Sunday 2 July 2023

2023-24 Canadiens Offseason Roster Construction: UFA (Unexciting Free Agency)

 So the Steady Eddie trade is defensible if a little disappointing.  My uninformed fan's solution was to hold on to him until the trade deadline, when he could reap a second and in the best of a Chiarot world, a first-rounder.  You'd have Matheson, Guhle and Edmundsson on the left, which again in my plan you dealt with by unloading Victor Mete 2.0, namely Jordan Harris, on some other gullible GM (Pierre Dorion), and sending Wifi to Laval at least to start the year.

But Gorton and Hughes keep talking about culture, and it might have harmed the culture and the dressing room to send down a popular teammate like Arber, and maybe they think he's essential in the lineup as currently constituted.  And Joel lost half a season due to back problems last year, and the analytics aren't kind to him, so Kent Hughes took 80 cents on the dollar by flipping him to the Caps for a third-rounder, and a seventh we can use in the future to honour David Poile and his remarkably lifelike mop of thick full brown hair.  

I can go along with this move, a bird in hand and all that stuff, and maybe it does help to develop our young guys on D by giving them more ice and responsibility, so ultimately beneficial in the long term.  But the flipside of this wager is if injury-prone Mike Matheson and/or David Savard miss weeks of action, watch out, we'll have a fragile D-corps, which may experience growing pains and the sophomore jinx, especially without the trusty vets around.

UFA July 1 was as boring as the draft was, with no trades, certainly none of the blockbusters the experts and insiders portended.  I'm glad the Canadiens stayed clear of the first day of overspending, but now I'm thinking of finding bargains, even if we really don't have any room on the roster.  Maybe a cheap veteran goalie for depth insurance?  We're going to have to white-knuckle the start of the season with Caden Primeau, whether we keep three goalies on the roster or try to sneak him to Laval.  Better have a Plan D.

I see Jonathan Bernier is available, but I don't think he'd be ready to accept a grand-frère role in Laval at this stage of his career.  Keith Kincaid, maybe his lively social media presence can counter any burned bridges (no, I'm not serious)?  Le retour de Zach Fucale?  Does anyone know anything about Jean-François Bérubé?

At other positions, the UFA status of Maxime Comtois is certainly intriguing, a big winger with talent who should be able to score, but who's had two very disappointing seasons in Anaheim, which I can attest to, having taken flyers at times on him on my fantasy team, when I was desperate for help and he'd be given first line and powerplay duties by the Ducks.  We find out though that he is one of the subjects of the sexual assault investigation on the Canadian World Junior team, and would that explain his drop in performance, like seemingly Carter Hart's?  I'll bet we steer clear of him.

At defence, we need to replenish the ranks in Laval for callups and just to have enough bodies.  Maybe Frédéric Allard can re-sign if the grass isn't greener elsewhere.  Nicolas Meloche is out there available.  Bode Wilde is a name...

At forward, I guess we made our lowball offer to Dennis Gurianov already, when we held his rights and chose not to make him a qualifying offer, so he's almost certainly not returning.  Adam Erne is a name on the list that flashes, would he be okay with a 14th forward role, a big winger who's called up situationally, when injuries strike?  Kieffer Bellows' name pops also, although not his stats in the NHL.  Pierre-Edouard Bellemare can Frenchify us, and bring some Bottom 6 grit and championship experience, a leftie centre for added depth, and for when Jake Evans gets conkied again.

We could take a chance on Julien Gauthier, in the faint hope clause, at minimum wage.  If we ever unload Joel Armia, we could plug and play Julien in his role of the disengaged 6'4" fourth-liner, and reap the savings.

Any other ideas out there?

Sunday 30 April 2023

2023-24 Canadiens Offseason Roster Construction: Which UFAs and RFAs should be retained?

The 2022-23 season is thankfully over for les Canadiens de Montréal, but it doesn't really feel like we can now sit back and take a break.  As supporters of the team, all season long we kept an eye on the current, sure, at the daily games and practice reports, but really our hearts and minds were on the future.  We saw everything that happened this year through the prism of The Rebuild, and at this point on the calendar, we're ankle-deep in it.

