Intent, malice, really??

Under NHL rules if your stick makes contact with a player's facial area it's a high-sticking penalty. Regardless of if the player "meant" to do it. You must be in control of your stick at all times. (Imagine that.)

Will someone please tell me why this appears to be the only rule that takes this sort of "you must be aware of your actions regardless of intent"?

Certainly swinging your stick around is dangerous. There's always the danger of contact with eyes, but many times a player gets clipped and it's a few stitches or no injury at all. But it's an automatic penalty.

Somehow a player can be irresponsible with everything except the stick and give a player a concussion that can stick with you forever -- and -- it's all good?

Everyone knows it's not "all good" but that's the message the NHL sent today when it decided not to hand out any further disciplinary action against Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara. 

I've seen a lot of comment about the hit on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty. If you're one of the few people who haven't watched TV or been on the internet in the last 24 hours here it is.



Chara had his head up. The puck was long gone. He was called for interference and booted from the game.

In Mike Murphy's statement about the hit, the excuse is that Chara didn't leave his feet and he didn't "target" Pacioretty's head. In my opinion he absolutely targetted the head. Maybe he didn't put his elbow directly into his head but he certainly pushed Pacioretty into the glass in a way that his head would inevitably make contact with a solid object. 

"Oh but he didn't MEAN to do it".

Give me a break. I don't care what you say, Chara saw that glass coming. Besides, I could care less if he meant to do it. There are murderers who stand before a judge and say they didn't "mean" to do it. Too bad buddy, you're still going to jail.Why can't the NHL treat it's players like that.

Max Pacioretty is undoubtedly out for the season with a "severe concussion" and several broken vertebrae. He's lucky he's not paralyzed. The Habs are now without a player who's been putting up excellent numbers for an AHL call-up. That's not justice.

Then there's the fact the NHL is without it's star. Sidney Crosby was on a tear. Perhaps a record-breaking tear. They were without him at the All-Boring-Game. And they may be without him for the playoffs. Because some guy on the Capitals didn't "mean" to get his elbow up and hit him in the head.

Enough with this 'intent' bullshit.

I can't understand how the NHL can continually let this slide. The dysfunction is mindboggling. Absolutely mindf$^$ingboggling.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx or find her on her blog National Passtime

Subban vs. Richards: Subban takes Round 1

A lot has been made about the trash talk coming from Mike Richards of the Flyers towards Montreal Canadiens rookie P.K. Subban.


Subban is "cocky", said the Flyers captain in a radio interview and added "he thinks he's better than a lot of people."

"You have to earn respect in this league. It takes a lot. You can't just come in here as a rookie and play like that. Hopefully someone on their team addresses it, because, uh, I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but something might happen to him if he continues to be that cocky."

What's funny is most of the coverage of this hasn't mentioned the fact that the KING of getting under the skin of opponents appears to be irked to the point where he needs to air his frustrations in public.

This is a player who basically went on a media strike last season, refusing to speak after photos and stories of the team partying ways was printed in the Phillie media. So the fact that he decided to say these comments in the public, proves PK is under his skin.

If he's such a forgettable rookie who has yet to earn respect, why waste your breath?

Is Subban really cocky? Or does he just know what to say to piss you off. Not to mention, Subban had an assist in that 3-0 win over the Flyers. A shutout would make me pretty sour, too.

If I were PK I wouldn't worry too much about "something happening" and take the fact that he irritated Richards to the point of trash-talking publicly as a compliment.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx or find her on her blog National Passtime

Good thoughts for Jean

From TSN.ca ::

Hockey great Jean Beliveau has suffered a stroke. CTV News has learned the Montreal Canadiens legend suffered a stroke last night and was transported to the Montreal General Hospital.

He is now in the neurological department and no further details on his condition are available at this time. However, a source tells CTV News that his life is not in danger.

A 10-time Stanley Cup champion and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame -- has been named an honourary Team Canada member and honourary captain of Canada's 2010 Men's Olympic Hockey Team.

