Boy- I am glad I did not read all these posts before I went to bed last night lol. Alot of frustration being vented here and rightly so. I am, however, hoping that cooler heads prevail today and that the posts become more constructive and less emotional. I have some observations that I believe are based on fact, but take them for what they are worth:

1. Islanders Fire Coach Steve Sterling- he is the 8th coach for the Islanders in the 10 years that Milbury has been coaching. Hmmm.... Like Elizabeth Taylor who got married 10 times (or was it more?), after awhile don't you need to look in the mirror and say "Geesh maybe I am the problem"? This totally illustrates the backwards mindset that owners have in the NHL and pro sports in general. Milbury has done nothing but make stupid moves in his tenure as GM. Signed useless Yashin to a HUGE contract, traded Zdeno Chara, wasted his number one pick on goalie Rick Dipietro (Rick who?) and has made some horrible trades. Yet the revolving coach door continues and Milbury sits in the press box. Talk about job security!!! Hey Mom, I want to be an NHL GM when I grow up. They never get fired. So go ahead Mike, hire Sutter, Demers, Nolan, or The Lord to come coach your team. You are still left with the mess you have made (see Pittsburgh)


2. Radek Bonk- so much for the "defensive specialist" role. He just does not care, period. Even when he gave it away he made no effort to get back in the play and fix his mistake. Why would Julien put him back out 40 seconds later? It is illustrative of the horrible lack of depth you have there. With almost 4 minutes of hockey left you are forced to look at the bench in a one goal game and go with Koivu, Begin, or Ribiero at Center. Eliminate Ribs.


3. Pierre McGuire actually made an intelligent observation that I agree with. The habs have no second line presence. This comes down to the center ice position. Ribiero as your second line center and Saks in and out of the lineup. If you have no second line presence everything falls to pieces. Special teams, especially the Power Play, scoring in general, become non-existent.  As well, you ar eforced to try and "spread the wealth" around by changin your lines as Julien has tried. It is far too easy for opponents to check and shut down a one line team today. Ottawa has the best first line in the world right now. However they would not be NEAR that strong without second and third line presence. Teams are forced to worry about other lines on the Sens. It also allows you to have a good power play because, if you are a one line team, you can only put that line on the PP for about 1/3 of the PP.


4. Our defence looked horribly slow last night. Colorado has a ton of speed and we sorely lack that behind the blueline. In fact, had we had some of the other refs we have seen this year last night, we would have spent most of the night with a dman in the box from clutching and grabbing


5. Huet is the real deal. He is fundamentally sound. He stays on his feet more and fills the net. Actually reminds me of Jeff Hackett. If there is a positive, I think that the Habs should feel more confident in their backup goaltending then they did 3 weeks ago. However, look for Theo to be back in Saturday night. At this time, Gainey has no choice but to play him. Notice I said Gainey, and not Julien.


6. And speaking of Gainey, everyone is pooping all over him to make a deal. There is no doubt in my mind that he is trying to make a deal. But deals are tough to make, especially with who he is probably trying to deal (Ribs, Theo, Bonk et al). Deals do not happen overnight. I will say this. If you expect a decent deal to be made, you will need to prepare yourselves to lose one of the so called "untouchable players". Kovalev, Koivu, Ryder, Souray. Forget dealing a piece of coal and getting back a diamond boys. You need to give up something to get something. Even to try and trade Theo you will need to put something in with the package.

Sorry for the long post boys. I saved 'em all up lol