barry33 wrote:

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First of all, I love the Samsonov deal. He brings another element of speed to the team and scoring and dispells the whole "taxes, media, language" issue that has been played like a broken record (BG did not have to overpay at 3.5). Johnson is a nice adition but is more of a role player. Center is not his natural position. So for those asking me to eat crow, barry33 will eat half of one. But what happend to alll those on here who cried about our center position? And -O? Others? We go into this season with Koivu (who we all pray will stay healthy) and Ribs who is bulking up to 125 lbs and still has no heart. We all agreed last year that center was our achilles heel and teams targeted that time after time. Our top 2 centers are small. Ribs is soft. Johnson as even And-O admits..is small and soft. So once again we will get pushed all around at that KEY position. Having said that, we have at least improved our team over last season which as of 2 days ago, was not the case. Now if Gainey gets a legitimate first line center I will eat the rest of the crow.

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Yep...we still need a center...very true. But I think that may have to come from within.

OK so here is my two cents. I still disagree Barry about why player's do not want to play in Montreal. I mean some of the most politically correct people including Gainey himself pretty much served the language problem up on a silver platter...face it...that IS the variable that most Canadian players consider.

I figure Montreal is somewhat appealing to some European type players due to Quebec's "European flavour". Montreal is still considered THE place to play over their...especially in Russia...thus the Samsonov deal( which by the way is a solid deal but I am willing to bet not Gainey's first choice).

Montreal is not appealing to those who have grown up routinely been exposed to this whole petty language issue. Thus, have a look at how many Canadian boys from outside Quebec play for the habs ( Rivet...souray...who wants out...Ryder...not very many). Hmmmm?

Isn't Roenick with Phoenix?

Although the weight of public opinion throughout Habdom seems to be bearing down on the present administration to prop-up the centre slot, Bob-o’s progressive yet frugal moves yesterday demonstrated to And-o (beyond any reasonable doubt) that he will soon (as in, just a matter of weeks) address our biggest weakness when the right opportunity arises.

 

Given that And-o has already waited +10 years, what’s another few months?!?!?!

 

…meanwhile, And-o is thawing out a big ‘ol batch of crow for his buddy “Barely53” and chilling the suds for that glorious day Bob-o dumps Riblet (thereby bestowing the permanent role of 2nd line duty on Saku…as the Hockey God originally intended) so that we can all finally take that next step back towards Stanley’s Cup!!!

 

AMEN!!!

Yikes! Was looking at an old LA roster... even researchers get brain cramps...

What is true though, is that they have a ton of centers and a couple high-quality ones and Conroy is rumoured to be expendable. He may not have the chemistry of Lang, but he brings a better over-all game and some solid offense with decent size. But it seems that Gainey is in 'wait and see what the season brings mode', so I doubt it will happen.

Habtastic

mperra (Admin) wrote:

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I am starting to think the reason why players won't sign here, has less to do with taxes and the language, and more to do with how competitive this club is or will be.  Take Shanny for example..  Shanahan would rather play with the stars in New York (Jagr & Co) than Montreal.   Montreal, from a competitive point of view, is less attractive than many teams.  And I think that's the reason why Canadiens have become, as Pat Hickey of the Gazette calls is, the "gulag" of the NHL. So if we begin to develop from within (Ryder, Higgins to name a few), Canadiens profile would benefit. Just my thoughts. Oh yes, Barry is right.  We still need a centre. mario

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Dead on my friend...the taxes thing is huge, whe you make $4M and in the top tax bracket and paid an an employee, the government takes more than you do...but in the end, I think your right, were not getting guys who want to win THIS YEAR because they are getting older, and besides we dont need players like that, we need guys who want to commit to MTL and build a winner (we are getting closer).

That having been said, the ONLY goal is winning a cup..and Shanny would have been nice, but a bit of a waste for 1 year.

Is Greg Johnson still available or did the Preds re-sign him....he would be perfect.

And the best line Ive ever read on this website...I cant wait until Saku is a number 2 C...AMEN...then we'll be strong down the middle 

I got a bit of my wish with the Samsonov signing.  Koviu is most likely no longer our #1 center.  The thing that makes it bad is that it looks as if Riberio is now our 1st line center.  There is no way Koviu's line with Higgins and Ryder is going to play top dog over the duo of Sammy and Kovy, so our 1st line center situation went from bad to worse.  I do have some faith that Ribs will put up some big offensive numbers this season, but if Koviu is not a 1st line center (and that is my honest opinion) there is no way that Ribs is.