Habs 12 forwards lineup

I been ask to provide my 12 forwards lineup if it was up to me for the start of the season. Well ask and you shall receive.

First line*3 Darche*2,5, Gomez and Gionta

Second line*3 Cammalleri, Plekanec and Eller*1,5

Third line Kostitsyn*2, Lapierre*1,5 and Pouliot

Fourth line Moen, Pyatt*4 and Boyd*4

Odd man out Halpern*4 

*1 Eller and Lapierre will alternate on the second line depending on how well they play.

*2 Kostitsyn will get a shot at the first line only if he start producing on the third and Darche is a bust if they both suck Boyd or Pyatt will get promoted.

*3 First and Second lines is just a label depending on how well they play things might change or stay the same.

*4 Pyatt, Boyd and Halpern will alternate centering the fourth line but Halpern will be out for the first game!

*5 If Lapierre is playing too well and Eller is just too good to be downgraded Lapierre might end up replacing Darche provided that Darche does not produce. If he does just increase the number of shift that the third line get.

Is it time for Hamrlik to go the Swiss way?

Mathieu Carle will in all likelihood be put on waiver this morning and it likely that somebody will snatch him up. It would be good news for Carle who might get a better chance to make the NHL somewhere else and it bad news for the Habs who will lose another asset that they failed to develop in house! It a failure to make space for the kids to develop that will hurt the team the most in the long run. The roster is pretty much fixed in stone and it was before the camp even started!

This beg the question what the hell is Hamrlik still doing with the Habs? Even if we don't have Markov for a couple of months so what Hamrlik is also hurt! So it time to save cap space by sending his ass to some swiss team like the Blackhawk just did with Huet! Now Mathieu Carle may not be a prime asset but he's not the only kid that Montreal could have promoted this year! It time to make bolder move by making some space for the kids if you are willing to gamble this much on Price you might as well be all in!

And so it begin!

The Habs have played their first pre-season game last night and thing did not go so well for Carey Price...
Now am not one to say "Told you so!" and the booing was very premature but I do believe this is just a glimpse of the shape of things to come. Thing may and will likely get a hell of a lot worse for the 23 years old "not a kid anymore" Price! You think last night was bad just wait until their 2 points on the line! Just FYI we will "Chill Out" we you have one good period! For the sake of fairness the whole team looked disorganized in the first period but an elite number one goaltender is expected to keep his team in the game when that happen Price was not even average but it a pre-season game and accident are bound to happen.

So let put all that drama aside and look at the positive note of this first pre-season game.
Weber got a wicked shot if he use it more he might end up a superstar in the NHL! Palushaj and Leblanc have a bright future in the NHL they both are not making the team out of camp but we can expect that they are first on the line for injury call up. When the team finally settled down they turned thing around, it may have been too late for this game but it looked a lot tighter.

Quebec city new arena and journalistic hypocrisy!

Vancouver Olympic cost
$6-9 billion

G8 and G-20 Toronto summit security cost. 1 Billion maybe 2 we may never kow

The next time you hear bitching at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal government paying for the construction of a new arena in Quebec city remember all that money spent somewhere else.

Also remember that the Montreal Canadiens renegotiated their municipal Tax to get a sweetheart deal a few years ago! By the way that Tax break is going to cost more to the city of Montreal over the next five years than what the city of Quebec will spend on their own new arena. Remember every museum, festival and cultural center that are getting public money every year! Remember every Canadian movies and TV shows that are getting generous tax break!  So I got to ask where were you to preach fiscal restrain? When GM got their ass saved with money from the Federal I did not hear many Ontarian bitch too much about that!

Back then where the hell was all these offended taxpayers when under the Liberals the Human Resource Development Department lost a billion, not spent, not wasted just fucking lost! If you are coming out of the woodwork to bitch about public money spent to build a municipal arena now you are way, way too late...
Am not exactly trill at the way this new arena will be build but I despise all the "vierge offencée" that we are hearing this week! Sure it done for political reason but guess what everything a politician does is for political reason!

It time for the fucking season to start!

We are still a month away from the start of the season and every NHL fans out there are on the edge. NHL Bloggers are tearing each other up when they don't have a pissing contest with the MSM, you know those so called real sports journalist...
But I digress everybody out of subjects right now because every subject was milked to death!

