Former Habs...where are they now?

Remember that time when the Habs finished 1st in the Eastern Conference a few years back? Remember that time when the Habs were predicted to finish 1st in the Eastern Conference the following season?

Remember what happened instead?

Put down the gun.

Continue reading.

Please.

That team was something else wasn’t it? We were supposed to be so damn good…but instead we were streaky, lacked heart, and were more boring that a NASCAR race in slow motion.

I mean look at the players we had!

Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Steve Begin, Chris Higgins, Alex Tanguay, Mike Komisarek, Francis Bouillon, Sergei Kostitsyn, Tom Kostopoulos, Mathieu Dandenault, Guillaume Latendresse, Kyle Chipchura, Robert Lang, Matt D’Agostini, Mathieu Schneider, Patrice Birsebois…to name a few.

Over a dozen players have left our ranks since that fateful season that made Bob Gainey swear for the first time in his entire life.
We all know about the massive transformation that the Habs went through one year ago, and I believe that the core of our team has improved immensely. We’ve fallen in love with the newcomers…but we seem to have forgotten the warriors who sacrificed life and limb while playing for the Habs during that 08-09 season. Well I haven’t.
I thought up this blog Idea a year ago…before I started blogging…and decided to keep close tabs on most of the players that left us during the off-season one year ago. I’ve taken note of their highs, lows and everything in between.

Former Habs…where are they now?

Saku Koivu

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Anaheim Ducks
Best Moment: Finding out his agent got the Ducks to include free season passes to Disneyland in his contract.
Worst Moment: Finding out Kyle Chipchurra got traded to the Ducks.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will form a line centering Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne that would have been pretty super awesome 10-15 years ago.

Alex Kovalev

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Ottawa Senators
Best Moment: Those 3 games where he came to the Bell Centre and actually played Hockey.
Worst Moment: Realizing Mike Cammalleri is way, way better than him.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will be one of the players to leave for the Sochi 2014 Olympics. The League and the Senators won’t care.

Chris Higgins

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers
Best Moment: When the Leafs made that big trade and made Higgins the 4th worst player on the Flames instead of the worst player on the team.
Worst Moment: When Niklas Hagman ended up with more goals than him.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will resurrect his career in Florida, scoring ten goals and adding 15 assists, making him the Panthers’ leading scorer.

Alex Tanguay

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Tampa Bay Lightning, Calgary Flames
Best Moment: Would FINALLY play on a team that will use him properly in Tampa Bay, unlike Colorado, Calgary, Montreal, whatever Junior team he played on, all of his Youth Teams, his High School Ball Hockey team, his older brother during street hockey, and his dad during knee hockey in his basement when he was 5.
Worst Moment: The moment his agent looked him in the eye and told him his best option was returning to Calgary.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will decide head to the KHL, but won’t receive a single offer.

Mike Komisarek

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Toronto Maple Leafs
Best Moment: Fit right in with, and I imaginary quote, ‘Awesome dudes’ Mikhail Grabovsky and Colton Orr. Looks forward to meeting ‘Salt of the earth’ Colby Armstrong.
Worst Moment: Got hurt after terrible start, robbed Leafs fans of seeing how soft he could actually be since Lucic destroyed him mentally and physically.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Dancing with the stars anyone?…Is he even famous enough?

Tom Kostopoulos

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Carolina Hurricanes
Best Moment: Was one of the 3rd liner-but-try-really-hard-and-play-well-and-make-a-run-at-the-playoffs-but-don’t-have-any-really-good-players-aside-from-Staal-and-maybe-Whitney dudes on the Hurricanes.
Worst Moment: The Jersey guy on the Hurricanes spelled his name right 1 out of 82 times.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will captain team Greece at some form of Adriatic/Ionian Hockey tournament.


And now for some that left a little before and after 2008-2009


Cristobal Huet

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, some Swiss League team?
Best Moment: Watching The Chicago Blackawks win the Stanley Cup.
Worst Moment: Watching the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup…
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: Will watch whatever team he is on in Europe win their championship trophy. Will run for President of France and lose.

Guillaume Latendresse

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Minnesota Wild
Best Moment: Realizing that he’s actually a good hockey player, and that all his critics were wrong.
Worst Moment: Realizing that he’s a good Hockey player on the Minnesota Wild.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: 30 Goals and 28 Assists….on the Houston Aeros after scoring 5 goals and 2 assists in 37 games with the Wild.

Sergei Kostitsyn

Teams Since Leaving the Habs: Nashville Predators
Best Moment: Staying away from cold and depressing Russia, where he would have most likely played had he not been moved.
Worst Moment: Heading towards warm and depressing Nashville.
Habs Laughs’ Fearless Prediction: 50 Goals, 85 Points. Just because he’s not a Hab anymore.

Michael Ryder


Team Since Leaving the Habs: Boston Bruins
Best Moment: Finally perfected the toe drag, blew right by Sheldon Souray one time.
Worst Moment: Really misses Chris Higgins, can't figure out how to download Skype
Habs Laughs' Fearless Prediction: Will slowly go insane while reading "Where's Waldo"