The System Is Down - Martin Out, Cunneyworth In

In what is sure to generate a lot of commentary from a lot of places this weekend, Canadiens management has signaled the end of the Jacques Martin era and have given the reins to Randy Cunneyworth for the interim. JM is a peculiar kind of coach, and his particular style of play (AKA "The System") has generated plenty of praise and ire from commenters here and around the web. I, for one, am not sorry to see him go.

I've never made it much of a secret that I'm no fan of JM and his System. I find it's boring and frustrating to watch, and more importantly, it's predictable to opponents and sometimes stifling for talent. I'm not saying that Gomez putting up garbage numbers is somehow Martin's fault, but I feel like Kostitsyn for one might have developed into an even better player had he seen more time on the ice the last two seasons. I also hate Martin talking about puck possession when he will let opponents have it enough to pepper his goalie with 50 shots while seeming to discourage physical play.

My take is that through most of his tenure, Martin has kept 2 scoring lines, a checking line, and another line consisting of people that had pissed him off lately. Obviously, AK46 spent a lot of time on that line. The emergence of a third scoring line this year has been a welcome surprise to us, but may have confused Martin—how is he supposed to punish players like Kostitsyn when he ends up skating with Eller and Desharnais to become one of the stronger threats we've iced this season?

Well, you could always break up the trio. Martin seems opposed to the whole idea of consistent lines and letting players develop chemistry. I'm not a big fan of this idea. I think players are better as they get to know each other and where each other like to be on the ice. I think physical play is an enormous part of hockey, and that the Canadiens are rightly criticized for being soft on their opponents at times. The System discourages things that aren't collapsing into your zone, like making your man pay the price for crossing your blue line or delivering the kinds of punishing hits Emelin is becoming known for. The lack of physicality allows opponents to take certain liberties, like running Price and and coming across our blue line with their heads down.

This is a better team than last season in my opinion. We have more offensive weight and are just as good in the back. Price is playing well and so are key players like Plekanec, Subban, Gorges, and Kostitsyn. We've had a number of players performing well-above my expectations, like Desharnais, Cole, Pacioretty, Weber, Diaz, and even Emelin. I have a hard time believing a coach can't do more with this squad compared to last season's.

We'd like to see more from Gomez, obviously, and Cammalleri and Gionta haven't been performing to their normal standards. Is this a coaching issue? I have no idea. We don't seem to be able to finish adequately around the net, either. We still seem tired and out of shape at times, and have trouble playing 60 full minutes. After several years of being one of the better power play teams in the league, we've suddenly forgotten how to use the extra man. Are these coaching issues? Obviously we can't tell at this point, but I'm inclined to say 'yes'.

With a new coach we'll find out the answer, and here we can let speculation run wild. Will Cunneyworth be left in charge for the long-term, or will Habs management be on the phone with Bob Hartley all year? Will the team get better without JM, or should we have held on to him for just a little while longer? Does Gauthier regret letting Guy Boucher go to Tampa, or is he still laughing over the Philly incident? How bad will the RDS rants be about Cunneyworth's poor French and his Toronto roots?

My take is that the team will improve, but more because things aren't about to get much worse. I've been seeing a team that does a lot of things right but just isn't getting the wins. I think they would have started coming in even if JM stayed on, but maybe they'll start coming a little quicker and more often under Cunneyworth. Let us know your take on the firing and what's next for the CH.

Game #38 RDS Dream Team Downs Habs

Details

Date: 30/12/2010
Opponent: Lightning
Location: Tampa Bay
Loss: 1-4

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Desjardins (W)

Habs goalscorers: Pacioretty
Opposition goalscorers: St. Louis, Kubina, Stamkos (2)

Play of the game

Want to know how worthwhile this game was to watch? The play of the game was our goal. It happened in the first minute. It wasn't a shot on net. Pacioretty did make a nice play by putting in the effort to get a round a defenceman. We'll chalk that up to the element of surprise. Other good plays included the first line change after the two too many men penalties - they got right back on track with the one player on, one player off routine.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome

Tomas Plekanec
The one piece of good news is that Plekanec's slump may be nearing an end. he looked good at points even. Using speed is key to his success and he's remembered that after a month or so of searching. It was a game with few great chances, but Tomas had 6 shots and 10 attempts on net. He was the best of the forwards for me.

Mike Cammalleri
This may never happen again, but Cammalleri makes the dome over on the strength of his PK duty. Some of the Habs best chances came shorthanded (I guess they had ample time to play down a man) and Mike was at the heart of a few o them. Really, as the offensive leader of the team, he should be better, but I thought he looked like he was trying.