Kovalchuk: Thank god that drama over!
Carey Price: Signed for two years.   

What else? Actually we got nothing else and we still have one damn month to wait for the start of the NHL season! At least training camp is about to start. I could pull a rumor out of my ass but that somebody else specialty! The current situation beg the question should the NHL start the season in the middle of September? They could still play 82 games you just move a few Sunday afternoon bore fest in the middle of the season for a few Saturday night happening in the middle of September!

NHL players on twitter. To follow or not?

So Hockey fans, Habs fans and bless your heart Leafs fans do you follow NHL players who are on twitter? I know I don't because they never say anything interesting anymore, mind you that a problem with pro athletes in general.

These guys make millions and are so afraid to jeopardize their status that we never heard anything but rehash cliché from them! While I can't always mute, escape or skip a cliché filled TV/Radio/Newspaper interview I got no reason to go out of my way to follow players who bore me to death! Where are the Roy, Carbonneau, Lafleur and Ali of the current NHL, can you think of anyone? 

The last interesting quotes from an hockey players was about sloppy seconds and Sean Avery got so much grief over it I bet he never said anything but cliché after the incident!

Updated: And if you happen to know NHL players who are actually interesting to follow on twitter add them in the comments bellow.


  

Being an Habs fan is costly!

Am not a cheap guy but seriously $9.75 of service charges per ticket per game that enough to tick me off!


The ticket business is the only business that I know who get away with charging peoples for the privilege of doing business with them. Now mind you the entertainment business usually charge a per transaction service charge meaning that no matter how many tickets you buy it only one charge not one per item! The banks have service fees but mostly you don't buy things from a bank you get services. Beside if you make many transaction they got service plan that let you have a flat monthly rate.


$9.75 per game, per ticket is just the first of many money grab an Habs fan who want to see a game is victim of. Let pass on the actual price of the tickets mainly because that life in the NHL. At least in Canada

$25 that the price of parking at the Bell center on game night.


Foods and drinks mainly Beer will also cost you an arm and a leg. Once upon a time the game started at 8:00 or even 8:30 PM you always had the time to eat somewhere else before going to the old Forum. So it no surprise that now the game start at 7:30 or even 6:30, they want you hungry and thirsty!


Souvenir for the kids you can't go to a game and get back empty handed that gonna cost you!  


The Reebok EDGE Montreal Canadien Authentic Home Jersey will cost you $289 on Amazon. Likely made in a Chinese sweatshop by the way! Did I mention that if you want your mom to see you on TV you better wear one! On the other hand if you don't want the wife to know you were at the game...  It no surprise that the team has a fake jersey problem at that price!


Come to think of it that $9.75 service charge is not so bad after all! If you can afford the stiff ticket price and the rest, the service charge should not bother you much... Otherwise RDS has every Habs game in HD.

I miss the Nordiques!!

I am an Habs fan always was, always will be but I came to the realization in the past few years that I miss the Nordiques! In fact I miss them a lot!


Why? Well it feel to me that the Montreal Canadiens players and management was trying a hell of a lot harder to win when they had to fight for the heart and minds of the province! It why a few sports columnist want more local guys to play for the habs it not just a language thing they also think that local talent got an extra motivation to perform!


The Habs vs Nordiques rivalry helped a lot with that. Remember 1993 if the Habs had played the Sabres in the first round they might not have recover from losing the first two games! You get eliminated to the Sabres or any other team in the NHL you might hear about it for a month. You lose to the Nordiques and you never going to live that down! That what was at stake after the first two games for Guy Carbonneau, Patrick Roy, and the rest of the 17 local guys on the 1993 Habs roster!


