Year of the Hab

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

2008-03-06T09:41:00.004-04:00

How Do You Like Your Chances Now, Saku?
7:30pm(EST)
This Ottawa Citizen piece reminds us how Saku Koivu caused some controversy in the off-season by saying that the Habs weren't ready to contend; wonder how he's feeling now? The author says the Canadiens have all the right pieces to make a run - providing their untested goaltending holds up. If Price falters, he adds, Bob Gainey will get roasted (the French press already have the oven warmed up).

Habs Grit Their Teeth Over Officiating
8:44am(EST)
Preparing to face the Coyotes tonight in Phoenix, the Canadiens had a day off before running through some drills with the coaches yesterday. Guy Carbonneau speaks to Pat Hickey here, discussing, among other things, his decision to go back to Carey Price in net after a bad game, and the team's frustration with the refereeing in San Jose the other night. Carey Price was literally bowled over by Patrick Marleau before one of San Jose's goals, and there were numerous phantom calls to go with a large number of missed calls. (All of which would be bearable if referees actually looked like this.)

It was indeed a badly-run game, but not unusually so, it must be said. The officiating in the NHL has been terrible since the beginning of the so-called "crackdown" on obstruction. It's not the focus on eliminating interference that's a problem; indeed, as most will admit, the automatic calls on hooking and holding have opened up the game, and the players have been much freer to strut their stuff, making it a more entertaining, more skill-based game. No, the "crackdown" has been a success in terms of eliminating the ugly stuff that used to clot the lanes, but it's had the unfortunate side effects of distracting officials from other fouls, while also making them less likely to call them.

Most of the refs in the NHL are still fairly old-school, and their philosophy is that they, the refs, "shouldn't affect the outcome" of the game. Now, obviously, a referee who avoids calling something, for whatever reason, is very clearly still "affecting" its outcome, but they don't see it that way. It is precisely that attitude that led to the constant hooking and holding that dominated the game from the mid-nineties until the recent past, and it is precisely that attitude that is to blame for the difficulty the NHL has had in trying to eliminate interference from the game.

Having been compelled - with the threat of demotion - to call even the slightest hint of a hook, the NHL refs have compensated by being more reluctant to call other types of penalties (checking from behind, double minors) if they think it's a borderline foul. Hence the growing irritation around the league from coaches, GMs, and players when referees blow calls.

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

2008-03-05T10:17:00.002-04:00

Dodging Bullets
9:25am(EST)
When the trade deadline went by, many of us were a little disappointed that Bob Gainey and the Canadiens didn't pick up a big-name player to round out their attack. Never mind that most of us know, rationally, that with the third-best offense and one of the best records in the league, the Habs weren't really in the biggest need of a Marian Hossa: psychologically, we all just want the boost of seeing a star player in a Habs uniform. It's been too long.

We go through the same thing every summer during the free agent period: we hope against hope that Uncle Bob will bring home a shiny, new fifty-goal scorer for us to admire, but it just never seems to happen. And we sulk. But why? Do we want a good team, or a flashy roster? Both, I guess. But maybe we need to remember how dicey the free-agent thing is. Remember last summer? Most of the signings last year have been disappointments, including:

Bill Guerin, Islanders, 2 years/9 million, 37 points.
Paul Kariya, Predators, 3 years/18 million, 52 points
Jason Blake, Leafs, 5 years/20 million, 12 goals, 40 points
Ryan Smyth, Avalanche, 5 years/31.5 million, 45 games, 33 points
Kimmo Timonen, Flyers, 6 years/39 million, 36 points, -3
Scott Gomez, Rangers, 7 years/51 million, 14 goals
Daniel Briere, Flyers, 8 years/52 million, 57 points, -23
Chris Drury, Rangers, 5 years/35.25 million, 48 points, -5
Sheldon Souray, Edmonton, 5 years/27 million, 26 games, 3 goals

The production of most of these guys is just embarrassing in relation to what their agents extorted from GM's around the league. Think back to how badly the fans and media wanted Briere to sign in Montreal: now imagine being saddled with that contract! We should all be thanking Uncle Bob for not biting on that one, not to mention for his decision to walk away from Sheldon "Payday" Souray, who was still welcome on the Habs at a handsome salary despite his chronic shoulder problems, better known to Gainey and the Habs than to anyone else. But because of his greed, he's spent this season freezing in Edmonton, a stranger amongst his teammates, waiting alone for his shoulder to heal and being regarded as a bust by fans who have no connection to him. I can't say I have any sympathy.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

2008-03-04T19:02:00.007-04:00

What's The Deal With Bob Gainey?
8:12pm(EST)
Funny piece in the Sun chain on "the lighter side of sports", featuring quips about recent events in the sporting world. French McFarlane has this one: "You have to wonder who was advising Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey when he sent Cristobal Huet to Washington for a second-round draft pick -- Amy Winehouse or Gary Busey?"

Catching Up With Turner Stevenson
8:10pm(EST)
I've been wondering what became of Turner Stevenson since his retirement two years ago. The Prince George Citizen talks to the former Canadiens bruiser and finds him contemplating a coaching career.

I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
7:35pm(EST)
It wasn't Carey Price's night: for three heroic games, the Habs were Stanley Cup contenders, Carey Price was the second coming of Ken Dryden, and Bob Gainey was a genius of epic proportions. Now it's like we've woken up after a wild party, with the cold light of day ordering us out of bed, next to a Coyote Ugly. Give the Habs credit for trying, they scored plenty of goals against Evgeni Nabokov, but Price let in soft goals early, late, and often. A series of weak ones left the Canadiens with no chance of winning.

It's just one game, and there are bound to others like it as Price continues to adjust to the difficulty of the NHL game, but it was still disconcerting to see the Habs drop a game they had every right to win thanks to sub-par netminding. Bob Gainey was, no doubt, expecting some of these when he anointed Price the Habs new number one goalie, but even he was probably shaking his head at Jody Shelly's embarrassing 1st goal of the season.

Is it a big deal? No. But the amount of attention that Price's first really bad game will get in Montreal is just another reminder of how hard it can be to play for the Canadiens. Luckily, Price seems to have exactly the right attitude - calm, bordering on comatose - to deal with all the craziness.

The Gazette largely soft-pedals Price's bad game: quoting Coach Carbonneau, Pat Hickey writes that while Price's game wasn't "memorable", he "didn't get much help" either. Carbo says, "We were getting beaten one-on-one," and chalks the loss up to bad defence. Carbo's a team guy for deflecting criticism from Price ... and so too is Hickey, I suppose!

Hickey also reports on the rejuvenation of Craig Rivet, who went to San Jose last winter in a trade that "benefitted both teams". Nice to see things going well for Rivet, who was always a favourite of mine. He was always a class act, from the days when I'd watch him play for the Baby Habs in Fredericton, right to the end. He needed the change of scene, as he himself admits, and truthfully the team had to move on too: he was a veteran journeyman on a squad that was being transformed by youth. He's fit in great in San Jose, where he's a steadying influence, and at the same time, Josh Gorges, acquired from the Sharks in the Rivet trade, has developed nicely into the Habs regular 6th d-man. Even better for the Habs is the promising player they picked up with the 1st round pick San Jose also traded: Max Pacioretty.

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

2008-03-03T08:20:00.006-04:00

Canadiens Jet to Meet Sharks
4:30pm(EST)
Apologies for the tortured showtune pun, there just aren't nearly enough Broadway references available in sports-talk for me to pass any up. Once upon a time you could count on three or four good Jets vs Sharks jokes per season, but then the NHL left Winnipeg, sadly. Anyway. The Canadiens might be in tough against the Sharks tonight. The Vallejo Times Herald notes that San Jose heads into tonight's match on a five-game winning streak, and that the Sharks seem to have found their true form after an inconsistent season. Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau have jolted back to life, Evgeni Nabokov remains solid as ever, and trade-deadline acquisition Brian Campbell adds the missing link the San Jose offense needed to get going.

USA Today marks the beginning of a Canadiens four-game road trip, trumpeting the reborn Habs and their 3rd-best in the NHL offense: the Habs have averaged 3.11 goals per game. They'll need all that firepower against San Jose, which boasts the NHL's 2nd-best defense, and one of the NHL's best goalies. The Habs have outscored their opponents 13-4 in their past three games, but look for this one to be a tighter-checking game: the Habs like to keep it simple on the road, where they are the NHL's best team, and the Sharks have an aversion to offense. Factor in the recent hotness of Carey Price and Evgeni Nabokov, and you've got all the makings of a defensive struggle in a chess-match wrapped in a goaltenders' duel. Which means we'll probably get the exact opposite of what we expect, right? Curry Stat: the last game between the Habs and the Sharks in San Jose was exactly four years ago, on March 3rd, 2004.

Best shot blocker in the NHL: Mike Komisarek? That's what this unnamed NHL executive told the Sporting News. Elsewhere on the same site, the same Habs defenseman is projected as a future Team USA captain, and we can only hope that he's around long enough to be considered for the same role on the Canadiens, after Saku Koivu hangs them up.

Afternoon Update
1:30pm(EST)
Kind of the same old story, but if you just can't get enough of reading about Canadiens GM Bob Gainey and his ballsy decision to hand the wheel to rookie phenom Carey Price, then CBC Sports has a pretty good story about it. Some new comments from coach Guy Carbonneau and captain Saku Koivu on the subject, and also a word or two from the Habs new back-up, Jaro Halak.

What? You need even more? Okay, here's senior The Hockey News writer Ken Campbell's two cents. This is actually a really good article: he reads Bob Gainey's mind a little bit and says the Huet deal has less to do with confidence in Price than it does with a lack of confidence in Huet. Campbell says that Gainey clearly believes that Huet will stumble in the playoffs, and therefore feels he has nothing to lose in rolling the dice with Price. Well, if that's what Gainey was thinking, I believe he is wrong, for what that's worth. Huet is the Rodney Dangerfield of NHL goalies: he'll need a Cup and Conn Smythe before he gets any respect out there.

Guy Carbonneau: coach of the year? Hockey.com says so, and why not? You'll be reading a lot more articles like this one if the Habs keep up their winning ways. Cynical fans know that the Adams award is often given to a coach just because his team turned things around, even if it's clear that the coach had little to do with the turn-around, but unlike last year's winner Alain Vigneault - who had a lot of help from Roberto Luongo, or last year's runner-up Michel Therrien - um, Crosby? Malkin? - Carbonneau has actually been a major factor in his team's renascence. He has devised an innovative and unique team system (the "hybrid-trap") that the team has bought into and learned to play to great effect. He has evolved from throwing tantrums at refs and getting into confrontations with his stars into a patient bench boss who knows how to manage his players. In short, he has done a truly good job, and deserves a lot of credit, maybe even the Adams.

Morning Papers
7:20am(EST)
Return of the Todd! Jack is back after a surprisingly brief retirement, apparently compelled to resurface in the sports pages to defend Bob Gainey from the bleating of critics, who were openly critical of his failure to land an "impact" player, or of the Huet trade, or both. Todd praises not only Gainey's decisions, but his very decisiveness, his calm, his deportment, his commitment to the city, his assurance ... I was expecting him to start talking about what a snappy dresser Gainey is by the end! Anyway, Gainey deserves any kudos anyone wants to give him, and it's great to have Jack Todd back writing about the Montreal Canadiens.

A couple of pieces on Carey Price in the Gazette. One recounts the whirlwind of his last fourteen months: between the WJC, the Calder Cup, and his ascension to Montreal's #1 goalie, it's like he's living in a highlight reel. Then there's Dave Stubbs's interview piece, wherein he talks to Price about becoming the man at an age where most guys aren't close to being a man, and about his friendship with Cristobal Huet. A good read, which is nothing at all unusal for a Dave Stubbs piece!

Dear God. Those Toronto fans still think the Leafs are going to the playoffs. Read here as Mike Zeisberger of The Sun says what most Torontonians will only quietly think when completely alone. It's true that the Leafs have won 5 of their last 6 or something, but that's all just part of their usual late-season surge to just-below playoff contention. It's how they always do it. It's how they've managed to miss the playoffs three years running without even getting a decent draft pick out of it. It's how they roll.

The Habs are still technically in first place in the highly complex Eastern conference playoff race, but they've got company from the Penguins, who beat the Devils yesterday to equal the Canadiens with 81 points. The Habs have the game in hand, though. It's still anybody's race, however, with the Canadiens, Penguins, Devils, and Senators all in the hunt ... not to mention the surging Boston Bruins.

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

2008-03-02T19:20:00.007-04:00

Rumours of Rumours
9:15pm(EST)
Bruce Garrioch at the Toronto Sun serves up a boatload of post-deadline scuttlebutt. It may or may not be true, but either way it's fun. Items of note: Huet had the Caps at hello, they'll re-sign him this summer and cut ties with Kolzig; Alex Tanguay was willing to go to Montreal, but Daryll Sutter wanted more than Gainey would offer; Hossa is a good bet to sign with the Bruins this summer, being best pals with Zdeno Chara, so it's lucky Montreal didn't spend a lot to rent him; and finally, the Habs called Chicago to inquire about Martin Havlat, apparently out of a desire to hook him up with Marian Hossa on an all-new top line. Now that's juicy.

Future is Now?
8:30pm(EST)
It's a little jarring to see Carey Price on the cover of The Hockey News's Future Watch issue, ranked as the number one prospect in hockey. Jarring, I say, because last time I checked, Carey Price was not a prospect at all, but was in fact the Montreal Canadiens' starting goalie! That must mean that the future ... has arrived. I look forward to enjoying Canadiens games on my Holodeck, eating nutritional capsules, using the Force, and flying to work with my jet-pack on my back. If Price's recent play is any indication, the future rocks.

ESPN: Predictions Redux
8:05pm (EST)
In an article that looks at this season's unexpected events, ESPN online heralds the Canadiens' number-one status with wonderment, saying, "Before the season, if you had said the Montreal Canadiens were the best team in the Eastern Conference, most people would have called you crazy." Most people, including ESPN, it hardly needs to be added. They go on to add that Carey Price is "making Bob Gainey look like a genius for trading away Cristobal Huet."

Wicked Sticks of the East
6:45pm (EST)
The Montreal Canadiens became the top team in the Eastern Conference (for however long it lasts) the hard way: they took it away from the team that had it. An impressive feat for a team that was largely written off before the season got underway, even more impressive considering that the game that earned them their current heady status came against nemesis Marty Brodeur and his New Jersey Devils.

So how have they done it? Mike Boone of Habs Inside Out is right on the money: "Here's my one-word explanation: Youth ... In a salary cap league where you can't throw money at your mistakes, scouting and player development are the keys to success. Chapeau to Trevor Timmins and his staff. And bravo to Bob Gainey, who has doggedly stuck to a team-building plan that is ahead of schedule." Well said.

It is indeed all about the young players: the Habs would be nowhere without them. But the guy who coached a lot of them in Hamilton - Don Lever - should also come in for some praise. Just look at how a little time with the Bulldogs has turned around the season of Mikhail Grabovski, or at how easily Ryan O'Byrne has made the transition to the NHL.

And while we're praising coaches, how about a little love for Guy Carbonneau? The much-maligned (online at least) Montreal coach, ridiculed for juggling his lines and goaltenders, has moulded this raw collection of hockey prospects into fledgling contenders. He's learned patience with the refs and has proven that's he's open-minded enough to admit when he was wrong and learn from his mistakes. He's a smart guy, a scholar of the game, and the NHL's best new coach.

Sunshine & Rainbows
6:30pm(EST)

It's all coming up roses at the Gazette. Red Fisher is happy to be wrong about predicting that the Canadiens would squeak into the playoffs at number seven, which was a wildly optimistic prediction when it was made last fall. As he points out, the Habs have been successful because all the pre-season question marks - goaltending, development of the young players, the fate of the power-play after Souray, Kovalev, Carbonneau's maturation as a coach - have all had positive answers. Everything has broken their way this year, a run of good luck they've earned after a decade of futility. Elsewhere in the Gazette, Pat Hickey reports on the game, singling out Carey Price as the hero (with an assist from the ever-more dangerous Andrei Kostitsyn), while Kevin Mio talks to Josh Gorges (aka Mike Boone's Man) about solidifying his place on the team's top six defencemen.

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

2008-03-01T13:10:00.002-04:00

Oh, Please
12:10pm(EST)
Not blogging today, because I'm retiling the bathroom, but I had to post up this stupid idea from TSN's Darren Dreger: he writes that Bob Gainey is in the running to take over the Leafs. Does he just make this crap up, or what? Just as all of Gainey's drafting and planning is coming to fruition, following the retirement of his jersey, and going into the year of the Canadiens' 100th anniversary, all of a sudden he's going to jump ship and go manage the Leafs? What a brilliant rumour this is. So that's what happens when you live at the centre of the universe too long, eh?

Friday, February 29th, 2008

2008-02-29T08:54:00.003-04:00

Youth Movement
10:15am(EST)
Interesting report on the Montreal Canadiens youth movement in the Gazette today: Herb Zurkowsky notes that Bryan Smolinski, Patrice Brisebois, and Tom Kostopoulos have become press-box regulars. All three were free-agent signings last summer, and it's worth wondering at this point what Bob Gainey was thinking when he signed them, given his apparent determination to focus on youth. The Brisebois signing remains the most puzzling, as the Habs have eight other defensemen on the team, but the it's the Smolinski deal that is most regrettable. Nothing against Smolinski: he is a fine veteran capable of filling a certain role very effectively. It's just that there's no place for his role on this team, as he himself says, and the Habs are using two million dollars of precious cap-space to pay him.

There is, in fact, a real log-jam developing. Not only is there no room, at the present time, on the bench for Smolinski, Kostopoulos, Brisebois, or Dandeneault, but the Habs also have some skilled young players who have developed well in Hamilton: Chipchura, Locke, D'Agostini, Valentenko.
Then there are still more blue-chip prospects like Max Pacioretty, Ryan McDonagh, Alexei Emelin, and perhaps David Fischer, whose play has improved significantly in his sophomore year. The Habs, basically, have one of the best pools of young talent to draw from, as most observers agree.

Odds and Ends
8:20am(EST)
Hartley Miller says the reason Bob Gainey traded Cristobal Huet is that he is simply not interested in competing this year, and is willing to sacrifice winning a round or two in favour of jump-starting Carey Price's career as a #1 goalie. Well, that's the only sensible explanation I've heard: it actually never crossed my mind that Bob would deliberately avoid making a run for the Cup. Obviously, such a run had little chance for success, even with Huet, but I figure you always should at least try if the opportunity is there. Roll the dice; why not? I guess Bob isn't a gambling man.

Look out for Steve Bernier when the Canadiens play the Sabres tonight. He made a big splash in his first game with Buffalo, scoring two goals, and you know those French guys always seem to channel Lafleur whenever they play Montreal. Impressively, Darcy Regier managed to get Bernier and a first rounder from San Jose in exchange for Brian Campbell, a UFA rental player. Now, obviously Regier has powerful Jedi mind powers, but still, you have to wonder if Bob Gainey couldn't have persuaded the Sharks to give him Bernier in exchange for Mark Streit, straight up?

The Canadiens can take over first-place tonight if they can beat the suddenly-hot Buffalo Sabres, after Ottawa lost yet another game last night, this time against the struggling Philadelphia Flyers. What the hell has been wrong with that team since December? They can't do anything at all. I hope Montreal can come through tonight: it'll be their third crack at first place, a spot they have failed to own yet, though they did share it for a day or two with the Sens and the Devils.

Canada's most famous Leap Year birthday boy? Montreal Canadiens great Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard, who has his 18th birthday today. If you see him around Montreal today, you can legally buy him a drink.

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

2008-02-28T11:37:00.011-04:00

Jennifer Hedger Almost Makes TSN Bearable
10:30pm(EST)
With the Habs on an off-night, I found my mind wandering somewhat, and this is where it ended up as I watched Sportscentre. I found this article, reprinted from a Globe and Mail interview, which some neo-feminist at Canadian Driver has branded "embarrassing": well, I find it quaint and charming, m'self. So what if she's a bad driver who likes to get around in her BMW in stillettos?

Hossa Goes Down
10:10pm(EST)
Just barely halfway through his first game in a Pens jersey, Marian Hossa has to leave with an MCL strain. Look for him to be out about six weeks. Can you imagine how you'd feel if Bob Gainey had shelled out a lot for Hossa only to have him bang up his knee on practically his first shift? Yikes. The good news for Pittsburgh is, obviously, that they picked up Hossa for the playoffs, not the regular season, and they'll have him back in plenty of time for the Stanley Cup run.

Buffalo Soldier
8:10pm(EST)
The big winner GMs on deadline day were clearly Brett Hull and Don Waddell. Hull managed to pick up number one centre Brad Richards from Tampa Bay in exchange for Dallas's back-up goalie. What a friggin' steal. Yeah, yeah, I know, Mike Smith has a lot of "potential". Whatever. Brad Richards has a lot of "superstar in his prime". Waddell, for his part, managed to parlay Marian Hossa - a UFA after this season - into Angelo Esposito, Colby Armstong, Erik Christenson, and a #1 pick. That's a great return.

As we all know, our own esteemed GM, Canadiens great Bob Gainey acquired no-one at the trade deadline while giving away his number one goalie. *head scratch* Don't get me wrong. I love Gainey, and don't agree with those who say he must have retired his brain along with his number the other night: In Bob We Trust, and all that. But it's two days after the Huet trade, and I'm still very much, like, "WTF?"

I'm not saying Gainey had to work a miracle, though I am envious that Hull and Waddell were able to do so for their own teams. But at the very least, I would like to think that Bob could have done as well as Buffalo GM Darcy Regier, whose unheralded deadline deal might go down as the shrewdest made this year. Regier traded soon-to-UFA Brian Campbell, a star defenceman, because they couldn't chance watching him walk away this summer, as they had to do with Daniel Briere and Chris Drury last season. But this wasn't a sell-off trade, by any stretch. Somehow, Regier managed to get San Jose to cough up not merely a number one pick, but also emerging forward Steve Bernier. In a sign of things to come, the Sabres responded to the deadline deal with an 8-4 win in their next game against Nashville, with Bernier scoring on his first two shots as a Sabre. Now that's the way to win a trade! Meanwhile, Gainey traded the best goalie dealt on deadline day, and came up with a 2nd round pick. Not exactly Brad Richards, is it?

Huet Meets the Press
7:15pm(EST)
The Washington Post covers the introduction of former Montreal Canadien Cristobal Huet (and some guy named Sergei Fedorov) to a throng of Washington's hockey writers and analysts. No, seriously, I heard some reporters actually showed up. Poor Huet: he gets dumped by Montreal, a team he clearly loves, and finds himself smack in an NHL backwater and stuck in yet another instant goaltending controversy. Will it be Huet, Kolzig, or Johnson tomorrow? Stay tuned.

On a related note, isn't it just the biggest joke in the world that Washington gets to have a hockey team? No-one has ever supported it. It has always stunk. And yet there they are, taking up valuable real estate and squandering some of the best talent in the NHL - poor Ovechkin - by keeping him hidden in a building where it is certain he will never be seen and thus truly appreciated. And now they have our goalie too.

Musical Goalies
7:10pm(EST)
Further fallout from the Canadiens' goalie moves: Cedric Desjardins has been promoted from Cincinnati of the ECHL to Hamilton, replacing Jaroslav Halak, who has been promoted to Montreal to replace Cristobal Huet, who was traded, of course, to Washington. But Desjardins won't as you might think, be backing-up incumbent Bulldogs' goalie Yan Danis: instead, he's likely to get the majority of the starts down the stretch. Apparently, Gainey regards Desjardins as a better prospect than the 27 year-old Danis. Rollie Melanson, long the goalie coach of the Montreal Canadiens, believes in Danis, but apparently he's not going to get a shot with the Habs.

