Tuesday Top Ten: Signs Your Team Might Be Falling Out of the Playoffs

Tuesday top ten time, and as we're halfway through the season, it's time to chronicle what might be signs that your team will be golfing at the end of April, so

Top ten signs your team might be falling out of the playoff race:

10: Your goaltender was reminded he is, in fact, Cam Ward

9: Hopes for your team rest at least partly on a goaltender aquired in December.

8: No one in Montreal wants your French-Canadian star centre.

7: Have been blown out this season by the Leafs

6: Contingancy plan on your star player getting injured is a player not good enough for the Leafs.

5: Your playmaking centre has had his size be a trending topic on twitter more times than points he's gotten this year.

4: You traded a former fourth-overall pick for a player you have healthy-scratched in the past week.

3: Your team is allowing Chris Osgood to actually face a few shots a game.

2: After spending $20 million this season on new free agents, the one bailing your team out the most is a $750 000 a year defensemen who injured his own goalie in the stanley cup finals.

1: The league is feeling too much pity to find a reason to suspend Chris Pronger.

Your guide to enjoying the habs at home.

I live in Toronto. It's a rough city to be a habs fan in; as we had the audacity to ship them via free agency a penalty-box timekeeper pretending to be an all-star defenseman.

That said, living in Ontario, or really anywhere outside of la belle Province makes it incredibly challenging to actually enjoy a Habs game. RDS is hard to stumble upon, Hockey Night in Canada coverage is lacking, and six hour commutes are somewhat inconvenient to see your team.

I'm going to try and keep this fairly affordable and vague. Not everyone can commit thousands of dollars to a home theatre.

So here I present: The Essentials to Creating a Home Habs Experience

1: You will need a TV. Not a computer, not a laptop. NHL Gamecentre on their website has some incredibly unfortunate restrictions with blackouts.. and internet connection latency

2: You'll need a cable box or sattelite. This unfortunately is non-negotiable. You simply wont get more than a dozen games without it.

3: Order the channels! If you need english coverage, you'll be shelling out around $140/season for the Center Ice package, which is great. If that seems a bit excessive you can cut the cost in half by simply ordering RDS, which only sets you back $6 a month, though you get no other teams and your games will be in French. If this is a problem to you, pull up a laptop and watch the game while listening to the CJAD feed off the internet:  http://www.cjad.com/

4: Your experience is going to be limited if you don't have good seating. A good couch or big recliner really helps take the edge off of going 0-10 on the man advantage.

5: Beer, scotch, bourbon, or ginger ale. While not openly promoting alcohol, a good sipping beverage really does add to the experience. And if you like your drinks with kick, they can help you forget it after an embarassing home loss. There's also the added subtle team loyalty if you drink Molson, or only drink Molson when the team is leading. The one buddy you could convince to watch the Habs with you will truly understand your committment.

6: Snacks. Both satisfying and an excuse to leave your seat during commercial breaks and embarassing defensive lapses.

7: Either a buddy or twitter. Just so you're not potentially drinking alone in your basement watching a hockey game with commentary that you don't understand. If you're really good at this you might even want to start a hockey blog.

The first week of comparing Kessel to Cammelleri

As I said I would do way back in late September, I'll be comparing Phil Kessel to Michael Cammalleri all year. I've spent the last month learning how to spell "Cammalleri" and it's time to begin. I'll be doing one of these once every week or two weeks, depending on how creative i feel, and at the end of each month I'll see who "won" the month.

I'd love to point out that Cammalleri has 14 points to Kessel's 3, someone would likely point out that comparing one player to another when one spent a month doing nothing is only legitimate when the player doing nothing is actually on the ice, and as this comparison has nothing to do with Jason Blake, we can only look back to Nov 2 for the comparison.

Kessel has three points since then including a game winner; though do game winners really count when your team wins by four goals? Meanwhile Cammalleri has been trying an experiment called "secondary scoring" where his line puts up very few points hoping that Thomas Plekanec is ready for a lot of work. Meanwhile there's the sensation that Cammalleri is actually focused on working with his teammates as he's assisted on goals and clearly can score himself as his shootout winner proved. That said, it might be because Cammalleri actually has NHL quality linemates as opposed to an AHL centre and a creepy albino guy who's patented skills include "going fast", "wrist shot from the blue line", and "ruining my team's cap situation for the foreseeable future"

I won't be declaring a 'winner' this week, it's more that it's good to see the party has begun for this comparison. Besides both players are at basically a point per game pace anyway so they're theoretically neck and neck.