We have a lot of wheeling and dealing to look forward to as we prepare for the next season.  We will work through some decisions the team's brass will have to make as some important dates near (May 8, June 15, June 28-29, July 1, August 15).  While our educated guesses won't be binding on Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, they will be a starting point for discussions, and will firm up in our own minds what the issues are, where the biggest struggles will be.

What we'll look at in the first instalment is relatively straightforward.  We'll gaze into the crystal ball and try to predict which and/or how many impending Canadiens free agents will be re-signed for next year.  Restricted free agents (RFA) are under team control, and can be retained if the team submits a qualifying offer (QO) by June 15.  Players with expiring contracts who are set to become unrestricted free agents (UFA) can re-sign with their teams at any time, or can wait until their contract expires on July 1 and then offer their services to the highest/best bidder.

One important factor to consider in our decision-making is the 50-contract limit.  In the olden days, the Canadiens' Frank Selke and later Sam Pollock could and would sign an apparently inexhaustible parade of prospects to 'C forms', which bound players to an NHL team in perpetuity, but this is no longer allowable.  Now teams have to stay under this limit, and usually don't go above 47 or 48 at the outset of the season, so as to leave some flexibility to acquire players in trade, in case of injuries, etc.

The Canadiens organization currently has 48 players under contract.  This number will decrease as players whose contracts are set to expire and and who can become unrestricted free agents are cut loose or choose to play elsewhere.  These candidates are Jonathan Drouin, Paul Byron, Sean Monahan, Alex Belzile and Chris Tierney on the NHL roster, and Anthony Richard, Otto Leskinen, Frédéric Allard, Corey Schueneman, and Madison Bowey on the AHL farm team roster.

Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron will not be back with the Canadiens.  Jonathan Drouin's travails and unproductivity have been thoroughly discussed, there is no need to beat this dead horse.  If Jonathan can find an NHL home in a market with a much smaller media and fan-obsession profile, good for him, but we're almost wishing in his case that he finds a sinecure in the Swiss league, apparently conditions there are great, he can play pro hockey with no pressure and no facial cross-checking.  We wish him good luck.  

Paul Byron is medically unable to play NHL hockey, he's recovering from hip surgery and cannot even go for an easy skate without experiencing great pain.  His future health and mobility are in question, so he'll probably retire to rehab and launch an NHL front-office career, he's already being eased into the role by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, having occasionally this season donned a suit and watched games with them in the exec suite.

Sean Monahan's ability to play and avoid injuries is a giant question mark.  He proclaimed himself healthy at training camp, as feeling the best he had in a long time, but suffered injuries and couldn't play for a majority of the season.  As such, he's a big risk for any team to take on, he'll take up a roster spot and cap space but very well could end up on IR, which isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card, it's just another roster headache teams would rather avoid if they can.  At locker cleanout day, he expressed to the  assembled media a desire to return to the Canadiens next season, but if he does return it will most probably be on a one-year prove-it deal at a low cap hit, possibly with incentives.  

Chris Tierney did the job he was expected to when he was claimed on waivers, which was to fill out a jersey while the Canadiens muddled through their rash of injuries, but he had little impact, no Torrey Mitchell was he, so he'll most likely not be back. 

Alex Belzile we can foresee being signed for one or two years, with a substantial AHL salary or even on a one-way deal, with a view to serving as a captain in Laval and a ready callup candidate.

Anthony Richard appeared to love playing in Laval in front of hometown crowds, and to love even more getting to play some games with the Canadiens, but he's not a slam-dunk to return.  He is at an age where the most important deciding factor is an opportunity to play some NHL games and establish his career.  For him, signing with Phoenix would be a windfall, not a nightmare.  Let's put him at a 50% chance of returning, at best.

Corey Schueneman is in kind of the same situation at this stage of his career, and he can probably read the handwriting on the wall, with so many young left-shot defencemen having vaulted past him on the organization's depth chart.  He will likely be in search of greener pastures.

