As a Canadiens fan growing up, I'd devour La Presse's sports section everyday for any scrap of news of my team, for the photographs, the stats pages. I wanted to see how far ahead of the competition the team was in the race for the championship, or Guy Lafleur was in the scoring race, how close behind were pesky Marcel Dionne and Bryan Trottier.
When I could get my hands on Le Journal de Montréal, 'fruit défendu' at my house, but which was often left lying around greasy spoons or other house we'd visit, I'd dive into that too, so many colour photos. There were also the call-in shows like "Les Amateurs de Sport" on CKAC, which were huge in those days, before the internet, you'd dial and dial the phone for days and never get through to have a chance to speak your mind.
Add in a five minute sports news blurb on "Le Téléjournal" on Radio-Canada, and that was about it in terms of where you could get your information on your favourite team. Compared to today, it was a relatively arid landscape.
Which is why 24 CH is such a treat for me. I'm like the Depression Era children who grew up to hoard food and cling to a steady job like life itself, and their Baby Boomer offspring who grew up in a time of comparative growth and wealth and imbued their own children with the sense that the world was theirs for the taking and there was nothing they couldn't achieve. I too have been formed by my environment. I grew up wanting to know everything and more about my Canadiens.
So I watch 24 CH attentively, despite the critics who point to the slick packaging and the editorial control of management. I understand these considerations, but to me they're not reason to not watch the show, just a brake on any conclusions to be drawn from the viewings. It's still an additional, fresh glimpse into the inner workings of a team, it provides insight and context when evaluating our team.
This season's episodes are again narrated by Claude Quenneville, a veteran from "La Soirée du Hockey", who handled the between-periods interviews and general hosting duties at first, then the radio play-by-play duties once René Lecavalier retired from TV play-by-play duties, and Richard Garneau moved up a rung in the hierarchy.
Mr. Quenneville was a little younger than his more aristocratic colleagues, but had a killer voice and a wry, understated sense of humour too. There were reports that he and Guy Lafleur were close friends and would socialize outside of 'work', that they would go to nightclubs together, which gave him fantastic cachet. When I think of the standard 'Who would you most like to have dinner with' question, if I couldn't go my usual Natalie Portman-Elle Macpherson-Stefi Graf trifecta, Mr. Quenneville would definitely have one of the seats at the table. Oh, the stories he could probably tell of those Canadiens teams of the 70's and 80's...
Notes:
00:12 Opening montage of scenes of Montréal with a shot of Le Stade Olympique from a distance, probably from Mont Royal. Sure, a white elephant of a boondoggle, but what a beautiful structure to look at from afar. If I'd been mayor of Montréal back in the day, I'd have been panting to give Roger Taillibert whatever he wanted to get the thing built too. What's a little budget overage between friends?
01:50 Judging strictly by our respective golf swings, I'm a better athlete than Alex Galchenyuk. Mike Weaver takes a Happy Gilmore-swing for one of his drives. The guy is jacked, and adds to his reputation as a glue-guy, a good teammate to have around who keeps everyone loose.
02:05 I'm also a better athlete than P.K. Subban.
02:30 Speaking of jacked, here's a shot of Mac Bennett doing dryland training at the practice facility. His draft year writeups and scouting reports spoke of a skilled player and skater who was undersized and needed to work on his size and strength. Here's a kid who put his four years at the University of Michigan to good use. Last season at the prospect development camp, he was thrilled to report at the target weight of 195 lbs set by Player Development Coach Patrice Brisebois. This year, they have him measured at 198 lbs.
03:00 Same goes for Jérémy Grégoire, he looks very powerful, especially when cut in with shots of a relatively slender Zachary Fucale.
03:15 Long segment focusing on the four Assistant Captains, who say all the right things about the move, their duties and their peers. Maybe that media training that the players undergo every fall is coming in handy here, no missteps from anyone.
06:00 First glimpse at the renovations under way at the New Forum. Everything is bigger, with more room, and focused on providing the players with the best facilities possible.
François Gagnon had spoken of these renos on L'Antichambre, and explained how Equipment Manager Pierre Gervais told of how team owner Geoff Molson approached him and asked how the team rink's facilities ranked compared to others in the NHL. Mr. Gervais answered that at first they were top-notch, but fifteen years on they were maybe in the bottom third of the NHL. I'm sure this wasn't the only reason, but following this conversation plans were made to tear down and start over at the New Forum, to ensure that it at least matched the excellent practice facilities in Brossard.
07:30 Quick shots of the rookie camp, with brief interviews with Christian Thomas, Jacob de la Rose, Tim Bozon and Jiri Sekac.
09:00 On to the main camp. Quick shots of the regulars doing dryland training and testing. One shot of Magnus Nygren with his shirt off and hair coiffed just so will be the reason I dislike him: not because of his comments about and flight from Hamilton last season, but because when you go to the pub with the fellas, if there's a guy like that in your group, you don't stand a chance, you get no attention whatsoever.
Lots of stability and range of motion tests, to detect any imbalances or problems that can lead to injuries. These are the tests where maybe P.K. and Alex might have a slight edge on me.
09:45 We see Tomas Plekanec undergoing the newfangled power test for bench press, which involves an Olympic bar rigged to an elastic band and pulley, and must have a dynamometre in the system somewhere. This is a newish test for me, in that I'm more familiar with the NFL 225 test, which has you doing as many reps as possible with a 225 lbs (100 kg) weight. The NHL scouting combine used a modified version of that test, with a 135 lbs weight, basically one plate instead of two on the bar.
Of course this is more of a strength test, good for predicting one-rep maximums for candidates. The Canadiens don't tend to scrimp on things, they're rather at the forefront, and I assume their trainers felt that a power measurement was more useful, but it's still an interesting deviation from the industry standard. I have to believe they think it's a more useful measurement for a player, that power is more what a hockey player should strive for instead of strictly strength.
It's also on trend with the new training methods and crazes, with 'isolation' no longer being the be-all and end-all when it comes to conditioning and gym philosophies, it's all about compound or even total-body movements now and functional strength. Notably, Crossfit training eschews the classic bench press, preferring to train the chest with movements like pushups, dips and burpies, which involve the whole body and the aerobic and anaerobic systems when done in long enough stretches and with brief rest periods.
What world do we live in when you can no longer ask another person "How much ya bench?"
10:00 Lars 'wins' the sprint test on the treadmill, another test I'm not familiar with. He does look a little trimmer than last year, when he came in looking like Thor. Some asked whether he was too bulky and heavy, and whether it affected his skating, quickness and agility.
10:50 Canadiens getting to see the new digs for the first time. P.K. and Dale Weise are agog, like kids at Christmas. Manny Malhotra, who's traveled quite a bit in his career and is in a position to compare, raves that they are first class.
Marc Bergevin takes P.K. by the arm and leads him to the players lounge, more colleagues than boss-employee. Hard to see any residual tension after a tough summer of contract negotiation.
Geoff Molson proudly touring as well. He greets prospect and Bulldog Greg Pateryn by his first name. Details.
Maybe not the same conviviality between Head Coach Michel Therrien and Greg. He's not as easygoing in his demeanor as the team owner and General Manager, as we've seen in the past, more gruff and sometimes awkward.
Gally and Chucky ignore everything and go right for the foosball table. Those two kids, I tell ya...
Marc Bergevin, fully aware the camera is on him, approaches Francis Bouillon and asks "Do you know what paid for all this? 24 CH." They have a good laugh, and you have to think this refers to a previous discussion the GM had with Francis or the team in general.
12:15 Geoff Molson at the Canadian Club. He preaches, over and above financial contributions and investment in worthwhile causes, community involvement. We see footage from last season's trip by the team to Lac Mégantic, to support the town after the catastrophe that destroyed their central core.
13:00 Segue to footage of the now annual meet and greet by players for fans attending the free Blanc-Rouge scrimmage at the New Forum, while Mr. Molson speaks of the impact the team can have for the fans.
"It's clear that the ultimate goal is to win. To win, to succeed, it's the details that count. It's the development of the player, not only on the ice, but also off the ice. The development of the person, with the media, ..."
14:00 Behind the scenes footage of the new campaign with Jay Baruchel. Should be good.
15:00 Exhibition games. A win against the Bruins, then the Avalanche in Québec. Brandon Prust humble-brags about calling his shot for his game-winning goal, he'd told Jiri Sekac on the bench beforehand that he'd close his eyes and shoot, and that it worked.
17:00 Game against the Capitals, and the big hit by Jarred Tinordi on Nate Schmidt that got him ejected.
17:45 Brandon and P.K. appear on a French-language TV show. The host appears to know Brandon already, probably from being media personality Mariepier Morin's boyfriend. P.K. is a ham and a star, shining in the spotlight as usual. Brandon, P.K. and Mariepier end the show by shooting orange road hockey balls at the host, apparently wearing goalie gear for the first time.
19:20 Nathan Beaulieu admits to a difficult, up and down year the previous season, and vows that things will go different this year.
19:30 Exhibition games against the Senators. I know Ottawa is a convenient team to play against in the pre-season, at least geographically, but I really like the suggestion from some fans that we avoid them in future, if only to punish/protest their goon tactics.
As is argued, they derive a financial benefit from all the Canadiens fans who buy tickets at their barn to see the Habs play, let's remove that benefit. Marc Bergevin probably used his connections with Chicago to get us a game against them in the pre-season, let's do more of those, or with more 'neutral' geographic neighbours like the Sabres and Red Wings.
