The Other Wing

It’s been a stunning few days for the fans of the Montreal Canadiens. A few have applauded Bob Gainey for making bold changes to a team that’s been mired in mediocrity for too many years. New faces and new skills will bring a necessary change to a team that had hit it’s ceiling.

Most fans, and many pundits, however, have blasted the Canadiens’ GM for blowing up the team, being impulsive, disloyal, and (almost criminally) inept.

Before the free agency period, Gainey was targeted by fans saying that he wouldn’t do anything. That he was sleeping in on July 1st and had his phone turned off. And even if he tried he couldn’t bring in any talent.

A few cycles of the clock later and Gainey proved those armchair pundits wrong. He made bold moves. Difficult moves.
As the dust settles, BG is being hounded by critics for bringing in 2nd line talent, over-paying for it and missing out on Franchise players.

Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, and Mike Cammalleri will be an explosive line. A top line.

But like many fans, I’m hurting right now.

O Captain! My Captain!

Kovy! Kovy! Kovy!

Komisaurus!

Higgy!

I’m definitely going to miss these guys. The Habs are going to be a vastly different team without them. But you know what? We’re going to be a better team. We’re going to be more consistent and we’re going to win more games.

The Habs Centennial year was a disaster. Bob’s 5-year plan was supposed to come to fruition but injuries, a stubborn coach and scandals sunk that celebration. This season we’re back to Hockey 101 – a new class, a new coach, a new spirit in the locker room.

Continue reading "Blood Type? Habs Positive." »

Wingers with potential free agency status on July 1st:

Alex Kovalev (UFA)

Alex Tanguay (UFA)

Chris Higgins (RFA)

Guillaume Latendresse (RFA)

Tom Kostopolous (UFA)

Gregory Stewart (RFA)

Matt D’Agostini (RFA)

Barring any big signings or trades, it’s expected that all RFAs will be made qualifying offers, with everybody receiving a modest raise. Perhaps arbitration will be necessary to settle a deal with Higgins, but after last season he doesn’t have much negotiating leverage. It’s highly unlikely that any other team will try to grab one of our guys with an offer sheet (and equally unlikely that we send out an offer sheets of our own).

That leaves Kovy, Tanguay, and Kostopolous.

Tom the Bomb is a great team guy and a useful grinder, but he can be replaced by a younger, cheaper call-up (i.e. Stewart). If necessary, worry about TK in August.

Kovalev is a fan favorite, but Gainey should look into other options before giving l’Artiste a new deal. He’s 36 and infuriatingly inconsistent. While Kovy can still produce, there won’t be a line-up for his services on July 1.

No need to rush.

It was reported earlier in the week that Gainey has not had much in way of talks with Tanguay or his agent because he has been working on something big. Presumably – and this is a big presumption – that something big is Vincent Lecavalier. (And if we’re to believe Jean Perron, you can also throw Martin St-Louis’ name into that mess of a rumour.)

On Tuesday, league Czar Gary Bettman gave operational control of the Lightning to co-owner Oren Koules, but Len Barrie still holds a veto vote. Any trade involving Lecavalier might have to wait until mid-July when this dysfunctional Tampa ownership (hopefully) gets sorted out. Whether or not that trade involves the Habs remains to be seen.

Continue reading "Wingmen" »

Saku Koivu – Our Captain. The 34-year old Finn is a stalwart of leadership, determination and perseverance. He’s battled through adversity both on and off the ice. He deals well with fans and with the media. He’s made Montreal his home. Unfortunately, he is also a reminder of our failures and our short-comings. We’re an under-sized team and during his tenure, we haven’t made a convincing run in the playoffs.

Saku’s best numbers were in 2006-07 when he notched 22 goals and 53 assists for 75 points. He also had a +/- of -21.
Critics point out that he’s not getting any younger and he’s never been the big number one center that we need. In Koivu’s defense, he’s never claimed to be.

If Gainey doesn’t ink Koivu – and we don’t trade for Lecavalier – then who do we sign to replace him? We could go after Henrik Sedin, but he’s a package deal with Daniel. The purported salary demands of the twins don’t appear exorbitant, but 12-year deals? That’s a long time.

Continue reading "Down the Middle" »

Now that the small distraction of a team-sale is over and done with, GM Bob Gainey can focus on his pressing paperwork.
Signings.
Before reading this, you should go over Pat Hickey's take on the league's cap situation a few days before the draft and a good ten days before unrestricted free agency.
Read on to see a simple list of the Canadiens' UFAs, RFAs, and signed players. Following this posting will be a closer examination of some key positions, UFAs, and potential trades. Continue reading "Down to Business" »

I am officially Alex Kovalev:

 http://www.facebook.com/alexkovalev

Woot! Woot!

