Game 4: Canadiens 4, Devils 3 (OT)

Another win against much stiffer opposition, as Les Glorieux overcome their traditional nemeses the New Jersey Devils, with bugaboo goaltender Martin Brodeur who should make the Hall of Fame if only based on his performances in Montréal.  While the wins against the Panthers and Capitals came easy, the Canadiens needed overtime to pull out a victory and improve to 3-1 on the season.  The game had a bit of déja-vu to it as the Canadiens held 2-0 and 3-1 leads only to allow the opposition to tie the game late in the third, but unlike last season the good guys didn't lose their resolve and won it in overtime.

A lot of supporters were happy at the start of the season that the fourth line will be staffed with 'energy' players, grinders who will be "difficult to play against", as opposed to the motley crew of last season.  Under the previous administration, we endured a fourth line constituted of odds and ends and miscast defencemen and AHL'ers, and the sum was even less than the underwhelming parts.  This year, we currently have Ryan White centreing Travis Moen and Colby Armstrong, and while they haven't set the Eastern Conference on fire, they are legitimate NHL'ers, and do not embarrass themselves when on the ice.  They are an actual, viable option for Coach Therrien in most situations, as opposed to a last resort when the other lines desperately need a breather.  They can help on the penalty kill, can rough-house if that's what's called for, and on this day even chipped in with the opening goal, by an opportunistic Ryan White who went to the net when his linemates had possession of the puck in the offensive zone.

Another positive development is that the Hamilton Bulldog on the roster is actually contributing, instead of being a plug for a roster hole as too many callups were last season.  Brendan Gallagher scored his first goal of the season on a one-timer wrist shot, on a feed by his rookie compadre Alex Galchenyuk.    The latter showed great speed and finesse, coming in on his off-wing, freezing the goalie with a potential shot before dishing to his linemate.  Later in the game, Brandon Prust got his first goal as a Canadien, a goal again set up by Mr. Galchenyuk on the forecheck.  That the youngsters are producing now, as opposed to forcing us to evaluate their future potential is a big boost to the team.

Carey Price was solid in goal, keeping his teammates in the game until, again, Andrei Markov scored on the powerplay to end the game in overtime.  He is showing a Midas touch early on, on this play once again sneaking up from his defence position to cash in a rebound on the side of the net.  With Andrei in full flight and the powerplay being productive, the Canadiens are a much more dangerous team and can afford to outwait P.K. Subban during these protracted contract negotiations.  

Game 3: Canadiens 4, Capitals 1

There was a lot of talk about Michel Therrien's new system before the season began, and I was skeptical as to how much it would differ from Jacques Martin's 'Le Système'.  Don't it seem like all teams now play 'dump and chase' in the offensive zone anyway?  Don't they all collapse back onto their goalie in the defensive zone and block shots, creating a big cluster in front of their goaltender and hoping that while they crosscheck and slash the opposition there will be a big enough tangle of legs and skates and sticks that a puck won't get through?

Gaston Therrien spent a lot of time on the video board on l'Antichambre on RDS, trying to educate viewers on the fine points of the new approach the Canadiens will employ.  He'd diagram how the team will put pressure on the puck with two defencemen and a winger in the corners in the defensive zone, with various rules such as: "The second defenceman will commit himself only if he's certain he'll get the puck".  In the offensive zone, he showed how the defenceman will pinch in and put pressure on the opposing puck carrier to prevent a zone clear, but it will be crucial that his winger be aware of this and cover him in case the puck/puck carrier does get through.  Anyway, Gaston demonstrated this with video taken at practice during the abbreviated training camp, and it all seemed to make sense and not be too earth-shattering, nothing too different than even what we were coached to do when I played rec league minor hockey.

So what's the big deal then?  Well, it seems that it has transformed the Canadiens in their approach and their entertainment quotient.  Whereas when we lost the puck in 'Le Système' one forward would put up cursory resistance and a semblance of a forecheck while the other four would race back to their zone to man the ramparts in Mr. Martin's Rope-a-Dope, the boys now are more aggressive, in a more attacking frame of mind.  They forecheck more, they don't abandon ship at the first hint of a turnover.  They don't yield territory willingly, promptly, to go turtle around Carey Price.

On offence, Nos Glorieux carry the puck more into the zone, instead of firing it into the corner and then chasing after it.  We've seen a lot more breakouts where the guys attack in formation, with the usual suspects on defence and even Josh Gorges on occasion joining the rush.

Now, this isn't objectively better or worse than the Jacques Martin Système.  It's not going to be judged on Gaston's videoboard or in a vacuum, but rather on the ice, and it's probably too early to make any definitive statements, but at first glance it seems to have had a very positive effect on the way the team plays.