20:45 Closing montage. The narrator speaks of constancy coexisting with change and upheaval, as we see shots of Greg Pateryn, Christian Thomas and Francis Bouillon, who don't make the cut at the end of camp. We end with a shot of the team picture, with Dustin Tokarski at the right hand of Carey Price.
Saturday, 18 October 2014
Friday, 17 October 2014
Game 5: Canadiens 6, Bruins 4
All it takes to silence the most hardened critics of the Canadiens, its players, its coaches, is a solid win against the ignoble Bruins, and what a relief tonight was, a Listerine barrel of a palate cleanser. After a deflating 7-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Monday night, which caused Elliotte Friedman to critique the team and its 3-1 record as "fool's gold", tonight's convincing 6-4 win against the smart-money favourite to win the East has righted the ship.
Great game from Alexei Emelin, who went above and beyond what's requested of him, namely that he be the steady-eddie next to P.K. Rather, Alexei delivered the highlight of the night right at the start of the game, with a solid shoulder check to the ugly mug of Milan Lucic, who stewed for the rest of the game, and went full gorilla-mode at the very end.
It's time for mental health care practitioners in Boston or Vancouver to intervene before Mr. Lucic harms someone or himself. Not to be politically incorrect, but if I was his girlfriend I'd find somewhere else to stay for a couple of days. His scowling churlishness, his childishness, his petulance, his tendency to lash out in inappropriate ways at inappropriate times, all point to someone with very poor impulse control and anger management issues.
Despite all his pious vows to the media before the game that he was focused on the upcoming game for the right reasons, that his stats and his team's results were more important than any revenge to be meted out, Milan Lucic behaved exactly as we could predict he would. He lumbered around ineffectually, took a boarding penalty at the end of the game against Alexei Emelin (pure coincidence we're sure) when he should have been trying to even up the score in a one-goal game, went maximum overdrive apespit gesturing to the New Forum fans while heading for incarceration in the box, then tried to approach the refs to harangue them after being let out of the cage after the Habs' powerplay goal, and got tossed from the game for a misconduct.
Milan Lucic is so far from being a competitor, or tough, that it's laughable when he is described as such. His whining, self-serving, duplicitous comments to the media about his team not accepting diving from its own players, about being a competitive guy which prevents him from acting like a gentleman in a handshake line, about his flexing and Shawn Thornton's water bottle squirt at P.K. Subban being part of their 'Boston Strong' ethos, about not having speared Alexei Emelin despite clear video evidence for all the world to see, about Alexei being a chicken for delivering a perfectly-timed hip check, all point to someone needing a reality check, an intervention.
The thing is, Mr. Lucic is so far into his own head, is so trapped in his persona of the tough guy who won't lose, that he can't act appropriately when facing defeat. He needs to put on a show to display to the world that he's not going down quietly. He has to act like Milan, instead of being himself. So when he's losing a game, he tries to geld Danny DeKeyser, he utters death threats to Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin, and now tonight he blows a gasket and seals the win for the opposition with a 90 second bezerker tantrum.
Someone who understands right from wrong, understands that actions have consequences, yet cannot stop from acting impulsively like Mr. Lucic is definitely in need of counselling. And this should probably happen before the next nightclub brawl or domestic violence incident.
And I have to request now that Brendan Gallagher sever any connection with that pathetic maniac. I don't care about the Vancouver Giant connection, about whether Brendan's dad acts as his personal trainer, it's not acceptable for him to associate with that piece of garbage. It's beyond awkward now. If Brendan wants to hang around with other Vancouver NHL'ers like Evander Kane or Ryan Johansen, that's fine, but not with the guy who's threatening and spearing and boarding your teammates and making obscene gestures at your fans. Enough is enough.
Oh, and how many more times does Zdeno Chara have to butcher a play in his own zone before we stop pretending he's an elite defenceman anymore? How long do we have to keep up with this charade? Because he scored a goal while standing in front of the net? That's why he's an elite defenceman? Because if so, stand by while I explain that Randall Cunningham is the best quarterback in NFL history because he could also punt very well.
With that off our chest, we feel better and can rattle off the positives. The first line finally converted its chances when buzzing around in the offensive zone, unlike the last couple of games. Max took a few shots on net, and was always a threat to break away. David was his usual indefatigable self, forechecking and pressuring when he didn't have the puck, creating chances when he did. Brendan potted two goals, finally being rewarded for his ceaseless sacrifice.
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau scored two goals, his first as a Canadien, and we can see that he has a chance to contribute to a much greater degree than Daniel Brière ever could. P.A. will be useful as a point producer on any line he'll land on, all he has to do is be defensively responsible on those nights when things don't click for him.
Lars Eller and René Bourque have had a rough start to the season. Tonight, I counted four fly-bys from René, opportunities when he was forechecking and could have finished a check on a Bruin defender. Now I hate the very concept of 'finishing your check', but that's the league we're in, and the Bruins will certainly do it to our defencemen, so you think René would use his 215 pounds and return the favour to Boston. He doesn't have to destroy anyone, board or elbow them, but just bump them after they unload the puck. Make them aware that you're around, and the next time you're pressuring them they might be a little more skittish. Some of his missed opportunities were so flagrant that I'm sure the coaches will have some video for him to watch tomorrow morning, and will try to get him onboard with that.
It wasn't all bad for that line, they got Jiri Sekac his first goal in the NHL, and René again had a few opportunities he came close to cashing. Lars got a goal waved off, but his effort in the opposition slot bodes well.
Carey Price again didn't have a stellar night, but kept it together to a greater degree than, oh, let's say Bruin basket case Tuuka Rask, who messed the bed before leaving in the third period, his tremulous tail between his legs. Carey stayed in it and managed to keep his team in the game and get the win. He'll come around, I'm not worried.
A great win, a few things we can fix in practice the next few days, but for now les boys bought themselves a lot of patience from the fans, at least one loss' worth.
Great game from Alexei Emelin, who went above and beyond what's requested of him, namely that he be the steady-eddie next to P.K. Rather, Alexei delivered the highlight of the night right at the start of the game, with a solid shoulder check to the ugly mug of Milan Lucic, who stewed for the rest of the game, and went full gorilla-mode at the very end.
It's time for mental health care practitioners in Boston or Vancouver to intervene before Mr. Lucic harms someone or himself. Not to be politically incorrect, but if I was his girlfriend I'd find somewhere else to stay for a couple of days. His scowling churlishness, his childishness, his petulance, his tendency to lash out in inappropriate ways at inappropriate times, all point to someone with very poor impulse control and anger management issues.
Despite all his pious vows to the media before the game that he was focused on the upcoming game for the right reasons, that his stats and his team's results were more important than any revenge to be meted out, Milan Lucic behaved exactly as we could predict he would. He lumbered around ineffectually, took a boarding penalty at the end of the game against Alexei Emelin (pure coincidence we're sure) when he should have been trying to even up the score in a one-goal game, went maximum overdrive apespit gesturing to the New Forum fans while heading for incarceration in the box, then tried to approach the refs to harangue them after being let out of the cage after the Habs' powerplay goal, and got tossed from the game for a misconduct.
Milan Lucic is so far from being a competitor, or tough, that it's laughable when he is described as such. His whining, self-serving, duplicitous comments to the media about his team not accepting diving from its own players, about being a competitive guy which prevents him from acting like a gentleman in a handshake line, about his flexing and Shawn Thornton's water bottle squirt at P.K. Subban being part of their 'Boston Strong' ethos, about not having speared Alexei Emelin despite clear video evidence for all the world to see, about Alexei being a chicken for delivering a perfectly-timed hip check, all point to someone needing a reality check, an intervention.
The thing is, Mr. Lucic is so far into his own head, is so trapped in his persona of the tough guy who won't lose, that he can't act appropriately when facing defeat. He needs to put on a show to display to the world that he's not going down quietly. He has to act like Milan, instead of being himself. So when he's losing a game, he tries to geld Danny DeKeyser, he utters death threats to Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin, and now tonight he blows a gasket and seals the win for the opposition with a 90 second bezerker tantrum.
Someone who understands right from wrong, understands that actions have consequences, yet cannot stop from acting impulsively like Mr. Lucic is definitely in need of counselling. And this should probably happen before the next nightclub brawl or domestic violence incident.
And I have to request now that Brendan Gallagher sever any connection with that pathetic maniac. I don't care about the Vancouver Giant connection, about whether Brendan's dad acts as his personal trainer, it's not acceptable for him to associate with that piece of garbage. It's beyond awkward now. If Brendan wants to hang around with other Vancouver NHL'ers like Evander Kane or Ryan Johansen, that's fine, but not with the guy who's threatening and spearing and boarding your teammates and making obscene gestures at your fans. Enough is enough.
Oh, and how many more times does Zdeno Chara have to butcher a play in his own zone before we stop pretending he's an elite defenceman anymore? How long do we have to keep up with this charade? Because he scored a goal while standing in front of the net? That's why he's an elite defenceman? Because if so, stand by while I explain that Randall Cunningham is the best quarterback in NFL history because he could also punt very well.
With that off our chest, we feel better and can rattle off the positives. The first line finally converted its chances when buzzing around in the offensive zone, unlike the last couple of games. Max took a few shots on net, and was always a threat to break away. David was his usual indefatigable self, forechecking and pressuring when he didn't have the puck, creating chances when he did. Brendan potted two goals, finally being rewarded for his ceaseless sacrifice.
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau scored two goals, his first as a Canadien, and we can see that he has a chance to contribute to a much greater degree than Daniel Brière ever could. P.A. will be useful as a point producer on any line he'll land on, all he has to do is be defensively responsible on those nights when things don't click for him.
