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Post by franko on Mar 3, 2006 23:59:50 GMT -5
Locke gets a goal and an assist and becomes better bait for a Jokinen trade (how's that for cross-threading?).
And I am more than willing to remove my foot from my mouth and eat crow should the Dogs continue their winning ways and creep into the playoffs!
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Post by duster on Mar 4, 2006 12:18:33 GMT -5
Kudos to Don Lever. It's clear that his players are beginning to respond. It's a shame I don't get to see the Dogs very often on TV.
Perhaps it's a coincidence, but the Dogs have been playing well since Kost has stepped up his play. His name is coming up more often in the play by play descriptions on radio and he is starting to be contribute to the offense on a regular basis. 3 goals and 5 assists in the past six games.
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Post by montreal on Mar 10, 2006 22:38:06 GMT -5
Huge win for the Dogs, as they go Moose hunting in ot, win 2-1 plus marlies lost. Halak with a big game, really was impressive, especially since the only goal he let in was a bit soft, early in the game. Kostitsyn made a dumb drop pass in his own end that cause a turnover, so I don't think Halak was ready for it but he's got to stop those.
But from there on out he stopped every shot. Although the goaltending story was at the other end since the moose goalie Flatery was great. Dogs had a ton of PP's but it took them 6 or 7 chances before Jacques scored from Locke and Kostitsyn.
Then in ot Lapierre crushes lee goren from behind, gets the boarding call, dogs kill it and out comes Lappy who flies down the ice, Pouliot gets him the puck and Lapierre somehow beats the goalie down low to win the game!
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Post by seventeen on Mar 10, 2006 23:25:21 GMT -5
Our next #1, Jaroslav Halak....in 1.5 years.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Mar 11, 2006 20:44:40 GMT -5
Our next #1, Jaroslav Halak....in 1.5 years. He has been good at the Slovakian junior league, at the WJC, in the QMJHL last year, and at the ECHL and AHL this season. All that at the tender age of twenty. Good so far!! |
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Post by seventeen on Mar 11, 2006 21:21:21 GMT -5
Dogs are up 5-0 on the Philly Phantoms with half the 3rd to go. Kosts has a goal and an assist, Halak no goals on 19 shots. The Dogs have 40+ shots themselves. The team looks like its really turned the corner. If they can make the playoffs, they can be interesting. All about goaltending. Since Danis came down and now Halak up, the team has been keeping goals against down and winning games.
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Post by montreal on Mar 11, 2006 22:32:37 GMT -5
The playoffs are still a long shot. Dogs have 13 games left, 9 pts back and the marlies have 2 games in hand, although they do play the marlies 3 more times, so if they win all 3 and get some luck it could get real intesting. The marlies with a big win tonight on the road against a good crunch team. Hopefully the moose beat them tomorrow night. The dogs play the marlies next week I believe, so any real hopes of the playoffs will start with a win.
But if they don't make it, at least they turned their season around and played some really good hockey in the 2nd half, which hopefully will help them next year cause there's likely going to be a lot of turnover again and another young team.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Mar 12, 2006 18:45:26 GMT -5
The Dogs are definitely doing their part. They did well on their long road trip and pulled off two critical wins against tough opponents this weekend. The Marlies are still a long way off, but at least the Dogs are playing tough right to the end.
Halak getting a shutout last night is just another reminder of what a great pro debut he has been making in both the ECHL and AHL. His play was good enough to mark Michaud as odd man out who was sent down to Long Beach once Danis was returned to Hamilton. With Danis and Halak manning the nets, the Dogs should have chances to win quite a few games. They will need that to catch those darn baby Leafs. I sure hope they catch them and send them home early, but it is a big hill to climb.
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Post by montreal on Mar 12, 2006 20:10:18 GMT -5
Marlies lost today but if the Dogs have any hope of a playoff spot, they need to win monday night against omaha and then a huge, huge game against the marlies on wed. Glad the Habs don't play that night so I can watch the game.
I wonder if management will bring in Chipchura since his season in PA is over on saturday.
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Post by seventeen on Mar 12, 2006 20:50:06 GMT -5
Why not?, unless they feel the chemistry will be disrupted. He's a good penalty killer and you can't have enough of those. With the Marlies loss, it will give the Dogs a confidence boost. Yes, far away, but closer today than yesterday and we smell blood.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Mar 15, 2006 0:11:44 GMT -5
Dogs announce their 22 man clear day roster, the players that can play out the rest of the season and into the playoffs (all going well over the next few weeks). The tandem of Danis and Halak in net should be solid for the Dogs. No real surprises except that Ivanans has gone from making the Habs on opening night to being only an injury replacement for the Dogs as the season nears to an end. As it indicates in this article, junior or college guys can be added if signed or if on an try out once their team is eliminated. Chipchura is the most likely candidate as his team is out of the playoff hunt and his junior season (and career) will end soon. www.hamiltonbulldogs.com/index.php?module=newser&func=display&nid=235 |
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Post by seventeen on Mar 15, 2006 20:17:00 GMT -5
1-1 vs the Marlies after 1 period. Outshot 13-4, but Halak is doing well. Kostitsyn must be injured, this is the 2nd game his name's been off the line-up.