Frédéric Allard, acquired mid-season in a trade, is a hometown boy who played a few NHL games almost by default; he also was made a healthy scratch repeatedly by Laval Rocket head coach Jean-François Houle.  Madison Bowey is a former blue-chip NHL prospect and World Junior star who has failed to establish himself as anything but a farmhand.  If he returns to the Rocket it will be on an AHL contract.  Otto Leskinen made a surprise return to Laval this season, and did not really improve or materialize as an NHL prospect.  I expect he will play in Europe next season.

So of the ten UFAs, let's pencil in three as returning.  This whittles down the contracts number to around 41.  

Next, we get to prognosticate about the restricted free agents.  In the past, I've tended to be overly optimistic about the number of returnees.  You grow attached to your own prospects, and you tend to think there's no harm in being patient, but Marc Bergevin for example demonstrated he could be remarkably unemotional about cutting ties with unproductive or stalled or low-hope prospects, and there is an opportunity cost to having such players gumming up the works in your organization, they can prevent you from signing the next Great White Hope, from jumping on the right gravy train.

So we'll try but probably fail to be ruthless, or at least objective.  On the NHL team, the RFAs are Cole Caufield, Denis Gurianov and Michael Pezzetta.  On the AHL roster, we find RFAs-to-be Jesse Ylonen, Lucas Condotta, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Joël Teasdale, Mitchell Stephens and Nicolas Beaudin.

The Cole Caufield matter is easy: he should/will be signed to a long-term contract comparable to Nick Suzuki's.

Denis Gurianov is less straightforward.  His pedigree and scouting report are compelling, but his tenure in Dallas and his cameo in bleu-blanc-rouge much less so.  Maybe the GM will trust Martin St. Louis to be the Enigmatic Russian Whisperer, but he hasn't had much success with the Enigmatic Armia so far, nor with the Infuriating Hoffman, so it's doubtful that the roster can contain three such shiftless loafers.  The latter two hold contracts that are nigh impossible to trade away, so we're stuck with them next year, whereas Mr. Gurianov we can walk away from, cut ties and be free and clear, cap-unencumbered, and I predict that's what we'll do.  

His qualifying offer would be $2.9M, so it wouldn't be a low risk gamble to make and hope for him to blossom next season.  If we offer him a lesser amount, he can refuse to sign that offer and become UFA, and play for that lesser amount anywhere he pleases, say a warm-weather tax-free locale.  He's as good as gone.

Michael Pezzetta, while clearly no better than a 13th forward-level player, probably has earned himself a small raise this season.  The 2016 6th-round draftee toiled for years in the Canadiens system and made his callups count by showing grit, determination, and courage.  While his counting stats are nothing to write home about, his fearlessness and take-on-all-comers snarl probably make him a popular teammate.  With the team not expected to really compete for a playoff spot next season, with many youngsters and small or smallish players in the lineup, Michael Pezzetta has a place and usefulness on the roster.  If he has a dip in his performance or gets squeezed out by lineup shuffles, he can get sent down to Laval, even at the risk of his being lost on waivers, it wouldn't be the end of the world.  This however can be warded off somewhat with a one-way $1M contract, I would think.  Other teams might balk at the bill, but in our situation we can afford it.

For the Laval contingent, again it's easy to read the tea leaves in some cases, namely for Jesse Ylonen and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who will receive qualifying offers, and may be signed to longer term deals.  Both showed in NHL callups that they could keep up and contribute.  

Jesse Ylonen would require to go through waivers if the Canadiens wanted to send him to Laval, and they won't risk losing him thus, so he's pretty much guaranteed to start the season in Montréal or be used as a trade asset and sent elsewhere.  Rafaël Harvey-Pinard could be sent to the AHL without waivers, and in his case the complicating factor would be basic decency, since his impact on the roster, however he was used, was remarkable, both in the stats he amassed, but also in his intangibles, and how quickly he became a fan favourite.  It would be hard to preach a culture of accountability and merit if you sent down Monsieur Harvey-Pinard.

