All Habs Headlines: Wednesday September 28, 2011
Happy Birthday to NHLers: Brian Rafalski, Dustin Penner, Ray Emery and Tom Sestito! 39 years ago today Team Canada defeated the Soviet Union 6-5 in dramatic fashion to win the 1972 Summit Series. Before the 40th anniversary, let’s see Paul Henderson elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
►Dogs sign try-outs: The Hamilton Bulldogs have signed forward Philip DeSimone and defenseman Olivier Dame-Malka to one-year two-way contracts (AHL/ECHL). Both players were at the Montreal Canadiens training camp on a try-out basis.
The two signings do not count against the Montreal Canadiens’ contract total which stands at 48 following the addition of Chris Campoli. NHL teams are allowed a maximum of 50 contracts per season.
DeSimone’s signing was announced by his agent Alec Schall on Twitter. DeSimone describes himself as an “unemployed hockey player” in his Twitter account bio:@DesyStorm . We can expect that he will be updating that soon.
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/aschall21/status/118693438744043520″]
►Lawson and Willsie waived: Forward Brian Willsie and goalie Nathan Lawson have been placed on waivers by the Canadiens. They will need to clear waivers before being sent down to the Hamilton Bulldogs. Brock Trotter went through a similar process on Monday.
For a complete list of the players who remain in training camp please see our tracker in the right sidebar. For up-to-date detailed information you are encouraged to check our section devoted to Press Releases.
►Laraque, Boyd and now…: The newest Canadiens player Chris Campoli has chosen No. 17, most recently worn by Dustin Boyd, and Georges Laraque before him. Campoli would have preferred No. 14, but that number is taken.
►Tour the city!: Michael Blunden, Brian Willsie, Brendan Gallagher and Nathan Lawson were not at practise at Tuesday. The Canadiens announced that they had been given the day off. Later in the day, it was learned that Lawson and Willsie have been waived.
►Dogs open camp: The Hamilton Bulldogs opened their training camp on Tuesday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. Coaches Clement Jodoin and Ron Wilson will get their players ready for two games on their pre-season schedule against the Binghamton Senators: September 30 in Victoriaville, and October 1 in Drummondville.
►Lines at morning practise:
The Canadiens practised using the following alignments on Tuesday morning.
Forwards
Mike Cammalleri – Tomas Plekanec – Erik Cole
Max Pacioretty – Scott Gomez – Brian Gionta
Aaron Palushaj – David Desharnais – Andrei Kostitsyn
Mathieu Darche – Gabriel Dumont – Andreas Engqvist
Yannick Weber – Lars Eller – Michael Bournival
Defenseman
Hal Gill – P.K. Subban
Chris Campoli – Josh Gorges
Jaroslav Spacek – Raphael Diaz
Alexei Yemelin – Jeff Woywitka
Alex Henry – Frederic St-Denis
Goaltenders
Carey Price
Peter Budaj (working with Pierre Groulx)
►Leafs are worst?: Following on the heels of Toronto finding the bottom of ESPN’s ranking of sports cities, Grantland concludes that Tdot is the “Worst Sports City in the World.”
“Being a Toronto fan is so much worse than any algorithm could ever express. A merely numerical measurement fails to capture the daily spiritual trauma of following sports in Toronto.”
Read the article by Stephen Marche, Toronto: The Worst Sports City in the World
►From our friends: We’re always happy to highlight articles of interest to our readers which appear elsewhere. See something you like, use the “Contact Us” tab to let us know and we’ll be sure to give you a stick tap.
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To meet the needs of our diverse set of readers, we offer original content in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. We’re extremely proud of this feature of our digital magazine.
However, it seems that our multi-lingual approach has rankled the delicate sensitivities of a provincial dinosaur masquerading as a Habs fan. One of our writers, Robert P-Tome received hate-mail on his personal blog about his contributions to our Canadiens coverage in Spanish. “Phil’s” bigoted rant and Robert’s excellent response can be found here.