First, the new style is much more entertaining.  While winning games is the ultimate goal and is fun no matter what system is being used, some of the wins last season were hard to stay awake for.  Most of the losses too.  Michel Therrien's system produces more watchable, fan-friendly hockey, if we discount the home-opening loss to the Leafs.

Another positive change is that while the team has cast off smaller/meeker players like Mike Cammalleri, Scott Gomez and Andrei Kostitsyn and ices a more physical lineup, the Canadiens are still at heart a skating team, with a forward corps that is smaller than the St-Louis Blues or the Bruins for example, and a mobile defence that is more adept at corralling the puck in the corners in flight and launching a counterattack, rather than squatting in its zone and slugging it out with the opposition.  As such, there were many analysts who proclaimed that we didn't have the right team makeup for the style we played, and that the constant banging and shot blocking it necessitated accounted for the parade to the First Aid room that endured for the last couple of seasons.  The new system is more suited to our mobile defence and lineup in general than the Système that Jacques Martin wrung so much out of.

One aspect which I think can't be underestimated is that the players must enjoy this style of play more, and it may account for an uptick in energy and commitment this season.  We routinely speculated over the last couple of seasons that Scott Gomez would insist on carrying the puck and then curling to the sideboards instead of shooting it in the corner and then chasing after it for the very good reason that going in the corners hurt, especially for a smaller guy like him.  He couldn't have been overjoyed at the prospect of facing off against Zdeno Chara or Anton Volchenkov, and we suspect that many other Canadiens felt the same.  Raphaël Diaz must have wondered what he was getting into when he had to stop a Jason Spezza shot with his ankle, and then go to the corner to wrestle for the puck with Chris Neil.

It's a little bit like football offensive linemen having to choose between the passing game or run blocking. While running the ball isn't that spectacular or necessarily a fan favourite, it's fun for the guys up front because they get to beat on the defensive players, compared to passing plays where they backpedal and the reverse occurs.  Lots of times, early in the game it seems pointless to run the ball, since it's only netting a yard or two per play, but  in the third quarter the toll mounts on the defence and often the results improve.  It's a cumulative result.

Similarly, last season we'd often see the Canadiens wilt in the third period and surrender a slim lead.  Going all out, giving 100% and sacrificing the body is all well and good, but when your shins are bruised and your lungs are on fire you can only do so much.  The Rope-a-Dope can work in extremis, but after a couple round of letting your opponent tee off on you a few shots inevitably get through and it starts to hurt.

Despite Mr. Martin's protestations to the contrary, the Canadiens were inherently defensive in their approach and designed to sit on a lead.  This season, if they don't so willingly retreat to their zone and act as punching bags, and are quick to the puck and quick to break out, it may be less likely that leads are frittered away, they may actually put teams away as the opposition presses to tie up a game.

This win against the Capitals was encouraging for a lot of reasons.  Tomas Plekanec again opened the scoring and seems to enjoy the company of his wingers René Bourque and Brian Gionta.  Andrei Markov again put up two points on the powerplay, was creative and dangerous on offence, and steady on defence, playing a total of 24 minutes and looking fluid while doing so.  Carey Price was solid, and seems poised to have the Vézina Trophy-contender type of season we've all been predicting for him.

Game 2: Canadiens 4, Panthers 1

Now that's more like it.  Grist for the fan mill.  A convincing win at home against an underwhelming opponent, the type of game the boys used to gag up last season.  A much better effort, with more direction and determination than was shown against the Leafs on Saturday.

The big story is the triumphant return of Andrei Markov, along with the Canadiens' power play, which was MIA last season, allowing opponents to take advantage of our overmatched squad.  That  Mr. Markov and the powerplay returned simultaneously is no coincidence.  I've listed Andrei as my favourite current Canadien for years, his wizardry with the puck and inventiveness make him a delight to watch and the most potent player on the team.  The common refrain amongst fans and analysts has been that if he can perform at 80% of his capacity prior to his knee injuries that he'll help the team.  His two goals today bode well, and demonstrate that this may have been a bar set too low.  Heck, I'd started to blunt my own expectations for the man.  He's shown a lot of doubters what kind of player he is, and what he can contribute to this team.

Tomas Plekanec notched a goal early to open the scoring, and was matched up with René Bourque on his left wing.  We'd had high hopes for Alex Galchenyuk in this slot, and agreed with each other that Mr. Bourque was more effective on right wing as he demonstrated in Calgary.  Some were disappointed that the rookie was not given a longer audition on the second line, but rather was put on a third line with Brendan Gallagher and Brandon Prust, but the latter combination was effective, with both rookies notching their first career point in the game.

