Mont Royale

The number of times they hung Vezina out to dry was ridiculous.. 😀

Gainey's press conference But it's also plain Gainey believes his group no longer has any excuses to underperform. "We've got a number of players who have been a little below their potential this year for different reasons, this is their time to prove me right … and for the coaches to take the players that they have and squeeze as much or more out of this team than we've seen to this point," he said. It was an unusual shot across the coaching staff's bow from Gainey, who has a close relationship with head coach Guy Carbonneau and his assistants. --------------------- That, to me, was the most interesting comment from Gainey's press conference.

I'll remember not to count on the Fan 590 for cap information again! But good point on Janik to Hamilton... I suppose the roster spot will be filled by a returning injured guy.

On the radio, they said that Janik and Begin make pretty close to the same amount. This appears to be a courtesy move by Gainey to send Begin where he'll see some ice time.

It's strange, but it can't be surprising. Sometimes people develop an irrational hate for a player, and Koivu seems to be a lightning rod for this because of the 'C'. Hell, someone recently criticized Koivu for going to the front of the net!

Kovalev looks like he should be a great shootout player, but his career record is nothing special. Koivu would have been a better choice for the #2 shot, but that's hindsight.

The teams plays the best game in virtually a month, and only "lose" in the coin-flip known as the shootout, and Gainey's decision backfired? I think BCHabnut is right - you mustn't have watched the game.

That belongs in the creative writing thread, PMK.

Maybe I'm just naive in taking Bob at face value, but I really doubt this is a prelude to a trade. There's better ways of sending other GMs a message that Kovalev is available - I'm thinking e-mail or telephone! I think whatever trade value Kovalev once had is now diminished after Gainey's move, as it means the team is better off without him at this point. Not a good message to send if you're trying to maximize returning asset value. I think this is strictly a wake up call to both Kovalev and the rest of the team: passengers will not be tolerated.

I'm pretty sure their contracts do not restrict their right to party. If they did, the NHLPA would hire the Beastie Boys to rally the players to forcefully object to that clause.

Don't worry. Montreal is the cure for all struggling teams lately.

For some reason, I had visions of them doing some trust exercises, falling backwards into each others' arms. Bowling was probably the better choice.

According to CBC, Halak was supposed to start, but was sick.

That's the conventional wisdom, but these are unconventional times. It will be interesting to see what the salary cap will be next year, and even more signficantly, what team's budgets will be compared to this year. The salary cap may not fall much, and might even increase a bit, as it'll be based on this year's revenues, whereas teams will be setting their budget based on their anticipated revenue, so fewer teams may be willing to spend to the cap max. That's not to say there won't be healthy interest in Komisarek, but the astronomical numbers that we've seen in the past may not materialize. If I'm reading his comments right, Gainey is a guy who has absolutely no problem with paying a player a big salary - he's not solely motivated to get someone as cheap as possible. He'll pay a big price if he believes it's fair, and he'll be most comfortable offering a fair price when he has the most information. That's why he likes to negotiate after the season is over, when he's seen the player's performance in its totality. Gainey is unconcerned about impending free agency: if a player is happy and wants to stay, there's lots of time to get a deal done if the team wants him. If a player is bent on testing the market, it's likely he made that decision well in advance.

Completely agreed.

It's just his turn. Wilson has been giving a lot of different players a view from above this season, including more experienced guys like Blake and Stajan (earlier this season). This year is all about changing the culture, showing the team who is boss, instilling accountability... worthwhile preoccupations while awaiting Burke to ship everyone out. I wonder who will get benched after the Buffalo disaster... so many choices.

I wouldn't trade either Markov or Komisarek, but I wanted to address this particular argument. I've heard variations of this before, but there is no logic to it. In Markov, we're talking about a true #1 defenceman who is excellent at both ends of the ice - a rare commodity. He's 30 years old and in his 8th NHL season. The fact that he was a 6th round pick became irrelevant in determining his value a long time ago.

According to this, our friend Justin Williams may be an example of a 'best-case scenario': Link Team sources expressed fears on Sunday that Lang may not be back this season, although the Carolina Hurricanes' Justin Williams suffered a similar injury in mid-September and was back on the ice in early December. Were Lang to make a similar recovery, he could return to action in the second round of the playoffs. Assuming his team makes it that far.

It's absurd to think that Koivu's return from injury totally derailed the team. The losing streak began before he came back, albeit it was one game. Looking back, he got hurt in Tampa, but that somehow failed to spark the team to victory in that game, and they lost the next 2 as well. He was in the lineup for a 5 game winning streak in October. Hell, Detroit was bad for a stretch last season. Sometimes winning or losing streaks happen, and it's not because of any one player. This is what I mean by overemphasing the captain. There's a long list of guys who haven't played well in this stretch. If there is a business decision made to let Koivu go in the off-season, so be it, but I don't think it will be done because somebody is bored with him.

I think the captaincy is given too much emphasis. It's a lot more important to fans and the media than it is to the players. Leadership can come from anyone in the room. And to me, Kovalev's play while having a 'C' on his sweater is indistinguishable from those games where he had an 'A'.

Every Sunday, whether I need it or not. Morning.

Kaberle has a no trade clause. I think he would enthusiastically waive it to go to Montreal, but wouldn't be likely to waive it again to end up in Tampa Bay. We could circle back to the Markov (plus someone else) for Lecavalier rumours, and assume that Kaberle would be Markov's intended replacement. Speculation is fun.

That's easy to say (or not say, in your case), but moving Koivu out won't bring us a big #1. Colin is right - Plekanec has more value around the league (being younger, cheaper and perhaps further presumed upside) and would be the obvious choice as one of the pieces in a deal. If, somehow, we can get the big #1 as a UFA, I would still keep Koivu over Plekanec (if necessary; it may be possible to keep them both). Loyalty counts for something in the league, and besides, it would be worth keeping Koivu based on their comparative playoff performances alone.

Whatever you're on, I want some! But seriously, you're right on a number of your points, and a player could definitely live well on $2.5 million for 10 years.... but really, you're surprised nobody does this? $50 million extra to cover the hard feelings for being slammed as overpaid goes a long way. And, the money is part of the measuring stick all players use. They use it to gauge performance and relative worth; it's a source of pride. Some amount of 'home town discount' is tolerated, but if you give it away for much less than market, you're going to see more criticism from players than accolades from fans. Even a lot of fans would think a player isn't very smart for accepting less than he's worth. As for the millions just getting redundant, there are all kinds of things to spend money on, and I'm sure most players want as much as they can for that purpose during their lengthy retirement. Even if a player is massively charitably inclined, I doubt that a billionaire team owner is his charity of choice...