Reshaping the Habs: Facelift Review #1

Lordy, lord, it has been a long time since I last stepped in this place.

What can I say, the horror and disappointment of last year’s Habs season left me never wanting to return….until the Free Agent Frenzy happened.

So, after the dust settled from yesterday’s mad-signing dash we do have a different looking team, is it better? Well, it is different and somewhat better but with a whole bunch of caveats.

Scott Gomez is a fine addition but is overpaid at $7 million and losing Higgins hurts, he was one of our few forwards who actually showed up in the playoffs and played with some sandpaper in his game. Shame to lose him but Gomez helps us down the middle- though we are still missing a big centreman and this will kill us, once again. Watch Higgins haunt us like Ryder did with Boston, LeClair did with the Flyers…etc. etc.

Free agent signings of Brian Gionta and Mike Camilleri are good signings but once again, a caveat or two. I’ve been a fan of Camilleri’s since his days with the Kings and he did have a breakout year last with the Flames…if he snipes anywhere near 35 goals again is the only way to measure him as a success this year.

Gionta… he is small…tiny by NHL standards, but he once sniped 40 with Gomez in New Jersey but the past two seasons…he has not been great (same with Gomez) – may be reuniting them will spark their games to where they were two years ago when the last played together. Considering the systems they played under in New Jersey, playing for Jacques Martin should not be problem. Also, though Martin likes defence, his skilled forwards always put up solid numbers, which bodes well for Gomez, Gionta and Camillieri, let alone “The Enigma” known as Alex Kovalev.

These three players are an improvement over what we have up front. I am thoroughly convinced that neither of the Kostitsyns and Plekanec are top line material, not even close and “The Enigma” is too much to bear as the lone genuine sniper- now he will have some kind of support.

To round out the forwards, I am sad to see Saku Koivu and Tanguay go. Saku gave a lot to the community and the team but his performances were looking tired as was his output. Tanguay was a one year project spoiled by an injury, we will miss his speed and skill. I am still uncertain on the future of Robert Lang – anyone hear anything?

I am still too ticked off about losing Komisarek to the Leafs to write about the moves on defence right now but I will say this, I have no issues with Spacek or Gill and I think they are an improvement over Brisebois and O’Byrne.

More to come tomorrow…

The Price is right

Time for the post-mortem on Les Glorieux, our wonderful Habs flamed out so badly this year that I am almost thankful the season has finally ended.

Since the all-star break the cracks really started to show and we never recovered. Our paper thin lineup and lack of quality depth came back to bite us in the arse. A team built along the Buffalo youth model; remember how we touted the pedigree of our kids developed in Hamilton, just barely made it through this season.

We fired Carbo, which in the end really improved nothing. How could a coach so good a season ago be fire-worthy a season later? The internal strife and cancer on this team, whatever it is, need to be exorcised.

This lineup, even if it were healthy, would not have defeated the Boston Bruins. We lacked depth and size. Honestly, last year’s playoff series against Boston should have been our wake-up call. We almost blew a 3-1 series lead against them and we have never been the same since.

Here is my personal post-mortem on this squad and what I think needs to be done regarding our unrestricted free agents:

- Carey Price stays. He is 21 and he is a very good goaltender with tonnes of potential and a lot still to learn. Yes, he gave it the old “Roy wave” to fans and that is ok. He is being made a scapegoat for a team with no real defence and grit up front, let alone real scoring threats. Can he play better? Yes. Was he the lone problem? No. Get this kid a veteran back-up, a quality veteran back-up and it can only help. Halak is good goalie but he is no Price. Deal Halak if you have to, the Price is still right, it says here

- We need a real, bonafide, NUMBER ONE centre. Plekanec will never be that. Koivu is way past prime. Lang is a solid number two but closer to number three centre, sign him. We need a horse down the middle, simple as that. Until we get one, we will never win.

- Kovalev cannot be depended on anymore. He is an awesome talent that never seems to remain consistent. He is a top six forward, no doubt, but he cannot be the lone sniper and cannon we rely on anymore. Sign him and get him help.

- Resign Komisarek, he is a solid, physical defenceman, one that we need to be in our top pairing. Yes, we have almost $12 million tied up in Hamrlik and Markov but find a way to move Hamrlik and keep Komisarek. We will regret losing him.

- Good bye Saku. It has been a nice run but we have really not achieved anything with him as captain. There are emotional ties to this little Finn but let’s face facts, at 34, now is the time to move on from him and let him go. Watch Saku join his brother in Minnesota.

- Alex Tanguay- I say sign him, he is a second line forward and until he was injured, he was clicking quite well under the Montreal media pressure, give him a shot

- Francis Boullion, sign him, he is a mobile and gritty depth defenceman. Brings a lot in a little package.

