Nothing to see here, move along

Not much to talk about Habs-wise. While Montreal is an interesting place, I don't live there so I can't remark on it

http://habsinsideout.com/main/20958
Apparently S.Kost and Mikhail Grabovski are all friendly again. Gives us more time for most of our lineup to do Milan Lucic impressions to Komisarek, but otherwise somewhat 'meh' news.

Goalies, second line centres, and trade bait.

To the chargin of much of the fanbase, we've signed Thomas Plekanec for 2.75 million dollars. out of around 240 players in that price range, he puts up better numbers than about 200 of them. Not too shabby. Now if only he were Finnish, and wore number eleven.

In the past few days we've picked up Curtis Sanford. He's already gotten in touch with Rick Dipietro and Pascal Leclaire on cool things to do in the Eastern Conference while injured.

With a new backup goalie (and somehow, also with Plekanec's one year deal) rumours are flying everywhere that Gainey is getting ready to trade for Lecavalier, Marleau a big centre, because we totally have that kind of money, what with a whole three million in cap space and Gregory Steward and Matt D'ags to resign. I think we've come to grips with the fact we don't need any more centres, as we only have one year to finally start using Chipchura anyway (who, go figure, is a big centre). But even then, who would want Halak right now anyway? Biron certainly has more experience and exposure and could only get less than two million backing up a backup (though with Rick Dipietro's glasslike status he could still see a lot of exposure), and Andrew Raycroft has already found work so it's not like people are desperate to avoid calls from his agent. If anything, Halak may be moved some time in the mid-season, around the deadline, if it begins to look like the big three are floundering, and we're being run over by Buffalo a listless team out of playoff contention.

Leafs logo and captainacy

So there's a petition going around to change the leaf's logo back to the original 31 point leaf. Good idea, getting rid of all the brand reconition they've gotten over the past 42 years, ruin kids abilities to sketch their teams logo on their belongings, and use the excuse of a "curse" to raise hype for that logo (ignoring that they won a cup with it).

In other news I'm sure the habs don't want to go back to the CA logo.


So the multimillion dollar question in habsland is WHO GETS CAPTAIN!
Now, the answer of course is Saku Koivu hard to answer in this environment.

I think it's important to mention that speaking french should not be relevant, and shame on you if you think it should be. We want this person to be the leader of our team, to keep us organized and successful, not to just be a front to the media.

Here's the contenders
Any member of the big 3 - Cam, Gionta, or Gomez. I only think Gomez is ready here, but here's the problem, he's too new.

Andrei Markov - Markov has been our best player for the last couple of years, and its beautiful to see him out of Rivet and Souray's shadows. However many seem to get the impression he'd be too aloof or quiet. I think this is really on him

Maxim Lapierre - He was the heart and sole of the team for a lot of last year, bringing work ethic to the rink every day, that everyone was lacking. Two problems here. One is that work ethic should be expected, and handing him a C would be sorta daft. A bigger issue is that he's too young and hasn't had enough firsthand experience with the team.

Matthieu Schneider - I like this pick. He's a strong leadership player. Problem is we already have way too many defensemen and haven't resigned him.

Robert Lang - We SHOULD resign Lang. Ditch Plekanec and his whiney underproducing ways, and use this season to have Lang as a leader while our younger centres [like Chipchura] get ready for the main stage (ignoring that Chipchura should already be here).


As you can tell so far, i support...
Actually, I don't support any candidate via speculation. I support the player the team thinks can best lead them. I do think Lapierre has earned an A, but beyond that, let the team find its own leadership. We cant judge that by meer speculation

Martin and Advertising Fail

One last post about our pickups. Jacky Martin, as well as a different kind of scam.

Jaques Martin. Solid coach. No, really.
He turned an incompetent Ottawa team into a conference leader, and turned some decent though not stellar talent into superstars. While some would argue his brand is not exciting, I'd disagree, especially given he has a speedy front line to work with and, trying to avoid the cliche, knows what it takes to win. He was strong with Ottawa and St Louis, and.. er.. lets not talk about Florida, but Florida doesn't have the player pool Montreal has.




Now kids, I'm going to talk to you about a special kind of scam.

You all may be familiar with hockeybuzz.com?
No, this isn't a "EKLUND LIES!!1111" post.

I read hockeybuzz. I'm a huge fan of Eric Engels, and Howard Berger is at the very least entertaining.
I do not like the autoplay videos. I actually realize I spend so much time there I paid for a season ticket to avoid them.
But Eklund, please do not pretend they are necessary for anything more than selling season tickets.

