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#21 Brian Gionta 2010-11


fourtrax

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Great post honuhab.

In the cap era, core players staying for most of their career with the same team have become the exception, not the norm. Because of that, the "long standing member of a team" criterium to select a captain has become irrelevent for all teams, including the Habs.

It's management who selected Gio! but he was the players' choice as well. I think this team is well equipped in the leadership department with the group they have and I dont doubt for a second that Gionta will do us proud at the helm.

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Great post honuhab.

In the cap era, core players staying for most of their career with the same team have become the exception, not the norm. Because of that, the "long standing member of a team" criterium to select a captain has become irrelevent for all teams, including the Habs.

It's management who selected Gio! but he was the players' choice as well. I think this team is well equipped in the leadership department with the group they have and I dont doubt for a second that Gionta will do us proud at the helm.

he is everything i want in a captain thats for damn sure

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There have been a couple of posts of this nature that Gio is too much of a Hab neophyte to be the captain. This implies that the captain should be should be a "true Hab" AND that one of the criteria is that he should be a longer standing member of the team or have cultural roots to the province/team. Well the last 4 players listed were either born outside QC and don't speak French or were acquired via trades. They were also captains after the Hab's eras of cup dynasties were long gone.

The captain of the Habs should embody what most of us love about this team's history: commitment to the team (not to himself), commitment to winning, consistent hard work and class. Birthplace and heritage should not be criteria.

I know what you are saying when you list the past captain; that they were great players who were legends of the team's folklore. Well, don't worry, I think Gio will become a legend in this modern era of the organization just as Saku was when you look at his career with the team.

Just because Saku didn't win a cup here (and I doubt Gio will either over the remainder of his contract term) doesn't mean they were poor captains; it just means that management couldn't bring or draft the right players (that could blossom in this environment) to the team to build a winner.

Gio is exactly the type of player who will be a great captain and deserves to wear the "C".

I know a lot of fans feel this way, but I think they should jump into the 21st century. Back in the day, most of the players on the Habs were Quebecers. But with the Habs losing first pick of home grown talent, the expansion and the wave of European players, those days are long gone. The fact that we've had a Finnish captain for the last decade and now an American (yes, Chelios was a captain, but he was a co-captain with Vinny, I believe), just shows how much the league has changed and grown.

The days of the flying frenchmen have past... Even in Quebec City (Nordiques), it wasn't the flying frenchmen, it was the flying Czechs-with the Stastny brothers leading the Nordiques offence (we can't forget Goulet, but the Stastny's were definitely fan favorites).

And all this grumbling about not having enough Franco's on the team, imo does not represent the majority fan base or the fan base at all. I feel the majority of the fans (French or English) could care less about their stars nationality. Seriously, the Stastny's were huge in Quebec during the 80's and that was right in the middle of the "separation from Canada" propaganda. Even here, last year Halak was a huge fan favorite, few years ago Kovy was the player who got the biggest cheers from the fans (just look what happened when BG didn't resign him). I'm sorry, the English fans only make up a small % of the fans at the Bell Centre. So, those cheers and chants of Kovy came from English and French speaking fans-in all actuality I'm sure most of the fans that chanted Kovy's name were Francophone.

Imo, all the talk on the streets about the Habs not having enough French players, come directly from certain media outlets who's main objective is to stir the pot. Honestly, I live in Montreal, I work in the public, speak French and have A LOT of French friends, never have I heard any of them complain about the nationality of our players.

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New era has begun. Game 1 of the regular season with Captain Gio leading the way.

He may be small, but his talent and heart=BIG!!!

MIA tonight as far as I can see. Not only did he not score, he was simply not effective in the offensive zone. He wasn't playing hard or smart.

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Guest ForeverGuyLafleur

The Captain and his buddy should wake up soon. We can't afford performances like these, especially not after he has been named captain.

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Took a pretty hard hit when the game started, hope that didn't have anything to do with his play for the rest of the night.

I dont think so, he came out of that just fine. It was a hard hit but as clean as they can get, the impact spread on all the body. I dont know what was wrong with Gio! tonight, he didn't have his usual fire in the eyes for the whole game.

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Definately not his best game but I really thought he had it in the dying minute there.

Yep, those last few minutes had the fire we've come to expect from him. Hoepfully he can take something away from the end of this game and keep it with him against the Pens.

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Actually i don't think either of those had a bad game. They both played competitive hockey, and imo gio hasn't been bad for his first game as captain.

I agree that Gio! wasn't bad. However, more is expected than 'not bad' from him. I'm not worried though. He knows what he has to do and will do it :)

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