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Good for Tim Thomas. He's right, they are one and the same private property party pretending to be two for appearance sake. It's a cosmetic government of, by, and for the rich in America.
Tim Thomas, Radical.
Someone's fantasy All-Concussed Team for 2011/12
Forwards
Crosby - Giroux - E. Kane
JVR - Backstrom - Briere
Perron - M. Richards - Gerbe
Michalek - B. Schenn - McDonald
D
M. Staal- Letang
Weber - Pronger
Z. Michalek - Liles
Goal
Miller
Reimer
----
I think he might be over the salary cap by a bit.
All Star game's gonna suck without Crosby and Ovie - one out with a concussion and the other for attempting to cause.
Thomas is also a big glenn beck fan i hear. Though it doesn't shock me that a hockey player would be into that. They're bred for conformity, acceptance/submission to authority from the time they're born.
We hear you.
Glenn Beck "I hate 9/11 victims families for asking questions" (and Katrina victims in New Orleans, too)
Tim Thomas just another conformist sponge for the pro war, pro right wing propaganda. Vacant look in his eyes. He's rilly good at stopping pucks with his head and blocker, though.
I guess no one cares about hockey anymore. Fair enough. The Canucks sent a franchise rookie to Buffalo for, er, playoff grit or something.
The Habs ghosted their horrible season by sending Kostitsyn to Nashville, who are apparently trying to become the Habs circa. 2009. Expect them to land Halak next. A second round pick for Andrei. That makes three plus their first rounder, which will almost certainly be top 5. Hopefully Gauthier won't be the one making the selection. It's very depressing to think that our best chance in improving our team rests in Scott Gomez's inflated salary which one day, we hope, will expire.
Rick Nash didn't go to Toronto, who seem happy to let Winnipeg make the playoffs before them Such class from an original six team.
Habs are worse than Hibs this season. Go figure.
I'm not sure about that, Caissa. There is an advantage to finishing last in the NHL. Not so in the Scottish Premier League...
Yes I think this year's prospects are fairly impressive. T'would be nice if the Habs grab Dumba, Faksa, Forsberg, or even Grigorenko. And I think Jarred Tinordi is looking pretty good for the Knights. There's our next Hal Gill. He's a plus 41 for them this year. What a turnaround.
Sidney Crosby could be about to become the NHL's most-watched No. 3 line centre.
The Pittsburgh Penguins star will end his second extended concussion-related playoff Thursday to play against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Crosby's return alone would make Thursday a date to circle. But the Penguins also have won nine in a row without the former NHL MVP and scoring champion, and they've closed a once-formidable 10-point gap behind the Rangers to four points in the race for the Eastern Conference's top playoff spot.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/03/13/sp-nhl-penguins-cro...
I never thought I's say this, but there need to be more no-talent bums sent off the ice on stretchers. If the league and refs are not going to protect the finesse players from flying elbows and head shots in general, then they need enforcers to explain to the no-skills players in easy to understand terms that this is what happens to you when you goon our snipers and dishmeisters.
I might be persuaded to watch the NHL and CFL again if there were an equal number of women as men on every team. That goes for the basketball league as well, whatever it's called.
That's it I think. Women on the team might encourage them to respect one another.
Hey Blake Geoffrion scored his first as a Hab against the Nucks. Go Habs Go!
man, the molsons have just ruined the habs. seriously, everything has come off the rails. please let them not draft a tiny forward with their guaranteed top 5 pick.
anyway, now that the habs are out, don't really care, though i'd like to see winnipeg do well, especially because people in quebec are starting to get excited about a team returning to that city and a nice little winnipeg run would only increase the excitement.
I think it's become that kind of league, though. Ottawa had a lousy season last year, but it looks like they will be playing this spring unless the wheels fall off with 8 games left.
Habs lost a lot of games this season by one or two goals. And with parity the way it is, missing key players like Markov most of the season or Gionta now has been the diff between winning and losing for them. It's like that for every team. Staying healthy is either in the cards or not. A broken wrist or torn ACL mean pretty much the same thing to a player whether they are 6-5 or 5-7. Mind you I'd rather have a Rene Bourque crashing the net for us than a smaller guy. But players' stats speak for themselves, too. Right now Bourque while ferocious on the ice has been a liability for us. He's going to have to get used to the two-way tighter style of game in the East. His plus-minus is awful.
What every team looks for in a forward is a guy who can skate first and foremost. Habs have always been known for our skillsy forwards who skate like the wind. Scoring ability and vision on the ice are nice, too. And Habs development guys are working with the prospects in the junior and college levels.
And Habs are a younger team now with potential. They have some good prospects in the skunkworks with speed up front and size at the back. And one or two of these draft picks might even be NHL material. Hopefully Habs scouts will pick one of them.