Lars Eller and René Bourque have had a rough start to the season. Tonight, I counted four fly-bys from René, opportunities when he was forechecking and could have finished a check on a Bruin defender. Now I hate the very concept of 'finishing your check', but that's the league we're in, and the Bruins will certainly do it to our defencemen, so you think René would use his 215 pounds and return the favour to Boston. He doesn't have to destroy anyone, board or elbow them, but just bump them after they unload the puck. Make them aware that you're around, and the next time you're pressuring them they might be a little more skittish. Some of his missed opportunities were so flagrant that I'm sure the coaches will have some video for him to watch tomorrow morning, and will try to get him onboard with that.
It wasn't all bad for that line, they got Jiri Sekac his first goal in the NHL, and René again had a few opportunities he came close to cashing. Lars got a goal waved off, but his effort in the opposition slot bodes well.
Carey Price again didn't have a stellar night, but kept it together to a greater degree than, oh, let's say Bruin basket case Tuuka Rask, who messed the bed before leaving in the third period, his tremulous tail between his legs. Carey stayed in it and managed to keep his team in the game and get the win. He'll come around, I'm not worried.
A great win, a few things we can fix in practice the next few days, but for now les boys bought themselves a lot of patience from the fans, at least one loss' worth.
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
Tom Gilbert is everything we expected him to be early this season.
I think we need to take Tom Gilbert's contributions and performance in context. The former Panther is already drawing some scrutiny for his play, but I think it's much too early in the season to criticize him, and when he is dissected it should be with some perspective.
He is signed to a very reasonable contract for a player of his experience and skillset. He has two years at $2.8M per on his UFA deal, which is a bargain compared to what the Matt Nyskanens and Brooks Orpiks got this summer. He's a right-handed veteran defenceman, who come at a premium in the league, with a greater emphasis on having left-right balanced pairings nowadays.
He was brought in to change the makeup of our d-squad, to accentuate the ability to break the puck out of our zone, as opposed to being a stalwart to man the ramparts as Josh Gorges or Hal Gill were. To fault him for not being tough enough in our zone would be the same as faulting Daniel Brière for not being enough of a thumper on the forecheck, misplaced. We knew that going in.
His contract not being an anchor makes him more of custodian while the young defencemen in Hamilton are working on their game. We saw in camp that players like Greg Pateryn, Magnus Nygren and Darren Dietz are all showing promise but not quite ready. If halfway through the season they are playing at too high a level for them not to earn a callup, we can easily make decisions as far as Mr. Gilbert and Mike Weaver are concerned.
It's interesting that the Oilers have made Jeff Petry, a defenceman who might be a carbon copy of Tom Gilbert, a healthy scratch for the last two games. The buzz about him being scratched isn't apocalyptic, but rather that the Oilers might be well served to trade him, seeing as teams like the Kings and Red Wings may have already shown interest, being in the market for a right-handed puck mover for their blue line.
If Jeff Petry can be traded after not cracking the Oilers lineup, then certainly Tom Gilbert can be too, especially as injuries mount during the season around the league. So we can stop worrying about Tom Gilbert, he's delivering what was expected, cost-effective minutes from an easily tradeable asset that we acquired for nothing. Good deal.
He is signed to a very reasonable contract for a player of his experience and skillset. He has two years at $2.8M per on his UFA deal, which is a bargain compared to what the Matt Nyskanens and Brooks Orpiks got this summer. He's a right-handed veteran defenceman, who come at a premium in the league, with a greater emphasis on having left-right balanced pairings nowadays.
He was brought in to change the makeup of our d-squad, to accentuate the ability to break the puck out of our zone, as opposed to being a stalwart to man the ramparts as Josh Gorges or Hal Gill were. To fault him for not being tough enough in our zone would be the same as faulting Daniel Brière for not being enough of a thumper on the forecheck, misplaced. We knew that going in.
His contract not being an anchor makes him more of custodian while the young defencemen in Hamilton are working on their game. We saw in camp that players like Greg Pateryn, Magnus Nygren and Darren Dietz are all showing promise but not quite ready. If halfway through the season they are playing at too high a level for them not to earn a callup, we can easily make decisions as far as Mr. Gilbert and Mike Weaver are concerned.
It's interesting that the Oilers have made Jeff Petry, a defenceman who might be a carbon copy of Tom Gilbert, a healthy scratch for the last two games. The buzz about him being scratched isn't apocalyptic, but rather that the Oilers might be well served to trade him, seeing as teams like the Kings and Red Wings may have already shown interest, being in the market for a right-handed puck mover for their blue line.
If Jeff Petry can be traded after not cracking the Oilers lineup, then certainly Tom Gilbert can be too, especially as injuries mount during the season around the league. So we can stop worrying about Tom Gilbert, he's delivering what was expected, cost-effective minutes from an easily tradeable asset that we acquired for nothing. Good deal.
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
Game 4: Canadiens 1, Lightning 7
This one smarts, an ugly 7-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who were obviously eager to avenge their loss to the Canadiens during last year's playoffs, like the Canucks did against the Bruins in the famous "Game 8" of January 2012.
Tampa Head Coach Jon Cooper was interviewed on the pre-show on RDS. When I first got to know him I was impressed by his attitude and communication skills, but he kind of lost it I thought during the playoffs, maybe like Michel Therrien did in the series loss against Ottawa the previous season. Tonight though, again he was impressive. For example he didn't whine about having had to play the series last spring without his #1 goalie Ben Bishop, but rather stated he's not sure he would have made a difference, that his team got beat cleanly and decisively.
I'd set up my PVR to the free Center Ice preview to record the game, but when I checked in early on, being careful to not spoil the score for myself, I realized I was tuned to the Tampa Bay feed on Fox. I searched and found the RDS broadcast and switched to that instead.
I may have taken Pierre Houde and Marc Denis and the excellent technical work of RDS for granted last year, would sometimes watch on TSN or CBC just for the change, but not this year. Now that I don't have the option to see and hear them work every game, I'll watch them any time I can.
The thing is though, my concern as to the Tampa coverage was unfounded. I had to watch them for the first half-hour, and they had a good to excellent pre-game show, which set up the game very well for viewers. They took it down a notch possibly for an audience that may not be as sophisticated as a Canadian audience, but they covered everything. They reminded us of the playoffs, again with no whining, put Andrei and Tomas under the spotlight, and spoke of the Canadiens' hot start. Someone coming into the game cold might have had most of the information they needed to enjoy it.
Same with the play-by-play team. They didn't only focus on the Lightning, but gave some background on who the Canadiens were, spoke of the young defencemen, mentioned that Dustin Tokarski was a former Lightning. The colour man was amusing when he explained that even though P.A. Parenteau has been in the league for years, only today had he learned what it stood for: Pierre-Alexander. He riffed on that for a minute or so.
They had a good delivery, in a tone that spoke of their love of hockey, and their anticipation of a good game, with little to no homerism. They did their research before the game and delivered information, mispronounced 'Plekanec' and 'Beaulieu', but had a good handle on who these and other Habs were. They mentioned that Jarred was the son of Mark Tinordi, and gave a brief background on the latter.
So not an orgy of one-sided hyper-focus on their home team, but rather an enjoyable, competent job of a broadcast. Which made me wonder why the Bruins' team can't do the same, give a more even-handed slant on the game. And more topically, why not the CBC or TSN or Sportsnet when they cover a Leafs game?
Jarred Tinordi had a good start to the game, highlighted by an assist on his slap pass to Brendan Gallagher for a goal. I did notice however an instance when he was behind his own net, with the puck and time to move the puck, and his partner Mike Weaver to his right, free and clear with no one around him.
The easy, safe, correct play would have been to draw the forechecker in a little more, make him commit, then swing the puck to Mike Weaver and allow him to break out the puck, with no pressure on him. Instead, Jarred hesitated, then tried a high-risk pass through the forechecker, between his skates and stick, which got through and reached his winger, who safely got the puck out of the zone, but this was symptomatic of what Jarred has been doing, which is make things difficult for himself. Instead of keeping things simple, playing hard defensive hockey and a physical role, which is all that's expected of him, he's trying to make the fancy passes that are more the domain of Andrei and P.K. and Nathan.
It is interesting how Andrei, with All-World skill, with all his experience, often makes the simple play, and keeps the puck moving that way. Tonight, while skating towards his net to retrieve a puck at his own blue line, he was pressured by a Tampa forechecker bearing down on him. Andrei calmly faked going backhand to clear the puck against the boards, to which the forechecker reacted to and started skating that way to intercept. Andrei then calmly went forehand to his partner Jarred, who was wide open and facing the right way. Lots of skill used to make the simple play. It all took less than a second, but Andrei chose the safe option, only with a bit of panache by steering the defender in a different direction first.
It reminded me of an interview with Jim Kelly, the Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback, in which he was asked in what situations did he ever 'force' the ball, rather than just finding the open receiver. Mr. Kelly was perplexed for a moment, then explained that he always passed to the open man, and only in 'Hail Mary' situations did he ever force the ball.
But what about all those times when he squeezed the ball into those tight windows, over a linebacker and between two defensive backs, insisted the interviewer? Jim Kelly laughed, and explained that on the field, unless he missed seeing a lurking defensive player, every player he ever threw to was open.
It's only later, viewing film of his games, that he realized that his standard of 'wide open' evolved as he gained experience, that what he might have felt was a covered receiver in college, with a defensive back half-a-step behind him, became an open receiver in the pros, and at the height of his powers all he needed was a quarter-step. But he wasn't thinking to himself, "Whoa, that cornerback is all over Andre Reed", just "Open."
