Colin Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 A few players were missed: Koivu, Kovalev, Savard in particular - even if Savard only played here a short while. And coach Burns was sorely missed. Hopefully he's doing well fighting the big C. Not sure how Saku hate has managed to continue, had he stepped on the ice, there would have been deafening 'Saku' chants for a while - anyone remember his remarkable comeback from cancer? no? short-term memories? only want to remember what you want? And no matter how irritating he was, Kovalev had every right to be there as the most purely talented player in a Montreal uni since Lafleur - plus, no doubt, he was a fan favourite...okay, still is. I was exceedingly disappointed that a few complete wastes of life managed to boo Bob Gainey during his announcement... for a 100-year ceremony... for a team for whom he played and gave his blood. I just don't get some people: can't see past the end of their noses. If you can't separate what the man did for the Habs as a player from your opinions of how he's running the team now? STFU. Feel free to give your ticket to someone with a little more class than a soiled piece of toilet paper. As to the game: awaiting some of the Price-haters to start slowly roasting their crow. I believe someone mentioned that, if he started putting together great performances 10 in a row, they might change their mind. He's more than kept them in it in his last 10. I'll supply the briquettes. I'm going to say something next which may be dangerous, and yet I feel needs to be said: MaxPax reminds me eerily of John Leclair - except Max can skate. Give him a little more time rounding out his game and, I think, look out. I'm about 95% sure that first goal was actually his on the deflection in front of the net. First game in a while that Metro and Moen didn't make me lose hair. Also the first game in a while that passes were slightly more than crisp, and the reception of said passes was actually good. Confidence is a fickle bed buddy. Oh, and does anyone else feel they ought to start either freezing the pucks or at least get the damned rink in better shape? This is Montreal: that ice was embarassing. Loved Bergeron as a winger. Plex has lost his confidence. Worst game for Andrei in a while, and he was still okay - that augers well enough. My Habs heroes since I started watching this crazy bunch: Lafleur, Naslund, Roy, Koivu. I jumped when I saw Mats. Lafleur - he still looks fast on skates. And Roy? Still the most bitter day in my hockey watching life when he was traded. I think part of this victory goes to him and his dagger eye. All we needed was for him to wink when Carey made a brilliant save. You know, I get pretty fed up with hockey these days for a lot of reasons, but watching a night like that, from the ceremonies to the history and the tradition and the memories - and then a dominating performance? Well, I know I have the CH tatooed on my heart. That was one scintillating evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I wonder why some guys put on the blades, and others did not? Was it their option? And was the invite extended to every ex-habs? Where was Jocelyn Thibault? lol Yeah, and Kovalenko? Ruscinsky? Marius Czerkawski??? WHERE?? One guy who did nothing for me was Stephane Lebeau :puke: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCHabnut Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 the little viking looks like he's got a few more seasons in him! he looked great. hey cammy is 12th in the league in goals. it's been a while since i could say that after 29 games. i think Kovy might have been in 07 for a while, but other than that??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafikz Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 WHere was Denis Savard? The legends suiting up was amazing. Seeing Roy's iconic mask on his head one last time was great. He was there What was funny, if you were watching CBC, is Roy being interviwed by Ron near the Habs bench, he said he wanted to stay on the ice to play. Then Ron started interviewing Dryden, who went blablabla (just kidding, I like Kenny a lot), then the Bruins steppd on the ice. You should have seen Roy looking at the B's, man he looked like he wanted to beat them down one by one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saskhab Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I thought the interview with Gill in between periods was hilarious: Friedman: You talk to any of the legends before the game and get inspiration? Gill: Yeah, I talked with Nile. He's a Boston boy, just like me. All those legends around and you just talked with Chris Nilan? The boys showed something tonight. I don't think Thomas' hand injury is fully recovered with all those missed covering attempts, but the boys really looked like a team out there. Hope Sergei is okay... the coach seemed to finally be liking the kid, putting him out there to kill 5 on 3s, playing him with Gomez, etc. Price was outstanding. As for CC, I'm disappointed in your view of Bouchard. The guy was a 4 time 1st All-Star team guy. That's not even close to what Saku was. Saku made All-Star teams... as the 3rd or 4th centre on the Eastern/European squads. Butch was a first