Among other tidbits...Francis Bouillon next one out?

Can Francis Bouillon's time in Montreal be over?

Got this off of Spector, it's very interesting to say the least (corrected the spelling and grammar)

"Daniel" recently sent in the following on the Canadiens

This is probably not possible to check if it's true or not but former referee Ron Fournier said yesterday on popular radio show "Les amateurs de sports" that Gainey's plan is to have Huet as a starter next season and have Halak or young Carey Price as a backup. On defence, the 7 starters planned are Dandenault, Markov, Streit, Komisarek, Gorges with young Jean-Philippe Côté and Ryan O'Byrne leading to the speculation that Sheldon Souray and Janne Niinimaa won't be signed and Francis Bouillon will be traded somewhere this summer. He also said that Gainey wants to pursue a big UFA name such as Bill Guerin, Daniel Brière and Chris Phillips. Fournier said that there's some big surprise for the forwards and doesn't want to reveal it until the Habs season ends. He also said that he has a source from
the Habs management but don't want to say who it is.

This was broadcast on CKAC 730AM around 5PM Tuesday.

Well, Ron Fournier is definitely a good journalist and radio host and I'm sure this isn't far off.

Sheldon Souray will probably command around $6-$6.5 million per season, and I doubt the Canadiens can give him that(I had a post earlier in February on how the Habs could re-sign Souray, but the price has risen now.)
And besides, Souray's only asset is his booming slap shot, besides that, he's not a very good defenceman (he's hovering around -20 these days), and his 5-on-5 play is just plain ordinary.

I know he'll get that kind of money elsewhere, but seriously, it's not the end of the world if the Canadiens let Sheldon Souray walk and invest that money in bringing in a prime-UFA scorer this offseason.
Ok, ok, the powerplay will likely suffer without him, but, look at the bright side, a Daniel Briere, Bill Guerin or Chris Drury would be an even better addition.

Francis Bouillon is having a mediocre season by his standards.
After having an oustanding 2005-2006 campaign, Bouillon's play has declined sharply this season.
The problems start in his own end, despite being able to put up that bone-crushing check often, where he coughs up the puck way too much and shoots the puck up the middle instead of around the boards.
He looks like Sheldon Souray on defence and is nothing close to him on offence.
His offensive input has been miminal this season (3 G, 11 A in 61 games), but an injury he suffered late last season, could be the reason for his inconsistency.
He had 22 points last year, not much off from this year, but it looks like he felt more into it last year. He had 3 powerplay goals and 20 more shots on goal than so far this season.
I wouldn't be sad to see him go, he was a scratch once or twice this season and he has only himself to blame for that.
He's making close to $2 million this season, and if this keeps up, I'd rather have a guy like Ryan O'Byrne or Josh Gorges out there.

Janne Niinimaa...I've already said it, he's having a horrible year all-around, but his play has picked up recently.
He's making a push to get a contract offer from Bob Gainey this summer, to remain as the possible 7th defenceman, but no way for the price he's getting now ($2.5 million).
With that said, I'd rather have him that (blech) Jean-Phillipe Cote up here.

And again, everyone wants these Brieres, Drurys, Guerins, Shanahans to come and put on the Montreal Canadiens jersey, but, every year we get dissapointed.

And if the defence looks like that next season, we're in for a long one.

With respect to O'Byrne, Dandenault and Gorges, that's a pretty crappy defensive back.

Maybe that "surprise" is that a guy like Alex Kovalev, Michael Ryder or even (shudder) Saku Koivu are on the move?

God, I hope not.

Drumroll...Three-way tie...damn!

Andrei Kostitsyn, the new "AK" in town, scored this nifty one which proved to be the winner, in the shootot as the Canadiens beat the rival Leafs 3-2 last night at the Bell Centre...

The Canadiens and Maple Leafs both faced off yesterday at the Bell Centre in Montreal with the teams both needing points to advance in the ever-toughening Eastern Conference standings.
Before the game, the Canadiens sat in 11th place with 76 points, 2 behind the 8th spot Islanders and 1 behind the 9th spot Leafs.

Now?

Now they sit in a sticky three-way tie with the Islanders, who lost big in Florida yesterday, and the Leafs.

It was a fun-filled game for the most part.

Alex Kovalev came back into the lineup and played well partly on the 4th line and near the end of the game, on the 3rd.

