plays for Boston when he intentionally grabbed the back of Pacioretty's head and skated him full speed into a stanchion, and got no suspension out of it. Murray's hit was simply the result of a big, slow d-man being caught flatfooted and trying to make himself bigger with his elbows. It was a "Hockey play." Chara's hit and everything that came with it was completely intentional. If you watch the replay in slow motion, there was nothing accidental about any of it.

I disagree with this entire idea. No change in size is required. The habs are a really big team. You don't rate a team's size by the average size of its players. You rate a team's size by the average size of the biggest guy on the ice at any given time. Patches and Vanek are both big power forwards, and they play even bigger than they are. Desharnais might be small, but he's playing with them. That makes that line HUGE. Likewise, Gallagher and Gionta play bigger than they are, and they're on a team with Galchenyuk and Lars Eller (big guys)...and a bunch of big roleplayers. Even Plekanec is average sized, and nobody complains about that. Then there is their towering defense... seriously, when Bouillon is your smallest D-Man (and for all his 5'8" diminutive height, the little man is 200 lbs, making him more solid than most players 4 inches taller than he is)... you're in good shape. Heck, before the Weaver trade, Bouillon was the ONLY guy under 6' tall on the blueline. They're all giants. Okay, so they're not Zdeno Chara, but they're all between 6' and 6-6, 200 - 245 lbs.

This is actually remarkable to me. The Habs special teams are their strong point, and Tampa dominated there. The Habs 5-on-5 haven't been so great, but Montreal held the advantage there. I'm really thinking this is gonna be a great playoff series.

Sucked? Roy won the vezina in 1992. And 1990. And 1989. (all before 1993). He won the Conn Smythe for his Stanley Cup winning runs in 1986 and 1993 (as well as 2001 in Colorado). He won the Willam M. Jennings trophy in 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1992. He took the Habs to their second Stanley Cup appearance in 3 years in 1989 (but lost to Calgary.) The Legend of Roy was alive and well before 1993. He just confirmed it in 1993. Now, he did suck in 1993. Right up until playoff time...when he once again became a god between the pipes.

Not to mention, the Bolts cannot count on getting all the bogus penalty calls going their way most games. (Now, with that said, they did just as well on Montreal's power plays. )

Maybe. Patrick Roy practically invented the modern "butterfly style. " It only makes sense that the goalie coaches trying to emulate his success would improve upon it. With that said... Roy was still playing in 2002. Roy was certainly not a better goaltender in 2002 than he was in 1992, but he sure put up better numbers.

I don't know. Regular-season Briere today looks every bit as good as Regular-season Briere of 2012, he hasn't lost a step. He's not old. 33-36 is pretty much the high point/pinnacle of most players careers. 37 usually starts their decline.

It was a different era. You had the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, Jaromir Jagr in the primes of their careers. If you didn't have over 100 points in a season, you might not crack the top 10 for scoring. Roy won a Vezina trophy with a 2.62 goals against average and a .904 save percentage, which would have you in the AHL today. That's not because the goaltending wasn't as good. It's because of a combination of less defensive "systems" and more offensive star players.

Well, many of us were fans from 1986 through 1995 and got to see Patrick Roy at his best. Shots high - glove side were in his glove. Nearly a decade of Patrick Roy sours people on all who come after. That may not be fair, but we've been waiting for the second coming of St. Patrick for a while. Price was seen as having that potential. We may have overestimated him, but he's still a top-tier NHL goaltender.

If Montreal doesn't play better against Tampa than they did in their remarkable 4-1 win over Florida the other night, Bishop won't need any more than a .900 save percentage to win. The Panthers outshot Montreal 37-19. Carey's good, but he's not going to stop 36 of 37 shots every game. That said, I think Montreal's got a good chance to beat Tampa in this series. Montreal has far more depth - even offensively, which has been Montreal's achilles heel this year.

As a Habs fan living close to Toronto, I would love it if they stopped this regional crap and showed every game in every region on different channels. There are enough Habs fans in Toronto area to get big viewership here, every game.

First post! Okay, okay. I know, a lot of people didn't like Briere's $4 million a year, 2 year contract. I can't say I've always been positive about it either. Four million for 25 points in 63 games seems like overpaying to most of us, and I'd agree. However, I don't believe Marc Bergevin signed Briere for his regular season heroics. In fact, the Habs generally have not had trouble getting into the playoffs over the last twenty years - they just haven't gone very far once they got there. Briere is one player who can help change that. Let's look at his numbers, historically, in seasons where he's made the playoffs. 2012 - Only 49 points with the flyers in the regular season, but 7 goals and 13 points in 11 playoff games. 2011 - a decent 68 points in the regular season, but 7 goals and 9 points in 11 playoff games. 2010 - just 53 points in the regular season, but a stunning 12 goals and 30 points in 23 playoff games. The trend continues no matter how far back you go in his career. In fact, over Briere's 108 playoff games career, he's gotten 50 goals and 59 assists. He's over a point-per-game in the playoffs, and that has included when he was with Buffalo (having managed 34 points in 34 playoff games there.) Only once has he ever managed a point per game or more during the regular season, and that was way back in 2007 with Buffalo. Briere's a playoff machine, that is where he shines. He comes to Montreal and is on one of the lowest scoring teams in the NHL, with very little offensive talent, so his regular season numbers took yet another dive. I'm not worried about those. If Briere's pattern holds true, when the playoffs begin, expect Briere to be another dominant force on the ice. How much more dangerous does Montreal become this year if Briere is suddenly just as dangerous a threat to score as Vanek and Pacioretty?