“The Enigma” leaves Chicago. 
Too bad for Montreal.

Posted by w2j2 on 09/12/08 at 05:08 PM ET

Lang *and* Brisebois?

Big day for Montreal. Can you smell that? It smells like a Stanley Cup… 

Posted by Shane from Saskatoon on 09/12/08 at 05:25 PM ET

I wonder if this is the first recommendation from Scotty Bowman?

Posted by w2j2 on 09/12/08 at 05:36 PM ET

Good for Langer.  Captain giveaway didn’t fit into the Hawks’ style of play (save playing spectacularly against the Wings, anyway), and he should have some speedy wingers to set up with the Habs.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/12/08 at 05:41 PM ET

And I thought Montreal might pose a real playoff threat this season. Guess I was wrong.

Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 09/12/08 at 06:08 PM ET

How does this guy keep getting jobs? Are flashes enough?

Better put him with some strong D-men, cause this guy is not skating back.

Posted by Osrt on 09/12/08 at 06:24 PM ET

i feel bad for Habs fans

Posted by cowboycoffee from San Francisco on 09/12/08 at 08:00 PM ET

Montreal needed offense, and it was a good pick-up.

They are going to be at the top in the East.  You can count on Carbonneau and Gainey to make proper use of his strong points.  He is a good clutch player, a Vet who can counsel the younger players in tough circumstances.  His style of no-wasted-motion
has been misinterpreted by fans of waterbug style hockey.  He has always played smart.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 09/12/08 at 08:17 PM ET

One thing to watch, can Lang and Kovalev work their magic like they did in Pittsburgh?

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 09/12/08 at 08:22 PM ET

Of course the pens also had Jagr, Straka, Titov, Hrdina, Morozov, and of course, Mario Lemieux, not to mention, when Lang made his mistakes and didn’t backcheck, we had Tommy B shutting it down in the back, at least for the first couple years, then we had a mix of Seabass, The Moose, and Caron, with a little help from a Kasparaitis hip check and some Ian Moran Metallica performances….
Wow, got a little carried away there thinking about those years and what they could have been, and the dark years to follow…. sorry about that.

Anyway, Montreal is still way overrated going into this season. They still have a young goalie and some questionable players in key positions.

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 09/12/08 at 09:31 PM ET

The Habs welcome all the people who underrate them.  It worked wonders for them last year.  The most offensive team in the league added Tanguay and Lang to replace Ryder and Smolinski…which is even better than last year.  The only defenseman they lost was Streit (who actually played forward cause he sucks at defense) was a -9.  What key areas are they very “questionable”, lol

This from a guy who’s team lost Hossa, for a much lower contract (and the players they traded for him).  Then all the guys that left Pittsburgh for various reasons (Roberts, Laraque, Ruutu) ...why did they all leave?  Usually teams that go far in the playoffs want to stay togther, take discounts etc…not in Pits.

Satan and Fedotenko are less dimensional than Lang.

Posted by Mr. Nasty on 09/12/08 at 09:50 PM ET

Wow that was a ridiculously dumb post. Pens traded rights of Robs and Malone. Pens didn’t offer a deal to Laraque OR Ruutu.
The Hossa deal in Detroit is worth what? 7.45 million?
Pens offer was worth 7 year, 50 million. Thats 7.15 million a year.

Dumbass.

What is questionable? How about a goalie who fell apart in the playoffs? Yep, the Penguins goalie played kickass in the playoffs.
Guess we will see how that turns out.

Who stayed? How about Marc Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin, and Brooks Orpik. Not to mention the many players calling Ray Shero asking to play here. Who was calling Montreal? George Laraque? Wow thats a good pickup, you have a 4th liner who can’t be trusted on the ice when the game is on the line.

Not to mention the fact that never once in my post did I say that getting Lang was a bad thing, or that he wouldn’t do well, or compare the Habs to the Pens of now, but to the Pens of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Lang is a good offensive player. But he plays about as much defense as the peanut man does, every once in a while he accidently throws a peanut onto the ice and someone trips on it during a breakaway.

Pens breeze through the east and lose to the wings. Call it now. Bet on it.

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 09/12/08 at 10:06 PM ET

Pens will win the East on a Lang PP give-away to Staal.  Just some crappy pass like us wings fans have seen time and time again when he was with us.

Posted by callmedrw on 09/13/08 at 07:10 AM ET