Wow. June 12, 2009.

The start of it all - October 4th, 2008 - seems like an eternity ago. A season of (never quite reached) highs and too often, bottom-of-the-barrel lows. A season too short, an enduring disappointment. A Centennial season turned infantile. It was, for our Habs, a year that wasn't.

For either the Wings or the Pens, however, it will be a year to remember. A victory tonight will not be an awkward birthday party but a Championship - a crowning achievement won - not merely by aging - but through battle, determination, skill, vitality and maturity.

Stanley Cup Finals, Game 7. A good night for hockey fans.

Now 60 war-worthy minutes is all that seperates us from a summer that's already here.

22C, sunny, and  quite humid.

Steak on the BBQ, beers in the fridge.

Cheers.

Enjoy the game everyone.

Lucky Habs shirt. Second lucky Habs shirt on top of the other lucky Habs shirt. Lucky socks. Lucky underwear.
Anyone else? Go Habs Go!

The first two playoff games down in Boston have been humbling affairs for our Montreal Canadiens. They were soundly out-muscled and clearly out-played. The Bruins played well in Game 1 and they played damn well in Game 2. The Habs played decently in Game 1 and piss-poor on Saturday. Game 3 will truly show what these 2008-2009 Montreal Canadiens are made of.
We’re down 2-0. We were given a good spanking on Saturday. And now, at home, we can prove that we deserve to still be competing.
We need to redeem ourselves. We need to claw back into this series. We need to take advantage of a Lucic-less Boston team.
Continue reading "From Milan to Montreal" »

I absolutely abhor the way the Canadiens have been coached since a few hours before the puck was dropped on the opening faceoff of this series. Without being the biggest proponent of coaching tactics as means to win a hockey game, one thing will remain abundantly clear when all of this is said and done: Claude Julien will not have made a single move to manufacture four victories over the Habs, but Gainey's, at best, strange decisions will have killed the team.

Gainey made a terrible decision and sent the wrong message to his own players. By catapulting Georges Laraque to the first line, a player who played so rarely and poorly all year, Gainey tells his team that they're going to take on a brand new appearance before the start of the most important sequence of the year. By way of ricochet, he dismantels the only line that was doing anything in the last MONTH of the season. The team is then expected to adjust to this radically different alignment, with a new first line that will now have to play a completely different style. No time to practice, no sense of how it may turn out because it wasn't tried in the regular season for more than, say, 5 minutes. But Game 1 of the playoffs, that's a great time to experiment.

That's not the worst part of it. In moving Laraque to the first and taking Tanguay off it, Gainey is telling the players we're going to play the Boston Bruins and we're not going to do it by playing our game, Montreal Canadiens hockey. Now let's not kid ourselves, Montreal Canadiens hockey hasn't looked like a Rembrandt painting this year, but totally disfiguring the potency of the first line is too far a stretch. Before the puck is dropped, Gainey makes the statement that he's going to stray from the team's identity. You want to put Latendresse on the Koivu line, there won't be an argument here. You want to offer another line Alex Tanguay to create better balance, that's fine.

But how do you take the only sign of life this team has emitted in the last couple of months and completely dilute its strength? I like Georges Laraque. I like his persona, I love his charisma, I find him to be a gentleman who happens to have taken on a less than gentlemanly role in this league, but he's made a career out of doing what will keep him in the NHL. I admire that. But in calling a spade a spade, one cannot debate the fact that Georges cannot skate, shoot and pass with the likes of Alex Kovalev or Saku Koivu. They compute the game from a different motherboard. 

Sure, you can argue that Georges played a solid first game and controlled the play behind the net, but if I'm Claude Julien I love the way it all pans out. Control whatever you want along the boards, as long as you don't get a whiff of the slot. And if you want to call that "control" be my guest.

After having neutralized his own first line, which as a collective unit came up with a lovely goose egg in Game 1, what does Gainey do? He does it again.

And so for Game 3, the incentive to play Laraque in that position again must surely be gone, above and beyond the fact that it's just not working at all. Milan Lucic will sit Game 3 out after a terrible judgment call at the end of the last game. In doing so, he may have opened the door to a reversal that Montreal badly needs. It's a new game plan if it's Boston sans Lucic on the menu.

But win or lose on Monday night, Gainey has to close the book on the Laraque experiment. Of course, Price was ordinary again on Saturday and that will never take you anywhere in the playoffs. And while the total absence of a second line will prove to be just as fatal, and let's face it, how can you blame the GM for players who refuse to manifest any type of interest (yes, you, Andrei Kostistyn and Tomas Plekanec), Gainey's coup d'envoi set the wrong tone and gave the team an allure that may only be described as weird. 