Goalie Controversy Redux
11:45am(EST)
Jaroslav Halak isn't taking his back-up goalie status for granted, and hey, why should he? The goaltending situation in Montreal is officially insane, and absolutely anything wouldn't surprise. That said, the Habs were determined enough to make Price their starter that (a) they cut Halak instead of Price in training camp, despite the fact that Halak played better, and (b) they traded Huet for the sole purpose of clearing the deck for Price. Management really believes in Price, and it'll take a fair amount for Halak to even begin changing their minds.

Soccer Won't Have Gillett to Kick Around
11:35am(EST)
The Irish-Independent has a story on the disintegrating business partnership between the Dallas Stars' owner Tom Hicks and Canadiens' George Gillett, as they apparently prepare to divest themselves of the Liverpool football club they proudly purchased a couple of years ago. I had been worried that the Liverpool fiasco could cause financial problems or general instability for the Habs, but that doesn't seem to be the way it's trending.

Ghosts of the Living
11:00am(EST)
You'll be reading a lot of stories like this one in coming days, a comparison of the situation of Carey Price today with those of Canadiens' greats Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden in '86 and '71. Montreal GM Bob Gainey's Hail Mary passing-of-the-torch to Carey Price calls to mind the accomplishments of previous rookie goaltenders, like Roy and Dryden, each of whom won the cup in their first year with the big club.

The connections could inspire a certain amount of mystical hope in long-suffering fans, but obviously such hope would be pure superstition. The achievements of Dryden and Roy were not magical: both turned out to be Hall of Fame goalies. To hope that Price can do the same as those two is to hope that he has similar ability, and needless to say, that is probably too much to hope. It is interesting to note, too, that neither Dryden nor Roy came into the NHL with anything like the hype that Price has had, and in fact, both were somewhat unheralded as rookies. Actually, Price has more in common with another Canadiens rookie goalie who, like Price, was a junior star, WJC star, and super-hyped prospect: namely, Jose Theodore, to whom the same Roy/Dryden comparisons were made when he was thrown into the playoffs as a rookie. Obviously, that didn't turn out as well.

The comparisons are obviously ridiculous anyway. How Price fares for the rest of the season and during the playoffs - assuming the Habs make it - has nothing to do with how Roy and Dryden performed twenty or thirty years ago. But I guess it's something to write about.

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

2008-02-27T08:22:00.007-04:00

More on Huet
9:45pm(EST)
Bob Mckenzie has his say on the Huet thing: he thinks it's just Bob being Bob, but that the Habs GM will "take a lot of heat", especially if Price falters. He also attributes the Hossa deal with Pittsburgh to ownership rather than management: he says it must have been Mario himself pulling the strings on this one, because there's no way Shero would set up a deal like that and pay that kind of price. Most people - not Mario, obviously - would probably agree that a winger is not what Pittsburgh really needed anyhow: how about a really good goalie? or a serious defenceman? Brian Campbell or Adam Foote would have been much better - and cheaper - acquisitions, IMO.

Tough Times in Bytown
4:22pm(EST)
John Paddock has been fired by the Ottawa Senators. It's fairly unjust, but I guess, as the old saying goes, you can't fire all the players. Especially after the trade deadline.

Huet Trade
3:35(EST)
I'm not the only one unhappy with the trade of Cristobal Huet: in an unsurprising turn of events, Olaf Kolzig has gone public with his own complaints about the Capitals' roster moves. Kolzig says, essentially, that his town isn't big enough for himself and another "world-class goaltender", and he doesn't like the message it sends. He goes as far as to suggest he might just take his goalie stick and stay home next year.

I might do the same! After cheering for the Montreal Canadiens my entire life, and spending the better part of the past decade somewhat depressed by their chronic suckiness, I actually allowed myself to get excited about this year's deadline. It was fun to think about them picking up a real scoring threat, even if I didn't particularly want them to pull the trigger. But to have them go into the trade-waters looking for firepower, and come out with significantly less than they had when they went in ... that's disappointing. Bob's defense of the whole thing fails to persuade me.

Michael Farber has a beautifully written critique of the whole Huet fiasco at SI.com. He says everything that I have thought about the trade, but says it much better than I could. No matter how hard I try, all I can seem to come up with is, "$!#!$!, what a stupid %!$#!-ing move!". As angry as I am, though, I wouldn't go so far as to call Bob the Village Idiot, as the Bleacher Report does.

Morning Papers
8:15am(EST)

Big win for the Habs last night, 5-1 over Atlanta. HIO's Dave Stubbs says the Habs "had their way" with the Thrashers, and indeed they handled Atlanta as roughly as an Irish newlywed. Stubbs notes that it was players rumoured to be on the trading block - Higgins, Lapierre, Ryder, Koivu - who stepped it up big in this one, and he's right. Higgins now has 21 goals, despite his supposed lack of hands, and if Ryder keeps up his recent play, then it will turn out that there was no need to trade for a scoring winger.

Pat Hickey focuses on the "Post-Huet Era" angle, viewing the game as the first Carey Price has played as an undisputed NHL number one: judging by the results, Price is willing and able to face the challenge. You get the feeling that the Habs are a tight-knit bunch, which is a real team positive, and this feeling is reinforced by Price's comment that the departure of Huet feels like "losing a big brother". It always seemed that Huet was never threatened by Price, and in fact he always looked pumped when Price would turn in a good game. Price says that Huet "took me under his wing", and left the team a supportive note in the dressing room. All in all, a classy guy who I'm sure is wished well by all Habs fans. And the more I read about the vibe in the Habs' room, the happier I am that they didn't make any major changes.

For another perspective on the state of the Habs post-deadline, check out Red Fisher's excellent and sobering analysis of the Huet trade. He states - and I agree because it is so baldly obvious - that Gainey made a mistake in letting Huet go. There simply wasn't any need; what exactly is this trade meant to accomplish? If you want to go with Price as your number one, then just do it. If you want to commit to youth and free up cap space next year, then play Price, sit Huet, and don't sign him in the summer. But why let him go now? They must have serious plans for that late 2nd round pick - in 2009! - that they got for him, I don't know. Price is just 20 years old, and he's playing for a team that has the potential to make some noise down the stretch. If he falls flat on his face, and the veteran Huet is not there to step in, Bob will have some 'splaining to do ... and I doubt he'll have any answers.

Fisher also give props to Toronto captain Mats Sundin for sticking to his principles and refusing to accept a trade, purely out of loyalty to his team and out of disdain for the rental player concept. There are many Leafs fan, Fisher says, who are angry with Sundin for not letting the team trade him for desperately-needed prospects. That's probably true, but you know there are also thousands of fans who admire his stand and are glad he's sticking around. I'm one, and I hate the Leafs!

The Globe and Mail's Tim Wharnsby counts the Habs as Trade Deadline Losers, and he's right but for the wrong reasons. He says Gainey teased fans by talking openly about adding an impact player, and set the team and city up for a big disappointment. In fact, all Gainey ever said was that if he could add an impact player at the right price, he would, and what GM wouldn't say the exact same thing. I mean, I'll say right now that if I can ever sleep with Scarlett Johansson, I will, but I'm hardly setting myself up for disappointment with that one. No, the Habs lose on the trade front in the simplest way possible: by subtraction. Huet is a big loss, the return is essentially nil, and it was completely unnecessary.

Terry Jones, out in Calgary I think, writes this morning that "fans are livid" with Bob Gainey for trading Huet and missing out on Huet. I don't really think that's accurate at all. I mean, I'm a little pissed about the Huet thing, but I couldn't care less about Hossa.

Habs fans might be wondering what was going on in Gainey's head yesterday, but not Damien Cox of the Toronto Star. He hails the Huet trade as another manifestation of Gainey's guts, vision, and "greatness". This is essentially an envy piece written by a guy who looks at a rival team being run well by a competent and confident leader, then looks at his own team, being driven into the ground by a committee of losers, bean-counters, and fools, and can barely find the will to go on living. The fact that his team is the Leafs and the rival team is the Habs makes this a lovely read. I actually even felt a little better about the Huet trade after reading it, for no rational reason at all.

2008-02-26T08:58:00.010-04:00

No News is Good News
6:50pm
Well, the deadline came and went with very little to report. All the hype and effort put into it by the networks winds up looking a little embarrassing, but they should be used to that. Habs fans, by and large, are massively exercised by the failure of Bob Gainey to acquire the "impact player" he was after, but I can't say that I'm all that disappointed.

Marian Hossa, who winds going to Pittsburgh for an impressive ransom, is not what the Habs need, as I've felt all along. He's a slick playmaker, and Montreal is full of players like that. The Habs needed a pure goal-scorer, and there wasn't really one out there to trade for. Hossa would have been a compromise, and what's the point in compromising? Factor in that Hossa is a UFA, and the deal is untenable. Either he walks away in the summer and the players you traded for him are gone, or you sign him for 10 million plus and really wreck your salary structure. This season, there is not much separating Hossa and Kovalev: so if you pay Hossa 10 million next year, what do you then pay Kovalev the next year?

Finally, judging by what the Pens coughed up, it would've taken something like Pacioretty, Higgins, and Grabovsky. Anyone out there want to pay that price? Well, Bob didn't. End of story.
This is a great young team with a lot of chemistry; it'll be interesting to see what they can do with each other ... and without Cristobal Huet!

Huet to Washington?!
12:55pm
Didn't see that one coming. Why would they do that? For a 2nd round pick, very curious. Why not keep him around for insurance? Habs fans are in a frenzy: they've crashed the HIO site.

Hossa Thing Heats Up
11:45am
It's on the tube at TSN, and online just about everywhere, that Gainey has outbid Ottawa for Marian Hossa. Reports are its Michael Ryder, Mikhail Grabovski, and Maxim Lapierre. Habs Inside Out reports that Grabovski has just been recalled, so something is definitely up with him. If this is the trade, I don't like it.

Bob McKenzie says ...
9:12am
Bob McKenzie says that it's down to Ottawa and Montreal in the Hossa auction, with Ottawa dangling Antoine Vermette, and Montreal offering Higgins or a collection of prospects. NOOO!!

Deadline Day
9:07
Interesting moves out of Tampa Bay. They've traded Vaclav Prospal (to Philly, who pick up yet another scoring threat), but re-signed Dan Boyle to a six-year deal. Boyle gets 40 million in total, and between 6 and 7 million per year, which seems like a lot for him, which is my polite way of saying that the Lightning absolutely hosed themselves on this deal. WTF was that lockout for? Bob might as well trade Mark Streit now, because it's starting to look like he could get more this summer than Andrei Markov did last year.

9:00am
We'll know by three o'clock what the Habs will look like for the balance of the season. I've been going back and forth about whether or not Bob Gainey should even make a deal, so this feels a bit like Groundhog Day today: I woke up, saw my shadow, and decided I'd rather see the team stay intact. Forget Hossa, Jokinen, or Tanguay. I think I actually had a bad dream about Chris Higgins giving an emotional press conference and putting on a Panthers jersey, so maybe I need to detox a bit?

Monday, February 25th

2008-02-25T18:45:00.005-04:00

Deadline
11:00pm

Pat Hickey says the Habs are definitely on the hunt for Marian Hossa, and are probably shopping Michael Ryder, who certainly sounds as though he won't be surprised to get moved. The stumbling block in acquiring Hossa is said to be the high asking-price, which apparently stands at an established young player, a prospect, and a pick. Translation? Higgins/Kostitsyn, Grabovski/Halak, and this year's first-rounder. Is that too much for Hossa? Not at all. Is it too much for a rental of Hossa? You bet your sweet ass it is. Don't do it, Bob!

As for the Ryder mess, I can say that I definitely know two things about it: one, the Habs will trade Ryder if they can, and two, they'll lose that trade, big-time. Ryder is a future 40 and 50 goal scorer. He's had the kind of freaky-bad year that defies reason, but it's not indicative of his true ability, because anyone who's watched him knows the guy is a pure goal scorer. The Habs are considering trading Higgins and his 20 goals, plus a prospect and a pick for a 40 goal scorer, while at the same time considering trading Ryder? Looks to me like they come out short 10 goals on that deal.

Full disclosure? I am not a Hossa fan. He's never had to be the go-to guy, which the Habs would want him to be, and he's never done it in the playoffs, which is when they want him to do it.

Picture Worth a Thousand Words
10:55pm

Marian Hossa over the CH, a little foreshadowing, perhaps?

Leafs Rising
10:45pm
Leafs 5, Senators 0 ... welcome to Bizarro World. Take away October, and the Senators are struggling for a playoff spot. There's plenty of time for them to turn it around, but right now that trade isn't looking too good, is it? I guess the team is pretty happy that Sundin is sticking around. I know I am: Sundin + late-season spoiler's-luck = a late-season surge and a mediocre draft pick. Go Leafs Go! All the way to ninth place, please.

Headlines
7:00pm
TSN is reporting that the Habs new practice rink - under construction - suddenly collapsed this afternoon. Perhaps it was designed by the Habs goaltending coach?

The Peter Forsberg saga is at an end: he signed today with the Avalanche, leaving other would-be contenders disappointed ... and doubtless a little confused. The Avs also activated Joe Sakic off the IR, and all of a sudden, without making a trade, look very much like a playoff force.

And Alex Tanguay won't be coming to Montreal, which will make you happy or sad, depending upon your opinion of Tanguay. I was never all that interested, just becausehe doesn't seem like the right player for the Habs right now - another slick winger - but others feel differently. Reporters have speculated on that supposed "deal" for months, but there may never have been anything to it. Rumour-meister Spector, of Fox Sports, has said all along that Tanguay would have refused a trade to Montreal anyway, being unwilling to subject himself to the madness of the Montreal media. If that's accurate - and I trust Lyle - then would Montreal really want a wussy player like that anyway?

News for Sunday, February 24th

2008-02-24T12:21:00.005-04:00

More Trade Stuff
10:57pm
The Fourth Period says that Don Waddell, having given up on resigning Marian Hossa, is ready to deal, and that Montreal is still highly interested. The story is unsourced, so take it as thou wilt, but they say that Atlanta is interested in Chris Higgins, Kyle Chipchura, and Mikhail Grabovski. I'm assuming that's not as a package, or it's just insane. The same site claims that Alex Tanguay would accept a trade to Montreal, directly contradicting Spector's Hockey, which has consistently reported that Tanguay would refuse to play in Montreal. Finally, they report that Brad Richards did not include Montreal on the list of teams he would deign to play for should it please His Grace to waive his no trade clause, so we'll have to continue to live without his 70 points a year. Geez, that really sucks, because I can't think of a better way to spend 7.8 million bucks, can you?

*******************************************************

Trade Deadline Blues
4:30pm
Rumours, rumours, rumours. Marian Hossa continues to live with the angst of not knowing where he'll be living next week. He's been most frequently tied to talks between Atlanta and Montreal, and there have even been sightings of him buying air tickets to Montreal, or of his gloves being delivered to the Bell Centre. Other rumours have Montreal involved in discussions for Mats Sundin, Olli Jokinen, and Brad Richards.

Most of these rumours are based on journalistic hypotheses about what Montreal "needs" or "wants", and have been bolstered by a selective quoting of Bob Gainey at the GM meetings, when he said that he was interested in adding an "impact player". He also said that nothing was really percolating and that the Habs weren't going to deviate from their long-term goals, but those unsexy parts of the discussion have been excised from the record.

Montreal fans seem ambivalent on the idea of trades, probably because their team is so inconsistent. When the Habs storm back from 5-0 to defeat the Rangers 6-5, the entire squad is understandably untouchable; but when the same bunch of guys soil themselves in a 3-0 stinker against the less than mighty Blue Jackets, we're all ready to chip in for the air fare.

Or maybe it's the trade options that are failing to excite fans. Hossa is a good player, but Montreal fans are smart enough to know that he's not quite the right fit for the Habs, who need size and pure goalscoring at centre, not another slick winger. Then there's Richards, certainly over-priced and possibly over-rated, having collected most of his points playing on one of the best lines in the NHL.

Basically, Canadiens fans aren't interested in anything but a serious blockbuster. They'll get excited if Gainey can land Lecavalier, and otherwise, it's all pretty much "meh". As for me, I'm perfectly content to stick with the status quo this year, and see what another summer's seasoning can do for guys like Higgins, the Kostitsyns, Komisarek, and Price. It's about one year too early for a "win now" type of trade, IMO.

*******************************************************

Columbus 3 - Habs 0
10:00am
What a boring, boring game. The Columbus Blue Jackets applied the patented Hitchcock sleeper-hold to the Habs offense last night, and - thanks in large part to a third straight brutal showing by a Canadiens netminder - came away with a 3-0 victory.

There were so very, very few interesting or entertaining things in this one: there was the lone Columbus fan celebrating each of the Jackets' goals, that was sort of amusing, and I did get something out of scrutinizing Ken Hitchcock's eerie, unblinking gaze, though it wasn't pleasant. At the end of the game, I was filled with the desire to ask for my money back, even though I watched the game from my home and didn't actually pay for it. It was just that sort of experience, I guess.

Searching earnestly for anything resembling an "angle" on this lifeless, listless "game", the Gazette's Dave Stubbs settles on the disappointment everyone feels that the Canadiens couldn't "win it for Bob", as Carbonneau puts it. While it is somewhat ironic that the Habs were outworked on Bob Gainey Night, it's actually hard to fault them too harshly. You want some irony, just be glad it wasn't Ken Dryden Night!

News for Saturday, February 23rd

2008-02-22T20:06:00.006-04:00

Do you feel lucky, punk? You probably do if you're name is Tom Kostopoulous, and that's because you just found out that the police have dropped the charges against you. As everyone will recall, Tommy K got in the faces of some of Tampa's Finest a couple of weeks back. He thought he was coming to the defence of teammate Ryan O'Byrne, but it turns out he was aiding and abetting the rookie in an act of Grand Theft. Tommy gets off scott-free now, perhaps as a result of a nice letter of apology he wrote to the officers in question. Maybe he should write one for O'Byrne, who has yet to hear what his fate will be, and - having committed a felony - faces much stiffer possible consequences, such as the effective end of his NHL career.

The Habs have scored so many goals this season they may be forgetting their defensive roots. Though most famous for the "firewagon" dynasties of the 40s, 50s, and 70s, the true hallmark of the great Canadiens teams has always been excellent team D, bolstered by sharp goaltending. For the first time in a decade, the Habs have a team that can put the puck in the net: they currently stand third overall in offense, and have more 40 point players than both the Red Wings and Senators. But in the last few games, all that offense has been at the expense of attention to detail in their own end: they've allowed ten goals in their last two, and thirteen in their last three, with neither goalie playing what you would call well. Cristobal Huet has been especially un-good: 1-3-0, 4.50, and .859 in his last four games (OUCH!).

As the Canadiens prepare to honour the great Bob Gainey by retiring his number 23 tonight, the Gazette runs this great retrospective of Gainey's career, by Red Fisher. Vivid anecdotes of Gainey playing through pain and driving his oppnents nuts, laced with modest quotes from the man of the hour himself, combine to make this article a fitting and informative tribute.

James Duthie, a funny guy, talks about his hatred of the Habs growing up, and how the present crew of Canadiens have turned that around with their determination, flair, and sheer likability. So they really are a lovable bunch of guys - Komisarek, Koivu, Price, Ryder - I thought it was just me.

According to The Hockey News, a trade of Koivu for Jokinen is a logical possibile swap that would benefit most teams. Well, clearly Ken Campbell, the author, is no Habs fan: if he were, he'd never suggest trading Captain Koivu, a player most of us have come to love with the ferocious loyalty that can only be inspired by watching the captain of your favourite team nearly die or get blinded while trying to win the cup for you (it feels like it's for you, anyhow). That said, he makes a persuasive case that Jokinen, a big centre able to take more of a beating, is more the kind of player the Habs need up front, whereas Koivu might make a better fit in Florida, which is in need of leadership and playmaking and where there is significant friction between Jokinen and head coach Jacques Martin. Campbell has it all figured out: after they trade Koivu, Halak, and a prospect/pick for Jokinen, they swap Ryder to Calgary for Tanguay, and all of a sudden the Habs have two top lines that match up with any other top two lines in the East. Well, that's great in theory. But here's the thing: the Habs already have two top lines that match up with any others in the East. In fact, the Habs have the most balanced offense in the NHL and the third best offense overall. I don't think Jokinen and Tanguay would exactly be a downgrade, but it's hard to see how they would improve anything, either. And besides, I can't imagine the Habs trading Koivu ... if they want to swap centers, I'd even rather see them trade Plekanec for Jokinen (and I think Florida would jump at that one).

Here's the preview of tonight's match against the Jackets. Look carefully at the "Who's Hot" list for the Habs, and try not to fall off your chair when you see the name Michael Ryder. Just in time for the playoffs! Call off those trade talks, Bob, and sharpen your contract pencil! The Habs will want to watch out for Rick Nash, who has five points in his last four, but luckily it seems that Columbus's goalies have been just as bad as the Canadiens of late.

Do You Believe?

2008-02-20T19:49:00.002-04:00

It's hard not to after a game like that! Have you ever seen anything like it? It even impressed the biased air-heads who drag their knuckles on the floors of the Toronto Sports Network. Even Don Cherry might have tuned into the overtime ... you know, after Sportsnet had finished airing the titanic Leafs-Blue Jackets clash that was on at the same time.

There was so much to love about this one. Michael Ryder coming to life to spark the comeback. Kovalev chipping in a pair to even the score. Saku Koivu with the clutch shoot-out victory. The Komisaurus Rex on a rampage, taking names and kicking ass, as Brandon Dubinsky discovered, to his deep dismay, one assumes. Wanna watch Dubinsky hang for dear life again? Thought so. And read this: the account of the game is even more satisfying from the enemy perspective.

So now what for Bob Gainey? Word is he's been doing some serious shopping at the GM meetings, looking to add an 'impact player', most likely a high-scoring winger to fill out the Koivu line. If Michael Ryder has returned - and it sure looked like it last night - isn't he that player? Do the Habs really want to trade a guy like O'Byrne, or Higgins, or Grabovski, to pick up Hossa for a few months? I don't know. Character-wise, you have to like a guy like Ryder, and we already know he can score, no matter what happened this year. One thing's for sure, if the Habs trade Ryder, they'll be getting Leclaired by him for years to come. He'd score 50 with the right line-mates.

Predict this, TSN

2008-02-18T20:54:00.003-04:00

Hahaha, first place, baby!! Yeah!!! Suck on that, pre-season prognosticating putzes! Remember those clowns on TSN? "The acquisitions of Blake and Toskala make the Leafs a force to be reckoned with. As for the Habs, I can't see them finishing higher than 14th. Blah blah." HAHAHAHAHA what a bunch of fools. Of course, the Toronto Sports Network was not alone in its estimation. Goes to show you what a suckers game predictions are.

So why have the Habs been so much better than everyone expected? Consistency is one possible reason. The Habs have avoided lengthy losing streaks, even if they haven't had any really impressive winning streaks either. The Senators and Flyers, on the other hand, have been all over the map.

Save the Leafs!

2008-02-15T10:34:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I'm writing this, but it's time the Leafs turned things around a little bit! After last night's pathetic and embarrassing showing against the Islanders, the Leafs are officially the worst team in the East, and have sunk perilously close to last overall, currently just four points up on Los Angeles. It stopped being enjoyable weeks ago, and has indeed turned a bit stressful, as it's beginning to appear as though the Leafs have a very good shot at landing the first overall pick in an excellent draft this year.

What we want is for the Leafs to finish, like, 10th in the East, just far enough out to suck for Leafs' fans, but not so far out that they land future superstar Steve Stamkos. If they get him or anyone like him, we'll never hear the end of it.

