montreal canadiens hockey – habs blog RSS

Two Games Remain

  • The Habs will finish no worse than 2nd in the Eastern Conference.

    How important is it to reach 1st in the Conference?

    Do you rest your men, knowing that the real battle begins April 9th?

    Or, do you go all out to win the regular season Conference title? Guaranteed home ice being the only real spoils it comes with, other than meaningless bragging rights.

    The Sabres will be ready to play, their playoff hopes depending on it. The Habs, coast through or go after the crown?

Leave a Comment Leave a Comment
78 Comments
  1. #1 Ice Man says:
    April 4, 2008 at 8:42 am

    Thank you STUO11

  2. #2 habby says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:38 am

    awesome video STUO11!!

  3. #3 Xtrahabsfan says:
    April 4, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  4. #4 Christopher says:
    April 4, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Is anyone else a little worried now that the Capitals have a playoff spot?

    Not sure if as many of you recall as i do how Ovechkin single handedly embarrased us is a four goal affair?

    Or that Cristobal Huet would love nothing more than to steal a series from us?

    It will be interesting to see who will grab that last seed in the East, I have a feeling that Washington will actually finsih with the third seed beating out the Canes for the win of their division, which would drop Carolina to eighth place and possibly missing the playoffs all together.

    Obviously the best case scenario is to face Boston in the first round as we are undefeated against the Bruins all year long. However facing Carolina would be a well deserved pay back to them for stealing the series against us two years ago with their rookie phenom goalie Cam Ward. This time around we have our own young phenom goalie in Carey Price, whom looks like every much of a long term winner to me.

    Alfredson is now done with the Sens which just cements their odds of either missing the playoffs or bowing out very early. Look for the Penguins and Devils (if Brodeur plays his best) to be other contenders in the East.

    The unfortunate part of Montreal’s wonderful season is that even if they get all the way to the Stanley Cup Final (which in itself would be an amazing feat) it is going to be extremely difficult to be the West to win the cup. With teams like Detroit, San Jose, Minnesota, Anaheim, Dallas, Colorado and even Calgary…it goes to show how much stronger the West is than the East….and really the Eastern Conference is wide open…any team could reach the final, which makes Montreal’s odds that much better to be the fourth Canadian team in as many years to reach the Stanley Cup Final

  5. #5 Ice Man says:
    April 4, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    This song will be played in Montreal in June 2008.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCdwARaak1w

  6. #6 STUO11 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    I’m not really worried that the Caps are in. If we’d play them then the habs would win in 6 games, I t would just be a longer first round that’s all. Their best player is a rookie, yes he’s the man, but If montreal’s D plays really good on Ovechkin, the capitals won’t even end up scoring more than 1 goal a game.

  7. #7 Joseph says:
    April 4, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    Washington, Washington, Washington…

    You cannot leave your fate in the hands of others. When Ottawa handles Boston, Carolina the Panthers, and Philadelphia the Devils and Penguins, you are going to be kicking yourselves for not playing better earlier on.

    As to regular season series, I wouldn’t put all that much stock in them as history has shown that they are often meaningless in the playoffs. As I stated before, Ottawa owned the Leafs throughout the regular season for several years, only to lose miserably to them in the playoffs each of those years. On that note, I wouldn’t be begging for a first round match-up against Boston, based on the assumption that the Habs will just roll over them. Don’t get me wrong, the Habs might end up rolling over them, but nothing is guaranteed. After all, there is a lot of history there.

    Anyway, they’ll play who they’ll play, and I, for one, will watch and enjoy! It’s been a great season!

  8. #8 habsalltheway says:
    April 4, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Just looking at the standings and if OTT. lose tonight and WASH. wins then WASH will get a playoff spot over OTT because of the wins WASH has over OTT.
    (4-0 against OTT this year)And that will leave PHILY. to only need one win in there last two games and OTT is out of the playoffs…. :) A lot of ifs but the way the teams are playing that are involved it can very well happen….
    GO HABS GO :)

  9. #9 Xtrahabsfan says:
    April 4, 2008 at 7:14 pm

    Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…..Woooooooooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  10. #10 Joseph says:
    April 4, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    So much for predictions, hey?

  11. #11 hablifer says:
    April 4, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    Ottawa is in the playoffs. They backed in, because they lost, and Florida beat Carolina. Looks like we’re playing the Sens. If Boston wins tomorrow at home vs the sabres, (and they will) at we win, it’s the sens. we can beat them, no problem. Without Alfreddson and Fisher they’re not the same, and they lost at home to the bruins. What does that tell you? I think Pitt plays Philly. that will be a blood bath. good! they’ll beat each other up for us.

  12. #12 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    Hey Joseph, I never said that Malkin didn’t make Pittsburgh a better offensive team who wouldn;t like to have either of them ontheir team. Their both great players and that is a fact. I also never said I wouldn’t like Malkin on my team what I said was I would take the Canadian over the European. As for either of them ending up in Washington, you are right Crobsy will never be any place else but Pittsburgh and if we had a chance at Malkin I would certainly take it. One thing you have to understand, I would never run down Malkin but then again it is not in my nature to run down any great player. YOu are right about one other thing this has been a good friendly discussion and I think we should have more of them where two guys can disagree without using deflamatory comments to ridicule the other person. Lets face it we disagree but that is what makes us both great hockey fans.
    Thanks for the discussion, sorry I could not get on the blog earlier.

  13. #13 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    correction I had Washington on the brain I met Montreal.

  14. #14 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:07 pm

    If I understand the tie breaker the team with the most wins is the first fie breaker.Lets assume that Boston, Ottawa and Philly end up tied.Ottawa would be the 6th place then Boston and Philly? If Philly beats Pitts then they would move to 6th if Boston also wins then Ottaw is eigth.

