Everyone expected Buffalo to be better this season.
Everyone was right … at least so far.
The Sabres are 3-1, with a goal differential of plus-5.
They’ll be a tough test for the Canadiens.
Forward lines at morning skate were the same as Jacques Martin used against Colorado.
Defence pairings: Gill-Diaz, Gorges-Subban, Emelin-Weber.
• Price, Subban seek redemption
• Pat Hickey remembers Earl McRae
• Former tough guy Ron Stern talks about challenges of retirement
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Is damphouse drunk. Alain is talking about a really bad draft year for Quebec players this year and dmphoose is still talking about if players at 18 years being ready for NHL or going back to juniour
So when will Gomez start playing better he made a promise last season has anyone asked him in a interview
Just realized john madden is still a free agent, would probably be a good fit on the habs; size, defensive skills, faceoff and mentoring
Gomez sucks !! Just saying
… http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Mike+Boone+Players+must+adjust+after+cheering+stops/5562609/story.html
‘Post-Hockey Life Brings Challenges To Players’
…most clean, succinct and best article I have read yet with Mike Boone’s name attached to it
Habitant means PASSIONATE HOCKEY
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=423049
Here a link to Pat Hickey’s Earl McRae piece, and it’s a beaut!
http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/McRae+found+communicate+with+audience/5564756/story.html
More news from the I don’t give a hoot department.
SHELDON SOURAY 5 GP :: 1 G :: 3 A :: 4 Pts :: +4
Yes. You read that correctly. Plus 4.
Now from the tell me more department.
YANNICK WEBER 4 GP :: 1 G :: 1 A :: 2 Pts :: +4
SCOTT GOMEZ 4 GP :: 0 G :: 1 A :: 1 Pts :: +0
Weber having more points than Gomez is just wrong.
I’m sure it’s the right kinda wrong for a bunch of people around here.
If you don’t grok it, drokk it!
Is it a +0 because Gomez is optimistic about getting more points?
Some might say he is a -0.
Not that I’m a very superstitious type de guy, but I like to keep the hockey gods content. So, I’m listening to my least favourite Miles Davis album (Tutu) to do my part. The team’s record is astoundingly good when I play this album on game day. Can’t hurt.
I better breakout my Wings album from the mid/late 70′s then, team seemed to play pretty well when I was listening to them!
Travailler by Pagliaro!
What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
Patch’s, AK. and DD is kinda interesting isn’t it?
@jimlaplante
I like the two decent sized wingers with good hands with mighty mouse.
I have really like DD so far this year.
Hartnell is getting less and less ice time in philly. What would you be willing to give up to get him?
Cole-Plecky-Cammalleri
Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gionta
Kostitsyn-Eller-Hartnell
Not bad for a top 9!
Agreed but what is Holmgren shopping for?
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What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
This game is gonna be hard on our rag tag D corps and Price has got to step up,SAbre’sgot some real SPitfires that are running on all cylinders .CoachMartins “system”will be exposed for what it is tonight?It is time for the HAbs veterans to STEP UP!
Buffalo and Philly will contend for the top of the East standings this year I think
I have Philly in there for sure. I think Washington and Pittsburgh will be in the mix as well.
yeah, I forgot about Washington….good call, I actually think the East is becoming stronger than the West
I heard a stat the other day on the percentage of NHL Revenue every year and forgot or didn’t realize just how much is from the Eastern Conference. I can’t remember the exact split but I seem to recall that almost 75% of the total league revenues are generated in the East. Doesn’t necessarily correlate to Conference success, but I agree the Eastern Conference as a whole seems to be getting stronger.
The closest we’ve got to a leader is Cammalleri (I think he should be captain). Crazy glue his leg and get him in there!
What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
PK looks like he is trying to take a nap on Iginla’s shoulder, that’s kinda neat.
If you don’t grok it, drokk it!
he did a nice swan dive after that moment and then through his arms up to the refs…..that stuff does not go over well. PK shouldn’t dive cause he is a target out their with his style of play. If he doesn’t dive he will be able to draw a lot more penalties
The hope is that Gorges can better follow him, and keep him a on responsibility leash.
If you don’t grok it, drokk it!
I’ve been visiting this site and reading the comments for some time but have yet to post. I was reading some of the stories on grantland.com this morning and came across an article by Chris Jones (no clue who he is) about how fans overuse the term ‘we’ when referring to their favourite team. He was basically chastising fans for using ‘we’ as opposed to ‘they’. Anyways, he forgave the fans of two teams for using the term we: 1) the Packers, because they may actually own a stake in the team, and 2) wait for it….the fans of the Leafs. His justification was as follows:
“If you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you can probably say “we,” because your faithful devotion to that miserable team is the principal reason they will always be s**t. You might as well accept your share of the blame” – Chris Jones on Grantland.com, 10/18/2011.
