With the NHL offering some classic games on its site, I decide to take a stroll down memory lane and watch the Canadiens play the Flyers in what I guess will be the last game of this series. I think the Canadiens swept the Flyers and won the Cup on Philly ice to end that series, if I recall, but let's see how this plays out.
-The image quality is frightful, in its little square box, all fuzzy and all. Some brilliant minds should be put to work on this, the NHL should spend its untold billions on restoring these videos of classic games. I'm guessing all it would take is a software program that sharpifies the image, determines that this pixel should be the place on the sweater where the white of the number borders on the glorious red of the Canadiens' sweater, and makes it so. I assume after a lot of image rendering, bingo bango, you have HD quality images.
Make it happen, Bettman. Earn your keep, if that's at all possible by now. Realistically, this is how you can start to earn back your soul and give yourself a fighting chance to not roast in hell for eternity.
-Lots of fan banners to be seen, with messages such as "WHATEVER HAPPENS YOUR STILL #1" and "WE KNOW THAT FOUR IN A A ROW IS HARD, BUT YOU'LL ALWAYS BE CHAMPIONS." Flyers fans, their shameful hockey team down 3-0 in the series, know what time it is, despite being ignorant brutes.
-Reggie Leach opens the scoring. 1-0 Flyers. Flyers players I can tolerate: Reggie Leach, Bill Barber, Rick MacLeish. That is all.
-The pace of play is torpid, disjointed. There isn't really much passing, just a succession of zone clears, broken plays, errant dishes, hopeful whacks at the puck. Where is the tic-tac-toe precision passing of the 70s Canadiens that I clearly recall with my infallible memory?
This year's Detroit Red Wings, if you teleported them back to 1976, would wipe the floor with the Canadiens. It would be no contest.
-Ken Dryden looks like a stork with swollen legs, all gangly and ungainly. It's striking how small he looks in the net compared to the modern goalies all sumo-suited up. His mask is a classic, and that lean-on-the-stick pose, how I've missed that.
-Canadiens play as if they're just trying to not get assassinated in this game, and then win it in Game 5 on Forum ice. I say this with respect, that's the sensible thing to do. I'm not saying I would have been braver. It's just that they're on the lookout for goonery and lunacy. At one point, Peter Mahovlich is tangled up with a Flyer, the whistle goes, yet Gary Dornhoefer skates in with intent, seemingly. Peter assumes an offensive lineman position, arms raised, ready to pass block, to fend off a defensive lineman's helmet slap, seemingly.
Not a bad idea. Every contact along the boards, the Flyers unleash a jab to the back of the head, a high stick in the face, it's definitely their, um, culture?
So it looks, for long periods of the game, as if the Canadiens know they're up 3-0 in the series, that they can return to the Forum up three games to one if need be and clinch it then, no need to suffer a broken jaw now.
-The refs actually make a couple of calls early in the game to cool things down, to send a message. Dave Schultz, that scum, actually is caught punching Serge Savard in the kidneys who is otherwise engaged along the boards, and after everyone is separated, they give le Sénateur two minutes, but the Flyer goon gets four. Almost a Solomonic decision.
-I keep seeing this defenceman wearing #6 always out of position, and I can't tell who it is. Is it Don Awrey? It's not Chartraw is it? It wasn't Chuck Lefley, he was gone by then, I know that much. It's not John Van Boxmeer, one of my childhood favourites, I'd have heard his name called. Bill Nyrop maybe? It takes me most of the first period to see that it's Jimmy Roberts. I'd pretty much forgotten about him.
-The first period ends 2-2. The Canadiens had scored twice (Steve Shutt and Pierre Bouchard) to quiet down the crowd, before Bill Barber tied it up again with a couple of minutes left.
-That Steve Shutt helmet though... Not sure what's worse, the lack of protection it offers, or how unflattering it is. I never liked the Jofa unit he wore the rest of his career, but that was definitely an upgrade on that Cooper jobbie from the 60s.
