Ooh, baby, the puck has dropped: The Habs went 1-1 in their first week, losing a squeaker in Toronto before pulling out a comeback in Pittsburgh. They were missing key players, including sniper extraordinaire Mike “Ferrari” Cammalleri, but there’s lots to be happy about, like the solid play of Carey Price. Eric, Pat and Tal experiment with a new and improved format for the latest podcast. We discuss our take on les Merveilleux’ play so far and give great nicknames to some of our favorites. We agree the team needs to score more goals but can’t agree on how. One thing’s for sure, we love the play of PK “Prime Time” Subban – no matter what Don Cherry says.
It’s finally here, people! The first drop of the puck in the 2010-11 NHL season. Mike Cammalleri marked the occasion by getting suspended for the first game Thursday night in Toronto. It’s only one game, but the topic got plenty of mileage from the Three Habmigos (we’re working on the nicknames, we promise). Discussing everything from Cammy’s suspension to the Gionta captaincy to their season predictions, Pat, Eric, and Tal covered a range of topics and refused to hold back.
So take a listen and share your thoughts and opinions. At the very least, we’ll hopefully figure out the proper pronunciation of Lars Eller’s name.
Ah training camp. The one time in the hockey season where the individual performances are actually more important than the final score. It’s in that spirit that we’ve come together once more to record another Habs podcast.
Just an hour before Pierre Gauthier and Jacques Martin made their first round of cuts, the three sages (Pat, Eric, and Tal) came together to discuss what they have seen so far and what they expect in the near future. In typical Tal fashion, Aaron Palushaj was cut by the Habs barely an hour after T. Pinch predicted he would push for a final roster spot. So you might want to ignore his advice the next time you play the stock market.
Nevertheless, this pre-season has already been ripe with intrigue. So just two weeks before opening night, les boys come together with plenty of discussion and a whole lot of booing. And not all of it for Carey Price.
Pierre Gauthier’s press conference this week highlighted “team stability” and the “core strengths” of the Montreal Canadiens. Gauthier is telling the media that the current roster, which looks a lot like last year’s roster, will be the same roster for the foreseeable future. Yet there a number of players who, if they don’t play to expectations, will likely not return. It’s a long enough list that the entire organization may undergo a large overhaul in the summer of 2011. Perhaps not as big as the one the Canadiens underwent in 2009, but an overhaul nonetheless.
For instance, take Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouiliot, Ryan O’Byrne, Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche: It is IMPOSSIBLE to see how any of these players come back next year if they do not produce this year.
It’s about that time, people. That post-Labor Day period when anyone with a pair of shinpads suddenly starts chiming in with their prediction for what will happen in the upcoming NHL season. And why should we be any different?
Predicting what the Habs would ultimately do last season was next to impossible. Especially with half a roster’s worth of new players coming into le Centre Bell. This year should be less difficult to predict, but no less intriguing. With wunderboy Carey Price now entrenched as the team’s number-one keeper, the season could hinge on the play of one of the most-hyped players in franchise history. Throw in the unknown intangibles surrounding young players like Lars Eller, PK Subban, and Dustin Boyd and the 2010-11 season has all kinds of intrigue.
As usual, each of the three gentlemen behind the latest HabsRadio podcast have divergent opinions on where les Habitants will end up this season. Listen to their thoughts on the season and be sure to chime in with your own thoughts on how les boys in bleu, blanc, et rouge do this season.
Can it be? Are the dog days of Summer really almost over? Ladies and Gentlemen, hockey season is almost upon us. More accurately, Habs training camp is almost upon us. And what better way to begin the countdown to Habs camp than with an all-new podcast? But not just any podcast, Habs fans.
This latest cast will be the first of what should be many to include the insight and corny jokes of TPinch. It may be too early to tell if he knows what he’s talking about, but he does somehow manage to add what certain Habs fans call a certain “je ne sais quoi.”
With a discussion of what to expect from les Habitants, Eric, Pat, and T officially get the 2010-2011 season rolling. Let the Lars Eller era begin!
After taking our beloved Habs all the way to the brink of the Stanley Cup Finals (almost single-handedly at that), we reward Jaroslav Halak with a … trade. Yet, after all but disappearing offensively in the later rounds of the playoffs, we reward Tomas Plekanec with a … 6 year, $30 million deal. Makes perfect sense right? We try and figure it all out.
