Game on!

The Montreal Canadiens begin their season tonight in Carolina against the Hurricanes.

It will be the first of 3 road games spread out thinly over one week. The Habs will play in Toronto Saturday and not again until Wednesday against the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Not the most flowing of starts with the Canadiens flying home in between each game. It puts a little more emphasis on getting some points on the board early.

The single point the Habs did not have to make the Playoffs in April comes from road trips and starts like tonight’s. With the Habs expected to battle for one of those last playoff spots, every game is crucial.

Projected Lines

Higgins-Koivu-Ryder
Kostitsyn-Grabovski-Kovalev
Latendresse-Plekanec-Smolinski.
BÃ©gin-Chipchura (Murray)-Kostopoulos

Markov-Komisarek
Hamrlik-Brisebois
Bouillon-Streit.
Gorges-Dandenault

Cristobal Huet

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18 Comments

#1 nilan says:
October 3, 2007 at 11:32 am

Pactum’s emotion, Habsynth’s crystal ball, 4mGhost’s bottle of Patron, Fan3 and Fuzz16 disputes, GHG’s powers of observation, and the wisdom of HabsBlog…bring on the 07-08 season!
GO HABS!

#2 Aurel1 says:
October 3, 2007 at 1:18 pm

Grabovsky- possible rookie of the year? On offensive he looks great.

#3 Xtrahabsfan says:
October 3, 2007 at 1:41 pm

Oh yeah,the one point denide us by Taranna…ouch!New clean slate ,new members and hopefully better results…GO HABS GO…

#4 Habs Blog says:
October 3, 2007 at 2:22 pm

Grabby has shown flashes… we’ll see what he can do…

#5 PACTUM SERVA says:
October 3, 2007 at 2:23 pm

hahahahahahahahaha nilan thats priceless,very observant.GO HABS GO

#6 Mark says:
October 3, 2007 at 3:04 pm

Hello all. Been a diehard Habs fan since I was 7. I live in Ranger country smack on the middle of New York City.

Anyway, I just started a blog: Habs fan in NYC. I’ll be updating almost daily.
http://habsfaninnyc.blogspot.com/

#7 Stuart-SB77 says:
October 3, 2007 at 3:28 pm

uummmmm Plekanec will be on the 2nd line. If not,Love Grabovski! One of oue defencemen do have to go though.(Dandenault). It ain’t personal.lol. I hate what TSN said about the habs being too small to score. fine lets get big guys and turn into the slowest team!Like Boston! we’ll do ok.The habs arent going emo from last years dissappointment,they are ******* pissed. I see Koivu,I know the habs will make it. Ryder,Higgins,kostitsyn,kovalev etc. will all get 50+ptswhile Koivu goes for 82 pts! GO HABS GO!!!

#8 Stuart-SB77 says:
October 3, 2007 at 3:31 pm

It looks like our third line is better than our 2nd line?! don’t under estimate the power of Smolinski!

#9 t-rum says:
October 3, 2007 at 6:51 pm

Simply fearless predictions dept. says…

habs 6
canes 2

kostitsyn nets a pair
kovalev one
higgins one
brisebois one ( on the powerplay….no laughing you guys..lol )
and last but not least streit nets one

habs outshoot canes 37 – 21

habs powerplay one for seven
canes powerplay two for five

man…gotta stop drinking rum so early through the week

have fun y’all

t-rum
aka izzy

#10 4mGhost says:
October 3, 2007 at 7:03 pm

Thanks Nilan…hope the knuckles are well. GO HABS GO!!!

#11 chevy4CH says:
October 4, 2007 at 12:08 am

Ok, so we won. But all the goals were on the PP. You have to score 5 on 5!
What the heck? They just can’t score even strength goals! That will prevent them from making the playoffs. Mark my words.
And Breezer will definitely screw up at the Bell Centre, and the booing will start. He already turned the puck over, and the season just began. I can’t stand him, and I’m prepared to boo him right out of Montreal!!!!!!!!!!

#12 superfan says:
October 4, 2007 at 12:55 am

stfu chevy, go drive your piece of **** elsewhere

#13 Fan@Ottawa says:
October 4, 2007 at 1:55 am

6 Mark
Posted on October 3rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm. About ‘Game on!’.

Hello all. Been a diehard Habs fan since I was 7. I live in Ranger country smack on the middle of New York City.