Jarred needs to make simple passes to open teammates, quickly and without overthinking, and not giving time to defenders to adjust. See a good guy in the right colour jersey who's open? Give him the puck. Automatically. And as he gains in experience and confidence, as he puts in the minutes and the reps, he'll unconsciously need his teammate to be less and less open, imperceptibly. He'll notice two or three players who are open at the same time, or one who if he takes an extra stride he'll have an open lane for.
I teach snowboarding, and one of the principles I hold to is that a beginner who is just learning how to turn should never try to make a turn unless she's completely confident she can achieve it. You can't accomplish a sliding turn on a snowboard unless you're loose, relaxed. Being tense with knees locked up is a guarantee for failure, and a rider pitching over and falling, and maybe getting hurt a little bit, and having to waste precious energy struggling back to her feet.
So I repeat to them, again and again, don't challenge yourself, there's no benefit to it. If it's too steep, too icy, too slushy, too crowded, too close to the trees, to the ditch, if that rocky outcrop looks like it has your name on it, just sideslip away from there. When you reach an area with a gentle enough slope, with good conditions, and there's not a herd of skiers and riders rocketing by you stressing you out, then, and only then, perform a turn, and another, and another, until it gets wonky again, and then we'll sideslip some more to find more appropriate terrain.
After a few runs, inevitably, the rider brightens and says: "Hey, I just turned down that entire slope! My first time I sideslipped down that whole thing on my heelside edge!" And that's what happens. As you gain confidence and coordination, your comfort level increases, and what seemed too steep and icy at first now is easy terrain.
I bring up the example of golf to my students, that you can't force a golf swing, you have to be smooth and relaxed. If you tense up, or really try to muscle it, your ball and/or divot will land in the trees. But if you just relax and take a nice, easy swing, the ball leaps off your club, down the fairway.
Jarred has to work through this stage, where everything looks fast and congested, acclimatize to it, by at first making the simple pass to his partner, or to the winger up the boards, until the game slows down for him, and he finds he has many more options.
By comparison, we saw that Nathan's mobility and confidence is more developed than Jarred's. On a powerplay, Tom Gilbert tried to pass him the puck but it was cut off and J.T. Brown raced after it, trying to turn it into a breakaway. Nathan calmly raced back, pivoted, and effortlessly while skating backwards fronted the Lightning forward and prevented him from getting by, and gained control of the puck. A nice display of skating and awareness from Nathan.
More than the Dustin Tokarski experiment or the Jiri Sekac trial period, the Jarred-Nathan indoctrination must succeed. Those two fellows will have the largest say on how our season goes.
Second period thoughts:
-Steven Stamkos is pretty good. Is he the best in the league, even with Sidney? Just about? Better?
-Jason Garrison has had a nice array of teams he played for, from Florida to Vancouver to Tampa. Does he end up in Phoenix or with the California teams in the future? He's a useful player who didn't quite fit in Vancouver, big, some toughness, dependable. His left shot didn't click on the powerplay, the Canucks' is set up with the Sedins so that the right shot of Kevin Bieksa and formerly Sami Salo is key.
His cap hit now seems more reasonable than when he was signed by the Canucks in 2012, $4.6M a season. Maybe important for the Lightning, the Canucks paid him six of his $9M signing bonus in 2012 and 2013, and his salary will decrease to a mere $2.5M in 2017-18.
-With the powerplay flatlining, it's about time that René Bourque got some of those minutes. He's a big body with a good shot, he might be a better option that Brendan Gallagher right now, as hard as it is to fault Gally on anything.
While it may have been anathema to the coaches to give René PP time last year, to 'reward' him when he did nothing to merit that, this season he's coming off a great post-season. It might be a good move to acknowledge him for that, to put him in a position to succeed, to feed his confidence and keep him rolling.
It's a chicken and the egg thing, he's got confidence because he's been scoring, and if he scores he'll gain more confidence. He's come close a few times this year, worked hard, let's harness this boy up.
Third period throughts:
- It's unfortunate that P.K Subban is a villain in the eyes of other fans, a player who is routinely booed in other rinks. P.K. should be a player who is feared, respected, grudgingly admired, hated for being a reason the home team loses, but never booed.
I hate when we boo Erik Karlsson and Sidney Crosby at the New Forum. Eric Gryba, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, sure, boo those guys mercilessly, every time they touch the puck, but not the opponent's star player, just because, for no real reason.
-It's harder to win when Tomas doesn't chip in his customary two goals. WTF, Tomas? Get in the game.
- Nathan Beaulieu ran into the Gary Roberts-trained Steven Stamkos and probably realized he has some work to do in the gym still over the next few summers. He made up for landing on his keister in that collision by timing a nice hit on Brian Boyle, where his great mobility compensated for the Lightning forward's greater size.
- Not a great ending to the road trip, getting three wins out of four was nice, but to collapse this way in the last game, with a complete loss of competitiveness and cohesion, will leave a sour taste as they head home. The Habs played the role of the Washington Generals at the end, and the Lightning lifted off the accelerator, sending out their fourth line for a game-ending powerplay.
Ideally they'd come home with a win in their last game, or at least a moral victory, not this debacle.
Tampa Head Coach Jon Cooper was interviewed on the pre-show on RDS. When I first got to know him I was impressed by his attitude and communication skills, but he kind of lost it I thought during the playoffs, maybe like Michel Therrien did in the series loss against Ottawa the previous season. Tonight though, again he was impressive. For example he didn't whine about having had to play the series last spring without his #1 goalie Ben Bishop, but rather stated he's not sure he would have made a difference, that his team got beat cleanly and decisively.
I'd set up my PVR to the free Center Ice preview to record the game, but when I checked in early on, being careful to not spoil the score for myself, I realized I was tuned to the Tampa Bay feed on Fox. I searched and found the RDS broadcast and switched to that instead.
I may have taken Pierre Houde and Marc Denis and the excellent technical work of RDS for granted last year, would sometimes watch on TSN or CBC just for the change, but not this year. Now that I don't have the option to see and hear them work every game, I'll watch them any time I can.
The thing is though, my concern as to the Tampa coverage was unfounded. I had to watch them for the first half-hour, and they had a good to excellent pre-game show, which set up the game very well for viewers. They took it down a notch possibly for an audience that may not be as sophisticated as a Canadian audience, but they covered everything. They reminded us of the playoffs, again with no whining, put Andrei and Tomas under the spotlight, and spoke of the Canadiens' hot start. Someone coming into the game cold might have had most of the information they needed to enjoy it.
Same with the play-by-play team. They didn't only focus on the Lightning, but gave some background on who the Canadiens were, spoke of the young defencemen, mentioned that Dustin Tokarski was a former Lightning. The colour man was amusing when he explained that even though P.A. Parenteau has been in the league for years, only today had he learned what it stood for: Pierre-Alexander. He riffed on that for a minute or so.
They had a good delivery, in a tone that spoke of their love of hockey, and their anticipation of a good game, with little to no homerism. They did their research before the game and delivered information, mispronounced 'Plekanec' and 'Beaulieu', but had a good handle on who these and other Habs were. They mentioned that Jarred was the son of Mark Tinordi, and gave a brief background on the latter.
So not an orgy of one-sided hyper-focus on their home team, but rather an enjoyable, competent job of a broadcast. Which made me wonder why the Bruins' team can't do the same, give a more even-handed slant on the game. And more topically, why not the CBC or TSN or Sportsnet when they cover a Leafs game?
Jarred Tinordi had a good start to the game, highlighted by an assist on his slap pass to Brendan Gallagher for a goal. I did notice however an instance when he was behind his own net, with the puck and time to move the puck, and his partner Mike Weaver to his right, free and clear with no one around him.
The easy, safe, correct play would have been to draw the forechecker in a little more, make him commit, then swing the puck to Mike Weaver and allow him to break out the puck, with no pressure on him. Instead, Jarred hesitated, then tried a high-risk pass through the forechecker, between his skates and stick, which got through and reached his winger, who safely got the puck out of the zone, but this was symptomatic of what Jarred has been doing, which is make things difficult for himself. Instead of keeping things simple, playing hard defensive hockey and a physical role, which is all that's expected of him, he's trying to make the fancy passes that are more the domain of Andrei and P.K. and Nathan.
It is interesting how Andrei, with All-World skill, with all his experience, often makes the simple play, and keeps the puck moving that way. Tonight, while skating towards his net to retrieve a puck at his own blue line, he was pressured by a Tampa forechecker bearing down on him. Andrei calmly faked going backhand to clear the puck against the boards, to which the forechecker reacted to and started skating that way to intercept. Andrei then calmly went forehand to his partner Jarred, who was wide open and facing the right way. Lots of skill used to make the simple play. It all took less than a second, but Andrei chose the safe option, only with a bit of panache by steering the defender in a different direction first.
It reminded me of an interview with Jim Kelly, the Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback, in which he was asked in what situations did he ever 'force' the ball, rather than just finding the open receiver. Mr. Kelly was perplexed for a moment, then explained that he always passed to the open man, and only in 'Hail Mary' situations did he ever force the ball.
But what about all those times when he squeezed the ball into those tight windows, over a linebacker and between two defensive backs, insisted the interviewer? Jim Kelly laughed, and explained that on the field, unless he missed seeing a lurking defensive player, every player he ever threw to was open.