The Leafs are only five points back of 10th place Washington, so with a little hard work and discipline and a positive attitude, the Leafs should easily be able to pull themselves from ruin this season; if they catch a few breaks, they could even be able to rise to near-mediocrity! Then they'd get a mid-level, crap-shoot type pick, and be able to perpetuate the state of nothingness they've been perfecting for the past forty years. And so I say, without irony and for the first time in my life ... Go Leafs Go!

Okay Everyone, Back on the Bandwagon!

2008-02-14T09:01:00.003-04:00

A narrow 2-1 win over the mighty (haha) Florida Panthers has Habs fans in a good mood for the first time in over a week. And because the winning goaltender was not Cristobal Huet, but rookie Carey Price, we're probably going to need a bigger bandwagon.

Price played his first good game in about two months and got the win. In return, a sizable contingent of the fan-base is again clamouring for the exile of Cristobal Huet and the permanent installation of Price as the number one goalie. Even the Gazette's Pat Hickey is on board: in an article called Price Back on Track, he says that Price is the "logical choice" as starter, citing last night's win and Huet's recent "struggling" in net.

Well, hold the phone, there. Huet hasn't played his best in the last week or so, that's true, but the fact is, the entire team has been sucking eggs. Huet didn't lose those games to the Leafs and the Sens or the Lightning by himself, that's for sure: there has been a general lack of hustle, an absence of desire, the scoring has dried up, and the special teams have gone south. There isn't a goalie in the NHL who was going to win those games, given the way the team played.

And now, because the Habs managed to BARELY defeat a fairly unimpressive foe in an incredibly lackluster match, people want to hand the most important position on the team over to a rookie? Price hasn't exactly had the easiest adjustment to the NHL, lest we forget. Giving him the job to lose is, IMO, far too much pressure, especially if the team is going to be putting in the kind of effort they demonstrated in Florida this week, i.e., a very weak one.

So yes, the Habs emerged victorious, but it was hardly the heroic comeback the Gazette paints it to be. A more accurate account of the game can be found in the Florida Sun Sentinel, which notes that it took a questionable penalty, overtime, a lucky bounce, and eight missing Panthers regulars for the Habs to beat them by a single goal. But forget all that: Price rules!!!

Well, in other news, check out this St. John's Telegram story about Michael Ryder. The same old Ryder story, but from a hometown perspective, which is cool. I love the title: Ryder in the Storm. The author credits Ryder for working hard during his difficult year - he's put in a good effort in practices, apparently - and for dealing with the situation maturely and professionally, rather than whining and crying and generally pulling a Samsonov. That's all true, but I still can't believe the year that guy has had: 8 goals? Carbonneau left him on the top line forever before cutting his ice-time, so it's not just that. How does a guy lose his touch like that? You know he'll rebound; if he goes to San Jose, he could score about a hundred goals playing with Thornton.

Even the LA Times has heard about the O'Byrne Purse Snatching Incident. Wow, so that's what it takes to get them to write about hockey.

Watch out for those damn Maple Leafs. No, I don't mean in the playoff race that Darcy Tucker, Bryan McCabe, and Mats Sundin still think the Leafs are involved in, I mean in the race to the bottom of the standings and the top of the draft. Toronto media are beginning to openly advocate that the Leafs tank it for the rest of the season in order to have the best shot at landing Steve Stamkos. Don't think they're above it, either, because they're not. You'll know it's on as soon as the bodies start flying out of there, which should be in about a week.

Guilty as Charged: Lightning 3 - Habs 2

2008-02-13T09:10:00.002-04:00

If there were any justice in the hockey world, the Habs would be arrested for grand larceny after posing as an NHL team last night. Of course, if you want to arrest the Habs these days, you have to get in line.

HIO reports that CKAC says that Ryan O'Byrne's purse-snatching victim has decided not to press charges, but this hasn't been confirmed. I imagine it will be confirmed soon enough, however: most multi-million dollar organizations have the kind of lawyers who specialize in making things like this go away. It will involve a meeting with the woman, a sincere apology, an explanation of the trouble a conviction would cause poor Ryan and his girlfriend what's-her-name, and the leaving of some money on a table. Poof! Justice, rich-people style! Unfair, you say? Well, that's because you're a little person, and you don't really matter anyway.

As for the game, there isn't much to say besides that would-be contenders Montreal dropped a listless match against the worst team in the East. They stunk the place out, managing just 21 shots, getting outshot 17-5 in the third period when they were supposedly pressing for the equalizer. Make no mistake, Tampa Bay is a crappy team: but the Habs made them look pretty good last night. Consolation? The Habs looked marginally better than they did last Thursday, when they were creamed by the second worst team in the East. After losing back to back games against division rivals in embarrassing matches, you would think the Habs would be looking to reassert themselves, but no. I'm not saying the Habs were hungover for this game, but I am saying I hope they were.

The Lightning were certainly glad to see the distracted and disinterested Habs in their house. It was just what Vaclav Prospal needed to break his slump, which he did in fine fashion, scoring two goals and dominating the - admittedly quite submissive - Habs. The curse of the French Guys continued as well, as Vincent Lecavalier notched two assists, while Michelle Ouellet scored a first period goal.

Prospal probably crossed the line by dissing his coach in the post-game interview: upset at being demoted by coach Tortorella, Prospal was happy to be back on the first line, and after scoring the winner he called the game "the most satisfying" of his career, and added that he felt like he'd "shoved it up somebody's ass". Well, the article here says "backside", but somehow I doubt he used that word. Anyway, Prospal refused to say precisely whose ass he'd violated, but it seems clear that he meant Tortorella, who laughed the whole thing off. "I'm not here to be the happy man and make everybody happy," he said. Oh, don't worry John: you're not.

Message Received

2008-02-10T09:15:00.001-04:00

With the roll the Habs put together after Christmas, there was increasing talk about the possibility of the squad catching the Ottawa Senators: they were just three points away going into last night's game in Ottawa, with the possibility of moving within one. After last night, however, it is clear that any statistical resemblance between the two teams was purely coincidental and not in any way reflective of the true qualitative differences between their rosters, their abilities, and even - sorry, I'm not happy today - their value as human beings.

Cristobal Huet was truly bad, allowing three goals on four shots before getting pulled. When he left the game, before it was even five minutes old, it was already over, in the practical sense. Does he want a trade or something? Curry Stat: the Gazette notes that Huet is now 0-2 in Hockey Day in Canada games against Ottawa, having surrendered 9 goals in under 30 minutes of playing time in the games this year and last.

Of course, it has been a team effort, in all fairness: the Habs have lost those games by a combined scored of 14-4. Carey Price was nearly as shaky as Huet in relief, allowing the last three goals without being heavily tested. And the Canadiens never really looked dangerous at all, despite hitting something like five or six goalposts. This game was all Ottawa, and their top line did all the damage: a hat-trick and a six-point night for Spezza, four points for Heatley and five for Alfredsson. The Senators, it seems, wanted to send the Canadiens a message about what a real top-tier NHL team looks like, and you have to think the message was received. Big time. In fact, they'll probably be picking the pieces of that message out of their backsides with tweezers for weeks.

Friday, February 8th: That loud, whining sound ...

2008-02-08T19:45:00.000-04:00

... is the sound of a million fans jumping off the bandwagon. Though it's just one game, Thursday's loss to the hated Maple Leafs has Habs' fans in a foul mood from coast to coast. From the volume of the complaints, you'd think it was the Habs who were next to last in the East, and the Leafs who were challenging Ottawa for first. Many fans are openly excoriating head coach Guy Carbonneau for his incompetence, despite the Habs' dream-like season. That's the biz, I guess. It certainly sucks to lose to the Leafs, especially when idiot former-Hab Darcy Tucker scores, but it really is just one game, people.

Tsn.ca reports that Roman Hamrlik will miss a third straight game with the flu. The flu! Three games? What's he got, the Bubonic Flu? The article also notes that the Habs' play has dipped in the last three games, during which they've surrendered 12 goals, losing twice and winning ugly in the other game against a battered and undermanned Senators' team. Coach Carbonneau says some players - he means Koivu, Higgins, and Ryder - have been trying so hard to break out of scoring droughts, they're forgetting their defensive assignments. Carbo will reunite those three players in another attempt to reignite their dormant chemistry. If they can start playing as well as they did last year, without disrupting the production of Kovalev, Plecanek, and Kostitsyn, the Habs would have arguably the best top-two lines in hockey.

Michael Ryder says he's in a "catch-22" position, benched for not scoring goals, unable to score goals because he's benched. Ryder has handled a very frustrating situation with class and grace, not whining, complaining, or in any way reminding anyone of Sergei Samsonov. He'll bounce back from this, but unfortunately, it won't be with the Habs.

Canadian Press finds Chris Higgins upset with himself for not scoring. He's got 4 points in his last 15 games, and was bounced from line to line against the Leafs on Thursday.

Spector of Fox Sports reports on recent rumours that Michael Ryder could be traded for Marian Hossa or Alex Tanguay, and says that while the trading of Ryder is a virtual certainty, it is obviously insane to hope that he would fetch such a high return. A more likely scenario, he says, would see the Habs pick up a defensive centre with face-off skills. Exciting. Why would the Habs even bother making such a sideways deal? Might as well just hang on to Ryder for the balance of the season, in case he comes in handy during the playoff drive.

The Canadiens have managed to sign one of the best players in the American university system, picking up Brock Trotter, who has decided to leave the University of Denver under decidedly murky circumstances. It's "a private matter between the player and the coach," according to Trevor Timmins. Trotter will join Hamilton.

Would you trade Chris Higgins, a "prospect", and a 2008 first rounder for soon to be UFA Marian Hossa? I doubt Bob Gainey would either, but the Ottawa Sun says that's what the deal would be. Now, I would love to see the Habs get Hossa, but he's not the kind of player - a true number-one centre - they really need. If they're going to break the bank, it has to be on a Sundin-type player, and there aren't any of those available.

News for Tuesday, February 5th

2008-02-05T20:31:00.001-04:00

Roman Hamrlik won't play tonight against the Sens. He's got the flu, allowing Patrice Brisebois to step in and take his place. Carey Price has rejoined the Habs, and may start against the Leafs on Thursday, according to Coach Carbonneau, who says "if we called him up, obviously it's so he can play." Price is 3-0 against the Leafs this year, but then again, who isn't?

Alexei Kovalev says his elbow to the face of Ryan Hollweg wasn't dirty: the problem, according to the sniper, is that Hollweg is just too short. Kovalev tried to hit him with his shoulder, you see, but to his surprise, the shrimpy Hollweg only comes up to Kovy's elbow. When reporters expressed some doubt at Kovalev's blaming the incident on Hollweg's height-impairment, the winger shrugged, broke into a chorus of Randy Newman;s "Short People Got No Reason to Live", and tap-danced down the hall.

The Habs can pull within one point of the formerly invincible Senators with a win tonight. The Sens are missing key players Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, but are 3-0 against the Habs this year.

The Habs will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Rangers, which saw them blow a three goal lead. Some have blamed Koivu's momentum-changing penalty, others have cited a lack of team toughness (an old refrain), but the real culprit would appear to have been fatigue: it was the Habs third game in four nights, and like most teams they have fared poorly in such situations all season long. They have only lost back-to-back in regulation once this year, so look for a strong outing.

News for Monday, February 5th

2008-02-04T06:33:00.000-04:00

Red Fisher says the Habs "simply stopped skating" yesterday, pinning that as the cause of the team's collapse from a 3-0 lead to a 5-3 defeat. Well, it was the Habs' third game in four days, so I wouldn't say they so much stopped skating as they started skating slower. They looked quite exhausted, if you ask me. If Fisher is a little hard on the Habs for their effort, he's right on when it comes to the moron Bell Centre fans who started singing that "olay, olay" song in the second period last night: that song is a jinx, and it sucks anyway. In any event, you don't start razzing another team about the game being done when more than half of the match is left to play! (Unless it's Boston.) Fisher is too kind in calling Scott Gomez the "best skater on the ice", because Gomez has done nothing but reveal himself for the overrated chihuahua on skates that he is this year, ever since signing that laughable deal with the Rangers. He and fellow new Ranger Chris Drury are two of the most over-compensated players of all time, in my humble opinion. Fisher concurs with Glen Sather when he calls out the refereeing, and I'd have to agree. Lately, every game I watch, it's like one ref is Forrest Gump and the other is his box of chocolates, except somehow I always know what I'm going to get.

Pat Hickey quotes the players, blaming themselves and doing the mea culpa thing. Well, Chris Higgins does, anyway; there's a guy who really takes a loss hard, right there. He agrees with Fisher that the Habs stopped skating. Hickey implicitly blames Saku Koivu, whose cheesy hooking penalty in the second was the beginning of the Ranger's comeback. Koivu does take too many of those stick calls, and seems surprised every time, but the Rangers didn't score all five goals on that power play, Pat. It was still 3-1 when Koivu got out, and the Habs couldn't hold the fort. Hickey suggests that Cristobal Huet - who has started twelve in a row - could use some back-up. He's allowed11 goals in his last three games. For my part, I'm with Coach Carbo, who blames the loss on ... the Rangers. They notched the game up when the depleted Habs began dragging their overworked feet late in the second. You can't win 'em all.

News for Sunday, February 3rd

2008-02-03T09:19:00.000-04:00

The Islanders were no match for the mighty Montreal Canadiens yesterday. Wow, when did the Habs turn "mighty", anyway? They're in the midst of their hottest stretch of play since ... since ... I'll google it later, but the point is, they're on fire, much to the delight of long-suffering fans, who must feel as though they've time-warped back to 1993.

Red Fisher dissects the game here, showing some sympathy for the slumping Isles, who despite their recent troubles remain just one spot out of the playoffs - with a game in hand on their nearest rivals, the Rangers. He also notes that Alex Kovalev surpassed his final point totals last year (he had 47) in just his 52nd game of this season. More impressive, perhaps, is the 32 point swing in his +/- from last year, from -19 then to +13 now. With 30 games to go, this should wind up as one of Kovy's best seasons ever.

For more reaction to the game, here is Pat Hickey's take: chalk this one up to a poor showing by the Isles, superb penalty-killing by the Habs, and - once again - the leadership of Kovalev. Kovy's been getting so much praise this year; I sure hope it doesn't go to his head. *HAHAHA* Just kidding. Actually, Kovalev is the kind of player who thrives on ego-stroking and praise, and he's learning this year that there is no better place for a player who wants appreciation than Montreal ... when you're playing well. He's loving it.

You can get the New York state-of-mind on the game from NY Newsday, which writes admiringly of Montreal deadly and opportunistic power-play, and suddenly improved penalty kill. The New Yorkers, however, hold that this was one the Isles should've had, citing missed scoring chances, including two first period goal-posts. Ted Nolan agrees. Well, I don't! The Habs had the Isles right where they wanted them all night.

And with an Ottawa loss last night - to the Leafs, ouch - Montreal is now three points out of first place. Believe, my brothers and sisters, believe. A win today, and Montreal goes into Tuesday's game with 1st place on the line.

Speaking of today's game, it will be a rather difficult one for the Habs. It's their third game in four days, an exhausting situation, and one in which they've been unsuccessful the last five times they've been in it. Also, the game is against the Rangers, a team that gives the Habs a surprising amount of trouble: they've lost five of their last six against Jagr and company. Not surpisingly, then, the bookies are picking New York.

News for Saturday, February 2nd

2008-02-02T08:39:00.000-04:00

SI.com notes the special occasion: "The Kostitsyn brothers both scored in the Canadiens 5-4 overtime loss to Washington on Thursday night, becoming the first siblings to score a goal in the same game for Montreal since Frank and Pete Mahovolich did it on April 14, 1974 against the New York Rangers in the playoffs." Can the Kostitsyns become as good as the Mahovolich brothers? Hey, they might become better!

What the hell is wrong with Carey Price? Last year he tore the AHL a new one, dominating its shooters while helping the Bulldogs win the Calder. Then he made the Montreal Canadiens at age 19, beating out the more experienced Jaro Halak, and started the NHL season off on a roll. Lots of fans - not the smarter ones, it must be said - wanted him to be made the numero uno in October. And now? Sent down by the Habs to keep off the rust and recover his form after his play trailed off, he's sputtered in Hamilton, going 4-4 with a 3.29 GAA and .878 save percentage. Time for Bob to start tucking away cash for Huet's payday this summer, I'd say.

Newsday New York has Isles coach Ted Nolan promising a better effort on the part of his team against the Canadiens this afternoon. The Isles are just 1-4-1 in their last six and haven't looked good doing it. They've lost six straight at home and are eager to get into the Bell Centre, where the Habs are not often at their best. They'd better be watching out today: I don't like these weird, matinee games against struggling teams ... the Habs never seem motivated for them. With any luck, though, the Habs will want to rebound after getting arse-raped by Alex Ovechkin the other night.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy: Cristobal Huet is the NHL's third star for January. He was hot, going 8-2-1 with a 2.40 goals-against average. Another article discusses what could be his finest season yet, looking back to the beginning of the year, when fans wanted Price to be the starter (an opinion Chris Higgins calls "unbelievable"), and moving to the present, in which Huet has started 15 of the team's last 16 games and dominated the league. Some great quotes in this piece, and also in this one, which speculates on the big raise the 32-year old goalie is in for this summer.

The Sporting News discusses the ever-murky playoff picture, noting that Montreal is turning up the heat on Ottawa, who are no longer a sure-thing for first-place in the East, especially with their recent spate of injuries. Montreal is firing on all cylinders (thanks, according to the article, to the roster-work of Bob Gainey) while Ottawa is stumbling: today, a Sens loss and a Habs win would put Les Boys just three points back. Well, Ottawa's troubles are not surprising, given their bad luck lately, and not troubling ... all good teams seem to go through a mid-season dry spell. They'll be back as soon as Heatley and Alfie are healthy. As for the Habs, they've been very good, and very consistent, but they face the emerging team's perpetual challenge: developing the winning attitude and belief that will get them through the tough spots.

News for Wednesday, January 23rd

2008-01-23T19:37:00.000-04:00

Wow, that was some game last night. When was the last time Montreal scored eight goals? I actually have no idea! I won't remember this one either: I make a habit of toasting every Canadiens goal by finishing my drink, so the final two goals last night are pretty hazy for me, understandably enough. Luckily, there is plenty of news to fill in all those nasty little holes in my memory.

The headline writers had fun with the Habs' 8-2 keelhauling of the Bruins : the Gazette calls it "Another Boston Massacre", the Globe says "Montreal Shows No Mercy", while the Boston Herald says (my favourite) "Not Big, Just Bad".

The Gazette story covers the basics, noting that the Habs have won nine in a row against Boston, including six in a row this year. The Habs are brutal at home, just 9-8-5 for the year, and one shudders to think what their home record would look like without the three wins they've enjoyed against Boston there. It's hard to believe that a team as fast and skilled as the Habs are so bad on home ice; luckily, they've dominated on the road, but if they make the playoffs they're going to need to be able to rely on a home-ice advantage. Further notes: the Habs entered the game -5 for the year, and left it at +1, quite a turnaround from last year (-29); despite the six even-strength goals, some Habs - Michael Ryder for one - managed to go -1 on the night; and the Curry Stat du Jour, all Canadiens whose names begin with "K" got a point last night!

The Globe piece praises the work of Andrei Kostitsyn, who continues to get better as the season progresses: two goals and an assist last night, with one of his markers coming off a beautiful pass from little brother Sergei. With top-notch skills, a solid work ethic, and willingness to pay the price, Kostitsyn is the total package. How good can he get? I don't know, but it'll be interesting to find out. Oh, and speaking of brother Sergei, in addition to picking up an assist, he also notched his first NHL fight, a spirited if brief tilt with Chuck Kobasew, and handled himself alright.

The Boston Herald is not amused, and even a little baffled. It does indeed make no sense that the Bruins can sweep back-to-back games against the Rangers, and then absolutely mess their pants against a Canadiens team that is not quite a powerhouse. Claude Julien tries to keep positive: “There’s no doubt we want to play a lot better against this team,” he said. “But I don’t think it should tarnish the effort we’ve had against other teams." Sorry Claude, but your team's game soiled not merely its effort against other teams, but the name of the club, the legacy of Bobby Orr, and the reputation of the entire state of Massachusetts. Notes: all but three Bruins were a minus last night, led by Shane Hnidy, who went -4; the Bruins were scored on before the game was 14 seconds long, and allowed the fourth Montreal goal with a second left in the period; the eight goals allowed are the most the Bruins have allowed all season.

Idiot Watch: another language flap is brewing in Montreal, after a Journal de Montreal reporter posing as an Anglophone managed to get hired by 15 businesses over the holidays. Now, she was turned down by 85 others, but that isn't enough to keep the language creeps in Quebec from expressing their shock and horror at the idea that an Anglophone might actually be able to score a job at Tim Hortons. After all, next thing you know, Anglophones will want the right to vote and get married! Why is this relevant to the Habs? Well, it's just that some free agent hockey players might not want to come play in a fascist, crypto-racist city that despises them for speaking the wrong language. Jerks like that Journal reporter and her bosses are the reason Brendan Shanahan is playing in New York, and that hurts.

Well, enjoy that frisson you get when the Habs play the Bruins while you can; the Devils are up next, and as you well know, they are to the Habs as the Habs are to the Bruins. There remains a chance that Martin Brodeur will be unavailable, however, as he tends to family matters, so perhaps that's our chance to turn things around against the only professional sports team creepy enough to name themselves after Satan.

News for Tuesday, January 22nd

2008-01-22T17:38:00.000-04:00

Most of today's news concerns the regime-change underway in Toronto, as the Leafs replace the much maligned JFJ with ... Cliff Fletcher? It's always 'back to the future' with the Leafs, isn't it? I'm expecting Fletcher's first move will be to attempt to fire head coach Pat Burns. When that doesn't work, he'll get to work trying to trade Mats Sundin, most likely for Wendel Clark. Joking aside - and it's not easy - it would look good on most Habs' fans to take the quiet, sympathetic approach here, perhaps remembering how classy and helpful all those Leaf fans were to us during the years that Rejean Houle laboriously set-to the task of dismantling our own team. What's that? They all acted like taunting assholes back then? Oh, that's right ... well, f**k them, then.

Yahoo Sports has the Habs at 8th in the power-rankings, exactly where they've been for three straight weeks. The rankings are interesting, but it would be most accurate to say that the Habs currently should rank about third, tied with 24 other teams, behind Ottawa and Detroit and ahead of Toronto, Washington, and Tampa.

Not tired of the Alex Tanguay rumours yet? Me neither. The Calgary Herald reports that at practice this morning, Darryl Sutter was seen having a long chat with Tanguay's agent, Bob Sauve. The article quotes the increasingly testy Tanguay responding to being asked yet again about a possible trade: "That's a stupid question. I'm not answering that." See also Spector for the latest on possible trades around the NHL.

The Habs take on the Bruins tonight, attempting to maintain their strange dominance over their original six rival. The Habs have not lost to the Bruins in approximately fifty years. The Boston Herald reports that in an attempt to change their karma against the Habs, the B's will go with back-up goalie Alex Auld instead of number-one Tim Thomas. It might work, who knows? You can't lose 'em all.

Heads up: Alex Kovalev says he can be even better than he has been in this Gazette article. And coach Carbo is reuniting the former top line of Higgins, Koivu, and Ryder, in an attempt to snap the slump all three find themselves in. I approve; I just hope that he keeps them together longer than a shift or two. It's not such good news for Sergei Kostitsyn, who now finds himself on a rather ugly line with Steve Begin and Brian Smolinski. What is that all about?

And Mathieu Dandeneault is hopping mad about being the scratch against the Bruins tonight. How mad? Craig Rivet-last-January mad. Is he demanding a trade? Nooooo, no, not at all ... today. He'll "reevaluate" later. Wow, somebody thinks pretty highly of himself!