Eklund claims he needs the autoplaying videos to pay for his site. Advertisements do not work that way - there is no premium for having the ad play automatically, and seeing how high Hockeybuzz is on alexa [coupled with how weak the server is judging by how it crashes on important dates], he should have no trouble "keeping his site afloat" (ignoring the fact that hockeybuzz makes frankly hilarious amounts of cash).

Hey, feel free to beg for money, but please don't pretend the inconveniences you give us are out of any kind of necessity other than trying to get us to pay you $20.

Pickups part two: The Big D, Moen, some Swedish dude, and a bag of chips that isn't being sniped by Kyle Wellwood

Time to look at the defense, as our fearless GM plans to add truculence, belligerence.. wait, that's Brian Burke. That said, Burke and Gainey both seem to be playing the "Who can make a bigger splash in Free Agency" game of one-upping each other.

Both also seem to think that having a dozen defensemen is a good idea.

I'm going to be forward - I like the Habs defense this season more than last. While we lost the uppity traitor who isn't worthy of a second of our excuse me we lost the towering presence of Mike Komisarek (who occasionally has given the puck to his teammates and not the opposition, I've heard), we've gained the second biggest player in the league, and unlike most Toronto Maple Leafs players, was actually introduced to this strange foreign concept called "the Cup"; plus we grabbed someone with a hell of a shot, as well as a guy who can move, shoot, and grow an amazing beard.

Oh and Travis Moen, who doesn't play defense, but he can run people over, so it's close enough.

Also a lot of people are pointing out that everyone is a left-handed shot. Who cares? I don't think this will be truly adverse as the main time the D is attacking is on the powerplay anyway, and that slight adjustment wont lead to a huge defensive liability.

Gill - I'm not ashamed to admit this, but I've always been a Hal Gill fan. You don't hear much about him, but doesn't that just mean he's doing his job well? He's slow, but that's less relevant when one stride takes you halfway across the rink. I also can't see him turtling on the ground after a random encounter with a wild Lucic. On his own he's not really a Komisarek replacement, but people wouldn't be criticizing our GM for wasting all our money if he hadn't actually spent all our money

Spacek - Ignoring the fact that I desperately want to call him Sissy, Spacey put up 45 points last season. Sure it's not Striet or Souray numbers, but is realistically only ten behind that. He fills the role of helping make the puck go behind the goalie on powerplays, and is hardly a burden on even strength. Good pickup.

Mara - Man that guy has an awesome beard. I won't lie, I don' know what this guy does. He has 21 points so he can clearly help us there, but that's not jump-out amazing numbers. I don't have anything witty or clever to say so instead I'll just leave the same beard comment every other blogger and commentator has made and move on with my life.

These acquisitions are a lot better than they look, while they dont have the brand power of Brian Burke's pickups, the fact that the Leafs opponent's biggest challenge will be stopping Jason Blake is hardly a cause for concern. It's clear to see what role Gill and Spacek fill, and Mara can hopefully do a bit of both of those roles to clear the inconsistancy and the fact that Gill is about as quick as Kyle Wellwood* getting ready to train.

We put some size up front too though

Travis Moen - Hey another cup ring! And he was on corner gas! Moen is a big player to abuse people who try to obstruct... the big three (see previous entry). This sets up great fights for fourth line positions, but I like him on Line 3 working with Lapierre and Latendress. That line has some real talent and will most certainly be giving out some serious bruises.

Engqvist - Unknown quantity. We have him for three years. He's a huge centre, but, as said, unknown quantity. And who knows where he fits on our depth chart? Excluding Cammalleri (who is in reality a centre), our centres are Scott Gomez, TradebaitTomas Plekanec, Maxim Lapierre, Glenn Metropolit, Kyle Chipchura, TooLazytoGoogleYourFirstName Enqvist, and any other random prospect we run into who is BIG CENTRE. Which leads to the signing I'm both happy and confused about

Chipchura - I love Kyle Chipchura. He's a strong leader, he helps keep the Bulldogs in line, and we have him, likely at most for one more year. The problem is he's played like, a dozen games in the NHL, tops. When talking big centres we really should be giving him more of a chance. He can't replace Pleks if he gets moved either, and Lapierre is way too strong to open that up, so hey, lets put him on a wing, trade Metropolit, something. Let Chips out there - Hell, last time he played in an important role was at the world juniors and maybe that might be a kick in the pants to motivate another certain WJC alum who really needs bloggers (and Bob Cole) to stop making comparisons between his name and a Bob Barker Drew Carey hosted show.