pair guy for the entire league 4 times. He's like Chris Pronger in today's terms. Politics didn't have anything to do with Emile getting his number retired today... but politics did have something to do with the greatest Saskhab of all time, Elmer Lach, not having his name up there when Henri went up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCPetit Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 (edited) Habs win 5-1 with a Cammalleri hat trick and we all feel fuzzy and warm . . . Did you really wrote this yesterday morning? First of all, a first team All-Star is a lot different than an All-Star. Secondly, if Koivu had the exact same numbers and had won a couple cups as captain, then yes he probably would and should have his jersey number retired. There were two teams at that time if my memory is good. Being in the first was the supreme honor. Now retiring Butch Bouchard (90 yrs old) and Elmer Lach (91 yrs old) numbers. #3 and #16. How long is that for a wait... Wow. Look how happy those two men look. I caddied once for Elmer Lach in the 60s. Very quiet man. Did not talk, either to me or his partners during the whole game. Was a good tipper if my memory is good. It's funny, but he hasn't changed much in all those years. Great game by Cammy. He made up for his subpar play against the Sabres. Obviously he was inspired by the celebrations and the history surrounding this very special game. IMO, the score would have been a lot closer if it had not been for Price. I was hoping for a good night from him and he delivered beyond my expectations. The kid is slowly developing as a bonafide all-star goalie. Let's hope that he will keep on working on his game and remain focused. So far I am very pleased with his progression this season. Another player who deserves a lot of credit in this game is Hal Gill. I was among the minority of fans who like him, but, really, tonight he was outstanding. He really made a difference when he was on the ice and I hope that those who were critical of his play will recognize that the team missed him enormously while he was injured. Finally, just a word about the ceremonies: unforgettable! Edited December 5, 2009 by Fanpuck33 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCHabnut Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Did you really wrote this yesterday morning? ya that's amazing I caddied once for Elmer Lach in the 60s. Very quiet man. Did not talk, either to me or his partners during the whole game. Was a good tipper if my memory is good. It's funny, but he hasn't changed much in all those years. wow. that's cool. did you get his autograph? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCHabnut Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 did you see in the ceremony robinson is in tears laughing and Pointu is nudging him and saying something? probably remembering some prank that guy pulled or making fun of someone. it's on tsn too in one of the videos. classic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cataclaw Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Habs win 5-1 with a Cammalleri hat trick and we all feel fuzzy and warm . . . Uh... wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLP Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Un-fuggin'-believable -- missed the game but saw it did go 5-1 with the Cammi hat trick -- who'd have thought such a wild prediction would play out, and I am pretty sure we all feel fuzzy and warm too hehehe . . . Anyway delighted the team pulled of a good win on this auspicious day, for others who missed it there are are some good highlights of the ceremony at the Habs website but seems the servers are overloaded it won't stream properly for me. Any other online place with the ceremony and game? (update) Streaming better now, wow!! Must-see for Habs fans!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easy Ryder Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 He was there What was funny, if you were watching CBC, is Roy being interviwed by Ron near the Habs bench, he said he wanted to stay on the ice to play. Then Ron started interviewing Dryden, who went blablabla (just kidding, I like Kenny a lot), then the Bruins steppd on the ice. You should have seen Roy looking at the B's, man he looked like he wanted to beat them down one by one A 1-1 talk with Roy and Carey may have happened too. I know Roy style taking Carey in a corner and giving him his thoughts. Hey you play very good but you can be great with more aggressiveness and dives. Did you see how Carey was tough ? not only good, but tough for miracles pad saves. Even for the hat trick my 1st was to Carey for that 5-3 PP. Special note to Hal Gill, he's been missed, O'byne 20 and finally Gomez. If fan want Cammelleri and Gionta to score they need passes from Gomez and or Sergei K. This is our offense. For the celebration, the 3 can finally go to heaven RIP. RESPECT. HE broke the french neg*r barrier and captained the team to rough time until came Maurice. to 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanpuck33 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 He [Denis Savard] was there I'm pretty sure the only Savard there was Serge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wamsley01 