Enjoy your Tuesday Habs fans, I am predicting WE will win tonight.
That is an intersting point about TOronto. But I can’t believe the article left out the Saskatchewan Roughriders who are clearly owned by the fans.
Probably because it is a largely American website, which made it all the more surprising to me – and probably gratifying as well. To see that with all of the sh**ty American teams out there this author chose to slag on the Leafs and Leaf fans.
“If you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you can probably say “we,” because your faithful devotion to that miserable team is the principal reason they will always be s**t. You might as well accept your share of the blame” – Chris Jones on Grantland.com, 10/18/2011.
Your right about impressive they slagged the leafs, and for that reason was being kind of sarcastic about the roughriders.
I am slow to read sarcasm. It is, however, very obvious on the re-read
“If you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you can probably say “we,” because your faithful devotion to that miserable team is the principal reason they will always be s**t. You might as well accept your share of the blame” – Chris Jones on Grantland.com, 10/18/2011.
The author of that article, Chris Jones, is actually a Canadian. He’s from Port Hope, Ontario. Normally, when Grantland publishes an article focusing on (or at least heavily referring to) a Canadian team, they usually take an article written by a Canadian author (see the article on Toronto as the worst sports city).
Grantland has a staff of regular contributors, but they also outsource their work to other writers who have a particular expertise. Freelance writing, if you will.
Thanks for this information….clarifies some things. I liked it better though when I thought he was American. Hey, at least readers of Grantland residing south of the border are receiving a bit of an education about hockey.
“If you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you can probably say “we,” because your faithful devotion to that miserable team is the principal reason they will always be s**t. You might as well accept your share of the blame” – Chris Jones on Grantland.com, 10/18/2011.
@danmanium
Agreed!
Plus I like the fact that Canadian writers have the opportunity to have their work published on a reputable site like Grantland. I personally love Chuck Klosterman’s work so to have University of Toronto graduates have write-ups beside his are pretty neat.
Letang has a disciplinary hearing today from that hit last night. Can’t say I agree with that. It was boarding and he got 2 minutes. If he gets suspended I will be shocked.
Too not suspend Malone and then to suspend someone for boarding is insane so it probably will happen
If anyone needs to buy habs gear for Christmas the Hockey fights Cancer t-shirts look fantastic:
http://shop.nhl.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12195635&cp=12175288&clickid=body_bestsell_txt
For the sake of trying to change the habs luck. I thought they were going to win on Saturday and we blew it. I predict we lose tonight 3-0. Miller is playing well and so are the sabres and we will have trouble getting scoring on Miller and our Defense has been pretty brutal….unfortunately I think that will continue.
Fingers crossed this works
Would that be considered a double reverse jinx. Given that you are providing the reverse jinx predicting the Buffalo win but openly admitting it is a planned reverse jinx.
I am all for it, just unsure what “the System” says about how to announce the reverse jinx.
Perhaps Boone can enlighten.
lol
I also watched the first Bruins home game. What was with the empty seats in Bean Town? Did their fans already forget or was the $600 per seat gouging a little much to swallow! Go figure! Get the middle class in to support you all year then ban them with astronomical prices during celebrations! Go figure! They looked like buffoons with empty seats on a night like that.
Was watching the Dallas game the other night! The place was empty because of the Ranger game! Why don’t you advertise and broadcast the baseball game during the hockey game on your on your jumbo-tron screens! It could attract some fans. For your advertisers you could advertise during Baseball commercials! As for you paying advertisers if you playing in front of 2 fans does it really matter!
5 of your 6 sentences end with exclamation marks. Something tells me you love mornings.
Must be the double-double double cappuccino!!
Check this out:
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2011/10/08
Great stuff from down goes brown, if you can understand the baseball references as well:
http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2011/10/hockey-fans-guide-to-world-series.html
hilarious though
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/article1197317.ece
Did you see MAB is top four in scoring
replace the lightning with habs and change a couple of numbers. the gazette can recycle this article! or even better, cyberpresse.ca, that way they can avoid copy-right infringements
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hip-check!
That is what I was thinking when I read it, except TBay is not fighting the injury bug as bad as us.
Link to McRae article doesn’t seem to work.
Where is all that talk about how we let the great Guy Boucher go? 1 win and 26 goals against in 6 games is a joke with the talent on that team.
Roloston GAA is 6.87. Is that Boucher’s fault
Halak didn’t carry the team as far as the ECF and collapsed. JM got out-coached by Laviolette.
