David Desharnais extended, 4 years, $3.5 mil cap hit

[Habsy]

Here's my weak attempt at being clever, BUT....Machine of LG? Couldn't we say that Houle's obsession with a big, strong, oversized team is exactly what many people are asking for today? Great reading by the way, you've both ruined my afternoon. I've tried to block out those years.

[Machine of Loving Grace]

Totally agree on the Turgeon trade - "forced" by the "fact" that Damphousse had a good season at C the previous year and therefore we "couldn't" move him back to his natural f****ng position. Just preposterous. And, ultimately, probably Mario Tremblay's fault for not simply shifting Vinny back to LW rather than trying to force Pierre Turgeon to be a third line centreman (!). At that point, Houle either has to make a deal or fire his coach. But of course he didn't make a particularly impressive deal. In any case, it's not even the players involved that drives me batty so much as the sheer pig-headed artificiality of the dilemma the Habs created for themselves.

The ugliest fact was Tremblay seemed to be trying to devalue Turgeon by moving him to the wing which was completely unnatural for him. What did Turgeon do? Prove he was still an offensive force by having 11 points in 10 games as a winger. Didn't save his career in Montreal of course. Tremblay thought Turgeon wasn't a competitor. Turgeon could be softer than butter but the man got his points.

Here's my weak attempt at being clever, BUT....Machine of LG? Couldn't we say that Houle's obsession with a big, strong, oversized team is exactly what many people are asking for today? Great reading by the way, you've both ruined my afternoon. I've tried to block out those years.

It exactly is. I've discussed before how Houle went big, tough and strong and it flopped miserably. I'm pretty sure the 1999-2000 Montreal Canadiens was the biggest, meanest squad the Canadiens have ever had. You think everyone was protected with Turner Stevenson, Trevor Linden, Shayne Corson, Craig Rivet, Igor Ulanov, Arron Asham, Scott Thornton and Sheldon Souray on that team? Nope. Only one player played 82 games. Only two played 80. The team was an injured mess young and old for various reasons. Only reason they finished 10th was due to Hackett/Theodore both posting excellent goaltending numbers. It's really the only reason Montreal wasn't a basement team for years. When Savard took over the team he shed pretty much every tough guy who couldn't play hockey and had no issue going with a skilled play over a sized player. The team was still mediocre once Gainey took over but if we stuck with Houle any longer, the team would have been even worse.

Toughness should always be merely an element, not your base. Your base should always be top end skill. I'll still take secondary skill over primary toughness if there's no skill behind that primary toughness.