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About Mike Boone
Full Name
Mike Boone
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http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/mike_boone.html
About
I grew up in Park Extension, within walking distance of Dickie Moore's Dairy Queen on Jean Talon. Moore had a place on L'Acadie Blvd., and we used to see him driving around in his convertible with a Samoyed and a very dishy wife.
While "studying" at McGill University during the 1960s, I used to attend games at the old Montreal Forum. My fellow undergraduate reprobates and I would scramble up the stairs to get centre-ice spots in the top standing room section, where aged ushers didn't know or care what we were smoking.
I stood out in the cold for six hours to get tickets to the 1975 New Year's Eve game between the Canadiens and Central Red Army. With the exception of the birth of my daughter, the 3-3 tie was the greatest event I've ever seen in my life.
The Canada-U.S. Gold medal game comes close .... but I wasn't there.
I've been a professional journalist since 1974, when I joined the Montreal Star sports department. I've covered the 1976 Olympic Games, the 1979 Expos, pop music and MSO tours of Europe and Asia (classical musicians are WAY more fun to drink with than athletes). I wrote a TV & Radio column for 20 years and, since 2000, have written a City column for The Gazette.
The best part of being a Habs Inside/Out contributor is attending games at the Bell Centre. I think it's a great building: noisy, raucous and packed to the rafters with Montrealers and visitors who live for hockey.
And I still get goosebumps every time Michel Lacroix booms out "Accueillons nos Canadiens ..."
Having seen the Boston Red Sox win two World Series and the Pittsburgh Steelers add a couple Super Bowl titles, I suppose I can die happy ... but not before another Stanley Cup parade. And I'd really like my daughter to see a historic New Year's Eve game.
I like all the players. Covering baseball gives me a profound appreciation of pro athletes who aren't jerks.
My weltanschauung was summarized by the late great Bill Hicks when he said "all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves."
Have a nice day.
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If, and when, the team-building strategy becomes tanking, or losing on purpose, then the CH should refund all ticket prices to their fans. People pay money to watch professional athletes perform to win. Thanks, but no tanks.
If we go that route we're one step away from just being a show (like wrestling) which is begining to look a lot more "real" in comparison to Betman's Disneyfied NHL.
___________________________________________________________________
This concludes our broadcast. Goodnight.
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Canadiens jersey,Montreal Canadiens hats,This is my personal favorite
deal site for jerseys,I would proceed with caution on this one.
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PLEASE if 4 just 1 game can we bring up PK Subban to help the D get the bloody puck outta our end zone.PLEASE!!!I dont understand why we havent given him at least a single game to see what hes got!!
WHO'S WIT ME?!!!!!???
No way. If PK comes up we start winning and end up maybe 8th if we're lucky and spent for a quick 1st round exit. We need to tank this season and the next. Then we can bring up these guys and build proper. It's the reality of the new NHL, of course added to that Habs management ineptitude with managing assets.
"From my guru, Pierre McGuire:
Brodeur 50 wins in 93 games
Luongo 50 wins 150
Fleury 50 wins in 143"
Your colleague and the far more level-headed Mr. Stubbs wrote the same thing in his article earlier today... I found the link to it on the main page of this site.
All the same it's a good reminder for those alarmists amongst us that Price is on track towards fulfilling his potential on a consistent basis, but it will take time. His play tonight was also a good reminder that the Habs need BOTH Price and Halak as they develop into more complete players.
...in the meantime, it would be great if they had some support from the team by, say, scoring more than one goal a game.
By thetime Roy had won 50, he already had won the Cup. What's to compare? Roy was good. Price hasn't been.
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
Yet reading all the forum trolls you'd think Price was the worst goalie ever. 50th win in 102 games from a 22 year old on a bad team 2 out of 3 years isn't bad.
Yeah, he'll be inconsistent. Yeah sometimes he'll have bad performances.
Look at Ward this year. Fleury got pulled today. Pavelec stoned us last time but gave 5-6 goals today if I recall correctly.
THis Price bashing is garbage. Not many games will be won by only scoring one goal. The goals price let in were untimely but our boys need to capitalize on their chances.
Why is it the goalie at the other end of the rink is almost always better than Price?
