Shots on Net [29.07.10]

An early post. Will update if necessary.

From the canadiens.com homepage

What is the Canadiens' management trying to tell us? I'm sorry but I've got to laugh. Thanks for realizing we hate his contract. But seriously, this story is like ten years late. Ok, more like a month but still. Nice to hear about how players got their numbers. <Canadiens>

Mike Cammalleri doing a photo shoot for CANADIENS magazine. A golf club?! The golf love continues. Shot at Brossard. <@CanadiensMTL>

There are six new faces with the Canadiens staff. Pierre Allard's arrival was announced previously. Hopefully these new scouts net us some good players. <Canadiens> 

As seen at Habs Inside/Out, Brock Trotter has left for the KHL's Dinamo Riga. <ESPOIRS>

If you haven't heard already, you could win a chance to train with Mike Cammalleri, Scott Gomez, and other NHL hockey players thanks to BioSteel. See details here. <BioSteel ProHockey Week>

A follow up to the Jim Roberts story mentioned in the last post. <Northumberland News>

With the unveiling of the 2011 All Star Game logo and the 2011 Winter Classic hoopla, I was wondering if we'd get anything for the 2011 Heritage Classic that will be played February 20 in Calgary? Here's the logo if you haven't seen it yet. First seen at Puck Daddy, from Icethetics who grabbed it from NHL.com so that would explain the bunch of logos.

Mike and Jarome Iginla face off...is the NHL saying something about captaincy, or just faces of franchises?

I love this logo. It's much nicer than the Winter Classic one, IMO. A veined maple leaf (no, not for Toronto...it's red for Canada), a scroll like in Canada's coat of arms with 'A Mari Usque Ad Mare', crossed hockey sticks that bring back memories of old hockey team pictures, and the Calgary skyline with iconic Calgary Tower. Even the writing looks old school. The NHL shield just reminds you that the game is ocurring in this century. Kudos to whoever came up with this.

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I'll end on that happy note.

Update (at 10.50 pm):

This is kinda strange. Go to the Canadiens 'Photos' page and you'll see galleries that have dates in the future. Right now there's a Montreal Canadiens Hockey School gallery dated July 31, 2010 and an Outdoor Hockey Games gallery dated August 4. Should we expect some news about the Heritage Classic around August 4?!! But really, advanced posting only works if you don't let your readers know about it. XD Nice going, canadiens.com people.

More updates:

There will be a press conference about the Heritage Classic at McMahon Stadium next week. My hunch was correct! <@Fan960Jason>

Cammalleri's speaks about his summer and various things with Toronto radio stations. <Ya! The Habs Rule>

Habs great Émile "Butch" Bouchard will be having a private signing on August 15 at Al Collections Inc. Their site also allows you to get signatures from Jean Béliveau, Peter Mahovlich, Maxim Lapierre, and Benoit Pouliot. <@ALCCINC>

Hope that's all for today.

Shots on Net [26.07.10]

We will never escape golf in the offseason it seems. 

Coach Jacques Martin held his Omnium Jacques Martin on July 16 at Outaouais Golf Club in Clarence-Rockland, ON. The total money raised was $140,000 and this amount was matched by the Government of Ontario for a total of $280,000. (What a nice gesture.) The money is going to the Jacques Martin/J.R. Brisson Bursary Fund, Roger's House ($10,000), and the Roger Seguin Foundation ($5,000). Members of the Martin family, Benoit Pouliot, Kirk Muller, Trevor Timmins, assistant and goaltending coach Pierre Groulx, and director of media relations Dominick Saillant were in attendence. Here's the site for his the Omnium. Article and picture from the Ottawa Golf Examiner. Be sure to view the slideshow to see all the aforementioned people. <Ottawa Golf Examiner>

Coach Martin looks happy. Wonder what he'll look like if he gets a Cup?

Henri Richard and Yvan Cournoyer were honorary guests at the Garry Peters & Rich Pilon Charity Golf tournament in Saskatoon on July 22 and 23 to help raise money for KidSport. They spoke about their opinions on how the NHL has changed since their time, and the article mentions what they did after they retired. A good read if you want some perspective. <The StarPhoenix>

P.K. Subban will be at the Cure for Cancer Ball Challenge on Saturday, August 7 at the Master Card Center for Hockey Excellence in Toronto. What a busy summer for Subban! <The Barrie Examiner>

Canadiens assistant coach Perry Pearn was a presenter at the KMHA Summer Coaches’ Conference. There's an interesting story about Team Canada's coaches in the article. Go Mike Babcock for opening up and leading us to gold! <The Kamloops Daily News> 

Jim Roberts is being honoured by his highschool, Port Hope, by being inducted into their Wall of Honour. Congratulations! <Northumberland News>

Cam Connor auditioned for Wipeout Canada. I wonder why? LOL I hope you had fun sir. <Calgary Sun>

Scott Gomez' contract makes number three on Bleacher Report's list of contracts that should have been rejected by the NHL. I guess we should just add the Rangers to 'list of teams we hate'. Right after the Flyers, Leafs, and Bruins. <Bleacher Report>

ESPN gives the Bell Centre a thumbs up for health inspection. The only problem they found was that food was "at an improper temperature," with 3% of vendors with critical violations. <ESPN, first seen at The Star Tribune>

The Bulldogs will begin training and play three games against the Binghamton Senators in Newfoundland. <Hamilton Bulldogs, first seen at WIVT/WBGH News Channel 34>

Another Habs fan has passed away. Rest in peace Mr. Versloot. <Atlantic Farm Focus>

...