Nicolas Beaudin has a lot of runway as a 23-year-old defenceman, we often state that defencemen take longer to develop, to 'get it', and he has an enticing background as a point-producer and powerplay quarterback, so he'll most likely be qualified.  He'll have to work very hard to distinguish himself among all the other young promising defencemen, but that's the career he's chosen, a very competitive, results-based one.

Contrarily, Lucas Condotta, Joël Teasdale, and Mitchell Stephens are all forwards in their mid-twenties whose ceiling is quite low, and while they are useful farmhands and played varying important roles in Laval and as callups, they'll be pushed by the arrival of a number of young forwards like Joshua Roy, Sean Farrell, Riley Kidney, Emil Heineman, and Jared Davidson.  While you can't have an AHL roster with nothing but rookies, while you need veterans and experience and leadership, I'm struggling to see how many of the three RFAs we can keep.  

This is where the 50-contract limit has its effect.  You can't keep everybody.  And the kids are going to need icetime if we send them to Laval, there's only so many spots in the lineup.  So let's be ruthless and guess that one is re-signed, or at most two.

So if we keep score, let's say six RFAs are retained and three are cut loose, which would bring our total existing contracts to 38.  While that seems like a healthy cushion, let's bear in mind that all those kids we bring into the fold, they're going to need contracts, or the contracts they have already signed but 'slid' for a year or two, they will kick in next season.  Sean Farrell and Emil Heineman are already counted in the existing contracts, but Joshua Roy, Riley Kidney, Jared Davidson, Jayden Struble and Logan Mailloux will add five more, so our total would go back up to 43.  

That is not a lot of room to manoeuvre.  If the Canadiens sign one or three free agents, make a trade for a couple of warm bodies to get us through the season and prepare for injuries, we'd be right up to the limit of 50 again.  So does Kent Hughes feel comfortable with this, or does he wave a magic wand and maybe clear out contracts like Carey Price's?  Maybe the Coyotes would love to add his cap hit, with the understanding that the insurance company will pay out the actual dollars?  Or does the Canadiens GM trade away a superfluous Chris Wideman, or buy him out?  

Most of these questions will be answered during the spring and summer, and we'll revisit these matters before training camp, and see how the Canadiens dealt with their free agents-to-be, and with this vexing 50-contract limit.  

In our next étude, we'll look at which draftees whose rights are set to expire, either on June 15 or August 15, the Canadiens might/will/must sign to a contract.

Friday 27 March 2020

1976 Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Canadiens 5, Flyers 3

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.
Happy 72nd Birthday Ken Dryden! : hockey

-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.

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 LeclercKovalchuk : la cavalerie est trop vieille et arrive trop tard)

(François GagnonIlya 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.

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)


Saturday 28 December 2019

Game 38: Canadiens 4, Lightning 5

First game back after the Western Canadian trip and the Christmas break.  Now it's the 'traditional' Florida swing for the Canadiens during the holidays.  Joel Armia is out with a wrist injury after a Nathan Beaulieu crosscheck in Winnipeg, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi returns to third-line centre duty after a stint in concussion protocol.  Nick Suzuki bumps up to second-line right wing.


It's a big one tonight, the continuation of a big road trip, to help define if we're a contender or pretender, a buyer or seller at the trade deadline.  The Canadiens have shone against strong adversaries, and coughed it up against the weaklings.  They've had an eight-game winless streak this season, and now are 7-3-0 in the midst of a tough road stretch.  They're kind of hard to figure.

The Lightning are wearing their black uniforms.  They look like dark masses out there, amorphous blobs, it's impossible to decypher which player is which, the numbers don't pop, they're darkish against a dark background.

I'll say it again: when you install me as your NHL Commissioner/Hockey Czar, I'll immediately decree that black unis are not permissible.  I'll generously allow the Bruins to keep their ugly black and yellow jobbies, but everyone else has to choose a colour.  The Kings go back to their glorious purple and yellow.  The Penguins return to their fetching powder blues.