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
BECAUSE................ Montreal shoots 90% of their pucks straight into his belly!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Because Price is almost always worse than the goalie at the other end of the rink. That and on those games the offense seems to go to sleep.
we need major changes cos face it the leaves are better than us
pleks deserves to be 1st line center.
cammal - pleks - gionta
sk74 - gomez - ak46 (gomez can do his best robert lang impression)
moen - metro - white
pyatt - chips - pacioretty (PCP)
the d should not be numbered cos face it, there is no shutdown pairing right now
hamr - spaceman
belle - carle
gorges - mara
latendresse is a 15 a year goal scorer...he does not have any upside ...lapierre is about a 8 goal scorer again no upside...pacioretty may have an upside but he has not shown yet that he can be a scorer..markov in the line up will help but this team will only win( based on our forward talent )by playing boring airtight hockey ...entertaining hockey is better to watch and for the most part the team has played that but they lack talent to play like that vs most teams and win...
you don't see the upside in a 15 goal scorer? My problem with Latendresse is that he will probably only score 15 goals when he is capable of much more. Some shifts he looks unreal.
Oh hey, I didn't know Jaro's agent was a forum troll. What a jerk. I'd fire his arse tomorrow. He's nudge winking his way into dangerous territory by maybe causing some room problems where there weren't. Frankly he's got no business tweeting garbage like that. And if Pavelec could tell his agent to shut up...
Hope Cam Ward's ok. Got cut in a weird place :S
I finally got a pet hamster today. I named him Pleky. Sadly he was more enthusiastic and entertaining than tonight's Habs... (Though the real Pleky did just fine).
It’s just not Montreal if there is no controversy of some kind now is it!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
I think it's sad that the NHL rewards losers with top draft picks.
The emergent teams in the NHL are the ones who tanked and racked the high draft picks.
LA, ATL,TB,PHX.
Sad to say but the Habs will need to tank to win the Cup again.
What about Buffalo? New Jersey?
There are other ways to build teams.
Colorado has combined getting a high draft pick (Duchene, who hasn't been tearing it up yet) with some shrewd signings (Craig Anderson, Kyle Quincey, Darcy Tucker) and some good drafting (Paul Stastny, Woltek Wolski, Ryan O'Reilly and T.J. Galiardi) to create a team on the way up. They will cool down after this hot start, but they are definitely on the right path and the playoffs are always a possibility with all the points they are banking now.
Hiring a competent GM would be a start!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Hiring a competent GM would be a start!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Buff and Jersey have done nothing in the playoffs for years.
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
The topic of this thread was emerging teams. Last time I checked, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Phoenix and L.A. haven't done anything in the playoffs for years either.
Yes, like Detroit.
Well Detroit have hit the jackpot with their picks. How often will you find a Datsyuk or Zetterberg in the rounds they drafted them?
But it's true that I generalized and there are other ways to build a team. I just think it's disappointing that our organization doesn't develop top liners.
That's a better way of stating it I think. We're suffering today for the picks and trades of 5 to 10 years back. And since our fortunes have left us only with middle of the road standings in the past few years we miss any chance of grabbing top picks. Kind of an endless cycle. Personally I would abandon this team if they intentionally tanked and while that may not make me a true fan in some eyes I would sleep nights. But I doubt this organization would ever do that.
for all those who think this is a good team, give your head a shake. last year Lats and Lapierre were on the 3rd line. this year they're on the 2nd line(due to lack of talent on this team).
last year: Kovalev, Koivu, Tanguay- 1st line
Pleks, AK, Higgins-2nd line
lang, SK, -3rd line
last year we had much more talent, and the players were bigger.
Thanks Bob for making us smaller, and less talented. So how much is Bob's salary? THIEF!
Way past your bed time young man. Now you just scoot upstairs and I`ll be up later to tuck you in.
Parity: Pits and Buf going down, Isles and Tor going up.
Habs: treading water
I would add Tampa to that list of teams going up. They fixed their defence in the off-season, and Stamkos' emergence and Malone's production has spread out their offence a little. If Lecavalier gets back to playing at anything close to the level he is capable of, they should be in the playoffs.
Parity: Pits and Buf going down, Isles and Tor going up.
Habs: treading water
Guys take a break from hockey talk (like that'll happen) and fill out this survey regarding environmental behaviours for a project i'm doing in my marketing class.
http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=c96702a0-26d8-45ed-8791-4364f5...
thanks!
- we need a MARKOV.
What does it pay?
Negotiate with BG. He`ll likely go $7.0M ;)
Negotiate with BG. He`ll likely go $7.0M ;)
Until they find some secondary scorers and get their main guys to actually hit the net, the 2009-10 Montreal Canadiens are the mediocre hockey team that we are seeing right now, likely on the outside looking in come April.