The 2009-2010 Habs Drinking Game!

The 2009-2010 Montreal Canadiens Drinking Game!

How you play is simple. Have a glass with a mixed drink or a beer ready [with spares on the way when you run out] as well as a shot glass with hard liquor for the "Take a shot" category"

Prior to the game you need to choose whether you're Optimistic or Pessimistic. This will matter later, in the "Take a Shot" section

Feel free to come up with your own! I'll add them if you comment.


Sip:

- Neutral zone turnover

- Commentators mention the size of Gionta, Cammelleri, Gomez or Gill, or the speed (or lack thereof) of those players.

- Bad pun involving Carey Price's last name

- Commentators make some form of sentiment towards Markov's absence

- Fans boo a player on the habs

- OLEEE! (with Montreal leading)

- Failed Montreal powerplay attempt

- Spacek shoots wide

- Laraque fight

- Bob Cole makes an obvious error

- Mispronounced names by commentators. Bonus sip if it's an obviously english-rooted name (or Gomez).

-Offensive zone faceoff win for either team.

- Former habs legend involved in puck-drop

- Gorges Laraque on the ice with five minutes left in the game with Montreal trailing by one. Sip for every separate shift he takes.


Two sips

- Carey Price beaten glove-side. Take a bonus sip if it's off of a complete failure of defensive coverage

- Ceremonial faceoff taken by someone on Montreal who's last name doesn't begin with a G and isn't Michael Cammalleri.

- Commentators mention the size of Ryan Obyrne

- Kovalev or Koivu mentioned

- OLEEE! (with Montreal trailing)

- Any fight not featuring Laraque

- A potential goal for either side is sent upstairs to be reviewed (This is added to any additional drinking the goal or non-goal induces, see below)


Pour and down a shot

- Montreal scores on the powerplay

-If you chose Optimism at the beginning of the game, an even strength or shorthanded Montreal goal. If pessimistic, any goal scored by the opponent. Apply the Carey Price gloveside two or three sips if necessary.

- Any predominantly third or fourth line player scores (Metropolit, Moen, D'ags, Chipchura, Moen,Laraque [see also 'chug beverage'], Paciorretti, Stewart, Latendresse, Lapierre)

- Hal Gill scores

- Montreal Loss


Chug your beverage
- Latendresse directly in front of the net

- Gorges Laraque getting a point

- Montreal Win

- Montreal Loss if you're not drinking a Molson beverage.

- A goal for either side is disallowed





BONUS DIVISIONAL RIVAL DRINKS
These are to be used when we face our divisional rivals
Leafs
Sip

- Komisarek penalty

- Commentators mention "1967", Grabovski or Komisarek's leaving the habs,

- You can read something on Ron Wilson's cheat sheet

- Orr or Rosehill fight

Two Sips

- Any mention of the Courtnall / Kordic trade

- Jim Hughston acts condescending towards a fight


Boston
Sip:

- Any time you wish you could see Komisarek get punched by Lucic one more time

Two Sips:

- Marc Savard chooses to shoot instead of pass

Ottawa:
Sip:

- Any Montreal fan reaction to Kovalev

Buffalo
- Sip for every Leafs jersey you see in the stands.

Kovalevelled

Well Kovalev had a good night setting up the gamewinner as well as adding a second goal last night. The Habs made defensive mistakes but not many. I think our biggest problem now is finish; we need to get pucks in the net - we've only scored more than twice in a game vs Toronto and that's nothing to brag about.

The first seven minutes of last night's game are the best I've seen the habs. Not best I've seen them since early last season, not best I've seen them since we won the conference, best I've seen them period (this of course, coming from someone who was in grade school during the Patrick Roy era, and was more interested in pogs than trying to find a channel carrying the Habs). It's unfortunate that this tempo and ability came off faster than a Jiri Tlusty outfit. While pundits claim "the effort wasn't there", I disagree. What wasn't there was aim, and clever shooting. If a point shot doesn't work the third time you try it, it's still not going to work the ninth time you try it.