It's only later, viewing film of his games, that he realized that his standard of 'wide open' evolved as he gained experience, that what he might have felt was a covered receiver in college, with a defensive back half-a-step behind him, became an open receiver in the pros, and at the height of his powers all he needed was a quarter-step. But he wasn't thinking to himself, "Whoa, that cornerback is all over Andre Reed", just "Open."
Jarred needs to make simple passes to open teammates, quickly and without overthinking, and not giving time to defenders to adjust. See a good guy in the right colour jersey who's open? Give him the puck. Automatically. And as he gains in experience and confidence, as he puts in the minutes and the reps, he'll unconsciously need his teammate to be less and less open, imperceptibly. He'll notice two or three players who are open at the same time, or one who if he takes an extra stride he'll have an open lane for.
I teach snowboarding, and one of the principles I hold to is that a beginner who is just learning how to turn should never try to make a turn unless she's completely confident she can achieve it. You can't accomplish a sliding turn on a snowboard unless you're loose, relaxed. Being tense with knees locked up is a guarantee for failure, and a rider pitching over and falling, and maybe getting hurt a little bit, and having to waste precious energy struggling back to her feet.
So I repeat to them, again and again, don't challenge yourself, there's no benefit to it. If it's too steep, too icy, too slushy, too crowded, too close to the trees, to the ditch, if that rocky outcrop looks like it has your name on it, just sideslip away from there. When you reach an area with a gentle enough slope, with good conditions, and there's not a herd of skiers and riders rocketing by you stressing you out, then, and only then, perform a turn, and another, and another, until it gets wonky again, and then we'll sideslip some more to find more appropriate terrain.
After a few runs, inevitably, the rider brightens and says: "Hey, I just turned down that entire slope! My first time I sideslipped down that whole thing on my heelside edge!" And that's what happens. As you gain confidence and coordination, your comfort level increases, and what seemed too steep and icy at first now is easy terrain.
I bring up the example of golf to my students, that you can't force a golf swing, you have to be smooth and relaxed. If you tense up, or really try to muscle it, your ball and/or divot will land in the trees. But if you just relax and take a nice, easy swing, the ball leaps off your club, down the fairway.
Jarred has to work through this stage, where everything looks fast and congested, acclimatize to it, by at first making the simple pass to his partner, or to the winger up the boards, until the game slows down for him, and he finds he has many more options.
By comparison, we saw that Nathan's mobility and confidence is more developed than Jarred's. On a powerplay, Tom Gilbert tried to pass him the puck but it was cut off and J.T. Brown raced after it, trying to turn it into a breakaway. Nathan calmly raced back, pivoted, and effortlessly while skating backwards fronted the Lightning forward and prevented him from getting by, and gained control of the puck. A nice display of skating and awareness from Nathan.
More than the Dustin Tokarski experiment or the Jiri Sekac trial period, the Jarred-Nathan indoctrination must succeed. Those two fellows will have the largest say on how our season goes.
Second period thoughts:
-Steven Stamkos is pretty good. Is he the best in the league, even with Sidney? Just about? Better?
-Jason Garrison has had a nice array of teams he played for, from Florida to Vancouver to Tampa. Does he end up in Phoenix or with the California teams in the future? He's a useful player who didn't quite fit in Vancouver, big, some toughness, dependable. His left shot didn't click on the powerplay, the Canucks' is set up with the Sedins so that the right shot of Kevin Bieksa and formerly Sami Salo is key.
His cap hit now seems more reasonable than when he was signed by the Canucks in 2012, $4.6M a season. Maybe important for the Lightning, the Canucks paid him six of his $9M signing bonus in 2012 and 2013, and his salary will decrease to a mere $2.5M in 2017-18.
-With the powerplay flatlining, it's about time that René Bourque got some of those minutes. He's a big body with a good shot, he might be a better option that Brendan Gallagher right now, as hard as it is to fault Gally on anything.
While it may have been anathema to the coaches to give René PP time last year, to 'reward' him when he did nothing to merit that, this season he's coming off a great post-season. It might be a good move to acknowledge him for that, to put him in a position to succeed, to feed his confidence and keep him rolling.
It's a chicken and the egg thing, he's got confidence because he's been scoring, and if he scores he'll gain more confidence. He's come close a few times this year, worked hard, let's harness this boy up.
Third period throughts:
- It's unfortunate that P.K Subban is a villain in the eyes of other fans, a player who is routinely booed in other rinks. P.K. should be a player who is feared, respected, grudgingly admired, hated for being a reason the home team loses, but never booed.
I hate when we boo Erik Karlsson and Sidney Crosby at the New Forum. Eric Gryba, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, sure, boo those guys mercilessly, every time they touch the puck, but not the opponent's star player, just because, for no real reason.
-It's harder to win when Tomas doesn't chip in his customary two goals. WTF, Tomas? Get in the game.
- Nathan Beaulieu ran into the Gary Roberts-trained Steven Stamkos and probably realized he has some work to do in the gym still over the next few summers. He made up for landing on his keister in that collision by timing a nice hit on Brian Boyle, where his great mobility compensated for the Lightning forward's greater size.
- Not a great ending to the road trip, getting three wins out of four was nice, but to collapse this way in the last game, with a complete loss of competitiveness and cohesion, will leave a sour taste as they head home. The Habs played the role of the Washington Generals at the end, and the Lightning lifted off the accelerator, sending out their fourth line for a game-ending powerplay.
Ideally they'd come home with a win in their last game, or at least a moral victory, not this debacle.
Monday, 13 October 2014
Should the Canadiens trade away Tomas Plekanec, 'Take 2'.
Here's a confession-mea culpa-explanation in this Age of "Pas d'excuses":
I was one of the people who thought we would/should trade Tomas Plekanec this off-season, or whenever the time was right.
There. I said it.
Now, allow me to squirm out of the icy grip of your contempt.
I wasn't advocating we 'get rid' of him, Stéphane Langdeau-style. I actually thought he was the most valuable conceivable trade piece we had, a veteran centre in a time when every team is seeking depth at centre. He also was a player playing a position we had a bit of a surplus at, and could be flipped for another at a position of penury (Top 6 winger).
One important reason also was my perception that Alex Galchenyuk needed to play at centre. Now I would tut-tut those who said that he was being 'ruined' by playing on left wing, I thought he was still learning lots just playing a regular shift in the NHL at twenty years old, but you hear the concern about him not taking faceoffs so many times in our social media echo chamber that you start to believe it a little bit.
Once Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien made the rounds of the talk shows however, and proactively stated that Alex was a centre and would play that position in camp, and Marc Bergevin went further and explained that he wouldn't necessarily trade a centre away if Alex was felt to be ready to play there, since having depth at centre is a preferable situation to be in than to need one and be held hostage in trade talks, I was fully on board. It's not, like some of us claimed, that the brain trust didn't see Alex at centre, were blind to it, but rather that they saw him as being in a progression, probably still playing at wing, but getting more icetime at centre depending on the situations.
I really like our situation at centre now. We have David, Tomas, Lars and Manny Malhotra as the regulars right now, with Alex literally in the wings, ready to pitch in when necessary. Obviously, Michel Therrien feels the same way too, trusting Manny much more than he did Ryan White or Daniel Brière, and the fourth line resultantly being deployed much more frequently, upwards of ten minutes a game so far.
And as we supposed, Tomas has been energized by his modified duties, shedding a significant chunk of his defensive minutes to Manny, and being able to focus on offence. Further, being partnered with Alex and having jettisoned an increasingly ineffective Brian Gionta has meant we've seen a more spectacular Tomas, an imaginative version who we only saw in flashes lately, out of breath on a penalty kill breakaway, or passing the puck to the black hole on his left wing, be it Mathieu Darche or Travis Moen.
So, uh, kudos for not acting on my injunctions to trade Tomas Mr. Bergevin. I'll stop trying to play Jerry Jones, I'll let you helm the ship.
For now.
I was one of the people who thought we would/should trade Tomas Plekanec this off-season, or whenever the time was right.
There. I said it.
Now, allow me to squirm out of the icy grip of your contempt.
I wasn't advocating we 'get rid' of him, Stéphane Langdeau-style. I actually thought he was the most valuable conceivable trade piece we had, a veteran centre in a time when every team is seeking depth at centre. He also was a player playing a position we had a bit of a surplus at, and could be flipped for another at a position of penury (Top 6 winger).
One important reason also was my perception that Alex Galchenyuk needed to play at centre. Now I would tut-tut those who said that he was being 'ruined' by playing on left wing, I thought he was still learning lots just playing a regular shift in the NHL at twenty years old, but you hear the concern about him not taking faceoffs so many times in our social media echo chamber that you start to believe it a little bit.
Once Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien made the rounds of the talk shows however, and proactively stated that Alex was a centre and would play that position in camp, and Marc Bergevin went further and explained that he wouldn't necessarily trade a centre away if Alex was felt to be ready to play there, since having depth at centre is a preferable situation to be in than to need one and be held hostage in trade talks, I was fully on board. It's not, like some of us claimed, that the brain trust didn't see Alex at centre, were blind to it, but rather that they saw him as being in a progression, probably still playing at wing, but getting more icetime at centre depending on the situations.
I really like our situation at centre now. We have David, Tomas, Lars and Manny Malhotra as the regulars right now, with Alex literally in the wings, ready to pitch in when necessary. Obviously, Michel Therrien feels the same way too, trusting Manny much more than he did Ryan White or Daniel Brière, and the fourth line resultantly being deployed much more frequently, upwards of ten minutes a game so far.