Game in, game out, the story of this season with many fans is that the opposition goalies have "stolen" the win. At some point, the statistical unlikelihood of that assertion has to hit home: it is very unlikely that all these goalies suddenly find their 'A' games against the Habs.
The more likely culprit is that the Habs offence simply isn't as good as shots on goal suggests. Thus far, Montreal has scored 2 goals or less in 10 of its 17 games...that puts an inordinate amount of pressure on their defence corps and goalies.
Winning some battles in front of the net would be a good start...Montreal's forwards are simply getting pushed around in the slot more often than not. Part of this is the function of having a team of heartless big players and courageous players that are simply too small to win those battles.
Generating some power plays would also help...Montreal is currently ranked 24th in the NHL in power play opportunities, and the 1 power play generated tonight should see them fall another couple of rungs. If you're not moving your feet, the refs have all the excuse in the world to not make the call.
Getting shots through to the goalie is crucial...the Habs are out-shooting opponents, but a lot of the shots are low-percentage scoring chances. The real scoring chances are getting foiled time and time again by the shot either being blocked or fired wide of the net.
One additional point: the 2008-09 Montreal Canadiens backed their way into the playoffs with a 41-30-11 record for 93 points. To match that recrod this season, the Habs need to go 33-21-11 over the rest of the season. Not impossible, even if the team struggles through the rest of November. But they really need to go on a sustained tear sometime soon to get on a better footing in terms of playoff positioning.
ARRRRGGG!!!!
Too pissed off to post anymore tonight.......
I'm going to bed.....
Wake me up when Markov comes back...
Zzzzzzz......
The last time the leafs won the cup it was still just a bowl!!
1st goal: CP made a great save but was mugged by his D-Man. Not CP’s fault.
2nd goal: CP should have had the blooper shot. No question about that!
3rd goal: The puck squeezed through & was sitting 5" away from the goal line till Super Man Georges flies in at full force & knocks the puck in his own net. CP would have maybe got it, his glove was almost on top of it. We will never know now. Another bad bounce for CP, what else is new this year for CP.
Montreal seems to make ordinary goalies look outstanding. 90% of Montreal’s shots on Tampa’s goalie tonight were into his belly. I’ve been watching hockey for over 40 years & I have yet to see any shot pass through a goalies belly into the back of the net. Maybe Montreal is trying to make it a first this year. I rather see Montreal miss the net trying to pick corners than to shoot directly into the goalie all the time.
It doesn’t matter if CP let in 10 goals tonight. The Team can’t score. I finally get Martin’s system: "Score as little goals as possible to get the game to O.T. or a shootout"!
Price is not doing to badly in his career thus far according to Dave Stubbs facts: Price & Patrick Roy both hit the 50th win mark in their 102nd NHL game. Martin Brodeur his 50th win in 93 games. Roberto Luongo got his 50th win in 150 games & Marc-Andr
é Fleury got his 50th win in 143 games."If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
1st goal: CP watched as the puck bounced off the back wall to pass within a couple inches of his skate. His reaction? Let it keep going to the front of the net instead of blocking it and smothering.
2nd goal: God-awful rebound straight to Tanguay.
3rd goal; a mess. Blame goes to the line on the ice.
_________________________________________________________________________
Beliveau- his legend is 600' tall and growing...
Because it proves a point, let's discuss Marc-Andre Fleury, who also had a shaky start to his career at times and was a No. 1 Pick in 2003.
Fleury 03-04: 21 GP, 4 W, 14 L, 2 T.
Fleury 05-06: 50 GP, 13 W, 27 L, 6 OTL and 1 SO loss.
Fleury 06-07: 67 GP, 40 W, 16 L, 9 OTL and 5 SO losses.
Fleury 07-08: 35 GP, 19 W, 10 L, 2 OTL and 4 SO losses.
Fleury 08-09: 62 GP, 35 W, 18 L, 7 OTL and 4 SO losses.
Using the Montreal barometer for Goalie success, Fleury should have been thrown out on his *** and his 'worthless, lazy, untalented amateurism" should have been packaged in a trade before his 3rd season got started. Patience, not everyone is Patrick Roy from the start, now Fleury's likely to perhaps collect some metal this year, Vezina or even Conn Smythe isn't unlikely with the Pens likely to repeat a trip to the Cup Final.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
You have one glarting ommission - the 04-05 season. Didn't he get sent to the minors to work out his game? Price needed the same, and never got it.
