Kings Give Habs Reality Check

Date: 26/10/2017
Opponent: Los Angeles
Location: Bell Centre
Loss: 4-0

Montreal Goalie: Price (L)
Los Angeles Goalie: Quick (W)

Montreal goalscorers:
Los Angeles goalscorers: Kempe, Toffoli, Kopitar, MacDermid

Kings Crown Habs in Third Period Blowout

Date: 18/10/2017
Opponent: Los Angeles
Location: Staples Center
Loss: 5-1

Montreal Goalie: Montoya (L)
Los Angeles Goalie: Quick (W)

Montreal goalscorers:  Byron
Los Angeles goalscorers: Kempe (3), Cammalleri (2)

Montreal outclassed by defending champs

Date: 09/01/2016
Opponent: Chicago
Location: Chicago
Loss: 5-2

Habs Goalie: Scrivens (L)
Opposition Goalie: Crawford (W)

Habs goalscorers: Eller, Pacioretty
Opposition goalscorers: Panik, Toews (2), Kane, Hossa

Crawford Steals the Show as Canadiens' Scoring Woes Continue

Date: 09/01/2016
Opponent: Chicago
Location: Montreal
Loss: 2-1

Habs Goalie: Condon (L)
Opposition Goalie: Crawford (W)

Habs goalscorers: Byron
Opposition goalscorers: Toews, Garbutt

Tampa-Montreal Game #4: Pacioretty Sweeps Habs Into Round Two

Date: 22/04/2014
Opponent: Lightning
Location: Montreal

Win: 4-3

Habs Goalie: Price (W)
Opposition Goalie: Lindback, Gudlevskis (L)

Habs goalscorers: Briere, Eller, Gallagher, Pacioretty
Opposition goalscorers: Palat, Hedman, Johnson

A View Into the Mind of Trevor Timmins

Many thanks to Habs Eyes on the Prize for linking up the video of Trevor Timmins discussing the recent NHL draft. To read a transcript, this interview is as dull and uninformative as they come. but that's hardly the point. In the way he answers questions and to watch his body language, this Timmins interview is interesting and revealing.

All For Nill

July 4th, the day before the free agent window was supposed to open will likely overshadow the 5th in the fullness of time.

Insert Headline: The Spin and the Motive for the Erik Cole Trade

Canadiens unload Cole to the Stars.

Erik Cole has been traded to the Stars.

Erik Cole's contract traded to the Stars for UFA Michael Ryder.

Canadiens acquire Michael Ryder from Dallas.

Stars and Canadiens swap scorers.

Better Than Expected: 10 Reasons For Habs Quick Start

I don't think I'd be alone in saying these Canadiens are a fair bit better than I expected them to be. With a serious face, I repeatedly called for this team to be a basement dweller, a team with negligible (if any) improvement) from a 15th-place finisher.

If you want surprises, this is the way to go, let me tell you. The team greatly surpassing an out-of-whack evaluation is more fun to follow than the 2012 edition where the team similarly surprised, but in the opposite direction.

Subban Cleverly Retained

Great news right? Subban is signed.

That really is the beginning and end of it. Signed now, for two years. Good.

Subban Accomplished Nothing? Let's See

I understand the emotions of a new hockey season, and I can relate to those that are upset about a certain 23 year-old turning down perfectly good money to play a game on ice.

But in the past day, the rhetoric has taken a turn for the worse. The reaction to Subban's verbose response to Stubbs' question: "why aren't you signed yet?" Some of the media and talking heads on RDS in particular have come out in force to detract from PK Subban and make the claim that the little guy hasn't accomplished anything yet.

Quite.

Game 1 in Review: Low Quality Hockey On The NHL's Return

Thanks to everyone who responded by picking players for the dome. I think it went very well. It's not the dome I would have chosen, but I think we knew that would be the case after 5 years of arguing about these picks.

I won't be doing recaps after every game (sometimes, I'll group them in a weekly recap), but this being the first game, I'm making the exception.

