Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Habs For Breakfast: Multigrain First Place Team Edition























Holy smokes, did you see Scotiabank place empty itself, leaving nothing but singing, chanting Habs fans left? How sweet!

I've thought alot about what Jason Spezza had to say to the media a couple of days back in regards to certain people questioning the Senators efforts of late. Hearing Bryan Murray say after this game that he thought his team put in a solid effort tells me that these guys have no clue what it means.

And it's their problem. I hope the Habs meet these buffoons in the first round. They'll be easy meat!

Habs Plant Playoff Seed In Ottawa - Gazette

"With one second remaining, Carey Price put the exclamation point on the Canadiens' 3-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators by snaring a Dany Heatley slapshot out of midair. "I put a little bit of mustard on that one," admitted Price, who had every reason to show off." - Pat Hickey

Habs, Pens Are Fighting For Top Spot - Gazette

"Christopher Higgins said he's excited about the possibility of winning the conference because "you don't get too many chances to do that in your career. I think the last time I finished first was in my junior years in high school." The view from the other room: Ottawa coach Bryan Murray was fooling himself when he said he felt his team gave a good effort last night." - Pat Hickey

Habs Thrash Sens To Claim Northeast Title - TSN

""There was a lot of questions that were unanswered at the start of September. I knew I had a good team, but not that good," Montreal Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. "We achieved a lot. 100 points, first in our division. I don't think it's something we thought about in September. Now with two games to go first in our conference is still there."

A Change In Fortunes - Globe Sports

"The win gave the Canadiens (45-25-10) the Northeast Division title, their first since the 1991-92 season, and their first 100-point season since they recorded 102 points in 1992-93."

The Numbers Game - Montréal Canadiens.com

A numerical look at the Canadiens’ division-clinching win over the Senators on Tuesday night in Ottawa.


















Montreal Shoots For The Stars, While Ottawa Shoots For The Bars - Dennis Kane's Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

"Two of Montreal’s five wounded soldiers were back - Mark Streit and Guilliaume Latendresse, leaving now Koivu, Komisarek, and Bouillon still on the shelf. Ottawa’s top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza actually did play. Although you’d never know it." - Dennis Kane

From Behind Enemy Lines - Lions In Winter

"Growing up some of the best memories for me involved watching the Canadiens. Sometimes my Mum would go away at playoff time (back in race for division title/playoff days) and my Dad would let us break the rules to fit in with the Habs: a) eat in front of the TV and b) stay up to watch the end of the game." - Topham

4-1-08: Canadiens 3 Ottawa 0 - Theory Of Ice

"Every now and then, you hear about games where a team or player ‘sends a message’. For both the Habs and the Sens, this was definitely one of those games. So rather than my standard format, I’m going to run down a quick summary of what some of them told us tonight."























CHAMPION DE DIVISION - RDS

"Je suis très content », a déclaré l’entraîneur-chef Guy Carbonneau. « Nous avons été en mesure de rebondir après notre contre-performance de samedi à Toronto. Tout le crédit revient aux joueurs. C’est une victoire des plus satisfaisantes. Tout le monde a bien répondu, du premier au dernier joueur."

Carbo va attendre avant de décider - RDS

"C'est dur à dire. Je vais m'asseoir avec Bob (Gainey, le directeur général) afin d'analyser la situation. Moi, je n'ai aucun problème. On a prouvé ce soir qu'on pouvait bien faire, même en l'absence de blessés importants."

Champions de division - La Presse

"Ça riait et ça criait d'ailleurs très fort dans les gradins de la Place Banque Scotia, occupés par plusieurs milliers de partisans du Canadien qui ont salué cette victoire et la conquête du championnat de division avec des Olé! Olé! Olé! qui enterraient la musique que crachaient les haut-parleurs lors des arrêts de jeu. Ça riait aussi dans le vestiaire du Canadien."Est-ce qu'on jouait à Montréal?" a lancé Christopher Higgins, qui n'en revenait pas de l'appui inconditionnel dont lui et ses coéquipiers venaient de profiter." - François Gagnon

