Montreal Calling
By mitchelldyck at January 13, 2012 | 11:57 am | Print
Good Morning everyone,
I trust you’re all well. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, god knows I’ve missed out on a lot and that there’s been a fair bit of news worthy items. However, I think that it was covered and is still being covered quite well, or at least as well as you can beat a dead horse over and over.
I’m going to post part 3 of my $0.99 rental bin blog today, I know the three people who might have read it are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for it. But for now, I’m going to start with what happened last night between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. I was out for a slice of pizza last night and was listening to the Canucks game on the radio when I heard that Mike Cammalleri was traded to the Flames. Well, the first thing I did was text my friend who is a die-hard Habs fan and break the news to him. This was his exact response. “Fuck, are you kidding me? Fire Gauthier, please”.
Needless to say he wasn’t too happy about it. Then as details started to trickle in and it was announced that it was during a game and coming back the other way from Calgary was Rene Bourque. The man who can’t speak a word of French, but has the most French sounding name ever. I told my friend and his next text went something along the lines of this “…What? That’s it? So tired of this, might turn in the Habs badge”. Pretty strong words coming from a guy who has lived and breathed that team his entire life. There’s no doubt that Montreal fans, far and wide, are some of the most passionate homers fans around. They all live and die by that team, they all bleed le bleu blanc et rouge and they all think the players on their team are better than what they actually are.
In this case, on paper at least, they might be right. However, what most fans don’t understand at a glance is that what the Habs are getting in Bourque is someone who is much bigger then the 5’9 190lb Mike Cammalleri and someone who will get those garbage goals on the second or third chance. I think the days of the Canadiens high paced, scoring pretty goals from the perimeter are done, the Cammalleri trade puts an exclamation point on that. Bourque brings size and grit to a team that desperately needs it. Bourque, in three straight years has put up 20 goals or more. The past two seasons he’s registered 27 goals back to back. Cammalleri on the other hand is returning to the city in which he put up career numbers with 82 points (39 goals/43 assists).
It’s a win-win trade for both teams. Calgary needed scoring, Cammalleri is capable of providing that. Montreal needed size and grit, Bourque, when he’s on is exactly what Montreal needs. Also, hidden from most Habs fans is the fact that with this trade they shed almost $3 million in cap space. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change. It’s about time too, god knows they’ve piled on dead weight the last couple of seasons.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Sometimes fresh starts work wonders to restart a career, even if the fresh start is somewhere you’ve already been.
That’s it for me, check back later for my $0.99 rental bin trade deadline blog.
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