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.

Repeat after me; it's only the pre-season

We've seen all three faces of the Canadiens now.
Their first game was defensively minded, offensively talented, and netted us a win, with Carey Price doing his job.

The second featured our defense not focusing enough but our talent preserving a win.

The third was reminiscent of the last two years when occasionally we just forget to skate defensively.


I guess the priority here is to stay calm. Even at our worst there was silver lining, Spacek got a goal, and there is certainly some talent buried there.

I'll be in the corner my gin. Lots of gin.

But as I drink, at least i know that only half of our team was on the ice, and Martin still has a chance to beat some life into the team if this happens again.

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