Big year comming...

As the intense summer heat turns slowly to a cool autumn breeze, there's only one thing on all of our minds, the return of the hockey. This coming season looks to be a promising one as the team and the city celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens. This is the season that management has had pegged for sometime now as the season in which we expect to legitimately contend. Building for the future has temporarily been put on hold, and the current focus is to win now. What could be better than having the Habs play for the Stanley Cup in this most special of years? Oh ya, and the All Star Game is here this year too!

Summer Recap: In case you've been living under a rock all summer, here's what's transpired. Streit, Ryder, Smolinski and Grabovski are all gone. Georges Laraque and Alex Tanguay have been signed. Halak has decided to stay a little longer, and so has O'byrne. Are we a better team right now then we were at last seasons' end? I guess it depends on who you ask, but in my mind the team has gotten better. Ryder and Smolinski were both lazy players and lousy competitors last season never looking like they were giving 100%. Grabovski was useless to us, and Streit, while he did put up great numbers on the PP simply wasn't worth the money. Throw in Laraque who is a BEAST to protect some of our euro-danglers, and Tanguay who's a skilled offensive player and i think we've got a serious squad. Though, it still remains to be seen how Tanguay will fit in after a sub par season last year with the Flames. If he can get back on track and light it up this year I think the Habs can take either first or second in the conference.

Sundin Saga: I really don't know what's happening here, but I've decided for myself that I don't want Sundin on the Habs. Obviously I'm not the GM, but it would just seem so wrong to bring in a guy who has been the face of the Maple Losers for essentially his entire career. Plus, if we were to go all the way, I wouldn't want to hear for the next 10 years from Leafs fans about how it was all because of Sundin. I know the guy is a great hockey player, a veteran leader, and could certainly help our team, but I'm still not down...

GHG 08-09