If you don’t have a good goalie, you have nothin’. And as the old saying goes, “Show me a good coach, and I’ll show you a good goalie.”
From what I recall he got us passed the two top teams in the conference and without him we would not have gotten into the playoffs. Price wasn’t so good that year . Whose old saying is that??
1st sentence was sarcasm. Quote is from Don Cherry but it’s an old hockey saying and I haven’t an idea who it’s attributed to. Probably the same dude that wrote Greensleeves.
Halak is gone. Get over it. What’s Price done? How many rounds has he gone? Halak is 9-9 in the playoffs, Steve Penney was 15-12 Price is 8-15. Halak is gone, get over it.
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What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
As the beastie boys once said, no sleep till Montreal ( wins! )I’m exhausted yet found it in me to awake this early on a week off… I’m pumped. I’m into it. I’m excited by the intense swarming offense the habs displayed against Colorado and hope to see the same tonight. If Carey regains form and DD Max PK line stays intact to start the game??? We have a good chance to win. Go habs go!!!
I couldn’t help but notice that the Gazette called Subban out for being a superstar and actually scoring a goal by not following Jacques Martin’s five and five hockey that cost us a stanley cup!
new H I/O meme:
Name a team that is having a losing streak and then say “Fire the Coach!”
penguins, “Fire the Coach!”
senators, “Fire the Coach!”
sharks, “Fire the Coach!”
…not as much fun as it would be if it were JM…lol
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hip-check!
Nice article on Ronnie Stern. I was living out West when he joined the Flames. That guy never took a shift off, and was willing to go with anybody. When I read the headline, I was worried this was going to be another story of a tough guy battling drugs, alcohol etc. Glad to read he is doing well.
Just checking in, I’ve been away for a few days…I’m not concerned about Price. Horrific defence in front of him right now and it is not odd to me that a young goaltender that had the success he had last year comes out of the box a little slow anyway. Some are alluding to the games played last year and that is my only concern with him. I have no problems with playing 72 last year to hand the reigns over, and hey, he carried this team to the playoffs. He can’t work that load and then play a possible 28 playoff games this year. His backup is not very good, so I am a little concerned about that.
Other things that keep me up at night are this defence, which I thought even out of the box would be better, and injuries to this small team up front. This defence is the oppposite of what I expected. I was looking for more speed, better puck movement, and the ability to clear the net, all wishful thinking based on what I have seen so far. We are also still not deep enough yet up front to handle injuries.
It’s early, but when you miss the playoffs or home ice by 1-3 points, you can always look back to October and point to why.
When you make the playoffs by 1-3 pts. you can always look to any point in the season and see why.
As for the defence, I thought the whole team looked a little confused out there again. The “system” has not been totally digested yet I guess. PK being a hot dog really put the fire out for them though. But still, not a point to panic, yet.
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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
***Habs Forever***
By those stats and that logic, a lot of favourites will struggle to make the playoffs. Either parity has arrived, the Leafs are world beaters and the world is upsidedown or the stats aren’t always right.
Good ole MAB – he had 3 assists last night (two even strength) and ended up with a plus/minus of 0… miss him on PP but that’s about it.
8 points in 6 games for him so far, with an even +/- on a losing team averaging about 19 minutes(quick mental math). Not too shabby!
You’re right, your math is mental. You forgot to figure in Tampa’s record in those 6 games. Or are you saying you’d like MAB back in Montreal with those same stats, both personal and team?
errrrr… kinda taking what im saying out of context here…
Just saying the facts, and my stats are not wrong, 19 minutes is literally his average icetime in the games tampa has played, how am i wrong here? Plus, how does the wins and losses have any effect on those stats other than the plus/minus i said was clearly alright. Id love half of tampa’s lineup, is that ok?
I hate +/- as an indicator of good or bad! +/- only tells me something when you look at other stats combined. At 8 points and 18 goals for and 26 against maybe proves he’s putting up points on the PP but can’t help stop a beach ball and isn’t doing much 5 on 5. Out of the 26 against how many has he been on the ice for 5 on 5 or defending a PP? They don’t post those stats. I like him offensively but as a D he’s a lost puppy.
Because they have a coach that knows how to put people and talent in situations that they will excel. It is called coaching!!!
11 Tampa Bay GP6 W1 L3 OTL2 PTS 4 GF18 GA26
12 Montreal GP 4 W1 L 2 OTL1 PTS 3 GF11 GA 13
That Boucher, with Stamkos, St. Louis, Lecavalier and Malone is coaching waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than JM. He’s so good his players walk on water.