Francis Bouillon dropped them...again, he did too against Atlanta a few games ago and got his *insert word here* kicked badly, against our favourite guy, come on, guess who?
He did alright against Darcy Tucker, landing him a few punches to the head and getting some back. The winner? Definitely Bouillon.
The two landed 5 minute majors to end the first period and returned in the second.

The 1st period was more or less end-to-end hockey, with both teams gaining momentum they forced each other on defence constantly, there was none of this "New Jersey Devils" crap.
The forecheck and body was on and there were shots on net.

Jaroslav Halak FINALLY gave the Canadiens some kind of goaltending, playing great, making key saves for the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge and keeping his head up all game long.
He also kept his head up when in the same period, Leafs captain Mats Sundin attempted a wraparound and the young Slovakian shut the door.
Sundin's reaction was one of the many let go by the referees last night, who did a pretty horrible job in this department.
He just lifted his stick under the chin of Halak and pushed his mask up, RIGHT NEXT TO THE DAMN OFFICIAL, Andrei Markov amazed of the no-call, yelled at the official during the play.
He made 37 saves including big ones on Kyle Wellwood and Darcy Tucker in the shootout.

"I thought he played really, really well, especially in the third period when Toronto came out strong," said coach Guy Carbonneau, who went with Halak after a bad outing by David Aebischer in a 6-3 loss in Pittsburgh on Friday night. "They got the puck to the net with traffic, so he had to make some big saves."

Andrei Kostitsyn, who's finally showing his potential the Canadiens drafted him to be, scored the first Canadiens goal of his abbreviated season, slipping it through the legs of Andrew Raycroft and a helpful screen Hal Gill on a left-wing rush from the Belarusian youngster.

"Let's settle down and don't push him," said Canadiens captain Saku Koivu of Kostitsyn who also had a goal in regulation and in the shootout. "He's a young, very talented player working his way up to the NHL."

Darcy Tucker had a bad night and must've taken on at least 7 hits.
He did not seem like the offensive force he should be and for some reason, was never in front of the net! Probably because he was afraid of getting hit by Mike Komisarek, who had a solid game as well and laid down a few nice body checks too.

I don't know, but I'll always be there if he wants to play physical," said Bouillon of Tucker "That's the kind of game I like to play in - so intense and physical, but with good hockey at the same time."

Saku Koivu had a good game and got his 60th point of the season by putting his 19th goal of the season behind Raycroft, backhand style, in the 2nd period of play.
This is Koivu's 3rd 60-point season and hopefully, he will continue to do the same each game.

Nik Antropov really surprised me.
I know of alll the criticism the kid takes for not being good enough but hey, he can hit and skate! He doesn't have much of a shot, but I was surprised at him putting the body on that often, it's even more surprising he's a European! (no pun intended)

Pavel Kubina is still not worth the money he's getting from John Ferguson Jr.
His goal was a lucky bounce off Chris Higgins in the 3rd to tie the game at 2 and send it to extra frames. He should be a superstar, but, he's not, and he's a HUGE waste of $5 million a season.
Despite his injuries, he should be doing a lot better.

Too many Leafs fans in the Bell Centre uhhh, it was paining to hear them scream go Leafs go along with pissed Habs fans go Habs go to give go Laffs go!

Yanic Perreault played a good game, however, he's better than a 4th line centre.

Sheldon Souray had a few braincramps last night...and imagine, he's like -20 and he has 23 goals this year, what if he didn't have all those goals? -33? -40?
God...

Kyle Wellwood is a good player. I like him a lot and he's very dangerous, the most creative passer in the game today, he set up Kubina with a nice back pass to tie the game in the 3rd and scored himself the other Leafs goal to tie it up in the first, finishing a pretty passing play.

Andrew Raycroft played how the Leafs want him to play. Ok, he'll give up the occasional softie, but all-around, he kept his team in the game.

Mike Modano scored twice liked I predicted a few lost posts ago...he's now 1 goal away from becoming the all-time American-born top scorer and a pass to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Stephane Robidas was taken off on a stretcher after a cou-cou play by the seemingly over zealous Jordin Tootoo.

Eric Brewer pushed the Oilers' streak to 10 in a row, scoring 2:04 into overtime against his former team in a 3-2 Blues win. One more loss and the Edmonton Oilers will tie the franchise record of 11 losses in a row, set 13 years ago.

