hab faithful…do u agree with anything? The greatest goalie of all-time deserves to be honoured by the greatest franchise of all time where he earned most of his accolades

Brace yourselves boys… Breezer is back. I know he had a decent season
last year but expecting the same this year may be a tall order.

Brodeur even agrees. Called Roy a pioneer who perfected the butterfly and insisted it’s important to distinguish his behaviour from his skills

Robert Lang? Better than nothing, great job Gainey! lets get that cup, and we have Brisebois back!:)

The pick we gave was toronto’s pick we acquired recently, so when you look at it the trade actually looked like this:

Grabovski for Lang & Pateryn

Gainey….you….are….a genius!

So here is how I see our lines:
Tanguay, Lang, Kovalev
A. Kost, Plekanec, S. Kost. (this line may need more muscle at times)
Higgins, Koivu, Latendress (Chipchura)
Begin, Lappierre, Laraque (Kostopoulos)

Chipchura and Kostopoulos can sub in at right or left wing if we need more muscle or in case of injury. It does not look like there is much room for any rookies this year unless we send Latendresse down to Hamilton like we talked about a month ago. Give him the wake up call they he may need.

Looks like a pretty good offense to me.

I would also like to add that with Lang’s signing, Gainey must have gotten a read from Sundin that he was either retiring or not coming to Montreal unless he comes later in the season when Montreal would have the cap space to still sign him.

senet 1….i think kostopolous gets a spot over begin and dandenault is all but done as a Hab.

Alias you could be right on both accounts, one thing that keeps Begin in the lineup especially on the fourth line is he is a nature centreman and they need that for faceoffs in their own end especially when facing the Number #1 line on the other team.

One thing we talked about a month ago is that Gainey has 8 games to consider whether to send Latendresse down to the minors, once he plays 8 more games then he has to clear waivers. So to me I send the message early before those 8 games run out.

I’m happy the 33 is being retired. I don’t hate him for wanting to leave the habs. I hated the organization for treating him like they did. I’m still a habs fan and I still think Patrick was the best goaltender to play the game. I’m glad the two have kissed and made up.

Latendresse-Lang-Kovalev
Higgins- Koivu-Tanguay
Kostitsyn-Plekanec-Kostitsyn
Kostopoulos-Lapierre-Laraque

Markov-Komisarek
Hamrlik-O’Byrne
Gorges-Boullion

Price
M.Denis

what kind of lousy blog is this, when they dob’t even acknowledge the acquisition of Lang? If you’re not going to report important news, you’re useless!

I hope you are right but our defence has not improved from the playoffs last year and with the exception of being a little healtier that is about lal the improvement you are going to see. If you watched the playoffs last year against philly when we were pressured with did not perform well in front of our goalie, so I do not buy the argument that our defence is fine. We still need a steadying force back there in my opion.

Well if Lang proves me right then he will be our Number 1 centre and Koivu will be relegated to the third line centre. You have to give your first line 20 plus minute a game and therefore you do not want Tanguay on the third line. Give me a third ine that can score though when it received 15 to 18 minutes

Alias, that article is quite interessting in that it calls Lang a third line centre, I wish we had a third line centre that scored 20 goals last year.

I guess I am the only guy on the blog today??????????????

I agree Cancan81! Tired of the complaining?

Dancan81 thank-god you said something about habs faithful…I get so tired of his comments that make no sense

I love this blog and I think Craig has done a great job on the new design.

anyways I love the move for Lang, I think he is a cheaper version of Sundin but I`m not sure if we have all our peices in place to take a shot at the title…does anyone feel we need to make one more move

Thanks Jack Hab for filling us in.

Lucky, I think I offense is in place, but not our defense.

Regarding Latendresse, I hope you are right and he comes out smokin this fall. If he does not show up in the first five games then I would send him to the minor while we still can, he has 8 games left before he has to clear waivers.

I’ve said it before….you can’t look at it like lines 1, 2, 3. These are 3 lines that could be a #1 line. The 3 lines will get similar ice time, with Kovy’s line geting slightly more.

Heres how the lines should play out (with my point projections) and why….

Line 1a
AK47(70) – Pleks(75) – AK27(85)
this was our best line last year, why would you break it up? Pleks & AK47 should continue to improve.

Line 1b
Tanguay(75) – Koivu(65) – Higgins(70)
Koivu and Higgins have good chemistry already, Tanguay fits their style of play best. This line could match Kovy’s line in points

Line 1c
Lats(50) – Lang(55) – S. Kost(60)
Only problem I see is S. Kost might be too quick for this line, but Lang & Lats can clear some room for him to dangle.

Line 4
Kostopolous(15) – LaPierre(20) – Laraque(15)
One very scary line….won’t get many points tho

PP1
AK47 – Pleks – AK27
Markov – S. Kost
S. Kost is the perfect player to take Streit’s spot, he can stick handle very well, is strong on the puck, can take a hit, he is quick, and makes great passes.

PP2
Tanguay – Koivu – Higgins
Hamrlik – Bouillon