Chris

Member since November 21, 2007

Guelph, Ontario

Habs fan since: 1984
Favorite current player: Andrei Markov...who will now be traded because I listed him. Still love Koivu and Higgins as well.
All-time favorite player: Mats Naslund, but also Eric Desjardins, Stephan Lebeau, Kirk Muller

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Recent Comments

• Comment on Rimouski defenceman Morin could be a good fit for Habs at draft
  The problem is that the short-term need to get bigger is not necessarily the long-term need of the franchise. Kids drafted this year will not be impact players for 3-5 years. Montreal has already bulked up quite a bit over the past two years, and are realistically 1 or 2 players away from being every bit as bit as most teams in the league. Pacioretty, Bourque, Eller, Subban, Tinordi, Galchenyuk, Emelin, Prust...all bigger guys who have become regulars for the Habs over the past 1-3 seasons. Gionta is on his way out after next season, and I suspect Desharnais will be dealt as well to make room for Galchenyuk and Eller. Add a player like Bickell and the Habs no longer have a huge size mismatch at forward. So I'm all for taking the guy who is most likely to develop into an elite scorer. Size would be great, but goals are my focus.
• Comment on Rimouski defenceman Morin could be a good fit for Habs at draft
  If Fehr is the impetus for removing fighting from hockey, I would gladly chip in money to build a statue for him in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Fighting in hockey is ridiculous, as are the arguments for keeping it in the sport.
• Comment on Rimouski defenceman Morin could be a good fit for Habs at draft
  Well, let's see if he plays like a dejected player in Game 5. If he comes out and works his rear end off, I have no problem whatsoever with his comment. It is honest. Stick a microphone in my face after my team was just completely embarassed for two periods and I'm probably even more pessimistic than Alfredsson. But I'm also able to separate words from actions. I've had numerous games in various sports where I **knew** my team was almost certainly not going to win. That never stopped me from working my tail off from start to finish trying to avoid the inevitable. I suspect the majority of professional athletes are the same. They can say one thing, but in the game, they will either work hard because it is in their personality to not quit, or they won't. The Montreal Canadiens said all the right things before their own Game 5 and then came out and layed an absolute egg on home ice after the Senators weathered the first period. They quit. If Alfredsson quits in Game 5, then I will join in the pillorying. I'm more interested in how guys act in the game than what they say minutes after a pretty devastating loss.
• Comment on Rimouski defenceman Morin could be a good fit for Habs at draft
  I wouldn't say never, but it would have to be special circumstances. I think most people would take Kopitar over Price if the draft were re-done, but few would have done that in 2005. Kopitar was a coming from a non-hockey nation (Slovenia) and his time in the Swedish junior leagues probably wasn't enough to soothe some of the fears. Price was a "safe" pick, and if we're being honest, he's probably had the fourth biggest impact of the players chosen in that first round (behind Crosby, Ryan, Kopitar; you could make an argument for any of Setoguchi, Price, Staal or Rask for the 5th spot). So he wasn't the wrong pick, it was just a crap draft. This year looks like a draft that should have some good players even down lower in the draft. I wouldn't spend a top-50 pick on a goalie, but I would certainly consider using the late 2nd rounder on a goalie if one of Eric Comrie or Tristan Jarrie happened to fall that far. Other than Calgary, there's no team out there that has a dire, immediate need for a goaltender, so there should be good ones left in the second round.
• Comment on Rimouski defenceman Morin could be a good fit for Habs at draft
  The Habs need help at forward far too much to spend a first round pick on a goalie. Good forwards and defencemen are almost always found in rounds 1 or 2, with exceptions for alter rounds. Good goalies can be found all over the place. Here are the top 20 goalies in the category of wins, the category that captures the most likely #1 goalies, and their draft position: 1. Henrik Lundqvist - 7th round, 205th overall 2. Antti Niemi - undrafted 3. Niklas Backstrom - undrafted 4. Marc-Andrew Fleury - 1st round, 1st overall 5. Evgeni Nabokov - 9th round, 219th overall 6. Braden Holtby - 4th round, 93rd overall 7. Sergei Bobrovsky - undrafted 8. Jimmy Howard - 2nd round, 64th overall 9. Carey Price - 1st round, 5th overall 10. Ondrej Pavelec - 2nd round, 41st overall 11. Corey Crawford - 2nd round, 52nd overall 12. Tuukka Rask - 1st round, 21st overall 13. James Reimer - 4th round, 99th overall 14. Ilya Bryzgalov - 2nd round, 44th overall 15. Jonathan Quick - 3rd round, 72nd overall 16. Ray Emery - 4th round, 99th overall 17. Cory Schneider - 1st round, 26th overall 18. Ryan Miller - 5th round, 138th overall 19. Viktor Fasth - undrafted 20. Jonas Hiller - undrafted Obviously a good team in front of a goalie can make them look great. But goalies like Bobrovsky, Fasth, Hiller, Backstrom and Niemi prove that a team with good European scouts can usually find some talented goaltender that wasn't even drafted. Perhaps somebody should take a flyer on last year's Swedish Elite League goaltending stars: 26 year old Czech Alexander Salak (41 GP, 25-15-0, 7 SO, 1.61 GAA, 0.939 SV%) of Farjestads is 6'3" and 189 pounds, giving him the size that NHL teams crave, while 24 year old Christian Engstrand (34 GP, 20-12-0, 6 SO, 1.89 GP, 0.935 SV%) is a bit younger but smaller at 6'0" and 194 pounds. In Finland, 24 year old Antti Raanta put up a very nice season (21-10-11, 5 SO, 1.85 GAA, 0.943 SV%), helping Assat Pori win the SM-Liiga championship behind a relatively young line-up, and he has NHL size (6'0", 188 pounds). In the KHL, 24 year old Stanislav Galimov had a nice season (14-6-3, 4 SO, 1.94 GAA, 0.943 SV%) for Moscow Oblast Atlant, and he's got the right build to be an NHL goalie at 6'2" and 198 pounds. All of these guys are undrafted. I think the Canadiens should be in the business of picking a goalie in the later rounds (4th and on) most seasons. You only need one to pan out every few years to make it worthwhile. But spending high picks (1st-3rd) should only be done when you have a crying need or a surplus of picks. I think Montreal has a crying need and a surplus of 2nd round picks, so if they don't package them to move up in the draft, they should consider drafting a goalie in the second round. There will certainly be some good ones still kicking around.
• Comment on Canadiens sign two Swedish draft picks; Emelin has surgery
  The reffing in the NHL is not bad. Believe me...I watch a lot of junior hockey, international hockey and even university hockey. The NHL referees really are the best, in general. The problem is that the game is incredibly difficult to referee. Blow the whistle too early, as was done last night, and fans are on their back for that one time out of 200 where it costs a goal. Blow it too late and the fans are on their back for that one time out of 50 where the goalie gets up livid after having the covered puck dislodged for a goal. I can think of a couple this year where Price had every right to be upset. Consistency would be nice, but when they make a mistake on a slow or fast whistle, or bite on a dive, they are more likely to err the other way to make up for their previous gaffe.
• Comment on Canadiens sign two Swedish draft picks; Emelin has surgery
  Hjalmarsson was much maligned in the first year of his new deal, but he's been steady ever since. Be interesting to see what he goes for on the next one. He never developed offensively the way they thought after his first deal, but he's also been stuck behind Keith and Seabrook for much of that time.