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Yeah, and Kovalenko? Ruscinsky? Marius Czerkawski??? WHERE?? One guy who did nothing for me was Stephane Lebeau :puke: I am sure you didn't mind Lebeau when he slid the 3rd goal past Kelly Hrudey on June 9, 1993 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCPetit Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I am sure you didn't mind Lebeau when he slid the 3rd goal past Kelly Hrudey on June 9, 1993 Lebeau played a big role. He had an 80 points season that year and scored some very important goals. Another guy who was not there was Paul DiPietro. I remember two goals he scored against Hextall while we played the Nordiques. He was very good in that serie and if it had not been for him, I don't think we would have gone further to win the Stanley Cup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCPetit Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 (edited) ya that's amazing wow. that's cool. did you get his autograph? No. I should have, but then again I probably would have lost it. Imagine, I had autographed pictures of Beliveau and J.C. Tremblay and I lost them! Talking about Lach, he had been retired for at least 10 years when he played golf in Arvida, at the Saguenay Country Club, the day I caddied for him. I have caddied for a lot of guys when I was young, and I have played hundreds of games, but when I think about it I can't recall a more quiet guy than Elmer Lach. I guess that he was the kind of man you were glad to have as your centre in a pressure packed game. Edited December 5, 2009 by JCPetit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCPetit Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 (edited) did you see in the ceremony robinson is in tears laughing and Pointu is nudging him and saying something? probably remembering some prank that guy pulled or making fun of someone. it's on tsn too in one of the videos. classic! I saw that. Great moment indeed. After the game, Pierre Bouchard said that all the players were checking Pointu, wondering what kind of pranks he was preparing. Hilarious! Guy Lapointe was part of the Big Three, but he was also an all-Star player. IMO, he would have been the 1st defenseman in most of the NHL teams in his best years. I really think that his jersey should be up there too. Edited December 5, 2009 by JCPetit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForumGhost Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Great game. Watching the Cammy interview between periods convinced me this guy is captain material. He seems to genuinely love being a habs. Gill was fantastic on that late 5-3. Props to Carey to on that kill. I dunno how many realized that both Chara AND Gill were standing directly in front of him. That's just a wall. Another standout was Pacioretty, one of his better games. Gomez also had a great game. Andrei is finally playing well, all he has to do is just shoot the puck whenever he has it. The team is finally coming together, if we can just stay in it for another month, we could have both Gionta and Markov back, giving us a real shot at the playoffs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan84 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 What a game a and what an great night to be a Habs fan. The Habs sure know how to throw a celebration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCPetit Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Great game. Watching the Cammy interview between periods convinced me this guy is captain material. He seems to genuinely love being a habs. Gill was fantastic on that late 5-3. Props to Carey to on that kill. I dunno how many realized that both Chara AND Gill were standing directly in front of him. That's just a wall. Another standout was Pacioretty, one of his better games. Gomez also had a great game. Andrei is finally playing well, all he has to do is just shoot the puck whenever he has it. The team is finally coming together, if we can just stay in it for another month, we could have both Gionta and Markov back, giving us a real shot at the playoffs. Exactly the way I have seen it all along. Hell! even Scotty Bowman thinks that this year team is better than last year's. He just thinks that we may be want a little too much too early of our young players. He may have a point. BTW, thanks guys. After all these years, I finally made it: I have become a "bantam"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeLassister Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Anyway delighted the team pulled of a good win on this auspicious day, for others who missed it there are are some good highlights of the ceremony at the Habs website but seems the servers are overloaded it won't stream properly for me. Any other online place with the ceremony and game? :bow: Missed it as well, at least I can have a few shots at it with these videos. Anyone got a video of Viggo ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I'm one of thelucky few! I managed to get my ticket for this game. I just hope the boys show up to compete. Even if they lose to the Bruins, all I ask is that they compete and make it close!! I'm actually quoting myself!! Well, my