And no cheating either.  No black, but also no anthracite, no dark grey, no gun-metal grey, no charcoal, no almost-black-with-a-couple-gold-accents-because-we're-the-Golden-Knights-but-our-owner-really-wanted-to-call-us-the-Black-Knights-and-couldn't-obtain-the-rights-in-between-playing-games-of-"shiny"-hockey-in-his-youth.  Pick a colour scheme.  Embrace it.  You go to the bar you can wear black then.

It's a good start for the Canadiens.  The Canadiens had two goals up on the board before the Lightning got a shot on net of their own, 13 minutes in, at which point they got a sarcastic cheer from the crowd, probably split evenly between Tampa and Montréal fans.

Except the Canadiens, who cannot let us have nice things, refuse to go into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead, and let Tampa score late in the first, at 19:01, and a big deal is made of Steven Stamkos assist as it brings him to 799 points in his career, and third in Lightning history behind Martin St-Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.  

Still Jekyll and Hyde-ing us, the Canadiens let Stamkos score in the second minute of the second period to let him get to an even 800 points, and then allowed a third goal on a weird bounce off Artturi Lehkonen after Carey Price bobbled a shot.

So, as Dave Randorf almost strangles himself by exclaiming, the team that was down 17-0 in shots in the first period is now up up 3-2.  And Gary Galley incisively opines: "Tampa have found their legs."  No, really?

Sure enough, Killorn adds another to make it 4-2 at the twelve minute mark, at which point Claude Julien calls a timeout and reams out the team.  Which seems to work, as Ben Chiarot immediately cashes in a rebound from Brendan Gallagher.

Like we said, hard to identify what this team is all about.  Montréal down 4-3 at the second period break.

And the wheel keeps on turning, with Anthony Cirelli cashing in a rebound less than a minute into the third.  5-3 Tampa.  We cannot have nice things.  Especially when Carey Price is a mere mortal.

À propos of nothing, I perused my first 2020 mock draft of the year today.  I haven't spun the lottery wheel yet...

Jordan Weal scores one late on a 6-on4 powerplay, with Carey Price pulled, but that's as close as we get, 5-4 is the final score.  A scrum after the final horn does nothing to change that.

Tuesday 17 December 2019

Game 34: Canadiens 3, Canucks 1

The Canadiens now do the ritual Western Canadian road trip, a time of the season when they finally play at a reasonable hour.



The Canucks are wearing their cool thirty-third third jersey.  They should stick with this one, or their original uni, all the others really blow.  Get rid of that cartoon whale/product placement.


The Canucks opened the scoring on a powerplay, a wicked shot from Adam Gaudette.  Tomas Tatar again was the culprit in the offensive zone, tripping Jake Virtanen, but it's debatable how merited that penalty was.  Tomas had poke-checked away the puck from the clumsy Canuck, and when on his follow-through his stick ended up near his shinpads, the big galoot went down pretty easily.  Hmmf...

Canadiens 0, Canucks 1 at the first intermission.

The Canadiens are buzzing around the Canucks' zone in the second, but it's reminiscent of the Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais years, when the top centres/lines were not really offensive threats, too small and not talented enough to be difference makers.  So like the Detroit game, we see a lot of shots from outside, attempted deflections, lots of heat but very little light.

I remember when I thought that Alex Galchenyuk and Sebastian Collberg and Tim Bozon were going to fix all that, give us a lethal powerplay.  Now I'm reduce to fantasizing about Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Cole Caulfield.

For now, we'll have to rely on an ice-cold Max Domi feeding a cement-handed Nick Cousins for our offence, which he does, a nifty little pass to tie up the game.

Halfway through the period, a strange sequence, where Carey Price makes a great save but gives up a big fat popup of a rebound, on which Tanner Pearson capitalizes.  Carey had no idea where the puck was, and it could have deflated the team, save for the fact that the play was reversed on an offside review, on which said reviews the Canadiens video coaches are killing it this year.  