Good thing Bob Gainey cancelled today’s game-day skate. The Habs will need every ounce of available energy for tonight’s game. The Canadiens definitely played a solid game on Thursday, but the physical play took its toll by the third period.
But then, if you’re going to war with the Big Bad Bruins and in your trenches you’ve got 3 defensemen over the age of 35 (Hamrlik – 35; Brisebois – 38; Schneider – 39) a 34 year-old under-sized number 1 center (who is, by the way, a cancer survivor) and an impact forward who is 36, you got to be expecting some huffing and puffing.
If the Habs want to steal one in Beantown, they’re gonna need to load up on the RedBull in between periods. Continue reading "Tonight’s Game Sponsored by RedBull" »

2007/08 Alex Kovalev GP82 G35 A49 P84; +18 2008/09 Alex Kovalev GP78 G29 A39 P65; -4
2007/08 Tomas Plekanec G81 G29 A40 P69; +15 2008/09 Tomas Plekanec G80 G20 A19 P39; -9
2007/08 CH Mark Streit GP81 G13 A49 P62; -6 2008/09 NYI Mark Streit GP74 G16 A40 P56; +6
2007/08 Andrei Markov GP82 G16 A42 P58; +1 2008/09 Andrei Markov GP78 G12 A52 P68; -2
2007/08 Saku Koivu GP77 G16 A40 P56; -4 2008/09 Saku Koivu GP65 G16 A34 P50; +4
...

At this point last season, the high flying Habs were, well, flying high. Les Glorieux were surging into the playoffs full of confidence - first in the Eastern Conference; a dominant powerplay; a strong mix of veterans and youth; and a high-powered offense led by the top line of Alex Kovalev, Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn.
A year later the Habs are plummeting into the playoffs, wings clipped, expectations broken and instead of hope, question marks and uncertainty loom on the horizon.
Continue reading "What a Difference a Year Makes" »

It’s obvious that Andrei Markov holds these Montreal Canadiens together. He is the team’s best defenseman, he is the team’s leading scorer (64 points, tied with Alexei Kovalev), he is the team’s most proficient passer, and he is a Gandalf-like wizard in terms of hockey sense.
Mathieu Schneider’s injury hurts the powerplay.
Markov’s injury sinks the team.
While there is nobody to replace ol’ 79, Bob Gainey does have the pieces to cobble together a better defensive corps than the one he has fielded over the past two games. Continue reading "In Need of Some Magic" »

The Habs are playing like the Habs again. The boys are scoring goals, skating hard, playing defensively sound and maybe most importantly – smiling.
And who can we thank for this last minute resurgence? Look no further than behind the bench. Coach Gainey has implemented a system that uses players to their strengths and creates a team chemistry that helps overcome individual weaknesses.
This is the team that GM Gainey had envisioned at the beginning of the season. This is the team that, on paper, looked like it could compete deep into the playoffs. Continue reading "Making a Statement" »

Thank you, Montreal.
Thank you to all the wives and girlfriends who haven’t seen their husbands and boyfriends in weeks.
Thank you to Guy Carbonneau for his outstanding service to our great city and being such a great supporter of this campaign.
Three weeks ago, we saw the people of Montreal proclaim that our time for change has come. But there were those who doubted this city’s desire for something new, who said our accomplishments last year and at the beginning of this season were a fluke, not to be repeated again.
Well, this week, the cynics were told something different.
After 3 contests – 3 great contests we have more points – more hope – than we’ve seen in a long time.
Continue reading "Yes We Can" »

You have to thank St-Patrick's festivities for giving Montreal the only real downtown celebration this city will see this spring. Hours after one of the emptiest performances the Habs displayed this season, fans eagerly traded the bleu-blanc-rouge gear for vert-vert-vert cheer. No mournful tears at McKibbins Irish Pub yesterday, one of the best places to take in the city's beat on this particular Sunday. My nod to "Alex" the gigantic doorman for allowing this 30-something guy the pleasure to bypass the lines he used to stand in when he was 16,er...18.

Anyone guilty of believing that the Canadiens' tilt against the Maple Leafs could afford them an opportunity to serve notice on the rest of the Conference that a surge was on the horizon can now sit back and ponder.

Any Habs' hopeful caught thinking that a Saturday night matchup in Montreal, viewed nation-wide, in the hyper-charged setting that always accompanies the Leafs to Montreal, would send the team's pulse throbbing with excitement and motivation, is left to believe that reality refuses to acquiesce to the pull of this dramatic script.

You have to wonder. Not that the Habs-Leafs games today need to mean as much as they once did in view of the fact Toronto's struggles have left them out of the playoff equation for a few years now. But this is a rivalry that means something and on most nights serves as a compelling enough reminder, at least to Toronto, that it should bring the best out of the players.

