Posts Tagged ‘Brian Gionta’

A few reasons to believe the Habs can win tonight

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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Montreal Canadiens show they got the right stuff

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

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…

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.

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Has the season self-destructed??

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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We’ve got a couple of Giants

Watching the Canadiens vs the Rangers last night was a treat. It went through all the emotions…. from elation and excitement to uncertainty and slight fear (well ok… maybe no fear… right?). But when the chips were down the Habs managed to come back from 2 goals down (twice they were down by 2 goals) and eventually win the game.

I saw what I began to see ever since these hit the ice in training camp. A play hard attitude, never back down, desire to win…..

But from what I’ve heard from some tv analysts and some writers, you’d swear that this “experiment” of Bob Gainey’s would surely flop. The theme of of some game highlights and video replays have referred to some of them as “the smurf line”…. their physical stature is often referred to…. Even before CBC broke to commercial just before the game was about to start there was a mention of how many inches the Gomez-Cammalleri-Gionta line gave up to their opponents.
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What I’ll be looking for – Habs vs Avs

Tonight, the Montreal Canadiens take on the Colorado Avalanche and is the Canadiens home opener.

Coming into tonight I’ve seen positives and negatives in the previous 5 games. The Avalanche should provide a very formidable opponent. They’ve got some great young talent and their taking off.

Here’s what I’ll be looking for tonight:
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Thinking about the team 3 games in

So we’re 3 games into the 2009/2010 NHL season. In these first 3 games there’s been many ups and downs already.

The Canadiens have had 2 big injuries and 1 minor injury in their first 2 games and thankfully last night everyone made it out ok!

Here’s a few thoughts on some ups and some downs so far (in no real particular order).
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Canadiens vs Penguins – Game highlights and comments

Montreal Canadiens won their pre-season matchup against the Penguins last night at the Bell center.

The Habs were at times a bit flat (I thought) although I’m sure they weren’t hustling…. it just seemed it wasn’t clicking all the time through the first 2 periods.
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Canadiens vs Bruins – Game highlights and comments

Though the Canadiens lost last nights game against the Boston Bruins there were many positives in the game.

Some players were certainly making the best of their pre-season games….

A couple of these guys are both similar and quite different.
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