montreal canadiens hockey – habs blog RSS

Taking notice of the Habs

  • The Canadiens are on the front page of TSN and there is a feature article on Cristobal Huet and the Habs success this season.

    The hockey world is all over the Canadiens right now.

    So the secret is out. The Canadiens are a good team.

    How good?

    No one expected much out of them at the beginning of the year and now they are catching the eyes of everyone with their strong start.

    Can they keep it up after moving from under the radar to an Eastern Conference threat?

    Is Cristobal Huet ready for the pressure of being the league’s best goaltender?

    The Habs return to Carolina for their second game this month, the first a blowout 4-0 win.

    Carolina are playing more like Candycanes than Hurricanes and seem to be suffering from the typical Stanley Cup hangover. But every team is a threat as Philadelphia recently proved.

    Carolina still possess great speed and it should be a fast paced game which the Canadiens excel at.

    • There are currently no tags for this post.
Leave a Comment Leave a Comment
27 Comments
  1. #1 Ziyad says:
    November 30, 2006 at 5:10 pm

    Although I would like to admit they are a contender, they are not there yet. Still one or two years away! However, they are a dangerous team and will be tough to beat if they make the playoffs. They are still 1 or 2 players away. What do you guys think?

    Z-man

  2. #2 PACTUM SERVA says:
    November 30, 2006 at 5:54 pm

    yes 1 or 2 players away and this team will be deadly i agree

  3. #3 J-Nic says:
    November 30, 2006 at 6:07 pm

    1 or 2 guys away if we don’t lose any guy in the off-season.

    I know playoff is far far away. (I won’t even be able to watch any games, leaving 8 for intership in Neatherland) But if they get a long run in playoff, the guys might want to stay in Montreal. They know that the chemistry is good, everything is good and there might be a bigger chance to win the Stanley Cup. At the same time, some free agency (Good one that play and score not like Samsonov right now) might want to come to montreal.

    Hope everything goes well :)

    BTW : Anyone know a place in Delft or Amsterdam where it would be possible to watch a Hockey Game ? :D !?

  4. #4 ROFL1967 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 6:11 pm

    Probably via NASN (American Sport Cable Company – http://www.nasn.com/content/nasn/portal.nsf/systemcontent/howtogeteu – check here)

    Thats the only way i can think seeing as how it does wonders for me in the little old UK.

  5. #5 Jack says:
    November 30, 2006 at 6:29 pm

    Yeah, J-Nic, it might be tough in Holland. I got NASN in the UK (during the strike it was a total waste of money LOL) — you might be able to find it. Otherwise, call the Embassy.

    As for the ingredients for a Cup, I agree they’re 1-2 players away, and also that they might lose other key ingredients before next year. So… get the 1-2 players now, but preserve the chemistry and the key members of the team.

    In that vein, I heard about a report coming out of Boston that a deal involving Samsonov and Chicago was in the works. Though we all know the futility of rumours, especially in Montreal, there’s no question Sammy’s having a tough time and his early comments regarding the demotion that never really happened surely ruffled feathers.

    Whatever happens, the team is going far this year as long as the second period lapses don’t become a trend and a few players (who know who they are) find their scoring touches (we know they got it). I can’t wait for Higgins to be back!!

  6. #6 ESPN says:
    November 30, 2006 at 6:52 pm

    I have watched most of the games thusfar, and I believe all of the November games. I have also, because of my job, had a chance to see most of the other teams, though not as closely. The Canadiens ARE one of the Top5 teams in the league for sure. They are moving together nicely, with and without the puck,have a strong presence (finally) and have a determination (team game)that has been lacking from years prior. This team started to take shape late last year, and with Guy behind the bench, and a lack of injuries (knock on wood) I do think they have a chance to win it all.

  7. #7 Habs#1 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 7:02 pm

    I was listening to the team 990 today during the Pierre McGuire segment and he STILL isn’t sold on Huet, He wants to see Huet go through 60 games with the same numbers. This guy has the top save%, GAA, he held Buffalo to one goal and he dosen’t boast about himself and he takes the blame and dosen’t blame his team mates if he has a bad game(Aebischer!).

    The Habs need to take advantage of these games. The Canes’ are realing having lost 3 of 4. Like every game if they come out fast and get 1-2 quick goals the Hurricanes might fold like a cheap suit.

    And the Habs are only a 2nd line centre away from being a perennial cup contendre.

  8. #8 HabsInBlood says:
    November 30, 2006 at 7:39 pm

    I believe most would agree that the Habs are a better team than they were last year. I think many would also agree that we would have eliminated Carolina had Justin “ice pick” Williams not taken out our captain with an “accidental” high stick. I would say we are definitely a contender, barring injuries.