The 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation Montréal Canadiens coaches find themselves in is well illustrated by the fan and press reaction to Michel Therrien's decision to sit Lars Eller for this game.  When asked why he felt the need to make a change in his lineup prior to only the second game of the season, Mr. Therrien replied: "We don't have time to fool around."  With this, he communicated a sense of urgency and dissatisfaction with 'good enough', and sent a message that moral victories will not be enough for him, that everyone will be accountable for their play, every game.  There will not be any opportunities for players to 'find themselves', à la Benoit Pouliot, they will have to work hard and produce results.

All this created a patented 'only in Montréal' mini-controversy, with critics storming the ramparts for Mr. Eller, and defending him as a young player who needs to be put in a position to be successful, with patience for his mistakes, preferably while playing center with talented wingers instead of third or fourth-liners.  His confidence will be affected, it was argued.  He wasn't even the worst Canadien against the Leafs.  We should have waited for this lineup to gel for three or four games before benching anyone.  All valid points, but which fly in the face of the frustration we felt at Jacques Martin's lethargic, almost apathetic coaching style.  We wanted him to coach with more urgency, to show more passion, to shake a few cans.  Now that we have such a coach, we pine for the more patient, phlegmatic type.  This would be good fodder for Jimmy Kimmel's "Can't Win Theatre" on "The Man Show".

So a good win, a refreshing cleansing of the palate after the clunker Saturday night, and a nice portend of what could be.

Game 1: Montréal 1, Toronto 2

I was all set to write my Game 1 recap before the game even began, and I was going to ramble on about how the Canadiens' convincing win against a less-than-mediocre roster shouldn't inflate our expectations for Nos Glorieux this season.  I was wrestling with my pre-season prediction post, and was working through the concept that our modest lineup would have much the same results as it did last season, but surely they'd blow through that collection of no-names in blue and white for a resounding opening win.  Right?

As underwhelming and nauseous a squad as the Maple Leafs appeared to be prior to puck drop, our heroes looked worse during the actual game.  Much worse.

Despite the 'No Excuses' motto that Head Coach Michel Therrien wants the organization to espouse, I found myself blaming the long pre-game torch ceremony.  As nice as it was to see Henri Richard and Yvan Cournoyer, among others, I'm of the opinion that these long proceedings tend not to favour the home team.  Instead of giving the boys a spiritual lift, they seem to sap the strength out of them, while the visiting team hangs out in their dressing room and waits for the signal for puck drop, and starts the game in a more routine fashion.

The player who caught my eye was Nazem Kadri, who finally played in a fashion that could justify his being picked 7th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft.  Which is sad.  I enjoyed chortling over the trials and tribulations of this young man the last couple of seasons, a schadenfreude based entirely on the colour of his jersey and the Toronto-centric national media spotlight directed at him.  If he pans out, there will be a little less levity in my life.

The Leafs scored both their goals on the powerplay, one on a penalty to Tomas Plekanec for administering a snow shower to Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens at a play stoppage.  We were pretty hard on P.K. Subban last season for having the same brain cramp, so Tomas shouldn't escape criticism for this.

It was noteworthy that the much-ballyhooed second line of Galchenyuk-Plekanec-Gionta didn't last the entire game.  In the third period, René Bourque replaced the rookie on the line, in apparent recognition of his effort and effectiveness.  While the short patience Coach Therrien showed for the lines he used during the previous week's camp was puzzling, it's encouraging that Mr. Bourque seems to have recovered from the abdominal injury which he says hampered him last season, and that he seems poised to contribute to the team's success in proportion to his talent and physical gifts.

Overall, a disappointing start to the season, one that will sharpen the cries from P.K. Subban's supporters for the team to sign him for what he thinks he's worth.

2013 season prediction for the Montréal Canadiens

As a Montréal Canadiens fan, there is reason to be excited about this season, shortened though it may be.  There are indications that the team will play with intensity and there are surprises to look forward to, as well as the opportunity to see youngsters develop.

So excited, maybe, but not optimistic, at least as far as the standings go and a shot at the playoffs.  The team has a couple of new faces but is fundamentally unchanged from last season's squad that produced bottom-dwelling results.

It can be refreshing to contemplate that players such as Alex Galchenyuk, Brandon Prust and Colby Armstrong are now on the roster, at the expense of plugs such as Blake Geoffrion, Aaron Palushaj, Mike Blunden and Mathieu Darche.  It seems like an unquestionable upgrade from last season, except that these callups and fourth-liners were mostly there to fill out a roster ravaged by injuries as March and April dragged on.  When compared with the 2011-12 opening game roster though, they are missing talented, offensively-gifted players like Andrei Kostitsyn and Mike Cammalleri, and these guys have not been replaced.

