Musings from Montreal's Rookie Camp.

With Montreal's rookie camp coming to a close, here are some tidbits to enjoy:

Courtesy of canadiens.nhl.com:

Head coach Guy Carbonneau also announced Thursday that forward David
Desharnais and goaltender Marc Denis will suit up for the pre-season contest against the Sabres on Tuesday in Roberval, Quebec.

This game is supposed to be on CBCsports.ca on Tuesday. Look for it! Congrats to David.

Olivier Latendresse & the Canadiens' writers showed the fans of Cincinnati a little love as well:

Six members of the 2008 East Coast Hockey League champion Cincinnati Cyclones – Thomas Beauregard, David Desharnais, Olivier Latendresse, Conrad Martin, Ryan Russell and Cedrick Desjardins – are taking part in the Canadiens’ rookie camp this week. Not only have they brought the Ohio franchise its first championship but the crew has also managed another impressive feat: making hockey popular in a state where football is all the rage.“We had crowds of over 13,000 during the Finals,” said Olivier Latendresse, who racked up 35 points in 24 games with the Cyclones. “We had a bunch of Quebec natives on the team and together with our teammates, we all built something really special. There were actually a few Quebec flags in the crowd, and it wasn’t even our families!”

Not to gloat or anything... but I'm pretty sure the Quebec flag trend started right in Row B of Section 138. :)

Not much, news-wise, has come out of Nashville up to this point. Yawn.

Habs & more

• CBCSports.ca will be airing the Canadiens vs. Sabres game on September 23rd. Be sure to check it out and possibly catch some of last years' guys in uniform for potentially both teams, if Bonneau is in uniform for Buffalo.
• Olivier Latendresse was interviewed by RDS Sports. Unfortunately, it's in French. If you want to watch anyway, check it out here.
• By the way, Habs rookie camp opened today.
• A few players on the move: Jason Deitsch (Texas Brahmas - CHL), AJ Bozoian (Bloomington PrairieThunder- IHL), Scott Reynolds (HC Fassa - Italy)

Daoust has Talbot to Thank

Great article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Jean-Michel Daoust's friendship with Maxime Talbot, and how Talbot helped him get a shot in the AHL (and ultimately, the Pittsburgh Penguins' camp). Read it here.

Getting caught up

First things first, some signings:
Billy Irish-Baker, Sean Perkins, TJ McElroy, Barret Ehgoetz

All of them are great assets to the team and I'm glad to have them back. I think Irish-Baker and Perkins, with a full season under the belts, will bring great things to the table in their sophomore season. TJ McElroy finished fairly strong after coming over in the trade from Idaho. Ehgoetz, what can I say? The guy has done great things for the team in two seasons. He's a trooper.

And four training camp invitees:
Mikael Bedard, Nicolas Robillard, Paul Lynch, Brian Porter

Lynch and Porter were invitees from the free agent camp in August. Bedard, however, comes to us from the BCHL's Nainaimo Clippers where he put up 71 points in 59 games... 1.2 points per game. Robillard comes from the University of Moncton (CIS), where he played one season and put up 24 points in 28 games after splitting four seasons between the QMJHL and the QJAHL. He won the Memorial Cup with Cedrick Desjardins and the Quebec Remparts in 2005. Lynch spent 48 games in the SPHL last season, chalking up 130PIM. I'll reserve my opinions on this one, based on my feelings about the SPHL, but I'm not writing him off completely. Porter comes to us from the Greater Toronto Hockey League, 58 pts in 46 games with a ... get this ... +49.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have one line! :P

Onto other things of importance... NHL training camps. At least 10 members of the 2007-2008 Cyclones are going to be suiting up for NHL clubs in their training camps this month:

Montreal: Mathieu Aubin, Thomas Beauregard, David Desharnais, Cedrick Desjardins, Conrad Martin, Olivier Latendresse, Ryan Russell
Nashville: Ryan Maki, Mark Matheson
Pittsburgh: Jean-Michel Daoust