    It looks like Carolina is out unless Washington cannot beat or tie/SO/OT Florida.

    This means we would play any of the three teams Bos, Ott or Philly. If we beat the leafs, and Philly beats Pitts then we are # 1 which changes the mix again. So I guess we are not going to know until Sunday night regardless of who wins on Saturday.

  15. #15 Don Carnage says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:07 pm

    Just looking at the standings and if OTT. lose tonight and WASH. wins then WASH will get a playoff spot over OTT because of the wins WASH has over OTT.
    (4-0 against OTT this year)And that will leave PHILY. to only need one win in there last two games and OTT is out of the playoffs…. A lot of ifs but the way the teams are playing that are involved it can very well happen….
    GO HABS GO

    Dude your way off here … Ott is in Canes are out …

  16. #16 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Ottawa is already in by virtue of Carolina’s loss tonight

  17. #17 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:14 pm

    I was trying to understand the tie breaker. It looks like Carolina is out unless washington looses tomorrow night. If Washington looses then they are out.

  18. #18 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    I think the only way the Philly gets out of eigth is if they beat Pitts on Sunday.

  19. #19 Senet 1 says:
    April 4, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    If Boston loses the then they are 7th unless Philly loses. Bottom line is Ottawa has more wins and Boston and Philly cannot catch them in wins so they have to beat them in points.

  20. #20 patrick says:
    April 5, 2008 at 1:04 am

    the only way we don’t play ottawa is if philly beats pittsburgh, and then we lose to the leafs

  21. #21 STUO11 says:
    April 5, 2008 at 7:50 am

    who would you guys rather play against? The Sens,Flyers or Bruins? Just wondering.

  22. #22 habs4life says:
    April 5, 2008 at 10:06 am

    If D Alfredsson and M Fisher out for “Weeks” was true, Habs would have visible advantage against Ottawa. Without DA and MF, Ottawa just makes no Sense.

    Anyway, whoever to meet, Go Habs Go!!!

  23. #23 Xtrahabsfan says:
    April 5, 2008 at 10:48 am

    First let’s finnaly blow out the Leaf’s and end the regular season on a perfact note”blow them the f@ck up,lol” and then a new season commeth”playoffs!”.The east has got to face our beast…GO HABS GO !!!!!!

  24. #24 PACTUM SERVA says:
    April 5, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    Agreed XTRA, time to put that joke of an organization behind us for good.

  25. #25 Joseph says:
    April 5, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    No problem, Senet 1. I realize that there’s life outside of the internet.

    As to our discussions, they’ll always be healthy, just as long as we respect one another’s opinions. And I re-iterate that these are opinions because I certainly don’t know everything about hockey. (I could easily prove to be wrong about most of what I think I know.)

    Random thoughts…

    All of this talk of match-ups is making my head hurt. Is it any wonder that civilized human beings are by far the most stressed animals on the planet? Analyze this, analyze that. Understand this, understand that. Relax and enjoy! :-)

    The word in Leafsland is that the Leafs are now losing intentionally to impove their draft positioning. If this is the case (unlikely), then perhaps we should thank them in advance for tonight’s victory?

  26. #26 Joseph says:
    April 5, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    Ya, evidently Ottawa didn’t beat them 8-2 two nights ago but rather the Leafs allowed Ottawa to beat them 8-2 two nights ago… for the sake of the draft all of a sudden.

  27. #27 Joseph says:
    April 5, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    Something’s rotten in Toronto (and I think it’s the Leafs):

    http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/410553

  28. #28 Senet 1 says:
    April 5, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    Joseph I enjoyed out discussion and you are right about these match ups. It sort of looks like we play Ottawa because if Philly wins that puts us in 1st and Ottawa in 8th. If Philly loses that leaves them in 8th and Ottawa in 7th. This is all assuming that Boston beats Buffalo. If Boston looses i think that pust Boston in 7th and Ottawa in 6th unless of course Philly loses???? Wow!!!

« Older Comments
Leave a Comment
ShoutBox
Last Message 9 hours, 40 minutes ago
and 2 guests are online.
  • 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!
  • rocky : Its true, there is no honor in that. These guys have only known the ethic of giving it all to win every night. I do not want them to "tank", and they will never do that anyway. I do want them to lose though, as awful as it sounds.
  • goalie : Roicky as a good point. We all want the Habs to get a really good draft pick. However, players, coaches etc. also have a keen desire to compete and win. That's why they're playing at the pro level. Thus we can only hope that the team plays some good games and let the chips fall where they may. After the disasterous season we've had let's not lower ourselves adn get involved in any dscussions about 'tanking' games.
  • rocky : So long.
  • Senet1 : Good discussion rocky, I have to step out for an hour, but may be back later.
  • Senet1 : The only way this team comes back to a team with long term potential is to draft a game breaker. Even all the other bad teams have a Stamkos or a player like him. He have some good player so what we need is a Malkin that we can count on 80% of the time to win a game for us.
  • rocky : I mean winning will only do them harm that is.
  • rocky : It really hurts because my reflexes make me want to cheer like mad, but it will only hurt the team now.
  • Senet1 : Yes I have mixed feeling when watching the game. Last night I say here we go again. with our record of shoot losses I did not expect to win that one. Yet I wanted to win real bad?????
  • rocky : God, so horrible to sit and hope for losses, but here we are.
  • Senet1 : Our problem is we play one out of every 4 games good and therefore, we play well enough to stay on the borderline of a top five pick. If we win three or four in a row we could take ourselves right out of the running.

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