So on paper, this is not a stronger team than last season's.  The pieces are even less impressive.  The presence of an Andrei Markov is countered by the absence of P.K. Subban.  We're reduced, if we are to predict an improvement in the team's performance, to bank on incremental development of the team's constituents, and intangibles.

So we hope to hold the line, and maybe even wish for a marginal improvement for the top line, despite the fact that Erik Cole had a career year.  We count on Carey Price and Josh Gorges to be the horses they have been for a couple of seasons.  We expect Andrei Markov to perform largely as a he did prior to his two lost seasons.  Same goes for Brian Gionta, he's expected to not suffer any consequences from a season-ending injury and another calendar year having passed.  Francis Bouillon surely has a couple useful seasons left.  Brandon Prust will offer full value for the big contract he signed in July and redress past wrongs.

We then add in improved offense from Tomas Plekanec, who had a down year, and for Lars Eller to bloom into the kind of production you'd expect from a player of his size and pedigree, and who was acquired at the cost of playoff hero Jaroslav Halak.  We think that René Bourque will return to the form he showed with the Flames.  The young trio of defencemen of Emelin-Diaz-Weber will have benefited from their rookie season and will be more reliable and productive.

Only the most biased fans can believe that such a scenario is likely or even reasonable.  In fact, we can expect that for each player who will take a big step forward, another will seem to regress.  Career seasons tend not to repeat.

So the best-case scenario has a low probability of occurring.  It's just as likely that, for example, the Pacioretty-Cole-Desharnais line will find the going tougher now that teams will game-plan and line-match against them.  P.K. Subban's contract negotiations and possible protracted absence can serve as a distraction, and the team is much less formidable without him.  Other difficulties will arise, such as players not finding the new system or coaching team matching well with their skills and mindset.

The main factor though is that the biggest weaknesses of the team still exist.  The team lacks goal scoring and offensive explosiveness, as well as depth.  Marc Bergevin has gone a long way to alleviate the lack of team toughness that fans and analysts decried in recent seasons, but he is handcuffed when it comes to putting more pucks in the net.  It is probable that any great leap forward in that area will arise when the contingent of young draftees like Sebastian Collberg, Danny Kristo, Louis Leblanc, Tim Bozon and Charles Hudon, among others, graduate with the Grand Club in a couple of seasons.

Until then, and until the young Bulldogs persist through their first season's growing pains, the Canadiens' depth chart will be painfully thin, and the inevitable injuries will nullify the best-case scenario.  Whereas the future looks bright when we look at the Canadiens' system, this is really only in the medium-term.  There is no immediate help for the team on the farm, and the plan to roll four lines and play with intensity every game will have to be changed when Michel Therrien finds himself as short-handed as Randy Cunneyworth was last season.

Taking all this into account, and suspecting that Marc Bergevin will not sell the farm to improve the club's fortunes in this shortened season, but will rather stand pat, I believe the Canadiens will finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and out of the playoffs.  This will in no way diminish my interest and enjoyment while watching the games, strong in the belief that this is the right course of action for the organization at this stage of the unending five-year plan.

P.K. Subban playing with fans' patience

After Erik Cole's gauche sortie Saturday, it's now Penell Karl's turn to try Montréal Canadiens fans patience.  Word is that he's seeking a five or six or seven-year-deal, worth 4 no 5 no 6 no (are you kidding me!?) $7M/year.  No one really knows, but everyone has an opinion.  Some decry him as being inept in managing his public persona in this post-lockout period, of being undeserving of the demands that are bruited on social media, while others tout him as the best defenceman if not player on the team, a sure-fire future Norris Trophy winner, and state that a long-term deal will turn into a bargain in a couple years..

One unfortunate consequence of the salary cap system in the National Hockey League is that it transforms committed fans into vigilant custodians of the team's payroll.  Whereas before fans would harry their team's ownership to pay whatever it costs to retain the hometown stars, nowadays fans are forced to take a stand on the wage a player will receive, as overspending on players decreases the likelihood that one's team will be successful and championship material.  In the days of the Guy Lafleur or Larry Robinson holdouts, every fan howled that the team made enough money to pay these guys what they wanted, and that they sure as hell deserved it.  Especially if Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson are worth millions to the Rangers...

So I'm now, as a fan who can't resist the pull of NHL hockey, forced to care how big P.K.'s paycheque will be.  And I unfortunately have to side with Canadiens' General Manager Marc Bergevin on this one.  He's trying to install a salary system whereby players entering their third pro contract, on the eve of their Unrestricted Free Agent years, get rewarded by receiving long-term security, as Carey Price and Max Pacioretty did this summer.  Players who haven't reached that level of seniority have to graduate to more modest contracts and prove themselves.  Mr. Bergevin is trying to clean up the financial mess left behind by the previous régime, and he realizes that cap flexibility is gold in the current NHL.

