Habs Post-Season: Draft Lottery Edition

Did I think I would be rid of myself that easy?? No way sir, not with a 4th, or 3rd or 2nd or maybe just mayyyyyybeee a 1st round overall draft pick to be determined??

The draft takes place in a little more than 24 hours. In the meantime, the main action Habs-wise (beside cleaning out lockers) is who will and who will not play in the upcoming worlds.

So far the only Habs players confirmed to play are Subban and Pacioretty (for Canada and team USA respectively). Soooo .... there's that to look forward to? I guess?

Carey Price, who we learned today won't be playing the worlds, sustained not only a concussion during a practice on March 20, also sustained a neck injury. Desharnais, what the heck where you doing?!? It's a freakin' practice.

Anyway ... more later.

HABS GAME BLOG TRAFFIC UPDATE: Okay this is a pretty self-serving update, but the final traffic numbers for this blog experiment are in. More than 14,800 hits since game one! That's starting cold, no advertising, nothin'!

I dunno. Is that good? I think that's pretty good. We have a pretty wide range of demographics, a fair amount of European traffic (nearly half of all visits!), and sizable portion of our traffic from Russia (it's the Kostitsyns I tellz ya). Solid traffic numbers from Canada and the United States. NOTHING FROM MEXICO! Com'on Mexico, what's up with that?

So to all those who stopped by (and came back again), let me say THANK YOU! It's nice to see this page has attained a little bit of a following.

I like to think it might even be more popular for something other than a last place team. But that's next season, eh?

LOTTERY DRAFT DAY UPDATE: It's 7 hours till they draw the balls from a jug or names from a hat or throwing darts on a board, or however they do this draft selection thing. Can you feel the excitement??!

I'm a pretty happy dude today. We're going to get at least the 4th pick overall, probably the 3rd, and who knows ... maybe the 1st? It's a CAN'T-LOSE day.

Speaking of losing and losers, this was posted today by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. I laughed. A long, round, hearty laugh.

If I can translate the scribe, it goes a little like this:

So sorry Leafs fans for being terrible for the 7th straight season. PLEASE KEEP BUYING TICKETS TO OUR GAMES AND PLEASE KEEP SPENDING YOUR MONEY ON US. PLEASE?!?

And you know what? The poor fools probably will.

DRAFT UPDATE: We draft 3rd!!!

Oh well.

Edmonton gets number 1. So they keep piling on the big picks So finishing 29th was the big prize after all.

:<(

Let the Subban for the Oilers first round selection speculation commence.

POST-DRAFT CONTROVERSY UPDATE: Ha. So this is rather amusing, if true. Soon after it was announced that the Habs had "won" the 3rd pick, Mikhail Grigorenko supposedly went on the Twitter (as you do) and blasted out the following:

"Can't wait to be a drafter and play for P.Roy again."

Uh-oh.

Within seconds, Grigorenko's tweet spread like wildfire over social networks (as they do), and as everything began to hit the fan, the tweet was deleted from his account (too late of course).

Soooooo ... a few Q's out of all of this:

1) If Grigorenko made that tweet, is he privy to some inside info on who will be the Habs next coach, or is he merely speculating on the rumor mill, which includes Roy as a leading candidate?

2) Is he privy to inside information, or has he already been informed by Habs management that they will be selecting him this June?

3) If he was told in advance by Habs management (obviously in confidence), will loose lips sink the ship of his selection? Will the Habs recalibrate and look at drafting someone else?

Personally I'm not opposed to the Habs taking this very talented kid as their first selection - he could very well become a superstar, or at least a very good forward. But I also wouldn't be adverse to the club exploring possible opportunities with the Oilers, especially in light that they're desperate for a young, capable defenseman right now. Yakupov is the clear-cut first choice, but he's not what they need (or possibly want?) at the present.

Let's see where this goes over the next few days and weeks.