Wings 3 Habs 2 (SO) - And We're Okay With That

While it might be true that Squid did almost single handedly earn a point last night and very much deserves his picture with a hot chick, the above tribute kinda creeps me out...


Ahh, thank you GG11. You're the best!

Okay to be honest, with games against the Caps on Friday and Detroit last night, I was expecting to use this forum to rant about the Habs - from how they were dragging thier collective asses on the ice all the way through collective management and scouting ineptitude. A francophone member of the Habs defence may or may not have been incarcerated in a painful and demeaning manner. In short, it was to be a grand'ole time. All for naught - although it was nice to see the Habs not get blown out by the Wings for the first time in recent memory. So is it just me or is this the second straight year the Habs seem to play better without some of their highest paid players? Our first line should now be called First Line Centre Tomas Plekanec and Whomever He is Playing With - in this case a re-interested Andrei Kostitsyn and Mike Cammellari in the third; Carey Price proved he still very well could be TFS (tm), although I'm saving my "I told you so" post for a later date; and Rhino is close to replacing CHips as My Boy.

Only one thing kept the Canadiens from an outright win. Or more particularly, one person. I bet you've heard of him - he is hard to miss when he's around. He's 6'4 and, um, tends to stand out on a hockey rink. And he's currently taking up $1.5 in cap space, so instead of a rant I'm offering a review of the options for getting rid of BGL and his cap-stealing contract. It may not seem like much, but the quicker his contract comes off the books the more likely a deadline rental like Mathieu Schneider becomes; yes, I realize I may be delusional in thinking that it will matter come March. All photos courtesy GG11, as always:

SENT HIM TO HAMILTON. No one is going to trade for him or will even pick him up on waivers. Problem may be convincing the Molson Bros. & Co. to pony up the dough for an AHL player. (Oh, and say hello to my Little Tits there off to the side.)

Or...

BUY HIM OUT. Let him search for inner peace at home. Or maybe kick Nick Kypreos' ass live on Sportsnet. However, that will create less than $1M in salary cap space. Plus, Gainey has to convince the Molsons to agree to pay a guy $2/3 of his salary not to play.

Or...

ONE WORD: LONG TERM DISABILITY. Provided Gainey can either convince Dr. Mulder to tell the NHL Laraque has some sort of crippling back injury (or head injury, you say? More about last night's shenanigans next); or he hires my cousin Angelo.

Or...

HOPE THE NHL SUSPENDS HIM FOR THE SEASON: because he's a bone-headed repeat offender. But of course he won't be, first of all because while it was an intention and dangerous trip, it did not lead to a devastating injury and probably deserves 2-3 games at most. But he may not even get that, both because he's not really a dirty player (in fact, as often lamented on this site, he hardly even fights any more) and because the NHL has no balls. At least it wasn't a hit to the head.

Or...

TRADE HIM TO THE KHL. This on is my favorite: How about trading him to Moscow Dynamo for the rights to Alexander Avtsin next year? Why couldn't they do this? It's win-win: the Habs guarantee that they get a potential top prospect in a year, and the Russians have a guy they can make wrestle a bear at centre ice during intermissions:

Think of any other options? Let the world know in the comments.