First, Mathieu Darche gets a new contract for next season. His salary is undisclosed, and according to people who know hockey, it's a "one-way" contract. So if I understand correctly, he might be needed to rally up all these former St. Louis Blues prospects in Hamilton but regardless of what jersey he wears he'll still make a Hab's salary. Or something.
Then, we find out that Marc-André Bergeron needs knee surgery. Some people could take his injury as a reason why our power play included a few less crazy slapshots... mystery solved.
Then Tomas Plekanec and the guys in charge decided to keep him in Montreal for six more years, costing the team a very appropriate $5 million per season. He played just as well as our most expensive guys this past season, so it is definitely not too much. Stop hating. Hating on Pleks means hating on goals, and if you hate goals then you should watch golf or something.
Coming soon to a Hall of Fame near you...
The Hockey Hall of Fame announced this year's inductees, and while there was unfortunately no love for deserving Montreal sweethearts Guy Carbonneau and Pat Burns, my XX chromosomes are very happy about the first women to be inducted: Cammi Granato and Angela James. Finally there'll be more than just a plaque about women's hockey at the HHOF!
The Bruins and Panthers did some trading today. There were draft picks involved and then everyone went to Tim Hortons, if I understood correctly.
Scott Niedermayer, captain of the Anaheim Ducks and this year's Team Canada, announced his retirement today, but it's really just a coincidence that he held a press conference right before tomorrow's NHL Awards and Friday's draft. Totally a coincidence.
Brent Sopel of the Chicago Blackhawks proves that I completely misjudged him and his My Name Is Earl mustache by agreeing to bring the Stanley Cup to Chicago's Pride Parade, accompanied by his family.
Rollie Melanson, having already coached B.C. boy Carey Price in Montreal, will now coach St-Leonard boy Roberto Luongo in Vancouver.
Oh, and the schedule was announced for all of next season's NHL games. Yes, that ALSO happened today.
Some highlights for the Habs:
We open and close the season against the Leafs in Toronto.
The October 13 home opener, against Guy Boucher's Tampa Bay Lightning, will happen less than two weeks before the Phoenix Coyotes come to town on October 25th. Yes, czechtacular will need lots and lots of paper bags to breathe into. I'll probably buy some wholesale.
This year's Dec 4th anniversary game (does it matter every year, or only once a century?) will be in the afternoon against the San Jose Sharks. California boys are going to freeze if it's anything like it's been the last few Decembers.
Luckily we broke the December 23rd curse last season, because the Habs will be in Carolina on that very day.
Last season's seats for the Habs vs Flames game at the Bell Centre were slightly better than the ones we had the year before. On January 17th, we might get to the first row of the blues!
The Heritage Classic will indeed be happening on February 20th.
Jaro doesn't come back to town (just go back to the playlist if you're sad) but he'll get to make stops on his old teammates when the Habs go to St. Louis on March 22nd.
In general, there are just a few too many back-to-back games for my liking. I prefer it when the players have a day off between games, especially if there's travel involved.
... was that it?
That's stupid but that Tim Horton joke made me chuckle. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm really glad Marleau's Beard still has 100% of the vote(s) for the HIHW awards!
... I'd originally planned to announce the HIHW Award winners today, but unfortunately that didn't happen. And there weren't even as many dozens of categories as I would have liked!
ReplyDeleteExpect official trophy handouts - or more categories - very soon.
Yeah the Tim Horton's joke got me too. Made me spit over my keyboard.
ReplyDeleteAlso not liking the Habs schedule. Don't see why we have to start and finish with the team I hate the most in the NHL. I swear Bettman hates me.