Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Habs to Honour 2 greats and ...

The Most storied franchise in NHL history, The Montreal Canadiens, are to honour two hockey greats in a sweater retiring ceremonies to take place during the season.

Serge Savard, long time defenceman and member of the famous Big Three of the Habs in the 1970's, will see his number 18 lifted to the rafters of the Bell Center on Saturday Nov 18th. Savard also played in the famous 1972 Soviet-Canada series. He also was the GM of the last two Stanley Cups won by the Habs.

Legendary goaltender, Ken Dryden, will also see his famous number 29 lifted to glory on January 29th, in a ceremony before the game between his former team and the Ottawa Senators. Dryden, since retiring from the game in 1979, was elected to the hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, has written two books on hockey, one called the Game. He also wrote on the education system in Ontario. Dryden is presently an MP in Ottawa and is running for the leadership for the Liberal party.

Well, with training camps opening last week and teams playing pre-season games, we can tell hockey season has started. Still with all of this, alot of players are looking for teams to play for next season. Gentleman, welcome to the new reality of the NHL in the salary cap world. Under the old CBA, we rarely saw this happen, but look for this happen more and more during the life of the new CBA. Unless teams have major long term injuries that they need to replace, the chances that free agents find work next season are slim to none.

I hope Colombus Blue Jackets' GM, Doug Maclean stands his ground with his young Russian superstar. Restricted free agents must have a signed contract in hand by December 1st 5pm eastern time, or else they become ineligible to play the remainder of the season. Something to think about Mr.Zerdhev.

That's all for now folks !
See you Sunday !





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