P.K. is a fine young man with oodles of talent and charisma, the Canadiens are his boyhood favourite team and he wants to be here, he can play with skill and toughness, he played the most minutes of any Canadiens last season, at even-strength against the opponent's top line, and on special teams.  Guys like that are hard to find.  As tempted as we might be to bend the rules in his case, we have to mind the veritable peacock's tail of red flags he carries around.  His sometimes irritating loquaciousness do not make him a unanimously beloved denizen of the dressing room.  His tendency, mentioned in hushed tones to the journalists who cover the Canadiens, to go against team rules, also grate.  There's his apparent resistance to coaching, as demonstrated by his run-ins with coaches.  There are also run-ins with teammates on practice ice.  His insistence on rocketing wild, skull-high slapshots off the glass on powerplay make his teammates cringe.  His resolve to start trouble on the ice last season, paired with his infrequent instances of finishing what he started, must have worn on Josh Gorges, Hal Gill, Travis Moen, and whoever else had to come in and fight his battles.

Another point to bear in mind is that P.K. was the best and most used defenceman on the team last year by default, because Andrei Markov was injured and we traded away Ryan McDonagh, and we let Mark Streit and James Wisniewski and Sheldon Souray walk in free agency.  While he is undeniably talented, if we hadn't stripmined all of our talent on the blue line in the last five years, he would have been called up from Hamilton and assumed a third-pairing role, and then slowly increased his minutes and responsibility.  Just because we didn't have a #1 defenceman last season doesn't mean he inherits the crown and fat paycheque by squatters' rights.  That's the kind of thinking that makes Leafs fans proclaim Nikolai Antropov and Nikolai Kulemin and Luke Schenn as surefire superstars.

We also have to wonder about Mr. Bergevin's mindset in this shortened season.  Is he going in thinking playoffs and a couple of rounds are possible, or does he see this as a rebuilding year?  If it's the latter, any leverage P.K. might think he holds vanishes, for his absence from the lineup allows the team to evaluate the other youngsters like Yannick Weber, Raphaël Diaz and Alexei Emelin, to display Tomas Kaberle so as to increase his trade value at the deadline, as well as jockey for drafting position for next summer.

So as badly as I want P.K. to sign and be in uniform on Saturday and for us all to be a happy family, I want even more for Mr. Bergevin to show resolve and prudence and not upset the applecart, and shackle the team with another long-term contract on the basis of promise and potential.  I want P.K. to get his millions, but in due time, and if it means he sits out for a while longer, and we miss seeing play a couple games or even a dozen, then so be it.  We're building for the long-term here, we just got out of the Scott Gomez mess, let's not jump into any more 'entangling alliances' unless really necessary.

Erik Cole is understandably bitter

The Montréal Canadiens' scoring winger and all-round stand-up guy Erik Cole has made some disconcerting statements about his mindset following the ratification of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Hockey League and the NHL Player's Association.  In effect, he claims to be so disenchanted with the deal that the Association was able to strike with their employers, and skeptical of its fairness, that he is contemplating retirement at the end of the season.  The prospect of losing ten percent or more of the value of his contract through escrow clawbacks leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, seeing as he signed this contract only last summer, especially since he more than held up his end of the bargain so far.

Now, I don't believe for a second that he will go through with this, and walk away from the remaining two seasons and $9M (minus the Bettman Larceny Factor of course, which will probably work out to as much as a million dollar removed from his compensation).  I think that when he's back in the dressing room with the boys, and on the ice having fun at practice, and when he cashes in some David Desharnais feeds and 21 000 fans erupt in the New Forum, he'll quickly come around.  He enjoys the game, it's what he does and he's very good at it, he won't quit cold turkey out of spite.

On the other hand, I don't think he's being disingenuous.  Mr. Cole has been a stalwart supporter of the Association and its good fight against the owners, serving as a player representative alternate to Josh Gorges, and making himself available to the media to explain the players' stance and counter the management disinformation campaign.  As such, he's been strongly committed to the cause, and it's perfectly believable that now that it's over, and the NHL pretty much had its way, that he's feeling let down and contemplative.  He's genuine in expressing his feelings, and what he's going through.  If he'd had a week to cool off, those feelings would not have been so raw, and he'd probably have had the willpower to hold his tongue.