All that remained was killing off another penalty for a slash by Nick Cousins on Josh Leivo, which had occasioned a delayed penalty call on the eventually disallowed goal, and Marc Denis posed the reasonable question, if the goal was annulled by the offside, shouldn't the slash be as well?  Since the whistle should have blown well before it happened?  Pierre LeBrun of TSN later explained that this is the rule, that penalties aren't expunged by a call that winds back the clock.

Ryan Poehling drew some praise from Pierre Houde for a sequence with Nate Thompson, good board work and puck protection by him, which led to a scoring chance in close.  It also led to the Canucks scrambling, and the next shift with Danault, Armia and Lehkonen playing keepaway with the puck, and Armia eventually potting the goal.  The Canucks challenged the goal because of goalie interference, and the refs, impenetrably, bought it and overturned the goal, even though Oscar Fantenberg clearly crosschecked Artturi into his own goalie.  
Up is down and black is white and impeaching Donald Trump is an attack on democracy and Artturi Lehkonen interfered with Jakob Markstrom on that disallowed goal.  We live in a post-truth world.

I switched over to TSN for the intermission, because Mario Tremblay on RDS, I'm sorry I can't.  Pierre LeBrun was as flabbergasted with the decision as literally everyone else on Earth is.

Canadiens 1, Canucks 1 after two periods.

But maybe the refs have some modesty.  They had to call two penalties against the Canucks, early in the third, couldn't very well let them go, and Tomas Tatar and Shea Weber cashed them in.

At this point we see lots of empty seats on our TV picture, that burgundy lower bowl upholstery they use at that barn, but many more are occupied by fans in bleu-blanc-rouge.  I texted and asked my friend in attendance at the rink how quiet it got, but he didn't reply, meaning he's drunk, obviously.  Drunk, and happy.

The Canucks mounted a furious comeback attempt, pulling their goalie with three minutes to go and setting up for long stretches in the Canadiens' end, but Carey stayed strong.

Canadiens 3, Canucks 1, goodnight my friends.

Les faits saillants de RDS:



For local colour, let's also see what John Shorthouse and John Garrett had to say about this game.

Friday 13 December 2019

New Colisée in Trois-Rivières won't host Canadiens farm team



The long-rumoured establishment of an ECHL franchise in Trois-Rivières, which was supposed to act as the Canadiens', and more directly, the Laval Rocket's farm team, looks like it won't happen after all.  

This arena, which was built at great taxpayer expense, now seems destined to host les Patriotes de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, according to the reports by Steve Turcotte of Le Nouvelliste.  They play in the U Sports OUA East Division, and if this stumps you, well that's your first indication of the potential draw this team will have on fans.  In a 5 000-seat arena.  Mr. Turcotte suggests the long game might be to wait for a LHJMQ team, either through expansion or another franchise's move.

The mayor and council are also trying to pitch the venue as an arts and culture destination, with Trois-Rivières having a good track record over the last few years as a Cirque du Soleil summer destination.

Which is all fine and good, but this is kind of a bummer for me.  The establishment of an ECHL team was in the long run, I thought, going to be another major asset for the Canadiens, a way to flex its financial might and gain an advantage over more penurious NHL franchises.  Having a wealth of players and prospects under team control in the immediate vicinity of Montréal was going to provide at least a marginal benefit in my opinion.  

Just seeing the way a few injuries on the Canadiens and the Rocket have plucked the latter's roster to the bone, and seeing it have to resort to putting players on PTOs in the lineup, is all the demonstration I need that the Canadiens need to shore up this area of their system.  If this was a one-time thing, you could shrug it off as bad luck, but going back to the Hamilton Bulldogs days, it seems that every season a 'promising' roster in the AHL is proven to be too threadbare, perennially in crisis in the event of a few sprains or callups.

I try not to get too upset over specific games, the wins and losses, even my beloved team missing the playoffs.  As long as there is progress, even the 'one step back' kind, when a Max Pacioretty is sent packing, or when we agonize and cross our fingers until the day of the Draft Lottery.