Max Pacioretty
Ultimately, with his single act, Pacioretty did the one thing Canadiens forwards as a group seem to have been unable to do for a couple of weeks now - put a dangerous puck on net. I didn't notice how he played the rest of the game really, but that goal was enough to dome him.

Defencemen

PK Subban - Game Puck
I lied, there's more good news. PK is regaining his mojo. The play of the game apart from the goal was a hit he timed on Thompson. At other times, I noticed him edging in on strong skates to swipe pucks like he used to. He even got a PP shot on net without it being deflected. The pairings need work, and the team misses Gorges, but get PK into more important minutes - he's turned a corner.

James Wisniewski
Puck control on the PP - how refreshing. He's no Markov, but he can handle a hard pass and block a clearing attempt. We didn't really get chance to see much of his shooting (thanks, Weber), but that should come. I'd say this acquisition has pleasant surprise potential. Replacement for Markov right now, and auditioning for Hamrlik's replacement in the future?

Goaltender

Carey Price
Not player of the game material, but Carey did alright. A penalty shot allowed against the best scorer in the league on the best move in the league is no black mark. Nor, to be honest is letting in a goal on a 5-on-3 (2x too many men!). Carey made some big saves and kept his team alive for a long time while they decided whether they were going to try and put their embarrassing "when trailing" records behind them.

Comments

RDS must get pretty excited for these games. A smorgasbord of French Canadiana down there in Baie Tampa. The Habs less so, as they continue their suffereing at the hands of St. Louis and now add Desjardins to the list of goalies they make look NHL calibre (keeping in mind he's a 0.900 AHLer this season). Personally I find this all a bit embarrassing. The fawning over everyone and anyone by the team of "pros" we must watch, but more importantly the way the Canadiens can't anticipate or ever rise to occasion themselves.

I don't have the tally of scoring chances for the Habs yet, but I wasn't lying when I chose the play of the game. I thought there may have been one, and it went in. In the first minute.

The defence on the team is a problem, but there's a solid explanation. Gorges is missed, Weber is teething and Wisniewski is used to treating 4 goals against like a moral victory. The offense on the other hand is a great concern. We'll no doubt be regaled with tales of Kostitsyn's secheresse next game, but Darche, Pouliot, Lapierre, Eller, Halpern, Moen, Gomez, none look like they'll be scoring very soon - or that they're particularly concerned about that. I'd still be looking to find a player who can actually play top line wing minutes, because apart from the art of having bad passes be deflected in, Pacioretty hasn't exactly ignited the goals since his recall. Barring that, I suppose it's a reshuffle. If that must happen, I'd hope that Pouliot is involved in some upward minutes following a session to view video of his play from October to December 1.

Finally discipline. What a shambles. The reffing was atrocious, and maybe even biased. However, the Habs need to adjust. This must mark at least the tenth straight game where more penalties have been yielded than drawn. It's a simple equation for defeat that. Hamrlik in particular just has to be told to cut it out. He's a costly penalty a game now.

Habs can wait till the cold light of day. All the better if they ring in the year with a win. If not, I'm sure it'll pale against the hangovers we're fighting.

Happy New Year everyone. Go Habs Go.

Game #81Habs' Playoff Hopes Stalled For Now

Details

Date: 08/04/10
Opponent: Hurricanes
Location: Carolina

Loss: 2-5

Habs Goalie: Halak (L)
Opposition Goalie: Ward (W)

Habs goalscorers: Gionta, Bergeron
Opposition goalscorers: Staal (3), Larose (2)

Play of the game

Not much to be too happy about tonight, but there was one play that I really liked. The play was our second goal which came 11 seconds after we went down by 2, it was the goal that restored my hope (note that there wasn't much belief tonight, just hope). The play started when Gionta stripped a Hurricane player of the puck in our end. He then hit Gomez who was about ready to leave the zone with some speed. In Scott went with the suddenly 20-minute man, MAB. A quick pass and a quicker shot was all it took to beat Ward, it was just too bad that we had so little of that going all night.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome


Forwards

Brian Gionta
Listen, I didn't like the way that Brian played in the biggest of games either, but you tell me who else you would have? At the end of the day he picked up 2 points and had the D and Halak done their work we may have forgotten that he too played poorly. Putting him on a line with Cammalleri was yet another way that Martin has found to get nothing out of Mike as it seems Camms' problem may just be himself.