Mike Comrie honored his mother, who died of breat cancer when he was just 10 years old, and used a pink stick in honor of her in a 3-2 Senators win over the falling Flyers.

Martin Gerber got the start in net against Philadelphia and Dean McCammond and Wade Redden also helped out Comrie with pink sticks...

Brendan Morrison scored a shorthanded goal against the Wings to give them a 4-1 win in a crucial matchup in the West. Roberto Luongo made 32 saves.

Chad LaRose scored twice as he switched to center in a 7-2 mauling of the New Jersey Devils which put Carolina in the 7th spot and solidified its chances of an encore playoff run.

Dave Lewis was not pleased as the Bruins lost 7-0 in MSG, humiliating the coach and the players. Tim Thomas gave up 3 goals on 15 shots and Lewis put waiver claim Joey MacDonald in.

"Excuses are for losers," Lewis said. "We looked slow, weak, soft and
intimidated."

Updated standings
Playoff Push

Going to the Bulldogs-Cruch game at the Bell Centre today, boy, can't wait!

A city in mourning...Thrashers 6, Canadiens 2

CANADIENS 2, THRASHERS 6

I had posted an article saying how huge this game was for the Canadiens and how badly they needed to win this one.

Guess Guy Carbonneau didn't take out the Sharpie pen like I said and didn't scrawl out the standings on his board for each player to see where their so-called "team" has sunk.

In the first five minutes of the game, I had some hope, the forecheck was aggressive, we were causing turnovers like crazy from a somewhat inconsistent Thrashers defence.
Chris Higgins fired the puck 4 times on Kari Lehtonen in the first period alone.

Sound good so far? I hope this is the image you keep of the game...the first 5 minutes, and forget the rest.

The "rest" consists of Andrei Markov paying for teammates' lousy backchecking by taking a kind of chronic hooking penalty.
With Markov in the box, the Thrashers took control of the game from there.

Newly acquired Alexei Zhtinik, who's been a nice fit for Bob Hartley, faked a slap shot from the right point and threw the puck to teammate Ilja Kovalchuk, playing the high left point who blasted it towards rookie Jaroslav Halak.

Halak was in position to make a left pad save, however he misread the shot as it was coming towards the blocker side. By consequence, the puck hit off the inside of his left pad, bounced off the right, and trickled into the net to give Ilja Kovalchuk his 36th goal of the season, and the Thrashers a one goal lead.
This goal completely demoralized the Canadiens, as they continued for the next couple minutes playing boring, shoddy defensive and a limited offensive style.

Then it was enough.
Things went from bad to worse as the Canadiens just couldn't clear the puck out of their zone, giving the Thrashers glorious chances on which Halak was superb.
Then as you guessed it, exactly two minutes after the first goal, they would pay for this...the unreliable delinquent, Sergei Samsonov didn't help his cause by picking the puck up, skating through centre ice just before he hit the Canadiens blue line giving the puck to Eric Belanger who fired a pass to the front of the goal where Jonathan Sim was all alone! With no one there to stop him, Sim simply tapped the puck through the legs of the exasperated Jaroslav Halak.

2-0 Thrashers and I had enough.

I turned off the television screen and decided to go play hockey myself, during the outdoor game, one of my buddies picked his cell and called to ask the score.

"Please" I was asking myself, "Please God, let them score a goal, " since God is the only thing that can save Montreal now.

My friend shut his phone off and looked me in the eye, I could see it coming.

"It's 6-0 Thrashers", he said.

Those words were like a dagger to the throat, I started yelling like a mad man.
What else could I do? There was no hope for a comeback, not even a small chance.

What did I care? I forgot about the game and played the wonderful game of hockey which was not so wonderful for 23 individuals now dropping even lower in the standings.

And to make my night even more miserable, the Rangers beat the Islanders 2-1 to move up ahead of us in the Standings.

My dad called me and told me Sergei Samsonov was benched the entire 3rd period.
He finished the night at -3 with 1 shot on goal. What a waste of $3.5 million out of George Gillett's pocket.

And to add insult to injury, Francis Bouillon decided to drop 'em against Keith Tkachuk...

God...please, save this team, obviously nobody on this Earth can.