News for Monday, January 21st

2008-01-21T11:05:00.000-04:00

The Edmonton Sun says that Alex Tanguay has not waived his no-trade clause, and has not asked for or been asked about a trade. But the article has Tanguay saying some interesting things: it sounds like he believes the Flames would like to trade him, and it also sounds like he wouldn't mind, if only because he'd like to return to filling a more offensive role. But apart from Tanguay's ethnic appeal, is he really the kind of player the Habs need? A smallish playmaker prone to scoring droughts? Tanguay is also overpaid for what he brings, which is around 25 goals and 7o points. We all know the Habs are dying for a French-Canadian superstar, but Tanguay only fits half of that bill, and unfortunately, it's not the superstar part. I'd rather resign Ryder.

Oh, and one more thing: "The media are so tough on the French guys here. If you think Toronto is bad, if you think Calgary is bad, for a French guy coming to Montreal? I don't think it gets any worse." Attention French Media, that's what Alex Tanguay thinks of you.

For years, Habs fans have cried that the team needs more muscle. Mike Komisarek has been doing as much as he can to provide it, and it's not premature now to say that the big guy has become one of the NHL's elite blueliners. An imposing physical presence, Komisarek hasn't been shy about throwing all that weight around, ranking second in the NHL in hits, first among defencemen. He also leads the league in blocked shots, a definite indicator of dedication and toughness. He fights too, if you care about that, and plays a solid defensive game; he's particularly adept at using his long reach to swat the puck away from streaking opponents, preventing breakaways and stopping two-on-ones. Bob Gainey is going to have to open the bank for this guy, and soon: he's a UFA after next season.

The story over in Liverpool has been getting odder. Turns out Gillett and Hicks aren't actively trying to sell their interest in the FC; Dubai International Capital (outbid by the owners of the Stars and the Habs last year) is planning a "rescue bid", as Hicks tries to refinance his share of the team. He's being crunched by the emerging credit-mess in the US economy.

La Presse has a story that suggests that, in the 11 games since Christmas or so, the Canadiens have found their true identity, which is as a defense-first club that capitalizes on mistakes with a balanced attack from four different lines. They've outscored and outshot their opponents in those games, and generally become better at playing the system Carbo has preached since taking over as coach, but only time will tell if the Canadiens have truly arrived, or if this is another step in the learning process. I'm not completely sold on their defensive abilities: Cristobal Huet had to make several miraculous saves to keep it close against the Pens the other day, facing far tougher scoring chances than Dany Sabourin, who technically was the busier goalie of the night. And the Habs were unable to shut the Crosby-less Pens down in the third, getting outshot 11-5 in the final frame. Expect growing pains to continue, but two years down the road, things look good, if the core of the team's youth - Komisarek, Plecanek, the Kostitsyns, Higgins, Chipchura, Lapierre, Latendresse, Price - stays together.

Another optimistic piece in La Presse says that the other NHL teams are passing the word: the Habs are for real, and if you want to beat them, you have to stop the Plecanek line and the power-play. It's a good read and an honest assessment of the Habs' current strengths ... and weaknesses: the Koivu line is dead in the water, as it notes. Still the #1 line on paper, it is obviously the #2 line in any meaningful sense - production, ice-time, power-play time - and could soon become the de facto 3rd line. In the past dozen games, the trio of Lapierre, Ryder, and Latendresse has outscored Koivu, Higgins, and Kostitsyn. That's not acceptable.

News for Sunday, January 20th

2008-01-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

So the Canadiens got their national exposure on CBC last night ... and responded by being shut-out at home against a Penguins team that played its back-up goalie and didn't have Sidney Crosby. It was quite a boring game. The CBC was in a panic without Crosby there; they hastily rewrote all their scripts, substituting the name Malkin for Crosby's, even if it seemed a little weird to hear Malkin being discusseed as one of the "best players in the world". Between the 2nd and 3rd period, Elliot Friedman interviewed a confused Roman Hamrlik, asking idiotic questions like "What's it like to play against Evgeni Malkin? Is it hard to defend against such a special player?". Hamrlik was remarkably polite about being interviewed about an opposing player, which would have been acceptable if it had been Crosby, and didn't poke him in his squinty little eyes. Even Hughson and Millen, who are pretty good at what they do, resorted to raving about Malkin without much reason. With the score 1-0 late in the game, Hughson referred to the game as Malkin's "coming out party", after his playing a slightly above-average game and scoring zero points. When Malkin got an easy empty-netter, they all but stood and applauded his brilliance. Come on! I have concluded that HNIC can do nothing right.

Herb Zurkowsky reports on the game as a notice to the rest of the league that the Penguins are not just a one-man army. Well, no, as the CBC reminded us over and over last night, they are a TWO man army! How could we ever overlook the immortal Evgeni Malkin? Anyway, this was Pittsburgh's first win in Montreal in a couple of years, and their first ever win without Crosby. Give some of the credit to Laraque, who played a disciplined, effective game, barely noticing tiny Mark Streit attempting to check him as he set up the winning goal. I bet if you're George Laraque, when Mark Streit talks it sounds really high and squeaky.

Red Fisher gets it right: the Pens owe the win to Dany Sabourin, who stole the two points.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is justifiably proud of the effort of its team, which played not only without Crosby and with its third-string goalie, but also found itself down two forwards after Colby Armstrong and Adam Hall both had to leave the game. On paper, that sounds pretty embarrassing for the Habs, but it wasn't as bad as all that. First of all, Sabourin played very well. Second, the Penguins were pretty effectively shut-down, for the most part. Third, Armstrong and Hall weren't going to make a difference anyway. In truth, the Habs deserved this one, and the Pens got pretty lucky.

And the Habs are aware that this was a game they should have had. Chris Higgins says they were "missing that little something", by which I presume he means the back of the net. He adds that "when we're not scoring, we try to be a little too cute," and while he echoes the sentiments of most of the media and fans, I'm not sure I agree. The Habs' game is to set-up pretty goals: when it works, no-one complains that they pass too much. When they get shut-out, it becomes a little frustrating to see them dish the puck, but as soon as it goes in off one of those plays, all is forgiven.

News for Saturday, January 19th

2008-01-19T09:57:00.000-04:00

The good news about tonight's game against the Penguins is this: no Sidney Crosby. The bad news? No Sidney Crosby! It's nice for the Habs not to have to face the league's most dangerous player, but at the same time it's always fun to watch him play. The Pens are still a potent team without Crosby, so hopefully his absence doesn't make them cocky. Questions: will Brisebois and Begin be in the line-up?

George Gillett is selling off his interest in Liverpool soccer club. He's been a decent owner for the Habs, so I'm hoping he sticks around here.

The Globe and Mail applauds the CBC for its decision to show the Habs nationally this week, instead of its usual serving of Leaf. The injury to Crosby is unfortunate for them, as it will definitely hurt their ratings, and I can't say I'm sorry for them.

When it comes to French-Canadian players and the Montreal Canadiens, the rumors just will not stop. The Winnipeg Sun says that "Canadiens assistant general manager Pierre Gauthier has been following the Flames like a bad smell", trying to arrange a trade for Alex Tanguay. I continue to feel that Tanguay, a slick, play-making winger, is a bad fit on a team full of exactly that kind of player. What the Habs need is a goal scorer, which, bafflingly, is exactly what they are rumored to be offering in return for Tanguay (Alex Kovalev or Michael Ryder, depending on whom you listen to). Let's hope this never happens. Spector of Fox Sports, dismisses the idea as "more fantasy than fact", for what that's worth.

La Presse heaps praise on Andrei Kostitsyn, who is certainly deserving. Since Christmas he's been the Canadiens most consistent scorer, and has earned the confidence of Guy Carbonneau. The article notes that Kostitsyn's emergence has coincided with the call-up of his brother, Sergei, who - while not putting up the kind of points his brother has - has played excellent hockey and has many fans excited over his future.

Also in La Presse, Cristobal Huet's rare shoot-out victory is lauded. Huet absolutely blew the play that led to Atlanta's tying goal; it was one of the worst give-aways I've ever seen, especially in the context of its leading directly to a late, game-tying goal. It looked like a choke, and when it went to a shoot-out, I don't think there was a Hab fan alive who thought the Habs were going to take it. We were surprised, but his teammates, it seems, were not. "We never doubted Cristobal," the article quotes Mike Komisarek. Haha, yeah right! Even his mother was doubting him on that one.

News for Tuesday, January 15th

2008-01-15T10:09:00.000-04:00

Despite an ugly loss to the Rangers the other night - Cristobal Huet's first loss in regulation since December 20th - the bookies still like the Habs against the Islanders. This article notes that Chris Higgins, who hasn't scored much lately with just 2 goals in his last 13 - has a chance to break out against his hometown club, against whom he's had great success, with seven goals in eight games.

The Peoria sports world is looking forward to seeing Carey Price battle Hannu Toivonen in an AHL tilt tomorrow, as the Bulldogs arrive to face the Rivermen. The writer bills it as a contest between up and coming future netminding stars, but Canadiens fans will be keeping an eye on it more to see if Carey Price can rediscover the form that got him into the NHL last fall. His play has gradually eroded over the course of the season. In his last game, he was roughed up for 6 goals on just 13 shots by the Rochester Americans.

Globe and Mail sports-media watcher William Houston voices a sentiment that will gratify many a Hab fan in an article called "Time For Hockey Night to Trade the Leafs". Houston suggests that HNIC should probably be featuring first-overall Ottawa and 5th-place Montreal instead of cellar-dwelling Toronto. His numbers suggest that the CBC's usual defense of its programming - that the Leafs get far higher ratings than any other team - is certainly exaggerated, and probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. The other night, with Toronto out of the conference, the Ottawa game on HNIC drew over 900,000 viewers, only about 200,000 less than Toronto's average: that despite the fact that the Senators get no promotion from HNIC, and that their game was up against two major NFL playoff games on CTV. He provides no numbers for Montreal games, but I find it hard to believe that the Habs would draw fewer viewers than the Sens, so their ratings would have to be nearly equal to the Leafs. If the Leafs have higher TV numbers, it's not by much, and it's probably only because they've been so heavily showcased by the publicly funded CBC for decades. That's no reason to make an entire nation suffer Bob Cole, Harry Neale, Don Cherry, and the rest of the Leafs Praise-Chorus every week, is it? Well, I'm over it: I have RDS, I can understand French, and I and many other Canadiens fans have lost the HNIC habit.

Owner George Gillett is having some cash problems, according to this Ottawa Citizen piece, that may force him to sell off his interest in the Liverpool FC. Now, I'm sure my idea of money-problems is not the same as Gillett's idea, but this is interesting news. Not sure what it might mean for the Habs, but I'll see if I can dig anything else up.

Pat Hickey sets up the Habs-Isles game here. He talks with Chris Higgins, who notes that playing at home means providing tickets for more than 30 people, so that he is essentially playing those games "for free". Higgins isn't concerned about his drop in production lately: he says it's due to playing a different role on a different line, helping "shut down the other team's" stars on a checking line with Lapierre and Ryder. Higgins and Ryder are our checking line? Weren't they our first line last year? How the Habs win games is beyond me sometimes. Hickey says Huet will start, despite getting mercy-pulled against the Rangers, and (drum-roll) Patrice Brisebois is "questionable" for the game with an ankle injury.

The New York Times, no less, has a feature on hometown boys Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins. Really good read. I scanned it for any hint of them talking about maybe wanting to play in New York - or anywhere but Montreal - in the future, but didn't see anything. These are two guys I want to see in Montreal for life.

In La Presse, Francois Gagnon reports on Chris Higgins's problems scoring, and also on his suggestion that it's due to a change in his assignment. Gagnon has Coach Carbo denying that Higgins is playing a "checking" role: "il a encore la tâche de marquer des buts". Carbo goes on to say - I'm translating - that Higgins is best when he uses his speed and forces the other teams to make mistakes, and less effective when he tries to handle the puck too much or make fancy moves. Gagnon reports that Brisebois is definitely out, to be replaced on D by Streit, who will in turn be replaced by Tom Kostopoulos (to the disappointment of fans who would prefer to see what Corey Locke, a scorer at every level he's played in, can do). Kostopoulos will provided some toughness against an Isles team that tends to goon it up when things aren't going their way.

La Presse also runs this hopeful article, suggesting (once again) that Jose Theodore is finding his game again for the Avalanche.

News for Thursday, January 3rd: Brisebois sits, the importance of home wins, Kovalev reborn, return of Koivu, Higgins wants the Cup.

2008-01-03T18:09:00.000-04:00

Patrice Brisebois is healthy and ready to return to action ... but he won't. Not yet, at least. Pat Hickey quotes Guy Carbonneau: "He's ready, but he's only had one full practice with the team and I think we'll wait," which translates to, "The team is playing great and I don't feel like getting lynched by fans for playing Brisebois instead of Gorges." The return of Steve Begin and Brian Smolinski is also on the horizon, an event that will be an especial hurdle for Carbo: does he let the veterans continue to sit, or does he sit out the rookies who've replaced them, Maxim Lapierre and Sergei Kostitsyn? If there's any debate, it's purely a question of locker-room dynamics: Lapierre and especially Kostitsyn have won those jobs by any objective measure.

The Sports Network - not to be confused with TSN, I think - has a good game set-up here. The Lightning come into tonight's match on a five-game losing streak, and remain the NHL's worst road team. They are also officially the worst team in the Eastern Conference, after dropping their last game against Toronto, a 4-3 shoot-out defeat. Of course, if you're a bad road team, a visit to Montreal might be just what the doctor ordered. Dominant on the road, the Canadiens have floundered at home all year, a trend they'd better reverse if they want to make the playoffs. Tampa's last road win came - yes - in Montreal on Dec. 11th in a shoot-out, another area in which the Habs fail to excel. The surest bet in the world? That the Habs will lose in a shoot-out on home ice in a game in which they trailed after the first or second periods.

This CP article notes that the Habs are eager to turn the page on 2007 and have resolved to play better at home. Coach Carbo observes some positive signs: the Canadiens had their first successful Christmas road trip since 1998, going 3-1-2 on a long trip that featured an unusual amount of travel. Another point from the article: Vincent Lecavalier is the NHL's leading scorer, but if the Bolts don't pick things up he could become the first player to win that honour while playing on a last-place team since Chicago's Max Bentley in 1947.

It's official: Sergei Samsonov has been sent to the minors. Read the sad story here.

TSN runs this excellent story on the resurgence of winger Alex Kovalev. As the article says, "No Canadien has worked and produced as consistently" as Kovalev, a statement that manages to be both true and unbelievable. If the NHL has a comeback player of the year award, the article says, Kovalev would win it, and I agree. In a surreal moment the other night, Habs fans watched on TV as Alex Kovalev took the ice - wearing the "C", in the absence of the ailing Saku Koivu. As Carbo observes, "he deserved it". Habs fans are ecstatic over the production of Alex Kovalev this year, and he must be feeling the love. Some fans have joked that Kovalev must not realize his contract isn't up until next season, but the truth is that the winger was disappointed in his own season, which culminated in his failure to be invited to join the Russian team for the World Championships (you can bet they'd invite him this year, if they get the chance). He had a meeting with Carbo and Gainey at the end of the year, to clear the air and establish expectations, and he followed through by showing up in great shape and putting forth a consistently excellent effort up to this point. He's a treat to watch.

The St. Petersburg Times out of Tampa takes a dire tone in addressing the situation of the Lightning: "If Tampa Bay is to make the playoffs for the fifth straight season, forwards Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis, Brad Richards and Vinny Prospal must carry their stars on their sleeves", it intones, noting that the Bolts' scoring stars have largely disappeared during the team's current five-game winless skid. Judging by this article, look for Tampa Bay to go back to basics, dump the puck, crash the net, and try for an "ugly goal". They've been guilty lately of trying to get too fancy with the puck, apparently.

Many excellent articles in La Presse, si tu es bilingue. If not, I'll give you the gist here. Francois Gagnon notes the return of Saku Koivu after missing a game with the flu; he'll again skate with Latendresse and Sergei Kostitsyn. Gagnon also touches on the healthy scratch of Patrice Brisebois, just returned from the DL, and for the first time I can recall, a La Presse writer agrees with the decision to play an English player (Gorges) over a Quebecois (Brisebois). Now that's news!

Gagnon also finds Chris Higgins in an optimistic mood: the young winger wants nothing less than the Stanley Cup, and thinks the Habs can compete for it. Higgins cites the team's 4th place standing in the East, it's balanced three-line attack, #1 power-play, solid defencemen, and top-notch goaltending as reasons for his confidence, and when he puts it like that, you sure do feel like jumping on the bandwagon. Of course, watch the game tonight for a few minutes, and we'll most likely be cured, won't we? Before the Habs challenge for anyone's cup, much less Lord Stanley's, they'll want to address their poor home record, lousy penalty kill, inability to come back from any kind of a deficit, and tendency to blow leads.

Richard Labbe has this take on the Habs terrible home play. He looks at the two most popular theories on the Habs struggles at the Bell Centre - pressure from fans and the media - and finds them wanting. Worth a read. Though Labbe says he doesn't believe that Montreal fans or media are any harder to deal with than those in Toronto or New York, I think he's being disingenuous. Fans and reporters don't follow Rangers to the grocery. And Toronto is a city that is practically designed for anonymity: there's no downtown! The truth is, the fans and media in Montreal more passionate and more vocal than any other hockey fans, and it does make a difference.

La Presse also offers a thought for poor Corey Locke, who had waited three years to make his NHL debut, and was bitterly disappointed in New York when his hockey gear was lost by the airline. He didn't play and has since been sent back to Hamilton of the AHL. Hopefully he gets his chance soon.

Back after the game for some instant analysis. Go Habs!

News for Wednesday, January 2nd: Montreal Winter Classic?, Locke back in Hamilton, Hickey's State of the Union

2008-01-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins won the second staging of the NHL Winter Classic, played outdoors in front of over 70,000 fans in Buffalo, New York. It was a dramatic shoot-out win, and in a lucky stroke for the NHL, which had the game carried on NBC in the US, the winning goal came off the stick of Sidney Crosby, the NHL's anointed poster boy. By all accounts, the game was exciting and successful, so much so that we may see more than one Winter Classic next year, with the Globe and Mail identifying the Montreal Canadiens as just one of several teams interested in hosting their own outdoor game next year.

Can't win for losing: after missing out on a chance to make his NHL debut when his hockey bag was lost by an airline, Corey Locke has been reassigned to Hamilton of the AHL. He was to have filled in for flu-stricken captain Saku Koivu in New York the other night. Apparently he's better.

Although it barely mentions the Montreal Canadiens (a passing reference while relaying how the Leafs once again failed to make the playoffs last year) you might want to check out this hockey year in review from the National Post. A few interesting highlights worth redigesting.

Pat Hickey has a New Year's look at the Habs and where they stand. He begins by heaping praise on winger Alexei Kovalev, the eternal enigma who this year has provided surprising consistency, hard work, and offensive production. He already has 16 goals, just 2 fewer than he scored all last year. Moreover, as Hickey notes, he has served as a mentor and role model for the Habs' young team (half the starting squad is 25 or younger), especially the young, offensively-gifted Europeans: Markov, Plecanek, the Kostitsyns. Hickey observes that the Habs have exceeded expectations by landing themsleves in 4th place in the East, with 45 points after 39 games. On the other hand, he cautions, at this point last year the Habs had 51 points, before self-destructing to eventually miss the playoffs. Saku Koivu has the flu at the moment, by the way: deja vu, anyone? Anyway, read the rest of the article for well-deserved praise of Andrei Kostitsyn, Mike Komisarek, Chris Higgins, and the Canadiens' road record. Now if they could just start winning at home ...

News for Tuesday, January 1st: Shanahan Warbucks, Ryder rumour, UFAs don't like Montreal, Ryan McDonagh, Winter Classic, Bulldogs win.

2008-01-01T11:33:00.000-04:00

Not a lot of news to gather on New Year's Day, so I'm including a few off-topic bits, like this one: the New York Observer reports that the day after Brendan Shanahan scored the OT winner against Montreal (i.e., yesterday), he closed the deal on a 13.5 MILLION dollar Park Avenue condo. Okay, I know hockey salaries are insane, but has it actually reached the point where players are buying Park Avenue condos that cost in the double-digit millions of dollars?

In the Hockey News, Lyle Richardson (aka Spector) suggests that the New York Rangers might be interested in getting Michael Ryder from the Canadiens. The Rangers don't score a lot of goals, despite having big-name players like Shanahan, Jagr, Gomez, and Drury - and despite scoring four on the Habs the other night! - and could certainly use some added fire-power, though lack of offense is precisely the reason the Canadiens want to get rid of him.

On Fox Sports, and now writing as Spector, the same Mr. Richardson makes his 2008 predictions. Among them are the possible trading of Ryder, a lack of "blockbuster" trades on the horizon, and an increase in the salary cap. The Canadiens, he says, will have tons of cap space, but will "once again be unable to entice the top UFA players." He doesn't say why, but I assume it's the usual combination of taxes, cold weather, French language laws, tough fans, and constant media scrutiny. Richardson also predicts that Cristobal Huet won't be traded, even though Bob Gainey likes Carey Price, and that's a prediction I hope is accurate. There could never be a really good reason to trade a goalie who leads the league in save percentage, as far as I'm concerned. The question then becomes this: will the Canadiens resign the soon-to-be UFA to a contract extension before he hits the open market?

Sergei Samsonov cleared waivers last night and will be assigned to the Rockford Ice Hogs of the AHL, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The Hawks could then try calling him up to see if anyone wants him on reentry waivers, but they will probably put out feelers to other teams to ensure interest before making that move. I'm betting they find that few teams will bite. The Hawks are the second team that Samsonov has failed to catch on with - the first being the Habs, of course - and his attitude hasn't helped, which makes it hard to feel sorry for him, as we perhaps should. When he was with the Canadiens, he pinned the blame for his lack of performance on everyone but himself, and complained loudly to anyone who would listen that he'd made a mistake coming to Montreal. I wonder whose fault it is now? Coach Denis Savard calls this a "business decision," meaning, I surmise, that the Hawks made the "decision" to give Samsonov the "business".

Yahoo! Sports has their weekly power rankings, where you will find the Canadiens ranked 7th, up from 12th last time. They've bounced around the rankings this year, which in the age of "manufactured parity" (Bob McKenzie's term) must be difficult to compile. Seems like just about every team in the NHL is over .500, thanks to the extra point awarded for an OT or shoot-out win. In fact, the term ".500" no longer really means anything: it is still being used as though an OT loss is a tie, when it is, in fact, clearly a loss. With a record of 19-13-7, the Montreal Canadiens are said to be six games over .500, when in fact they've lost one more game than they've won. This mighty accomplishment has them, amazingly, at 4th place in the Eastern conference. It even puts them slightly ahead of the New York Rangers, who've won one more and lost one fewer games than the Habs. Yahoo also throws in some New Year's resolutions for each team, and the Habs' is to "Start attracting talent again because it's a lot harder to recruit top free-agents to this passionate hockey hotbed than most think." Yeah, that'd be nice.

Ryan McDonagh seems to be coming along nicely: Twin Cities.com notes his thus-far successful freshman year: 3 goals, six assists, +8 in 18 games.

La Presse has nothing new, but you could read this report on today's outdoor game, the NHL Winter Classic, to be played in Buffalo in front of - wow - 74,000 fans.

The Bulldogs shut out Grand Rapids last night, 1-0. Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves for the shutout, while Janne Lahti picked up the goal. With a record 11-14-6, the Dogs are 5th in their division, and not looking good to repeat last year's championship, to say the least. Their loss is the Habs' gain: Andrei Kostitsyn, Tomas Plecanek, Kyle Chipchura, Maxim Lapierre, Ryan O'Byrne, and Carey Price all spent a significant amount of time with the farm team last year.