And as we supposed, Tomas has been energized by his modified duties, shedding a significant chunk of his defensive minutes to Manny, and being able to focus on offence. Further, being partnered with Alex and having jettisoned an increasingly ineffective Brian Gionta has meant we've seen a more spectacular Tomas, an imaginative version who we only saw in flashes lately, out of breath on a penalty kill breakaway, or passing the puck to the black hole on his left wing, be it Mathieu Darche or Travis Moen.
So, uh, kudos for not acting on my injunctions to trade Tomas Mr. Bergevin. I'll stop trying to play Jerry Jones, I'll let you helm the ship.
For now.
Sunday, 12 October 2014
Game 3: Canadiens 4, Flyers 3 (SO)
Your 2014-15 Montréal Canadiens are a runaway train of in extremis comeback wins. And emotion.
Tonight, they spotted three goals by the second period to the ignoble Philadelphia Flyers, an amoral enterprise composed of characters such as Zach Rinaldo and Vincent Lecavalier and helmed by Charles Manson protégé Ron Hextall, before roaring back to life in the third and shelling goalie Ray Emery with 19 shots. They outskated and bewildered the ponderous, slow-witted Flyers defencemen, notably Nick Schultz and failed-Leaf Luke Schenn, the once future-face of that other sorry franchise. The gallant Habs righted the wrong and evened the score, before winning the game 4-3 in the shootout.
As they did in Washington, the Canadiens had a torpid start to the game, but found their legs as the game advanced. It seemed unfortunate that they were three goals down, as opposed to a mere single goal in D.C., but at least the game grew more entertaining, one was moved to optimize.
Among others, P.K. Subban had a really difficult start to the game, epitomized by a muffed bodycheck along the boards against Nick Schultz early in the first, his fabled 'bee sting' hip check. In another of many instances, P.K. didn't get the timing just right, possibly because Mr. Schultz anticipated it, but anyway the Flyer squirted past it and managed to create a scoring chance.
One of the clichés of sports is that certain players need to have a short memory, be it a goalie, a cornerback in football, a closer in baseball. The concept is that this position places great pressure on the incumbent, and mistakes often result in a spectacular failure, a goal against, even a loss. These are inevitable, no player being perfect, and when they do occur, the player has to forget about it, and move on to the next play, the next game, with the same cocky confidence as ever. If he starts to doubt himself, second-guess himself, he won't play on instinct, he'll hesitate, and won't be as effective.
So we'll say that a defenceman has to have this same mindset, he needs to have this ability, this short memory, so that when he gets beat and the puck ends up in his own net, he can put it behind him and move on to the next shift, the next game.
This model, this analogy works, but only to a certain extent. Yes a young defenceman has to be able to rise above his mistakes, forget about them, and play with confidence, but in another way we want him to also learn a valuable lesson from them, and seldom if ever repeat them. In that regard, we'd rather that a player had a 'long memory', that he vows "never again!", and that this is largely the case.
In P.K.'s case, he's had spectacular success in the past with the bee sting when everything falls just right, as can be seen on YouTube and as Brad Marchand can attest. Unfortunately for him, the league has learned this too, and has adapted. Most players now see him coming and take evasive action. Often, this is when P.K. is on the tracks, on final approach, and can't really deviate course anymore. So he's been whiffing on quite a few of these bee stings, as he did tonight. And it's about time he figured it out.
P.K. can be very frustrating sometimes, when he makes the same mistake over and over again, the same play that leads nowhere. It took him two or three seasons to rein in his golf swing slapshot, that he scored with a few times early, but which became imprecise and would more often than not end up in the glass rather than on net. After a lot of angst from Habs fans and forwards who had to stand in front of the net with pucks whizzing by their ears, he cut down on the backswing, took a little off the shot but made sure it hit the net, and his point totals jumped.
He needs to understand that the bee sting is the same sort of situation, a high risk-high reward play that you don't necessarily rely on as your go-to move. It's a club you take out of your bag only in specific circumstances. Most times, you need to drive your shoulder into the chest of your opponent until you garydornhoefer him through the boards. That's your go-to move. Make use of your strength and overpower your opponents, prevent them from evading you and having a clear run to the net.
Same with the stickhandling through the neutral zone and not utilizing his forwards. How many times does he have to do that, force them to brake at the blue line, and be stranded there with no momentum, while he tries to knit his way through a forest of defenders and coughs up the puck? When does it sink in for him that the right play is to pass the puck to a speeding forward, or to at least take or put the puck in deep, but not to scottgomez it along the sideboards, a metre up the blue line? How many times does he have to make that mistake, before he learns from that mistake?
And I don't want to hear that he's still young, he's still learning, that he's improving all the time. That went out the window when he signed that $72M contract. It was okay for him to be the frisky colt his first couple of seasons, and the nervy thoroughbred for a couple more, but now that he's taking that gigantic bite out of the team's salary cap, he has to be the best, smartest player on the ice, all the time. He can't be uneven, have ups and downs. I'm not taking the good with the bad. At 9 mill per, he needs to be as much of a blemish-free game-changer as Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
With great lucre comes great responsibility. I didn't have much sympathy for Roberto Luongo when he said that his contract sucked. He didn't need to sign in Vancouver. He knew they were overpaying him to make him stay, he could have been truthful and said his heart wasn't in it. Instead, he took the overpay, and when Corey Schneider outplayed him, demanded a trade. When he knew he was supposed to be the face of the franchise with the Sedin brothers. He needed to be a huge pillar everyone relied on.
P.K.'s been told a thousand times by his coaches, teammates, the media, the fans, he needs to understand it. Make the right play, the safe play. Develop your pieces on the board, control the centre, don't go for the checkmate right away. Move the runner by making contact with the pitch instead of going for the home run all the time. Make the quick pass and trust your teammates instead of trying to do it all yourself in a highlight reel move, even though you did it once and it worked. Remember all those other times that it didn't.
You are getting paid too much to be making rookie mistakes, we have Nathan and Jarred for that. They need to see you being the smartest, best player on the ice, not the most spectacular player.
Because early on there needed to be that example. Our defencemen made error after goof after flub. In a short span in the second, Nathan Beaulieu whiffed while making a pass as he approached his blue line, and Sean Couturier gathered the puck and went right after Carey Price with a deke, hitting the post. Five minutes later, Mike Weaver, trusty dependable veteran that he is, skated out of the corner to the right of Carey Price and, faced with two forecheckers, coughed up the puck to them, again on a whiff, giving Brayden Schenn a clear shot at the net. If they were watching, Greg Pateryn and Magnus Nygren and Darren Dietz must have thought that they're not that far away from the NHL after all.
After Head Druide Michel Therrien fed his boys their potion magique in the second intermission and they stampeded onto the ice, they at times seemed to be on a 5-on-5 powerplay. The Flyers rope-a-doped, and the Canadiens won every battle, cycling the puck along the boards, passing it with ease, Andrei Markov sometimes double and triple-clutching on passes or shots, so little pressure being exerted by the Flyers. Andrei started les boys off with a shot through traffic after lots of pressure in the Philly zone, and lots of scrambling and bumbling by the guys in orange.
Tomas Plekanec, rejuvenated by the support from Manny Malhotra for defensive duty at centre, has transformered into a snipering goalbot. He potted his fourth of the season shortly after Andrei's. His goal was an archetypal Steve Shutt goal, in that he was standing on the far side of the net, just minding his own business, when the puck bounced his way and he tucked it under the crossbar before Ray Emery could grab a taxi and make his way back. Magmatically hot, Tomas also took the shot that Alex Galchenyuk tipped in to tie the game five minutes later.
The Flyers had a couple of opportunities the rest of the way, but they were the dead-cat bounce, the death rattle rather than any show of spirit and character from these guttersnipes. They couldn't cash in a powerplay during the overtime period. Instead, the best chance came on a breakaway by Alex Galchenyuk, who was a little too close to Ray Emery when he gathered the puck to set up properly. He tried a forehand-backhand move but it went straight into the goalie's glove.
During the shootout Alex tried that move again, probably wanting to prove a point, with time to execute the manoeuvre, but again Mr. Emery plucked the puck with his mitt. Four shooters a side were needed, with no one scoring except the last, P.A. Parenteau with a nifty shot glove side.
So the Canadiens head to Tampa with three wins to open the season, and a day to rest tomorrow and catch their breath. Maybe the sun will get them a boost, and they can come out charging and put the game away in the first this time. Especially if Anders Lindback is in nets. Or the current reasonable facsimile.
Tonight, they spotted three goals by the second period to the ignoble Philadelphia Flyers, an amoral enterprise composed of characters such as Zach Rinaldo and Vincent Lecavalier and helmed by Charles Manson protégé Ron Hextall, before roaring back to life in the third and shelling goalie Ray Emery with 19 shots. They outskated and bewildered the ponderous, slow-witted Flyers defencemen, notably Nick Schultz and failed-Leaf Luke Schenn, the once future-face of that other sorry franchise. The gallant Habs righted the wrong and evened the score, before winning the game 4-3 in the shootout.
As they did in Washington, the Canadiens had a torpid start to the game, but found their legs as the game advanced. It seemed unfortunate that they were three goals down, as opposed to a mere single goal in D.C., but at least the game grew more entertaining, one was moved to optimize.
Among others, P.K. Subban had a really difficult start to the game, epitomized by a muffed bodycheck along the boards against Nick Schultz early in the first, his fabled 'bee sting' hip check. In another of many instances, P.K. didn't get the timing just right, possibly because Mr. Schultz anticipated it, but anyway the Flyer squirted past it and managed to create a scoring chance.