-The second period ends at 3-3. Bill Barber had scored early in the period on the powerplay to revive the crowd, but Yvan Cournoyer inherits a loose puck in front of the net and backhands it home, with eight seconds left.
-Larry Robinson is as magnificent as I remember. Long, lanky, with that shock of curly brown hair and that mustache, he's large and in charge and you can't miss him when he's on the ice, he's charging with the puck, directing traffic in his zone, pacifying Flyers. Man he was great.
-I formulate the thought that Guy Lafleur is pretty much invisible in this game. One shift later, he takes a pass from Peter Mahovlich and drives it home, midway through the third. Big, big goal.
And a minute later, Guy returns the favour, and sets up Mahovlich for the insurance goal. Bonsoir la visite, Merci-Thank you, à la prochaine, c'est fini.
How could I ever doubt Guy in the playoffs?
-A new fan banner is unfurled: "WE LOVE YOU ANYWAY".
Final score is Canadiens 5, Flyers 3, the Canadiens sweep the hateful Flyers, and end their reign of terror.
My soapbox to proclaim on hockey, football, politics, life. Spotlighted will be the Montreal Canadiens, and the San Diego Chargers, at least until the Vancouver GlassSmashers' inaugural NFL season.
Friday, 27 March 2020
Saturday, 4 January 2020
Marc Bergevin wheels and deals Reilly, Scandella and Kovalchuk
The Canadiens did very well here.
(Martin Leclerc: Kovalchuk : la cavalerie est trop vieille et arrive trop tard)
(François Gagnon: Ilya Kovalchuk : le pari de la dernière chance)
(Ken Campbell: GETTING MARCO SCANDELLA AND ILYA KOVALCHUK MIGHT HURT THE CANADIENS MORE THAN HELP THEM)
ADDENDUM:
The Canadiens have acquired a fifth-round pick in 2021 from the Ottawa Senators, and forward Andrew Sturtz, in return for defenseman Mike Reilly. Details to come.#GoHabsGo— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 2, 2020
So the Canadiens, who'd acquired Mike Reilly at a cost of a fifth-rounder, one they'd obtained from unloading Jakob Jerubek, now flip him to Ottawa for a fifth-rounder even-steven. Good attempt, good gamble on the promising athletic kid, he had some flashes where he made us hope, and we wrunged all the juice from that lemon. Now we trade him for what exactly what we paid. Good job.
And then, we get not quite the leftie we need in Marco Scandella, but dirt-cheap also, for a fourth-rounder, one of many we have.
The Canadiens have acquired defenseman Marco Scandella from the Buffalo Sabres, in return for a fourth-round pick in 2020 (acquired from the San Jose Sharks on June 22, 2019).#GoHabsGo https://t.co/uJEKDoyayl— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 2, 2020
UFA in July, with a current $4M cap hit. 29 years old local boy. No offence to speak of, but maybe he plays with Jeff Petry and Victor Mete drops down to the third pair? And does Brett Kulak's three-year contract end up on the pressbox? Is that "depth"?
And the shocker is that, as these deals cascade on our head, Ilya Kovalchuk signs a contract with our team, for a minimum salary two-way contract.
The Canadiens have agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way contract with free agent forward Ilya Kovalchuk. The deal will pay Kovalchuk $700,000 at the NHL level and $70,000 in the AHL.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/VdpyijRjNh— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 3, 2020
So Marc Bergevin hasn't given up on the season like we have, evidently. Those who want us to counter-intuitively lose to win will be disappointed, with the addition of two veteran patches on this leaky ship. We're not on the "Rien faire pour Lafrenière" train. MB is always wheeling and dealing, but he doesn't pay a lot for those mufflers.
And we were complaining of muffins and lack of finish recently, well, short of DeBrincat, Kovy is a good attempt to address that. If he/it doesn't work out, no problem, he's gone this spring.