Dominic Moore
Dom didn't score tonight and didn't do too much offensively, but he did do what a 3rd line, enegry centre is meant to do and for that I am happy. He did, however, do a lot on Gionta's goal and, considering we only had a handful of chances tonight, was one of our more dangerous players thanks to that play alone. For some reason Sergei was benched tonight, maybe he played badly, but I thought Moore's other winger, Moen, was possibly our worst forward all night and wondered why he wasn't riding the pine express himself.

Maxim Lapierre
Like Moore, Max played with energy. I felt that for a 4th liner he played fine and, although a goal would have been nice, I didn't expect him to win this one for us tonight. Finding him real linemates may help as we head into the most important game in 12 months as playing him with a 'defenceman' is a waste of what that line could and should be.

Defencemen

Roman Hamrlik - Game Puck
Roman was the one player that I actually felt played well tonight. That is good news if (no longer when) we get to the playoffs as we clearly need more than 1 or 2 guys back there who know what they are doing (at best we have 4, most nights we have 2). He contributed offensively, managed to stay even and played the most minutes of any Hab.

Josh Gorges
Josh played a sound game and chose to never get caught. He also chose to play defence which is something most of his teammates (his partner Hal Gill in particular) chose not to do. I feel that Gorges could be a good player for us if we make it in as he has been solid down the stretch and, other than last game, rarely plays poorly.

Goaltender

Carey Price
OK, Jaro's D was bad and we didn't exactly light the world on fire with goals, but you know what, what else is new? Maybe the standards for Halak are too high, but we needed a win tonight and he couldn't steal one for us. He wasn't brutal, but too many rebounds made it hard for his teammates to bail him out this time. Now the question becomes who to play on Saturday for the biggest game? I think that you have to go back to Halak as he is your man, but he has to be better as does the whole team or the arguments for 'playoff-starter' won't matter one bit.

Comments

So, in the biggest game and when we need things to happen for us Martin's plan seems to be to have MAB on all of the time and as a defender to boot. How is it that the best they have for us is putting on a player, who has no clue what to do in his own end, for 8+ minutes in the third? If that is your best option why have you waited till game 81 to go for it? This game was a game of changes as Martin thought he would get the most out of his non-benched players by benching others. The problem, however, is that while O'Byrne, Pouliot and Sergei were being benched they saw much worse hockey from the likes of Gill, Bergeron and Moen. How do you think that makes those players feel or how do you think the team would respond? Not well apparently as all of the line changes had no real positive impact on the game and simply sends us to our next game in a bit of a mess. Last week we won games on defence alone, but tonight we decided that we needed offence, offence and more offence. That didn't mean we would do anything dangerous, it just meant that the lines would be mixed in the hope of striking gold. Last week I spoke about our team being able to drag around 3 boat-anchors while finding ways to win games, tonight those 3 duds were a main reason we lost. Every pinch was mal-timed, every 2-on-1 coverage done wrong as this was the type of game that you must forget. We can easily get into the playoffs and do so on a high, but we have to go back to what works for us and I am pretty sure that isn't what Martin tried tonight.

Montreal Regular Season Imaging (MRI): Cammalleri Will Be Sorely Missed

The other day Mike Cammalleri was checked from a few feet out from the boards right into them at full tilt. Forgive me for being squeamish, but I won't put a video up. Suffice it to say, the knee is a delicate joint meant to bend one way. He'll be lucky to come out of today's MRI scan with good news.

The result of the scan is rightly being looked at as an important juncture in the Canadiens season. If Cammalleri somehow escapes with a twist, no tears, then it will affect morale and Gainey's maneuvering accordingly. If (and it probably will, odds makers) it goes the other way and the damage is extensive, the effects will be opposite.


What it might tell us

In an unfortunate turn for those who want to book their spring holidays, nothing that happens today will tell us one way or the other what will happen to the Canadiens final tally in the standings, and that of the teams around them. If an injury can happen to Cammalleri, it can happen to any player on any team.

While clearly there's no remedy for the unsatisfying feeling of having to play/watch games to see whether a team will make the playoffs, this scan today should give us some pretty clear indication on what to expect from Cammalleri and what management thinks of this team.


How much will Cammalleri be missed?

A few have tried to put their proverbial fingers on how much Cammalleri will be missed from this lineup. Ya The Habs Rule! gives the statistical impact a good airing. He notes a few things about the Habs stars percentage of total goals, both in terms of his own goals and points.