1993 habs roster 17 local Guys

Centres

21 Guy Carbonneau (Captain) Local
15 Paul DiPietro Local
18 Denis Savard (A. Capt.) local
25 Vincent Damphousse Local
29 Jesse Belanger Local
47 Stephan Lebeau Local

Wingers
11 Kirk Muller (A. Capt.)
12 Mike Keane
17 John LeClair Vermont apparently close enough!
22 Benoit Brunet Local
23 Brian Bellows
26 Gary Leeman
31 Ed Ronan
32 Mario Roberge Local
36 Todd Ewen
45 Gilbert Dionne Local
6 Oleg Petrov††

Defencemen
5 Rob Ramage
27 Mathieu Schneider
14 Kevin Haller
24 Lyle Odelein
28 Eric Desjardins Local
34 Donald Dufresne Local
38 Sean Hill
43 Patrice Brisebois Local
48 Jean-Jacques Daigneault Local

Goaltenders
33 Patrick Roy Local
37 Andre Racicot Local

"Après les deux premiere partie l'équipe c'est mise a gagné sur l'orgueil!"
Loosely translated. "After the first two games the team started winning on pride and sheer will!" If you think pride and willpower does not apply to the 2010 NHL you can always ask Alex Ovechkin and Sydney Crosby how they liked their long Summer! Pride is the reason the Bruins and the Leafs are always playing a little better against the Habs. Pride for a lack of a better word is good! That why I miss the Nordiques they motivated the Habs like nothing else!   

Year of the last chance!

For many in the Montreal Canadiens organization this is the year of the last chance. If the Habs have an ugly year these guys might all be gone by the deadline.




1. Andrei Markov : If he get hurt again or contract negotiation stall expect him to get moved at the deadline. We lost too many assets with no return to UFA in the past Gauthier will not make the same mistake that Bob Gainey did before!




2. Roman Hamrlík : Yeah we all hate his cap hit! The same cap hit that keeping him in Mtl because nobody want him and the Habs are too cheap to send Hammer to the bulldogs! Gauthier is probably stuck with him until the deadline but at the deadline if the Habs are already out expect Hammer to finally get moved!




3. Jacques Martin : If the season goes bad or if the Habs exit the playoff early he's the likely first scapegoat that Gauthier will throw to the wolves! The team did better than expected in the last playoff but three games with no goals against the Flyers that a black mark on Martin that will require one hell of a season to heal in my book!




 4. Hall Gill : Yeah we all love USS Hall Gill he's a warrior and had an amazing playoff run but he's an aging warrior who's getting slower! Gill is also turning UFA next year and his past playoff performance make him an attractive rental at the deadline if the Habs are out. Off course Pierre Gauthier might just sign him to an end of career contract for dirt cheap! 50/50 chances of that happening. 




5. Pierre Gauthier : Eller and Price if either of these two guys are not having a superb season Gauthier is dead GM walking! Hell Geoff Molson might replace him anyway even if they do. Short of a cup Pierre Gauthier time with the habs are counted. The new boss is not likely to keep the last administration in place for long if they don't get some real result fast.




That it for today if you don't agree or got names you want to add don't hesitate to comments!! 

My sources are telling me...

A very reliable source has told me that the Montreal Canadiens will have their first Pre-Season game on September 22 7:30 PM Easter! That three weeks from now! Yeah!!! Unfortunately Carey Price will be in goal for the Habs since he just signed! Why is that unfortunate well considering the mismanagement that Gainey and Gauthier have done to his career the best thing that could have happen for him this Summer would have been a trade! As far away from Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier as possible! Fact is Carey Price was over hyped and should have spent one more season in the minors. Now mind you it not the kid fault and at 23 he's not longer a kid anymore anyway!

By the way if you remember the 1986 cup I got a fact that might make you feel old Carey price was born in 1987!

So Gainey gambled the farm on Price two years too soon and loss now Gauthier is doing the same a year too late and will likely lose. Why is Gauthier likely going to lose? Considering Halak amazing playoff run and the vindictiveness of the average Habs fans, Lars Eller would probably have to scores 50 goals in 50 games for Pierre Gauthier to survive this season. And Carey Price will need a Vezina worthy season for fans to feel that Pierre Gauthier made the right choice in goal! Even that might not be enough if the team fold early in the next playoff. Let face it the bar we Habs fans have always used to measure up success is the Stanley Cup. Everything less is just not worthy of the motherfucking Montreal Canadiens! Is that fair no it not but that the price to wear that uniform. If you cannot take that heat I suggest you get the hell out of that kitchen. I hope he does alright I truly do I just don't see that in the cards...

On a personal note am turning this Blog into an Habs Blog because we are all idiots for the Habs!