Béliveau spent his entire 20-season NHL career as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, recording 1,219 points in 1,125 games. He retired from the NHL following the 1970-71 season and never had the chance to represent Canada in international competition. The first major international event involving NHL superstars was in 1972, when Canada and Russia met in the Summit Series. The IIHF World Championship did not allow professionals to participate until 1977.

"It's unbelievable to think of some of the players who never had the chance to represent Canada in international play," says Bob Nicholson, president and CEO of Hockey Canada. "Today, we bring a new member onto the Team Canada roster. It's about time we see the great Jean Béliveau in a Team Canada sweater."

Béliveau was honoured at a press conference in Montreal, as part of the Hockey Canada Foundation gala and golf fundraiser. Serge Savard and Yvan Cournoyer, honourary chairmen of the 2009 Hockey Canada Foundation gala, presented Béliveau with a Team Canada jersey, with Béliveau's name and customary No. 4 on the back.

Nothing but trouble.

So the Sergei Kostitsyn saga continues.

After being assigned to the AHL before the NHL season began, Kostitsyn had a hissy fit and said he wanted a trade. Bob Gainey stepped in with an intervention and the younger Kostitsyn brother decided to go where he was told. He played five games for the Canadiens affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Then he decided again this week that, nope he didn't want to play in Hamilton.

So he packed up his gear and went dark. Nobody could find the kid. The rumour mill had it that Kostitsyn was entertaining at least three offers from KHL clubs.

However TSN is reporting Bob Gainey had a second intervention last night, and Kostitsyn has rejoined the club.

Why?

Why keep forcing him back. He is clearly not dedicated to the team. It's a bad precedent to set. And with all the work the Canadiens have done to remove the tumultuous environment within the dressing room, this puts them many steps back.

Let. Him. Go. Who cares if he goes to the KHL? He's clearly not doing the Canadiens much good on the ice, if he's in the AHL. And his diva behaviour is a distraction the team does not need.
Last season, it was the Russian-Montreal mob... now it's fights and missing the bus.

Backstory from TSN.ca:

"A French-language MSN article posted Wednesday reports that a physical altercation between Montreal Canadiens players Scott Gomez and Sergei Kostitsyn during the preseason was a motivating factor that contributed to the younger Kostitsyn being assigned to the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.
The report, written by Mario Langlois, says that the incident took place just prior to Montreal's season-opening game in Toronto on Oct. 1, as the club was preparing to depart for a team-building excursion in Caledon, ON. Before leaving, the team went out for a night on the town and returned to Gomez's house. At some point in the evening, Gomez and Kostitsyn got into an altercation that was serious enough that other players had to jump in and separate them.
General manager Bob Gainey and head coach Jacques Martin were notified about it the next day and according to the report, Gainey didn't want another off-ice distraction like the many that the team dealt with last season. As a result, Kostitsyn was sent to the minors prior to the team's departure for Caledon.
Earlier last month, Kostitsyn missed a team bus during Montreal's preseason game in Quebec City. At one specific practice, the forward was blasted a couple of times by Martin for not paying attention."

Not Killer!

The Montreal Canadiens are in the middle of Extreme Team Makeover... but I thought that they might try to keep a few players.

One of the players I thought they would make a bother to keep is Tom Kostopoulos. This is a guy i've nicknamed "killer kostopoulos", the guy has some grit and although he doesn't score lots of goals, the ones he did score always seemed to be well-needed, epic, game-saving goals.

Instead, they let him walk, and he signed a three-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. So he will undoubtedly be back to score extremely unfortunate goals against the Canadiens as most former Canadiens seem to do.

oh well.

Canadiens sign very large Pilon to 3-year deal...

oh wait... that wasn't the headline... it was:

The Montreal Canadiens continue to add size to their lineup.

On Monday, the club announced the signing for forward Andreas Engqvist to a
three-year two way contract.