__________________
Just as no culture has a monopoly on beauty or value, no religion has a monopoly on truth - Voltaire
Yeah, CP did get sent back down to Hamilton, just not long enough. Maybe that was before you started watching the Habs!
"If ya smell what The Rock is cookin"
Well seeing as how we couldn't conveniently schedule a NHL lockout that's tricky.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
You'd have to organize a search party to find any Habs positives from that game. I know I'm probably the only one to say this, but if I was really pushed to find a positive, it would be that Bergeron did a few good things out there tonight, so in comparison to how horrible he usually plays, he was sort of half decent tonight.
I was very disappointed at how much the Bolts outworked us in the first period.
But, I still like this team,
Scary stat:
In 11 games, Habs have scored only 18 regulation-time goals in front of Price... and 7 of those came in two games (against Toronto and Atlanta). Yikes!
Toronto: 3 goals
Buffalo: 1 goal
Vancouver: 1 goal
Edmonton: 2 goals
Colorado: 2 goals
Ottawa: 1 goal
Pittsburgh: 0 goals
Chicago: 2 goals
Atlanta: 4 goals
Boston: 1 goal
Tampa Bay: 1 goal
That means that in 5 games, Carey would have had to get a shutout for the team to win in regulation. And in three others, his GAA would have had to have been 1.00.
_____________________________________
I have H1N2. Always the bridesmaid...
"Price 10 wins, 32 losses, last 42 games," says Halak's agent!!!
well he's an ***.
Well, he's correct, so how does that make him an ***?
__________________
Just as no culture has a monopoly on beauty or value, no religion has a monopoly on truth - Voltaire
All right, want to head off to bed on a positive note, so here goes. AKost showing some fire in the belly gets back into JMs good books. SKost having been duly, and publicly, apologetic has earned the praise of his coach. AKost gets promoted to second line with Pleks, and as a reward to both for being hard working and attentive to the new system, they are provided with a bona fide #6 forward in the making....SKost. That line promptly catches fire, spurring the first line on to greatness, which in turn convinces the floundering D to turn it up a notch, keeping the seats warm for the return of Gill and OB. At that point Habs go on a 10-game undefeated streak which includes six regulation wins, leaving in the hunt for fifth overall in the conference with just 6 weeks till Markov returns. Sweet dreams all.
the three TB goals recap the season to date perfectly:
goal 1: great save not enough when opposing player a) gets a great bounce right on his stick and B) has nobody shoving him around bad luck + weak d = goal
goal 2: big fat rebound from price. didn't see one on thursday, now they're baaa-aaack. fat rebound into slot = goal
goal 3: whiff in the slot by latendresse and puck heads out of the zone, where a crap backcheck by lapierre allows TB player to smack one in general direction of the net. lucky bounce and traffic to net leads to ugly but official goal. more bad luck + 2nd line slacking + going to the net = goal
Lats and Lappy are so brutal they are melding into one big over-hyped disappoint to me. they are big and soft and have mitts on their hands, so from now on and until proven otherwise they are LaLa to me. I have changed my avatar to reflect my disgust. Needless to say i was glad to see LaLa benched in 3rd, I hope JM throws in Chipper and stewart in their place next game just to reinforce that LaLa's are not owed anything. it's frustrating as hell to see guys like gionta, cammy, metro, plucky and pyatt getting bashed around all night when LaLa can't even get a basic forecheck going, and drag their *** back too slow on the back-breaking goal.
i admire the effort that most of the team is putting in, but i posted it last week and i'll repeat it here, if they can't finish on their chances early they put too much pressure on a depleted D and snakebit goaltending. get some of those old NHL Showdown targets and get the boys shooting at something other than the crest on the opposing goalie.
and please, JM - bench LaLa
What? No love for my Ticats?
Zee Als veel crush zem!!!!
Ummm....Go Ticats...?
__________________
Just as no culture has a monopoly on beauty or value, no religion has a monopoly on truth - Voltaire
Cheers Mate!
laps and Lats have done Nothing all year...Off to the pressbox. Next game should be interesting...who are we playng against anyway.?????
Flames I think. We'll get killed, figuratively and literally.
I wonder why Bob Gainey's been so quiet recently...perhaps he's contemplating a return to behind the bench?
i hope he is contemplating taking his *** back to Dallas and take his pal Carbo with him. They can do the league a favor a manage the Stars again. No team will every have to worry about playing Dallas.
