AGRI Biz

Jaroslav Halak is in the middle of an excellent season, after a great Olympic run, he is one of the hottest goalies in the NHL right now. He's the single shining exemplar of quality NHL play on a Montreal team that, otherwise, appears ready for the trash heap. The question of whether or not Montreal makes the playoffs is still up in the air as a result of the team's inability ...

Montreal Canadiens fans had, at one time, a reputation as the most knowledgeable and discerning in hockey. That reputation has been dying a slow death over the last two decades. They have always been hard on their own, but with young Carey Price their enmity seems to be grading towards the nihilistic and uninformed. Canadiens fans in the past have been incredibly hard on their team, holding it to what must seem ...

The Vezina trophy is given out annually to the national hockey league goalie who is judged to be “best” at his position.   When introduced it in 1927 it was designed to commemorate George Vezina, the great Canadien’s goalie who died of tuberculosis the year before. The trophy was handed to the goalie or goalies who gave up the fewest goals in a season.   Back then there was only one goalie per team so ...

The Frank J Selke trophy was instituted to reward Bob Gainey for the unsung role he played on the 1970s Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup winning teams. The trophy is awarded annually to the forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive portion of the game. Gainey who won the award the first four years it was given out, was a speedy checker who was key in shutting down the ...

The gold medal hockey game is scheduled for Feb. 28. Even VANOC should be able toákeep that on schedule. On March 1, Detroit flies to Colorado to play the Avalanche and the last quarter of the NHL schedule gets underway. Teams will have three more days before the trade deadline to make a deal once the Olympicátrade hiatus is over. They are in earnest at this point in the season and almost ...

The NHL loves to run an unbalanced schedule. Teams still play six games a year against each team in their division. A tough division can kill you, a weak one might catapult you into the playoffs. The NHL has solved the gap created in their scheduleáfor the Olympics by jammingágames together. Teams have incomprehensibly long breaks followed by strings of back-to-back games. Someone should have told them no one cares about all ...

The last decade has been a tumultuous one for the NHL. A complete season (2004-05) was lost to lock-out. Some all-time great players like Mario Lemieix, Peter Forsberg, Ray Borque, Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman saw their careers come to an end. Future and present greats like Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Henrik Zetterburg and Mike Green got their careers off to rousing starts. Who had the best decade ...

Peter Mueller has just been sidelined by an undisclosed injury he suffered against the Dallas Stars on Friday night. He's questionable for tonight's game in Anaheim. The former standout first line center has been shunted to the wing and now plays behind Matthew Lombardi, Martin Hanzal, Radim Vrbata, and when he's healthy, checker Vernon Fiddler. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Peter starred as a young man with US National under-18 team ...

Yes, "the softy" has been moved to Minnesota for "the chicken." That's as far as my high school French, no doubt erroneously, will take me. Underachievers Benoit Pouliot and Guillaume Latendresse have been exchanged for each other. Bob Gainey suggested, "Often times a different environment, new teammates, and a new situation can be beneficial to a player." Latendresse was chosen in the second round, 45th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2005. He ...

It's a tough struggle to pare down the available Canadian players for the men's Olympic hockey team. Anyone you keep displaces three worthy candidates. I haveáplaced an emphasis on speed and international/NHL playoff experience and success. I've arrived at this team as the one I think willáhave the best chance of succeeding for Canada.á á Forwards First line:á LW Rick Nasháááá ááááááá C Ryan Getzlafáá RW Jarome Iginla Second line: LW Dany Heatleyáá ...