Habs-Leafs on Saturday night with 11 games remaining in the regular season and Montreal a single point out of a playoff spot in this Centennial year?

The Habs weren't in the mood.

To steal a page from Thomas Friedman, if I had to write a book about the team's Centennial, I'd call it The Habs Are Flat. It's impossibly confusing to understand why.

I have tremendous difficulty in giving any credence to the argument that says the huge pressure to win leaves Montreal off the destination list for today's players. That assessment, in my view, is easily dispelled by Ken Dryden's intuitive insight on what it means to play in Montreal. Dryden says that Montreal actually provided one of the easiest platforms to play professional hockey because of the enormous natural advantage it has to offer; knowledge of the sport, love for the athletes, a deep understanding of the cultural significance the Canadiens have on this city. Win here and you may come as high as it may emotionally get to feel what it's like to be on top of the world.

But it does require winning. Wanting to win. Loving to win. Commitment to winning. It's about making winning a lifestyle. There was nothing of the sort on display at the Bell Centre on Saturday night, save of course for Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and Tom Kostopoulos.

What is disheartening is the candid interview Georges Laraque gave to the media yesterday in which he confided that he spoke to the players about the importance of winning. It sounds like the right angle for a pep-talk, but the direction Laraque chose is startling. Ten games, he said, ten games, you unrestricted free-agents to play out your contracts and vie for negotiating power on your next one. You can even assume he said "Look, if you want to get out of here and make some good money elsewhere, you have 10 games to show what you're made of."

Not the speech you would expect with 10 crucial games remaining in the Centennial season, not the one you would center your Habs documentary around. Do it for the money guys, do it for your contracts. Don't quit now, because what you're doing is quitting on your own pockets.

It's actually quite disgusting to hear, this, while the entire city has been holding a collective breath for a year, waiting for its local heroes to give it the cathartic release only this type of fan base can enjoy.

Laraque couldn't appeal to them on a passionate level, on a cultural level. He couldn't say "hey guys, that's the CH on your sweaters and you need to tap into what that means to you".

Because it's now obvious that to many of these players it means absolutely nothing. At this point of the season, team chemistry should be at its highest. You know your teammates, you care for them, and you play for one another. You don't want to let anyone down and you'll do whatever is physically possible to succeed. It's not even supposed to be a concerted effort. At this point you're in automatic mode, with the desire burning so feverishly that it's really about containing the emotion and channeling it with the proper methods.

There was nothing to channel on Saturday. There's been nothing to contain in several weeks. Most players seem to have quietly responded to their internal mantras, "let's get this over with as soon as possible."

The fans are left with this unfortunate reality. It took 100 years to make the last ten games of the season feel like a bloody eternity.  

After this weekend’s devastating loss to those damn, dirty Maple Leafs, Bob Gainey did exactly what I telepathically told him to do. Instead of making the boys skate, skate, skate, the Habs’ coach/GM allowed the team to work out in the gym and then sat down to chat with individual players.
Here’s what he should have told them: Continue reading "Fireside Chat" »

Tomorrow, the Habs will attempt something they haven't done since 1995.

They're going to protect Patrick Roy's lead.

In a quasi futile effort, Patrice Brisebois, playing in his 1000th game, and Mathieu Schneider will put their best skate forward to give the man who gave them a Stanley Cup ring a few more days at the top.

Quasi because Montreal would relish denying Martin Brodeur his record trying 551st victory at the Bell Centre. A small victory of sorts. Futile nonetheless because Brodeur is on his way to the top and will remain there for a while. None of the active goalies in the top 20 stand a chance, all relegated to backup status. Considering that at that 20th spot stands Billy Smith with 305 wins, you can pretty much sow the thread into that "winningest goalie" jersey because it's not slated to change for a long time.

Does it really mean anything, to deny a hometown hero a much deserved accolade? It does. It does simply because the Canadiens absolutely need the 2 points to keep both feet firmly planted in the playoff door. It does because a win over stifling New Jersey in these hyped circumstances can only boost team morale. And we can all guess that team morale has been, at best, wavering.

It does mean all that much because, there's nothing wrong with the best hockey city in the world witnessing the making of history, as hockey bestows upon a native son a crown fit for the sport's royalty. The saint will bow to the king. If it doesn't happen in New Jersey, it should happen here. Nowhere else will people appreciate it more. 

Habs fans' overarching loyalty will want to see the team prevail tomorrow but not out of disquieting bitterness, more out of necessity. Any loss can be crippling at this point in time. But had the team been resting easy atop the standings, maybe some Montrealers would have been pulling for the makings of history on ice here, in hockey's most natural museum. 