News for Monday, December 31st (French):

2007-12-31T17:31:00.000-04:00

In La Presse, Marc Antoine Godin reports positively on last night's loss to the Rangers. The team played well, he says, and the point earned at the end of a successful road trip was a worthwhile achievement, given the circumstances (Koivu's illness, playing shorthanded, third game in four nights, etc.). He does observe that the Habs didn't have a great third period, "literally bottled in their own zone for the whole twenty minutes". Well, they weren't literally bottled, or in their zone for the whole period, but it sure felt that way. Many fans get quite irritated with the way the Habs seem to stop forechecking and go into a defensive shell when they have a lead, even only a one-goal lead with an entire period left to play, as was the case last night. The feeling among fans is that the Canadiens should stay on the attack, on the "they can't score against us if we have the puck" theory. I'm on the fence. Carbo's system is sound in theory, but it breaks down when the other teams get desperate and the Habs fail to capitalize on turnovers. It actually works more often than it doesn't, as the Habs winning record shows, but it's very frustrating when it doesn't. Last night, the Habs had a number of chances to put the game away and didn't. The Rangers got a cheap one - should have been disallowed for goalie interference by Sean Avery - for the equalizer.

Godin also speaks with Mark Streit, the versatile winger/defenseman, about his season thus far. He notes that players being used as both forwards and defensemen isn't actually all that uncommon in the NHL, and provides several interesting examples, going back to Sergei Fedorov being used as a defenseman by Scotty Bowman with the Red Wings in the late 90s. I can also recall Bowman using Paul Coffey as a forward, except that move wasn't complimentary, and it pissed Coffey off.

Perhaps the most complete account of last night's game in English or French comes from Martin Leclerc of Journal de Montreal. He calls the second period - in which Montreal scored two goals and held New York to just one shot - their best of the season. He pins the loss on the Habs' difficulties on face-offs last night (they won just 33% of the draws) and attributes the face-off problems on Koivu's absence: Carbo notes that Koivu is always the Canadiens' most reliable centre in that regard. Leclerc also uses a curious adjective - "pilonnee" - that I've never seen before. As he uses it to describe the Habs' defensemen in the first period, I'm going to guess that it means "pylon-esque", and I bet I'm right.

Yvon Pedneault has a good article based on his dialogue with Guy Carbonneau on the relative merits of using three lines primarily vs. four lines, as Carbo obviously prefers.

News for Monday, December 31st (English): Jack Todd packs it in, Huet under-appreciated, Carbo satisfied, Corey Locke can't win, Avery sucks.

2007-12-31T11:19:00.000-04:00

In the Gazette, Jack Todd offers up his final MMQB column, making New Year's Eve a little less happy. I've always enjoyed reading his stuff, and even used to spend a precious Toonie back in my university days to buy an imported Gazette so I could read him over my Monday morning coffee in the SUB. He's leaving the Gazette to concentrate on writing fiction, and maybe he's getting a head start in his last column by suggesting that the Habs have a chance to land Alex Ovechkin as an RFA this summer. Seriously, is there any price the Capitals wouldn't match? NO!!!!. Todd also takes a moment to ask Montreal fans why they've never properly appreciated Cristobal Huet, despite his consistent excellence. He wonders if it's because Huet is, like the Conehead family, from France, or because he's viewed as a transition goalie, from Theo to Price. I think the reason Huet has never gotten his due from fans is that he emerged at a relatively advanced age from minor-league obscurity, while Habs fans only have eyes for the next over-hyped hot-prospect goalie. They want Dryden. They want Roy. They wanted Thibault, then Theo, now Price. It's as though otherwise discerning Montreal fans won't believe a goalie is good unless a bunch of magazines and talking heads tell them he is. Anyway, good luck Jack Todd!

Elsewhere in the Gazette, Pat Hickey finds coach Guy Carbonneau "more than satisfied" with the Habs' performance in a losing effort last night in New York. Carbo says it was one of the team's "best games this season", especially given that the Habs were missing key player Saku Koivu, and had to play short-handed after Corey Locke's gear didn't make it to MSG on time. Hickey quotes Huet as knowing "where [Shanahan] was going to go" on his overtime winner, but the shot was perfect and Huet admits, "I just couldn't stop it". Huet did allow a softie earlier in the game, but now stands at 3-0-3 in his last six starts, and atop the NHL stats in save percentage. The Habs will be relying on him to stay hot and stay healthy, as they continue to scratch and claw for points over the balance of the season.

Poor Corey Locke. An OHL star who wasn't drafted until the fourth round because of his size. An AHL star who has never gotten a sniff of the NHL, because of his size. And after waiting three years for a chance to play with the Habs, he misses the opportunity ... because the airline lost his luggage! Hoping to avoid a second consecutive flu epidemic on the team, coach Carbo has Saku Koivu in quarantine, and Locke was going to have a chance to fill in. It could have been the break he's been waiting for, but it turned into another tough break for guy. Here's a new airline slogan idea: "Air Canada: Crushing Dreams Since 1956".

If you've got the stomach, check out this New York Daily News article on the game and all the credit it gives to Sean Avery for the Rangers' win. Avery, it crows, "backed slightly into the goalie's pad on the follow-through, wobbling him slightly as Drury flipped home the rebound". Yeah, that Avery, he's some player. It's bad enough the tying goal was the result of that clown's goaltender interference, but since when do sports journalists congratulate players for crappy plays like that?. Thanks for reminding us how bad the officiating in the NHL is, NY Daily News!

Here's a piece on the waiving yesterday of Sergei Samsonsov by the Chicago Blackhawks: the Globe and Mail's Erik Duhatschek thinks Samsonov's career might be over. Well, actually, this event marks only the end of his playing days in the NHL; as any Montreal fan can tell you, his playing career ended at some point the summer before last. We certainly didn't see him play much hockey last year.

News for Sunday, December 30th: Things Go Right, Fighting is Stupid, Ryder, Samsonov Waived, & "The Kostitsyn" Effect

2007-12-30T09:18:00.000-04:00

Pat Hickey talks to the Habs to see what's been going right for them of late, and Chris Higgins says it's about taking a break, both from hockey-mad Montreal, and from hockey itself. With a lengthy road-trip sandwiching the Christmas hiatus, the Habs haven't had to deal with the pressures of being the Canadiens in Montreal, a situation in which Higgins says you get "consumed". And being away from the rink, he adds, "reminds you how lucky you are to be playing". Geez, you'd think the paychecks and the girls would be a pretty fair reminder, wouldn't you? Without saying it directly, I think what Higgins is singing is the old "it's hard to play in Montreal" song.

Fighting is Stupid, Example 5,125,341: Ryan O'Byrne will miss six weeks with a broken thumb sustained in a pointless fight near the end of a 5-1 game. O'Byrne was playing 14:00 a game and starting to look very comfortable in the NHL. He brought much needed size to the Habs blueline and laid out a couple of powerful hits in the same game. Now, because hockey is the only sport bush-league enough to tolerate fighting, we will see Patrice Brisebois in a Habs uniform before we see O'Byrne in one again. That makes me want to punch something ... but I'm an adult who can control his own anger. Is hockey really that much tougher than rugby or football? Really?

At the Carolina News & Observer, Luke DeCock has the most realistic-looking list of players most likely soon to be traded ... and yes, Michael Ryder's name is on it. Any goals he has over the rest of the year have nothing to do with it: he's a UFA at the end of the year, he won't come back to Montreal unless the Habs substantially overbid for him, and no single player is worth the kind of money Ryder is likely to receive, assuming he finds his scoring touch again. If he'd been a free agent before this year, he probably could have gotten six million dollars per from any number of desperate GMs. His value is down after disappearing for the better part of the year, but he'll still get five million, and that's just too much.

In a move that will surprise no Canadiens fan, Sergei Samsonov has been waived by the Chicago Blackhawks. After trading Mike Ribeiro for basically nothing, his signing is the worst move Bob Gainey has made as Habs GM. What on earth ever happened to this guy? It's absolutely mystifying. After a promising beginning, his career sputtered and has finally, I think, crashed. Will he play again in the NHL? Not likely.

In La Presse, Marc Antoine Godin atrributes the Habs recent success to the "Kostitsyn Effect". He notes that in the 8 games since Sergie was recalled from Hamilton, the Habs have gone 5-2-1, and have averaged 3.5 goals per game, up from the 2.8 they were scoring before. While the younger Kostitysn has a respectable 5 points in his first 8 NHL games, he is obviously not directly responsible for the improved offense. As Godin notes, it's the way his presence allows Carbonneau to set his lines that is really making the difference, enabling the Habs to ice three effective offensive lines for the first time this season. Lacking any true superstars, it was Carbo's intention in training camp to have a three-line attack, but the struggles of Michael Ryder and Bryan Smolinksi meant that it never really happened. Now, with Sergei on the top line, Saku Koivu has come to life, with 2 goals and nine points in the 8 games he's played. Also profiting is new first-line winger Guillaume Latendresse who, with four goals since joining Koivu and Kostitsyn, suddenly looks like the power forward the Habs have needed since 1979. With the opposition being forced to check two lines, the dependable Plecanek, Kovalev, A. Kostitsyn line has had a little extra room to breathe, and has upped its own production: Andrei Kostitsyn has scored a point per game since his brother joined him in Montreal. Finally, the newly formed third line features two of the team's best players - Chris Higgins and Michael Ryder. Ryder's been in a funk, yes, but with a goal the other night, he may be breaking out of it, and if he does, the Habs three-line attack could become very potent indeed.

News for Saturday, December 29th

2007-12-29T10:06:00.000-04:00

Pat Hickey reports on the Habs' 5-1 win over the Panthers last night. He credits Chris Higgins for doing what no-one else has been able to do for the last six weeks: get Michael Ryder on the scoresheet. Ryder finished off a tic-tac-toe play after a quick, cross-crease pass from Higgins in the first period. Hickey also gets Jacques Martin to explain what he was thinking when he started Vokoun, pulled him, put him back in, then pulled him again: "I took him out to shake things," he said. It didn't work.

The Palm Beach Post covers the game from the Florida side. The article notes that about half of the crowd cheered for the Habs against the home team, and it sounded like it was the louder half. "We didn't give them any reason to cheer us," Jacques Martin reasons. He blames lack of effort for the loss, calling out Jozef Stumpel and Branislav Mezei specifically. He lets goalie Tomas Vokoun - beaten on his first three shots against - off the hook, saying that the Panthers never gave him a chance: "the goalie is not there to cover for [your mistakes]". Vokoun also is unhappy with the effort in front of him: "This isn't figure skating," he complains, and indeed, those little skating skirts the ladies wear provide better coverage than the Panthers provided last night. The Panthers gooned it up when it got out of hand, but Martin doesn't really comment: "At least it shows he cares," he said of Bryan Allen's triple-roughing tantrum. Well, I think it was pretty bush-league, Jacques.

For your private schadenfreude I pass along without comment this Globe and Mail piece on the crapness of the Leafs. Okay, a few comments: Dave Shoalts bemoans the fact that the Leafs - just four points behind Montreal as of yesterday, six now - blew a chance over the past couple of weeks to climb in the standings. He think they should've won a couple more with their improved defense. Hey, cry us a river, Dave.

In La Presse, Robert Laflamme discusses the improvement of two local favourites: Guillaume Latendresse and Maxim Lapierre. Before, he notes, all anyone said about the young forward was how slow he was. Now, with 11 goals in just 34 games, no-one's complaining anymore. Guillaume is especially pleased with the fact that 10 of his goals have been scored at even strength, and as Laflamme notes, Latendresse's contributions are a big reason why the Habs are +1 overall at 5-on-5.

Also in La Presse: tired of Carbo's incessant line-juggling? Well, fret no more. According to Robert Laflamme, Carbo "believes he has found the right combinations at last." With 2 wins and 10 goals in the last two games, you can understand his satisfaction. Of course, the cynics out there might suggest that Carbo's faith in his current lines will last about as long as the first bad shift one of them takes, and they'd probably be right.

Finally La Presse reports that Ryan O'Byrne is out indefinitely after hurting himself in one of his fights last night. Now there's some bad news, as O'Byrne was starting to play some good, physical hockey for the Habs.

Canadiens 5 at Panthers 1: Game Review

2007-12-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

The Habs won a weird one, massively outshot but dominant on the scoresheet, where it counts. How weird was it? Facing a Panthers team that had won 5 of 6, that has made a meal of the Habs since coming into the league, that soundly whipped them the last time they played, and that has one of the hottest goalies in the NHL, the Habs scored on their first 3 shots and chased Tomas Vokoun not once, but twice in the same night. Meanwhile, Cristobal Huet made over 40 saves, while managing to look strangely unharassed for most of the evening.

In their last two games - on consecutive nights in the Sunshine State - the Habs have scored 10 goals, with 20 different players collecting points, while allowing just 3 against. They've done it while rolling four balanced lines and playing Carbo's perimeter defense to perfection. They've also, however, been extremely fortunate in facing goalies who, in the words of HIO blogger Mike Boone, have looked like they are "on acid".

This was a very good match for Chris Higgins, who broke out with a 1 goal, 2 assist game. Both assists were absolute beauties, one a gift to a no-doubt grateful Michael Ryder (his monkey's gone to heaven), the other a superb cross-ice feed to a sneaky Mark Streit. Higgins looked like a superstar on this night.

Cristobal Huet was superb. Despite handling more rubber than a Nascar pit-monkey over 60 minutes, he never looked rattled. Don't let the score fool you: there were lots of opportunities - on the power-play, especially - for the Panthers to get back in this one, but Huet never gave them a chance. Price may be the man down the road, but Huet is the man of the moment: very fortunate for Price to be playing with another strong goalie at this point in his career.

A few concerns: the power-play, despite a late goal, is drying up. And the Habs lead-protection strategy remains a heart-attack, as they circle the wagons and let the opposition send wave after wave of attack at them. Finally, while the Habs remain basically a sure thing when they are leading after one, you can't help but wonder why they can't come back from even a one goal deficit with 40 minutes left in the game. And why can't they do this sort of thing at home??? On the road, the Habs are 2nd only to Ottawa, while they have won just 6 out of 17 at home. But perhaps it's poor form to criticize after such a pleasing result ... get the very enjoyable stats here.

One more game - against the Rangers - on the road, then back to Montreal, which hopefully will be a more hospitable place for the home team in 2008.

News for Friday, December 28th: Habs win, Lightning suck, Carbo is a genius, Huet is number one, Mike Boone is funny, Four Habs Fans like pole dancers

2007-12-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

CBC.ca says "Habs Romp Over Lazy Lightning", and you can imagine that John Tortorella couldn't object to the charge, which is as blunt as its use of alliteration. The article gives Montreal credit for notching the two points, but the emphasis is on the Lightning's terrible showing: "It's one of the worst stretches that I can remember since I've been here," Tortorella says. The article erroneously accuses Kyle Chipchura of "again" being a healthy scratch, when in fact he was a surprise scratch for the first time in a long while.

The AP carries a similar story brimming with ominous Lightning stats: they've lost 8 out of 10 and have scored 2 or fewer goals in 10 of their last 11 games. The story credits the Habs with snapping a two game losing streak and mentions Alex Kovalev's 16th of the season (he had only 18 all last year), though noting it was a lucky goal (off a Tampa defender's foot).

Pat Hickey's Gazette/Canwest story says Carbo's latest line-juggling results have him "looking like a genius". Well, it's true that the lines worked: playing between Chris Higgins and Michael Ryder, Maxim Lapierre scored his first of the season. Reunited with Saku Koivu - and alongside Sergei Kostitsyn - Guillaume Latendresse picked up his 10th. And Hickey points out that the one line Carbo left alone provided two goals, from Kovalev and Andre Kostitsyn. But while I agree with Hickey that the lines looked good - I especially liked Latendresse going to the net on the Koivu line - I would caution that just about any lines would have looked good against the Lightning team that showed up last night.

Elliot Olshansky discusses the game for CSTV in New York: he got tickets to the match at the last minute and was surprised at how pro-Montreal the crowd was. He talks with Ryan O'Byrne and gets his views.

All Headline News notes that the Habs have "broken free from Boston" in the standings at 18-13-6, good for 3rd in the East in overall points, though 4th in the actual seedings. The Lightning, on the other hand, find themselves in a last-place tie with the Washington Capitals. The Habs hold on the 4th spot is obviously quite tenuous: they are only 3 points up on Florida, which currently stands at 9th, out of the playoffs. For that matter, the Habs are only 9 points out of last overall. Just 10 points separate the worst team in the East, the Capitals, from the second best, the New Jersey Devils. Don't you love parity? What's that? No, you don't? Me neither.

The Tampa Bay Tribune's Erik Erlendsson has a nice doom-and-gloom piece on the Lightning. It has very little to do with the Habs, but it is fun to read about the Habs being "powerful" and "overmatching" their opponents.

Look out for the Florida Panthers: the South Florida Sun-Sentinel notes that they got a confidence booster last night, defeating the Thrashers to pull within three points of the Habs. Nathan Horton scored two, and Tomas Vokoun stopped 38 shots. The Panthers always play the Habs tough, as we know, so expect them to look a lot better than a 9th place team tonight.

Pat Hickey, in the Gazette, says that Cristobal Huet will be the number one man for the foreseeable future: his consistency, Hickey says, gives him the edge in Carbo's books. I agree wholeheartedly, and have all season long. I still think a year in the AHL would have been better for Price, who is clearly doing a lot of OJT in the pros. The only problem for Huet is the large contingent of Habs fans who completely abandon hope whenever he allows a goal. Many Montreal fans are quite prepared to give up on a goalie if he doesn't win a cup in his first year with the team, as Dryden and Roy did, and obviously, it is not a realistic approach.

Finally, in the Blogosphere, Lions in Winter has another good game review, noting that the Habs best players were their best players last night. At HIO, Mike Boone has a hilarious and thoughtful review of last night and preview of tonight: he's always funny. Four Habs Fans haven't updated their site since their gloomy preview (Habs Look to get Reamed) of the Lightning game, but they do feature a sexy pole-dancing picture, if that's your sort of thing.

Check back later for a look at what the French Press are saying about the Habs.

Montreal 5 at Tampa Bay 2 - Game Review

2007-12-27T22:44:00.000-04:00

The up-and-down Habs are up once more. It was a convincing win, but not perhaps the dominant performance the final score suggests. A struggling and disinterested-looking Lightning team played right into the Canadiens hands, giving up a series of odd-man rushes, and for once the Habs were able to capitalize. Both of the Tampa goals were of the cheesy, garbage-picking variety, and both were the direct result of defensive breakdowns.

On such breakdown was the work of Michael Ryder, who left Vaclav Prospal open after unwisely deciding to help Roman Hamrlik hit another Tampa forward. Ryder somehow went -2 on the night and did little offensively to help his cause, so look for him to be watching tomorrow night's game against the Panthers. More tough luck for a player who is truly jinxed this year.

It was a very good night for Saku Koivu, who earned two assists in just under 13:00 minutes of ice-time. The captain seems to have broken out of a bit of slump, but Carbo is being careful not to overwork the veteran. He rested for most of the third in anticipation of tomorrow night's game.

Andrei Kostitsyn, Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov, Maxim Lapierre, and Guillaume Latendresse scored the Montreal goals. Lapierre got it started, electing to shoot on a 2-on1 with Higgins and making no mistake. Next was Latendresse, picking up the garbage on a goal-mouth flurry by the Habs for his 10th of the season; his critics are getting quieter all the time, lately. Kovalev got lucky on his goal, but it was well-deserved, the high-point of a very strong overall game by the suddenly dependable Habs leader. Also getting his 10th of the year was Andrei Markov - who played fantastic all night - off a power-play blast (sweet pass from Streit after Koivu set the play smartly), and almost immediately after that, Andrei K roofed a Plecanek pass to make it 5-0.

Cristobal Huet was unable to hang on to the shut-out, but he played a very steady, very solid game, making 28 saves and doing a great job preventing rebounds. He continued his heart-stopping puck-handling experiments, but did no damage with them tonight.

I am told that Vincent Lecavalier did play in this game, but I don't believe it. There's better visual evidence for the existence of Sasquatch than for Lecavalier's presence on the ice tonight. Also MIA was Martin St. Louis, whose name was not mentioned once. Then again, the game was being called by Bob Cole, and it is possible that he thinks Martin St. Louis is pronounced "Sun-deen", which is something I did hear him say a few times tonight, for no ascertainable reason. Speaking of Bob Cole, he appears to believe that there is someone on the Habs with the last name "Maxim". Obviously, he means M. Lapierre, but it wouldn't kill him to get something as simple as the players' names right, would it? I mean, he probably knows the middle name of Doug Gilmour's mother. I have a dream ... of a day when my tax dollars do not directly subsidize the ridiculously unprofessional way the CBC/HNIC cabal shoves that fan-club masquerading as a sports-broadcast down our nation's collective throat.

A good win at a good time. Now on to Florida, where you can expect the Habs to have a tough time with a team that has, mysteriously, dominated them ever since it came into existence.

News for Thursday, December 27th: Habs vs. Lightning, the return of Ryder, weekly player ratings, and the Bulldogs go for three in a row

2007-12-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

Pat Hickey's Gazette/AP story covers the Habs as they prepare for tonight's game against the Lightning in Tampa Bay. Fans might not be expecting much from les Boys tonight, given (a) their recent history in Florida, (b) their recent history over Christmas road trips, and (c) their recent history period, which has them on a two game losing skid. But Habs Francis Bouillon and Mike Komisarek sound optimistic ... must be all that sunshine. Hickey hints that Michael Ryder may be back in the line-up tonight, and indeed look for Carbo to make a couple of changes, which he generally does after any loss. Or win. Or overtime loss. Or win. Or period.

Hickey has another report, this one on the Lightning, who are struggling, going 3-6-1 over the last ten games. Their offence, especially, has sputtered, with just 22 goals over the same period of time. Even worse, Hickey notes, while the Lightning's top four scorers have been responsible for 16 of those goals, they are also a combined -36 while doing so. Just about anyone would agree that the stat is a little misleading: until the arrival of Kari Ramo a couple of games ago - look for him to give the Habs trouble tonight - the Lightning goaltending has been terrible.

In La Presse, Francois Gagnon has his weekly ratings for the Habs. On defence, he puts Markov and Komisarek at #1 and #2, praising Markov for rediscovering his excellent all-around game, and Komisarek for reliable, hard-nosed defence. Francis Bouillon gets an honourable mention for acting as the team's "enforcer". Alex Kovalev, Chris Higgins, Mark Streit, and Guillaume Latendresse get high marks for their play in the last four games. Kovalev has provided consistent offense, as has Chris Higgins, though Gagnon notes that Higgins's remarkable lack of finish left him only an assist to show for all his hard work. Gagnon wishes he would show a little more patience in shooting situations: good shooters, he says, get it away quickly, but calmly ("On lui souhaite un peu plus de détende dans les situations de tir. Les bons marqueurs dégainent rapidement, mais le geste est rarement nerveux."). Latendresse is particularly impressive to Gagnon, with nine goals on the year despite his third/fourth line status. Gagnon wants him to be a permanent fixture on the power-play, planted in the slot to screen the goalie and "ramasser les vidanges", which I think means something like "pick up the garbage". Gagnon is disappointed in Saku Koivu, and Tomas Plecanek, who didn't have good weeks. As for the goalies, Gagnon notes that they have the most difficult assignments: the Canadiens, he says, rarely win if their goalie isn't one of the three stars. He rates Huet's week as very good (apart from the shoot-out!), but says expectations for Price need to be scaled back, as his poor performance last week shows: Price must "walk before he can run".

La Presse also carries a story titled "Canadiens Face Vulnerable Lightning" ("Le Canadien affrontera un Lightning vulnérable") showing that someone at CP (it's a wire story) is feeling optimistic. It is similar to the Pat Hickey article highlighting the Lightning's recent troubles. While it's true that lately the Lightning have had problems, it must be remembered that beating the Habs evidently isn't one of them. Please, please, please no shoot-out tonight! Elsewhere in La Presse, Maxim Lapierre talks about the Habs Christmas vacation.