I'll be the only one to say it, while Twitter and HFBoards and the remnants of HIO melt down, but good job, MB.
And I don't understand why anyone frets about this. He's on a minimum salary, two-way contract, they can eject him any time they choose. There is no obligation or repercussion. None.
It's not like he's blocking the kids. Charles Hudon had his opportunity, proved what he is. I don't necessarily want to get rid of Charles, if we can keep signing him to play in Laval, good. But he and all the other callups haven't shown they're ready, that they can do the job. Ryan Poehling would benefit from more AHL seasoning. So Ilya isn't harming our prospects, he's actually protecting them, in a way, by drawing away the spotlight and the Twitter fury. Good for Vejdemo and Barber for getting a couple games in, but they're out of their depth, not NHL-worthy/ready yet.
We've been talking about the lack of finish, about our powerplay with Nick Cousins and Jordan Weal on the first wave due to a lack of options. This gives the coaches another option, and a guy who can actually pot a goal here and there at 5-on-5 instead of padding our lead on the shot counter and giving us another moral victory. Maybe he can help in OT and SO.
He's a right-shot pure sniper, something we have a need for, it's not like we have Ovie and Laine onboard already. Gally isn't a sniper. Joel Armia was showing signs, Nick Suzuki is more of a dangler/playmaker. So he fills a need. Again, at absolutely no cost or tradeoff to us. Alex Belzile's and Kovy's career don't intersect in any way.
This isn't one of those 'right now' deals that will hurt us in the future, like bringing in Loui Eriksson to play on a line with the Sedins' last couple of seasons, and we'll worry about the other three-four years down the road. There's no down-the-road here.
When the Canadiens are (if ever) healthy again, let's say this is the lineup:
Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
Drouin-Domi-Armia
Lehkonen-Kotkaniemi-Suzuki
Byron-Thompson-Kovalchuk
Chiairioit-Weber
Scandella-Petry
Mete-Fleury
This is better. This is more depth, for free. There are more options for coaches, to shake up the roster by shuffling in a Kulak once in a while, a Jordan Weal against faster teams to 'rest' Kovy. 'Tout le monde est dans la bonne chaise,' or at least a seat at the table a little more suited to their ability.
If he does right his game, maybe we can flip him back to St. Louis or Winnipeg or another contender at the trade deadline, possibly, if we won't need him. Maybe he can be seen as a final piece, and term and salary cap won't be an issue, like it was for L.A. If not, he finishes the season, cleans out his locker and goes on his merry way.
Or maybe he brings us the 4 or 5 points that we were missing last season to slip in the playoffs? One SO goal that he scores instead of sending Gally or Danault out there, an extra PP goal or two he scores or creates because he can spread out/mess up the box, standing in the left faceoff circle for a one-timer, and we're there.
If he's completely out of gas and truly finished as an NHL player, which I don't think so, since he was at .5 pts/game this season, but if he is, then waive him and he retires rather than play in Laval at $70 000. No muss, no fuss.
This isn't Kaberle or Gomez all over again. This is swinging at the golf ball with a mulligan already attached to it if needed.
But I'll countenance dissenting views...
(François Gagnon: Ilya Kovalchuk : le pari de la dernière chance)
(Ken Campbell: GETTING MARCO SCANDELLA AND ILYA KOVALCHUK MIGHT HURT THE CANADIENS MORE THAN HELP THEM)
ADDENDUM:
Bergevin sur Kovalchuk:— Raphaël Doucet (@raphdoucet) January 3, 2020
- ne devrait pas jouer demain vs PIT
- risque minime à court/long terme
- Nate Thompson (LA) et Scott Mellanby (ATL) sont d’anciens coéquipiers et l’ont recommandé
- le CH pas vendeur + vise les séries... le DG voulait du renfort en attendant les blessés
Marc Bergevin on the Ilya Kovalchuk acquisition
--he shouldn't play Saturday night against the Penguins (visa issues)
--is a minimal risk, short or long term
--Nate Thompson and Scott Mellanby played with him and recommended him (good in the room I guess)
--the Canadiens aren't 'sellers', still gunning for the playoffs. The GM wanted reinforcements while the injured players recover.