That Erik Cole is going through this, and that Ilya Kovalchuk is not overjoyed at the prospect of leaving his current team in his home country to go back to toil for the Devils, after being Scarlet-lettered as one of the culprits for the owners' third lockout in two decades, is understandable.  Just as there were pragmatists/bootlickers like Roman Hamrlik in the players' camp, there were also some highly militant, outraged members, and that they won't be all rainbows and sunshine in the space of a couple days at the prospect of heading back to work and shaking hands with their bosses, and acting like they haven't been heisted again, without much recourse.

So if Erik isn't all polished and doesn't speak in platitudes and opens his heart and bares his soul and overstates his possible course of action and still wants to send a message to the owners and hasn't quite given up the fight yet, let's cut the guy a break or two.  He's proven himself to the fans of Montréal all of last season by being a leader on and off the ice, by working tirelessly and spectacularly, by scoring a career-high in goals and bringing spectators out of their seats with his thrilling rushes to the net, and by never giving up and playing his heart out for every game of a very difficult season.  Erik's all right in my book, and he should be so in yours.

How the Canadiens shape up as they head into camp

Over the last couple of summers, we've had fun trying to divine how the Canadiens' roster would look as they opened the season.  We'd make up line combinations and defensive pairings, and sprinkle in judicious but putative free agent acquisitions.  I for example campaigned for the addition of Shane O'Brien, and later of Taylor Pyatt.  It was clean, harmless fun to tide us over after the excitement of the draft but before the start of training camps.

This summer it was a harder task, as the opportunity of unloading Scott Gomez onto the Hamilton Bulldogs to nullify his cap hit was dependent on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement allowing this practice to continue.  As we now know, the Canadiens will no longer have this option, the new CBA specifying that players on a one-way contract still count on an NHL team's salary cap total even if they're toiling in the minors.

So our fantasies of clearing Mr. Gomez' $7.4M off the books, and clearing our roster of his trademarked 'charge-into-the-zone, fake-rush-to-the-net, curl-to-the-sideboards' move that fools no one no longer nohow are dashed.  We're stuck with him until next summer.

With not much cap room for this season, accounting for P.K. Subban's new contract still to come, the Canadiens won't have much flexibility to add players.  Also, with a very short training camp, and few if any pre-season games, the opportunity to gauge how the team is doing and adjusting the mix as needed, as Pierre Gauthier tried to do last fall with the in-camp addition of Chris Campoli, will be severely limited.

The strategy used will depend on the outlook Canadiens General Manager Marc Bergevin have for this season.  It's possible he may think that in a shortened season it's anyone's Cup for the taking, and therefore load up with a few cheap veterans for a playoff run, taking advantage of a Carey Price who should be coming into his prime, and veterans like Erik Cole, Brian Gionta and Tomas Plekanec before it's too late.

Our sense however is that he's a cautious fellow who takes a long view of building a roster.  It's much more likely that he will ride the players he has as far as they'll take him, and he'll see how things shake out.  I don't imagine he'd suffer a team that was buffoonish and gutless; his addition of heart and soul veterans Brandon Prust and Francis Brouillon are good indications of his mindset.  If however the Canadiens tried hard and battled, and new Head Coach Michel Therrien provided new leadership and discipline, but the team again finished at the bottom of the standings, I don't think the brain trust, Trevor Timmins first and foremost, would mind very much.

Another factor to take into consideration is the reinforcements available in Hamilton, which are, lamentably, almost non-existent.  I say this with great hope that the kids now down on the farm will pay great dividends eventually, but not this year.  The evidence is plain to see when watching Bulldogs games or reading the game recaps and boxscores.  No Bulldog is tearing up the league.  None is too good for that level of play, à la Justin Schultz.  Louis Leblanc is having a difficult, unproductive season.  Michaël Bournival is mired in a ten-game slump.  Aaron Palushaj was having an underwhelming campaign before suffering a shoulder injury.

Blake Geoffrion, who seemed to be taking his veteran role on a young team seriously, and who I thought might earn a spot on the Grand Club when the season started, unfortunately suffered a serious head injury, and his career is now on hold.  Greg Pateryn, another older player who I hoped might be able to pitch in later in the season in a third pairing defensive role, is also out with a serious injury, his development stalled.  About the only players who seem like they could pitch in right now are Gabriel Dumont and Mike Blunden, who could be callups for spot duty on the fourth line.

So our best move will be to leave the youngsters in Hamilton to marinate for a full season at least.  Mr. Bergevin's maxim that you rarely regret bringing up a player too late allows us to confidently predict that the crown jewels (Louis Leblanc, Jared Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu) and supporting players will continue playing in the AHL, adapting and developing their skills to a higher level of competition.  They may get an injury callup of a couple of games to 'get a taste', but probably not more than that.

