Its alright habknot, I fight to see through my own three-coloured glasses most nights. But I do watch an “insane amount of hockey” according to my wife and I saw a pretty big difference between a game where there are a lot of outside, non-threatening shots, and last night where San Jose had traffic on the net, and straight up missed, got robbed, or lost a rebound. In a game where you ‘contain’ the other team on the perimeter you have 1 and done chances. You give up shots, but not quality scoring opportunities. That was not the case last night. SJ got MANY 2nd, 3rd, 4th chances, and much of our defensive strategy hung on an all out collapse to the goal crease. It works if the goalie is outstanding, but that is also how we lost all of those blow-out games.

As for Guerin, like I said Eklund’s trades happen 1 out of 10, but he IS very in tune with who is talking to who.. Its no “guerin”tee that the deal happens, but is interesting in that there are WILDLY conflicting reports as to what Gainey is doing at the deadline. If we get tougher at the wings, our size at center matters less. Latendresse coming back will help the team size as well. People talk smack about him, but he was playing well on Lapierre’s line when he got hurt.

Re: Deadline.

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk lately about what Montreal needs to be successful and whether or not these issues can be addressed at the deadline. There are 2 major issues that I have with most fans in their assessment of the trade deadline that I wanted to bring up.

1. You rarely solve all of your team’s problems with one guy.

There have been players that have been tied to Montreal through the rumor mill that have caused a certain amount of controversy. This became very apparent when Gainey traded a second round pick plus a conditional pick for Schneider in February. It has continued in names like Jokinen,Cole and others. Many people say that Montreal doesn’t need a ‘soft’ player like Jokinen on the roster, or that Cole doesn’t have the offensive upside that we need. Personally I don’t think that we have the luxury of waiting for that PERFECT player to come along. Look around the league, the teams that are successful are balanced. There are only so many Alex Ovechkins to go around. If Montreal waits for a home run deal, they will miss the opportunity to add impact players. Will the Jokinens or Coles of the league solve all of our problems? No chance. What they do offer is an upgrade at the specific skill sets that we need to build a contending team.

2. Fans ALWAYS over-estimate the value of the players that they would package in return for superstars.

Seriously, how many rumors have you read in which Higgins + Subban are set to land Lecavalier? I’m not saying they couldn’t be part of the equation, but in every real deal made there is usually at least a PERCEPTION of equality between the two sides. You cannot take the most expendable pieces of your roster and package them together to land a superstar. It almost never happens. This is not exclusive to Habs fans either: the delusions run league wide. NONE of us would say that Nik Antropov is worth a first rounder, and yet every Leaf fan in the nation expects him to return the next Crosby or Malkin. Reality is a cruel b!tch. To land a legitimate superstar calibre player, your offer has to be very impressive. The players in return at least have to have shown enough firepower that they could one-day be more valuable than the superstar. If I was Tampa the list of players from our roster that would need to be included would contain SOME of: Markov, Andrei Kostitsyn, Gorges, Pacioretti, Komisarek, Price and definately a first round pick. The most likely way to land a roster full of superstars is to DRAFT and DEVELOP them, which is exactly what the Habs have been doing for the past 5 years. So is Gainey done? We won’t know until the deadline, but his ability to create something from nothing is surely hampered by reality, and the fact that he has little on his roster signed long term that he would actually give up in a trade.

I agree Joseph. If I am brutally honest with myself, I will ask “Mats,”, of course if I’m really honest I will use my actual name, “is this team close enough to a Stanley Cup contender to add an expensive piece and make a cup run?”. My answer is a resounding NO. At the beginning of last season success for the Habs would have been to make the playoffs as a bottom seed. We got two rounds, which even though was disappointing at the time, was a success. If at the beginning of the 07/08 season we had asked the question: “What would need to happen in 08/09 for the season to be a success?”, most of us would have said something like: “Have young players continue to step up, and make the playoffs as a top 5 seed”. Given where we were in 07/08 in October, that would have been a realistic vision of what ‘success’ in Montreal would look like in 08/09.

Reality for the Montreal Canadiens is that the young players who will carry this team forward are CLOSE to being able to take over the reigns. And while having so many UFAs can be seen as a daunting task ahead for Bob Gainey, I think that he has allowed himslef an incredible advantage heading into the offseason. Given that this team is a playoff team, but unlikely to make a deep run, Bob can use this year to decide who among the UFAs will be around to help in 09/10, and what the ACTUAL needs of his team are.

None of this team’s UFAs have had the kind of season that will allow them to really cash in in July. Komisarek will make the biggest jump, but even his value is not what it was once perceived to be. It is also conceivable that Koivu, Kovalev, Tanguay and Schneider could all take paycuts given their age, play in recent years, and desire remain in Montreal. Gainey has tweaked his lineup as a ‘buyer’ this season – but has spent next to nothing in his purchases. Begin and a second rounder didn’t exactly break the bank. So as we inch toward the deadline I’m inclined to believe that unless Gainey can sweep Lecavalier away from Tampa, he is likely to simply patiently wait for this season to end and get to work hammering out next year’s version of Le Tricolore. Those who are conservative with their prospects often benefit by having superstars emerge from within.