wish came true last night...and what a night it was! The ceremonies started later than expected. (around 6:15PM) They showed some videos and then all of a sudden, St-Patrick comes out on the ice with his equipment on, and starts skating around the ice. As you can all imagine, the crowd erupted when they saw our last true superstar on the ice with his gear on! And then one by one, all the greats (that are still alive) started to come out on the ice to a thundeous applause. I have to admit that at that point I had gosebumps! Then they retired Butch Bouchards and Elmer Lachs numbers and they took the team photo. I was skeptical before headin' to the game. I felt that these Centennial celebrations had dragged out for too long, but this last ceremony was just spectacular and was well worth it. I am really happy that I had the chance to be there! Our boys really showed up last night. they were forechecking with 2 and sometimes 3 guys in the opposing zone, which made it hard for the Bruins to get anything going! Carey was phenomenal and what else can I say about Cammalleri? They guy knows when to make his presence felt! If there is one move that Bob gainey made in the offseason that I must congratulate him on it is the acquisition of Cammalleri. Even guys like Gill were great, he was instrumental in killing of the 5 on 3's the Bruins got. An Overall great game and an even better evening. Everyone at the Bell Centre received an amazing book on the history of the Habs with all sorts of interesting info on the team and it's players. I thought that was nice of them. I just hope our boys can take the energy from this game, and focus it on the rest of the games this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habs rule Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I'm actually quoting myself!! Well, my wish came true last night...and what a night it was! The ceremonies started later than expected. (around 6:15PM) They showed some videos and then all of a sudden, St-Patrick comes out on the ice with his equipment on, and starts skating around the ice. As you can all imagine, the crowd erupted when they saw our last true superstar on the ice with his gear on! And then one by one, all the greats (that are still alive) started to come out on the ice to a thundeous applause. I have to admit that at that point I had gosebumps! Then they retired Butch Bouchards and Elmer Lachs numbers and they took the team photo. I was skeptical before headin' to the game. I felt that these Centennial celebrations had dragged out for too long, but this last ceremony was just spectacular and was well worth it. I am really happy that I had the chance to be there! Our boys really showed up last night. they were forechecking with 2 and sometimes 3 guys in the opposing zone, which made it hard for the Bruins to get anything going! Carey was phenomenal and what else can I say about Cammalleri? They guy knows when to make his presence felt! If there is one move that Bob gainey made in the offseason that I must congratulate him on it is the acquisition of Cammalleri. Even guys like Gill were great, he was instrumental in killing of the 5 on 3's the Bruins got. An Overall great game and an even better evening. Everyone at the Bell Centre received an amazing book on the history of the Habs with all sorts of interesting info on the team and it's players. I thought that was nice of them. I just hope our boys can take the energy from this game, and focus it on the rest of the games this season. You are one lucky guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 You are one lucky guy. I know!! This was one of the best nights(if not THE best) i've ever had at the Bell Centre! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackp Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 5-3.. what a joke... talk about weak ass bs... Seriously.. I don't think I can ever remember a minor scrum like that with two teams pushing that resulted in a 5-3... I know that they say home town fans always think the refs are screwing them but I've seen more weird calls against the Habs than any other team I root for. Want a couple of examples? 1 - How about a penalty shot against us *in overtime* in the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup playoff against Pittsburgh *in the "old" NHL.* 2 - Or how about Fraser's *bench minor* against us in the 3rd period of a close game, putting us 2 down against Carolina in a playoff game. BTW the minor was undeserved. Apparently a fan behind the Habs bench yelled the obscenity and not Therrien (at least according to Koivu). It just goes on and on. Weren't we penalized *6* minutes just the other day? I'm sure the NHL can justify these calls but I wonder why we never get them against the other team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackp Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 And coach Burns was sorely missed. Hopefully he's doing well fighting the big C. Sad to say, Colin, but I think he's dying. My wife looked it up last night and apparently the cancer came back for the 3rd time, this time in his lungs. He has stopped the treatments and said that he will live what he has left to the fullest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.