So when the Canadiens' affiliation with the ECHL Brampton Beast was discontinued a couple seasons back and not replaced with another ECHL team affiliation, but seeing instead the Canadiens placing/loaning surplus AHL'ers to various ECHL franchises, I took it in stride, believing a long-term solution was afoot.  I figured these last couple of years without a dedicated ECHL team were one of these 'one-step-back' moments, that would pay off in the long run.  So I'd grit my teeth at the fact that Michael McNiven is banished to one rival's ECHL team after another, with no control on coaching and minutes on our part.  These stumbles will pay off in the long run, I thought.

But now that this purported plan is not going to come to fruition, I'm going to grouse about this.  This situation cannot endure.  Either Geoff Molson enters the dance and sweetens the offer so that Trois-Rivières does an about-face, or the Canadiens next season have to sew up an American ECHL franchise's affiliation.  They need to stack it with Québec coaching and organizational talent to stock the pond further, give our prospects, even the longshots, the best environment possible to progress and maybe even succeed.

And long-term, they have to get an ECHL franchise set up nearby, possibly on the South Shore, and provide deep organizational support to the Canadiens and Rocket and its players.

Tuesday 10 December 2019

Game 31: Canadiens 4, Penguins 1

The Canadiens made a quick hop to Pittsburgh tonight, a one-game road quickie before returning to Montréal for a game against the Senators tomorrow.  Quick trip, quick two points, no biggie.

The Canadiens won this one 4-1, although the score doesn't quite reflect a closely-contested game.


It seems like the ship is righted, is no longer foundering.  The Canadiens weren't on their horse and buzzing around the opponents' zone like earlier this season, but that may have been due to the Pittsburgh Tupperware defence, whereby they hermetically sealed off their blue line.  Mario Tremblay brought some insight in the first period break (for once), showing the Penguins all arrayed between the red line and their blue line, facing the onrushing Canadiens, skating backwards like five Rod Langways.  The Penguins are very aware they're missing Sidney.

And the Canadiens responded in kind, they'd collapse around their net, I saw a few defenders sprawled on the ice à la Hal Gill, the whole thing had a faint whiff of Jacques Martin.

Carey is out of his November funk, seemingly at the top of his game.  He's flashing the leather, he's skating around his net handling the puck and dishing it off, he's making things look easy.  He's worth every penny.

And how about that Shea Weber wraparound goal, à la Larry Robinson, 'à l'emporte pièce'?


I don't think I've ever seen that kind of mobility from the Man Mountain.  Maybe he's thinking that he has to take matters in his own hands these days, that the team is a little fragile, that Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin are MIA and the offence has to come from somewhere other than Gally's stick.

Okay, now let's dispose of those dirty, risible Senators tomorrow night, and get solidly back on our feet.

Saturday 23 November 2019

Game 23: Canadiens 5, Rangers 6



Okay guys, even if, as Claude Ruel used to say "Y'en aura pas d'facile", this is a chicken ready to be plucked, fried and consumed.  The Rangers are disheartened after a bad loss in Ottawa last night.  Easy two points here, just gotta pick 'em up...

(Francois GagnonUn autre petit match facile…)

Carey Price is starting, will be starting the rest of the way the whole season no doubt.  Keith Kincaid's relegated to puerile tweet duty.

The big news today was that Max Domi's pout about being shunted to the wing was rewarded by the Canadiens' head coach.  He's back at centre on the second line, and Nick Suzuki gets pushed to the right wing.

1st PERIOD:

--Sure enough, Max Domi, who I was going to enjoin to put out, to turn it up a notch, well, he scores in the first couple of minutes, assisted by Nick Suzuki and lightweight (on the scoresheet) Artturi Lehkonen.

Canadiens 1, Rangers 0

--Gary Galley says, commenting on the absence of Tomas Tatar after a percussive bodycheck by Chris Kreider (him again...), "the Canadiens have more depth than ever".  Really Gary?  More depth than in the 70s with the stacked Junior de Montréal and Nova Scotia Voyageurs teams?  More depth than the 80s when guys like Sergio Momesso, Claude Lemieux, Stéphane Richer, Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane among others would arrive from the LHJMQ or the Sherbrooke Canadiens and step right into the lineup?