Anyway, I just started a blog: Habs fan in NYC. Iâ€™ll be updating almost daily.
http://habsfaninnyc.blogspot.com/

Many many Habs fans in New York state. I know a Habs fan group in the Massena, Bomby, Malone area, who often set up a team driving to Bell Centre in Montreal for Habs host games.

#14 habs phan says:
October 4, 2007 at 2:10 am

we looked good tonight, grabovsky surprised me, brisebois scared me, and higgins was higgins. huet had a hell of a game and koivu was in it to win it. hamrlik was awesome i felt, he looked organized and made smart decisions with the puck. all in all i think the habs are on point. stoked for a new season. hope it’s a good one!!!! GO HABS GO!!!!

#15 Jaker1 says:
October 4, 2007 at 9:34 am

Good road game.Koivu and Huet were what they have to be (THE STARS). Can anyone tell me what Carboneau was doing with Begin on the ice with two minutes left in a tie game. He should have gotten an extra two minutes for the late cheap shot from behind. Gainey should have stepped in when it came down to the fourth line. Young , Fast and smart is better than Old , slow and stupid.

#16 groundworking says:
October 4, 2007 at 9:44 am

It is going to be a long year for us, but it’s still fun to watch a young team and to see the young players develop. I thought Kovalev played a good game, even though he back-checks like an old man playing shinny. None of the young players surprised me at all, but it’ll be worth watching the Habs this year just to see the young guys get better as the year goes on. And yes, my heart would race whenever Brisebois touched the puck–but the difference between this time in Montreal and last time is that he’s not so grotesquely overpaid.

I also like what Jacques Demers said before the game: “they won’t talk to Kovalev 2-3 times this year. If it doesn’t work, he’s out”.

#17 Habs Blog says:
October 4, 2007 at 10:53 am

Well said.

#18 habmano says:
October 20, 2007 at 11:24 pm

Its like dejavu evry time i see the last two minutes of a game..theres a penalty and the chance of losing the game…its gonna be a long season if they dont start producing on the power play…and a great season if they keep up the hitting and attack on the net..kovalev has his lazy dayz doesnt he..lol.I would kick their *** at practice…the game against buffalo was lack luster performance and they showed no enthusiasm…even when they change on the fly there is no effort to to get off the ice…”just glide 30 feet on to the bench”,,..c’omon.!

