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Francis Bouillon unfit to start season

  • The Canadiens may be missing a couple of key players when their season gets underway in October.

    Francis Bouillon underwent knee surgery and will definitely miss the beginning of the season while news out of Finland indicates that Saku Koivu’s eye is still a problem and preventing him from training on ice.

    Bouillon is a very underated player and an important part of the Habs already questionable defence. Missing a month at the beginning of the season rather than 12 weeks at the end of the year is the smarter decision. But who can step up and fill his ice time and physical presence? Komisarek? Streit?

    The only area the Canadiens didn’t make any significant improvements was on defence and Bouillon’s absence could make for an even rockier start to the season.

    The news of Koivu is not surprising. Eye surgery is a serious thing and no one knows if and when he will come back and if he’ll be 100%. Knowing Koivu he’d have to be completely blind before not wanting to return so expect him to be ready for game 1.

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21 Comments
  1. #1 Sly Vester says:
    August 6, 2006 at 4:08 pm

    Thats right, koivu will play with an eyepatch if he has to, i’m not worried about him. If he can come back and kick *** after cancer, he can do it for this. He’ll just walk it off, err blink it off. As for boullion i dont think it will hurt us too much. We still have Souray and Markov to rip it up and as long as our offense works as well as we’re hoping it does (knock on wood) then we can live with a tiny bit of a crapier defense for a month, its no big deal. I’d rather that than have him come play and injure himself even more and have him out for longer.

  2. #2 Rob says:
    August 6, 2006 at 8:14 pm

    As I understand it, David Tanabe (D) is now an unrestricted free agent since Boston has declined to offer him a contract. While most UFA signings are busts (and well past their primes), this guy is a young (26 years old), 1999 first round draft pick, with incredible speed and tremendous potential if he works the bugs out of his game. With proper coaching, he might be just worth the risk…

  3. #3 Habs Blog says:
    August 6, 2006 at 8:35 pm

    I was thinking the same thing but last I checked the Canadiens were nearing the cap so I wonder how they could make it work.

  4. #4 dyed in the wool fan says:
    August 6, 2006 at 10:12 pm

    we need another experienced D man now that Bouillion is lost for at least 1 or 2 months. Ideas anyone?

  5. #5 slapshot212 says:
    August 6, 2006 at 10:16 pm

    i think that the habs defence needs more speed.and we dont need Rivet on the team anymore.

  6. #6 reality check says:
    August 7, 2006 at 12:31 am

    If a team as pourous on D as the Bruins walk away from a reasonable salary award (1.2M) it says a ton about the player and the person. Teams don’t give up on good D men too often. No teams ever has enough good ones. I was surprised Philly let Johnsson get away to Minny.

    Tanabe needs to play as a top 2 defenseman to refind the promise he showed in college. He won’t find a team that can offer him that. He’s destined to be a journeyman spare part at best.

    As Markov and Komisarek keep improving, the Habs D will strengthen. Bouillon is a 5 to 7 position player and his injury is best seen as an opportunity for someone else to step up.

  7. #7 koivu fan says:
    August 7, 2006 at 9:38 am

    No need for worries. Our D is good. Streit will fill the spot well. I used to worry about our D myself but every year we just keep getting better

  8. #8 slapshot212 says:
    August 7, 2006 at 9:39 pm

    Koivu fan, you’ve got to be kidding! Our defence is so porous! opposing players walk thru it, like it’s paper! better, my ***! Just watch what happens without Bouillon.

  9. #9 slapshot212 says:
    August 8, 2006 at 3:19 am

    on http://www.canadeins.com it said that Francis Bouillon had surgery on his left knee last Wednesday in Colorado.and he said :“I’m feeling good. I may be facing a fair amount of rehabilitation, but getting this done is a good thing,� said Bouillon, who despite being prescribed pain killers by Dr. Steadman has yet to feel the need to break the seal on the bottle of pills. “I’ve been playing through this already for a couple of years and finally taking care of it so that I can come back 100 per cent is my top priority right now.�

  10. #10 Rob says:
    August 8, 2006 at 6:46 pm

    What’s the dirt on David Tanabe anyways? He was phenomenal in College Hockey. He was drafted in the first round in 1999. In his earlier years, people who saw him play talked about how he could outskate guys like Scott Niedermayer which he did prove on occasions. But, Carolina, Phoenix and now Boston have dumped the guy after brief stints with these respective teams even though he has never really commanded a high salary. Is the guy damaged goods like Bryan Fogarty was or what? I know that he has had some knee problems so he would likely fit in well with Kovalev, Bouillon, Streit, and the rest of the Orthopedic crew.

