Go Habs Go!

[Doc Holliday]

A friend of mine attended last night's game and told me today that there were thousands of empty seats in the Bell Centre. Stu Cowan also mentioned this earlier today on Tony Marinaro's podcast. Cowan added that covid was kind of a wake up call for many fans. He explained that the tickets to the game were expensive & covid got fans used to staying home & watch the game on their 4K 75" tv instead, with cheaper food & beer. He added if the game's no good they can simply stop watching the game & watch a movie on Netflix or something. He said that for the price of two reds you can buy yourself a brand new big screen tv. The price of the food is way overpriced at the game & same thing for the beer so why not stay home & watch the game in a more comfortable setting? And if being among other fans is your thing just go to a bar & watch the game on several big screen tvs while eating pizza & drinking a few beers.

I just admit that covid also was a wake-up call for me in regards to attending live sports events. I used to attend several hockey games both in Toronto & Montreal over the years. I figure i would attend about 4 games in Montreal & maybe 2 in Toronto. I'd also attend a couple of Raptors games. And maybe a Buffalo Bills game once a year or once every two years. I'd attend the Canadian GP every two years or so. But as i told a buddy of mine who'll be heading to Ottawa & Mtl in April to watch a couple of games i doubt i'll ever attend a live sports event again. Especially if the game is being shown on tv. I told him covid made me realize that it was a waste of money.

Edmundson is out because it was a back-to-back game & they wanted to give him more time to heal. By the way am i the only one who had a problem with St-Louis' selection of shooters during the shootout last night?

 

[gaby]

Bonne réflexion....et surtout quand on prend de l'âge....vrai qu'on on est tellement confortable à la maison bien au chaud ..pas de trajet à se taper et libre de faire/manger ce que l'on veut à meilleur prix....lol

Tirs de barrage...ouin petit malaise avec HOFFMAN et surtout ARMIA...perso j'y aurais été avec ANDERSON et LEHKONEN...just saying....

 

[gaby]

Oh wow....honnêtement je n'y croyais pas...mais non......nous ont encore surpris avec une victoire de 4-3 en ot...un but du surprenant PITLICK avec 43 sec. à jouer...wow...et quelle garnotte de CAUFIELD en prol. sur une passe de qui??? et oui PITLICK ....fin spectaculaire...

Et oui c'est ça notre nouvelle identité....et j'adore...lol.

 

[gaby]

Oups...CHIAROT pas en uniforme ce soir....ça sent l'échange....le deadline approche à grands pas...

 

[Cap'tain Fantastic]

Monty 4 buts accordés sur 7 lancers. Avec Primeau en back-up ça inaugure mal.

 

[gaby]

Ouin....une côte pas facile à remonter..... au moins CAUFIELD a encore volé le show avec 2 buts en 8 sec....mince consolation.

 

[Cap'tain Fantastic]

Moyenne de nos 2 portiers ce soir: .685
Pour les preds: .923
Ça résume assez clairement le match, soirée à oublier.
Je ne crois pas qu'il soit réaliste d'espérer que le CH joue pour .500 d'ici la fin de la saison.

 

[TheBlob]

Si Cole Caufield peut être productif comme ça sur une saison complète, bien hâte de voir le résultat.

 

[gaby]

C'est parti.........CHIAROT passe aux PANTHERS pour un choix de 1ère ronde en 2023 et un de 4ème ronde en 2022....c'est ça qui est ça....lol.......next???

 

[Doc Holliday]

Hard to say. They’d probably like to get rid of Weber, Price, Gallagher & Petry’s big contracts but it’ll be next to impossible. Maybe one or two of those during the offseason.

If they feel Price can come back they may try to trade one of their other goalies for something of equal value but who knows. I have a feeling they’ll re-sign Kulak & i can’t see why they’d trade Lekhonen considering his age & decent contract. They may try to trade Dvorak but they won’t get more than a second round pick for him. Since they gave a first to obtain him my guess is that they’ll hang onto him for that reason alone.

I look at who they might want to trade to get rid of his contract & to get a very good return for & the name Josh Anderson comes up. However my gut-feeling tells me he’ll be staying put.

 

[gaby]

Autre bonne game enlevante...défaite en ot....thanks again to PETRY...lol....s'ils peuvent s'en débarrasser au pc....c'était bon de voir ALLEN de retour....a bien fait comme c'est son habitude.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Maybe it's time to sit Petry in order to increase his value on the market. Everytime he plays he keeps bringing it down. Who knows if he sits for weeks maybe people will forget about how bad he's played this season & they'll start remembering the old Petry again? People in Edmonton must be laughing right now & saying "We told you so!" What's scary is that this guy is 35 years old & athletes that age regress & continue to regress. Plus the fact the next two years will be the most expensive of his contract. He also doesn't seem to be that much of a good influence around the team as a veteran. Usually veterans can be counted on to be a positive influence & show the younger players the way. Not sure that's the case in regards to Petry, who dearly wants out in order to rejoin his family. And i'm certain that although they don't say it out loud the organization feels the same way & it's not just because of the money.

