The blog contest will end as of 4:00pm, TODAY. Hockeytickets.ca will announce the winner at 5:00pm on their twitter feed. I've received more than 50, many of them quality!! Looking forward to seeing the rest and picking a winner.
Blog below...
Hockeytickets.ca Giveaway: Bruins@Canadiens, Sept 26, Bell Centre.
Sponsored Blog Contest:
*
Please note, submissions can be made in French or in English*
I'm very pleased and excited to announce that
Hockeytickets.ca has provided me with a pair of tickets to give away for the very first game between the Bruins and Canadiens at the Bell Centre, when they meet up for pre-season action on Monday, September 26th.
These aren't just any seats. They're reds, in row V of section 118. Here's the view:
So here's how this is going to work:
The winner of the blog contest I'm starting today will attend this hockey game with me.
The rules of the blog contest are as follows:
1. I need a 350-word submission (no more, no less) on what the rivalry between Montreal and Boston means to you.
2. All entries
must be submitted to the following email address:
[email protected], subject line should read: EE CONTEST (please do not send me private messages with your entry here on hockeybuzz, don't leave them in the comments of the blog, and don't send them to my email if you have the address-- they won't be read).
3. The winner of the contest will be announced on the hockeytickets.ca twitter feed, so you may want to follow
hockey_tickets between now and Thursday, September 22nd.
4. The winning blog will appear on Monday, September 26th--Game Day, as the pre-game blog.
***Please note, if you'd like to participate and you're from out of town,
your expenses for travel and stay will not be covered. These tickets won't be delivered, they reside with me, and we will arrange to meet and go together to take in the game. It should be a blast!!!
Apologies for the late entry
10 Notes on Last Night:
1) If you didn't remark--like everyone else did--that Nathan Beaulieu has a fabulous skating stride and an impressive thought-process on the ice, you weren't watching last night's game. Beaulieu started with the nervous energy you'd expect from a freshly drafted 1st rounder, but finished with the intensity, consistency and poise of a polished NHLer. Through 27+ minutes of ice-time, he made it pretty clear that he's going to be playing at this level a lot sooner than he predicted after the Canadiens selected him this summer (Beaulieu hoped to develop enough to play in three years).
2) Pointing out the obvious--Part Deux--Brendan Gallagher pretty much backed up every inflationary assessment of his ability with a very strong performance last night. He was very quick to grasp that if his hand-skills were going to come into play, he was going to have to bring the tempo up dramatically from the level he's accustomed to playing at. He got better and better as the game wore on, and his puck-pursuit is a wonderful compliment to the bonafide skills he displays. He will fulfill his promise as a top-six player in the NHL, and even more encouraging, he seems like the kind of player that thrives in a playoff environment.
3) People around Montreal have reasonably high expectations for P.K. Subban this year. Is it ridiculous to say they're undershooting?
-Not to be overly sensational, but see if you can name five players who display a more complete skating skillset than P.K. Subban does.
I'm not just referring to pure speed. I'm talking about efficiency of stride; turning mobility; explosiveness; direction change; lateral mobility; backwards mobility; transition from front-to-back, from back-to-front, from side-to-side, from side-to-front or back.
I'm not sure I can name three...
Crosby
Keith
I'm done.
Cue bias accusations...
4) Smash you 'spacebar' if you'd like to see Subban rush the puck more often. C'mon Jacques...smash your 'spacebar'-- even if it's counter-intuitive.
5) Scott Gomez's rope shrinks with every o-zone break-in Desharnais executes with intelligence, patience and skill.
Two positive results from that:
-Desharnais gives the team more depth and more scoring behind Plekanec and Gomez.
-If Gomez can keep Desharnais from stealing minutes from him, this team is definitely on the path of improvement this season.
6) It sure was great to see Max Pacioretty flying around the ice again last night. His confidence is clearly high, his aggression's intact, and if he keeps it simple, his finish will be there.
I think Canadiens fans should keep something in mind. Since Jacques Martin came to Montreal, he's intended to play Pacioretty in his top six. Two years ago, Pacioretty started the season with Gomez and Gionta and played his way down the lineup before inevitably landing in Hamilton.
Last season, he was slated for second-line duty out of camp, but didn't perform and went down to Hamilton.
This year, everyone has him penned onto the line the Canadiens have wanted him to complete for a long time. But have no illusions about Pacioretty's need to earn that spot and do everything he has to, to keep it.
Andrei Kostitsyn looks to be in the best shape of his life, and it'll be hard to keep him off the top two lines if Pacioretty can't prove to be better from night-to-night.
Also, quite clearly, there's great chemistry between Pacioretty and Desharnais.
7) Wrote an off-season blog on CTV about Engqvist's opportunity to replace Lars Eller in a checking role, should the young Dane not be ready to start the season.
Move over Engqvist. Gabriel Dumont has been far more impressive throughout camp.
In fact, I haven't seen anything to suggest that Engqvist can play at this level, and he was one of two players to play back-to-back games to start the pre-season.
8) The second player was Aaron Palushaj. Experiment #2 didn't go any better than the first.
9) I saw Jaroslav Spacek win a foot race against Nathan Gerbe last night. I'm pretty sure my eyes didn't deceive me. Then I saw him win one against Tyler Ennis.
Are people making too much of his weight loss?
I don't think so.
10) If Peter Budaj plays like that all the time, Carey Price will get the rest he'll surely need before the playoffs get underway.
--Of Note on the injury front:
According to various reports, Scott Gomez will play Friday or Saturday. Andrei Markov resumed skating on his own today. Brendan Nash had surgery to repair an "upper-body" issue. David Desharnais suffered a lower-body injury last night--he's day-to-day. Eller will see a doctor sometime over the next 10 days to clear him for contact.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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