A Montreal Canadiens fan blog
Posts tagged Brian Gionta
Montreal Canadiens show they got the right stuff
Apr 27th
After the way the season went with injuries and then the line juggling in the lineup…. the seeming lack of simple coaching moves like taking a time out… I’m almost amazed at how the Canadiens have looked after 6 games against the mighty Washington Capitals.
Coming into this series I had no doubt in my mind that the Capitals could be beaten. I’m not gonna tell you I would have bet on it at the time but I certainly did believe they could be beat.
Washington’s biggest weakness is their defense.
They finished off the season with a 2.77 goals against average which ranked them 16th in the league. While they boast being a powerhouse offensive team you’ll often hear something about winning in the playoffs. Defense.
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A little bit of Habs news today
Nov 26th
It was reported that David Desharnais is heading back to Hamilton. Desharnais played just under 8 minutes against the Penguins, no points and -1.
Hoping that he’ll be back sometime.
And RDS is reporting that Andrei Markov started skating and that there’s a chance that he could be back in the lineup as early as late December.
Imagine if Markov did come back healthy and ready to go by early January… just in time to get in sync for the playoff run….
Gomez, Spacek, D’Agostini and the newly acquired Benoit Pouliot were also skating today.
The game against the Penguins had the Habs down Markov, Gill, Gomez, Spacek, Gionta, D’Agostini and Andrei Kostitsyn…. am I missing a few???
The team played with effort and heart.
Imagine what this team may look like in Januray or February is these guys are back and the team is relatively healthy. I’m optimistic… At the rate of NHL injuries this year though…. there are no guarantees.
My evaluation is still…
Nov 21st
As I mentioned yesterday in the post titled “Has the season self-destructed??” I think it’s been pretty hard to clearly evaluate just how good this team is.
There has been some raunchy performances on the one hand. On the other hand there have been some great performances where they’ve been in the game or have won.
Last night against the Washington Capitals were one such game were I wasn’t filled with optimism before hand but afterwards I certainly was.
Has the season self-destructed??
Nov 20th
The constant injuries and lack luster play has certainly been tugging away at the optimism I had coming into the season. A quarter of the way through it’s still pretty hard to read exactly who this team is. But although it is hard to discern it’s not really something that can be faulted on management.
I’m not saying that there haven’t been moves (or “non-moves”) made in the last few years that I think were bad in hindsight leading up to today… but what I am saying is that one can’t honestly measure just how good this team is
We’ve been without our best player and other players who were keyed in as integral parts of this team.
When compared to last year’s team and the “core” that the Habs had prior to this season it still speaks loudly to me that this group is 10-11-0 after 21 games… without Markov… and other pieces of the puzzle also out.
There’s a great article on the numbers without Markov over at Lions in Winter… check it out.
There’s been quite a bit of doom and gloom from what I’ve been hearing in regards to the season and the talk about a “rebuild” has begun. Honestly, I think we’ve just begun “the rebuild”.
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A few reasons to believe the Habs can win tonight
May 4th
Posted by Yves in My thoughts
Comments
The Canadiens face the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Center in Montreal tonight… and might I take this time to welcome Sidney and his crew to the most intense hockey crowd in the world.
Here’s a few reasons why I think the Canadiens deserve a little credit and why they can win.
Besides the fact that shutting down the Capitals offense for 3 consecutive games and taking them in 7 games surely wasn’t any luck or bad luck. This time of year is about “want”, “desire”, “hunger”…. you better believe it.
Don’t count anyone out until they’re out.
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