You know I like the changes that were made in the off season I just wish we could have got rid of 3 or 4 more guys....wont mention names though.
yes, yes, frenchies fault!
Sit all of them, all of them!!!!!! now!
LOL the 3rd line is at fault! hehe.
--------
We have a new team!
Mike Komisarek: (-2)-0-(-2)
Gainey Haters bandwagon ---> This way
Actually they played on the 2nd line tonight, failed to make any impact and were so inadequate they were benched in the 3rd period. You play the 2nd line, you should have more on your numbers than TOI.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
Let's be honest.
the 3rd line sould be:
-Laps, Lats and Moen.
Our second line is... ??? Pleks.
--------
We have a new team!
Mike Komisarek: (-2)-0-(-2)
Gainey Haters bandwagon ---> This way
Lapierre/Metro/Moen for a 3rd-line shutdown crew, Pyatt centres Pacioretty and White, SK74 and AK46 with Plekanec. Lats gets to watch from the pressbox, it's a pretty good view that he should use and watch as guys like Mike Knuble and Tomas Holmstrom do the jobs he should be trying to do more than once every 10 games.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
you mean Lats' place isn't to screen goalies from 8 to 10 feet away from them? lol. he's a joke. hasn't gotten it even though he claims he has. you're a big body, you screen the goalie; you don't wait for your one-timer.
arrrgg....back to my 10-page Middle East paper now....this Israeli-Palestinian peace process paper is a summary-like of the team's road to success.....with all its attempts, it's going nowhere!!!
----- go habs f*ckin go, AMEN!!! -----
let's not go there. worst subject to discuss ever.
LOL.
You can't troll on that subject?
-------- We have a new team! Mike Komisarek: (-2)-0-(-2) Gainey Haters bandwagon ---> This way
Peace process... LOL.
The bad guys are clearly not identified properly over there.
-------- We have a new team! Mike Komisarek: (-2)-0-(-2) Gainey Haters bandwagon ---> This way
Ouch - touchy subject there. I agree, but perhaps better to not get into that here.
__________________
Just as no culture has a monopoly on beauty or value, no religion has a monopoly on truth - Voltaire
We were never in this one all night. After Cammalleri, Gionta, Plecanic and Metropolit we have all 4th line plumbers filling in. They are hard workers but all of them would be on the 4th line on my team.
Much worse on the back end. After Markov, Georges and maybe OByrne the rest are all bottom 7 or 8 defence men.
Tonight we were out worked, out hit, out played, out shot and out scored. I would even go as far as to say we were out coached, especially in the 1st period.
Nothing is coming together with this group as of yet. I am not so sure that it will anymore. Anyone that thinks we have inadequate goal tending or that there goal tender beat us tonight is just dead wrong. The fact of the matter is, we do not have enough NHL quality players on the roster.
I am not bailing or jumping off the wagon here, I'm just saying that this group of hard workers, lack the talent for this team to move forward, both on the front end and back end. After all, winning only 1 hockey game in regulation time out of 17 games played this year is just not going to cut it in this league.
I thought that after 20 games this squad would show signs of being up with the top one third of teams in this league. But I am having a difficult time thinking that way now.
I'm not sure what to do with so many 4th line players except to keep the best 3 and make up trade bundles of 3 for 1. Maybe we would have to go as high as 8 for 2 to acquire some talent that would make a difference.
Depressed now, but I will be perky in the morning and probably a little disappointed in me for being so negative.
Old expression for a couple of old guys: It`s always darkest before the dawn. Keep the faith baby!
Or my favourite twist on the expression... :)
Beauty. Or this one, so fitting for this site: http://www.despair.com/blame.html
You can really have fun with this website...
Habs Fans!
Habs Goaltenders & Prospects
Sergei Kostitsyn
Andrei Kostitsyn & Guillaume Latendresse
Habs playoff performance last year...
Maxim Lapierre (maybe THIS is the spell he holds over Habs fans...)
Marc-Andre Bergeron (for you Eric...)
Bob Gainey's solution to the 2008-09 Montreal Canadiens purported locker room issues
Trevor Timmins? :)
Gui!, inheriting this one from the now departed Chris Higgins
My reaction to Andrei Markov getting injured
Habs Inside/Out during the nightly Price/Halak battles
From the Guy Carbonneau coaching handbook
Ladies & Gentlemen...your 2008-09 Montreal Canadiens!!!
Carey...you're right...it really IS happening to you.