On average, in the 2008-09 season:
It takes Alex Kovalev 78:56 to score a goal. Andrei Kostitsyn? He can find net in about 40:05 of ice-time.
AK-27 gets 3:42 more ice-time per game than AK-46.
Alex Tanguay earns a point for every 20:02 he plays. Chris Higgins needs 41:10.
Andrei Markov, the Habs leading point scorer (with 51) averages 0.76 points/game.
Georges “I deserve more ice-time” Laraques, is averaging a cool 0.07 points/game.
Oh, and it takes him 106:10 to get a point, of which he has two. In 2461 minutes, Carey Price has stopped the puck 1076 times.
That’s a puck every 2.29 minutes. He hasn’t stopped the puck 113 times. That’s a goal every 21.78 minutes.
Continue reading "Fun With Numbers!" »

When the Montreal Canadiens released their festive agenda for the upcoming 100th Season, they left a few surprises off the list.

For once, we were told that a player's number would be retired on November 22, but we only found out later that that player would be goaltender Patrick Roy.

We were told the team would don some retro jerseys during the course of the next two seasons, but those sweaters were only unveiled later. 

Well, in that spirit, if there is anything that forms an integral part of Canadiens' history, it's firing coaches. So in order to fully celebrate the complete spectrum of what this team has accomplished over the last century, one could not fathom a complete list of festivities without paying homage to fired coaches and actually firing coach Carbonneau to make it authentic.    

It makes perfect sense.

I can imagine Dick Irvin in a tuxedo at centre ice.

"Bob Berry was one of the worst coaches in Canadiens history. While he did take over a team that had aged into the twilight portion of its career, Berry did nothing to design a system to provide the players with a spasm of success. Berry will forever be known as the worst coach to ever take the helm of the Montreal Canadiens. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the man who was fired in the summer of 1983, BOB BERRY!!!"

The festivities would then move on:

 "Adolphe Lecours was the most insignificant coach in Canadiens' history. He guided the team for one season, in 1910-1911 and took the players to a stellar 8-8 record. Lecours was fired in 1911. His great-grandchildren are here today and we don't even know their names. Give them a warm applause! The Lecours great-grandchildren!"

"Mario Tremblay single-handedly ruined the Montreal Canadiens. The team suffered long after his long-awaited departure. This stubborn once-plumber forward let his ego drive the GREATEST GOALTENDER IN HISTORY out of Montreal for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucincsky and Andrei Kovalenko.  A notorious drunk, Tremblay would often be seen downing gin and tonics behing the bench during playoff games. His firing was seen as one of the proudest achievements in Canadiens' history. Ladies and gentlemen, Mario Tremblay!!!"

"My father Dick Irvin Sr. was the meanest son of a bitch I'd ever known. He once tied me up to a tree in the dead of summer and left me there for days without food or water. I'll never forget his word as he walked away from the tree: "Don't you dare call me Dad! It's Sir Sr.! You got that?!" He made my mother cry regularly and rarely came home. When I was 7, he tried to sell me. He also coached the team for 15 years. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if he was fired or not, but let's pay tribute to my Dad, Dick Irvin Sr."

"And now, for this special season, let's celebrate these dismissals by honoring the firing of Guy Carbonneau. A man of few words, Guy coached the team with more line changes than a Woody Allen script. He managed to alienate every single player on this team by either benching them without notice or explanation, converting them to positions they had never played before, introducing them to bowling, forcing them to sit through entire episodes of Growing Pains, and putting the worst goal scoring combinations on the ice when down a goal with a minute left to play. Ladies and Gentlemen, let's hear it for another fired coach, Guy Carbonneau!"

What a wonderful tribute to this indisputably essential component of Canadiens' history. 

When I heard the news that Guy Carbonneau had been fired, I was – I’m a little ashamed to admit – ecstatic. I’ve always been a fan of Carbonneau the Player, but skeptical of Carbonneau the Coach. I was willing to be extra patient with bench boss Carbonneau – because as a player, as a captain, and as a Jack Adams nominated coach – he’d earned the leeway.
As a fan, it was hard for me to realize that Carbonneau had to go.
I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for GM Bob Gainey to tell his good friend to go home.
But it was a decision that needed to be made – not just for the success of the team now, but next year and for years to come. Continue reading "Good Decision, Sad Day" »

When the fourth line takes to the ice tonight, they’ll be missing a huge presence on the right wing. Big ol’ Georges Laraque, who has only played in 28 games this season, will once again be sidelined because of an ailing back. Apparently, the Rock’s back was re-injured, or aggravated, or tweaked, during Wednesday night’s disappointing loss to Buffalo.
The severity of the injury is not yet known, but there’s a good chance that BGL will miss the remainder of the season.
The timing of Laraque’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. If this had happened a game earlier – or even earlier that same day – Bob Gainey might have been able to free up enough cap space to make a deadline day move.
It makes you wonder… Continue reading "Laraques' Back" »