Plekanec looked solid all game, and tragically missed a wraparound with an open net. I feel bad for him, but he works damn hard so I'm sure he's in for a good season.

Also I don't think anyone else noticed, but for a brief moment in the first period, Latendresse was.. IN FRONT OF THE NET! For the rest of the game we played Where's Waldo trying to figure out where he actually was on the ice, but for a brief moment he actually looked like he was doing what he was supposed to. In other strange news, Gorges Laraque put in a firm offensive effort, and I think he may actually get a goal or two this season, and thats not one of my half-assed attempts at humour.

We're up against the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday, and while my gut tells me that the Thrashers are supposed to be a terrible team, some strange source tells me they're actually second in their division and have only lost once. Lets hope we end our five game losing skid soon. Every team we've faced has had a fairly good goalie so maybe this could be some light at the end of the tunnel. And, at the very least, at least Boston is losing a fair bit, though at this point I'm not sure losing to Hamilton Phoenix is an embarrassment to any team these days.

In other hockey news, both Alexander Ovechkin and the Nashville Predators scored two goals last night, keeping them neck in neck for who will score more goals this season (Ovechkin currently has nine goals to the Predator's 10).

Bad Officiating: More than just a bad excuse

It was only appropriate to wait a few days for this post, some of the emotion of the 3-2 loss to Colorado has burned out and we're now more focused on facing Alexei Kovalev and the Senators. But it's important to address the biggest issue of discussion following Thursday's game

Complaining about officiating issues goes beyond trying to justify a loss
I feel I made this somewhat clear in my image following the game, showing how the officials failed to call Montreal for having seven players on the ice, but this needs reiterating.
Regardless of who wins or loses, bad officiating hurts the game. The events on ice should be focused on the players and their events, not the referees determined to make this event more of a dramafest based on their interactions with the game. If I wanted a soap opera I would have turned my TV on several hours earlier or gone on LiveJournal.

Be it last nigth's broken-stick agression, or a puck in the netting, the refs and linesmens should be expected to be both professional and competent. We should expect excellence from -everyone- on the ice, members of the Toronto Maple Leafs notwithstanding; but even they had perhaps one of the worst botched calls in history effecting them. While officiating will always be subjective, there should be at very least some form of reprimanding for officials following clearly mis-called games.

Maybe we should take a page out of pro football's book and implement a challenge system.

A few random thoughts and the, er, Gainey Group?

Quick edit just after posting; it seems Shawn Belle will be debuting with the Habs this Thursday. Should be interesting.

It's been a long week and a half since I last wrote.
Montreal has gone 0-3 since then, and while it's still great to be ahead of Toronto in the division, I feel much dirtier having conceeded a point to them rather than having gained two at their expense. Having the same record as Boston is some solace, but there's still a long season ahead of us.

On that note, I think it's important we all remember that. As rough as we look now, we showed good drive against Calgary, and we showed we can create a strong offense against Edmonton rebounding after a disgusting embarassment that I can no longer remember due to the quantity of gin it made me reach for. We have seventy-seven games left. If we can get 89 points out of them we'll be on the cusp of the playoffs and that'll have already exceeded the expectations of some. Especially as we showed, while we're not brilliant, we can survive without Andrei Markov.

Laraque asked politely to have Number 27, as he's worn it everywhere he's played that didn't have a Russian star wearing it already. Does BGL really want to be that much more disliked by segments of the fanbase? Somehow I don't think it's occured to him that he's kind of slow, and not very good at hockey compared to last season's leading scorer and primary puck-dangler.