Game 41: Canadiens 2, Penguins 3 (OT)
The Canadiens take on the Penguins tonight in a good HNIC Saturday night game... relegated to the City broadcast, because our national broadcaster CBC is reserved for the Toronto Leafs of Toronto.
This is the 41st game, the midway point of the season. Canadiens are 13th in the East, but a healthy 19 points up on last place Detroit. Tanking won't work this season. Les boys are on pace for an 84-point season though...
First game of the Ilya Kovalchuk era, except he hasn't sorted out his visa yet, so he won't play.
(Francois Gagnon: Ilya Kovalchuk : le pari de la dernière chance)
Marco Scandella will play his first game for the bleu-blanc-rouge, wearing number 28.
Kind of cool that Weise-y got his number 22 back though. It went from him to Alzner to Vejdemo before he got it back. I guess Lukas Vejdemo didn't insist too hard on keeping it, he has #42 now.
The Canadiens start off well and earn a powerplay early, but can't get much of a threat generated. Ilya Kovalchuk, sitting in the pressbox watching this, must be itching to get on there and show them how it's done.
Artturi Lehkonen gets the first goal, and is starting to look more like the 20-ish goal-scorer we thought he was going to be, instead of the snakebitten frustrating enigma he's been for a couple of seasons.
The Penguins get one right back though and tie it up 1-1. Canadiens are notorious this season for allowing goals a minute or two after they score one.
The first period was marked by another ugly incident that is so routine in the NHL that it will be ignored by the powers-that-be, but should have landed Max Domi in the hockey slammer. On a fairly innocuous play, Domi carried the puck and tried to deke around Marcus Pettersson of the Penguins, who made a fine defensive play and stripped him of the puck. Subsequently, their skates touched and hips collided and both went down, but this was after the puck was gone, and not a result of an illegal or dirty play.
What does Max Domi do but get up and attack Marcus Pettersson, first crosschecking him then dropping his gloves and starting to punch him before the defenceman knew he was in a fight, let alone why. Somehow, Max Domi only got an extra minor for crosschecking, and both got five minutes for fighting. No instigator penalty, which was clearly called for, and no expulsion from the game.
This should be a textbook sequence to coach up new referees on how to award instigator penalties. I mean, Max should be the poster boy for the instigator, with Chris Neil and Brad Marchand and Nazem Kadri.
Hockey is a great sport, but the NHL is a garbage league.
Change coming at a glacial pace. This year, we've removed Nick Kypreos and Don Cherry from their pulpits. Maybe 50 years from now, that type of play will be met with an appropriate response. Meaning, jail time.
In any case, now is the time to trade Domi to Calgary for TJ Brodie and a first. It can't be soon enough.
Brian Burke in the first intermission opines on the Canadiens, and says that a GM should/would like to see his team getting better fast or worse fast, but not treading water, as the Canadiens are, with Shea Weber and Carey Price in their thirties, and most of the kids we're waiting on a ways away. Hmmm....
Is that Mike Bossy wearing #62? Early in the second, Artturi strips the puck off Erik Johnson, stuffs it in past Murray, 2-1 Canadiens.
Again though the Penguins respond, a minute or two later, with a goal by Bryan Rust, and it's tied 2-2.
Try as they might the Canadiens can't get that killer goal, the one that makes a difference in the game. Instead, we get a Scandella crossbar, Artturi with a chance at the hat trick and go-ahead goal... "We came so close!..."
And in OT, Brandon Tanev, of all people, puts it away, and ends the game, despite a blatant interference on Carey Price in full view of the impotent officials.
A loser point against a conference opponent. Straddling the growing gap between the dock and the boat. A moral victory.