How To Pay Subban

You know, working out what one has to pay a player really isn't as complicated as some make it seem. While I''m sure PK Subban may have rolled the dice with comparisons to Karlsson, he and his agent are smart enough to give up that trick early.

But PK knows his range well. It's a range that has clearly been set by the salaries given to players in the current team make up.

The Last Remnant of the Gomez Trade

OK, so we don't need to shed another tear for Scott Gomez, the league and players' association that were stubborn and stupid enough to squander a whole half season, have grasped their rush of common sense to make a very common sense fix to the Gomez problem (and for others like him: Redden).

Instead of having to sit for this season, they have made a scheme whereby a player can be bought out now and released from all the clauses that tie the buyout to health, etc. For the team and the salary cap, the effects are the same. The sole purpose of this new move is to be kinder to players like Gomez.

What To Make of Gomez

My first reaction to the news of Gomez's early morning meeting with the principal was one of slight disgust.

Told to stay home? This was not the way to treat a player under contract. This was not the team that we tout as being class of all known teams.

One Thing Leads To Another

One thing always leads to another. This may be a revelation for the Habs green GM who reportedly just offered a contract of 2 years for $5.5 million to PK Subban.

Subban rejected that. You don't say.

The Price Of Commitment

You want a player to commit to a long-term deal? Show him the money.

That's exactly what greenhorned GM Marc Bergevin did most recently with the Carey price contract. 6 years at $6.5 million a season makes Carey the most expensive contract ever tendered by the Montreal Canadiens and the third highest paid goaltender in the NHL.

If you want a stable piece in the corner of your team that you don't need to worry about for a number of consecutive summers, that is what you have to do: just ask the Rangers.


What else can we say about this contract?

Carey Price has not yet earned the right to be paid more than Jonathan Quick or Ryan Miller, but contracts are not made that way are they? Players are paid their most lucrative salaries based on the faith and speculation of the GM that faces them in negotiations at exactly Carey's age.

Such is the fear of free agency on a team that has neglected to draft a goaltender in years and has been trading back-ups away as if they were discontinued bank notes.

What's more, there's an element of Montreal-premium in a long-term salary like this. Carey's take home pay is more reflective of his standing in the league than his over-the-counter price. A funny thing in a province where 6 million taxpayers would gladly pay for a free agent instead of a university professor.

The niggling issue, of course is that the long-time coming of Carey Price is still happening. For the impatient Montrealers, the 5 years of ups and downs since those 2008 starts have been a long run. 5 more Cupless years, some more painful than others. Now, Bergevin is paying Price top dollar on the back of a solid, but not top-notch season in the continued hope that the pinnacles of form represent the future, rather than the average form. I suspect there are a couple of learning years to remain, and wonder if the burden of the Gomez number which will now hang on every 4-goal game will take its toll.

There's a positive also in the contract at $6.5 million. Currently that stands at about 9% of the team salary load. Although, I'd be happier if Carey was paid at closer to what I believe to be the market value for a goaltender in the second tier of the top 20 keepers of the league; I'm accepting of paying that allocation for what amounts to 400 full games of service.


Anyway, on balance, we have to be content. We did not lose the only goalie our team has to an offer, and though we likely spent $2 million more in the doing, it's $2 million less to give to Clarke MacArthur or whichever other Leafs retread is next on the list. Plus, it's $2 million of $70 million, not $48 million. On a team of third liners, Carey like his coach will have to ride a few frustrating seasons anyway, so his proving ground will be a few years off. By that time, who knows how many goalies will be paid at higher rate than him.

The price of commitment is steep. But without commitment, the cycle of mediocrity cannot stop. Let's hope that this commitment, like the other 4 year pay bundles handed out look like good sense in time and become recognized as the steps that put the Habs back on a track they once had proprietary rights over.

Happy free agent hunting.

Canadiens Clean Up At Draft

It started soundly enough. Day one saw the Canadiens avoid the lure of the #3 defencemen on offer and took an offensive center instead.