Olivier Fortier, dauphin de Carboneau? - La Presse

"Pendant qu'on passait nombre de jours à analyser les fameux incidents de Chicoutimi la semaine dernière, dans la même province, un espoir du Canadien savourait discrètement un bel honneur qui venait de lui échoir. Il s'appelle Olivier Fortier et il a été repêché en troisième ronde par le Tricolore l'été dernier. Il joue pour le surprenant Océanic de Rimouski de l'entraîneur Clément Jodoin, qui vient de vaincre en première ronde des séries le puissant Drakkar de Baie-Comeau, deuxième au classement général dans la Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec." - Mathias Brunet

L'importance d'un saku Koivu - La Presse

"Maintenant qu'il est blessé, Saku Koivu va peut-être prendre encore plus de valeur aux yeux de certains, après avoir été l'objet de nombreuses critiques au cours de la saison." - Eric Desjardins

Premier avec une note de 100 - Le Journal

"Le Tricolore a accompli avec panache l'exploit que d'aucuns croyaient possible au début de la saison en enlevant le titre aux yeux et à la barbe des grands favoris, les Sénateurs d'Ottawa, qu'il a vaincus de surcroît par jeu blanc 3 à 0, sans les services de Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek et Francis Bouillon, hier soir, à la Place Banque Scotia." - Marc De Foy

"On a disputé un match parfait": Kovalev - Le Journal

"Comme on l'a fait toute la saison sur les patinoires adverses, on a joué sans prendre beaucoup de risques. On a montré qu'on peut marquer des buts. On devait améliorer notre jeu en zone neutre et en territoire défensif et on l'a fait graduellement. On joue bien maintenant à cinq contre cinq. - Kovalev

Price: "Je veut maintenant le titre dans l'Est" - Le Journal

"J'ai mis un peu de moutarde sur cet arrêt de la mitaine. C'est spécial de blanchir une puissance offensive comme les Sénateurs dans leur domicile, où on a connu des problèmes par le passé. Tout le monde a bien joué. Ce fut l'un de nos meilleurs matchs défensifs de la saison et je ne dis pas cela juste à cause du pointage final. Vraiment, tout le monde a mis la main à la pâte." - Carey Price
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3 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

I dunno; the team the rolled through the East last year with much hard work and great team play might have some clue about hard work. They may be playing cluelessly right now, but I don't think you can dismiss recent history so easily. I don't know why some people don't feel good unless they're slagging other teams and their fans. I see it on HIO all of the time, but as Habs fan and a avid follower of this blog and as one who is generally impressed with you and what you have to say, I find this unwarranted flinging of insults unworthy. Why not enjoy the ride and resist the lure of the cheap insult? Buffoons? Come on! I think how we handle both winning and losing says much about character.

I know that's long-winded and preachy, but it's been bothering me on HIO for some time, and I guess this is where I have decided to say something. I have watched series with Leaf fans both when we won (1965) and when we lost in (1967), and nobody felt the need to be either poor winners or poor losers in either case. Perhaps it was just a more civil time.

Robert L said...

Anvilcloud, Ottawa has disappointed me in many ways and on many levels, perhaps too many too mention, and my terming it "clueless buffonery", I believe is simply calling it what it is.

I've never liked Ottawa's smug and arrogant attitude or the way their organization, players and media all treat Montreal - but that might be beside the point.

The list of things that they've done to piss me off run from the boat video on the jumbotron days after Gainey's daughter drowned at sea, the mocking of the Habs in a shutout win back in 2005, and others.

The Senators have shown the ability to outscore teams, but have never known the finer details it takes to win it all. Hiring Bryan Murray, and then promoting him, predicted this Leafs like mess, and it is only going to get worse. They have set themselves up for so many cancers to rot the team core, it's inevitable.

I appreciate your constructive view though. I'm not sure where you are from, but I'm smack dab between Ottawa and Montreal, so alot of it plays right on my heart.

I cheered for Ottawa for a good decade, but cannot anymore.

Anvilcloud said...

Ah, I see, you have some specific grievances, and I can appreciate that. I trust that you appreciate that my frustration in general has mounted over the year at HIO, and that I ended up saying my peace (or piece) here. It may be more appropriate there, but it would fall on deaf ears and might begin more name-calling.

I'm from Montreal (a long time ago), have lived in TO and points further west in Ontario, and now am near Ottawa. They are my second team but far behind my first team in my heart. I gave up on hockey many years ago but have renewed my interest in the last few years as I find the New NHL far preferable to what had become the NCGL (CG = clutch and grab).