Last season, the 6-3 centreman notched nine goals and seven assists in 31
games with Djurgardens IF of the Swedish Elite League. He missed the last
24-regular season games with a wrist injury.

In his three seasons in the Swedish Elite League, Engqvist has recorded 15
goals, 17 assists and 44 penalty minutes in 126 games.

Sweet, just what the Habs need... another low-scoring forward.

BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA......

.....sigh.... BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH


phew, excuse me... this just came in over our wire services here at work:

"NHL: Canadian Press NewsAlert

OTTAWA _ Ottawa Senators sign Alex Kovalev to two-year contract.<"




..... HAHAHAH BRYAN MURRAY YOU FOOL!!! Good luck with that one...

Geez where do I even start.

I want to start with the aftermath of the Free Agent Frenzy, but instead I need to talk about the Team Canada summer selection camp. Can someone tell me why I am talking about this. This is one of those things that get announced and you're supposed to go "yah...makes sense".... especially after the 2006 squad that was.... not a good squad. Com'n folks let's make some good life choices.

NO. MARC. SAVARD. you kidding me. arg.

Now this camp is not the end of the line. The final decisions are made before December. So Savard could still make a case for himself. But it just became that much harder. I'm not going to rant about this much longer since this is something i've ranted a few times about. I'm just going to point out that these are Marc Savard's stats for the past three years:


Year --- Team - GP - G - A - Pts

2006-07 BOS - 82 - 22 - 74 - 96
2007-08 BOS - 74 - 15 - 63 - 78
2008-09 BOS - 82 - 25 - 63 - 88


here's a rundown of the invitees:

Goalies: Martin Brodeur, Marc-André Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Steve Mason, Cam Ward

Defense: François Beauchemin, Jay Bouwmeester, Dan Boyle, Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, Mike Green, Dan Hamhuis, Duncan Keith, Scott Niedermayer, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger, Robyn Regehr, Stéphane Robidas, Brent Seabrook, Marc Staal, Shea Weber

Forwards: Jeff Carter, Dan Cleary, Sidney Crosby, Shane Doan, Simon Gagné, Ryan Getzlaf, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier, Milan Lucic, Patrick Marleau, Andy McDonald, Brenden Morrow, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Mike Richards, Derek Roy, Joe Sakic, Patrick Sharp, Ryan Smyth, Martin St. Louis, Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Toews

Canadiens.

O.K. so from under-rated (Marc Savard) to completely over-rated (see: Scott Gomez, post rookie season). At first glance when I saw the trade that sent Chris Higgins packing for overpaid, underachiever Scott Gomez I was furious. But after seeing some of the other moves Gainey made i'm a bit less likely to call for his head.... maybe just a leg??

A few people have asked me what I thought would fix the Canadiens after such a dismal attempt at making a go of their 100th season.

My answer: get a new team.

Ok my answer included a lot more expletives but it was along that train... besides the point anyways.

Get a new team is actually kinda what Gainey did. Now i'm not forgiving the dumbness of sending Chris Higgins who seems to always score a clutch goals, but at least it seems he did the rest of the task correctly.

He just let people go. He cleaned house. Doesn't matter how much it hurts, just rip that band-aid off. He let Saku Koivu go, which is sad, but it needed to happen. But also: Alex Tanguay, Tom Kostopoulos, Mathieu Schneider, Mathieu Dandenault, Francis Bouillon and Patrice Brisebois.

If that's not starting the eff over, I don't know what is.

They also lost Mike Komisarek to the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's a bit concerning since he's going to a rival. But after last years playoff performance, i'm ok with it.

The Canadiens still have to sign Kovalev, but they did sign Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta to contracts. Both small players, but very fast and exciting.

Overall the moves on Canada Day are a win, i guess, maybe...

Well it's a definitely a win if you're comparing it to....