Patrice Brisebois
What we should have sent Bob Gainey last summer, vis a vis Mats Sundin
Seemingly every Montreal Canadiens prospect lives by this truism...
Couldn't get it to fit, but it's my all-time favourite and sits at my desk at work. :)
These are gold, I tell you...GOLD!. I'm having trouble picking my fav.
Ian, things aren't as bad as they seem right now.
The defencman we have can play better when there is a better ice time distribution. Hamrlik has been very good and Mara will be a nice 15 to 18 minute guy. Spacek will be better too when he doesn't have to play as many minutes. The previous games they were playing way to much to make up for Bergeron and Carle. Tonight Martin tried to even out the minutes, but it meant we had Carle and Bergeron out there too much. Bergeron is the worst defenceman, in our own end, we have had in quite a while.
Things will get better. Kostitsyn played another good game and was promoted. If Martin sticks with that, he and Pleks will pot some goals.
Things are exactly how they seem!! This team is no better than a .500 team, which means no playoffs. It's as clear as day.
So you figure losing Markov, O'Byrne and Gill has no effect? And you also figure Andrei will never start scoring again?
Of course it has an effect. Nevertheless, Just looking at this team from afar, it's not very good, Markov or no. No offensive depth, *** PP, *** Pk. average goaltending, not physical enough. Should I go on? Even with Markov, we're not too good. I mean T-Bay and atlanta and T.O, are monumenatl battles. Do you need any more evidence?
After Markov went down, everyone was saying that they would be happy if the Habs could play .500 hockey until he got back. Well, they are performing as expected. I wouldn't write the playoffs off just yet.
If we can't do better than .500, without Markov, says a lot about this team. it says it is a below average team. Let's face it, Markov wouldn't make this team a contender even if he was here.
No worries Ian, AK is getting better and Plekanec, Gomez, Gionta, Camy can all put up pionts but, unfortunately they are starting to adapt to losing in MTL. Even Camy has nothing to say after the games anymore - that may be a good thing. It is a fine line between winning and losing. Every team can go from winner to s&^t very quickly. Every team needs top level goaltending and we are not getting it everynight. I agree about the plumbers - the Habs have been turning Corvettes into F-150's for years. Can't keep trying to score with farm trucks. The d? What can BG or anyone else do - we have been decimated.
We have a first hand example of letting 4 of last year's top 6 go and only replacing them with 3. No wonder we can't build a second top line.
The painful part is that the pipeline doesn't look that bright and we are right against the cap for many years to come.
And by the way we were not outshot, not that it matters.
If Hamrlik and Spacek are your 7-8th defensemen...your team must be one of the greatest of all time.
That's a nice team you've got there...in your head.
http://alternateuniversehabs.blogspot.com/
Ian, it's not bailing. Bainling would be if you said the same thing after one year of Gainey's reign. We are on year 6 and the team is still outworked, out hit, out shot, out scored, out everything on most of the nights. So, just call it "being realistic" and calling it like it is.
Even the first line, as good as they are talent-wise, is too damn small. They have been taking the beating game after game and one can't help to wonder how long before they cramble physically and start playing like Lats.
Sigh... it is a sad state of affairs in the habs land.
Agree - the "little three" are going to wear out. Look at the shots - they are not being out worked - we just have too many plumbers, as Ian calls them, playing on the scoring lines. These kind up guys don't have the hockey sense to make plays fast enough to create scoring. Tonight, you could see AK was starting to dish the puck fast enought to make plays. A combination of plumbers and guys who are so tenative because they don't want to give up the puck results in an easy night for the oposition's goalie. When the plumbers try to make a play, everyone can see what they are trying to do, which is way to slow to produce results.
Uncharacteristically, I might add. But I'm with ya brother. This is Bob's team. There is absolutely no getting around it. It it's as weak a squad as you (and I) think it is, can Bob's departure be far off? I feel a firing in the wind, and am beginning to think JM might soon have the honour of being the shortest-lived coach in Habs history, though I must admit I don't know what the current record is.
poopyhead.
Gill and O'Byrne and Markov were all out of the line-up.
Lats and Laps playing so poorly that Martin benched them both for the entire 3rd period.
Shots in the last 2 periods were 30 to 11 in the Habs' favour.
Refs were inconsistent (unless considering consistently bad)
Too soon to give up yet.
Don't get down, Ian. You were telling us all we had righted the ship in July when many of us were despondent with the signings and trade. Some of those posts over the summer months were comically optimistic. No fair to change sides before we're 33% in. . . !
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