So we're big [outside of the first line] with new aquisitions, and overextended at centre. But there's another problem. We're overextended at D as well

Markov was our leading scorer before he missed three games at the end of the season. He's firmly in
Mara, Gil and Spacek will play. They're new, and high paid.
Hamrlik while having rough patches is still very much a strong part of this team
Gorges is fairly talented, and I don't see why we'd shun competence

But here's the problem:
We have Janik Weber, PK Subban, and Ryan Obyrne as well.
Subban should be invalidated right away. Let him play in the AHL at least a while to gain a level of professional exposure. That said, he should be up sooner than later.

Obyrne is incompetent, but he still has that RIGHT HANDED SHOT... and is, recurring theme here, huge. If he worked with Hal Gill we may have the slowest yet largest D pairing in the league. We cant just shun him.

Weber is pretty much good on every level, and is actually ready to play for us. But where do we PUT HIM?

This is an organizational nightmare, and now there's talk about bringing back Matthieu Schneider too; because that totally makes sense. I love Schneider, and think he'd be a great leader, but we really cant have eleven players fighting for six positions. Luckily Eklund reported it so I'm sure it wont happen. Till next time.














* Yes, I know Kyle Wellwood jokes are popularized by down goes brown; great blog, I suggest you all read it. That said I'm sure everyone was making them before reading them there, and I don't plan on stopping.

Gainey's pickups part one: The big three

So most free agents that matter are off the market, lets look at who Gainey actually grabbed while trying to not make short jokes or incredibly lazy puns.

The big three:
... too late on the incredibly lazy puns.

Gomez - Gomez is overpaid! What a cunning observation by the entire media and fanbase. It doesn't change the fact that, in his worst season ever (last year, incidentally) he still amassed more points than anyone on the Canadiens roster last year. I wouldn't expect him to bring a huge [sorry] physical presence to the game, but I can't see a 5'11 centre putting up 60+ points hurting the team, seeing as one just mysteriously disappeared.

Cammalleri - No I cannot spell his name. Cammalleri's biggest issue is everyone saying he can only put up numbers next to Iginla; I didn't know Iginla was on the Kings three years ago, as I could have sworn he was too busy making a first round exit against the Red Wings. He flip flops between having good and bad seasons it seems, which means we wont miss Kovalev (except, looking at patterns, Cam is up for a bad season while Kovalev is up for a good one). He's fast, he can put the puck in the net, and will presumably have Gomez to help with that, though at 5'9 he risks being pushed around by any large defenseman who isn't recovering from a broken jaw via Milan Lucic, just put some size next to hi- oh wait.

Gionta - Montreal managed to draft both the second tallest and second shortest player in the league this draft, though Gionta is, at very least, quick enough to be effective. It's clear there's going to be an attempt to recreate some magic with Gomez as these three will likely form Montreal's first forward line - they may be small but they're quick and have some chemistry already. While I hope to get off the size bandwagon soon it is important to note that while Gomez and Gionta succeeded with a 6'1 Elias, using a 5'9 forward in their place may not be the greatest call. That said, it's not like we have to put these three together, it's just being reported everywhere else. I'd expect him to at the very least be better at actually hitting the net than Chris Higgins, which is always a plus.

So if you took Koivu and put in someone with more points and twice as much cash, Kovalev with more speed [and far less entertaining puckhandling], and Higgins with someone short but actually competent, you have these three. While Gionta hasn't really been that solid since he last worked with Gomez, it's not like we have anyone else putting up 60 point seasons that aren't named Andrei, let alone players who are said to be having a bad season after 60 points (except Kovalev). Just a quick reminder, point structure last year was Kovalev with 65 (getting a whole one more goal than Toronto's 'lets shoot from the blue line' Jason Blake), Markov with 64 (and the honor of having the team never win a game he didn't play in) , Koivu with 50, then jumping down to Tanguay's 41 - and you know you're in bad shape when you're fourth highest point-getter only played 50 games. I'd say by sheer production alone the habs are in good shape, and while we lost some first line size, Gainey seems to be trying to remedy this by getting in a race with Brian Burke over who can hire the most defensemen

Up next; remembering it's 12 forwards and six defense not the other way around, and why no one cares who shoots left.