The poor poor Ottawa Senators with their whiny sniper Dany Heatley who's got the team handcuffed with his long contract and no-trade clause that he's choosing to invoke when convenient for him.

"I want a trade... but not that one"

I think if a player walks into the General Managers room and says "I want a trade", that should null and void his no-trade clause. They gave him that clause because Heatley was making a long-term committment to the Senators and was saying "i don't want to move, and i don't want to be a rental player at the end of a season when my contract is up".

teheheheheheheheheheheheh

I try not to get to emotionally attached to rumours. Because we all know some dude in a basement somewhere in southern Ontario probably started said rumour.

Especially when it has to do the words Lecavalier and Montreal. At trade deadline I tried not to get too excited. But I failed... deep down inside I thought that it would happen.

So when it didn't happen you'd think that would dull my giddiness for headlines like this:

"RIFT BETWEEN LIGHTNING OWNERS GIVES HABS HOPE FOR LECAVALIER"

But it hasn't....

OH please oh please oh please!

Who will the Canadiens pick?

Probably someone stupid...

Okay, jokes aside, I'm intrigued to see who Bob Gainey will choose in this years draft. He seems to have a history of picking promising but flawed players. Carey Price is promising but he eats too many oreos... (and the team put too many expectations on him too early, causing him to eat even more oreos)

Then there's PK Subban, a very promising defenseman... if he could just learn that spinoramas at the d-line when you're last man back is a terrible, horrible, your-coach-has-an-aortic-aneurysm-and-throws-gatorade-at-your-face-during-intermission type thing.

TSN pundits have them picking either Louis Leblanc or Jordan Caron, both residents of the Montreal area. Which screams BAD IDEA!!! BAD IDEA!! to me. It seems every player that is the hometown boy and plays for montreal ends up having some sort of mental breakdown from the stress.

So who do I choose? Landon Ferraro.

Son of Ray Ferraro, he doesn't quite have the scoring prowess of his father, but he's a fantastic skater, and despite size will rough it up in the corners... something that should fit nicely with the Canadiens.

But Gainey will probably pick something dumb... like another goaltender.

"If I'm not signed by July 1, I don't think I'll be back in Montreal"

So the rumour has it right now... (and let's be clear here, this is still classified as a rumour. Because I trust Russian sports newspapers about as much as I trust 2 month old milk) ... is that Alex Kovalev will be handed the captaincy of the Montreal Canadiens and that Saku Koivu will be sent packing.

TSN.ca reports on the details from the story:

A Russian sports newspaper reports that the Montreal Canadiens have offered the team's captaincy to pending unrestricted free agent Alex Kovalev and that Saku Koivu is no longer in plans for the team.

According to Sovietsky Sport, the Canadiens don't intend to re-sign Koivu and would opt to re-sign Kovalev to a one-year deal worth between $6 million and $7.5 million. The story also claims that Kovalev would be awarded the captaincy.

After the Canadiens epic failure of a season, followed by their inevitable playoff loss to the Bruins there was lots of rumours swirling around about big changes within the organization.

This is definitely not one of the things I anticipated.

The big changes I anticipated might have sounded more like "Montrealers have giant street party after Canadiens fire GM Bob Gainey"

But instead they've awarded the captaincy to someone who seems to be unable to lead a pack of lemmings over a cliff. Someone who has been rumoured to have been unable to play well unless he has a fancy "C" on his shirt.

Boy-oh-boy, if this rumour is true, the Habs are going to have to hire one helluva coach.

Win/Fail: Playoff Edition.

I'm going to kick:

JOSH GORGES

Right in the goddamned shin.

Reason:

After surmounting two Boston goals, in Boston's building, Montreal was actually dominating the third period. The momentum was theirs. They were buzzing around the Boston zone and Boston was having problems getting their break-out on the go. It seemed like a matter of time before Boston either took a penalty (and faced Montreals over-25-per-cent effective powerplay... since acquiring Mathieu Schneider) or Montreal just flat out scored a goal.