Though he's already being touted as a solution to the Habs undersized centre stable, he's only an inch taller than the guys they are calling small at this draft and on the Habs. Maybe he plays big? We'll have to see if he does in the NHL.

So with Galchenyuk, the Habs at least grab a a forward. My choice would have been to ignore the sudden pessimism and take Grigorenko anyway. He's bigger and can play with speed and size. The worry justified his drop. But then the Habs could have dropped into lower position with a barometer on the situation and pulled another steal on a day they were fleecing the other GMs (Day 2).

If we say I was warm on Galchenyuk, I was downright delighted when the picks started rolling in on Saturday.

Sebastien Collberg is the kind of player I'd have touted if the Habs were picking in their traditional 14-20 spot. He is a natural goalscorer with that Swedish background. This is no Minnesota High School flash in the pan. He has shown his stripes at major international tournaments already. It's a risk like all forwards are, but a much better one than one would have expected at #33 in a weak draft.

Tim Bozon is another coup on my books. The Habs get a French-speaking, high-flying WHL scorer in the early third round. 36 goals in the WHL is rare enough, but rarer as a rookie. The WHL, being the tough league it is, gives a good sense of the potential of a scorer and I think Bozon has a chance to succeed in his quest for NHL hockey. A great find at the position he was taken.

Dalton Thrower was a high scoring WHL defenceman in a year where that was the vogue. A second rounder in the end, with his stats, he could have looked just as natural as a mid first rounder. He's labelled a small player at 5'11", but again, he is only being towered over by Matthew Dumba by an inch and a couple of points. The highly touted Pouliot outscored Dalton by 5 points and did so with an NHL first round blueline partner. Another thing to like is that Thrower already plays with Darren Dietz, a Canadiens prospect from the last go around, and one that looks to be showing enough progress to make it one day himself.


Those are the big 4. But the Habs add a little icing on the cake with their final two picks as well.

Charles Hudon was ranked as the 5th best prospect from the QMJHL for the 2012 draft by Hockey's Future and the first originating from La Belle Province. What a coup for the Canadiens to nab this guy when they did considering the factors at play. He is small, but are we honestly still writing off all small players? Good thing for Habs most GMs are stuck in that mindset. Hope they enjoy their giant 6'1" players.

Brady Vail is a stout OHLer with a good defensive game from a top franchise. A fourth round pick with those credentials is par for the course. He projects currently as a bottom six forward, but one can't ask for top liners throughout. At least this Chipchura-like resume didn't cost an 18th overall pick.

Finally, Erik Nystrom. I have asked over and over that Montreal take care of the Swedish scouting situation and it's a pick like this that shows some confidence that they are moving in the right direction. Nystrom is an off the charts player and one still in the lower ranks of Swedish hockey. But guess what? To get your true steals (Zetterberg, Datsyuk), one has to dig deeper, else the player is know by everyone and reserved for the Oilers in June. The limited info we have on this guy is that he plays offensive hockey (check), with skill (check) and speed (check). He's a bit of a shot in the dark, but with a dazzling end of year p0layoff campaign, the Habs must have seen something they liked. And without risking too much they have loaded up on more intrigue.


Overall, a good haul indeed.

By my count, 3 well-proven goalscorers, a good offensive defenceman, a homegrown prospect, an all-rounder from a good club and a big swing on something they think they spotted. This is the kind of draft that can reignite the fires of skeptics. Worked for me.

A Red Flag Over Bergevin

We were giving Marc Bergevin the benfit of the doubt as a new GM in Montreal. We knew little about him.

His first moves seemed like good moves, yet we know little of the people he was bringing in. I did know the Habs beat Rick Dudley's Sabres about two generations ago, and his Thrashers regularly, and his Panthers, and, well you get the point.

Anyway, we wanted to be positiv, so we were. That is until the hammer fell. Michel Therrien.

There are positive things you can find to say about Therrien, sure. He did go all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals with the All-Star team Penguins. But for me, there are just so many reasons that Therrien was bottom of the list of all candidates.