Still waiting on King Carey...

Shots on Net [05.07.10]

So it's been a while and I apologize as I moved and have been doing home renos for a while now. Here's a summary of things that have been going down with our Habs.

PK Subban attended the Pepsi North America Cup event that was mentioned previously. Look at him holding that trophy. Hopefully he can hold Lord Stanley's mug in a Habs jersey. [Toronto Star]

Image by Glenn Lowson for the Toronto Star

The 2010-2011 NHL regular season schedule was released on June 22. The season will start and end in Toronto against the Leafs. The Habs will play St. Louis and Halak (if he's in net) on March 10. [Canadiens]

The Canadiens signed Mathieu Darche on June 22 to a one-year, $500,000 contract on June 22. It's his first one way deal. Good for him. [Canadiens]

Also on June 22 Tomas Plekanec was signed to a six-year, $30 million deal. Gionta and Plekanec are getting paid exactly the same now. I hope we get good point totals from both of them for the terms of their contracts. [Canadiens]

On June 25th the Canadiens were active at the draft, moving up from 27th to 22nd via a deal with the Phoenix Coyotes to snag defenceman Jarred Tinordi in the first round. [Canadiens]

 Picture from Getty Images

Looking good! Though the number 10 was kinda strange to see on him. Number 10 belongs to a beautiful Flower, of course...

The Habs added more prospects on June 26. With the 113th pick, the Habs selected Mark MacMillan. Morgan Ellis was selected at 117th. Brendan Gallagher was taken at 147 and John Westin from Sweden was taken 207th. I must say, John's name doesn't look very Swedish. Maybe that's just me. Hope these guys can all help us out in the near future. I look forward to seeing them don the CH. [Canadiens]

Morgan Ellis looks happy.

Picture from Getty Images

And here's a video of Brendan Gallagher from 2009:

On June 28 Tom Pyatt was signed to a one-year, $500,000 contract. (YAY! Thanks PG.) [Canadiens]

On the same day Benoit Pouliot was strangely given a ginormous raise and signed to a one-year, $1.35 million dollar contract. I'm as confused as the rest of the fans out there. [Canadiens]

On June 29, Sergei Kostitsyn was traded with future considerations to the Nashville Predators for UFA centre Dustin Boyd, goalie Dan Ellis, and future considerations. Ellis signed a two year, $3 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning (and they steal from us again?!!) while Boyd inked a one-year, $650,000 contract with the Habs on Canada Day. No idea about the future considerations. It's interesting to note that these two teams are connected by the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones. [Canadiens]

Also on free agent frenzy day the Habs signed goalie Alex Auld to a one-year, one million dollar contract. It is now official that whoever is in net next season (be it Price or some other poor soul) will be the number one goalie. But thank you Alex for willingly being our back up. I hope your shield of armour is strong enough to take criticism from all the fans and media. [Canadiens]

The eventful Canada Day also saw denfenseman Frédéric St-Denis signed to a one-year, $550,000 contract. [Canadiens]

Goalie Curtis Sanford was given the same money for the same amount as St-Denis on the same day. He chose Montreal over Vancouver and Phoenix, who also made similar offers. [Canadiens]

The PGA showed some love for the Habs by having caddies wear the jerseys of the 17 players with retired numbers. Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer, Stephane Quintal, Rejean Houle, Pierre Mondou, and Michael Cammalleri were present from the Habs. You can check out Mike here. [Canadiens]

Scott Gomez is getting Saku Koivu's old number. Number 11 was the number he wore in minor hockey, baseball and basketball. That's one athletic kid. It's interesting that Bob Gainey told him not to wear that number last season. The man had some sense, even though he brought Gomez's ridiculous contract upon us. [The Montreal Gazette]

You can read about Aurèle Joliat's childhood home in Ottawa and see some pictures thanks to this interesting story by the Ottawa Citizen. It's cool to know he lived on Stanley Avenue and won three Stanley Cups! [Ottawa Citizen]

Twenty-two prospects will be attending the Canadiens' second development camp which runs July 6-9. All of this year's draft picks will be attending, as will 'Lars Leller' and Ian Schultz who were acquired in the trade from St. Louis. Is it bad if Eller's name is misspelled so quickly? [Canadiens]


Alexander Avtsin has left HC Dynamo Moscow in order to play for the Canadiens' system. The Russian was chosen in the fourth round, 109th overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. He's a big guy It's great to see a player who we recently drafted that actually wants to play for us. Unlike some others. *cough* Louis Leblanc *cough* [Russian Prospects]

You can work for the Habs! (Dream job...*drool*) Ahem, that is if you have the right skills. [Canadiens]

Keep track of the all the remaining contract lengths and signing dates thanks to the official site. [Canadiens]

The Canadiens are facing a cap penalty for the 2010-2011 season. It's (only) $68,751 (some people earn less per year but ok). That puts the Habs' cap at $59,331,249. That's still a load of cash. [Cap Geek]

On a somber note Sgt. James MacNeil, who was a Habs fan was laid to rest in Nova Scotia on July 2 in Cape Breton. Rest in peace. [680 News]

....

All salary figures are from Cap Geek.

So the Canadiens were really busy as the entire post here is full of links to the official website. Hopefully there will be a variety of stories next time. This was inevitable with free agent frenzy going on. 

One thing I don't get: pay cuts for quite a few players, and a pay raise for someone not so deserving. Is this a consequence of signing free agents in the past for insane salaries? Overpaying players hurts you in the future. *sob*

Hope you all enjoyed Canada Day and Independence Day!