  9. #9 Michael Morgan says:
    November 30, 2006 at 8:08 pm

    Can you believe it. There isn’t anythong to complain about or analyze or criticize..just enjoy!!

    MM

  10. #10 joshtm says:
    November 30, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    Part of the Habs success has been when the rookies have come up to replace the injured players, like Kosty, or the rookie that stuck around Gui…..hmmm…I wonder how well the team will be when Price is finally up? Or some of the prospects if Gainey doesn’t trade them away like some well know prospects that went on to be superstars.

    I have to agree the Habs are worth watching this year for sure.

  11. #11 Mike says:
    November 30, 2006 at 8:46 pm

    First period in the bank. Habs are looking good. Huet in particular has been sharp. No chance for him on the Cole goal, very nice move on the rebound to score.
    The Ryder goal was sweet, perfect pass from Latendresse.
    Go habs!

  12. #12 Habs#1 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 9:20 pm

    COLE! That guy has been a Habs killer for years! Eer since they lost to Carolina five years ago in the playoffs. What does he have against the Habs? Did he grow up a Leafs or Bruins fan or something?

  13. #13 Xhabsfan says:
    November 30, 2006 at 9:26 pm

    Cole is a HAB BUSTER. I’ve aways felt he should play for montreal,its as if he elevates his game to impress hab managment.

  14. #14 Mike says:
    November 30, 2006 at 9:36 pm

    Cole is an animal out there tonight. Shooting, hitting, scoring…he’s doing it all.
    MTL is lucky Huet is on his game. They are getting vastly outshot by the Canes.

  15. #15 fanatic1 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 10:28 pm

    When you snooze, you lose! and guess what? we lost! AGAIN WE DIDN’T SHOW UP FOR THE THIRD PERIOD!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN”T WE PLAY 60 MINUTES OF HOCKEY???????Those penalties, AGAIN! Huet wasn’t sharp on the 4th goal! So, until we decide to play 60 MINUTES, we’re on thin ice. Oh, by the way, Ottawa scored 6 times against Florida; This is the Florida we couldn’t score a goal against!

  16. #16 ROFL1967 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 10:38 pm

    And here comes the fanatic.

    Yes we lost. At least we score. Yes, the third was bad, but apart from that – where are the faults? Not everyteam can play 60 mins. everygame as players are not made of stamina and endurance. Just be glad that we did not get shut out.

    What annoyed me the most about the game was the attendance. It disgusts me that the Stanley Cup champions have such a pitiful attendance. Shameful.

  17. #17 fanatic1 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 10:47 pm

    I could care less about the attendance. Those SOURAY penalties!does that guy have a brain or what? he hurts the team more than he helps us. I would rather have good defence from him, and no offence, than lousy defence and penalties that cost his team. I say trade him before his stock goes down.(taking penalties and giving away the puck won’t help his cause!

  18. #18 stevejur says:
    November 30, 2006 at 11:16 pm

    WTF! Why is it that we allow over 35 shots a game?
    We are out shot every single game.
    Samsonov sucks! He has done nothing for this team, nothing.
    Time to start fixing the little things Bobby to put this team over the top.

    This team really needs a pure sniper, a real goalscorer
    (please don’t say Ryder, you have to be able to hit the net to score)

  19. #19 Habs4life says:
    November 30, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    Well I didn’t watch the whole game, just the 3rd peroid lol good timing..anywaysit seems to me that souray his either a habs hero, or a habs zero. Hes either scoring important powerplay goals, or scoring with 1 sec left in OT, or hes taking brainless penalties or bad turnovers, iam not to sure about souray right now. Even though huet had one of his worest performance of the year you really cant play this guy, 48 shot against is not acceptable. Also i think were turing into the flames from last year a bit. We dont score as many goals as other teams in the league, but we have a great goalie who doesn’t allow a lot. Plus samsonov got a point so i dont think this the game to blame him either.

    P.S. that save by koviu in the 3rd was nuts, you can tell why he wears the “C”

  20. #20 Habs#1 says:
    November 30, 2006 at 11:42 pm

    stevejur’s got the Ryder thing right.

    Haven’t Cole and Williams done enough to the Habs already? Did Cole really have to dominate the Habs tonight? Did Williams have to scroe the winning goal?I mean, shouldn’t he have made it up to Saku by giving him the puck to go in on a breakaway and score in the third? Oh if only we lived in a perfect world.

    But you just don’t give up 48 shots and expect to win. Huet was really good again till the Belanger goal, but I’m guessing that may have been fatigue from all the shots he faced. The Habs will need to put up a way better defensive effort to beat the Leafs which seams almost impossible for them to do for some reason. But the game wasn’t all bad, they can take positives out of the first 2 periods. But once again taking way to many penalties cost’s them a game.If there’s one critizisim I have of Souray it’s that his temper can get the best of him at times or he just takes some bad penalties. He’s gooten way better at it compared to last season though which is good.