- Mathieu Dandenault – would we really miss this role player? Don’t think so, the kids Stewart or D’Agostini can do his job just as easily.

- Tom Kostopoulos – he brings it every night he plays, the sandpaper we need on our last two lines, sign him.

- Mathieu Schneider – resign him, has proven his worth even at his age. If you are going to have an aging blueliner, at least have one that can contribute so we can good riddance to Patrice Breeze-by.

- Patrice Brisebois- for the LOVE OF GOD put him out to pasture. His value proved to be NOTHING down the stretch and in the playoffs. A waste of money, space and a developmental spot on the lineup.

Is there a parachute with this thing?

Hab fans are all asking the same question “Is there a parachute to help us with this free fall in the standings?”

Honestly, what is wrong with this team? From first place last year to this debacle. Carbo gets canned. Kovalev sent home. Price breaks down. Gainey does not deliver at the trade deadline. What a mess.

Also, with so many soon to be free agents, you would expect guys to be playing harder for their future salaries, let alone their jobs. What has happened? What internal cancer is eating away at this team and ruining a promising season. They may have not been able to make a run at the Cup but a solid playoff seemed reasonable.

Now, the cherry on top, looks like our Habs will be on the auction block, just great, what else can happen – the Bell Centre burns down and we have to play the rest of our games out of Quebec City….or Hamilton?

Good bye Carbo, this just isn’t fair

Carbo deserved a better fate.

As always, you cannot fire an entire team but you can fire a coach, it is simply that much easier. How does a guy go from great coach one year to bum the next? This all falls on the shoulders of Kovalev and Price. Our enigmatic superstar and sophmore goalie helped make this happen through their performances.

Let’s see if the players respond with Gainey behind the bench, if they don’t now, the team does indeed need to be blown up.

Sorry to see you go Carbo.

Grapes Needs to Go, I’m done with Don Cherry

I am sick and tired of Don Cherry and his rants from the pulpit on CBC courtesy of our tax dollars.

I still believe fighting will never be legislated out of the game, it is simply too fast, violent and rough for that to happen. But the thug mentality and goonery can be eliminated.

There was once a time I thought Cherry was god, but that was when I was a young, testosterone filled man, worried more about beer and getting laid than life in general. After growing up and helping raise a child, also thanks to travelling the world and seeing both the horrible and beautiful things man can create, let alone nature, I started to tune out Cherry.

This current post is fueled by Cherry’s latest diatribe of ignorance. He slammed Ovechkin, the most exciting player in the NHL, who just happens to be Russian. Cherry, once again, riled against Europeans and Ovechkin’s celebrations, claiming some big defenceman will “cut in him half” if he is not careful – seriously- we actually pay this guy to say this stuff on our national public broadcaster. Is this the message we want younger players to go with, cut down the most talented around you?

Once again, he separates Europeans from Canadians, setting them against each other. Europeans have made hockey better not made it worse. I would take a Lidstrom, Chara and Holmstrom on my team any day, let alone an Ovechkin, because they are great players and frankly, better than a pile of Canadian players.

Hate to break it to you Grapes, Canada is not the small town Canada you grew up in. Europeans have helped build up this country and did it while putting up with jerks and discrimination from small minded Canadians like you. When you say “Europeans” you are speaking about all of us with heritage from countries like Italy, Portugal, Spain, Poland, France, Germany and Greece who have made a life here in Canada and are proud Canadians.

When you dismiss Russian and Swedish players, you are dismissing us as well. Essentially when you isolate and dismiss Europeans, you are saying all us Canadians of European heritage are less Canadian because we have no Anglo last names.

You are saying there are “real Canadians” and then us who just happen to live here.

Give me more of that Philly shake!

A short note just to say “Wow”!

The overtime win over Philly was a sweet game, could the turning point be at hand for us for this season?

Heading into this week I wondered, likely like most of you, how many points would we get from the trio of games against Vancouver, Philadelphia and San Jose tonight. I thought four of six points would be a success but why not go for six!

I still believe Price is our goalie of the future but you need to ride the hot hand and Jaroslav Halak is delivering the goods, keep riding him Carbo!

The beauty of that overtime goal last night was that it was a four-on-three powerplay that turned into a three-on-three (a Hab player skated off the ice to get a new stick) and Schneider snapped a sweet feed from Kovalev home for the win.

Besides the wicked OT winner, scoring three goals in two minutes and 17 seconds to climb out of a 2-0 hole in the first showed a pile of character. Sure, some of the goals were due to weak goaltending BUT you need to be good to be lucky and you need to work for the breaks- which the Habs just did.

Let’s cross fingers for the Sharks tonight and see if we can spear them.