1) He was not a good fit in Montreal before

I know it was a different team in a different time, a different team, but there were reasons he should have done better. He coaxed an 87 point last playoff berth season from a team with Jose Theodore doing the vast majority of the work, but otherwise, he got bad results from a below average team. Furthermore, it was an era of getting to know his junior buddies, and I was glad to see the days of Patrick Travese behind me.


2) He wasn't that good in Pittsburgh

Although he was certainly present for the resurgence of the Pittsburgh Penguins, we're not sure how much he had to do with it. Look, it was bound to happen, and like Paul Bissonnette, Therrien was bound to get a goal if he stuck around in the crease (Pitt coaching job) long enough. In 2006-07, Therrien watched Crosby become the last player to crack 120 points. The next season he watched as three of the best forwards in the game waltzed the team into the final.

Now, it's obviously difficult to distill the contributions of a coach on any team. Darryl Sutter was recently a man out of ideas on the unemployment line too. But Therrien was coaching what might have been the best concentration of emerging talent we've seen in decades and he just did OK. I'm not the only one who thinks this, obviously, as Pittsburgh management thought better of leaving another Cup attempt in his hands, instead selecting a coach with all of 54 games of AHL head coaching experience as the preferred option in 2008.


3) He's a retread

So were all the candidates apparently. All "winners" elsewhere. But let's not forget losers too: Hartley coached Atlanta, Crawford coached in LA and Dallas, etc.

A retread is fin, but recognize that although someone has to win the Cup every year, it's unlikely that someone who got fired in another city has the formula we need in Montreal to deal with the ridiculous mess of politics, media and haphazard player development. If we wanted something special, it was going to have to be a new name, because no one to previously coach in the NHL not named Bowman has shown he has his head and shoulders above the rest.



Overall, I have to say this hiring is troubling. Not because I can't see the team squeaking into the playoffs and being eliminated (as usual) with Therrien. I can. But because I thought this rebuild was meant to be a step into a new direction. A sincere effort to recognize that Montreal is a special mix of elements and that if the team is to ever live up to its heritage, it must start by staffing with a very special mix of managers.

As I said, Bergevin was getting the benefit of being a possible rising star, with his buddy Mellanby. But if his judgment and the advice he's taking led him down a road that ended with Therrien being considered, interviewed and hired, the flag I see is red and it tells me that we are very much on the same course as before and any expectations of a great franchise turnaround might have to wait until the next big clean out.

I am sorry for being negative. But I truly feel this move is disappointing.


Let's be a bit positive

If I try to muster something positive from this, I must stretch. It is possible (though unlikely) that Bergevin is more calculating than we give him credit for. He is currently at the helm of a pretty mediocre group of players, and that can't be changed overnight. With the Montreal hounds the way they are, any coach might be burned by the results this team is likely to put up in the short term.

In that case, it would be a shame to burn a really hot up and comer. Instead, you'd want a sacrificial stop gap. Enter Therrien -- a coach that is competent enough to kee things at bay for a while, but one with a two year countdown.

Maybe this hiring gives Bergevin then the time he needs to cultivate his long-term partnership with that cut-above coach (yet to be found) and rebuild the team into something that resembles a contender as well.

I've stretched my imagination on this one, but that's what it's taking me to see beyond.

In all scenarios, I think Therrien will be fired and added for a second time to that long list of one to two year tenures. At least, if Bergevin turns out to be a Machiavellian genius, it won't hurt in 5 years time.

Pleased As Punch With Bergevin

The overwhelming feeling I am getting from the Canadiens media these last few days is that they are a happy bunch. And why not?

To understand how pleased they must be, it bears reflecting on where they were just a year ago.


With Gauthier in charge and Jacques Martin installed as coach, the world of soundbytes and stories was getting to be hard work. Gauthier a man who rarely had a press conference, and when he did said nothing of substance, and Martin genuine in his plainness, just honestly taking everything in stride and wondering what the fuss was about.