Speaking of ol' Alexei, Ottawa rolls into town this Thursday for our home opener. I wonder who will draw more boos - him or Laraque? (Spoiler: Laraque)



If you've found this blog you probably were linked to it directly by me or via a #habs post on twitter. This is a problem not for my hit counts as I don't care, but because it's really hard for Habs writers to be noticed. If you follow the Leafs blogging network they have what they call the "Barilkosphere" where notable bloggers are linked to each other via sidebar and everyone tends to follow each other's content. This already happens to a certain extent in the Habs world with Habs Inside/Out tending to link to interesting articles they stumble upon; though HI/O is sponsered by The Gazette and I doubt could spearhead any kind of formal initiative for Habs fans if only due to the fact that there may be a commercial liability issue. Eric Engels also gives great shout-outs to other bloggers from time to time. The point is, it would be great if an initiative to 'tighten' the Habs online writing community together started out. I'm not a particularly talented writer and have next to no readerbase so I don't really have a part in pushing myself to be listed, but I'd do anything I can to make something like this happen. If you're a contributor from one of the big Habs blogs out there [Eric Engels, Lions in Winter, Daily Hab-It, the aformentioned HabsInside/Out or any other Habs writer interested in this] just leave a comment and we can talk via email or anything towards a sort of 'network' for us. As my sidebar says, I'm a coder with a lot of time on my hands so I'd be more than willing to do the gruntwork to make something happen, just as long as we have people interested and behind it.

More injuries, but we beat Buffalo

I could not be more upset with Obyrne being injured. Not because Markov's gone, but because he was playing passionately, he was playing competently, and he was making a case to be truly important to the team... a far cry from the Ryan Obyrne of last season. He won't be on the plane to Calgary which means we'll need to borrow someone from the AHL - I'm assuming Yannick Weber, who I think will shine in the absence of Markov, but still isn't an outright replacement.

Glen Metropolit, possibly our best forward on Thursday against Toronto, is out with hurt ribs. I don't expect him to be gone for too long but this might be a chance for Kyle Chipchura to prove he's worth a damn - assuming he's actually recovered from his own upper body injury.

There's not much I can do to make this post funny, so here's a link to my favourite joke.

Last night's game proved we can win without Markov, and that's an important start. Our biggest key now is holding on to the puck more, which we can't use Markov's absence to justify our incompetence on. From that we need to take more shots, as one shot in the third might actually lead us to a loss once we face a team with actual playoff aspirations.

As bad as we played in the first and third, we're still showing we can battle, and more importantly that we don't give up. Moen's goal was great (look at the replay from angles other than above the net, he was blatantly pushed) and that kind of aggression is what our team needs.. More shocking was Gorges Laraque being involved in the play and keeping up; Big Gorges seeming relevant is an important thing to look out for.

Ten reasons to stay optimistic

Andrei Markov looks to be out somewhere between two and four months with a tendon problem having introduced his leg to Carey Price's skate.

This is, naturally, one of the worst things that can happen to us, but it's important to stay optimistic so here's ten reasons to stay optimistic following last night's game and Markov's injury:


10: Basically impossible for Markov to hurt himself in our next match against the Leafs on Oct 31.

9: Markov will be able to gain stellar insight hanging out with Rick Dipietro, Pascal Leclaire, Tim Connolly and Marian Gaborik. He may also play mentor to Mike Van Ryn.

8: Yannick Weber is actually pretty okay at moving the puck around

7: So offensively deep our fourth line centre can get a powerplay goal

6: We aren't the Atlanta Thrashers

5: Our winger demanding a trade is not actually playing for us anyway

4: Huge advantage over last season, not getting tired out having to stand for so many Centennial celebrations

3: Those new guys are actually pretty good

2: That Price guy seems pretty good

1: At least we can beat the Leafs

Thoughts and observations while I give the habs some money via drinking Molson Ex

this is a somewhat euphoric post so hindsight may hurt it later, but just some initial impressions before looking too in-depth at what actually went down tonight, things I noticed, supplemented by statistics

-Cammelleri and Gionta were perhaps the two most ever-present players on the ice, and I'm glad to see that. Camm just needs a goal now.
-Hal Gill fucked up and cost us a goal, but he wised up afterwards and put in a good solid effort
-While the shot totals were ugly, our first and third periods were great. Our second... not so much.
-Carey Price was brilliant. We needed that more than anything
-I did not expect to see Moen and Metropolit so involved in the game's score.
-Hey Komisarek, you had a great bench to sit on watching us score twice right? (Note: When reached for comment, Komisarek's response was "I love you, you love me.." and trailed off into song)
-I'd take any of our new defensive acquisitions over Beauchamin right now.
- ... we can't phone in the second like that. We were outshot rediculously, and thats how come Carey had to put together 43 saves just to get us an OT win.
-It speaks volumes of our new team that we didn't fall asleep at the switch when down 3-2 near the end of the game; even when we won the conference two years ago we'd still sometimes pass out with a momentum-killing late-game goal.
- and most importantly, our "tiny team" outhit Toronto 47-22....