Habs make depth moves so far…

Well fellow Hab fans, what do we make of our latest roster moves?

Sad to see Steve Begin go, he played with heart and when he was on the ice he did a lot of the little things we need more of our players to do, don’t you think? Gritty, hard working, but unfortunately, our youth movement caught up with him. As it concerns Doug Janik on defence, a depth move at best, some say he is ahead of O’Byrne on the team’s depth chart, which does not say much.

(On a side note, was watching Mark Streit roam about the ice for the Islanders the other night against the Leafs, and boy, I miss him playing for us.)

Glen Metropolit claimed off of waivers- let’s plan the Stanley Cup route! Seriously though, a depth move again, what else can you say about a player who now has been claimed off waivers for the third time in his career (three times in the last eight years actually) and has been traded once.

The genius move of course was reacquiring the old warhorse, Matthieu Schneider to help out our blueline. His wicked shot and savvy experience more than make up for his age. Twenty-two long years ago he was drafted in the third round by Montreal and here he returns again, a blueline saviour. His impact has been immediate, especially on the powerplay.

I’m still waiting for a big centre, without one, we are toast. Boston and Philly proved last year that we can be ground down to ice chips down the middle with our small centres. We need a skating presence of some kind. Screw the Lecavalier rumours, even a second tier centre who can skate and has size will do.

We are missing Lang large and Tanguay as well, but Lang down the middle really did help us.

Come on Bob, spin some magic and make it happen.

Should Kovalev and Habs part ways?

I would really love to hear from fellow Habs fans on what to make of the current state of Alex Kovalev and our team.

I am not going to rag heavy on the guy, I am just going to say he has been disappointing and his play his maddening. Most of us figured he was due for a down year since he excelled so well last year- following his usual rollercoaster ways throughout his career- one good year followed by one bad year.

I feel for Carbo and Captain Kirk behind the bench. Those guys must be pulling at their last hairs behind closed doors. They would have killed for the God-given talent Alex has but boy, what they lacked on that end they made up in heart over the sublime Russian. How do you get Kovalev going?

What kind of realistic return is there for Kovalev on the market now? The recent games against Toronto, Buffalo and Florida have been maddening as well. His effort, let alone a heartbeat, is barely noticeable. We need him to get going and then the other sub-performers will follow.

Losing Lang is going to hurt. The loss of Tanguay is evident as well.  Until Price gets his confidence back, we are in dire need of Kovalev waking up.

Stop the Pogge pogo stick action

So, what is a Habs fan to do when he is stuck with tickets to six Toronto Marlie games? Scream and curse why I have been punished this way? Or, just realize, it is karma for slagging on Maple Laugh Nation all these years.

In the end, as a fan of hockey, whether it is in Montreal, Toronto, Nashville or Phoenix, I have started to attend the games. Of course, a nasty twist as well with the tickets I got saddled with, I had no choice in picking the games, none of them are games against the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Habs AHL affiliate. Karma is indeed a kick in the jewels.

The Marlies are a fun hockey experience in the end, the real Toronto hockey fans seem to be there, simply because they can afford the tickets. Ricoh is loud, the fans chant and scream, there are a lot of families and kids are smiling, laughing and happy and that is what really counts in the end.

Speaking of kids, Justin Pogge, I have seen him defeat the Chicago Wolves and look solid in the process and then stink up the joint against the Rockford Ice Hogs last Saturday.

In his last two NHL call-ups, eight days apart, he has been bombed for 11 goals in two games. Pogge needs to stay with Leafs and get the seasoning and fair shot he needs to prove value. The team is going nowhere anyway, so they might as well roll the dice and start him or dress him as a backup so he can get a feel of being a pro in the NHL.

The kid has obvious weaknesses, easily exposed in the NHL, with the Marlies, his size and athleticism allows him to get away for a lack technique and focus…most of the time. In the NHL, it simply does not, he seems to be unsettled, then again, he has no defence in front of him when he does start and he has this pressure to prove himself in “one-offs”.

Keep the kid up in NHL and get him to settle his feet and put that stick down on the ice, and in front of him,  to cover the massive five-hole he has. He needs to decide, or have it decided for him, that he will be a butterfly goalie or a standup, aggressive goalie.

His physique reminds of J.S. Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks but this yo yo, pogo-stick  action the Laughs put him through may end up creating Toronto’s version of Andre “Red Light” Racicot.

What do the NHL standings really mean?

Here is an excellent analysis by Alan Ryder of the Globe and Mail.

He breaks down how deceiving the NHL standings currently are based on their point breakdown, especially for overtime losses and shootouts.

A good piece of work which gives us some insight on which teams really are the better ones thanks to their regulation time performances- which should translate to playoff success since OT goes on forever and there are is no skills competition called the shootout.