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Senet1 : Actually I agree it was a good move for them to play a shorter season and get the experience. He could not have played in the minors this year he would have had to play junior or the NHL. However, he now has a year under him and knows what to expect next year and hopefully take a bigger responsibility on the team. Did you see those two goals in the bronze game? Wow.
muller93 : Good move by the Habs not having Galchenyuk play in the minors. Now Galchenyuk has 1 year in the NHL and playoff experience this is going to pay off big time come next year.
Senet1 : Galchenyuk scores to back to back goals in shoot out to help USA win Bronze metal. I did not see the second goal but the first was a beauty.
Senet1 : So we could pick anywhere from 25th to 23rd depending on who wins these quarter final series.
Senet1 : First, is the 14 teams in the lottery. Then there are 12 teams that did not make the semi finals in the order of the seasonal finish, Then there are the four teams in the semi final the first two eliminated pick in the order of the regular season points total and the last two based on who wins and who loses the cup. So as it stand now if say Detroit beats Chicago then Detroit moves up to pick after us. Boston or NYR will move up and pick after us. LA or San Jose will move up and pick after us
Senet1 : Basically, I was wrong about the draft pick situation. There are three groups of drafting teams within the 30 teams.
Senet1 : seriously ready to challenge for the cup. He will us win games but he will not be the difference between winning the cup and not winning the cup. You pick up players like that once you have the team ready to challenge,.
Senet1 : I am looking at the players to draft and there are a lot of big 6'3-6'5 forwards available ion the draft this year. If we could draft 3-4 big young players in the 2nd and 3rd round why would you want to give that up for a roster player who may have 2-3 years at best. If we are going to build a winner to have to build it with bigger players and there are a lot of good big players available this year. So you sign Ott and he is with us for the short run, but probably not when we are seriously re
Senet1 : Boullion is a great mentor for the young D-men
muller93 : Boullion is one of MBs great additions--Boull ion is a definite Keeper.
muller93 : Getting rid of Kaberle frees up a lot of cash. Boullion is small but is reliable and doesn't back down from anyone.
muller93 : Exactly Goalie any thoughts on a punishing D-man?
goalie : They;re showing determination adn skill vs Ducks and Blackhawks.
goalie : REd Wings could turn out to be the surprise team of this year's playoffs!
goalie : WE need to rid our team of Kaberle and Webber. Step two would be to then move Diaz. If we get that big d-man I believe that would push Boullion to # 7 on the chart. We'd then go with Georges, PK,Markov (to continue mentoring Ememlin) Tinordi as our starting six . THEN I'd be excited about our chances. We could then work on getting bigger forwards.
goalie : I too would gladly give up a 3rd round pick for Ott- the type of player we sadly lack. AND if we could get one more rugged, expeienced defenceman it would help immensely.
muller93 : Senet what you are saying makes sense but if we can get Ott for a 3rd round I'll take that all day.
muller93 : MB should be looking at a big D-man first, even though I like our blue line with the addition of Tinordi. We need that insurance just in case one gets injured. Also I'm a firm believer in starting with the goalie first then-defense-for wards-and we already have good goalie. We have all noticed when we have the lead Price is tough to beat.
Senet1 : So sometimes you have to sacrifice for one year or two to build that team in the draft. then add the finishing touches through FA and trades.
Senet1 : Muller, Detroit is another good example. They have been in the hunt every year with good well balanced teams yet only one or two cups to show for it. However, they have built a team that has a chance every years for the last 10+ years. That is what I think we have a chance to do this year with a good draft. It reminds me of the habs teams of the mid 80 and 90's we built a team then with sold draft picks and won the cup twice during that time period. So sometimes you have to sacrifice a one
muller93 : Very true Senet, you do need luck and we haven't had any luck it seems since the habs moved to the Bell Center. We had an incredible run in 2010 with some crazy goal tending from Halak. With Galchenyuk-Tinor di-Gallagher all in 1 year--not too bad, even with an early exit in the playoffs.
Senet1 : Muller I guess we all have our own ideas, but there has never been too many times that were successful when they traded their draft picks away. We have a chance to build this team so we have a shot at winning the cup over the next 10 years. Even as good as Pittsburgh has been they have only won the cup once since Crosby and Malkin have been with the team. That is because you not only need great players but you need luck to win, but one thing about Pittsburgh they have a chance every year. The
muller93 : Good point on Torres, he might be a liability. Torres has to tone it down a bit, but that's his game-very aggressive.
goalie : Though I don't condone what Raffi Torres did - thos shows you how repeat offenders or near offenders are going to be treated. His hit was NOT illegal BUT what the rap sheet adn reputation Torres has he got severly punished. Lesson to be learned by OTHER players because Torres dopesn't learn fromk his mistakes.
muller93 : Senet normally I would agree with you on not trading draft picks but we are not in a rebuilding stage. Sometimes draft picks can be a roll of the dice and it can take up to 3 years to be NHL ready. We have a good team and I agree with Stuo players like Clowe-Torres-Ott -Scott will make a big difference. Somebody has to protect Gallagher, he can't keep getting hit the way does--we need a tough forward so they think twice before going after Gallagher.
Senet1 : Really a heathly Habs team would probably win more games against the Pens that we did against the Sens. Reason they Pens would not play as physical against us as against the Sens. If we get good goaltending we win at least two games.
zpezada4ok : hello all «link»
stuo11 : hes a tougher big guy too! Just a minor adjustment but will help a bit
stuo11 : hes better than markov, and hes french who was in mention for defenceman of the year
goalie : Markov for Beauchemin - an injury prone d-man for an ;old timer'd-man. Beauchemin is NOT what the Habs need in my opinion. He is a HUGE defensive liability.
goalie : Stuo 11 I'd make that trade with Oilers fast BUT I doubt the Oilers will make that. Two marginal d-men at the best for a switch of first round picks - not a chance .
stuo11 : markov for beachemin?
stuo11 : let moen go
stuo11 : maybe try and get steve begin back
stuo11 : we wouldve kicked out all other teams but pens, sens,