Okay, goodbye everyone.  Well, alright, it's only sort of goodbye. I've been a fan of Habs Inside/Out since its inception in the 2006-07 season, and it's usually the first site I check in the morning to see what's happening with my beloved Habs. I've had a lot of fun writing The Other Wing this year. But things have changed for me over the course of the season. I write here as an unpaid volunteer, and I've been having some serious second thoughts about what that means for others. I've noticed the increase in ads supported by the site, and earlier this week Mike Boone posted stats on the number of site visits, which are up more than a hundred percent over last year. In short, the Gazette makes money from HI/O. So, in an age when my professional colleagues in the newspaper business are struggling to keep their jobs and keep their papers viable, a site like Inside/Out could be an important source of work for them. Therefore, I believe it's wrong for me to undermine the work they depend upon for their livelihoods by providing content for nothing.

Mainly for that reason, I am withdrawing from The Other Wing. So, thanks to all who've read my stuff, and who provided interesting argument, insight and commentary of your own in response. Those of you who chose instead to make rude personal comments while hiding behind your handles...and you know who you are...can go to H-E-double hockey sticks.

I still love the Habs of course, and I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't write to vent and to celebrate the team's exploits.  So I'll continue to write about hockey on my own blog. And I'll still be coming here first thing every morning to get the latest Canadiens news. So, thanks again for reading and...Go, Habs, Go!

The Habs are said to be feeling a huge amount of anxiety over the looming deadline. With families waiting nervously in the wings and future salaries in consideration, this is not a time these guys enjoy very much. And we all know that this stress is symptomatic of THE deadline.

The RRSP deadline. That's right, March 2nd, the last day to contribute to an RRSP account. 

You can tell by their tepid play and the way they steer gingerly through interviews. You can tell by their avoidance of newspapers or questions that may bring about feelings of doubt as to their status. It's hard to concentrate on the game with this deadline hanging over your head. Players can't focus on the task at hand and have the potential to emotionally collapse at the mere mention of the deadline.

Take Saturday for example. The Habs skated off the ice at the end of the first period having thoroughly dominated the Sharks. In the dressing room, Tomas Plekanec turned towards Andrei Kostitsyn and innocently asked: "Did you make your RRSP contributions yet? Only 2 days to go." And with those words, the entire team sank into a fearful frenzy. "Why the hell did you have to bring that up now! Now? Now is when you want to bring this up? How are we gonna go out there now with these RRSPs in our minds!" "Yeah", shot out Alex Kovalev, "why don't you tell us someone put ANTHRAX in our Gatorade while you're at it".

But the damage was done. The second period wasn't 3 minutes old and the Sharks had stormed back with 2 quick goals. The fact the team held on for the win is nothing short of miraculous, divine intervention really. The game will instantly go down as a classic and will soon be added to the collection of top ten games in Habs' history as The RRSP Game. 

This deadline is bad news for hockey in Montreal. Coach Carbonneau knows his players are rattled. "Players hear rumors buzzing and don't know what to grab on to for hard news. Is it better to lock my savings up in mutual funds? Are GICs any use to me know? Is prime going up or are we back in the days of cheap money? All the usual questions that haunt hockey players. And with it enough controversy and confusion to throw an athlete off his game. You just want to take their minds off it. Let them bowl, bowling is excellent for RRSP anxiety".

Just ask forward Guillaume Latendresse: "For sure, for me, it's tough. You know the financial crisis hits hard and the deadline drives me crazy. We all think about the deadline. Do I take out an RRSP loan or pay off debt? What would my RSSP contribution yield combined with the tax savings as opposed to lowering the debt load and interest payments. Do I shoulder on more debt, and you know my shoulder was not so healthy this year, so yeah, it's tough."

Alex Kovalev is shaken at the idea of getting hit with another large tax bill: "It's crazy, you know. I have to pay for the gas for my plane, which costs like maybe 9 million dollars every time I fly to Brossard for practice. Then I have to pay for the paint on the plane, you know the big blue KOVY on both sides and the RULES on both wings, yeah, I paint those every day, fresh coat, so my name is always shining in the sky."

Kovalev fought back tears.

"If I pay these monster taxes in Quebec, what's left for the plane, the paint? Nothing! And if I pay for RRSP, then I can't buy the good paint, the oil based paint for flashy letters. It's so hard to talk about and to get up and go to the rink when I have to make this decision."

When asked about the March 4 trade deadline, Chris Higgins asked: "Oh!...Is that really this week? Oops! Forgot about that!" 