Some will argue that some young players are mentally tough enough to 'take' a season or two of being outgunned in the NHL, until they mature and their skills catch up.  They explain that a young player may benefit from being tempered in the fire of tougher competition right away.  I counter that with the fact that it's not just a mental toughness issue, but also a skill development issue.  If a player feels overwhelmed by the pace of the play, and the toughness of the opponent, he will pick up some bad habits, being forced to tread water.  Sink or swim rarely works, a step by step process of skill acquisition and development is almost always preferred.

Which brings us to the Alex Galchenyuk quandary.  What to do, what to do...

Mr. Galchenyuk does seem to be head and shoulders over the rest of the OHL competition, but I still think he can develop in Sarnia, by playing big minutes in tough situations, and leading his team to the playoffs.  I don't think he'd be wasting his time there, like maybe Jonathan Huberdeau might in St-John.  Another factor to consider is that while he had a strong showing with the US team at the World Juniors, he didn't dominate and seem as if he was NHL-ready.  The fact that he seemed to not be able to gain US Head Coach Phil Housley's full trust, as controversial as that might be, is an indicator that he still has a lot to learn at the junior level.

I think it was Rick Dudley who said that for a player to win an NHL roster spot out of junior, he had to win it cleanly, outright.  If the Canadiens are tempted to plug the giant hole on Tomas Plekanec's left wing with Alex Galchenyuk, let's hope that it will be based on what they see in camp, and not in their dreams.

Finally, we would prefer it if Mr. Bergevin can come to an agreement with Don Meehan and sign P.K. Subban to a contract relatively quickly.  Despite more red flags this off-season as to how P.K. fits in with the rest of the team in the dressing room, he is an undeniable talent who we can't do without.  I don't see the delay in getting him to ink a contract as a snub, but rather as evidence that the new management team is going to be prudent with its dollars and avoid the pitfalls the prior administration repeatedly dove into headfirst.  If Mr. Meehan was as amenable as Lars Eller's agent (again, Lars' contract is curiously cap-friendly for the team), or if P.K. adopted Max Pacioretty's view that getting long-term security was worth a 'hometown' discount' for the Canadiens, the deal would be done already.  As it is, Mr. Meehan and Mr. Bergevin are bargaining hard with each other, which is their prerogative.

NFL Week 3: Chargers 3, Falcons 27

While we were expecting the Chargers to have a so-so season, this loss against the Falcons is still a bit of a downer.  We had predicted a 7-9 record in 2012, but maybe the two wins to start off the season made us let our guard down a little bit.  We tried to dampen our expectations, tried to remind ourselves that the Raiders and the Titans were awful teams, and that wins against them didn’t mean much, but maybe we got carried away.  We thought that even though the Falcons were undefeated and impressive so far, maybe the short week and the trip out West might play to our advantage.

This game had many of the elements which worried us this summer and during training camp.  The offensive line struggled to keep Philip Rivers upright, he was constantly hurried and hit.  Philip still doesn’t have a connection with his new receivers, certainly not as good as the one he enjoyed with Vincent Jackson.  His only reliable option is Malcom Floyd.  Eddie Royal and Robert Meachem are not yet in sync with the new offence.

The John Pagano defence seemed promising during training camp, what with new, more athletic players and draft picks.  As with every new Defensive Coordinator ever appointed, he promised us a swarming blitzing spectacular defence, one that we get off the field on third downs, a specific weakness of last year’s unit.  While this was in evidence against the clueless Raiders and the neutered Titans who struggled without a productive Chris Johnson, the defence seemed overmatched against the powerhouse Falcons.  We may agree that the Falcons are a stern test for most teams, but if the Chargers are to compete, heck, if they are to prove me wrong and win the division and/or make the playoffs, they need to be effective against productive offences.

Ryan Matthews played his first game of the season, and was effective running the ball at first, showing speed, quickness and change of direction ability, as well as power.  Unfortunately, his old bugaboo resurfaced when he fumbled the ball near the Falcons goal line, killing a drive and any chance the Chargers might have had.  We can be lenient in that he was thrown in the fire of regular season competition without a training camp and is barely recovered from a collar bone fracture, but the fumble was another manifestation of his problem hanging onto the ball.  Again, he failed to protect it as he was going to the turf.

This is not new.  Ryan says all the right things about working on ball security, but we get the sense that he lacks the mental tenacity and awareness to effectively deal with this problem.  It’s sometimes difficult to analyze these issues properly strictly from viewing games on TV and by reading reports online, but a lot of red flags seem to be popping up: showing up out of shape last training camp, his problems picking up the playbook and pass protection, his traffic collision recently.