This is just plain fun. Somehow, some way, this team has taken Montreal by complete surprise and absolutely captured the imagination of the entire hockey world. It seems no matter what they face, they find the way to bounce back from it. Heart epitomized. But now with both Markov and Spacek out, facing the Staal-less Pittsburgh Penguins, they’re up against an arguably bigger challenge than even the Washington Capitals. Can they really keep it going?
THEY MADE IT! (Barely). Monday’s podcast will dissect the weaknesses, but for now, I’m thankful for the following:
1. PLAYOFFS, Baby!
Don’t kid yourself. This is a major achievement, specifically because of the injuries to their best players. Plenty of other teams in the league lost their best players to injury or trade – Atlanta, Calgary, Carolina, Anaheim – and you don’t see them in the dance, do you?
Plus, these Habs had to start all over from scratch this year, deal with all the changes, fight back against ridiculous expectations from some boorish fans…..yeah, I’d say the Habs persevered quite nicely, all things considered.
2. Excellent Goaltending.
I don’t know what happens in the off-season and I am so glad I don’t have to make that decision, but Jaroslav Halak was nothing short of excellent. And Carey Price was much MUCH better than last year, if a lot more unlucky.
Another word on Carey, because it bears repeating: Maybe his confidence is shaky, but the kid can play.
3. Andrei Markov.
The only elite player in the lineup.
4. Moving Forward
The Habs may not be big, and some of their talent is overpriced / underperforming, but this year saw a nice group of forwards that just never quit. There’s energizer bunny Brian Gionta, the no-longer-girlish Tomas Plekanec, 50-stitch man Travis Moen, heroic and gap-toothed Glen Metropolit, and I maintain brother Sergei had a nice rebound. And I am positive that mega-watt Cammy would have hit 40 had he not been injured. Hopefully, he’ll explode in the playoffs.
5. Hal Gill / Josh Georges
Every fan and so called expert was tough on Gill in the first 15 games. But dammit if he didn’t become the best penalty killer on the team. And he settled the room. He talked Carey Price through his slump, cajoled Georges to be more aggressive, and sniped back at the boo-bird-dummies after Price was awarded the third star with calls of “trade him”.
That’s called leadership, and the Habs needed it.
Speaking of Georges, I have six words: Mike Green slapshot to the head.
6. Benoit Pouliot
Yes, he is in a slump now. But he’s never played a full season (before this, his top total was 37 games!). He’s never been a top-six forward. He’s also only 23 years old. And he’s big, mobile, got guts, and lightening quick hands.
When he gets really healthy, properly conditioned for a full season, and gets used to the responsibility, man is he going to be good. Doesn’t matter if Guillaume is tearing it up. This was one of Gainey’s best trades.
7. Guy Boucher
Unlike the major league bench boss, Guru Boucher showed an uncanny ability to squeeze the most out of his young charges. Guys like Tom Pyatt, Mathieu Darche and Ryan White aren’t going to scare anybody too much, but they came prepared and confident. Sergei came back with his attitude in check (I won’t credit the Guru with PK – who was just sublime – because I think a sock puppet could coach that guy).
Compare that with the dismal performances and sinking confidences of the young players who started the season with the big-league Habs: Guillaume, MaxPac, D’Agostini, MaxLap, the Kostitsyns…….that’s a lot of talent not living up to its potential. They can’t all be duds, eh coach?
8. Jacques Martin
I know it looks like I has needling him just now. I was. But the man coached the hell out of this team. Let’s remember, there was a stretch of games there where the Habs lineup was the best in all of the AHL. This was his first year, on a team that was brand new, in a smoking-hot cauldron of a market that was calling for the decapitation of the very man who hired him. Hello? Can you say pressure?………..Don’t agree?……I’d like to see you coach the Habs for even one day. You wouldn’t last the first period.
So the Habs are in. Tonight, let’s be happy.
Tune in Monday, when Eric and I really take out the scalpels.
It’s finally here, people! The first drop of the puck in the 2010-11 NHL season. Mike Cammalleri marked the occasion by getting suspended for the first game Thursday night in Toronto. It’s only one game, but the topic got plenty of mileage from the Three Habmigos (we’re working on the nicknames, we promise). Discussing everything from Cammy’s suspension to the Gionta captaincy to their season predictions, Pat, Eric, and Tal covered a range of topics and refused to hold back.