  11. #11 Joey says:
    August 8, 2006 at 6:51 pm

    Guys,

    Given we have 2 very good goaltenders, and were are ok on, we should be ok. Our offence should also come out kicking… so I would not worry about it.

  12. #12 Rob says:
    August 8, 2006 at 9:54 pm

    I disagree. Defense is going to be the problem. The Habs’ defense were a question mark before, but now, Bouillon has had knee surgery, and won’t be ready to go in September. Streit apparently has knee problems too. We don’t know which Souray is going to show up in September.

    Unless, there is a strong possibility that Alexei Emelin will play for the Habs in the upcoming season (unlikely since his Russian club has tripled his salary for next year to stay in Russia) or Dan Jancevski is ready to take on a regular spot with the club (also unlikely, given his limited experience in the NHL), the Canadiens should either sign David Tanabe, trade for Anaheim’s Vitaly Vishnevski or sign another available UFA defenseman.

    Anyone who is calling Boston’s D “porous” should give their head a shake, and look at what their lineup is for next season. Can the Habs match that???

  13. #13 ght120 says:
    August 9, 2006 at 3:34 pm

    Tanabe looks like a good fit, on paper.

    Found a comment from a Pheonix (Scotsdale) newspaper that may explain it:

    ON THE MOVE AGAIN

    The Bruins added Zdeno Chara and Paul Mara to their defense and that —
    along with yet another overpriced arbitration judgment ($1.275 million) —
    cost ex-Coyote David Tanabe a job when Boston walked away from the deal.
    Tanabe, who hasn’t been the same since a severe knee injury in 2003-04 and
    was shipped to the Bruins for Dave Scatchard last year, had only 16 points
    in 54 games and still got a $300,000 raise.

    There was also refernce elsewhere to him hurting a knee (don’t know if it was the same one) at the end of last season with Boston.

    This may explain Boston walking away from a relatively small salary.

  14. #14 ght120 says:
    August 9, 2006 at 3:34 pm

    Tanabe looks like a good fit, on paper.

    Found a comment from a Pheonix (Scotsdale) newspaper that may explain it:

    ON THE MOVE AGAIN

    The Bruins added Zdeno Chara and Paul Mara to their defense and that —
    along with yet another overpriced arbitration judgment ($1.275 million) —
    cost ex-Coyote David Tanabe a job when Boston walked away from the deal.
    Tanabe, who hasn’t been the same since a severe knee injury in 2003-04 and
    was shipped to the Bruins for Dave Scatchard last year, had only 16 points
    in 54 games and still got a $300,000 raise.
    – http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=71170

    There was also refernce elsewhere to him hurting a knee (don’t know if it was the same one) at the end of last season with Boston.

    This may explain Boston walking away from a relatively small salary.

  15. #15 reality check says:
    August 9, 2006 at 11:46 pm

    My head is spinning from suggestions the Habs D is porous and the Bruins D is strong. Let’s let facts speak some logic here. To start with, defense is a team concept, not simply the job of six guy playing the blueline and guarding the crease. If you measure the quality of a D-man by points production only, you’re missing half the job description.

    The Canadiens have 7 defenseman with at least a full season under their belt. Their prospects, Emelin, Cote, and Jancevic, are numbered 8, 9, and 10 on their depth chart. That could change quickly as these prospects have potential.

    The Bruins, on the other hand, have three bonafied NHLers. Chara, the best defenseman on either team, Paul Mara, who I’d rate somewhere between Souray and Rivet, and Brad Stuart, who is very good and will surely get better. After that it is paper thin folks. Andrew Alberts is akin to Mark Streit in NHL experience, but likely would not make the roster of any team making the playoffs last season. Nathan Dempsey, is a spare part – 6th or seventh on a teams depth chart at best. Mark Stuart, a former first rounder, is an unproved yet excellent prospect just beginning his career. Milan Jurcina, a former 241st overall pick, has suprised and shown some offensive flair to go along with his large frame.