So it goes...
Penguins 3-2 (NHL Game recap, stats)
(Radio-Canada: Le Canadien s’enfonce avec une cinquième défaite d’affilée)
This is the 41st game, the midway point of the season. Canadiens are 13th in the East, but a healthy 19 points up on last place Detroit. Tanking won't work this season. Les boys are on pace for an 84-point season though...
First game of the Ilya Kovalchuk era, except he hasn't sorted out his visa yet, so he won't play.
(Francois Gagnon: Ilya Kovalchuk : le pari de la dernière chance)
Marco Scandella will play his first game for the bleu-blanc-rouge, wearing number 28.
Le bleu-blanc-rouge te va bien, Marco!— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 5, 2020
🔵⚪🔴 looks great on you, Marco!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/XcIdQrBxBh
28 is the wrong number for Marco Scandella, that's the Pierre Larouche number. Éric Desjardins, sure, I'd guessed you might bring him up, that Johnny-come-lately...
The Canadiens start off well and earn a powerplay early, but can't get much of a threat generated. Ilya Kovalchuk, sitting in the pressbox watching this, must be itching to get on there and show them how it's done.
Artturi Lehkonen gets the first goal, and is starting to look more like the 20-ish goal-scorer we thought he was going to be, instead of the snakebitten frustrating enigma he's been for a couple of seasons.
The Penguins get one right back though and tie it up 1-1. Canadiens are notorious this season for allowing goals a minute or two after they score one.
The first period was marked by another ugly incident that is so routine in the NHL that it will be ignored by the powers-that-be, but should have landed Max Domi in the hockey slammer. On a fairly innocuous play, Domi carried the puck and tried to deke around Marcus Pettersson of the Penguins, who made a fine defensive play and stripped him of the puck. Subsequently, their skates touched and hips collided and both went down, but this was after the puck was gone, and not a result of an illegal or dirty play.
What does Max Domi do but get up and attack Marcus Pettersson, first crosschecking him then dropping his gloves and starting to punch him before the defenceman knew he was in a fight, let alone why. Somehow, Max Domi only got an extra minor for crosschecking, and both got five minutes for fighting. No instigator penalty, which was clearly called for, and no expulsion from the game.
This should be a textbook sequence to coach up new referees on how to award instigator penalties. I mean, Max should be the poster boy for the instigator, with Chris Neil and Brad Marchand and Nazem Kadri.
Hockey is a great sport, but the NHL is a garbage league.
Change coming at a glacial pace. This year, we've removed Nick Kypreos and Don Cherry from their pulpits. Maybe 50 years from now, that type of play will be met with an appropriate response. Meaning, jail time.
In any case, now is the time to trade Domi to Calgary for TJ Brodie and a first. It can't be soon enough.
Brian Burke in the first intermission opines on the Canadiens, and says that a GM should/would like to see his team getting better fast or worse fast, but not treading water, as the Canadiens are, with Shea Weber and Carey Price in their thirties, and most of the kids we're waiting on a ways away. Hmmm....
Is that Mike Bossy wearing #62? Early in the second, Artturi strips the puck off Erik Johnson, stuffs it in past Murray, 2-1 Canadiens.
Again though the Penguins respond, a minute or two later, with a goal by Bryan Rust, and it's tied 2-2.
Try as they might the Canadiens can't get that killer goal, the one that makes a difference in the game. Instead, we get a Scandella crossbar, Artturi with a chance at the hat trick and go-ahead goal... "We came so close!..."
And in OT, Brandon Tanev, of all people, puts it away, and ends the game, despite a blatant interference on Carey Price in full view of the impotent officials.
A loser point against a conference opponent. Straddling the growing gap between the dock and the boat. A moral victory.
So it goes...
Penguins 3-2 (NHL Game recap, stats)
(Radio-Canada: Le Canadien s’enfonce avec une cinquième défaite d’affilée)
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