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Post by montreal on Mar 15, 2006 21:15:06 GMT -5
Kostitsyn injured his foot, missed the last game. So the Dogs are missing 2 of their top 3 scorers cause Pouliot was recall by the oilers.
3-1 going into the 3rd, season all but over for Hamilton unless they somehow score 3 goals in 20 minutes. oh well first time they missed the playoffs since the Habs have been down there. Guess they can send a couple guys to Long Beach for their playoff run. Halak, Benoit, Lemieux perhaps, don't see how it could hurt.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Mar 16, 2006 0:45:18 GMT -5
Biggest game of the year, four point game, must-win game...
All the cliches in the world did not help inspire the Dogs or keep them out of the penalty box as they fell to the Marlies 5-2 in a critical game in their faint drive for a playoff spot. The Marlies now move 10 points ahead win some games in hand (4 I think). Not quite down to their last life, but getting pretty close. This is too bad as they have been playing good hockey going into this match.
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Post by seventeen on Mar 18, 2006 19:57:17 GMT -5
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Post by seventeen on Apr 9, 2006 19:48:59 GMT -5
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Post by Gogie on Apr 9, 2006 20:45:58 GMT -5
Outstanding game for Kotsy! He got hammered into the boards early in the game (was down for awhile, finally got up and skated slowly to the bench). This seemed to put some fire in him as he played with a real chip on his shoulder for the rest of the game. Ended up with two goals, including a terrific game winner with 18 seconds left. He threw some pretty good checks and actually got into a scrap at the end of the game - he was pretty wild and had to be restrained a couple of times as he tried to get at one of the Moose players. I saw some really promising stuff from Kotsy today! All he needs is to have a fire lit under his a$$. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Apr 10, 2006 23:13:20 GMT -5
Outstanding game for Kotsy! He got hammered into the boards early in the game (was down for awhile, finally got up and skated slowly to the bench). This seemed to put some fire in him as he played with a real chip on his shoulder for the rest of the game. Ended up with two goals, including a terrific game winner with 18 seconds left. He threw some pretty good checks and actually got into a scrap at the end of the game - he was pretty wild and had to be restrained a couple of times as he tried to get at one of the Moose players. I saw some really promising stuff from Kotsy today! All he needs is to have a fire lit under his a$$. I listened into the last period of that game...what an incredible finish. Moose fight back with two late goals to tie (the last one with less than one minute to play). Somehow, they then give up a chance for Kosty and he wires home his second of the game for the winning goal with 18 ticks. It must have been a blast to watch!! Great game by Locke as well with a four point night. |
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Post by jkr on Apr 15, 2006 7:07:01 GMT -5
The Score is showing their last 2 games - against Toronto. I watched a little last night ( a 4 -2 loss with Halak in goal). Didn't see enough to really comment.
The season finale is on tonight at 7. I may peek at it during those long RDS breaks.
In my area ( about 80KM northwest of Toronto) the score is on channel 72 for Roger's subscribers.
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Post by franko on Apr 15, 2006 20:43:07 GMT -5
Dogs end the season with a W. Hope the Habs do as well.
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Post by seventeen on Apr 16, 2006 1:16:32 GMT -5
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Post by Bob on Apr 16, 2006 12:00:23 GMT -5
A quick review of the Hamilton season shows that the partnership between the Canadiens and Oilers did not work out very well for the Bulldogs or their fans.
Hamilton was susceptible to the recall of its best players from two NHL teams not just one. The sheer number of callups over the year made it almost impossible for the team to develop any kind of chemistry and it showed. Working with a one NHL team rather than two should help to alleviate that situation next year.
I watched the last two games of the season agains the Marlies. If those games were any indication the defense needs an upgrade. Veterans like Paul, Aitken and Smith contributed almost nothing. Benoit, Sanford and Syvret are all small and inexperienced. Cote was the only quality defenseman on the team. Both Benoit and Sanford should be better with a year of experience under their belts but this team needs a serious upgrade on the blueline.
Part of the solution could come from O'Byrne and Emelin should Montreal be able to sign them. There is no way that O'Byrne can be less effective than Paul and Emelin should be at least as good as Aitken.
