Comments on: What do you think of him now?

By: Hoondog2

Hoondog2 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:18:39 +0000

Koivu is a good player worth keeping. Montreal just needs a number one center to lead him and the team.

By: sdopus

sdopus — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:03:30 +0000

Ok, they give up shots, but I don't need empirical evidence to speculate that over the last decade or so the Canadians have had little in the way of real offesive talent, and thus have been forced into dreadful defensive systems (whether or not they have played them well is another matter). He's the leading scorer on the team, what line should they put him on? And smart guy, I never compared him to yzerman, federov, datsyuk, sakic or forsberg, or suggested that he would have played ahead of any of them, I simlpy theorized that he would likely have had a far more productive career points-wise had he played on a team where offensive mattered. BTW, there are plenty of 2nd line centers making 4.5, so don't blame him for the fact that Montreal doesn't have a bonifide 1st line guy; he's not the GM.

p.s. brush your teeth and your's will be shiny too, as for the leaping of buildings, I got nothing.

By: Freak

Freak — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:11:44 +0000

I agrere with you man, Koivu is the best player on the habs by far. He’s maybe the unluckiest player in the league in terms of stupid injurues and how can we forget the cancer and eye injury. He STILL plays with tremendous heart, even after all that. I do think that there is way too much pressure on him to carry the team on his back,( similar situation in Ottawa with Alfredsson) which is why the organization needs to acquire some players with good finishing skills to lighten the load, or someone else on the team needs to step up and help out koivu. Its definitly not Souray to be the one to come and save the habs. maybe if he was a + 25 it would be a different story. Montreal is a tough city to play in, the toughest. So people who hate on Koivu should take it easy.

By: TheStryker

TheStryker — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:22:09 +0000

Very nice post. But im sure teams have inquired in the past about Saku's availability.

By: habsoverserver

habsoverserver — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:34:30 +0000

when a team tumbles six places in the standings the captain, first line center and highest paid player has to take some heat.

though he may have a lot of talent, heart, drive, shiny teeth, and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, in terms of points scored and plus minus, he is among the bottom 20% of first line centers in pro hockey. by the time montreal is through their "rebuilding," he will be in the tail end of his career.

to suggest that montreal is a defensive team is not born out by any empirical evidence. montreal is among the most penalized teams and gives up more shots per game than average. they are not a great defensive team, they are really just a mediocre offensive team, held back by a lack of talent and cohesion.

i am laughing at the thought of koivu playing first line center ahead of yzerman, federov, datsyuk, sakic or forsberg. koivu is the only player that "high scoring" teams DIDN'T take from Montreal. unlike roy, keane, leclair, schneider, desjardins, recchi, malakhov, damphousse, corson, etc., no other team ever asked for koivu. which doesn't mean koivu is bad, it means he isn't the missing link for a dynasty.

i'd love to have koivu on montreal for $3mil per season as a second line center. for $4.75 on the first line, it's a little extreme.

By: Les-Habitants

Les-Habitants — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:23:37 +0000

thank you sir, thank you.