One of the clichés of sports is that certain players need to have a short memory, be it a goalie, a cornerback in football, a closer in baseball. The concept is that this position places great pressure on the incumbent, and mistakes often result in a spectacular failure, a goal against, even a loss. These are inevitable, no player being perfect, and when they do occur, the player has to forget about it, and move on to the next play, the next game, with the same cocky confidence as ever. If he starts to doubt himself, second-guess himself, he won't play on instinct, he'll hesitate, and won't be as effective.
So we'll say that a defenceman has to have this same mindset, he needs to have this ability, this short memory, so that when he gets beat and the puck ends up in his own net, he can put it behind him and move on to the next shift, the next game.
This model, this analogy works, but only to a certain extent. Yes a young defenceman has to be able to rise above his mistakes, forget about them, and play with confidence, but in another way we want him to also learn a valuable lesson from them, and seldom if ever repeat them. In that regard, we'd rather that a player had a 'long memory', that he vows "never again!", and that this is largely the case.
In P.K.'s case, he's had spectacular success in the past with the bee sting when everything falls just right, as can be seen on YouTube and as Brad Marchand can attest. Unfortunately for him, the league has learned this too, and has adapted. Most players now see him coming and take evasive action. Often, this is when P.K. is on the tracks, on final approach, and can't really deviate course anymore. So he's been whiffing on quite a few of these bee stings, as he did tonight. And it's about time he figured it out.
P.K. can be very frustrating sometimes, when he makes the same mistake over and over again, the same play that leads nowhere. It took him two or three seasons to rein in his golf swing slapshot, that he scored with a few times early, but which became imprecise and would more often than not end up in the glass rather than on net. After a lot of angst from Habs fans and forwards who had to stand in front of the net with pucks whizzing by their ears, he cut down on the backswing, took a little off the shot but made sure it hit the net, and his point totals jumped.
He needs to understand that the bee sting is the same sort of situation, a high risk-high reward play that you don't necessarily rely on as your go-to move. It's a club you take out of your bag only in specific circumstances. Most times, you need to drive your shoulder into the chest of your opponent until you garydornhoefer him through the boards. That's your go-to move. Make use of your strength and overpower your opponents, prevent them from evading you and having a clear run to the net.
Same with the stickhandling through the neutral zone and not utilizing his forwards. How many times does he have to do that, force them to brake at the blue line, and be stranded there with no momentum, while he tries to knit his way through a forest of defenders and coughs up the puck? When does it sink in for him that the right play is to pass the puck to a speeding forward, or to at least take or put the puck in deep, but not to scottgomez it along the sideboards, a metre up the blue line? How many times does he have to make that mistake, before he learns from that mistake?
And I don't want to hear that he's still young, he's still learning, that he's improving all the time. That went out the window when he signed that $72M contract. It was okay for him to be the frisky colt his first couple of seasons, and the nervy thoroughbred for a couple more, but now that he's taking that gigantic bite out of the team's salary cap, he has to be the best, smartest player on the ice, all the time. He can't be uneven, have ups and downs. I'm not taking the good with the bad. At 9 mill per, he needs to be as much of a blemish-free game-changer as Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
With great lucre comes great responsibility. I didn't have much sympathy for Roberto Luongo when he said that his contract sucked. He didn't need to sign in Vancouver. He knew they were overpaying him to make him stay, he could have been truthful and said his heart wasn't in it. Instead, he took the overpay, and when Corey Schneider outplayed him, demanded a trade. When he knew he was supposed to be the face of the franchise with the Sedin brothers. He needed to be a huge pillar everyone relied on.
P.K.'s been told a thousand times by his coaches, teammates, the media, the fans, he needs to understand it. Make the right play, the safe play. Develop your pieces on the board, control the centre, don't go for the checkmate right away. Move the runner by making contact with the pitch instead of going for the home run all the time. Make the quick pass and trust your teammates instead of trying to do it all yourself in a highlight reel move, even though you did it once and it worked. Remember all those other times that it didn't.
You are getting paid too much to be making rookie mistakes, we have Nathan and Jarred for that. They need to see you being the smartest, best player on the ice, not the most spectacular player.
Because early on there needed to be that example. Our defencemen made error after goof after flub. In a short span in the second, Nathan Beaulieu whiffed while making a pass as he approached his blue line, and Sean Couturier gathered the puck and went right after Carey Price with a deke, hitting the post. Five minutes later, Mike Weaver, trusty dependable veteran that he is, skated out of the corner to the right of Carey Price and, faced with two forecheckers, coughed up the puck to them, again on a whiff, giving Brayden Schenn a clear shot at the net. If they were watching, Greg Pateryn and Magnus Nygren and Darren Dietz must have thought that they're not that far away from the NHL after all.
After Head Druide Michel Therrien fed his boys their potion magique in the second intermission and they stampeded onto the ice, they at times seemed to be on a 5-on-5 powerplay. The Flyers rope-a-doped, and the Canadiens won every battle, cycling the puck along the boards, passing it with ease, Andrei Markov sometimes double and triple-clutching on passes or shots, so little pressure being exerted by the Flyers. Andrei started les boys off with a shot through traffic after lots of pressure in the Philly zone, and lots of scrambling and bumbling by the guys in orange.
Tomas Plekanec, rejuvenated by the support from Manny Malhotra for defensive duty at centre, has transformered into a snipering goalbot. He potted his fourth of the season shortly after Andrei's. His goal was an archetypal Steve Shutt goal, in that he was standing on the far side of the net, just minding his own business, when the puck bounced his way and he tucked it under the crossbar before Ray Emery could grab a taxi and make his way back. Magmatically hot, Tomas also took the shot that Alex Galchenyuk tipped in to tie the game five minutes later.
The Flyers had a couple of opportunities the rest of the way, but they were the dead-cat bounce, the death rattle rather than any show of spirit and character from these guttersnipes. They couldn't cash in a powerplay during the overtime period. Instead, the best chance came on a breakaway by Alex Galchenyuk, who was a little too close to Ray Emery when he gathered the puck to set up properly. He tried a forehand-backhand move but it went straight into the goalie's glove.
During the shootout Alex tried that move again, probably wanting to prove a point, with time to execute the manoeuvre, but again Mr. Emery plucked the puck with his mitt. Four shooters a side were needed, with no one scoring except the last, P.A. Parenteau with a nifty shot glove side.
So the Canadiens head to Tampa with three wins to open the season, and a day to rest tomorrow and catch their breath. Maybe the sun will get them a boost, and they can come out charging and put the game away in the first this time. Especially if Anders Lindback is in nets. Or the current reasonable facsimile.
Thursday, 9 October 2014
Game 2: Canadiens 2, Capitals 1 (SO)
A big win for les boys, a second in a row to start the season, as they rope-a-dope for half the game until they find their legs, and then start to take the game to the Capitals. This was a classic case of one team having another in trouble, but not being able to put them away. Good for us that we were able to capitalize on that.
When the shots reached 12-0 for the Capitals in the first period according to John Bartlett, I started to wonder why this was happening. Not that the team didn't look good, or appeared uninterested, but the ice was tilted in the Caps' favour. So I thought of the team playing a second game in 24 hours, both on the road. I thought of the fatigue of travel, of not having the opportunity to have even a proper morning skate, apparently it was just an optional skate for the scrubs. There was the matter of another team, a fresh team, holding its home opener for a full house of excited fans.
I know, I know, 'Pas d'excuses', but even if we take into account the fact that the Leafs are rotten to the core, it didn't explain the difference in showing from the previous night, there had to be a reason our boys were on their heels so much.
The Capitals banged more than expected, certainly more than the Leafs last night. Brooks Orpik and Matt Nyskanen have increased the toughness profile for that team, evidently, to add to players like Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr. The Canadiens are more resistant to such tactics this season, but we saw some rushed plays as a Canadien prepared for a oncoming Capital about to 'finish a check'.
The referees tried to keep things under control, calling lots of penalties, but as is endemic in the NHL, they couldn't see everything, or rather, couldn't whistle every infraction, modesty not allowing such outlandish behaviour. Refs also don't want to attract the fury of talking heads about them 'deciding the game', or 'stopping the flow'. Anyway, with five minutes left, we saw Brooks Orpik, after a bodycheck on Max Pacioretty, literally perform a wrestling takedown move, grabbing onto Max's shoulder and yanking him to the ice.
Again, a video referee would easily see these anti-hockey plays, and could have called the infraction, as well as the shameless dive by Alex Ovechkin. I guess he's going to get a stern letter from Daddy Campbell for that one, that'll learn him.
Right at the outset, the defence pairing were jumbled up, and I couldn't tell if that had been intentional, but early in the first Mike Weaver was on with Andrei Markov, and Tom Gilbert with Nathan Beaulieu. This didn't last however, the usual pairing resurfaced later on.
What change did last was putting Brendan Gallagher back on the top line, moving Jiri Sekac up to play with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk, and bumping P.A. Parenteau down to the third with Lars Eller and René Bourque. This did seem to jump start the team, and Tomas' line especially was flying.
P.K. had an uneven game. He plays with supreme confidence, and often makes spectacular plays by stickhandling through the opposition, or wheeling around and protecting the puck, but tonight he had a couple of plays where he crossed into lackadaisical or overly fancy territory. Not that he was lazy or uncommitted, but it seemed he trusted his talent more than effort on a couple of plays, notably when he casually flipped the puck into the Caps' zone to enable a change, but which allowed the Caps to quickly seize it and break out of their zone, almost catching the Canadiens off guard. The safer option, which we often encourage P.K. to select, would have been to move the puck beyond the red line and dump it in the Caps' zone deep.