And then that all came crashing down, when the soon-to-be victim of a viscous kick in the shin took a completely use-less mid-third-period cross-checking penalty.

Runner-up: Patrice Brisebois... for coughing up the puck several (hundred) times.


I am NOT going to kick

MARTIN HAVLAT

in the shin. (Notice the lack of reward... simply just letting him live his life without the threat of being kicked in shins... for now.)

Reason:

Much concern has been put forward by the hockey pundits over the lack of playoff experience on the Chicago Blackhawks. But i'm pulling for them, because boy are they fun to watch. And one of their players that does have playoff experience managed to carry the young guns on his back. Martin Havlat scored the tying goal in the third period and then the overtime winner. It's kinda like the polar opposite of being Josh Gorges.

Runnerup: Bill Guerin... because he's so godamned old and is still scoring goals.


*Edit: Listen, i know a lot of you are probably thinking that a kick in the shin is no big deal. You're all like "what sorta pussy-arse punishment is that, anyway". Well i'll tell you. a few months ago a 40 year old man slide-tackled me at rec league soccer and I didn't have shin guards on. There's still a goddamn bone chip in my shin that hurts every time I say the words: "Carey Price" (Is that true? you'll never know).

So stop your goddamn laughing. It's a serious affliction.

Don Cherry is ready for the playoffs...

because tonight he busted out a white suit with big colourful flowers all over it. That's playoff wear, baby.

And Good lord Cherry was on fire today.

He really does hate Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson. I think he might actually hate Wilson more than Sean Avery and french people put together.

He spent a good 5 minutes ripping up Ron Wilson, his record, his tactics, and sarcastically called him "the genius" several times.

Although... Don doesn't hate Sidney Crosby now. Which is strange, and new, and breaks the mold of his normal Coach's Corners. Well, partially... he did have a photo from Afghanistan...

Anyway, definitely worth the watch if you missed it.

Seriously Jian, back away slowly and don't make eye contact.

Also worth a watch (but not hockey related...) is Billy Bob Thorton's appearance this week on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. I'm not really sure who's side i'm on with this. Thornton is truly a moron, but apparently the producers of the show promised Thornton that his acting experience wouldn't be discussed. Regardless... it's pretty damn funny. Taking bets on how many shots of whiskey Thornton is metabolizing at the point this interview was taking place.




Why Montreal should really beat the Penguins.

Currently watching the Pens and the Habs. I would prefer if the Habs could win (and the Rangers lose tomorrow) that would reverse the two teams in the standings and the Habs would end up with the Washington Capitals instead of the Bruins.

Why? Because I don't think Montreal can handle the Bruins. I have no idea why they can handle Ovechkin and their former Montreal Mafia goldenboy Jose Theodore...and not the Bruins, but I just do. In fact I think they may have a better chance at inventing time travel so they could re-do this mess of a season than they do at beating the Bruins in the playoffs.

Sure, everyone says the Canadiens always manage to beat the Bruins in the playoffs. But I think it's going to be different this year. The Canadiens room is in turmoil. Scary Price has clearly had some sort of emotional breakdown since this time last year and is trying to solve it with eating oreos every night. Kovalev is... well who really knows, he's like a teenaged girl. And team captain Saku Koivu has been playing on the fourth line?

You kinda have to wonder when the team will just spontaneously combust.

Actually spontaneous combustion is probably a better way to go, than to have the city of Montreal go on some sort of post-season looting rampage and tear the players apart like a soccer player who just scored an own-goal.

The only thing the Habs have going for them is they're the underdogs. Major big time.

Canadiens lose their quarterbacks.

oh. dear. lord. they're doomed.

over-reaction?

The defence corps for the Montreal Canadiens took a major hit Monday, as TSN learned that the Habs will be without leading scorer Andrei Markov for three weeks and Mathieu Schneider's season is over.

no. I don't think so.

Schneider made the powerplay go.