Check out le Journal de Montreal for this Pierre Durocher piece on the game tonight. He's looking for a rebound from a "poor team effort" against Dallas. With three points out of six so far on the road this trip, he notes that there is still a chance to make this a successful leg of the Habs season. And he says that the Habs have "favourable circumstances" on their side against the Lightning, echoing Gagnon and Hickey, and again stimulating my terrible memories of Brad Richards making Huet look stupid in the shoot-out. These are the Habs! "Favourable circumstances" would be, like, if the other team's equipment got lost and they had to use roller skates and lacrosse sticks.

The Hamilton Bulldogs have struggled this season, but recently completed a successful trip to Manitoba, on which the Dogs picked up 3 of a possible 4 points, winning Friday and losing in overtime Saturday against the Manitoba Moose. Corey Locke, Duncan Milroy, and Matt d'Agostini will continue to be a three-man army when the Dogs return to the ice tonight, at home against the same Moose team.

News for Wednesday, December 26th: Habs in Florida, the continuing Subban Story, Mats Naslund, Jacques Lemaire, and Ryder trade stuff.

2007-12-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

After a whole two days off for Christmas, the Habs were back on the ice today, getting ready for tomorrow's game against the Lightning. Pat Hickey talks to several Canadiens about how they spent their "holidays". A few spent the big day in Florida, rather than getting mixed up in a whirlwind of holiday travel - good call. Interesting fact to learn in this piece: Russians open their presents on New Year's Day.

Wow, another profile on prospect PK Subban, this one in the Globe and Mail. There was another in the Star just three days ago. Subban gets more press than most of the guys who actually play for the Habs, which speaks to his charisma, I guess. I was really hoping to watch him earlier today in the WJHC, but unfortunately, he was the 7th D.

Ian MacDonald talks with former Habs standout Mats Naslund in this where-are-they-now piece. Mats has stayed involved in hockey, managing Team Sweden at Worlds and the Olympics, and also served as a Euro scout for the Habs under former GM Rejean Houle. Considering Houle's drafting record, I'm not sure I'd bring that up if I were Mats. Naslund speaks nostalgically of being the last Hab to top 100 points (110 in 1985/1986), reminding us that at least one person is proud of the fact that the Habs haven't been able to break a hundred in twenty years. It's always nice to read about what our old favourites are up to, especially a guy like Naslund, one of their few ever really good Euros, and an important member of a Cup winning team.

The Minneapolis Post Bulletin has a piece on Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, obviously a familiar name to Habs fans, and - among many other interesting details - it points out that Lemaire has managed to coach well over a thousand NHL games without ever being fired. Now there's an impressive stat. Lemaire has himself resigned from two other coaching jobs, one with the Devils (after a club record 107 point season) and one, of course, with the Canadiens. He has certainly earned his job security: his Devils were perennial contenders who won a Stanley Cup under him in 1995, and his Wild teams have always been competitive. There are many Habs fans out there who dream aloud about the Habs one day hiring Lemaire to coach again in Montreal, but forget it: Lemaire is on the record as having no patience with the media-circus that surrounds the Habs, and you can bet that hasn't changed.

On Fox, analyst Spector has his trade-watch candidates for each team posted, and it's no surprise to find he considers Michael Ryder to be Grade A trade bait. It is, however, interesting to read that he believes the Habs have no intention of parting with goalie Cristobal Huet: before the season, the emergence of Carey Price had the entire city practically packing the guy's bags. The Habs, however, would indeed be wise to retain the veteran's services, Price or no Price. Back to Ryder for a second: this is obviously a trade that will come back to bite the Habs on the ass. We've seen it before. Ryder has the potential to score fifty with the right kind of support, and when he does, you can bet at least 10 of them will be against the Habs.

And finally, the aforementioned rookie phenom Carey Price is named one of the Sporting News' best six young players in this brief look at hockey's future.

News for Tuesday, December 25th

2007-12-25T18:35:00.001-04:00

Christmas has come, but the news doesn't stop, somehow. I'll take a break from lacing up my son's new skates (it's his first real pair, and he likes to put them on, take them off, put them on, repeat) to post a few links:

Fox News - hey, they're always reliable, right? Just ask my dad - has a Spector blog that puts a lump of coal into the stocking of hope that the Ovechkin-to-Montreal rumours have been to many Habs fans. In short, he says the rumours are nothing more than the metastasized echoes of the wishful thinking of members of the Montreal press. Their persistence, he adds, is the result of hockey-snobbery, which continues to view with distaste the fact that a player as superb (and marketable) as Alex Ovechkin toils nightly to thousands of empty seats in a lousy hockey market. But the reality is, the owner and management of the team have no intention of trading him, and Ovechkin's impending RFA status isn't going to change anything. Well, I think I speak for all Hab fans when I say, that sucks. Merry Christmas to you too, Spector.

The Canadian Press ranks the Habs 12th in their weekly ranking. Appended is a Christmas wish for each team: Montreal's is for Michael Ryder to "start finding the back of the net again". Amen. The other wishes are entertaining enough for a quick read.

At Sportsnet.ca, Pierre Lebrun has a nice read on Mike Ribeiro's revenge on the Habs the other day ... as if you want to think about that again, I know, but still a good piece. Lebrun notes that Ribeiro is on pace for 94 points (won't happen), but agrees with many (myself included) that things wouldn't have gone the same way for him in Montreal. Lebrun cites "distractions" in Montreal as evidence in support of his belief. I think I know what he means, I've been "distracted" a few times in Montreal myself. Lebrun quotes Ribeiro on the reason for his transformation: "Maturity comes into play", and that when he was in Montreal he was "thinking less about training than I am now".

The Canadian Press looks at the situation of all six Canadian NHL teams at the Christmas break. At 17-13-6, the Habs are one of four Canadian teams on the good side of the playoff line. Of course, the CP would hardly be journalists if they didn't point out that the Habs were in the exact same position at this time last year, as no fan needs to be reminded. CP kindly advises the Habs to avoid a similar "meltdown", which doesn't quite qualify as sage advice.

Okay, here's a hilarious life-imitates-art story from the Globe and Mail. Over in Kandahar, Canadian Forces have built an ice-less hockey rink, right next to the famous Tim Horton's outlet, the only one outside North America. Their league is so active, the owners of Sportchek decided to help out the troops by donating a pile of hockey gear - a really nice gesture. A photo op was scheduled for the shipment arrival, and a member of the Van Doos (famous Quebec regiment) was all set to pose in the new Montreal Canadiens sweater he'd requested. But when he pulled the sweater out of the package ... well, if you don't know what he found, then you haven't read Roch Carrier's classic short story, and you should! This article is a must read.

Well, that would seem to be about it. I have to go lace my kid's skates again. Merry Christmas to all.

News for Monday, December, 24th

2007-12-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

TSN carries the CP story that runs in many papers today, focusing on the close, personal connections between Dallas and Montreal, which have helped develop an unlikely cross-conference rivalry between the two teams. First of all, the teams' respective owners, George Gillet and Tom Hicks, are close friends and business partners. Furthermore, all three current Montreal bench coaches - Guy Carbonneau, Kirk Muller, and Doug Jarvis - spent a significant amount of time with Dallas after their Montreal playing days. Doug Jarvis was an assistant coach there for 14 years, while Kirk Muller won his second Cup with the Stars, playing alongside Guy Carbonneau, whose daughter is married to team captain Brendan Morrow. Bob Gainey, Habs GM, filled the same role with Dallas in days gone by, and still has close connections in the city. More recently, Gainey helped out his Texas hockey pals by trading them Mike Ribeiro - for Janne Niinimaa, ouch - who has blossomed like the proverbial yellow rose into a star: his 19 goals and 39 points have him heading for a career year. Niinimaa is also having a good season. In Europe. That's an unusual amount of history for teams from different parts of the continent to share.

In the Gazette (and on AP), Pat Hickey takes the "Revenge of Ribeiro" angle, quoting the one-time Hab as saying "I had this game circled (on the calendar) for a long time". Well, it will be a Merry Christmas for him, after picking up three points against the team that drafted him, lost patience with him, gave up on him, and traded him for a bag of pucks. It will be a less Merry Christmas for coach Carbo, who will be spending the holidays being mocked at son-in-law Brendan Morrow's house. Carbo wasn't happy with what he saw, particularly Ribeiro's goal, on which, as he notes, "we just gave it away." It's nice of him to use the collective pronoun there, since only one guy actually gave the puck away, but since Carbo doesn't name names, neither will I. But he's tall, European, and his name in English means "he who licks hammers".

For a different perspective, see the Fort Worth Star Telegram, whose Tracey Myers gives us the view from Texas, which is that Mike Ribeiro was looking to send a message to the Habs, and did (he put a little too much postage on it for my liking). Myers notes that "it wasn't a bad night for anyone in black", and that the Stars "controlled the tempo throughout". She quotes Turco as saying that Ribeiro "had the puck on a string" all night, and says the Canadiens sealed their own fate by failing to score on five power plays. All true. She also has a stat that isn't mentioned elsewhere: in his last 8 games, Mike Ribeiro has 15 points. Ouch.

For La Presse, Francois Gagnon talks about the game with Mathieu Dandeneault, who says Ribeiro's big night was "écrit dans le ciel" (written in the stars). Dandeneault praises Ribeiro , calling him "very intelligent" and a "very good player", but he says the Habs are to blame for the loss: "On a fait l’erreur de lui donner de l’espace et du temps. C’est sûr qu’il allait en profiter" ("We made the mistake of giving them too much space and time. They were certain to take advantage"). Gagnon also quotes a disgusted Guy Carbonneau, who says essentially that he can accept a loss if the team works hard and plays well, but that last night the Habs gave nothing ("Je peux accepter la défaite. Je peux vivre avec tant qu’on se défonce sur la patinoire. Et ce soir, on n’a rien donné. Rien!"). When it was suggested that the Habs were tired, playing their third game in four nights, Carbo admitted fatigue was a factor, but that a team always needs to give everything it has left, and that last night, "we didn't do that" ("On ne l’a pas fait ce soir ").

Also in La Presse, Rejean Tremblay has a blustery column that touches a few bases. He quotes Yvon Lambert at length on the Canadiens' lack of size, which in the opinion of both, it seems, is the biggest problem the Habs have. Lambert feels sorriest for Saku Koivu, "the poor guy", who is forced to do battle every night with guys a half-foot taller and 50 pounds heavier, and is criticized for not being able to do more against them. This angers Lambert. At some point, he says, it's only natural that Koivu has nothing left to give ("Le pauvre gars mesure cinq pieds et dix pouces et il passe les soirées à affronter des gars de six pieds et trois pouces, quand c’est pas plus. C’est normal qu’à un moment donné, il ne soit plus capable d’en donner plus"). I'm with Yvon about Koivu, who is as heart-and-soul as they come, but I think Koivu would be better off with a winger who can finish his plays than he would be with some extra bulk. And in generas, I feel the Habs clearly want less for size than for scoring. I'd gladly take a Daniel Briere or Marc Savard over a Dustin Penner or a Scott Hartnell right about now.

Tremblay has some kind words for Guy Carbonneau, who he says is "infinitely more solid in his decisions" ("Carbo est infiniment plus solide dans ses décisions"). Tremblay says he's making a difference this season, that the Habs record this year is not deceptive, as last year's was. Tremblay gives Carbo the gears a bit for benching Guillaume Latendresse, whom he points out has two more even-strength goals than the "great" Alex Kovalev, and more than any other Hab except for Tomas Plecanek, all while playing on the third or fourth line. Well, it's a fair point, but we know that Tremblay wouldn't be defending Latendresse if his name were Jones. Latendresse has been inconsistent: when he's working, he's effective, and when he's not, he's a liability. Carbo is trying to keep him on track, and letting him know that his spot in the line-up is not guaranteed is not at all a bad thing.

Tremblay (it's a long column!) blasts Bob Gainey for ever trading Mike Ribeiro (he's not a Frenchman, Rejean!), whom he says had "du talent et du chien." Okay, to me that says Ribeiro had the talent and the dog, but I can't figure out what his dog has to do with it. I assume it's an idiom of some sort, and I apologize for being at a loss with the translation, but Rejean's French is rather challenging at times. Anyway, he eye-rollingly suggests that Bob must have traded Mike for wearing his hat gangsta-style ("portait sa casquette avec la palette sur le côté"), and says it's infuriating that Gainey gave such a gift to the Dallas Stars. Fair enough, but I'm with those who say that Ribeiro was a lousy fit in Montreal.

Finally (!) Tremblay says some nice things about Jack Todd, whom he says is leaving the Gazette this January. What?! Say it ain't so, Jack!

See here for a nice piece on Habs prospect PK Subban, he now of the Canadian World Junior team. A great read, don't miss it.

In the blogosphere: Mike Boone feels our pain at HIO, pointing out that Roman Hamrlik went -4, and that Carey Price wasn't exactly Price-o-licious last night. Lions in Winter does a bang-up job of finding positives in last night's game (Markov has snapped out of his funk, Sergei Kostitsyn showed that his junior numbers weren't all linemate-related, the play of Chipchura and Streit, etc). Hey, who says Habs fans are always negative? Eyes on the Prize has a fun Christmas Wish List for the Habs; I liked it so much I might post my own later. And I think Four Habs Fans have coined a brilliant/depressing term for what happened to the Habs last night when they say that the Habs got "Leclaired in Dallas".

Hoping for better things on Thursday.

Dallas 4 - Montreal 1: Game Review

2007-12-24T09:28:00.000-04:00

During the first intermission last night on RDS, Kirk Muller was being questioned about the Habs "terrible performance", to which he objected, "Well, I wouldn't use the word 'terrible'". Hmm. I wonder what word he was using after the game was finished? Well, if he wouldn't call it "terrible", anyone doing last-minute Christmas shopping for Captain Kirk should be advised that he could probably use a new dictionary ... and perhaps a thesaurus.

Anyway, I was feeling for Kirk - and Guy, and Doug - during last night's execrable, vomitous, noxious, abhorrent, wretched, vile, atrocious performance. Muller is my favourite Hab ever, a guy who always played his hardest, hated losing, and embodied effort. Kirk had 2nd-line skills, which he parlayed into 1st-line stats and a distinguished career, the high-point of which has to be his leading the Habs to the 1993 Stanley Cup. Why can't we see some of that drive and will from the present-day team? I'm not saying the current Habs don't always try, just that they don't always aim, work, aspire, attempt, compete, contest, labor, or struggle.

In defense of the Habs - though they probably need a better lawyer than me - they were playing their third game in four nights on the road, and last night's apparent lack of effort was probably mostly a lack of steam. They also faced a very tough opponent in the surging Dallas Stars, led by Mike Ribeiro, whose vengeance was swift and terrible. A goal and two helpers for the former hometown hero, and with Bob Gainey in the audience, you know he was loving every second of it. Let's just be grateful this didn't happen in Montreal!

It's conventional wisdom that a tired team can be forced into penalties, and perhaps that's why the Canadiens spent most of the evening trooping off to the box. I would like to think so, except it seems like they've spent the whole season getting themselves into penalty trouble: they take a lot of unnecessary, cheesy holding and hooking calls, and seem surprised every time they get called. Didn't they get that memo a couple of years ago? Two nights ago, bad penalties cost the Habs a win, and last night, two consecutive, early trips to the bin resulted in two early goals against, and we all knew there was no digging out of that hole. I actually changed the channel at 4-0, and yes, it was partly because my girlfriend was yelling at me because I was watching hockey for the third night out of the last four, while ignoring her on "the night before Christmas Eve," which apparently is now some sort of special occasion, but mainly I stopped watching because when the Habs trail after two periods, a loss is even more of a sure thing than she is. Haha, just kidding, baby.

It was a night to forget for most of the team. Carey Price looked more like the second coming of Jocelyn Thibault than Patrick Roy, going down more often than a (insert joke here). In all seriousness, he has changed his technique since the beginning of the season, hitting his knees much more early and often than he used to. Perhaps this is in response to the five-hole vulnerability he was displaying in October? Probably. And it certainly has helped that problem ... unfortunately, shooters have now zeroed in on the top corners, where he is beatable on either side. On the bright side, you get the feeling from Price that he'll adjust for this difficulty in time; he's a serious student of the game, you can tell, and his devotion to technical precision suggests that he's very serious in practice.

Alex Kovalev showed up to play, and was rewarded with nearly 20 minutes of ice-time (he did take a couple of long shifts) but came away empty-handed. Roman Hamrlik made the blunder of the evening, serving up a juicy one to Mike Ribeiro, who promptly ripped it high, glove-side on Price. Ryan O'Byrne struggled, as did Chris Higgins, whom I would bet must be fighting illness or pain. Actually, it would be fair to say that no-one on the Habs had a great night. The only bright spot was Andrei Markov's ninth goal of the season, assisted - for the first time, but not the last - by both Kostitsyns! Sergei continues to impress.

To accentuate the positive - and we should - the Habs have managed to pick up three out of a possible six points on the road, and are now halfway through the usually disastrous annual Christmas road trip. If they can win two of the next three, they'll be in good shape ... though that won't be easy against Tampa, Florida, and New York.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: Ribeiro Returns

2007-12-23T18:02:00.001-04:00

Tonight marks Mike Ribeiro's first game against his former mates, and no doubt the homecoming will make it a special night for him. He speaks with La Presse's Francois Gagnon about the event, and - showing some maturity? - keeps it fairly bland and generic: it's all about the team, my goal is to help us make the playoffs and contend for the cup, etc. I expected something more colourful.

He does take the opportunity to deny that he ever wanted out of Montreal, but admits that by the time he was traded, he had had enough of the scrutiny of the media and the pressure from the fans. But he chalks up most of the turmoil he went through with the Habs to the difficulties of dealing with fame at a young age: "J’étais jeune à Montréal", he shrugs. The move to Dallas has allowed him to live his life and concentrate on his game without distractions: " Il n’y a pas de médias, personne ne me reconnaît à l’épicerie. On a la pression de gagner, mais cette pression vient du vestiaire uniquement. Pas de l’extérieur" (There's no media, nobody stopping me at the grocery. There's pressure to win, but only in the dressing room, not outside).

There is a faint flash of the old Ribeiro when he's asked if he'd enjoy beating the team that traded him. He doesn't fully take the bait, but allows that "Je veux le gagner. Battre Montréal serait vraiment bien. Marquer un but en plus, ce serait encore mieux" (I want to win. Against Montreal it would be really nice. If I can score as well, that would be even better).

I feel like he was dying to say something more, something along the lines of, "Yeah, I'd love to stick it to the team, to Bob, to the fans, and to the whole city," but maybe that's just me. It would be easy to understand if he wanted some payback: as a home-town boy with a scorer's pedigree from the Q, he was saddled with expectations he never managed to live up to. His best season with the Habs, 65 points, wasn't nearly enough for fans desperate for a superstar, and he took plenty of heat from the papers, the radio, the TV, and especially from the stands. If he didn't take that personally and wouldn't like to rub the town's nose in it with a hat-trick, he's a better man than most of us. It's true that he brought some of the criticism on himself with his sometimes slack play, his mouth, and his behaviour downtown, but as he says, he was a younger man then, and made a young man's mistakes. This year, a little older and wiser, he's quietly putting together a career season, and his 18 goals and 36 points are more than any member of the Habs can boast. He's doing a lot to silence the critics who said he couldn't lead a team.

Still though, would the average Habs fan like to have Ribeiro back? Probably only if they could trade Janne Niinimaa, a total failure as a Hab, back for him. The truth is, he's not greatly missed. Nevertheless, his story remains a powerful cautionary tale of the pressures young, talented players face in the city of Montreal, and of the need to protect them from the fickle fans, the ravenous press ... and from themselves. Let's hope it's a lesson management has taken to heart as it nurtures one of the NHL's youngest teams.

News for Sunday, December 23rd

2007-12-23T09:21:00.000-04:00

Most of the news deals with the Canadiens' loss in a shoot-out last night against the Atlanta Thrashers. It was the mirror image of Thursday's game, in which they were outplayed but won two points they didn't deserve: last night, the Habs out-shot, out-hit, and out-everythinged the overmatched Thrashers, but let the game get away from them.

Cristobal Huet was weak on the first Thrasher goal, then very solid through the rest of regulation and overtime. Maxim Lapierre took a terrible offensive zone penalty, and the team paid the price as Marian Hossa fed a beautiful cross-crease saucer pass right onto the waiting stick of Eric Perrin. The Canadiens goals - which had to be good on a night when Kari Lehtonen was very hot - came from Alex Kovalev, a hard slapper that powered its way in, and Sergei Kostitsyn, a third-chancer after shots by Komisarek and Koivu were stopped.

If you're looking for the silver lining, find it in the continuing emergence of Sergei Kostitsyn, who has finally revived the top line, the improving team defense, which just may be based on a system after all, and especially in the overall play of the Canadiens, who truly deserved a better fate, for once.

Given the team's poor history, Canadiens fans were probably feeling a little pessimistic going into the shoot-out, and apparently those feelings are shared by Cristobal Huet, who admits as much to the Gazette's Pat Hickey. "I'm not feeling very confident in shootouts," he says, and verily, it shows. Atlanta only needed two shooters to finish off the Habs and Huet, who was frozen by a Hossa laser and then melted into a puddle by Slava Kozlov's slick move. "It all starts with the goaltender and I have to get better," he concludes. Well, it's good of him to take responsibility and all, but the truth is this game should not have come down to a shoot-out. If the Canadiens had any finish at all, it would have been over before the third period.

The same article contains a conversation with Atlanta scorer Eric Perrin, who hails from Laval, Quebec. Is it just me, or do these French guys on other teams not always manage to kill the Habs? If you're wondering how the Habs overlooked Perrin in the draft, they probably didn't scout him around the same time they weren't scouting his college line-mate, Martin St. Louis.

The Globe and Mail runs an AP piece that fills in the game story from the Atlanta side. Unlike the Canadiens, the Thrashers thrive on the shoot-out, last night's victory improving their record to 4-1 in the duel. When asked why they do so well, netminder Lehtonen was at a loss: "I really don't know," he said. Well, I do, and so does Cristobal Huet: the answer is Hossa, Kovalchuk, and Kozlov. Interim coach Don Waddell anticipated - and receieved - a tough match against the Canadiens, who he says play a "very patient game." That's what you call it when it works, I guess. When it doesn't, it goes from patient to fatalistic. The same piece carries quotes from Guy Carbonneau, who agrees both that the Habs played well - Kari Lehtonen "stole the game for them," he says - and that they need to work on their shoot-out ... to a point: "The shootout is something we try to work on," he is quoted as saying, "but it's not something we can spend too much time on." Uh, why not? Too busy trying out new line combinations, I suppose. Finally, on a humorous note, remember that brilliant poke-check Lehtonen threw out on Koivu last night? The one that had us all complaining that the Captain needs a new move? Well, turns out Lehtonen just got lucky:"I thought he was going the other way. I tried to poke the puck and missed. I guess he added another move since I have seen him. It was luck, I guess." Well, you have to be lucky to be good, I guess. Oh, and sorry, Saku! I didn't mean all that stuff I said. You knows I loves you.

More of the same in La Presse, whose writer Fancois Gagnon concurs with his English brethren that "le CH méritait mieux" (Habs deserved better). The Canadiens, he notes, played much better than they did against the Capitals, but at the same time, the Thrashers are a lot better than the Caps. He quotes Guillaume Latendresse as saying the Canadiens aren't hanging their heads leaving Atlanta ("On n’a pas à partir d’ici la tête basse"), and indeed the young forward sounds quite optimistic: "Les quatre trios ont bien joué, nous avons comblé un déficit pour une rare fois cette saison en troisième période et il y a beaucoup plus de positif que de négatif à tirer de cette rencontre" (loosely, "All four lines played well, we came back from a third period deficit, which is rare, and in general there were positives than negatives in this game"). All true, though I would cite the lack of finish and the continuing struggle in the shoot-out as definite concerns: the Habs will make or miss the playoffs by only a few points, after all.

