Free Pizza For Everyone

As the NHL and TSN prepare for Thursday's awards cermonies and Friday's draft, the rst of the world is watching the World Cup.

I count myself in with the rest. And so, apart from being roused by the occasional trading of a team's major cog, I neglect my coverage of signings like Mathieu Darche for now.


I think it's only right. After all, for all the drama of teams shifting salary, it somehow just doesn't quite stack up to entire nations going at each other, some coming through in impressive fashion and others completely falling to pieces.

This morning was a case in point. This morning, an embattled French team took to the field in South Africa to face the home Bafana Bafana squad. I didn't need to watch the game, or the red card, or the bad loser's refusal to shake hands to embrace the feeling of this result.

South Africa 2:1 France



There's a beauty in that. Two coutries who qualified for the tournament through FIFA's own special allowances playing their way out. One group had their heads held high, one group left biting each others' heads off.

France, you see, deserved this fate. Having wrongly avoided being put to a penalty shoot-out in order to qualify courtesy of a goal made possible by Thierry Henry's offside hand to foot pass. Since that time, the Irish and those who thought FIFA took the easy way out have been hoping for the pendulum to swing back into the collective mid-riff of the French.

The momentum seemd to change early. France, a pre-tournament power if only for their star power, slipped and slogged away against an uninspired (on the day) Uruguayan side.

A loss to Mexico followed, with an effort that was questionable all around. From there, as you'd expect, flowed criticism, rifts in the squad, plenty of whining, a players strike, resignation of high ups in the French football federation, public humiliation, an injunction from President Sarkozy, more humiliation, and finally a loss to the lowest ranked team to be pulled from Pot A in this, and probably all, World Cups.

If you're Irish you call it justice. If you're just about anyone else, comedy.


Ireland come out with high groiund and pizza

Meanwhile, the Irish National football team (the other team I know to work in-fighting into match preparation - 2002: Keane, Roy) is enjoying this World Cup, perhaps more than they would have had the hand ball been flagged down by the linesman wishing to make up for his botched offside call. They'll have plenty of time now to relish the high ground.

Last week, sombreros and tequila were the order of the day in Dublin as France went up against Mexico in group match. If there was ever a day for Corona to outsell tehe black stuff on the river Liffey, it was on the evening of the French defeat that nearly sealed their fate.

Today, the Irish will be eating Pizza to their hearts' content, I imagine, as Pizza Hut is offereing free pizza following the French exit.


The results in sport don't always fall in the way that we want. Nor do they always fall on the side of fairness. But sometimes, it appears that they do.

Whatever the teams, the results. You just can't top the drama that's unfolding in South Africa. That it seems is my round-about apology for putting hockey on the backburner for a few days...

Huet for SchneiderOh, And That Year In Between...

Don't hope for Patrick Roy to coach this team now: Mathieu Schneider is back.


Schneider left in one of my favourite trades in Canadiens history (getting Turgeon was very exciting at that time); but he was still missed. He was defenceman 1a or 1b, depending on who you talk to, in 1993. This should finally put to rest any idea that a certain other veteran of that year should be some kind of torch bearer.

I approve of this trade today, but it is only reparations really, isn't it. We could have signed Schneider in the summer. We could have traded Huet for a defenceman in the first place.

Alas, it is today. And we are where we are, so we must look forward. This move should help an immense amount. Not because Schneider will step in at number 1 or even number 2; but because Mathieu Schneider is an immense improvement over 6th on our list, a good improvement over 5th and a decent step up on 4th. This is both offensively and defensively of course.

His stepping in should bump others into loads they can manage. Gorges can go back to D and PK. Hamrlik can work with a better partner. Bouillon won't have to approach 20 minutes of ice time.

Mathieu is now the second highest paid player on the Canadiens – so I can get off George Gillett's case for letting his Liverpool loans strap the Habs for cash.

