Subban and Price Invited to Olympic Summer Camp

Congratulations to PK Subban and Carey Price for being invited to the Olympic summer camp for the 2014 games in Sochi.  Coming off of his Norris Trophy campaign, it's no mystery that PK was invited to camp.  Having won gold twice with the Canadian junior team, and skating with Team Canada after the playoffs this past season it is definitely a deserved invite.  Price started last year playing lights out, but struggled to finish the season, and was only average at best in the playoffs.  That being said, Carey is one of the most promising up and coming goaltenders in the league (and this blogger's favourite player)  With his strong pedigree of  winning the Calder cup, and the World Juniors gold medal, not to mention showing he can withstand the pressure of playing in fish bowl Montreal, Carey is a natural choice for Team Canada, and I'm sure he will be a part of it for years to come. 

Are the Boys Done Tinkering?

I have spoken to a lot of Habs fans over the last few weeks, and we can't seem to agree on whether the team has improved over the off season or not.  There have been a couple of moves and signings that have elated people, or really angered them.  It's no mystery that the Habs are known as a  small hockey club, and that size and grit were needed to compete in the tough Atlantic division.  This is why the signing of Danny Briere is so polarising with fans.  The last thing the team needs, some will say, is another old, short, injury prone player past his prime but with a French name.  I am in the other camp.  I think Briere is a great addition to the club, and is going to have a bounce back year, and it needs to be said that he is one of the best playoff performers in recent memory, and let's face it, most of the Habs' "stars" disappear during the playoffs.  Also, with the crazy amounts of money that owners and GMs are spending, on mediocre players, 4 million per for 2 years is hardly breaking the bank for a top 6 forward.  The only trouble is how to balance out all of our mighty mice in Gallagher, Gionta, Desharnais and now Briere.  Signing Parros will go a long way in protecting our little guys, and will give Prust -my choice for Habs MVP last season- a little help, as he won't have to take on all of the heavyweights by himself.  Another good singing in my opinion is Ryan White.  He certainly didn't choose the right spots last year to show his strength, but he is a skilled and feisty player, and is signed for a very reasonable $700k.  We have some good rookies again, and the cupboards are getting full thanks to our acquisition of Bergevin who is slowly restoring respect to the franchise.  All of that being said, here's what I see lining up, unless a blockbuster trade is made before the start of the season.

Pacioretty        DD              Gionta
 Bourqe         Plekanek         Briere
Galchenyuk     Eller           Gallagher
Prust             White           Parros/Moen

Subban Gorges
Markov  Emelin
Bouillon Tinordi
Diaz  Drewiske

Funny, even after writing this out, I am unsure about our team's offence.  We need to trade one of the little guys.  By process of elimination, it won't be the guy with a reasonable cap hit and French name (DD) and it for sure won't be Briere, and unlikely it would be Gallagher who should have won the Calder.  That leaves Gionta.  I would be happy to ship off Gio to allow Prust to play on the 3rd line with the Gallys, moving Eller up to the top 6.  I thought he had a great year last  year, and is going to be even better this season.  Although Gio has been a great soldier during his stay, he has now ripped BOTH triceps, is a  year older, and, of course is small.  We could probably get a decent player for Gio, and the "C" would have to go to Gorges in my opinion.  Another power forward while we're waiting on McCarron would be nice, can anyone say Kyle Clifford? 

Anyhow, that is my first rumblings as a blogger.  Hope you enjoyed it, I'll be back soon.

What it's All About

This is my first time writing a blog and it will heavily revolve around the NHL and more specifically, the Montreal Canadiens.  I will offer my take on the games, trades, lineups, etc.  I will also have some frequent guest bloggers representing some other teams, namely the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins.  Hopefully it makes for  an interesting read and creates some lively debates.  If not, I'm going to have fun writing it, so it's a win win.  I'm sure it will start out slow through the remaining days of summer, but I plan to have  a post after every regular season game, breaking down what went right, wrong, and in beteween.  Hopefully my friends representing the other teams in the Atlantic Division will do the same, and once a week we will be recording our own debates, that will be linked here on the blogs.