News for Saturday, December 22nd

2007-12-22T10:27:00.000-04:00

Further reaction to Guillaume Latendresse's two-goal response on Thursday to being benched on Tuesday, as Stephanie Myles talks to the young Habs forward. He says he was well-over his frustration when game time rolled around, and hit the ice with his "head in the right place." Coach Carbonneau wanted him to work without the puck, and head to the net whenever possible, both of which missions were accomplished. Latendresse was on a line with Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Dandeneault (though one of his goals was a power-play gift from Saku Koivu) and in this article he sounds very pleased with the trio's chemistry - though he must surely be wondering how long his coach, the league's most active and inscrutable line-juggler - will keep it together.

The same article quotes a frustrated Carbo on the extreme scrutiny even his most minor moves receives: "When I was in Dallas, nobody talked about who played and didn't play". Is he serious? Is the former captain of the Canadiens - who was traded to St. Louis after igniting a controversy literally with a flick of his finger - actually surprised at the attention the team gets from the press? When he was in Dallas he must have picked up the habit of "joshin'".

Also in the Gazette, Red Fisher pronounces the Habs' goaltending controversy DOA. Huet, he says, is still the man. As we well know, of course, this controversy is never dead proper, but would more appropriately be considered "undead", soon to arise from a short period of inanimation to once again stalk the living. Fisher's case: Huet has been brilliant for the Habs since stealing the job from Jose Theodore, the Habs would have made the playoffs if not for Huet's injury last year, Price hasn't enough to take the job away, and Huet was great the other night against the Capitals. Mostly true, except for the part about the Habs making the playoffs last year: Jaroslav Halak stepped up very well last year after Huet was hurt, meaning the goaltending wasn't a factor. Actually, Huet's early return, in the final game of the regular season, did the Habs' playoff hopes no good at all: he was a big part of the nightmarish collapse against the Maple Leafs that officially eliminated the team.

The Sporting News previews tonight's game in Atlanta, where the Habs will take on the Thrashers. The Thrashers are on a bit of a roll, with wins in their last two games, including an impressive 3-2 victory over the born-again Ottawa Senators. Number one goalie Kari Lehtonen is 4-2-0 with a 2.87 GAA since returning from an injury, and his presence makes this Atlanta team much better. Of course, their most important player remains Ilya Kovalchuk, who leads the NHL with 28 goals - 4 in his last 3 games - and is the NHL's best bet to become the newest member of the elite 50 in 50 club. New guy Mark Recchi has profited from a change in scenery, picking up 5 points in his first 5 games with Atlanta. The Habs also have played well lately - well, they've won lately - and the big reasons are Alexei Kovalev (7 points in his last 6), Saku Koivu (points in his last 3 games) and the goaltending duo of Carey Price and Cristobal Huet. The not quite un-sung hero of the team remains Mike Komisarek, who plays big minutes in a crucial role.

Like to day-dream about the Habs acquiring a player who could replace Stephane Richer and Mats Naslund as the answer to a Habs trivia question? A player who could challenge for the scoring title, electrify the audience, and lead the team to the Stanley Cup? So does Jack Todd. Read this piece and fantasize away.

Fancois Gagnon focusses on Michael Ryde r in this piece from La Presse. A likely scratch again tonight - unless, Gagnon jokes, another member of the team hurt himself getting out of bed today - Ryder is rapidly becoming a press-box regular. Mired in a season-long slump, he remains stuck at just 3 goals and 10 points. Despite his troubles, he says all the right things to Gagnon: he still wants to be part of the team, understands the decision not to play him, and wants to turn things around. Gagnon quotes him as saying that he does not intend to ask for a trade, and that he respects the decision to stick with a different line-up as long as the team is winning. The situation for Ryder is bad and getting worse: he's been replaced by Sergei Kostitsyn on the top line, and Gagnon notes that Kos Jr. has been able to spark his line-mates (<>). On the power-play, Guillaume Latendresse has taken his spot, and has produced. As Gagnon says, Ryder is likely to stay off the ice until someone gets hurt, or quits working.

Elsewhere in La Presse, M. Gagnon gets Alex Kovalev's opinion on who the best players in the NHL are. His answer: Ilya Kovalchuk (whom he compares to Tiger Woods!) and Alex Ovechkin. Kovalev says that Russian players don't get the recognition they deserve until their team actually wins a championship. Gagnon also speaks to Andrei Markov about the possibility of best-pal Alex Ovechkin someday joining the Habs, and actually manages to tick the usually robotic defenseman off: «Pourquoi me poser une question comme celle-là?» Markov says ("Why would you ask me a question like that?"). «Vous savez que ça n'arrivera jamais» ("You know it'll never happen"). Markov also asks the reporter why he thinks Ovechkin would want to sign with a team where he'll lose half of his money in taxes: um, I don't know, Andrei ... because you did?
For still more Ovechkin dreaming, see Marc de Foy's article in le Journal de Montreal, ici.

News for Friday, December 21st

2007-12-21T22:19:00.000-04:00

A big win by the Habs over the Washington Capitals is the news of the day. As Mike Boone, of Habs Inside Out, noted, "The Whiners" were "The Winners", as two players who let it be known they were unhappy to be passed over for duty on Tuesday night, Cristobal Huet and Guillaume Latendresse, were the difference makers for the Habs. Huet stopped 35 of 37 shots, coming up huge in his first game since missing seven starts with a groin strain, and Latendresse scored two goals, and now has nine on the season.

The Globe and Mail carries an AP story focussing on how the win will help get Latendresse get back in Coach Carbo's good graces. "Nobody is happy when they're sat out for a game," quoth Gui, and I am sure he is right. Why was he benched, for the fourth time this year? "He has to play without the puck," is Carbo's explanation. Hey, if the guy can score two goals with the puck, why would you want him to play without the puck?

The Sports Network (not, apparently, to be confused with TSN) quotes Huet sounding dismissive of the Capitals generous edge in shots on goal: "We capitalized on our chances. They tried to force everything, throwing the puck at the net all night." Translation: "We got lucky, and I bailed these guys out again."

The Washington Post is not known for its hockey coverage, but they have an article worth reading on the struggles of their long-time starting goalie, Olaf Kolzig. After allowing 5 goals on 21 shots against the Habs, Kolzig is 3-4-1 with a 3.46 GAA and a .856 save percentage so far this season. Kolzig accepts part of the blame for his bad numbers, but also implicates new coach Bruce Boudreau's system: "We're playing a system now where you don't get a lot of comfort shots, a lot of perimeter shots."

News for Thursday, December 20th

2007-12-19T23:13:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Press has a great article (no author attributed) on the Canadiens' upcoming Christmas road trip. If you like esoteric, highly-specific statistics (we called them Curry Stats back in my university dorm, after a guy named Curry who liked to tell you how many Stanley Cups had been won by guys who also had sisters who were gold medalists in the Commonwealth Games in odd-numbered years) then this piece is for you. I love discovering new stats I had no idea about, such as this one: the Canadiens have not won a game on December 23rd since 1945, when they defeated the Bruins (you can always count on those Bruins!). The article is full of such ominous numbers. Try these on for size: since 1999, the Canadiens record between December 23rd and December 31st is 3-18-5. They haven't had a successful holiday since 1998 (3-1-0). There is something unnerving about trends such as this, which are as plainly extant as they are inscrutable. Why on earth should the Canadiens have such a persistently bad record over the Christmas season? It's not the distraction, which obviously would apply to both teams in the game. Maybe it's as simple as the fact that the Habs always have a Christmas road trip, an annual event necessitated by the corporate avarice that has the team's owners put Les Boys on the back-burner to make a killing renting out their arena for holiday events. Or ... maybe it's even simpler than that, a result of the fact that the Habs have had a lousy record just about all the time since 1998. Yes, that's probably it.

The same article highlights how the NHL managed to turn itself into the Grinch Who Stole the Habs' Family Christmas. Mr. Gillette and company wanted to lessen the impact of the road trip on the players' Christmas plans by taking the whole team and all their kin to Tampa, to spend Christmas together in the sun. Is that a great idea or what? Unfortunately, the NHL dictates that each team may only pay for one trip for one family member per year. So no dice. Let me take this opportunity - as I will gladly take every such one - to say, "Thanks for nothing, Gary." There's a man who deserves some coal in his stocking.

Also from the CP wire, the NHL has decided not to suspend Saku Koivu for cross-checking Jozef Stumpel in the face at the end of Tuesday's Panthers-Canadiens games. Lucky break for the Habs. Not so much for Stumpy.

News for Wednesday, December 19th

2007-12-19T13:34:00.000-04:00

The news focuses on the Habs listless loss to the Panthers last night. It's a little depressing to read, but the tone of the reporting is not nearly as dire as it was a week ago, at the tail-end of a five game losing streak.

The legendary Red Fisher deploys his patented sarcastic/Socratic style, posing sharp questions which he himself answers with pointed wit. He points out that the 3-2 score shouldn't be taken as indicative of the closeness of the contest, and fingers the Panthers speed as the major reason for the loss. Hey, aren't we always hearing about the Canadiens fast players and great team speed? Fisher also points out Florida's advantage in shots (23-12) and giveaways (6-16) between the two teams during the first two periods. Finally, Red wonders aloud if Captain Saku Koivu will be suspended for a blindly-thrown cross-check that caught someone in the face. Answer: most likely.

Pat Hickey gives a tip of the hat to the Panthers for being the only NHL team with a winning life-time record against the Canadiens. How they have managed to achieve this is hard to say, given that the Panthers have sucked even harder than the Habs in the years since they came into the league. Luongo, Belfour, and now Tomas Vokoun seem able to stone the Habs at will. Speaking of Vokoun, he took advantage of another opportunity to remind the team that drafted him that they blew it. Vokoun used to play in the AHL in Fredericton, where I attended university, in a tandem with Jose Theodore. He routinely outplayed the over-hyped former "saviour" of the team, as I liked to point out on the alt.canadiens usenet site, even though no-one cared. Well, no matter what he did, there was no chance that anyone but Theodore was getting a shot with the big club, and Vokoun was eventually let go ... though not before being left for dead by coach Mario Tremblay in a first-period barrage by the Philadelphia Flyers. As Hickey notes, the Flyers victimized him for four goals in what turned out to be the only game Vokoun ever played for the Habs. Wow, did that Tremblay have a way with goalies, or what? Anyway, Vokoun was very polite, saying that he remains grateful to the Canadiens for giving him his first chance, but really, if your only memories of playing with the Habs have Mario Tremblay at their centre, how grateful could you really be?

We all make mistakes: that seems to be Carbo's shrugging reaction to the loss last night, as Pat Hickey (again! the man is busy!) reports. The biggest mistakes of the night belonged to Carey Price, who made a beautiful centering pass to the Panther's Brett McLean for the game's second goal, and who absolutely whiffed on a long, slow slapshot by Stephen Weiss that eventually won the game for the Panthers. Interestingly, no one - from the press, to the coach, to the rookie goalie who helped cough this one up - seems to be taking the loss too hard. Hickey quotes Price thus: "We could have played better; I could have played better. Now, we have to go out and get some wins on the road." That's probably the right spirit.

In Journal de Montreal, Marc de Foy also discusses the mystery that is the Panthers supremacy over les Canadiens. He quotes Mike Komisarek as saying something along the lines of, "We might have been overconfident after winning a couple of big games" («On pèche peut-être par excès de confiance après avoir disputé de gros matchs»). I must say that it didn't appear to be a case of too much confidence from my point of view; if it was, then the Canadiens' confidence must be less fragile than we are led to believe, so obviously undeserved any such confidence was. De Foy is also of the opinion that Carey Price was sub-par on this night. For once some concensus between the French and English press.

Also le Journal, Pierre Durocher has a piece on the frustration of Saku Koivu's countryman, Panthers forward Olli Jokinen. While Koivu has grown impatient waiting for a chance to win a Stanley Cup, Jokinen hasn't even seen the playoffs. Perhaps someone should find a way to get these guys together, and kill two birds with the proverbial one stone? Dare to dream.

Marc Antoine Godin of La Presse reports on the game, going to Coach Carbonneau for the straight dope: «On a joué deux minutes, a avoué Guy Carbonneau après le match. On n'était pas prêts à travailler. On n'a pas voulu frapper, on n'a pas voulu se faire frapper, on n'a pas patiné.» Is it fair to say that the Habs only played two minutes, or that they didn't hit, skate, or work? Yes. It is. He also quotes Chris Higgins as saying that the Habs are a team that must apply pressure, force mistakes, and avoid errors of their own, because they don't have any true snipers.

Also note this La Presse article, which has Guillaume Latendresse sounding a little ticked off at being left out of the line-up against Florida: «J'étais prêt (à jouer). C'est facile de voir que je suis déçu ... C'est la première fois que je vis ça. Je faisais ce qu'on me demandait de faire, je travaillais fort. C'est la décision de l'entraîneur. Je n'y peux rien» (I was ready to play, it's easy to see I'm disappointed, I've done everything that's been asked of me. It's the coach's decision, there's nothing I can do). Aw, poor Gui! As to why he didn't suit up, Carbo explains that he simply didn't want to mess with success, having won two games with the same line-up: «Tout le monde méritait de rejouer» (Everyone deserved to play again). Fair enough, given the amount of flak Carbo has taken this season for juggling his lines and line-ups from night to night; I was glad to see him stick with a roster for once, personally.

Finally, see Four Habs Fans for a humorous take on the game in an article called, "We Now Return You to our Regularly Scheduled Sucking". Laughter is indeed the best medicine ... no, wait, that's scotch. Scotch is the best medicine. But laughter is a close second.

A Troubled Home Life: Panthers School Habs

2007-12-18T22:48:00.000-04:00

Well, anyone who was hoping that the Canadiens had overcome their problems playing at home got an unwelcome reality check last night, as the Florida Panthers continued their mysterious dominance over the Habs in 3-2 victory during which the Habs never threatened, and never really threatened to threaten.

You can make that 27 wins all-time for the Panthers against the Habs, against just 16 losses and four overtime losses. The only team with a winning record against the once-mighty Canadiens made it look easy, outshooting, outhitting, and generally outplaying the home-team, despite a last-minute flurry. The Habs troubles with giveaways - the main cause of their last loss, against the Tampa Bay Lightning - surfaced again, as they coughed up the puck with striking eagerness against a trapping Florida team that is programmed to feed on exactly that sort of mistake.

Indeed, the Panthers put on a clinic of exactly the type of game that Coach Carbo would have his own team play: perimeter defense, protected by a neutral zone trap that morphs into a hard fore-check when the opportunity arises. After such a disappointing loss, perhaps we can at least hope that the Habs were taking notes.

Carey Price leads the list of let-downs tonight. He was weak on two of the goals, one of which he literally teed-up for the Panthers' Brett McLean. The other, a 40-footer by Stephen Weiss, he simply should have stopped. It was an AHL goal, and it turned out to be the game-winner. Over his seven straight starts, Price is 3-3-1, not awful, but not impressive. He made some nice stops in this one, and couldn't be faulted for the first goal, but he also let in some softies and must take the heat for this loss. Look for Huet to return against Washington on Thursday, and hope that he brings his A-game.

On the bright side, how about Andrei Markov with two goals? Captain Koivu drew an assist on one of them, and played ferociously throughout. Michael Ryder showed signs of life, blinking his eye-lids repeatedly, a development that temporarily cheered fans until an Army surgeon dropped by and revealed that Ryder was blinking the message, "Kill me" in Morse code, over and over. The horror ...

Ah well, better things on Thursday, for sure.

News for Tuesday, December 18th

2007-12-18T16:33:00.000-04:00

The Florida Panthers are in town. Interesting/unimpressive stat: the Panthers are 26-16-4 all time against the Habs, and are the ONLY team in the NHL to have a winning record against the League's oldest and most storied franchise, the Montreal Canadiens. That, we should all agree, is simply wrong.

Pat Hickey's syndicated article looks into the goaltending situation, which is never more than a step or two away from controversy. Coach Carbo has announced that Carey Price will be the starting goalie tonight - even though ostensible number one Cristobal Huet has apparently completely recovered from his groin strain, and has watched from the bench as Price's back-up for the past two games. Apparently, Huet is not impressed ... which Carbonneau doesn't mind at all: he's glad the veteran's competitive streak remains intact. That's fine for now, but this situation is coming to its crisis rather ahead of schedule. While Price has played well in his last few outings, the question of whether he is ready to assume the number one job is far from settled. His mostly excellent last two outings have each been marred by a soft, late goal. He is beatable in the high corners and does not possess the quickest glove. The potential is there and it is rapidly shaping itself, but it may not be time to hand him the ball yet. Then again, maybe it is. I'm glad I don't have to make the call, I'll say that. It's ironic that Carbo seems to be leaning towards Price, given that he was in favour of sending the big rookie to the AHL at the beginning of the year, and was overruled by Bob Gainey. At least it shows he's not afraid to admit he was wrong.

In the Gazette, Pat Hickey reports on the recent turnaround - two years coming! - of the Canadiens 5-on-5 play. The Habs scored four even-strength goals for the first time since, oh, since about the invention of the internet against the Leafs on Saturday.

In La Presse, Francois Gagnon also touches on the Huet/Price debate, quoting Cristobal Huet, who strikes a philosophical tone: «C'est sûr que je suis déçu, car je veux disputer le plus de matchs possible. Mais en même temps, Carey a très bien fait pendant mon absence et je comprends qu'il ait ainsi forcé la main de l'entraîneur», which boils down to, "I'm disappointed because I want to play, but Carey has played well and forced the coach's hand." Sounds about right. Gagnon also quotes Carbo on the necessity of the Habs not suffering a let-down after an emotional win over the Leafs on Saturday. What, the Habs, suffer a let-down? Naw.

Also in La Presse, and also by Francois Gagnon, is a nice article on the Canadiens youth movement. Eleven players 25 years old or younger, most of them - Price, Higgins, Plecanek, Komisarek, Kostitsyn, Chipchura - filling pivotal roles. As Gagnon says, it is clearly the beginning of a new era in Montreal Canadiens hockey. Well, while the emergence of the young players is obviously a welcome development, and while just about all of the younger guys are doing an admirable job, it is still too soon to buy into the hype that sometimes surrounds the Canadiens youngsters. None, after all, is a gamebreaker (though Price has the potential to become one). None is the pure offensive force the Canadiens so desperately need, and no-one of that description seems to be in the system, either. What the Canadiens have, with their fresh crop of recent draftees, is the basis of a really solid supporting cast. For a star player, it seems they will still have to look without, or continue to live without one.

Lions in Winter breathes a sigh of relief that the rumoured - but undoubtedly phantom - trade with the Sharks (Koivu for Marleau) never went down. I wholeheartedly concur. The article asserts that Marleau would be a 60-70 points scorer for the Habs (quite probable, given his track record) and that Koivu would score 85-100 points for the Sharks (rather less likely, perhaps, given his track record!), but the issue doesn't hinge on points for me. Koivu is a leader, and a life-long Hab who, if he stays with the team, will one day take his place among the team's all-time best. Despite playing in the "dead puck era", he has managed to move into the teams top ten all-time assist leaders, and a few more seasons will see him do the same in the points column. That would be a major accomplishment, given the company he'd be in. Koivu should be a Hab for life.

On the other side of the argument, Eyes on the Prize has a translation of Guy Lafleur's column in le Journal de Montreal on Saturday, in which the Habs legend suggests that Saku is burnt out as a Montreal Canadien, shows little interest or emotion, and should be packaged in a trade with Michael Ryder while there is still "meat on the bones". Eyes on the Prize is appalled, and you can understand why, but essentially Guy is not saying anything many of the fans haven't said lately. It's a little tacky and certainly sensational ... but as Carbo would say, that's just Guy being Guy.

News for Monday, December 17th

2007-12-17T09:23:00.000-04:00

Jack Todd has a laugh at the expense of fickle Montreal Canadiens fans, who - in their defense - have been put through an up-and-down season that has toyed with their emotions and left their heads spinning. The average Montreal fan doesn't know whether Carbo is an idiot or a genius, whether Saku sucks or rules, or, at this point, whether that bump on his own arm is his ass or his elbow. It's been that confusing: first the Habs shoot out of the gate to as high as 4th overall, then they cut the engines and free-fall to the fringe of the playoff picture. Jack Todd, long my favourite sportswriter for his voice, wit, and frequent allusions to Modernist poets, advises Canadiens fans not to expect their wild ride to end anytime soon.

A nice profile of and interview with Jimmy Bonneau, the would-be Habs policeman, presently waiting in the wings in Hamilton. There are those who are feeling a need for just such a presence on the Habs' bench, especially after comments by Paul Maurice on Saturday. More on that later.

Dave Stubbs talks to Saku Koivu about ending his goal-scoring drought, the team's (still nascent) turnaround, and his new linemate, Sergei Kostitsyn. In short, Saku says it's nice to get the monkey off his back, but that the win is more important than the individual acheivement, and credits the entire team for a stronger effort in recent games. On the subject of Sergei K., Koivu pays big compliments: "'rare vision ... huge potential,'" and - taking a page from recent comments by Jean Beliveau - stresses the importance of Habs' veterans helping the young winger adjust to the NHL. Also of note in the article is Coach Carbo's spirited defense of his captain, which might help defuse recent rumours of a strained relationship between the two.

Unsurprisingly, Jaroslav Halak has been reassigned to Hamilton of the AHL, following the return of Cristobal Huet from injury. Halak played just one period for the Habs, in relief of Carey Price, allowing one goal on six shots in a Dec. 8th game that was already out of reach for Les Boys.

In La Presse, Francois Gagnon quotes Coach Carbo on the team's present - if tenuous - place among the top teams in their conference: "'We must be doing something right'". Gagnon agrees, and notes a major improvement over last season in the Habs' play at even strength. See the article for the complete breakdown, but here's a taste: last year the Habs' skaters finished a combined -170; this year, they are -15 ... not ideal, but a major upgrade. My francais is far from parfait, but Gagnon may also assert that Carey Price has played himself into the number one goaltending spot. Depends on how you translate "a su assumer", but one thing I do know, when you "assumer" you make an ass out of you and mer.

Also in La Presse, Pierre Ladouceur has a thorough evaluation of the week that was for Habs, going line by line and defense-pairing by defense-pairing. Ladouceur comments that the Habs recent skid had folks grumbling that the Canadiens had two third lines and two fourth lines, or even (to Guy Lafleur) four fourth lines; now, he says, after picking up five of a possible six points last week, it might be more fair to speak of two first and two third lines. Ladouceur rates the Koivu-Higgins-Whoever line as the Canadiens best, for its offensive and defensive work this week, with the Plecanek-Kovalev-A. Kostitsyn line close behind. He lauds the defensive work of Streit, Lapierre, and Dandeneault, who effectively shut down the Sundin line on Saturday night. He further appreciates the consistent effort of Tom Kostopoulos and particularly Kyle Chipchura, who has improved his faceoff score to 55%.

Worth a read: Lions in Winter has a game report here, and Eyes on the Prize has one here. Eyes on the Prize notes how family has played a role in the Habs' recent success: Andrei Kostitsyn helping little brother Sergei adjust, and Saku Koivu raising his game on Saturday with his mom and dad in attendance.