I can tell you that all of that is true, but sadly for Habs fans, it actually underestimates the impact that Cammalleri has had this season. At Lions in Winter we have been recording each and every goal and scoring goals created for the season. While the points total shows our best goalscorer and second points producer; by goals created Cammalleri is a clear #1 on the team, and leads in many categories. Here's what I mean:

– Cammalleri's been on the ice for 77 GF, 49 at ES, 28 on the PP
– Next in GF is Plekanec at 69 GF and Spacek at ES with 45 GF

– He's been involved in 57 of those goals, scoring or assisting on 48
– Plekanec has been involved in 54 goals, with 54 points

– At any strength, Cammalleri is on for 4.21 GF/60
– Markov is just higher, but the next player is under 4.00 GF/60

– At ES, Cammalleri is on for 3.15 GF/60
– Next is Gionta at 3.11 GF/60

– Cammalleri has created 22.17 goals in total, 17.33 at ES, 4.83 on the PP
– Plekanec is second with 19.46 in total, 11.46 at ES, 7.75 on the PP

– Averaged that's 1.21 GC/60, 1.12 GC/60 at ES and 1.82 GC/60 on the PP
– Plekanec is 1.02 GC/60, 0.84 GC/60 at ES and 3.35 GC/60 on the PP

– By these numbers, Cammalleri is a top 10 offensive force in the league (though we haven't corrected players on other teams with the LIW numbers yet)


In short, he's the engine of this team going forward.

If there's a silver lining in losing Cammalleri, it's that our 5-on-5 game looked terrible with him in the lineup anyway and there must surely be a bottoming out point. What's more, Cammalleri hasn't been driving the PP and should be replaceable there.

But while someone may well jump in and start putting up better numbers in Mike's absence (Gomez? Gionta?), the issue here is that there is no replacing a 4.2 GF/60 player from the extremely weak talent we have in Hamilton, and there's no way a Bulldog jumps in and creates goals at the pace of a top-10 NHLer.


Irreplaceable. What I'd do instead

There's just no replacing Cammalleri. No single player on our team can replace his outputs, neither on the ice or by trade. But winning without Cammalleri should still be possible.

My first move would be to reverse the inane promotion of Matt D'Agostini. I don't need more evidence.

Second, I'd promote AHL 4th leading scorer Brock Trotter (presumably only held back for wont of adding too many small players). In a less obvious move, I'd also make space for David Desharnais and Ben Maxwell. As a line that's formed chemistry and found a way to fire in goals their transplant into the lineup would provide a line 2b.

Plekanec then finds Sergei Kostitsyn and Metropolit for line 2a. Plekanec will suffer in the scoring race (not a bad thing come resignature) but doesn't have to flounder trying to prop up Maxwell or D'Agostni, who on their own have shown little promise at the top level.

This is my pre-Olympic lineup. I then buy myself a ticket to the Games and scout Switzerland, Belarus, Latvia and other teams with unsigned talent. I make coming out of the Olympics with a possible forward a firm goal.

NHL trades? I'd keep ears open, but in losing Cammalleri I've suddenly become exploitable in a trade. I wouldn't want to make a trade I'm not at least initially going to consider a win (short-term and long-term).


It's going to be another tough February. At least this year we have fair warning and a two-week break.

Is Koivu On The Outs?

Gainey hasn't said anything in near 3 weeks, yet the Ottawa Sun (via a affiliated newspaper) seems to have the inside track on the Canadiens situation.

Stated very surely, here it is:

It would appear Saku Koivu’s days with the Canadiens are finished. The Habs captain will likely test the UFA market, although talk has resurfaced that he’s simply going to pack his bags for Minnesota to play with brother Mikko on the Wild. The Habs, meanwhile, are trying to sign D Mike Komisarek and RW Alexei Kovalev. Komisarek is expected to test the market, while Kovalev is expected to stay in Montreal.

Garrioch's notorious for being a rumour-monger. But I've seen the Kovalev (now discredited) report from Russia used by journalists nearly every day for three weeks now. We all know the level of research they do is minimal, probably less than us amateurs. But honestly. A Russian report? Discredited a day after it was written? Do we still have to read the off shoots of this garbage.


The real answer re: Koivu is that we simply don't know. We don't know whether he has been contacted by Gainey at all or was signed 2 weeks ago. All we do know is that Tanguay is not priority number one.

One thing I am now getting a better picture of is public opinion. Well at least some of it. RDS recently added a game called "Jouez au DG". The application allows a punter like you or me to use the current signed and delivered Canadiens team (did anyone else think we were stuck with Metropolit? quite unfortunate) as a basis for adding free agents only.

It seems like a fun idea.