Let's all hope this deadline this week passes gently and quietly so that our players can go back to focusing on not replicating the month of February. 

I'm so glad Februray is almost over. I'm just about to retire from winter due to illness and fatigue: I'm sick and tired of it. I'm sick of the grey sky and dark mornings. I'm sick of the big dirty piles of snow. I'm tired of northeasterly winds that, in the immortal words of Robert Service, "...through the parka's fold, stab like a driven nail." I'm sick of boots, I'm sick of turning up the heat and I'm tired of cramming small people into snowsuits every time they go through the door. Most of all, though, I'm sick of the whinging and whining of Habs' fans.

Listen, I know it's been a long, rough season. I know the team isn't perfect and there's lots to complain and worry about. But listening to the same bloody complaints and worries every single day is getting very, very wearisome. So, as February turns the corner into March and the Canadiens claw and bite for a playoff spot, here are the top ten things I wish people would shut the hell up about:

Continue reading "Top Ten Things I Wish Habs Fans Would Shut the Hell Up About" »

Boy, I like Jaro Halak. You have to admire a guy who was drafted in the ninth round and who was never supposed to be an NHL player standing on his head in junior, becoming an All-Star in the AHL and stepping in for the injured Cristobal Huet, nearly dragging the sliding Habs into the playoffs in 2007. (In some quarters, the debate about whether the Canadiens would have made it if Halak had started that last game against the leafs instead of Huet is still raging.) You have to respect someone who was fully, and rightfully, expecting to have a spot on the big team as Huet's backup last year after a strong showing the season before and performing as the best goalie in training camp...only to be sent to the minors in favour of Carey Price without a complaint. He went to Hamilton and did his thing, got called up to replace a struggling Price and never started a game before getting sent down again. And still no complaining. That's a team player. So, when he has a fantastic game in a time when the team really needs him to pull one off, it's no more than he's proven he can do in the last two seasons.

I also really like Carey Price. I watched him win the World Junior Championships. I followed just about every game of his 2007 Calder Cup run. In both cases, he was fantastic and proved he has a lot of talent and knows how to win. He was doing really well after Huet was traded last year, before fatigue and poor conditioning caught up with him in the playoffs. Again this year, he was playing well until felled by injury. As is the case with other good goalies, he's having some trouble finding his game again since his return. Off-ice controversy isn't helping him either, but his recent game in Washington showed he's not that far from returning to form if he keeps working at it.

The Habs have two really good, really young goalies who have both had their ups and downs and can expect to have more of each in the coming years. So, I don't understand why fans and media and casual observers say it has to be one or the other.

Continue reading "Controversy, Schmontroversy" »

I've always thought it must be really tough to work for the Montreal Canadiens' PR department. Even in the worst of times, you don't have the freedom to write a headline like, "Habs Lay Another Egg In Horrendous Headless-Chicken-On-Ice Routine." (Which, incidentally, would likely inspire philosophers to ponder which came first, the headless chicken or the egg?) Instead, if you're working in public relations, you have to write clinical, anesthetized things like, "Habs Fight Back Against Pens; Fall Short." But as difficult as it is to work at flogging the CH brand in ordinary times, this Centennial year must be hell.

I wish I could Photoshop. I would have made the picture one of a toilet with the letters P-L-A-Y-O-F-F-S swirling down the drain. Or a picture of Guy Carbonneau's face on a monkey. Or perhaps a shot of Bob Gainey in dungeon chains being whipped by a big medieval prison guard with Alex Kovalev's head. But since I can't work photo magic on the computer to get my point across, I'll just ask: Can we stop with all the fabulous Centennial BS now? Seriously. This celebration of the hundred years of the Montreal Canadiens is becoming absurd in the face of all the crap that's the reality of this year, and that has been the reality of the last sixteen seasons of a once-glorious franchise. It would be one thing to honour the great players and managers of the past who worked so hard to be the best and who made the team's name revered around the world for its success. That part of the Centennial is appropriate and should be enjoyed. But the poor unfortunate public relations people are trying to prop up the corpse of a once-great institution, slap on some makeup and tell us it's still alive. "See? Looks as good as ever!"