I have a feeling that not much will be happening from now on until the trade deadline but i could be wrong. What complicates things is Carey Price's status. Will he play this season? Can he still play & if so how will his knee hold up? And if it does will he ever agree to get traded & if so will he be stingy in his list of destinations to be traded to? And what do you do with Montembeault? Will he re-sign if he feels that Price & Allen will be back next season? Do you keep Kulak with the hope of re-signing him & if you do keep him what's to say he'll prefer testing the market to see if he can increase his value & see what teams out there may be interested in him? So many questions.

 

[gaby]

HUGHES a dit hier he was not on the move pour aucun autre joueur..qu'il est prêt à tendre l'oreille pour toute offre ...même Kulak....semble intéressé à le garder....avec TOFFOLI et CHIAROT a déjà fait des gros moves....mais évidemment va devoir bouger..on a trop de scrapt/déchets dans le garage...lol

MONTEMBEAULT...oui son sort est beaucoup lié à Price....mais je ne serais pas surpris qu'il reçoive une offre comme second avec une autre formation....il a fait ses preuves et risque fort de demander un échange .

 

[Doc Holliday]

It is true that the team has too much garbage it needs to take out. But the problem is that 'garbage' currently costs a lot of money which is something other teams don't want. You can have garbage but expensive garbage is the worse type to have & to try to get rid of. The only way they'll get rid of some of their garbage is by bribing an opposing team which may agree to take some of that garbage off their hands in order to reach the cap floor. But other than Arizona are there any other teams in that category? And for a team like Arizona to accept to take on some of that garbage it will have to be a very tempting offer from the habs. Usually that would be in the form of high draft picks & prospects. But the habs are in the same boat & they likely want to hang onto their own high draft picks & prospects, whoever they are. And Arizona would naturally be suspicious if the habs offer them prospects that they're willing to get rid of since they're in the same boat as they are.

In other news it's starting to look like Carey Price will actually make a return this season. As usual he was supposed to only miss a few weeks, then it turned into months, then who knows. But he's been skating daily & has now started practicing (or has he?) according to what i've heard. The fact the team is playing better & finally competitive again must have got him interested in coming back to play this season. I can't blame him since under Ducharme there was zero incentive to come back since the team was absolutely brutal! However Martin St-Louis seems to have put some fun into playing hockey again.

The trade deadline is coming up Monday. Tampa made a big trade with Chicago earlier today, acquiring Chicago's promising young defenceman in return for two first round draft picks. These are two late round picks so the cost isn't as high as it first appears. But TB did send two young promising players to Chicago so it looks like a good trade for both teams. One's going for another Stanley Cup run & that defenceman they got will likely be there for years, while Chicago is in the same boat as Montreal & trying to rebuild & get younger. Not sure how long they'll be able to keep Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews in the lineup. But Kane would still have good value on the market.

I'm hearing that Claude Giroux will likely be traded tomorrow morning. After having played his 1000th game last night in Philly the Flyers decided to keep him out of the lineup for tonight's game against Ottawa. Since he has a non-movement clause Giroux supposedly narrowed down his choice of destination to be Florida. Colorado was also rumoured to be included on his list earlier but he supposedly set his mind on the Panthers. But i'm hearing that tonight other teams have indicated their interest & may try to entice him & the Flyers into making a deal. Giroux could simply chose to finish the season with a contender & then spend the offseason decide where he'll play next season, which would likely be his final NHL contract & for multiple years. He's 34 but he's still a very productive player who's rarely injured. Too bad the habs have such a bad team & looking to rebuild for the next couple of years. He could have been that true #1 center that they haven't had in nearly two decades.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I’m told that Carey Price practiced for the first time with the team this morning. This is great news!

I’m also hearing the both Jonathan Drouin & Josh Anderson may play tonight against the rival Senators. That’s also good news!

 

[gaby]

Seems pretty sure PRICE should play few games soon in April.........SENS tonight.....should b a good one...belle rivalité....les HABS ne doivent rien céder face à cette jeune équipe...lol.

 

[gaby]

Belle victoire .....bel effort d'équipe 60 min...le fun de voir les gars s'amuser et savourer chaque instant....et redevenir les dieux du stade .....évidemment l'adversaire n'était pas une super puissance et n'était pas dans la game,,,,,,mais who cares...comme dit
Marty...seul la victoire compte.....et que dire du travail de ALLEN......remarquable....solide retour au jeu....faut qu'il demeure ici...c'est une valeur sure...et il veut jouer ici.

 

[gaby]

HUM....6 grosses games devant nous et ça commence ce soir avec les BRUINS......ensuite FLORIDE 2 FOIS en une semaine--TORONTO---CAROLINE--TBAY...et NJERSEY dans le paquet....on devrait avoir une meilleure photo /idée de nos HABS....
jouer .500 serait déjà une belle performance....à suivre.

 

[TheBlob]

J'aime la nouvelle identité des dernières semaines. J'aime les voir compétitioner. J'aime les voir gagner.....juste assez

Considérant que la saison est foutue depuis longtemps, et que malgré les récents (relatifs) succès nous sommes encore dans la cave, je garde quand même un oeil sur la lotterie.

L'an prochain sera le vrai test, on partira d'une page blanche. Ou semi-blanche.

 

[TheBlob]

Kulak Out, Lekhonen out. Bonsouère, ils sont partis.