I don't know where Andrew Archer fits in. It was a tough year for him but he is still young, is a big body and has was a former team captain in junior. Korpikari and Gleed are other wild cards. If either is anywhere close to Dan Smith in terms of ability give them a loong look, too.
But that still leaves holes. Mathieu Roy will be gone to Edmonton and Cote might win an NHL job. Hamilton needs at least one or two quality veterans to help tutor the younger defensemen. Montreal also needs to improve depth on defense throughout the orgranization and need to aggressively look at the undrafted junior and college free agent markets.
One management mistake was the signing of both Ivanans and Vandermeer. In the new era of hockey one ineffective goon might be okay but two is definitely a waste of roster space. I think that situation will be rectified.
The two games against the Marlies also exposed a lack of team play. I don't know if these guys are poorly coached or if they just haven't spent enough time together to develop any cohesiveness but coverages were poor. It is something that needs to be examined.
The most exciting development could be the arrival of a new batch of forwards. Chipchura has already proven he belongs. If you add in skilled playeres like Grabovsky, Aubin, and D'Agostini it should add some scoring punch. Greg Stewart could be that two-way forward who might push out either Ivanans or Vandermeer.
For the sake of adding depth and making sure you have the best talent available, I would like to see the Habs take another look at Jamie Tardif and perhaps try to sign the other Mathieu Roy.
I don't think Roy would be eligible for Hamilton next year but if he remains undrafted or if he is available in later rounds... management should consider signing him. His stats are scarily similar to those of Latendresse and they are only about 6 months apart in age. And he achieved those numbers despite suffering a serious shoulder injury in November.
All in all, with graduating draftees and some key free agent signings Hamilton fans could look forward to an exciting team next year. It remains to be seen what steps the Habs will take.
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Post by jkr on Apr 16, 2006 13:36:02 GMT -5
I don't know the call up rules. Can Montreal bring up any of these guys now that their season is over?
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Post by montreal on Apr 16, 2006 13:46:24 GMT -5
I don't know the call up rules. Can Montreal bring up any of these guys now that their season is over? Yes, Gainey already said it will likely be Danis, Kostitsyn and Cote since Lapierre is already with the team. Perhaps they include Chipchura since he's played really well of late. I saw him the other night and was really impressed with him. |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Apr 16, 2006 14:39:02 GMT -5
I don't know the call up rules. Can Montreal bring up any of these guys now that their season is over? Yes, Gainey already said it will likely be Danis, Kostitsyn and Cote since Lapierre is already with the team. Perhaps they include Chipchura since he's played really well of late. I saw him the other night and was really impressed with him. Corey Locke merely led the team in scoring and posted the highest ppg of any of the Hab's prospects in Hamilton. If we find ourselves in the playoffs needing a slick puckhandler on the PP, we will regret not having brought up Locke. |
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Post by montreal on Apr 16, 2006 15:00:44 GMT -5
Yes, Gainey already said it will likely be Danis, Kostitsyn and Cote since Lapierre is already with the team. Perhaps they include Chipchura since he's played really well of late. I saw him the other night and was really impressed with him. Corey Locke merely led the team in scoring and posted the highest ppg of any of the Hab's prospects in Hamilton. If we find ourselves in the playoffs needing a slick puckhandler on the PP, we will regret not having brought up Locke. We already have Ribeiro, we don't need Ribeiro light. |
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Post by franko on Apr 16, 2006 15:49:22 GMT -5
We already have Ribeiro, we don't need Ribeiro light. The difference is (or at least was, in the OHL) that Corey doesn't take whole games off -- he comes to play and plays hard. |
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Post by seventeen on Apr 16, 2006 17:58:13 GMT -5
I don't know the call up rules. Can Montreal bring up any of these guys now that their season is over? Assuming, of course, that our season isn't over. |
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Post by montreal on Apr 16, 2006 19:10:08 GMT -5
We already have Ribeiro, we don't need Ribeiro light. The difference is (or at least was, in the OHL) that Corey doesn't take whole games off -- he comes to play and plays hard. The difference is this isn't the OHL and Locke hasn't been that OHL player in Hamilton for the past 2 seasons. He has been called out by his coach for his lack of work ethic, although he's been red hot the past week too bad those games don't matter. |
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Post by franko on Apr 16, 2006 19:30:19 GMT -5
The difference is (or at least was, in the OHL) that Corey doesn't take whole games off -- he comes to play and plays hard. The difference is this isn't the OHL and Locke hasn't been that OHL player in Hamilton for the past 2 seasons. He has been called out by his coach for his lack of work ethic, although he's been red hot the past week too bad those games don't matter. Thanks for the update. Seems the only time I see Corey he's doing the job well. Too bad. |
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