I sincerely believe that that constituted a moment of panic for the gigantic media machine that has assembled itself to live parasitically off the Canadiens. Without the fruits of preferred access, without privelege of any extra information, what was there to be to continue to define the professional media with the amateur pundit?

With all access pass provided by full broadcast of every game and tightened communication strategies limiting all expression from top to bottom, the distinction was to stay at time and the salary commanded.

If the Gauthier way had time to fully establish itself as the way forward, one would have to guess that higher ups at media outlets would resort with the Canadiens press to many of the same measures they have implemented for the reporting of all other news -- syndication with copy and pastes.

I think we understood just how real this fight was for the media and just how dire they believed their own circumstances to be when the Markov affair unfolded last fall. Not many paid to provide elaborate coverage was able to scoop Gauthier on the status of the best player in town. They reacted as if they had been duped. Really they had been made obsolete for an instant. If the media genuinely knew nothing of Markov, then why would we defer to their opinions instead of the hordes of willing and even fresh-viewed amateurs who go about their coverage with more joy and reckless abandon.

The Gauthier removal was the blessing they craved, and I wonder whether or not they had their say. The Canadiens, you see, are not so far removed from the media machine that they feed, they certainly enjoy the reach and notoriety it can give the team. A paid crew will still write reviews on a season laid dead months before. Publicity that would not be guaranteed from amateurs fatigued with the thought of hockey in bleu, blanc, rouge.

And their relief was further enhanced by the hiring of Marc Bergevin. Never mind that he speaks French for a minute (although that certainly is important). The fact he is a personable character who seems to have no qualm with open policy is much more valuable to the machine. Today I read Bertrand Raymond's opinion on the matter and it reads like a Hallelujah. He even retreads every former GM he has known, praising those who enhanced his life and slagging those who did not. It's telling that Andre Savard comes out with a shinier review than Sam Pollock. The vilification of Gainey and Gauthier is a contrast to the apology he offers for the affable Rejean Houle.


So understand then that the media has more than one agenda here, or so it seems to me. I say understand, to you knowledgeable folks I should say don't forget. Bergevin will ultimately be judged for the hockey he manages to coax from a team he puts together, but that judgment is a way off. Until such time, it seems he will be cast in rays of appreciation just for smiling, talking and letting the media back in. I would think that the media being as pleased as punch with man in a year should not determine how each fan feels about the situation. Just my observations.



On the coach

I guess now Marc is in his chair, the attention of the organization and the speculation moves firmly to the position of head coach.

It's an interesting decision, and I hope to offer more comment in a full reflection on the topic.

I do have some preliminary questions/concerns:

What are the criteria really going to be?

I ask because M. Raymond rambled briefly on how HNIC misunderstands Quebec when they might suggest someone like Quenneville. His line: "Heureusement, le nom de Quenneville vient de s'effacer de lui-même" is a troubling stance for a fan who wants the best candiate available. Especially when it is followed by discussion on the glory years of Savard-Therrien.

I understand the importance of language as a factor in the decision, but funnily I look at the Cunneyworth episode from a different lens than many. Most fans weren't in constant uproar over Cunneyworth (well not until they realised he would lose more than Martin). The fanbase was surprisingly accepting, I thought, actually.

I all factors should be weighed in a balance. With the GM, I feel comfortable this was carried out. Bergevin won out because he was a serious candidate. He happens to be from Montreal, and this definitely weighed in, but it doesn't stand out as his main quality.

A candidate like Michel Therrien for me is a non-starter, and I'mappalled to see his name in the mix. Yes he did pretty well with the Penguins, but he has certainly been outdone by a fair margin by the newcomer Bylsma, and most of the time without the same arsenal. He was not in my estimation part of some golden age with the Habs, but part of a dark age, and I surely recall rejoicing at his departure more than any other. Would he be on a list that did not start with language? Not one you'd be happy to not have to include Quenneville on.




Anyway, enjoy the Flyerless playoffs and catch up soon.