Friday, November 07, 2008

What Others Are Saying About the Habs: Bandwagon Officially Full


Uggg, Friday morning. The longest of the weekday mornings, cause Friday afternoons never seem to arrive fast enough. At least that means the Habs play again tonight, but before getting to that we thought we'd take a look at what other people are saying about the Habs after their 8-1-1 start.

And now we're starting to worry about the expectations this Canadiens (100 Anniversary Edition) team is still getting, still a little to much hype for our liking. It's not quite last year's early season Senators type of attention - and we all know where that leads (sorry, don't mean to rub it in SLC) - but it's still more hype than Montreal has seen in 2 decades. Just like the Sens last year, all the top hockey rankings have the Habs at or near the top:
Which is all to say: Let the collapse begin!

Even individual players are getting recognition, even on non-sports sites: LaRack is ranked 2nd in Forbes' list of the Top Top 5 Bang-for-the-buck fighters, losing out to Colton Orr and his near-league minimum paycheck - the story itself still called Georgy the "league's top heavyweight".

At the risk of being permanently banned from the interweb, I'd also like to refer you to the paper version of The Hockey News (which, if you call yourself a hockey fan, you should have a subscription to). Earlier this year, THN listed the Habs as having the most reliable goaltending tandem as well as the 5th best defence corps in the league. These are the ranking that really expose the bandwagon-ism at work here: how can you call a goaltending tandem with a combined 2 NHL seasons the most reliable in the league? They don't even have a track record to base that on. And despite some suggestions that the Habs need more scoring - although thankfully the Gaborik rumour seems to have been beaten to death - the real weakness on this team is at the 4th defence position. Mind you the rankings were made before Rhino decided to turn over the puck every third shift and Breezer effectively became our 4th D, so I'll cut THN some slack on that one.

That's enough of the past, we'll get to the future - specifically tonight's game preview and open thread for Columbus - later today.

6 comments:

Young HF29 said...

oh jeez i hadn't really thought about the comparison to the Sens last year. thanks for ruining my Friday Panger!

pa-per?

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I'm sick of Leafs fans bitching about Sundin and how he should have waved his NMC last season.

Is there no way Sundin can fit under Montreal's cap? I want him to sign with the Habs, and win the damn Stanley Cup. Y'all look like you've got the best shot at any.

I've reached the point where I'm so sick of my fellow Leafs fans on this one that I want Sundin to stick it to them.

moeman said...

Our Habs aren't 4 Sale! Rejoice as Oncle George squashes rumours.

Also, Id've headlined the story

RIM Shot!

Anonymous said...

TSN reports a rumour that Habs are for sale? For those who follow Gillett (owns Liverpool FC, single greatest football club in England, but I digress), his loan from the bank is due in January. He's trying to sell the club to a Dubai investment group but that might fall through b/c of current financial markets. His empire is really a deck of cards ready to collapse and there is more to the Habs rumour than most people give credit.

Lee_D said...

Fear the collapse people!

Lee_D said...

Amusingly appropriate songs on Breezer's playlist:

Bad to the Bone
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Under Pressure