The Montreal Canadiens entered the offseason with the always dangerous combination of salary cap space and open roster spots. It didn't take Bob Gainey long to start reconstructing his roster, making the head-scratching trade for Scott Gomez and his gigantic contract on Tuesday, a move that was panned by pretty much every analyst/blogger/and fan outside of New York City.
On Wednesday, when the free agent frenzy officially opened, Gainey continued his roster overhaul, and essentially cornered the market on small, undersized forwards, and reunited Gomez with one of his former teammates from his New Jersey glory days.
Give Rangers general manager Glen Sather credit; he found somebody to take on one of the team's ugly contracts when he sent Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens for Chris Higgins, Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko on Tuesday afternoon. Gomez, 29, signed a seven-year, $51 million deal with the Rangers prior to the 2007-08 season, and the signing proved to be a mistake from the very beginning.
Various media outlets are reporting this afternoon that the Montreal Canadiens have been sold to the Molson family, pending league approval (which, according to TSN, could take until mid-summer). The price tag for the NHL's most storied franchise? Depending on which report you listen to, it's somewhere between $500 million and $550 million ... or more.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We begin our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northeast Division.
Brian Burke begins his rebuild of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa and just what is Boston going to do with Phil Kessel and a limited amount of salary cap space?
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
It takes a special player to get paid a lot of money. In the salary cap era, you expect guys who are signed to big-money deals to produce. When they disappear into the Witness Protection Program, it's usually a notable occurrence. With that said, we present nominees for the 2008-2009 Witness Protection Award, and boy do we have some options to pick from.
After serving as the Florida Panthers general manager for the past four seasons (and head coach for three of those seasons) Jacques Martin will be named the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. During his four-year stint in charge of the Panthers, the team failed to make the playoffs each season, while he brings 14 years of head coaching experience to the Canadiens.
After a brief two-year tenure with the St. Louis Blues in the late 1980s, Martin took over the Ottawa Senators in 1995, leading the team to the playoffs eight times in nine years, while also winning three division titles and the Jack Adams award as coach of the year in 1999.
Back in February, the Montreal media, and by extension, everybody else in the hockey world, was awaiting a bombshell of a story that was sure to not only rock the very foundation the Montreal Canadiens franchise stood on, but also forever tarnish the legacy of the NHL's most storied team in its centennial season. In other words: this was going to be huge.
I remember having 14 browsers open, furiously clicking the refresh button waiting to see something scandalous, only to be severely disappointed.
The report goes on to mention that the Avalanche have stepped up the offer to try and draw Roy away from other suitors, particularly the Montreal Canadiens, whose head coaching job is currently vacant. The Habs fired Guy Carbonneau earlier this year and GM Bob Gainey filled in for the remainder of the season.
During last night's game against the Bruins, Canadiens fans really let Carey Price, their starting netminder, hear their displeasure with him. Chants of "Carey! Carey!" rained down towards the end of the third and at one point, there was a lot of sarcastic applause for a save he made (video above). Price reacted to that by saluting the fans and, as the announcer on TSN points out, Price's reaction looked awfully similar to one from Patrick Roy in his final game as a Canadien.
During tonight's game between the Bruins and Canadiens, Mike Komisarek and Milan Lucic had a couple interesting encounters. The video above is of the fight between the pair towards the end of the second period. At that point, the Habs were trailing 4-1 and maybe Komisarek was just looking to get his team jump started. Lucic dropped him with one punch this time around. Later in the game, Komisarek decided to cross check Lucic in the face (video after the jump). These two guys are really very cordial.
NHL 
The Montreal Canadiens entered the offseason with the always dangerous combination of salary cap space and open roster spots. It didn't take Bob Gainey long to start reconstructing his roster, making the head-scratching trade for Scott Gomez and his gigantic contract on Tuesday, a move that was panned by pretty much every analyst/blogger/and fan outside of New York City. 
Various media outlets are reporting this afternoon that the Montreal Canadiens have been sold to the Molson family, pending league approval (which, 
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We begin our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northeast Division. 
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season. 
After serving as the Florida Panthers general manager for the past four seasons (and head coach for three of those seasons) 
Back in February, the Montreal media, and by extension, everybody else in the hockey world, was awaiting a bombshell of a story that was sure to not only rock the very foundation the Montreal Canadiens franchise stood on, but also forever tarnish the legacy of the NHL's most storied team in its centennial season. In other words: this was going to be huge.