Habs Review 2007-08: Mathieu Dandenault

The numbers

2007-08
61 GP: 9 G, 5 A, 14 Pts, 34 PIM, -11, 69 Shots

Career best year – 2000-01 – Red Wings
73 GP: 10 G, 15 A, 25 Pts, 38 PIM, +11, 95 Shots

Playoffs 2007-08
9 GP: 0 G, 0 A, 0 Pts, 2 PIM, -3, 13 Shots

Career best playoffs – 2001-02 – Red Wings
23 GP: 1 G, 2 A, 3 Pts, 8 PIM, +7, 11 Shots



Plays of the game: 2

Game pucks: 0

Domes: 4

3 Star selections: 1 Second star, 2 Third star


The story

Where he started the season
Making the team was going to be a challenge for Mat this year as the Habs were really deep on the blue line. Add Brisebois and fellow NHL defensive-blunder journeyman Jamie Rivers to the fold, and space was running out. A decision was obviously made by the team early on that Dandy would return to his roots as a winger, which would give the 2-time Stanley Cup champ an actual shot of making the team. His speed (which we are told he has) would add some energy to our 3rd or 4th lines and his experience would be invaluable (right?).


The season
True to the plan, Mat played on the wing this year for all but half a game, in which we suffered two injuries on the blue-line. The problem with Dandenault for us was that it was always quite obvious that he was a defenceman playing forward, with few flashes of true offensive instinct.

The Dandenault experiment wasn't the same as if we put Markov or Streit up front, this was plain bad. We took a mediocre defenceman and tried to make a scorer out of him. His numbers would show you that he isn't really the threat we had hoped he would be. 9 goals isn't horrific, but what is with -11? Aren't you a defenceman?

This approach, which lasted all season, was quite backwards considering we are supposed to be a team deep with offensive potential. Can you believe now, for example, that Dandenault was chosen to play the wing ahead of Sergei, Locke, D'Agostini, Stewart, Lapierre and others. To his credit, whenever he was benched he always responded with a strong performance upon re-insertion into the line-up. However, after this happened 3 or 4 times it became frustrating that he would only produce ion return games and didn't offer anything in any of the intervening contests. We should ask: why was he only motivated by being benched, why didn't the potential to be benched ever get him going? All in all, to us he represented a wasted spot on a team that should be looking to the future more than anything else.


Highlights: As you can see, Dandenault had his moments, but Rocky? Any association between this Hab and Philly in my mind is not set to inspirational music.




Dandenault by the numbers: Canadiens.com

Lions' links on Dandenault:

The trouble with 8

Habs fine. And Dandy?


Grade: C-
Dandenault may not have offered much as a forward, but at least he accepted his role. In general, he played with a consistent level of effort, which was always enhanced after a trip to the press-box. The plan was to have an extra D-man in the line-up in case we needed one, but after going the whole year without ever really moving him back I would say that that plan was a waste of time. You dress 6 defenceman in case someone gets hurt because you only NEED 2 and can easily go with 4. Dressing 7, sometimes 8 was too cautious an approach for Carbo, and, hopefully, he will learn from his 96-game experiment that you gain absolutely nothing from it. Yes, Mat has Stanley Cup and President's Trophy experience, but I felt that this did not help us in the least and just proved how overrated experience can be, especially when it is your lesser players who are the ones who have it.


Where we'd have him next season
Unfortunately for the Habs (and Mat), Dandenault is still signed for another year. I don't see how he will be able to steal a spot on our team this year, especially after we determined how ineffective he is as a forward. He doesn't make too too much money and I think it would be in the Habs best interest to either trade him, send him down, waive him or even buy him out if needed. Personally, the time where players like Dandenault steal spots from great prospects just because they are under contract has come and gone for me. To me, it is worth the cost of both Dandenault's and a prospect's salary to have that prospect play. We have given Dandenault a 3-year shot and, while he helped us through a tough time, it is obvious now that the team has outgrown him and what he can offer us is no longer at our level. It is time for the Habs to say thank you very much for everything Mat and walk away from Dandenault the player.