 

Continue reading "Celebrate Good Times, Come On!" »

Much can happen in 24 hours.
Welcome back Mr. Schneider! Sayonara Sergei! Have a Kit Kat, Kovalev. We all knew that the Canadiens needed a shake-up.
Badly.
This week GM Bob Gainey has managed to put the Habs locker room through a spin cycle. Interestingly enough, this turnaround has been done without any permanent changes:
Kovy could be playing in Saturday’s matinee against the Senators; SK-74 can be re-called, as can Ryan O’Byrne; and Gregory Stewart should know his stay up in the big leagues is like a game of snakes and ladders. Schneider will see the season through, but Montreal didn’t give up any manpower that could have an immediate impact on the ice.
Gainey, a quiet and conservative man, made a bold statement to everyone in the Canadiens organization – both to the players on the ice and the personnel behind the bench. Continue reading "More To Come From Bold Bob" »

So, Mathieu Schneider is a Hab again. My first thought was, "Hey, Carbo and Muller will be happy to have another '93 alum on the roster. Maybe they should go after Mike Keane now...he's still playing." Then I thought, "Hey, Carbo will soon get his wish to coach an entire roster of defencemen!" Unfortunately they sent O'Byrne back to Hamilton, so I guess the dream died there. But, after all the lame old-guy jokes, at heart I was so disappointed in the Schneider trade.

Not because I don't like Schneider, or because I don't think his remaining skillset might help the Habs. Not even because of his hugely inflated salary (Yeah, Burke...keep signing guys for that kind of coin and the leafs will be basement dwellers forever...but I digress.) I was disappointed because of the reason for the aquisition, and the future cost of it.

Continue reading "No Cup For You! (Or, Welcome Back, Mathieu Schneider)" »

J.T. wrote my post on Friday. She did it impeccably. She said what needed to be said. In the words of the great Pierre McGuire, "it's an everything problem". The goalie's not doing great but he's not the one pitching a bottom-feeding power play.

The forwards are lacking in the Creativity Department and are as predictable as the cream of wheat I made this weekend. But they're not the ones providing as much protection as Miley Cyrus in hockey pads.

The D has gone more timid than a gerbil trying to spend the night with a crocodile.

And the coach has the sense of direction of a guy with two left eyes that belong to Peter Faulk. 

This is what a collapse looks like.

A young goalie, bewildered crying in front of the cameras. Twice. 

A mumbling coach in post-game press conferences.

30-minute long closed door player meetings.  

The word "Montreal" beginning a descent on the page of your newspaper. 

Some have pointed to the fact that Detroit went through a losing spell last season and ended up winning the Stanley Cup. Foolish ones, bless your hearts.

This group of players has never looked right. Never. Not when it was taking them 7 games to lose a first game in regulation. Not when they had lost 1 in 11 to begin the season. Not when they slumped throughout November, not when they started putting the pieces together in December with the injuries taking their toll. Certainly not in January and not now. Not at all.

Let's go back a bit more. A pretty strong 5-game series against Philadelphia but stumped by stellar goaltending, made to look even more brilliant by a stalled offense. An imploding young goaltender unable to carry his team forward.

A very surprising performance in a 7-game series, by the opposing team. The series that saw us witness the Boston Bruins coming to life, as we know them today. Montreal never looked good aside from the first and last game. They were outplayed in the 5 other.

A 30-game mad dash took them to the top of the Conference, and it was a sight to behold. The best hockey we had seen in Montreal in nearly 20 years. As J.T. pointed out, that comeback from 0-5 lit a spark that would endure.

But before those final 30 games, it was much of what we've seen so far. Win some, lose some, but never stamping their game with a real identity, with unrelenting resolve to play with a ferocious will to win. Of course, the other 50 last year were not all bad, and neither were the near 60 this year, but the Canadiens only appeared consistent and confident as a team once; during those 30 games. Not once before and after that stretch could this team ever have been mistaken for the Detroit Red Wings.

82 games last season. 12 more in the playoffs. 60 games so far this season. What the team has to show for is a solid 30-game stretch, playing in a stride of confidence, and demonstrating what could be accomplished when playing to its full potential. 30 games on about 155.

And this is what we have renewed the mystique around. Maybe it's time to admit that we may have been fooled. Misled by our wanting to see something materialize, something we miss and that has escaped this city for some time now. Maybe we all bought into the fact that we may have seen more than what actually stood before us.

It will take another miracle 30 and something ever more special thereafter to convince us that the renewal of hope we have bred throughout the past year wasn't in fact nothing more than a testimony to our own yearning.  

You know who the Habs are like? They're Forrest Gump. Remember that movie? The slow guy leads a charmed life. He wins a college football scholarship, survives Vietnam with citations, lucks into a hugely successful business, meets several presidents and becomes a ping-pong world champion. Everything the guy touches somehow turns out to be a brilliant stroke of good fortune. What a lot of people don't know, however, is that Winston Groom wrote a sequel to Forrest Gump. In that one, called "Gump and Co.," Forrest's luck changes. He loses his business, ends up broke and everything he touches turns into an unmitigated disaster. Obviously, after the feel-good fun of the first movie, nobody was rushing out to make a film of the sequel.

Continue reading "Stupid Is As Stupid Does" »