Saturday, October 25, 2008

More Musings From Mad Max Talbot (part 2)

In part 2, Max offers up some thoughts on the firing of Denis Savard, his new teammate Eric Godard, and the tragic death of Alexei Cherepanov:


The Hawks have acted very quickly

I just learn about the dismissal of Denis Savard and in my opinion, the Blackhawks showed him the door rather quickly.

Moreover, I have only heard good reviews about [him]. Fire a coach after only four games, it's very fast ...

In comparison, I cite the example of our team. Over recent years we have had regular hotel (?) which led to some criticism of our coach Michel Therrien. But we are still in force and income and it proves to give the chance to everyone. I would say simply that it is not early in the season that a team wins the Stanley Cup.

It seems obvious that Savard has bailed because expectations are very high in Chicago. This organization has put the package together this summer with the acquisitions of Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet. I would not hesitate to compare their development with that of our team.

The Hawks rely on several good young players and they decided to set the sights high for this season.

But this dismissal remains difficult to explain because the news is so fresh.

First chapter of our rivalry deal with Capitals

Thursday evening, we welcome the Washington Capitals, a team with which we have developed a nice rivalry. Even if the Caps are not in our division, our players are always explosive against them.

Obviously, a duel Capitals / Penguins rhymes with a clash between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. But last season, the intensity had reached a level of interest between Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin during the injury to Sid. We have not forgotten the failure Ovechkin had tried to apply to Malkin.

In short, the meetings between our teams always produce excellent matches very physical or for failure are many.

That is exactly the type of game that we need to get back in the bath at the beginning of the season.

We will be ready for this confrontation since we tasted a game similar with the Flyers on Tuesday. Pascal Dupuis enabled us to win with one goal in overtime.

For now, Sid has not yet touched the bottom of the net while Malkin has collected a goal and two assists. From our side, you know that it will be very interesting when they release. We still managed to beat the Flyers without their offensive contributions.

In fact, during the last three seasons Sid did not tend to hear beautiful hotel (?). But you know very well that he is an outstanding competitor and I'm really not worried about him.

Ah yes, a little message for fans who have selected him in their pool: don’t worry, it will bounce back very quickly.

Godard has shown what he can do

To return to our game against the Flyers, our new strong man, Eric Godard threw gloves facing Riley Cote in the early minutes. I think that this fight has helped us to find our rhythm. It was not a surprise that he lays the glove side by side. I remember Georges Laraque had stated in the media that Cote is one of the toughest fighters of the League after a battle against him.

Godard is not the most imposing player, but it is surprising how it can be hard. Really, as we were impressed as players on the bench. Godard and Cote have been able to collect heavy blows, it was a duel.

Faced with the Caps, we will count on another strong man, Paul Bissonnette. He is really good, his history is very special. Last year, he played much of the season in Wheeling in the League of the East Coast.

This year, he came here with a great attitude and is a guy with an interesting personality and is able to cope on the ice. In my opinion, they will keep an eye on him.

To close the topic on strong men, I have obviously seen the first fighter Georges Laraque in the uniform of a Canadian. He gave an overview of what he can offer.

Not a false deal with Devils

I do not know if you've got wind of our performance facing the Devils last Saturday. We lost in overtime, but we did not really deserve this game. We got only 15 shots on the net to Martin Brodeur.

The very next day, Michel Therrien had prepared a training focused on the bases and fighting against a one. Honestly, it was expected that it would be such a scenario. All our players deserved it.

The death of Cherepanov

I discussed with Evgeni Malkin the death of Alexei Cherepanov and he told me he had already played against him, but he did not know him personally.

Hockey players are a big family and it affects us to see one of us die in this way at such a young age.

This story reminds me of one of my former teammates in Wilkes-Barre in the AHL. Darcy Robinson lost his life on the ice last year to 26 years after a heart problem. He played for Asiago HC in Italy and he had just gotten engaged.
It is always shocking to hear such stories and it makes me realize how fragile life is and you must consider yourself lucky to do what you love in life.

Like many of my colleagues, I find it disturbing that the team Avangard Omsk was not really ready for such an event. Although this is not the NHL, we are talking about professional hockey. I do not think we could see such negligence in the NHL.
In my opinion, a medical team should always be ready. I consider myself lucky to [be working] for organizations demanding on this side.


(There's still one more post of translations of Max's blog to come...)

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