...Truculence.

Tonight, tonight

So, Stubbs, of habsinsideandout (perhaps the best Habs resource out there), has stolen my nickname of the "Big Three"; that dick ! http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Gainey+blow+Habs+real+good/2053144/story.html
But seriously I'm honoured. Just remember I did it first.



Tonight the regular season starts. I've got a few beers ready to enjoy the game with and a few more if we lose... and a few dozen if Komisarek scores or injures someone.

I considered liveblogging the game but I felt I'd sacrifice journalistic integrity to take in my first full game since game 3 against Boston last season.

Better late than never.

Some news that's causing so much buzz that I'd lose cred for not commenting

1: Sergei Kostitsyn has DEMANDED A TRADE! Considering he has no ability to jump ship to the KHL. I really can't see any team picking up an uppity Belorussian with severe entitlement issues. I wonder if we do trade Sergei, if he'll take it out on an linesman.

The real threat here though, is it effecting his brother any more than the Montreal fanbase attacking him. Andrei is actually a good player, despite what others would have you believe, and it would suck to see him paralyzed by his brother.

2: We won't have the captain named in the immediate future. I've used this as an opportunity to buy a Cammelleri jersey with an A on it. Now that this information is public I'm sure Gainey will be rushing to sew a C onto Camm's jersey.

In April you will say "Woa that Torontonian fuckin' called it!"

So, here's what I think will happen by the end of the year with our new aquisitions, solid numbers this time

Gomez will have 65 points. They will be profoundly helpful, high for the team, and will get him crucified by the media.

Gionta will have 25 goals, all either on breakaways or from in rediculously close. He will be loved.

Cammalleri will be better than Phil Kessel and will light the lamp 35 times this season. He will be one half of the only competent aspect of our powerplay

Spacek will be the other half and will have high jersey sales because he has a single digit number, has never scored on the Montreal net while playing for them, and isn't a relative of Barney the dinosaur.

Moen will make Gorges Laraque being waived or bought out less painful.

Gll will be the anti-Jason Blake. By that I mean he will never go past the defensive blue line, will be responsible in his own end, and never shoot the puck all while sporting a killer tan.

Sanford will be fighting Halak to see who can get a second round pick at the deadline or leading the Hamilton Bulldogs to victory.

Mara will have a pretty cool beard and doesn't afraid of anything. Expect him to be invisible, the way a good D-Man should be.. except his plus minus stat will suggest he needs to actually get better at that.

Wake me up when September ends

A few thoughts as Theo Fleury entertains multiple job offers from teams less likely to respect him than his Calgary fanbase, and I drown myself for using a Green Day song as a blog title.


Oft-injured and now vegan Gorges Laraque is now the Habs rep in the NHLPA, succeeding Mike "I Got the Brains of a Dinosaur Too" Komisarek. He plans to defend the wages of his coworkers, and tearing the face off of anyone who offers him a cheeseburger. This is great news for anyone scared of any NHLPA meetings passing motions like this


I think a good question to raise before the season starts is who's the winner in the Kessel sweeps, Toronto or... Montreal.
Simply put, Toronto's need for Kessel is predicated entirely on Toronto being unable to sign a 35+ goal scorer in the free agency period. As much as Burke's trip to Sweden was almost certainly not just to rouse the Monster, Cammelleri was likely a second pick behind the untampered twins still playing for the Canucks. Because of this there's a little bit of subtext between the two teams that isn't really apparent. Did we beat Toronto concisely, stealing one of their home-town boys, or did we save them from some short dude, allowing them to bid their future on Phil "Totally not the next Dany Heatley in terms of Attitude Problems" Kessel. Because of this, and because I pretend to occasionally have journalistic integrity, I'll be comparing the two often this season; both every few weeks to see how their doing, and more specifically I'll be comparing the two when they face each other to see how confrontation goes.
... I have a sinking feeling Cammelleri is going to perform better than Kessel will on Oct 1.


