41 out of 82 games have been played. The first half of the season is finished and we accumulated 48 points.
No trades have been made.
The free agents we picked up were busts. Well, half of them were. Only Roman Hamrlik and Tom Kostopoulos are playing well with Montreal. Brian Smolinski had a great start but seems to be less and less working. Jamie Rivers left the team because he did not make the team in the beginning of the season. Janne Lahti went to Hamilton. He was expected to be a good scorer and to make the team. Patrice Brisebois has taken the place of some kids. Breezer played well in the first 20 games, then I didn't see anything working with him.
We are one of the best offence in the NHL right now. Habs have scored 126 goals, more than last year. Everyone is pitching in. Kovalev is leading the team in goals and points, so he woke up incredibly. He scored the same number of goals in one half than he did last year in the entire season. Plekanec, Higgins and Koivu are doing great as well. We already have four players with 30+ points.
The defense has been better than last season, atleast to me. Andrei Markov has taken Souray's place on the Powerplay. We can also say that Mark Streit has become a good PP player. His shot is good but not like Souray's. Roman Hamrlik and Mike Komisarek are probably the best defensive defensemen in the team. Mike Komisarek leads the NHL with 140 blocked shots, 25 more than the second guy, and is tied for third with 130 hits. Roman Hamrlik is tied for fourth in blocked shots with 103.
The net is pretty much secured. Cristobal Huet made amazing saves in alot of games to keep us in it.
Our kids have been wonderful. Andrei Kostitsyn, Sergei Kostitsyn and Kyle Chipchura and maybe Maxim Lapierre have carved a place in the roster as fowards. Josh Gorges and Ryan O'Byrne are on the blueline defending the net. Carey Price would win the Calder if it wasn't for guys like Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews. The goaltender with the most potential has kept pucks out of the net with his butterfly or even his size.
The best player so far has to be Alex Kovalev.
So i'll give this team a 7.5/10 so far.
 SnoKing · Mon Jan 07, 2008 @ 06:59pm · 0 Comments |