    All in all, the Bruins have a decent top 3 anchored by a very good D-man. After that it’s all inexperience and question marks. Two of four prospects are fairly sure things. When the depth from 4 to 7 have if and if attached to their potential, it is not a playoff bound group by any means.

    The Canadiens will ice the same set of blueliners that held Carolina to 15 goals in six games in last years playoffs. For comparison purposes, against Carolina, Edmonton surrendered 19 goals in 7, Buffalo 22 in seven, and Jersey 16 in 5. Montreal does tend to allow more shots than it blocks, but they are perimeter shots. Buffalo, who arguably did the best against the Canes, were down 4 D by the 7th game and severly weakened by their “block ever shot” style.

    The Habs D is superior to the Bruins by far. Anyone not realizing this simply hasn’t watched enough hockey in their lifetime.

  16. #16 PACTUM SERVA says:
    August 10, 2006 at 8:06 am

    Reality check i could’nt have said it better myself.Experience goes a long way.

  17. #17 Rob says:
    August 10, 2006 at 5:06 pm

    Try to be a bit objective here.

    I still don’t know how you can call a defense that consists of Chara, Brad Stuart, Paul Mara and Jason York as porous. I have also seen Jurcina play frequently since his time in the QJMHL, and I am not suprised by his abilites although I am surprised by how late that he went in terms of draft position. If you are saying that the Bruins defense lacks “experience” because none of these guys have played together before then perhaps you should say that, but those former four (Chara, Stuart, Mara, and York) are established premiere NHL defenders with a ton of individual experience.

    You obviously have a higher estimation of Souray than I do. I think Souray is quite inconsistent who has quite weak defensive skills. Markov is clearly the Habs’ best defender. Huet also had more to do with the 15 goals in 6 games against Carolina than the Habs blueliners did.

    A bit of good news today for Habs’ defensive prospects are that the Canadiens have signed Cornell defenseman Ryan O’Byrne (6’5″, 225 lbs.) and David Fischer is making strides at the US development camp.

    Links to the below are:

    http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey/stories/081006aaa.html

    http://hockeysfuture.com/article.php?sid=8982&mode=threaded&order=0

  18. #18 reality check says:
    August 10, 2006 at 5:30 pm

    Rob…you make very good points!

    Understand I am not the one who said the Boston D was porous originally, I was defending that term being used inreference to the Habs.

    As for the Bruins, I rated Mara pretty much the same as you see Souray. I haven’t seen Mara enough to judge either one as being superior. With Souray, there was an adjustment period last season where he looked absolutely lost out there. The new syle of game and marital woes were probably the cause of his head not being in the game at times. Not to compare players, but Pronger has a similar adjustment to make that was well documented in the first half of the season. Souray, in our own end, is likely to continue having trouble with fleetfooted guys making him look foolish – like Spezza last year, for one. I imagine Spezza made many fools out of D men with moves like that.

    I totally forgot Jason York as he’d just been signed. I always like York and had a higher estimation of him than some of the team he played for. I never thought Ottawa should have let him get away. However, he is merely a 5th or 6th guy down until he proves otherwise.

    Still I find the Bruins have a collection of blueliners nobody else wanted in a sense. Not a bad group, not porous, just adequate and somewhat inexperienced.

    True with Huet covering for the Habs D’s mistakes, they looked better than they were on some nights. The quality of shots and opportunities he faces are in their hands. As a group the Habs top 6 are maybe not as mobile as some but I’d rate them as a whole still better than half the leagues teams. For arguments sake – call it middle of the pack. The experience is there, but there is room for big time improvement.

  19. #19 slapshot212 says:
    August 10, 2006 at 10:01 pm

    let’s face it. We don’t have a great offence and we don’t have a great offence, period! We need a bonafide centerman, and now we need a stay at home defenceman. If Gainey doesn’t make a trade of some sort, we’re in deep trouble!I don’t care what all the optomists are saying; we will be scored on, alot! There is no way Huet will be as good as last year. He is a flash in the pan! Remember, he only played for half the season. He will never be able to make it thru the entire season. with as good a goals against as last year, and his true self will come through! just an average goaltender!In fact we are a very average team, and mediocre teams don’t accomplish much, and they certainly don’t win stanley cups!