The pre-season is over for Montreal, which means we can get back to figuring out who our captain will be; I'm waiting intently as I don't want to get the letter wrong when I buy a jersey this season. Despite my scared reaction to one of our losses, we played pretty good, though special teams need some work. Training camp won't feature Sergei Kostitsyn, but that's okay as last season he proved all he was good for was irritating Mikhail Grabovski, which while admirable, I'd rather it be done by someone who can actually inflict pain upon him.

The Winners of the Kessel Deal

The real winners of the Kessel trade are Montreal, Ottawa, and Buffalo.
Boston loses a 20 goal scorer for prospects in some of the weakest drafts since the mid-90s, Toronto gains a player who thrived next to a great set-up man... something the Leafs don't have.

There's always Jason Allison?



I didn't watch the pre-season game last night as I was too busy pretending my employment is relevant nor do I actually get RDS, but it's good to see Gionta producing. Apparently he worked well with Pleks too. Good to know the habs can make us even more anxious for Oct 1 to roll around

Something about a rivalry

So as Brian Burke decides mortaging two first rounders is apparently worth a sixty point player... when playing next to the number one setup guy in the league, it's effectively hockey time.

Last night's game resembled a PR stunt for Bob Gainey; his new pickups got points, Carey Price looked good, and Curtis Sanford looked like a sieve showing why we can't trade Halak. At time of writing we're losing to the Senators so maybe this propaganda is illsuited... except that 2/3s of the Big Three and Price are not dressed.


Back on topic of Sir Truculent, one thing I'm looking for this season, even more than a post-season position or the competition between Pascal Leclaire and Marian Gaborik on who can play the most games, is a hopeful revival of the habs / leafs rivalry. Sure roughing up Grabo was fun and all, especially when he decides to retaliate against his fierce opponent, the NHL linesman, but really this year I think will be the most exciting series between the two teams. And lets face it, if we're not fighting, the Leafs need to pretend the Battle of Ontario has relevance, and no one wants that.

So here's why the Leafs / Habs rivalry may actually pick up again this year

Size vs Skill: While the Habs aren't nearly as small as we'd like every other team in the league to pretend, we very much are a quick, agile team, next to the pugnastic assault of the Leafs. Our speedy forwards dancing around theirs only to be then rocked by three checking lines will be fun as hell to watch, and is a legitimately different dynamic.

We both actually have players that can fight: Laraque being the de-facto heavyweight is standard by now, but adding Travis Moen is useful if BGL's crippling vegetarianism or back problems stop him from dropping the gloves against Colton Orr, as well as deflecting fists from Grabovski away from the officiating staff. If that fails, at least we can dazzle them with Mara's beard?

Burke and Gainey's UFA pissing contest: Didn't the entire month of July feel like Burke and Gainey moving to grab attention? Be it Burke's microphone magnetism or Gainey's "he seriously signed gionta?" moves, it seemed like the entire off-season was them changing their dynamic and making people think "Those guys are going to suck". Ignoring the negative reaction to team changes depending on where you live, it's kept both the Leafs and the Habs in the limelight all summer, with The Big Three drama, Komisarek deciding one Belarussian mobster teammate was enough, Moen, Mara, and Gill crouching to get in team pictures with Cammalleri and Gionta, and this whole Kessel traded for the Leafs foreseeable future drama, these two teams have not faded. Means that opening night they both get to strut so much more than everyone else.

Komisarek is a backstabbing dick with no tact, who's mouth emits a constant array of untrustworthy bile: Also bears shit in the woods

Montreal's best french player can actually take the body: Though Guilliame is also likely Montreal's ONLY french player, I'm sure this matters when he erases whatever AHL callup winds up in the neutral zone with his head down.

