Little brother returns, The golden boy is shipped out of town

Montreal Canadiens call up RW S. Kostitsyn, trade RW G. Latendresse for Centre B. Pouliot.

I assume I'm not the only one who didn't see this coming, despite the fact that I've been dead to the world for the past week. Poulot was selected fourth overall in the 2005 NHL entry draft, which makes me wonder if he'll poke some fun at the fifth overall pick from the same round. Though you could just look at this as Montreal trading up 41 spots four years after the fact, while laughing about how people said "Montreal is dumb taking a goalie, Theodore and Huet will always be rock solid for them"

Latender was really getting lashings for underperforming, though his real issue was trying to be a finesse player when every aspect of his build and skillset says "Crash the net you're a power forward". That said, best of luck to him in Minnesota. Good to see members of the Habs playing with a guy named Koivu.

Speaking of which, we really need to get on signing Plekanec. I don't know what the cap implications of this deal were, but we aquired an underperforming centre for an underperforming winger and somehow I doubt this was meant as just a screw you to Kyle Chipchura.

Maybe the real thing here is either our maligned winger (who has 13 points in 16 games in the AHL) is either going to move up to the NHL on a more regular basis or is going to move out of town in the very immediate future. I'm not sure which I prefer so much as I hope we just get solid play. I;d like to see both Kostitsyn's succeed, but I want what's best for the team first. I'm not worried about this callup, I'm just curious about it's implications.

In other news Greg Stewart is finally back in the AHL. Finally.

Anyone else remember this?

It's been too long since I've used the Saku tag.





I was considering making an "Obscure moments in Habs History" regular feature but seeing as I steal from Down Goes Brown enough, nor am I familiar enough to know what counts as obscure, I think I'll just share memories here and there without pomp and circumstance.

I remember this bout distinctly, and being remarkably shocked about Saku (almost) fighting. I had forgotten his opponent but suddenly it becomes so much more relevant..

Dany, Pleks vs Saks, and Laziness

The dog days of summer are where most hockey bloggers dig through their extensive resources to come up with something deep or introspective... and completely irrelevant. I'm sure we're all concerned as to why Gorges Laraque wasn't at Lapierre's golf tournament (ignoring the racial subtext maybe he didn't feel like chumming around with skinny white guys he has nothing in common with and instead was more focused on his own charities) or that Patrice Brisebois is racing in a NASCAR-esque race, I'd rather be posting something directly about the team with my failed attempts at being witty or not be posting at all.


So on the note of talking about my team, how about..er... Dany Heatley. Why is everyone so agitated at this dude? I mean, he said he wanted a trade; he has every right to do that. Sure he pulled a dick move saying "I don't want to go to edmonton", but really, it doesn't change the fact there's a 50-goal scorer on the market who has tons of proven experience at lighting up the World Championships.

Here's something to think about. Saku Koivu is playing for 3.25 million dollars. Thomas Plekanec is playing for 2.75 million dollars. Anyone else think the habs desperately need that $500 000? Or rather, Saku's 54 points in 65 games vs Plekanec's 39 points in 80 games?

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

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.