Markov has 64 points this season. Second amongst defenseman in the league.

Think there's nowhere to go but up?

Think again.

The Canadiens continued their colossal meltdown, losing their fifth straight game to no other then powerhouse, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Well, no matter how bad it gets ... it could always be worse.

Dear Ottawa #%$^$ Senators,

You've failed. You're driving me nuts. We gave you a simple task: to continue on your craptacular spiral into last place. And you couldn't even complete it.

Throwing-in-towel Fail.

Foligno, you're fired. Jason Spezza, definitely fired. Jarko Ruutu, fired. Alfredsson, so totally fired.

Ok, then there's the MATH FAIL.

Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston, who since taking over from fired Sens coach Craig Hartsburg Feb. 2 has a 13-6-3 record said: "We feel we're a playoff team."

epic math fail.

Oh, eff it. You're all fired. Someone call up the Binghamton Senators, i think they're the only ones up for the task. Or actually, you can borrow some of the Canadiens, they seem to be fairly good at NOT WINNING. Oh and fire Clouston and bring back Harsburg.

full of hateful, hateful, anger,
Jenn



Speaking of the Canadiens...

Hooray for meltdowns.


Remember when the Habs fired their coach and that was supposed to fix everything? That went really well.

PJ Stock had a rather endearing blog post about Carbonneau and the debacle that is the Canadiens dressing room right now.

The best part of it all.... This fantastically terrible meltdown season is going to be immortalized in a loonie.


oh yay. I can't wait to think about this season 15 years from now when i'm digging in my pocket for timmies money.


Moving on to more interesting things.


A Haligonian is coaching hockey on the international level.

Patrick MacDonald is coaching with hockey powerhouse, Malaysia.

This is the second year for the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia. The Chinese Taipei National Team won the inaugural tourney.

I am mystified by this. I heard the story of Patrick MacDonald on CBC Information Morning while still in a tired stupor at about 8:30 this morning. I actually thought I had dreamt it. Challenge Cup of Asia. Totally sounds fake.


Ovechkin.



Talk about blowing something out of proportion. The kid just scored 50 goals. Did you score 50 goals? Did anyone else score 50 goals? People are acting like he kicked a baby or something.

Dear Ottawa Senators,

I feel like I've been writing to you a lot lately. But you just don't seem to be listening. Is it me? What can I do? I'll change, I swear. Please, just hear me out...

I know your coach is saying "at this time of year it's real easy to throw in the towel, but you're not going to do that... blah blah blah, useless to win, but we're stupid like the leafs and are going to keep winning because we hate ourselves, our fans and most of all victor hedman.... "

But....

Do that.

Maybe you're confused about how to do it, having leaf-itis can do that to you. Let me help, it's simple:

1. Take towel.
2. Throw it in.
3. Please.

Cheers,
Jenn (and Canadiens fans, who realize the Habs need all the help they can get staying in a playoff spot).


Oh and...

Anytime a reporter can use "snazzy" in an article... well it's pretty much the best.

From Canadian Press:

"Carbonneau wore a snazzy grey suit and a big smile as he entered the room and joked that he was 'almost starting to miss you (reporters).'"

well, at least someone in Montreal won.

It just wasn't the Canadiens.

But the fans, well they just witnessed history. Tonight, they saw hometown boy Martin Brodeur tie Patrick Roy, another Quebecois goaltender, for the all-time win record (551) — and they made sure he knew they appreciated it.

The only problem is, it's an all-time win record. Meaning Broduer had to beat the Canadiens. And he did. So far the coaching change is going real well, eh? One helluva lucky overtime win and two losses. Perfect.

The fans serenaded the Canadiens players with well-deserved boos in the final 30 seconds of play (it was out of hand at 3-1) but as soon as the buzzer went they began cheering ... for Brodeur.

Congrats Martin Broduer.

Because I can't bear to think about this season anymore.