It really should be a requirement to have basic critical thinking and language skills to be allowed to hold a microphone on air.  The housecleaning at Sportsnet, while mostly being about their bottom line with the disastrous NHL broadcast rights contract they (and we the public) are stuck with, is not over, not by a longshot.  Nick Kypreos, Doug MacLean and Don Cherry, goodbye good riddance, but there's a lot of deadwood there still.

--I cracked wise about Artturi, right?  Well, he just scored too, on a decent line-rush snipe.  Not sure the Rangers goalie is long for this game?  Two goals he didn't look great on already, halfway through the first.

Canadiens 2, Rangers 0

--Tomas Tatar is back on the ice later in the 1st period, so no major damage after the Kreider hit I guess.

--Joel Armia and Nick Suzuki both tried a wrist shot on Alexandar Georgiev, when the latter was set and unscreened.  He plucked both muffins out of the air with his catcher, with ease.  We need guys who can rifle the puck.

--Max Domi racks up another goal, a nice screened shot, well-timed from the high slot.  Right at the end of the period too, with thirty seconds left.

Canadiens 3, Rangers 0

2nd PERIOD

--The Canadiens, buzzing around the Rangers zone as if they were on the powerplay, make it 4-0, on a big slap shot by Shea Weber.  Again, though screened, Georgiev didn't look great, letting a puck dribble through him.

Canadiens 4, Rangers 0

--The shutout is dead.  The Rangers get two quick goals back, on line rushes.  Maybe the Canadiens eased off a tad, thinking this one was in the bag?

Canadiens 4, Rangers 2

Gary Galley is already openly-cheering for the comeback.  Once a dirty Bruin, always a dirty Bruin.

--Brendan Lemieux, that turd, scores on the powerplay.  Gary Galley can hardly contain himself.

Canadiens 4, Rangers 3

--The Canadiens, not quite done shooting themselves in the foot, go on the penalty kill, and then Ben Chiarot accidentally clears the puck over the glass and they go 3-on-5.  They do manage to kill it off.

3rd PERIOD

--The sloppy game continues in the third.  Snipey Lehkonen put in another nice shot to put the Canadiens up by two goals and maybe settle this game down five minutes in, but no, the Rangers score another thirty seconds later, and then tie the game up on a shorthanded two-on-one rush.  Brendan Lemieux again.

Canadiens 5, Rangers 5

--And sure, why not, Jacob Trouba floats in a wrister from the blue line, and it gets through Carey Price, screened as he was by Kreider and Jeff Petry.

Time to think some dark thoughts...

Canadiens 5, Rangers 6

--I guess that's what life is like, when you cheer on a team with an erratic goalie?  6 goals on 32 shots against usually rock-solid Carey.  His counterpart, who we sniffed at earlier, has let in 5 on 40.  So far.  The way this is going, these teams could pump in another four or five, easy.

--Canadiens fail to convert on a powerplay, a too-many-men penalty against the Rangers.  4 minutes to go.

--Turns out, this one isn't "facile", even against the lowly Rangers.  Claude Ruel was a sage.

--Canadiens pull Carey with two minutes to go and a won faceoff in the offensive zone.  They get a few shots off, Georgiev smothers the puck for a whistle.  Timeout Canadiens, with slightly less than a minute to go.

--The Domi line, which has been hot tonight, gets the last shift, wins the faceoff.  Brendan Lemieux takes a shot at the empty net, trying to finish the hat trick, misses.  Icing.  Please please please make him pay...

--No dice.  Petry shot stopped by Georgiev.  27 seconds left.

--The boys are going to be skating at practice tomorrow.  Or Monday, most probably, Sunday is usually their CBA-mandated scheduled day off.  Claude Julien must love that.

The Rangers close it out, 6-5 final.  The tattered scattered remnants of HIO will hang Marc Bergevin in effigy.  I might brandish a desultory pitchfork in the background.


(Eric Engels: Canadiens’ defensive issues the root of ‘unacceptable’ loss to Rangers)