A.J. Smith was pointed when asked to comment on Ryan Matthews’ fumbling problems.  He explained that players whose fumble regularly go through a three-stage process, the third of which is that they become a fumbler on someone else’s team.  Pretty harsh, but a good indication of a growing concern and impatience regarding the young running back.  Norv Turner also touched on the issue, explaining that Ryan would get more limited touches in specific situations, meaning he wasn’t going to get the ball when the game was close or near a goal line, which severely limits his effectiveness and value to the team.  And to this fantasy football owner who was to really happy to scoop him up on waivers early this season.

NFL owners must end their lockout of their referees

After another weekend of bizarre situations and questionable calls by replacement refs, we saw two debacles to end it off, with Bill Belichik running and grabbing after an official on the Sunday night game, trying to get an explanation on the game-ending field goal and, more probably, their entire oeuvre that evening, and now a farcical performance by the crew working the Monday Night Football game.

The replacement refs have been having an underlying effect on the games since they started working them.  At first, they weren't calling pass interference penalties as stringently as they should have, and we saw a lot of low-scoring games and upsets as a result in the first couple of weeks.  We saw them lose control of games, some of them dragging on so long that I missed out on some game endings and had to adjust my PVR settings accordingly.

One effect that hasn't been mentioned is the amount of jawing and woofing that goes on now, constantly.  This blight on the game had been effectively curtailed during the previous seasons, when jabbing your facemask into someone else's to taunt or dis them was grounds for an unsportsmanlike conduct 15-yard penalty.  This season, I have yet to see a flag for such behaviour, which is now endemic, and the source for a lot of the scrums and shenanigans we see after most whistles seemingly.

This weekend, we saw an avalanche of yellow flags, as the NFL circled the wagons and probably instructed the ersatz zebras to tighten the calls on defensive backs.  And we now understand why they weren't calling more penalties.  It was not as a misguided attempt to 'let them play', it's simply that they can't make the right calls, the speed of the game is evidently too high for them.  It seems as if every call or non-call is a toss-up, whether they're nailing it or shanking it.  I can do just as well at home with my trusty flipping quarter.

We have probably reached the Rubicon, and NFL management has to decide whether they'll cross it, or back down and come to terms with their real referees, the actual pros of the game, who while imperfect, are now shown to be effective in the overwhelming majority of cases, and to be decisive and fully, functionally knowledgeable of the rules of the game.

The sad part out of all of this is that the NFL are having a principled disagreement with their staff.  This isn't about dollars and cents so much as it is about NFL owners trying to wrest more money from the refs to pile on to the staggering fortunes they already make from their teams.  The NFL isn't on the brink of financial insolvency, this isn't necessary for the survival or even the profitability of the league.

The refs are not holding out for more money, an unreasonable raise, or anything crazy.  The refs aren't on strike.  They're being locked out by the owners.  The reason they're being locked out by the owners is that they're being asked to give up the pension they currently earn and accept a vastly inferior version, one with a 'defined contribution' instead of a 'defined benefit'.  So now instead of a pension that will pay out a set amount upon retirement, an amount that they can plan their life around, they are now asked to take a glorified mutual fund account that will be subject to the vagaries of the stock market and the piratical penchants of Wall Street.

The NFL's reason for the change?  As weak as their moral fibre.  They say that since they already beat down their other employees and wrestled away their pensions, they now need to beat down the referees as well.  It wouldn't be "fair" to their other employees not to.  I'm not making this up.  This is their reasoning.

I'm sure if you asked any client of the NFL, anyone who buys tickets or jerseys or the Sunday Ticket package or a case of Budweiser, none of them would begrudge the officials a tiny slice of that purchase so that they can have a reasonable pension that allowed them to retire in dignity and security.  None of them would vote that that money should rather go into Paul Allen's pocket.  Anyone who did would do so out of bitterness that they themselves are deprived of such a pension by the climate that reigns currently in Corporate America and North American society as well.

Roger Goodell has been a bit of a crusader since becoming Commissioner, to various degrees of effectiveness.  He has often punished players for off-field transgressions that he claimed tarnished the image of the league.  He now has to wear this fiasco of a lockout.  It's on him.  And he has to fix it.  He has to bring his vaunted conciliatory and persuasive powers to bear on the owners and convince them that they must drop their demands of the officials to get a deal done, for the good of the game.

Better yet, the vaunted 'conscience' of the game, the long-time owners like the Rooneys and the Maras, Bob Kraft who cried arm-in-arm with Jeff Saturday last summer, need to intervene and to put a stop to this.  They need to bring everyone to their senses and protect their own legacy, their very business.  Everyone in the owners circle must understand that their principled stance, repugnant no matter how they try to spin it, must end.  They are damaging their product and image for a trifling amount in the grand scheme of things.