Saturday 4 January 2020

Marc Bergevin wheels and deals Reilly, Scandella and Kovalchuk

The Canadiens did very well here.


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.

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.
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...

(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:


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.
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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. 


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...


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)


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