For intelligent discussion of all things Habs, you can always count on alt.canadiens, which presently features long-running discussions on Saku Koivu's recent play and possible discontentment, as well as the eerie similarities between this year and last. Alt.canadiens has the best analysis - and especially meta-analysis - of the Habs available, if you ask me. In the links above, find searching philosophical inquiry into the meaning of such commonly used terms as "production", "streaky", and "consistency".

Habs Win at Home!

2007-12-16T19:03:00.000-04:00

It was a long time coming, but the Habs halted their home losing skid, and in high style, soundly beating the streaking Maple Leafs 4-1. In a near replay of their 4-1 win over the Flyers, the Canadiens put forth a solid sixty-minute effort, executing their hybrid-trap neatly. Carey Price made thirty saves, and probably should have stopped the one that beat him, a 40 foot wrist shot that didn't look remotely dangerous. For the rest of the night, his solid positioning and good team defence made him basically unbeatable.

Among many positives, captain Saku Koivu broke out of a slump with the game's first two goals, one a fluky bounce-in, the other off a nifty move in front of Toskala. He was strong on face-offs, back-checked briskly, and generally made life hard on Mats Sundin and the rest of the Leafs. It was a display of vintage Koivu that, in truth, we haven't seen enough of lately.

Michael Ryder's struggles continue. He only had one shot on goal - in only a little more than ten minutes of ice-time - and was not noticeable for most of the night. His latest replacement on the top line, Sergei Kostitsyn, again showed great speed and playmaking, and registered his first NHL point, an assist on Koivu's first goal of the game. Can Kostitsyn adapt to the NHL as well as his former OHL line-mates, Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner? Habs fans can only hope so. The only potential problem is that the bulk of Kostitsyn's junior points were assists on goals potted by his linemates, and he doesn't really have a true finisher to play with on the top line. Saku Koivu could tell him a thing or two about what that's like. I wonder if Coach Carbo would contemplate a Kostitsyn-Koivu-Kostitsyn top line, on the theory that hockey-player siblings often seem to possess some sort of playmaking telepathy? It would also reunite the very successful Higgins-Plecanek-Kovalev line from pre-season. The Plecanek line has been fine with Andrei Kostitsyn on the left wing, but he has been the least statistically productive member of it. A banger like Higgins would help create the space Kovalev thrives on. Just thinking out loud ...

The Leafs may have been a little over-confident, after putting together a solid winning streak of late ... albeit against some weak teams whose defence and goaltending are as bad or worse than the Leafs. Or maybe their just getting tired, having played a lot of hockey lately. More likely, they're just reverting to regular form.

Is this bad or good news for the Leafs? Defenseman Bryan McCabe went down with a broken wrist after a harmless looking hit from Andrei Kostitsyn, and will be out at least two months. To hear Paul Maurice after the game, you'd think Kostitsyn had hit McCabe from behind with the Zamboni. It's hard to understand why Maurice is so upset about losing the defenseman who has played a major role in just about every Leafs loss this year, and been the sole cause of at least three of them. It's probably because Maurice thinks McCabe is an all-star, and regularly plays him for thirty minutes-plus ... hmm, did I just say McCabe was responsible for those losses?

News for Friday, December 15th

2007-12-15T09:14:00.000-04:00

The Leafs are in town. Read Dave Stubbs's set-up here. The short version: the Leafs have won six of their last seven games, while the Habs have lost six straight at home. Neither Captain Koivu nor Coach Carbo has any idea why Les Boys can't get it done in their own house.

You don't need an article to tell you that the game will be loud, intense, and tight. These teams hate losing to each other, and both are essentially at the beginning of a protracted, 50 game scrap for the final Eastern conference playoff spot. A win by the Leafs would jump them a point over the Habs in the standings, remarkable considering that until about three weeks ago the Leafs were one of the worst teams in the NHL. They thumped Atlanta last night, and are playing with confidence. With any luck, the perennially strong presence of Leaf sweaters at the Bell will make the Canadiens forget they're playing at home.

Fun piece about the legendary Habs-Leafs rivaly here, written by the great Red Fisher. Contains a wonderful anecdote about a war of words between Punch Imlach and Toe Blake.

The Canadian Press reports that Bob Goodenow, former director of the NHLPA, has been hired to "help create" a new professional hockey league - in Europe - that would compete with the NHL for players. How this would work, I don't know, since professional hockey obviously already exists in Europe, but it is nonetheless an interesting idea whose time has come. Canadiens fans remember how the Habs lost Russian winger Alex Perezhogin when a Russian league team outbid the NHL squad for his services, a move that was noted as a first by front offices around the NHL. Would a European league - perhaps with teams in large cities such as Prague, Moscow, or Berlin - be able to compete financially for NHL talent? If so, it could bring about a radical change in North American pro hockey, from the NHL to the ECHL.

A rare mention in the Toronto Sun of the Montreal Canadiens: Mike Zeisberger has a "who's laughing now?" story, which correctly notes that the Canadiens now find themselves in the uncomfortable position the Leafs were in not so long ago, when everyone in Toronto was calling for the heads of John-John Ferguson and Paul Maurice. A little journalistic schadenfreude, for anyone who wants to read it.

Bulldogs coach Don Lever blasts the refereeing in the Dogs' shootout loss to Grand Rapids the other day: "It's probably the worst exhibition of refereeing I've seen," he said. Ref Nygel Pelletier called ten penalties against the Bulldogs in the game, allowing Grand Rapids to score three power-play goals. But the worst was yet to come: in the shoot-out, Grand Rapids' skater Evan McGrath was stopped by Yann Danis in the shootout, but proceeded to shove the puck into the net with his skate. Pelletier allowed the goal, the game winner, and coach Lever had to be restrained from going after him. Unfortunately, if and when Lever makes the jump to the NHL, his mood regarding the officiating is unlikely to improve.

News for Friday, December 14th

2007-12-14T20:23:00.000-04:00

The Gazette's Pat Hickey is relieved to be able to write good things about the Habs ... it's been awhile. He calls particular attention to the work of Carey Price, who was a flukey (if not quite illegal) power-play goal off Mike Knuble's foot away from his first NHL shut-out. Price is now 8-5-2 overall, 7-3 on the road.

The Canadian Press looks ahead to tomorrow's game against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs, setting it up as more of a struggle of the Canadiens against themselves and their horrid home record than against the Buds. The Canadiens could unofficially tie a club-record for consecutive home losses if they drop their seventh straight at home on Saturday. It would be nice to say they've deserved a better fate, but they would probably be the first to tell you that their play at home as been every bit as bad as their record suggests. The old Forum was said to have ghosts who helped the Habs along. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them the team was moving. If the Bell Centre has a spirit realm, it can only be inhabited by bitchy, Hab-hating poltergeists. In the bad news department, the article mentions that Andrei Kostitsyn (who scored a goal against the Flyers) and Guillaume Latendresse are hurting, and are questionable for tomorrow night's game.

The Fourth Period smells a trade cooking. It states that Edmonton has been scouting Montreal games of late, most recently on Thursday in Philly. It suggests that Montreal may be trying to make a deal for disgruntled Oil winger Raffi Torres, but doesn't mention which Montreal players would be going the other way. The obvious call would be Michael Ryder ... except he has been a healthy scratch in two of the past three games. If the Oilers are scouting someone who has been playing - as one would suppose - the deal will come as a surprise. The Habs need pure scoring more than anything else, so it's hard to imagine the appeal of a Torres deal to Bob Gainey. If they want to deal Ryder, and can't get a scorer in return, it would make more sense to deal the struggling Newfoundlander for a pick or a prospect.

The always astute Spector shoots down Oilers-Habs trade talk. He is correct in noting that the only Oilers who would really interest the Habs are Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky, and neither is available.

Check out this excellent articl e on the recent Habs-Sharks rumours.

Eyes on the Prize has an interesting article on the Kostitsyn brothers. Going against other sources, he claims that the Kostitsyns are the 15th, not the 13th set of brothers to play for the Canadiens. He also has lots of nice pictures!

Lions in Winter has a new five-game evaluation of the Habs here.

Habs Blog has a link to a hilarious story from 2006. It's still good for a laugh.

And congrats to PK Subban, who made Canada's 2007 World Junior team.

Habs Ground Flyers

2007-12-14T09:44:00.000-04:00

A soundly executed 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night raised more questions than it answered for long-suffering Canadiens fans. Even the most ardent supporter of the bleu, blanc, et rouge could not have been expecting the Habs, who haven't scored more than two goals in a game since John Paul was Pope, to explode for four goals - two at even strength - in the game's first thirty minutes, or to transform their penalty kill - which has been giving it up like a drunken cheerleader all year - into a steel curtain during a pivotal two-minute 5-on-3 disadvantage. Was this the team that coughed up a 4-1 lead against Nashville just a week ago? Was this the team that couldn't beat the league's worst road team - playing its third game in four nights no less - at home on Tuesday? Was this the team ... well, you get the idea.

The Flyers, coming off a massive win Wednesday in which they played the Sea Lion to Pittsburgh's Penguins, may have been taking the Habs lightly. They started their back-up goalie, Antero Nittiymaki, and began the game on auto-pilot, as though they expected their goals against the Habs to ... just happen.

Instead, Chris Higgins opened the scoring off a brilliant sequence by Saku Koivu and Andrei Markov. Then, Andrei Kostitsyn scored just seconds into the middle frame, and before you got back from the 'fridge, Mark Streit (Mark Streit?) had chalked up a pair.

Admit it, Habs fans: in your heart-of-hearts, you expected the Habs to choke, especially when an unlucky Kyle Chipchura high-stick and an uncharacteristic lapse of discipline by Roman Hamrlik led to a Flyers 5-on-3 late in the second. But they didn't choke, and didn't even seem particularly worried they would. Instead, for the first time in over a month, they played Coach Carbo's 'hybrid' system to a tee, breaking up neutral zone plays, forechecking hard when the opportunity presented itself, and keeping the opposition to the outside in their own zone.

Carey Price, who has looked doubtful at times since taking over the number one spot from the injured Cristobal Huet, showed excellent positioning and came up big when he had to, though not many of the thirty-one shots he faced were especially dangerous, as his defensemen actually showed up for him tonight. Nonetheless, an encouraging win for the young guy.

Sergei Kostitsyn played his first game for the Habs, and showed slick playmaking skills, good speed, and a lot of hustle. If he plays like that every night, he will be around for a long while yet.

News for Thursday, December 13th

2007-12-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

With a big game looming for the Habs (when big games happen in December, you know a team is in trouble!) against the intimidating Philadephia Flyers, there is no shortage of interesting news.

Spector provides links to discussions on how those Habs-Sharks trade rumours got started.

Hamilton Scores! notes the call-up of Sergei Kostitsyn to the parent club. Kostitsyn was a big scorer in junior (playing with Patrick Kane and Sam Gagner), and older brother Andrei K is already a fixture on the Habs second line. The move has fans excited, but by now they should know better than to expect new arrivals to make a big difference in the club's fortunes: most of the Habs prospects are of the solid but unspectacular variety, good players, but not gamebreakers. Carey Price, the most-hyped call-up in recent memory, hasn't exactly disappointed, but it's safe to say that the (completely unfair) Patrick Roy comparisons have been shelved for the time being. For Kostitsyn, a reasonable expectation would be that he gets on the ice and doesn't look out of place: Carbo isn't going to give him enough ice-time or the right linemates to do much else. The article also notes that the Dogs have recalled Cory Urquhart and Jimmy Bonneau from the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones.

Cristobal Huet will be ready for action on the weekend, the Canadian Press reports. His return cannot come soon enough for the Habs, who have struggled horribly in his absence. Huet is not without his critics in the Habs media and fan-base: his creative, reflex-style tending has led to accusations that he is a fluky goalie with a penchant for allowing goals at crucial times. Carey Price, these same critics predicted, would quickly win the starting job in Huet's absence. Two weeks later, they may be reconsidering. In truth, Huet has been the primary cause of any success the Habs have had in the past three years. After playing behind the defensively inept Montreal Canadiens for the past fortnight, Carey Price hasn't won the starting job, and may not even want it anymore!

Canada.com carries the Gazette story on how Ryan O'Byrne is dealing with the first major blunder of his NHL career: the big defenseman lost the puck on a routine clearing play, and as luck would have, it bounced right onto Lightning thug Andre Roy's stick, and thence quickly into the top corner of the Canadiens' net. O'Byrne admits to being upset with himself, while Coach Carbonneau waxes philosophical, offering encouragement to the youngster. The article also briefly mentions a rumour circulating in Montreal press circles that Carbonneau is just about done in Montreal. Don't believe it.

The struggling Hamilton Bulldogs lost in a shoot-out last night to Grand Rapids. The call-up of Sergei Kostitsyn has left the Dogs cupboard just about bare, with only Corey Locke and Matt D'Agostini left to put the puck in the net. The article accentuates the positive, noting that the Dogs at least managed to pick up a point.

News for Wednesday, December 12th

2007-12-12T17:08:00.001-04:00

Injuries, injuries, injuries: Bryan Smolinski, out for 6-8 weeks with a sprained knee; Steve Begin, out for a month with a bad shoulder; and finally, Patrice Brisebois, out day-to-day with his own shoulder injury. Meanwhile, back on the farm, Mikhail Grabovski sprained an ankle, and is out indefinitely. Silver lining? None of these injuries should have a major impact on the team's fortunes ... things are pretty bad already!

All of the big news outlets report on Montreal's embarrassing home losing streak (extended to six games by a 3-2 shoot-out loss to Tampa Bay last night) but from different angles. The Globe's David Naylor praises Habs goalie Carey Price for keeping his team in the game, and blames the Habs supposedly potent power-play for failing to ice the game during a 4-3 in overtime. The Gazette's Pat Hickey, on the other hand, indicts the whole team for a weak effort against a tired Lightning squad with highly suspect goaltending, noting that if they'd played for even half of the game the way they played with five minutes left in third, they'd have won easily.

Blogosphere: Mike Boone of HIO asks, "When will the bleeding stop?" He then bullet-lists a highly persuasive list of reasons (provided by fans calling in to radio shows after the game) why we shouldn't hold our collective breath waiting for that to happen: Kovalev is getting old; Carbo is getting outcoached; the team can't play defense or offense, and most hockey systems require one or the other. The man's heart is breaking, you can tell, and I for one feel for him. Elsewhere, Four Habs Fans has an interesting if peevish piece bemoaning how Montreal's pre-season plan of having effectively a 26-man roster - four balanced lines that could be tuned frequently with call-ups from Hamilton - has degenerated into a desperate search for any line combination capable of providing the Habs with more than two goals per game. It cites the presence of Mathieu Dandeneault (or Mark Streit?) on Koivu's line as a tacit admission that the organization is barren of any wingers on the farm capable of stepping in. Finally, the Bleacher Report's Francois Gendron bluntly states: "If the Canadiens have any pride left, they'll play a desperate game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday to avoid making the wrong kind of history." Well, teams don't have pride - players do. And no doubt for the Habs, that pride is stung, and I anticipate they will show up not only against Toronto Saturday, but in Philadephia on Thursday. But a desperate game? For the record, I would prefer to see them simply play a good game.

In happier news, Samsung Electronics of Mississauga announced it will donate $100,000 to the Saku Koivu foundation, which as we all know provides invaluable assistance in treating cancer in the Montreal area. Hats off to the company and the Habs' captain, one of the true good guys.

The Habs need scoring, but they likely won't be getting it from the farm: the Peoria Rivermen shut-out the Dogs last night by a five-zero score. Yann Danis got the mercy hook in favour of Cedric Desjardins.

McKenzie Shoots Down Trade Rumour

2007-12-11T20:09:00.000-04:00

Mike Boone and other members of the Montreal media made waves last night, identifying TSN's Bob McKenzie as the source of a rumoured Koivu for Marleau swap. Because McKenzie's is such a respected voice in the hockey media - he avoids juicy but unfounded speculation - the rumour quickly gained mass. Ultimately, however, it turns out to have been a phantom. Luckily, perhaps, for the Canadiens, who should think twice before entertaining the notion of trading Koivu, the face of the Canadiens and their best player.

News for Tuesday, December 11th

2007-12-11T17:33:00.000-04:00

Interesting piece in the Capitol Times on the subject of Ryan McDonagh being left off the USA World Junior squad: two of his WIsconsin teammates - Jamie McBain and Blake Geoffrion - react to the news with surprise. Perhaps their support will reassure Canadiens' fans, who have responded to McDonagh's cutting with typical stoicism, i.e., by burning Bob Gainey in effigy and egging Trevor Timmins's house. Fans fear that McDonagh, the club's top pick last year, is following in the footsteps of David Fischer, the previous year's top pick, who has been having a difficult adjustment to the college game this year (while fighting injuries, it should be noted). See Ryan McDonagh's stats here, Fischer's here.

Scott Radley of the Hamilton Spectator has a good article marking the beginning of an important six game road trip for the Bulldogs. The Dogs have had a rough season, which Radley attributes to the absence of a full dozen members of last year's championship team. How the Dogs perform over the next six games won't make their season, but could break it: they could be all but eliminated from playoff contention before Christmas. The turnip doesn't fall very far from the truck, does it?

John Tortorella says that Vincent Lecavalier is the best player in the NHL, makes the bold prediction that none of the "Big Three" members of the Lightning (Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards) will be traded, and hints that Richards - who injured his leg in a lopsided loss to the Leafs last night - will play against the Habs. Richards has never missed a game due to injury.

habsblog.com asks the question, who is better at motivating his troops, John Tortorella or Guy Carbonneau? My answer: at home, Tortorella, on the road Carbonneau. I mean, if we're equating winning percentage with the coach's ability to motivate, as habsblog seems to be doing. My question: how simplistic is it to chalk up a team's victory or loss to how much the coach 'motivated' the players prior to the game?

Eyes on the Prize has a long discussion on the perils of blaming the coach when things go wrong. Here's an example of how easy it is for someone with a little sense to step back, look at recent history, and arrive at a reasonable conclusion, which in this case is the conclusion that the Habs have suffered for ten years not because of coaching, but because of their roster. Have to disagree with Eyes' assessment of Claude Julien, though. Never liked him. The New Jersey Devils agreed, and canned him en route to winning their division. Now that I have the chance to watch him behind the Bruins' bench, his Junior B goon tactics only confirm my initial dislike of him.

Finally, a really good discussion on alt.canadiens about the state of the Habs, with hall-of-fame armchair GM Gerry Warner delivering his usual double-serving of shrewd analysis.

The Ryders

2007-12-10T20:44:00.001-04:00

Jamie Fitzpatrick discusses Michael Ryder's disappointing season, and also comments on the puzzling departure of Michael's brother, Daniel, from the Calgary Flames AHL farm team.

As everyone knows, Ryder's slump comes at an inopportune time both for the team - the Habs are dying for goals - and for himself, it being his UFA year. Long considered a one-dimensional player, the Habs (and their fussy fans) put up with Ryder's perceived shortcomings in the years when he was scoring thirty goals. Ironically, this season Ryder has played a much more complete game, showing commendable hustle and drive ... but the goals have dried up, and now the fans are really on his back. As they say in Newfoundland, the poor guy can't win for losin'.

As for Daniel Ryder, nobody really knows why he has seemingly turned his back on a promising pro career (the buzz was always that he'd turn out to be the better of the two brothers) only six games into the season. There has been no shortage of rumours, but Fitzpatrick doesn't go into them. Maybe the guy just doesn't want to play pro hockey, who knows. It's his business, anyway. That said, the original article on Ryder the Younger's desertion is here at The Western Star.

News for Monday, December, 10th

2007-12-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

Coach Carbo put the boys through a workout on what was to have been a day off yesterday, Pat Hickey writes. The session included a team meeting, a look at some video (I saw that movie already, and wouldn't recommend it!), and work on "fundamentals" (presumably relating to Carbo's "hybrid" trap system). The National Post is unkind enough to headline this one under "Stumbling Habs Have No Time to Recover".

Footage of the Komisarek/Walker scrap from Saturday's game. Wow, even that was disappointing. Komisarek only drops the gloves when truly incensed, and for the seventeen penalty minutes he racked up (a highly dubious instigator call among them) it would have been nice to him pound Walker, who surely had it coming after a dirty hit from behind. The beating sadly never happened.

Ajay Baines has been named the 9th captain of the Hamilton Bulldogs by Don Lever.

Nothing new on the trade rumour front. Spector notes new names on the waiver wire: Bates Battaglia of the Leafs and Mathieu Roy of the Oilers. Doubt either would help the Habs, but a Quebecois player on waivers stand a better than average chance of being claimed by Montreal.

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

2007-12-09T19:34:00.000-04:00

The major news continues to be the Habs' recent struggles, specifically a weak effort in a 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Dave Stubbs calls the Habs' effort "feeble", and notes a surprising statistic, the 36-36 draw in shots taken by both teams. Cam Ward made 35 saves?

Mike Boone of HIO bleeds virtual tears in an agonized blog detailing the causes of the Habs' skid. To sum up: the Habs can't skate, can't score, and can't keep the puck out of their own net. Yeah, that just about sums it up. Boone waxes Dickensian in noting how the Canadiens, in failing to really show up for their last five home games, are actually breaking the hearts of sick children in Montreal hospitals, who "wake up smiling on Saturday mornings ... in joyful anticipation of watching their beloved Montreal Canadiens on television." I would laugh, except I remember being a sick kid in a hospital, a long time ago, and actually waking up smiling in joyful anticipation of watching the Habs on HNIC on Saturdays. This was before HNIC switched to its present All Leafs All The Time format, obviously. This post is notable for Boone's criticism of the goaltending, as Carey Price is a favourite of his.

TSN.ca fronts a "how the mighty have fallen" story, noting Montreal's terrible home record (0-4-1 in their last five). Teams used to be afraid of coming into the Canadiens' house ... now they enter without knocking, track mud over the carpets, put their feet up on the coffee table, slap the Habs' wives on their asses and generally make themselves at home.

For another perspective see the Carolina News and Observer. Staff writer Luke DeCock - I'm assuming that's really his name - focusses on the 'Canes dominance over the Habs at the Bell Centre since the lock-out: they've won nine straight. One big reason for that is Erik Cole, who has 27 points in 26 career games against Les Boys. No doubt about, the 'Canes own the Habs.

Alessandro Nicolo writes on something called intersportswire.com that it is time for Saku Koivu to part ways with the Montreal Canadiens. He feels that Koivu has been unfairly treated by the Habs, who have failed to give him wingers to bury his passes or to protect him from the carnivorous French media. For Koivu's own sanity, Nicolo feels, Bob Gainey should be a good guy and send him to a contender. Well. Koivu has been a great player for the Habs: he's all heart, and he's got a big CH tattooed on it to boot. But the Habs have been VERY good to him too. They've made him a wealthy man, stuck by him through an endless string of injuries, and brought him into the inner fold of the Habs elite. So I don't think Gainey owes him anything. And Gainey likely wouldn't get much for him in a trade, so why would he deal him? Koivu has a reasonable contract, is well-loved by the city, and brings a lot to his team. He's not an impact player, so his trade value is neglible. Nothing is out of the question, but from here it looks like all sides are best served with Koviu rounding his career out in Montreal.

Speaking of trade rumours, Spector discusses the possible market for a deal involving Cristobal Huet. This is indeed a trade that has a chance of happening, but as Spector says, look for it to occur closer to the deadline. At the risk of disappointing all you arm-chair GMs, I would add that the Habs will be lucky - very lucky - to get as much as a 1st round pick for Huet, so don't expect a Huet deal to do anything to solve the team's present scoring woes.

The Hamilton Bulldogs have recalled defenceman Jon Gleed from their ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones. Presumably, this means they don't expect big Ryan O'Byrne to be returning any time soon, which is good news for him, and for Habs fans who are tired of seeing their favourite players get sand kicked in their faces. Though certainly no goon, O'Byrne - who weighs in at the approximate height and weight of a Wookie - will be expected to help rid the Canadiens' beach of bullies.