    But fanatic, why are you bringing up a game that already happened. And why are you comparing them to Ottawa? They beat Florida which is what counts. Would you prefer it if the Habs had gone on an all out offensive blitz, scored 4 goals but given up 6? The Habs don’t have the same offensive horses the Sens do. That’s why they play more of a defensive game.

    And the Samsonov singing is looking worse and worse with each passing game. If Gainey can unload this guy on someone AND get something back for him at the deadline then he’ll have corrected his major mistake.(Hey if we somehow are in a perfect world, and since Rutherford was dumb enough to trade Jack Johnson, maybe he’ll trade Cole for Samsonov. Ah what a dream that would be.)

    And to show just how dominent Cole was he registered 11 SHOTS ON GOAL! WHO DOES THAT?

    Just please don’t lose to the Leafs again, I’m not I’d survive it.

  21. #21 fanatic1 says:
    December 1, 2006 at 12:29 am

    hey guys,all I want for Xmas, IS TO BEAT THE LEAFS,PLEASE!!!They’re playing crappy, so maybe, for once, we’re going to beat them. We need to shut up their commentators, and moronic fans. A shutout would be nice. You know, I think I would rather have Zednik than Samsonov. Agree?

  22. #22 stevejur says:
    December 1, 2006 at 1:33 am

    Sorry fanatic1 their both ****, I’ll take the zamboni

  23. #23 Mike says:
    December 1, 2006 at 2:35 am

    I’d rather have a player who cares than either Sammy or Zednik.

  24. #24 HabsInBlood says:
    December 1, 2006 at 12:49 pm

    fanatic1: I don’t mean to personally attack you, but can you use effective english instead of capitalized letters when you are trying to make a point. It is an eyesore.

  25. #25 Snake says:
    December 1, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    I really think Justin Willaims is a *****.

  26. #26 Snake says:
    December 1, 2006 at 3:09 pm

    OH and Habs 1 I went to a game in 2002 and Zednik registered 14 shotsin that game and had 2 goals. SO it does happen. Especially when you have teams like Carolina who just throw the puck at the net from every which angle and distance. 48 shots but only about 20 decent shots.

  27. #27 stevejur says:
    December 2, 2006 at 3:19 am

    No matter at what angel shots = goals.

Leave a Comment
ShoutBox
Last Message 2 hours, 42 minutes ago
and 1 guest are online.
  • 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!
  • goalie : The wrst mistake management could possibly make I believe is to say, we played well some games and we believe the team can play to that level more often in the future. This team CANNOT adnb DOES NOT play to a high enough level. Please do not kid yourself mamngement. hat is partially why we're in the lace we are.
  • goalie : Senet is correct when he says that if we had more games with a better efort this year we'd likely be in the playoffs. It has been very inconsistent effort but much more than that. We lack big, tough playing and finishing. Never mind fighting for a moment. We did not compete for the pucks nor along the boards nor in front of both nets enough this year. Thus we are in 29th. If the coaching staff doesn't see that then they shouldn't be there.
  • Senet1 : Surely Molson is not going to keep him as the GM?
  • Senet1 : when he knows he will be fired at the end of the season. Nothing really makes since in this whole process.
  • Senet1 : I am not sue why PG has not been fired by now. They could be waiting for another GM to come available at season end, but why would you not set up a committee to manage the team in the short run until a new GM can be named. There is no since in chaning coaches because whoever the GM is he will want to name his own coach. Gainey and a committe of other executives can manage the team through to the trading deadline and onward. What motivation does PG have to making any worthwhile trades when he is
  • Senet1 : I am too mch of a competitor to want my team to tank to. However, If these players played like they ae cabable of playing all year we would not be having this discussion right now, we woud be talking about the playoffs and who we would rather meet in the first round.
  • rocky : Exactly, and Senet nails it when he says we have not had an elite top 5 in the nhl player since lafleur.
  • goalie : I too want the Habs to get the best possible draft this June. We all need SOME hope!
  • rocky : He is persona non grata in habville, and a ghost in every sense of the term.
  • goalie : It remains a miracle how we have heard from our mighty GM twice since Christmas - the trades involving Spacek and Cammy and those comments were extremely brief. PG just does not cut it in my world. Part of a GMs job is to go public from time to time. PG never does that in fact he's a ghost GM!

You must be a registered user to participate in this chat

Archives
Blogroll
RSS
montreal canadiens hockey – habs blog
Copyright © 2010 montreal canadiens hockey - habs blog