Salary

One interesting aspect of the game is that it sets players salaries. For the most part they look like they are in the right ballpark, although there are a few bargains to be had and a few no one will pay – like Tanguay at $5 million and Bouillon at $2.5M (I wonder how that happened?). Anyway, according to the computer, Saku Koivu comes in at a salary of $4 million a year. That makes him the 4th highest salaried centre and the 12th highest among forwards. His $4 million puts him below teammates Kovalev, Tanguay and Komisarek (seems logical).


Popularity

Given the low salary, one might think Koivu would make a popular choice for a team in need of two centres to spearhead their offence. Not so. Maybe not too surprising, but I didn't expect Koivu on board to draw a blank.

When you search the most recent editions of teams to the website for "Koivu", that's just what Saku did – nothing comes up. Not one person has re-signed Saku for the upcoming season.

Here's a quick summary of the UFAs that were signed from the page that I saw:

Robert Lang (7)
Alex Tanguay (6)
Francois Beauchemin (5)
Alex Kovalev (5)
Jay Bouwmeester (4)
Erik Cole (3)
Ian Laperriere (3)
Henrik Sedin (3)
Mike Komisarek (3)
Mike Comrie (2)
Daniel Sedin (2)
Manny Malhotra (2)
Steve Begin (2)
Mathieu Schneider (1)
Mark Recchi (1)
Stephane Yelle (1)
Rob Scuderi (1)
Marian Gaborik (1)
Chad LaRose (1)
Jason Williams (1)
Maxim Afinogenov (1)
Mathieu Dandenault (1)
Rhett Warrener (1)
Nick Boynton (1)
Mike Cammalleri (1)
Andrew Raycroft (1)
Denis Gauthier (1)
Stephane Veilleux (1)
Todd Bertuzzi (1)
Andre Roy (1)
Dany Sabourin (1)


Now those were the selections of the public (thank goodness our GM has hockey knowledge), but not to be outdone three RDS experts also contributed – offering another Koivu blanking:

Gaston Therrien signed these UFAs:

Alex Tanguay at $5M
Erik Cole at $2.5M
Alex Kovalev at $4.25M
Mike Cammalleri at $4.5M
Mike Komisarek at $4.5M
Francois Beauchemin at $5M

(He's such an astute GM that he allowed less than $3M to sign all the rest of players needed to ice a team)


Alain (Le Baron) Chantelois signed these UFAs:

Alex Tanguay at $5M
Chris Neil at $2.6M
Alex Kovalev at $4.25M
Mike Cammalleri at $4.5M
Francis Bouillon at $2.5M
Francois Beauchemin at $5M
Nick Boynton at $3M

(I think he showed his special touch in signing Bouillon for a $0.8M raise while leaving less than a minor league salary in buffer)

It goes on and on. You can read their choices here.

(Note: Please forgive them for signing no reserves, they haven't watched much hockey. Plus they were all too busy throwing money at Beauchemin)


Why no Koivu?

It's a funny thing, this complete omission of Koivu.

We all watched the playoffs. We all watched last year too (pre-broken foot and post-broken foot). But memories, it seems are fickle.

Koivu, it seems is being blamed by the fans for 16 years of blah. It's unfair that he would be, but he's the one constant isn't he? (Well there's that defender, but he was such a big contributor to the 1993 championship that he's rightly forgiven).

I am not looking forward to the day that Koivu is not a Hab, but I might be able to manage. If losing Koivu is a step the team must take to progress – to make room for a Sedin, for example, then I might see the value. I can't stomach losing Koivu to make room for Mike Comrie. I can't stand losing Koivu so that Komisarek can play as the 5th defenceman on $4.5 million a year. I won't be happy if Tanguay gets recalled before Saku or if the $4 million we cave on Koivu is spent on a raft of Gauthiers and Laperrieres.


One thing is clear, if Koivu is re-signed, and becomes the longest serving captain in team history, there will be many unhappy people in the rank and file. Equally clear is that many of those who will be unhappy (based on this sample) have as much hockey sense as Rejean Houle...

Enter Wing Left: Alex Tanguay

Gainey turned Huet into a player after all (essentially).

The Habs package their own second round pick from 2009 (keeping Washington's). We did also cough up the first rounder this year.

But Alex Tanguay!

I'll surely write more after my weekend holiday. But suffice it to say at this point that one LIW blogger is very excited.

We have a Cup winning, young, 20-goal scoring, LW star from the province of Quebec.

He's paid a bit much, but it's only a year on his current deal. He plays well for contracts too (see 2006), so even if we only get a year out of Alex, it should be good. Although, if he plays well, there'll be no trading our new French Canadian poster boy.

Downsides? Not shipping Brisebois in the deal somehow... Not many for now. I think he fits.