  20. #20 PACTIM SERVA says:
    August 11, 2006 at 7:21 am

    Edmonton?

  21. #21 Rob says:
    August 11, 2006 at 9:15 am

    Wow. Comment #19 really depressed me. Can you take the knife out of my heart now, slapshot212. That was a little too objective!!! There is a certain truth in what you say, but the Habs at least have a team concept again (which had been missing in Montreal for quite awhile.) Our entire future no longer rides on the shoulders of one inconsistent goaltender. The core of the team will improve yearly even though a couple of characters are likely to be replaced or elect to go elsewhere each year. We have prospects in the farm system who have at least a chance of being quite talented players one day (Price, Kotsisyn, Emelin, Fischer, Chipchurra, and Latendresse to name a few.) If Huet tanks, we’ll have Aebischer there to challenge him to play better or he becomes a backup goaltender again. Plus, Sidney Crosby, the future of Canadian hockey, wants to be a Hab when he becomes a free agent. So, cheer up, man, and down those anti-depressants…

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  • goalie : In all fairness to AK...he has played more aggressively and has been more involved the last 5 games or so. Amazing what UFA does to a player. If we could get 25+ goals plus a consistent effort I would want him on my team. His biggest downside is his inconsistency to be involved in the play.
  • Senet1 : Also the addition of Blunden and even Leblanc is not shy to throwing body checks. Also PK has been more aggressive lately
  • Senet1 : That is partly because of the change in coaching styles and the addition of Bourque.
  • Senet1 : If we kept Plekanec and Bourgue then we need a shooter on that line. So to me from a forward standpoint we need to add a goal scorer, but one who goes to the net and is not knocked around. To me based on our offence this year that is the most needed position to fill on our forward lines. When you consider that we got ride of Cammy, and if we trade Gionta and Gomez disappears we are no longer a small team. The team has more grit now than at the first of the year.
  • Senet1 : So we have to add some muscle as well as skill to our second & third lines and upgrade our fourth line as well. I could see Leblanc moving in as the centre on the second line if we got something good Plekanecs, otherwise, he could play the wing on either the second or third line. Blunden seemed to score faily well in the AHL not sure if he has it in him but would like to seem him on a line with Eller and maybe Leblanc next year all three players like to use their bodies and therefore should be
  • Senet1 : Not counting Markov if he plays. If we trade or let go of our UFA defenceman then we will need at least three D-men, I would like a good look at Nash to see if he can play at this level. If not he is gone, I do not think any of our other defensive prospects are ready quite yet. Our junior and college players should be coming on stream for Hamilton next year so we will get to see how much they have developed and whether any are ready for the big time.
  • Senet1 : While I agree we have quite a few players that could be made available, I do not see a need to make wholesale changes only the necessary one. obviously Gomez, Gionta, AK46(if he will not sign) I keep our top line of Cole, Pacman and David. I keep Eller and Leblanc, Blunden, Bourque, probably Plecanec unless we can really improve on his positin. I keep PK, Emelin, Gorges, Diaz and Naturally Price. Probably Budaj. That basically gives us two functional line and two sets of defence, not counting
  • goalie : Great to see Pacs gets su=ome success after the devestating dirty check last season that could have paralyzed him for life.
  • goalie : Given ho the team has played this season one thing in our favor is that we pretty much need to clean house. Other than about 6-7 guys everyone else would be available in my mind.
  • goalie : After how the tes]am has
  • Avatar37 : Apparently only one offer for Carter on the low side so far, I think Montreal would be foolish not to investigate the possibility of a trade for him, and if there is low interest, the deal might be able to include moving Gomez. Gomez/Darche/Cam poli and a third round pick? Maybe not, but I'd be in serious talks with Columbus right about now.
  • Avatar37 : «link»
  • Avatar37 : for him had we held on to him until now and created a bidding war. There are more buyers than sellers currently on the market and it would have been the perfect time to have traded him.
  • Avatar37 : Goalie - I'm not sure how we could have obtained more for Halak. We showcased him, everyone knew he was available for trade, and in the end, we took the best offer. Any asset is only worth what a purchaser will pay for it. The Halak trade wasn't like the Cammalleri trade where you had GMs afterwards saying they didn't even know he was on the market. The Halak trade was done properly, the Cammelleri trade was a knee-jerk panic move, and while my opinion is that we could have received more