Guy and his disciples are going to be doing a local charity soon in the TBay area where they will turn all fans Bottled water into wine. No charge just donations. Nice to see them putting these extreme talents to good use.
Jealousy will get you nowhere. How far did Jacques and Carey go?
What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
It is surprising that they are struggling may just be other teams have figure out the way to counter Boucher constant forward system
thank yoou!
Any team is only as good as their goalie. Ask the habs. Roloston GAA is 6.87. Do you think we would have made the playoffs without Halak or Price??
Took him on my pool, I needed another D and who (available at the point) better than MAB!
If you don’t grok it, drokk it!
Carey shuts out the Sabres & PK scores a big goal!
“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”
And we win a 1-0 snoozer. Sounds about right.
The Montreal Canadiens have announced that Carey Price will not be the starting goalie in tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
Instead, starting in goal will be an older, more experienced goaltender:
http://www.runboard.com/bvintagegoaliemaskdiscussionpage.f5.t14420
once the page opens, scroll down to see who it is
I honestly didn’t know he was a former goaltender
“They don’t hang Conference Championship Banners from the rafters here”
Carey Price
Well if the mutiny is as bad as some would have us believe, my concern with Martin starting in net, is Cole would start shooting on his own net. However, again according to most, he will hit Martin in the crest every shot.
I can only imagine the slapshots from in close during warmup with JM in net.
Cool pics, thanks for the link.
Incorrect. Cole scores on every shot he puts on a MTL goaltender. History has taught us this.
You are correct, I forgot about that angle.
The first thing that came to mind was that he looked a little bit like Milan Lucic…maybe Lucic is JM’s love-child?
In his Thirty Thoughts for this week, Elliotte Friedman says that since the lockout, only two teams that have been more than 3 points out of a playoff spot on November 1 have recovered to make it. The Sabres were 4 points out last year, and the Flames were 7 points out in 2007. That’s it. We’re 3 points out right now, with games in hand over the three teams in front of us, but we have a very tough schedule the rest of the month. Three points sounds like nothing so early in the season, and with our injuries and our inexperienced defence, it was probably foreseeable that we would have a rough start (even if none of us foresaw it). But we have to start stringing together some victories so we can at least stay with the pack until Markov comes back or until our Markov-less defence is better able to handle the job. In the Puckcast, Mike Boone gave it as his opinion that we would lose to both the Sabres and the Penguins, while Pat Hickey (I think) thought we’d get 3 points on the week. Pretty pessimistic. For my part, I’m likely to be in panic mode if we lose tonight, or at least if Price and Subban play like they did on Saturday.
It’s very hard to argue with stats like that…..I tend to hang my hat on stats as well…….especially last year when price was in the crease 72 times. No goalie other than brodeur and I believe Hasek in the last 30 years has ever hoisted a cup while playing that many games during the regular season. The stats don’t lie! Just like December is a really big tell month that usually determines who’s going to the dance in april and who will be heading to the lynx.
Shaker
The only other one I can think of is Grant Fuhr. I checked, and in 1987-88 he played 75 games and won the cup with the Oilers. He started another 19 games in the playoffs.
Fuhr also played 79 games with the Blues in 95-96. He was 33 at the time, that didn’t work out as well…
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Hasek didn’t do it either…his Stanley Cup came in a season where he played 65.
What’s amazing is that Patrick Roy only played more than 63 games twice in his long career…67 in 1991-92 and 68 in 1993-94.
Bernie Parent played 73 games in 1973-74 and won the cup.
That’s kind of scary because I think Habs will still struggle in the short term until the team finds its game.. and Nov. is right around the corner.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and call it – Gomez scores his first goal tonight. Man, I hope the branch doesn’t break way out here…
I can agree
Agreed
Absolument.
Big 4 pointer tonight. Let’s have a solid defensive game and Carey be Carey to get us a big 2 points tonight.
“They don’t hang Conference Championship Banners from the rafters here”
Carey Price
He hasn’t won one of them either.
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What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”
Souray always had that booming shot and would stand up for his teammates. He just was so injury prone with the hands in every fight. I also thought he didn’t want to be in the East anymore because of his kids living in California.
Unfortunately, he was never quite the defensive stalwart.
Edit: Hey Habsolutely, did you drive Markov to the airport yet? Or is he still chillin’ with you.
Expert opinions come by the dozen, get a sheet out and write down the prognostications. Should be hilarity by Christmas. Perhaps that’s why they’re so intolerant of others’ missives. Everyone has a right to play in the sandbox. Self-anointed ayatollahs kiss my hiney LOL.
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What does it say on Bob Gainey’s office door?
“Larry Robinson not welcome.”