The obvious choice to distract myself from the math of the final 15 games of the season is to mull over... Who the Canadiens choose as their new coach in the off-season?

John Tortorella.

Quite frankly I think they missed the boat on this one, but you never know... the way they go through coaches/players in New York, he could be looking for a job come summertime.

Anyway, back to that missing the boat thing... Torts was hired by the New York Rangers (after spending most of the season despising 'the quiz' as an analyst on TSN) just a week before Gainey fired Guy Carbonneau. Torts is the ultimate distracter (not a word... hmm. oh well). His team is playing like a house league hockey team and he starts dropping f-bombs and making fun of the other team's coach. Suddenly every reporter gets amnesia, forgets the top scorer is not scoring and the team lost and starts debating whether Torts hates the media.

Just think of Torts swearing in a brand new language. Beautiful.

Marc Crawford.

is annoying us all each week on CBCs Hockey Night in Canada so he might as well annoy us from behind the Canadiens bench. He's won the Coach of the Year and a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 1996.



Patrick Roy.

......

.....

........


Okay, now that you've finished laughing. Think about it.

Roy has kissed and made up with his old team. (They retired his jersey this season and he gave a heartfelt speech at the ceremony).

But most importantly he has coaching experience, unlike a lot of retired NHLers who decide to jump right in as an NHL coach. Roy has been coach of the Quebec Rempart of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League since 2005 and led the team to a Memorial Cup in that same season.

He's had his fair share of run-ins with the media during his tenure with the Remparts, but that's Roy. He'd certainly force Carey Price to stop eating a bag of oreo cookies every night.


Jacques Lemaire.

Lemaire has been the coach of the Minnesota Wild since the team's creation in 2000. However right now the Wild are sitting in ninth — one point out of the playoffs. If the team fails to make it, or has a quick first-round exit. Lemaire might be out of a job. The 1994 and 2003 Coach of the Year had a short stint with the Canadiens in 1983-85 but I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to return to the team where he won eight Stanley Cups as a player.

His ability to communicate with players would be a plus. The minus, his trap-minded style might not be the best fit for the fast-skating, run and gun style fo the Canadiens.

Patt Quinn.

I've spoken to a few fans who've said they'd disown the Canadiens if they hired Quinn. But it's quite a possibility. The Canadiens need someone who can deal with the media.. Pat Quinn spent an eternity in the centre of the universe. What better training?

Craig Hartsburg.

Because coaching was the problem in Ottawa... clearly the problem was not the goaltending or the players. Both were stellar.

One of the other Sutter brothers.

Why not.



I'm sure there are several other coaches that will inevitably lose their jobs/are available currently. And it's fairly probably Bob Gainey will choose someone fairly whack. But whatever, i've been distracted from real problems (and schoolwork) for a good hour writing this.


Quote of the Night: "Next up, Lightening. Senators. To the loser goes the spoils." - Corey Worren, TSN.

Carbo sent packing

I think there's something bigger happening within the Montreal Canadiens.

The announcement that General Manager Bob Gainey dismissed coach Guy Carbonneau came earlier this afternoon as I was heading out the door. I won't lie, it caught me off guard. But the more I thought about it, the more I realize it shouldn't have.

Coaching always crosses your mind when a team is not playing like it should. So it had crossed my mind when "partygate" broke. It seems to me that Carbonneau did not have control of his players.

It also crossed my mind when Kovalev was told by Bob Gainey (not coach Carbonneau) that he was staying home for that two-game roadtrip a few weeks ago. After the two-game hiatus Kovalev told reporters Gainey was the only one he talked to.

"I don't like to tell things to people or say how I feel," he said. "I'm not that open as a person.

"Bob is the only one I open up to and say how I feel."

I think there's more to this story than injured players, underachievement and a goaltender with no confidence. You don't drop your coach with 16 games left in the season if there's not something deeper going on. I don't think this is your standard "shake things up" firing.

To be a fly on the wall at the Montreal Canadiens team meetings.