They'll both be fighting for second in the division: Ottawa's yo-yoing positioning notwithstanding, their division is tight, and that means all six meetings actually matter for once, instead of being a curbstomp battle by the conference leader and everyone else middle of the pack, the rest of the conference is likely going to be deflecting much of eastern Canada from the playoffs, making every loss to a divisional rival that much more frustrating... and more fun to watch




We'll find out Oct 1


... Oh and good for theo fleury on the shootout winner. I hate to admit it but that may be his last big moment in the NHL and at least it was in front of thousands of fans who love him.

Less than a month until I run out of excuses for not updating

Well, I'm sure all six of my loyal readers are as let down as Brian Gionta learning he couldn't ride the rollercoasters when the carnival is in town, but I'm getting ready to buckle down and write blogs with actual content and not just jokes gleaned from hockeybuzz comments and DownGoesBrown articles.


I'm not well-connected enough to have the scoop on prospect events and training camp, I'll leave that for people who are actually connected, have real contacts, or pretend to and ask for people to give them money to avoid autoplay videos. That said, we're less than a month away from the season so it's time to see how the conference may play out.

I won't give a seeded rank, I'll just say whether a team will likely be in the postseason or not.

Boston - Boston had an outstanding run last year! They managed to make both Tim Thomas and Paul Maurice look good in one season, which is an outstanding goal. I think though, they'll do what Montreal did last season and drop from first to middle of the pack. Their competition is tougher, their backup is less solid, it's unlikely they'll still have Kessel, they're broke, and Milan Lucic may get serious arm strain after six more thrashings of Mike Komisarek. Expect them middle of the post-season pack. Which, by the way, is where Montreal will be. Here we go again.


Washington - Doing all they can to prove you can win without ever actually using a goaltender, expect Washington to be just as strong as last year. Jose Theodore suffered a terrible loss which will likely effect his playing time. Expect Washington to do better than last season.


New Jersey - Their talented goaltender is aging, their offense that wasnt there is now.. less there.. their coach is more defensive without a whole lot of real defensive tract. Expect them to fall faster than Marty Turco after making a dramatic save.


Pittsburg - They still have Crosby and Malkin. They have less defensemen. Expect them to either finish embarassingly out of the playoffs as it seemed last season and to do their best Carolina Hurricanes impression, or to shock no one and still be a contender.


Philidelphia - If Chelios doesn't resign anywhere, these guys will likely be where I direct aging-defensemen jokes all season. That said it's not as if they've really changed more than that except for adding a goalie with a suspiciously runny nose. Will make the playoffs for sure.


Carolina - Paul Maurice will remember he's actually a bad coach, Cam Ward will realize again he's not good enough to hold a lackluster team afloat. Martin Broduer will cry.


New York Rangers - They lost a playmaking centre and added two wingers; one of which couldn't score on a shootout with an empty net the other is professionally imitating Samuel L Jackson from the movie Unbreakable. Don't expect a long playoff run.


Montreal - Our forwards can get points but can't get on rides at an amusment park. Our defense is tall and slow. Plan the parade. We'll make the post-season in the middle of the pack


Florida - Florida gave up a good D-man for an average one and a good goalie for nothing. Which is exactly what they can expect from this season outside of a high draft pick.


Ottawa - Currently employing two wingers who'd rather be playing elsewhere (thanks for the shout-out by the way, Alex), they nonetheless have at least three players who can light the lamp, and a goaltender who is solid when he's not hanging out with Marian Gaborik and Rick Dipietro in a hospital ward. I honestly can't predict how they'll do considering how different their results with the same group of players are.


Toronto - Proud employer of half the defensemen in the conference, Toronto will be a pain in the ass to face assuming you're a team without a goalie. Look out Washington! Expect them to injure the rest of the division, helpng every other team make the playoffs.


Atlanta - Now with the more threatening additions of Pavel Kubina and Nik Antropov, Atlanta looks to for the first time in recent memory, finish tenth overall.


Tampa Bay - Improved all around, but still have too many question marks for me to assess or come up with something witty about. How is Tanguay making less than Plekanec/


Kansas New York Islanders - Have a star of the future and more backup goalies than anyone should rightly need. Expect them to finish 14th overall to find a winger for Tavares

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.

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

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.