Montreal Canadiens

[ddp]

Personally I don't mind the signing. He has two seasons of 30 points and when used sparingly can be effective. Basically it puts some experience in the lineup while the injured players heal up and doesn't force the team to play young players that are not ready.

Honestly I thought Spacek was enough...for that job. Campoli...christ...weber can play 12 mins a game....dunno, not a fan of this signing. And VERY frustrated with the markov signing. GLASS should not equal 5.75$

[ericdaoust]

Honestly I thought Spacek was enough...for that job. Campoli...christ...weber can play 12 mins a game....dunno, not a fan of this signing. And VERY frustrated with the markov signing. GLASS should not equal 5.75$

Emelin so far has done nothing and Diaz needs some AHL time. Meanwhile I'm not convinced that Weber is ready or that he will ever be ready. The hybrid F/D role for Weber is probably ideal for now. That leaves a hole on D that Campoli can fill. If Campoli gets beat out later by younger players, he can then ride the pine as 7th dman.

The Markov situation is very frustrating for me as well. I was hoping the team would do its homework before giving that much cap space and term to a player with question marks. I was thinking maybe that money would have been better served on Wisniewski but with the suspension news it looks like Markov could make his season debut before Wiz does.

[ericdaoust]

Benoit Brunet was on RDS during the 1st intermission and talked about a potential conditioning issue with Emelin. It goes hand in hand with the pictures of Emelin showing him looking out of shape coming into camp.

[ericdaoust]

Cammalleri scored late in the 2nd on a rebound to open the scoring. Now the Bruins have taken the lead after two terrible defensive zone breakdowns. Guys are getting beat far too much. It's way past the time to start putting competitive lineups out there. I do like giving time to young players but this time the Habs have put a lineup inferior to their opponent each game.

[Killer67]

Hey Eric, what's the latest on Avtsin? Did he play in any games this pre season? I have him on most of my teams because I'm a homer but is he worth holding onto or should I be grabbing some hot names from this pre season (Read, C Smith, etc..)

Thanks

[ericdaoust]

Hey Eric, what's the latest on Avtsin? Did he play in any games this pre season? I have him on most of my teams because I'm a homer but is he worth holding onto or should I be grabbing some hot names from this pre season (Read, C Smith, etc..)

Thanks

I've seen Avtsyn out there for two games and he did nothing to impress anyone. He is far from being NHL-ready. I would focus my attention on the other players for success in my pools.

[ericdaoust]

Bruins win 2-1. I liked the energy offensively but defensively they get beat far too often.

[habs83]

Weber is back on the fourth line this morning ... PPQB for the 2nd wave, 13th forward, 8th D this season could be his job description.

[ericdaoust]

Weber is back on the fourth line this morning ... PPQB for the 2nd wave, 13th forward, 8th D this season could be his job description.

Translated: "Fill whatever role we need until your contract expires"

[ddp]

Translated: "Fill whatever role we need until your contract expires"

Send him to New York Iles to play with Streit for their tallest player.

[ericdaoust]

Send him to New York Iles to play with Streit for their tallest player.

That would be a tie between Wishart and Jurcina...

[ericdaoust]

Current Habs injuries: Andrei Markov, Travis Moen, Hunter Bishop, David Desharnais, Brendon Nash, Lars Eller, Olivier Fortier, Louis Leblanc, Joonas Nattinen, Ryan White and Ian Schultz.

I thought the offseason was to GET IN SHAPE????

[ericdaoust]

RDS has a story on Yannick Weber. Basically it confirms some of my concerns and his future at this point is "uncertain". According to the article he may not be in the team's future plans. It's his fourth season and he hasn't been able to show more than a few glimpses of promise. I would expect a trade in the next few days. That's just my hunch.

Article link (french only): http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/327236.html

[HockeyHobo]

How has Gomez looked so far this preseason? He was saying all the right things coming into the season and seemed to have worked hard over the summer, does it look like paying off??

[ross10019]

How has Gomez looked so far this preseason? He was saying all the right things coming into the season and seemed to have worked hard over the summer, does it look like paying off??

By all accounts, Gomez came into camp fitter and looked better on the ice. He's got definite chemistry with MaxPac and Gionta and I think that'll carry him this season - people forget that Gomez pointed at a very decent clip last year when that MaxPac/Gionta line was together. I think he'll be back to his normal approach which is getting lots of shots on net (albeit it many of them of the low percentage variety) which will translate to scoring opportunities and a better stat line. For Gomez, I'm predicting a bounceback to 22G/36A/58pts with 225+ SOG (if that matters in your league).

EDIT: One thing to note though is his early injury in the pre-season (groin tweak, I believe) and the fact that some Mtl media members were annoyed with his lackadaisical approach to explaining what he's done in the off-season workout wise. I only mention the last bit because it did seem like Gomez was very defensive about his workout routine ("I've played in the NHL for 10+ years, it's not like I found out what a barbell was this summer", etc.). I think it's much ado about nothing as Gomez is known for being a joker of sorts, but thought I'd mention because it does demonstrate that Gomez has a chip on his shoulder about the whole "poor conditioning" thing, and that may be good or bad (probably good).