Good for the Sharks. They were out of their minds to think the Niittymaki could take them anywhere.
And the Habs have announced that they have signed Price to a two-year deal.
Also, Markov is reportedly skating again and there’s talk about him coming back much earlier than expected, perhaps even being ready in time for the start of the season!
He was good enough to take them to their annual playoff loss to a lower seeded team.
The Habs have signed veteran Jeff Halpern to a 1-year/600K deal, for reasons that aren’t quite clear to me.
Perhaps a trade is in the offing. I’d look hard at seeing if I could find a buyer for Kostitsyn the Elder. I don’t think he’s worth $3.25 million, and they’ll have to offer him at least that much when he becomes an RFA in the summer.
I guess Stephen Harper decided that his polling numbers haven’t slid far enough this summer, because the Conservatives have been hinting recently that they’d been willing to give away $180 million to help build an NHL arena in Quebec City. Early indications seem to be the Canadian voters still aren’t as stupid as American voters and that the coming backlash against funding an arena will cause the federal government to quickly squash any such plans. Just like the last time the feds(that time Liberals under Chretien) decided to give away money to NHL teams.
Any local Pens fans planning on going to the open practice next weekend?
Anyone know some sports talk stations that stream online which have hockey talk/programming?
You might try The Team 990 out of Montreal. It’ll probably be Canadiens heavy though.
Roberto Luongo has relinquished the captaincy of the Canucks. Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler are among the frontrunners to replace him.
And some footage of Sidney Crosby belting a homerun at PNC Park.
The NHL slapped the Devils down hard over the original Kolvalchuk contract, fining them $3 million and making them forfeit a 1st and 3rd round pick. Ouch. One would think that teams will not be so eager to try and find further loopholes in the salary cap.
He’s probably better than most of the Pirates. (Bob Nutting is probably gnashing his teeth)
Scotiabank Place in Ottawa will host the 2012 All-Star Game. The 2011 game is set for Raleigh.
[Happy dance]
One week until pre-season hockey!
RDS is airing three of the six pre-season games (Bruins@, Panthers@ and Buffalo@).
[/Happy dance]
I can’t wait to see it!
[Snoopy Dance]I’m tailgating for both preseason games next week![/Snoopy Dance]
One week from now I’ll be watching the Pens play on our brand new flat screen!
Happy Snoopy Dance
Only three? I thought Quebecers loved their hockey. 
Yeah, I thought it was weird too. I can understand not showing the away game at Ottawa, but the Friday night at home against them could be shown. Then again, that might conflict with a CFL game, which RDS also shows. None of the three weekend games are being aired.
They do show all 82 regular season games, Sens home games on nights the Habs aren’t playing (Le Hockey Subway des Senateurs, usually with Bob Hartley!), and have the entire French-language rights to the playoffs (any teams, not just the Habs) so we do get a ton of hockey once it starts for real! Then there’s TSN, TSN2, RogersSportsNet, the CBC…we get our fix!
I’ll watch the Habs on RDS over TSN any day of the week, doubly so if Pierre McGuire is part of the TSN broadcast. And I’m an anglophone.
Like you said a while back, hockey was made to be watched in French.
And it looks like Gionta is on deck to be the captain.
I watch TSN or shudder CBC if RDS has no game that evening (when the Habs or Sens don’t play, generally) or in the playoffs if it’s a match-up I prefer. RSN is really only good for Sens games, but RDS doesn’t air them all, so it’s a backup choice. I can’t wait…et c’est le BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!
Gionta’s a good choice, though it isn’t official yet. I have a feeling it’s true, but I’m half wondering if La Presse didn’t decide to make something up just to stop having to talk about the stupid PQ-alleged Habs-as-a-federalist-front-to-defeat-sovereignty team. Then again. Gionta doesn’t speak French, and he’s American…shock! horror! treason!!!
Last night on the local news there was a little bit where they were talking about the fact that the new giant banner on the Bell Centre shows Markov with the A clearly on his shirt, same with (IIRC) Cammalleri, but the way it’s drawn you can’t see if Gorges has a letter or not. He’s a dark horse at best in this race, but he’s been involved with the team all summer doing all kinds of promotional stuff, and he was at the Draft to greet the new guys (kind of funny since he wasn’t drafted himself) and, well, I love Gorges and kind of want it to be him because then there’d be more interviews and he’s funny.
ETA: Habsinsideout reporting that when asked how he’d feel about Gionta maybe being captain, Gomez replied “He’s not an asshole”! 
That’s the price of having the Habs as religion (not just sport) in Quebec. It started with the Richard Riot (Coles notes version: French superstar gets slapped down by English establishment, shit hits fan. Also thought by some to be the catalyst for the Quiet Revolution, five years before Jean Lesage was elected premier.) Even today, if a Francophone gets traded for an Anglophone, it’s seen as a personal attack by some. Serge Savard’s best trade ever was to trade Stephane Richer, a talented but inconsistent player, for Kirk Muller, who was instrumental in the last Cup, later became captain (for about three months) and is now a key assistant coach. And he still got roasted for it.
While I think Leaf fans en masse are generally nuts, at least I’ve never heard them complain about a GTA product getting traded for an American or Swede, etc.