24 in '15? It's all good.
The Habs lacking scoring punch. I expect another lacklustre season next year.
Caissa they've scored 8 fewer goals than the 1st place Rangers. And the Habs have scored 2 more goals than St. Louis in 1st place overall.
And each of the Flyers, Sens and Caps have allowed a few more goals against. And those teams are in.
I'm thinking we need some minor adjustments.
How could I be so wrong? -12 on scoring. Maybe the world isn't coming to an end after all.
The world is always coming to an end as long as the Cup stays away from its rightful place on Rue Ste-Catherines. Of course, then we know it's here.
Ship Gomez to Hamilton, give Markov the gold watch and pray for Yakupov. Then buy some decent defenders.
Also, Rene Bourque? Quel désastre.
That's it, goals against. For sure there is room for improvement on the goals for side of things. But goals against is where it will be easiest to make up the difference. And we won't need high-priced forwards to do that. We have the goal tending, no doubt about it. The young guys on the blue line are gaining valuable experience right now and newer forwards getting to know their line mates better with every practice and game.
What we need is to make the playoffs in each of the next few years and hopefully in higher positions than 7th or 8th. What we need are a bunch of guys willing to sacrifice their bodies like no other time in their lives and give 142.8% in that season that actually counts for something. The chemistry will happen and the stars will line-up for us. Just a matter of time.
Check, although I am not ruling out a surprise comback next season for our top five blueliner. Markov is a wizard on the back end if only his knees hold up. There are lots of D guys in the league playing with pins and screws in their knees. I think the Habs will make a decision on Markov soon, though. He's a prolific dishmaster with amazing vision for the ice as qb on the pp.
The good news is that these are glarizing weaknesses for a team that has lost too many games by small margins of error. They won't need new management or coaching to tell them how to fix these ones.
I think we could use some improvement on D. We have good young guys learning their trade right now. Subban has good wheels, and Emelin the merciless has the punishing style of play we need. Tinordi will be a good prospect on the back. Kristo has amazing speed and needs to develop some strength for the big league.
lol!
Well, the Leafs had a better than average power play; and they did manage to bring their penalty kill from below dismal to something like average after Christmas. And, in spite of my prognostication at the top to the thread, they still managed to vie for a stellar draft pick.
A lot of fingers point to the goal tending, and there is some weakness there, but if you look closer there are some pretty astounding deffensive gaffs on a regular basis. That is a problem persisting under two different coaches, so the pressure is certainly on the players on that score. Which is odd, because there are times when any of the six Leaf deffence corps have shown that they know how to play the position, and play it well.
I figured the Leafs would have a challenge with a toughish schedule in March, but it was February that did them in.
A collective "WTF?" from Leaf Nation.
I think that special teams are important but not as much as they used to be. Come spring time they all play not to lose and power play opportunities are reduced. The Flyers were short-handed 3 more times than the Habs and yet allowed 22 more goals against than Montreal while on the PK.
Both the Habs and Leafs need to be better during 5-on-5 hockey and take scoring leads of even one goal more often and defend the lead. It is far easier to prevent goals than to scoreo them. The Habs simply need to stop taking so many penalties(thanks refs). I think the stupid penalties have been demoralizing for the Habs this year. The younger guys must learn to play dirty when refs aren't looking. It's either that or we need to start slipping cash to referees before games. I dunno.
But IMNSHO the Habs should pay me for my excellent analyses and insight. I'm an excellent manager/coach/scout/fan, and I'm gonna put in for a pension whether the Molsons like it or not.
I'd be counting lucky stars if we could manage to land that guy or Grigorenko, Galyenchuk or even Forsberg.
I think they can manage to blow the last few games without even trying.
NO Habs NO!
the notion that high draft picks inevitably and quickly turn around your franchise is a persistent one;
the recent records of the Islanders and Oilers (both last place, years later) suggest some nuance is needed
Detroit does just fine, decade after decade, with no high draft picks
Could it be hockey brains are the most important element in building a winner?
There are too many teams. That's the real problem. Diluted talent and a lack lustre entertainment package.
Time for a truly Canadian national league.
I concur.
But at the same time I wouldn't mind at all if the increasing numbers of talented players in Europe, Russia and the USA would come play in our league and our league only. I think for all its warts the NHL is the most elite hockey league in the world bar none. It used to be our game at one time, and it still is to a large extent. But things are changing. Geoffrion, Kristo, Tinordi, Grigorenko and so on are American born. Hal Gill, Gionta and Gomez are Yanquis afterall. And they are among the world's elite players regardless of their occasional scoring droughts.