  • Avatar37 : I saw the game, the Islanders first goal came from a shot that was clearly above the height of the crossbar. How is it possible for a play to go to review where they have the advantage of mulitple camera angles and the ability to pause and they STILL get the call wrong?
  • goalie : I agree don't get dilusional over our three game winning streak. Changes MUST be made. I am however, glad to see the effort being put forth by the players.
  • Mats Naslund : I just went to capgeek to see who the Avalanche might be dealing for a rental - and I see they have only 6 players signed for next season!!! There are a couple young D men on that squad who are RFAs who would do very nicely next season.
  • Mats Naslund : One thing I know - the 3 game winning streak had better not get PG thinking about holding onto guys for a PO run. Trade them, build the value and move on to next year.
  • Mats Naslund : How about Max Pac though.. 21 goals and on pace for 65 points this year. That is absolutely monster for a guy at his age/experience and especially coming after a horrific injury. Huge cornerstone moving forward. On pace for 33 goals.. could he get 35?
  • Mats Naslund : Didn't get to see it either - and while I don't really care about the win, I am very glad that Gomez scored so we don't have to endure all of the negativity in the media about him for the rest of the year. He still su@ks, but at least it won't be a topic every shift he takes.
  • goalie : Didn't get to see the game at all but it's great to see Pacs get a hat trick and fpor Cole to be + 3. When was the last time this team won three games in a row? Great victory -looks like they're giving 100% effort!
  • Senet1 : 4-2 win habs
  • Senet1 : Gomez scores, Yea!!!
  • goalie : As I said yesterday it will be interesting to see what our lame ass GM gets for players he ships out. Bourque is good and he'll help us but I still think we could have gotten more for him and for Halak when he was traded.
  • Avatar37 : round those picks occur (probably 3rd).
  • Avatar37 : An interesting article. If we slip to the 5th or 7th draft pick, a very interesting case could be made for drafting Galchenyuk. If we wind up with the second or third pick, I'm not sure who I'd draft, because clearly Yakupov is going to be drafted first overall. Our second round pick also becomes interesting, I know I'd take Vasilevski if he were still available. It will also be interesting to see if we can turn some of our veteran players (Moen, Gill, Campoli) into draft picks, and what
  • Avatar37 : «link»
  • Avatar37 : That is why PG should have waited on trading Cammalleri. Right now, there is a high demand for a top 6 forward, we could have gotten much more than Bourque in return. That isn't a knock against Bourque, but a knock against a knee-jerk reaction trade that didn't maximize our return on a top asset.
  • Avatar37 : «link»
  • Avatar37 : chips fall where they may. After all, the only difference between finishing 17th and 29th is how good a pick you get in the draft.
  • Avatar37 : We currently sit in 26th place in the league. We are 15 points ahead of Columbus, it's safe to bet at this point they will place last. We are, however, only 4 points ahead of Edmonton so it's still wide open as to who is going to finish second last. I still think that it's time to sit the veterans, play the youth, let them get experience, and regroup for next year. I'm not suggesting deliberately tanking like the Penguins, but give all our young players lots of playing time and let the c
  • Avatar37 : goalie - If it were not for the play of Cammalleri, we would never have made it out of round 1. Cammalleri played as big a part, if not bigger, than Halak did. Sure, Halak played well, but remember the team collapsed in front of him, making his job much easier. We had lots of blocked shots and the ones that got through were typically from the outside.
  • Senet1 : Goalie you are absolutely right, of course the one thing we had the two previous years that won the games that we are losing this year was our power play. If you look at say 10 games that we should have won had we had a similar power play, again we would not be having these conversations. When your PP goes from first to last in the league that is a lot of goals.How many games have we lost this year by one goal. Again poor management who did not prepare for Markov's possible absence.
  • goalie : I'll put it another way.... we need more players who are willing to get their noses dirty.
  • goalie : Two years ago when our goaltending stole series adn our players suddenly scored the coaches / GM believed that that was our true team . Well time has proven that was not. Though I was very glad to see the Habs knock off some very good teams we were very fortunate. And fortunate that spring was spelled HALAK!

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