But the bottom line for me on all 3 guys is, will they rot on the stands ? will they play enough games and will they have their chance to shine on the proper spots. If Guy is honnestly thinking that playing Kostitsyn with Begin and Kostopoulos will be enough to evaluate his potential '' NHL'ishness '' he is sorely mistaking and I hope the same goes for Ryan O'byrne, we've had enough Ron Hainsey's and Francois Beauchemin go on to be top 3 guys on other teams to get a clear idea the '' Brains '' on this team have no clue how to evaluate D-men.
I am actually not the only hockey person to think this, talking to the '' always talkative '' Francois Gagnon from La Presse, and looking at the poor performance the Habs D-men delivered last year on defensive coverage, one can't help but wonder
What in heavens are the Habs waiting for ?
Give our D a coach, we're talking about 9 GUYS in camp playing D, we have a coach entirely dedicated to our goalies, 3 GOALIES
I was told something pretty interesting on the D-front as well.
Is Timmins drafting this year and last year damage control for Bob Gainey's inability to retain and properly evaluate the Defensive needs and cohesion on this team ?
Who knows ... I'm just a blogger, your just a reader, and Bob Gainey is a Stanley Cup winning GM-Captain etc ... etc ...
But results speak for themselves, as far as I can say this camp on D has been allot of noise on Ryan O'byrne's progression, nice hipchecks and more comparisons to Mike Komisarek than you can shake a stick at, but I won't play that game with you ...
I won't jump on the O'byrne band wagon because I've honnestly never seen so much over-hyping in my life ! Am I saying O'byrne is a bad Defenceman ? Nope ! he'll probably go on to have a pretty good career in the NHL playing solid on his end and not being a liability for his team. But I can't help feeling that guys like Josh Gorges, Pavel Valentenko and Jamie Rivers have gotten the Yann Danis treatment over the Habs Brass being too busy chest thumping Ryan O'byrne's progression.
Josh Gorges in particular has been surprising and largely efficient no matter who he has been paired with in camp, Valentenko has been physical and solid and Jamie Rivers as far as I'm concerned has had a great camp along with Mark Streit who has been dominant.
On forward ( and on forward indeed ) we have finally seen the kids the Habs have been blabbing on about all summer and three of them have been absolutely exalting to watch, Thomas Beauregard, Matt D'Agostini and Sergei Kostitsyn.
Beauregard is a pint sized goalscorer who has managed to make me forget about Corey Locke's exemplary play early on in camp, one feels Beauregard although he is quite young already has the offensive maturity and nose for the net to be a good NHL player, his overall game is clearly lacking in physical strength and what some Habs coaches are calling '' All around zone coverage ''
Ok I have a problem with this ... Some players are good all around players, we all know them, they usually score around 40 points a year and are usefull, but enough with the friggin allusions to all around play,
Beauregard, S.Kostitsyn, A.Kostitsyn, Kovalev, Locke etc ... etc ... will NEVER be all around players, they are offensive guys and someone in the organization needs to remember you don't win a cup with a team full of Carbonneaus and Gaineys, EVEN the Devils need a Petr Sykora, Scott Gomez and a Patrick Elias.
It isn't because they can't play D, that they don't deserve to be NHL players.
Matt D'Agostini has been great in camp, and he should start the year in Montreal although I feel bad the Habs can't ice a fifth trio because you can't help feel that you'd find D'Agostini and S.Kostitsyn on it.
The Goalie situation :
There is no situation, Huet will start in Montreal due to Halak and Price forgetting they are supposed to stand on their head to get a shot at the starting job !