Generally, the defence is as was predicted this summer, that they'd move the puck efficiently, but would be targeted by big opposition forwards for some punishment along the boards. A couple of times we saw Tom Gilbert and Nathan Beaulieu frantically swiveling their heads as they raced back to retrieve a puck.
In the third, the tide shifted, and Tomas tied the game with a laser in the very top corner to the left of the goalie. We then saw a disallowed goal by P.A. Parenteau on a clear goaltender interference call on René Bourque, who it can be argued was pushed into Braden Holtby. That push must have been why no penalty was called. Shortly after that, a René Bourque rocket clanged off the the post-crossbar corner and bounced out. It was called a goal at first, but waved off after video review.
Unfortunately I missed the OT and shootout, since I set my PVR to end the recording too early, because apparently I'm a beginner at this, it'll take me another three or four years of experience before I master this intricacy, the possibility that maybe a game might run long so I should allow an extra 30 minutes of recording time.
Canadiens Express made short shrift of the OT, and bizarrely, only showed the Nicholas Backstrom and Alex Galchenyuk shootout goals before skipping to the winning Brendan Gallagher goal that won the game. If I'm condensing the game into an hour with edits, keeping only the more exciting bits, you can bet I'm going to show the whole shootout, let the suspense build, and not take a chainsaw to the drama. As it is, Brendan scored, I saw a graphic with a bunch of x's in the upper right, tried to figure out why Brendan was the second Canadien to shoot, and out of sequence, when the bench celebrated and the game was over and I felt anti-climacted. Robbed.
Thank you Gary Bettman.
When the shots reached 12-0 for the Capitals in the first period according to John Bartlett, I started to wonder why this was happening. Not that the team didn't look good, or appeared uninterested, but the ice was tilted in the Caps' favour. So I thought of the team playing a second game in 24 hours, both on the road. I thought of the fatigue of travel, of not having the opportunity to have even a proper morning skate, apparently it was just an optional skate for the scrubs. There was the matter of another team, a fresh team, holding its home opener for a full house of excited fans.
I know, I know, 'Pas d'excuses', but even if we take into account the fact that the Leafs are rotten to the core, it didn't explain the difference in showing from the previous night, there had to be a reason our boys were on their heels so much.
The Capitals banged more than expected, certainly more than the Leafs last night. Brooks Orpik and Matt Nyskanen have increased the toughness profile for that team, evidently, to add to players like Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr. The Canadiens are more resistant to such tactics this season, but we saw some rushed plays as a Canadien prepared for a oncoming Capital about to 'finish a check'.
The referees tried to keep things under control, calling lots of penalties, but as is endemic in the NHL, they couldn't see everything, or rather, couldn't whistle every infraction, modesty not allowing such outlandish behaviour. Refs also don't want to attract the fury of talking heads about them 'deciding the game', or 'stopping the flow'. Anyway, with five minutes left, we saw Brooks Orpik, after a bodycheck on Max Pacioretty, literally perform a wrestling takedown move, grabbing onto Max's shoulder and yanking him to the ice.
Again, a video referee would easily see these anti-hockey plays, and could have called the infraction, as well as the shameless dive by Alex Ovechkin. I guess he's going to get a stern letter from Daddy Campbell for that one, that'll learn him.
Right at the outset, the defence pairing were jumbled up, and I couldn't tell if that had been intentional, but early in the first Mike Weaver was on with Andrei Markov, and Tom Gilbert with Nathan Beaulieu. This didn't last however, the usual pairing resurfaced later on.
What change did last was putting Brendan Gallagher back on the top line, moving Jiri Sekac up to play with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk, and bumping P.A. Parenteau down to the third with Lars Eller and René Bourque. This did seem to jump start the team, and Tomas' line especially was flying.
P.K. had an uneven game. He plays with supreme confidence, and often makes spectacular plays by stickhandling through the opposition, or wheeling around and protecting the puck, but tonight he had a couple of plays where he crossed into lackadaisical or overly fancy territory. Not that he was lazy or uncommitted, but it seemed he trusted his talent more than effort on a couple of plays, notably when he casually flipped the puck into the Caps' zone to enable a change, but which allowed the Caps to quickly seize it and break out of their zone, almost catching the Canadiens off guard. The safer option, which we often encourage P.K. to select, would have been to move the puck beyond the red line and dump it in the Caps' zone deep.
Generally, the defence is as was predicted this summer, that they'd move the puck efficiently, but would be targeted by big opposition forwards for some punishment along the boards. A couple of times we saw Tom Gilbert and Nathan Beaulieu frantically swiveling their heads as they raced back to retrieve a puck.
In the third, the tide shifted, and Tomas tied the game with a laser in the very top corner to the left of the goalie. We then saw a disallowed goal by P.A. Parenteau on a clear goaltender interference call on René Bourque, who it can be argued was pushed into Braden Holtby. That push must have been why no penalty was called. Shortly after that, a René Bourque rocket clanged off the the post-crossbar corner and bounced out. It was called a goal at first, but waved off after video review.
Unfortunately I missed the OT and shootout, since I set my PVR to end the recording too early, because apparently I'm a beginner at this, it'll take me another three or four years of experience before I master this intricacy, the possibility that maybe a game might run long so I should allow an extra 30 minutes of recording time.
Canadiens Express made short shrift of the OT, and bizarrely, only showed the Nicholas Backstrom and Alex Galchenyuk shootout goals before skipping to the winning Brendan Gallagher goal that won the game. If I'm condensing the game into an hour with edits, keeping only the more exciting bits, you can bet I'm going to show the whole shootout, let the suspense build, and not take a chainsaw to the drama. As it is, Brendan scored, I saw a graphic with a bunch of x's in the upper right, tried to figure out why Brendan was the second Canadien to shoot, and out of sequence, when the bench celebrated and the game was over and I felt anti-climacted. Robbed.
Thank you Gary Bettman.
Game 1: Canadiens 4, Leafs 3
Overall a good-great result for our team, a satisfying opening win on the road. The game was all about skating and speed, not the usual goonery we associate with the Leafs. The broadcast was as expected, with a boorish studio team of Doug McLean and Nick Kypreos treating it as a local telecast of a Leafs game. They were saying "we" a lot when referring to the Leafs.
Still, I'll make quick work of that with my trusty PVR, FFWD over the icky intermission bits, and go right to the action.
Quick hits:
- Encouraging performance from P.A. Parenteau, skating and forechecking and effort-wise.
- Dion Phaneuf is awful, got skated around by Max on his goal, and later by Alex Galchenyuk. I wonder if they came around to his side to exploit a flagrant weakness, two LW attacking on the right side.
- Nazem Kadri is less yappy and crosschecky without Colton Orr, Mike Brown, Mark Fraser and Frazer McLaren around. When the whistle goes, all the Leafs stop digging and go to the faceoff circle. Refreshing.
- Jim Hughson is his usual excellent self. At one point he describes a wheeling Brendan Gallagher as "the diminutive Giant". Worked on so many levels. Great stuff.
- I still didn't feel good about Mr. Bozak scoring, even though I landed him on my fantasy team. I'm a doofus, I was engrossed in the NFL games on Sunday, forgot about my fantasy draft, and the Autodraft picked me two Leafs and a Bruin and a Steve Downie. Gross.
- Penalty kill has a different feel, with fast players who might break for more short-handed goals, instead of the fortress-block-every shot-collapse-around-Carey-rope-a-dope we had before. I like this pressure method more.
- Carey is in max chill-out mode, one game into the season. Everything's easy. He might be worth a couple wins over the course of the year, maybe three.
- Max was flying, strong on the puck. Is it possible the extra responsibility put on his shoulders has made him kick it up a notch? Not just ramp up his game even, but change it qualitatively? He'd often in the past lurk, look for open areas, ready for a snipe. There was more of a take-charge quality to his game, he was more Erik Cole than Michael Ryder.
- David was flying and hustling as well. During last season's opening swoon he seemed abashed to be out there. Maybe he's now going to take that half-step forward, realize that he's now a veteran and needs to provide leadership, rather than defer to Brian Gionta and other longer-serving veterans. Great stuff from him all game.
- How good can that Tomas Plekanec line be, with the kids on either wing? Is the sky the metaphorical limit? Sure, they're not Brandon Kozun or anything, but I wouldn't swap.
- A thought about Lars Eller: during the game, he wheeled around the net with the puck and at first seemed headed for another skate on the periphery, he took the puck to the corner and was pointed towards the blue line.
But then, he remembered all my posts he’s read which enjoin him to take the puck to the net. He may also have been thinking of Marc Bergevin’s statement that he needs to play like a big powerful player with skill, instead of like a skill player who happens to have size.
So he stopped short, Cosmo Kramer/Frank Costanza-style, and veered left to the net, and got off a shot to the net which could have tipped in or produced a cashable rebound.
Nice work Lars.
- And René too. I love it when you want the puck and act accordingly, and fire shots at the net. Keep it up big guy.
- A thought about Lars Eller: during the game, he wheeled around the net with the puck and at first seemed headed for another skate on the periphery, he took the puck to the corner and was pointed towards the blue line.
But then, he remembered all my posts he’s read which enjoin him to take the puck to the net. He may also have been thinking of Marc Bergevin’s statement that he needs to play like a big powerful player with skill, instead of like a skill player who happens to have size.
So he stopped short, Cosmo Kramer/Frank Costanza-style, and veered left to the net, and got off a shot to the net which could have tipped in or produced a cashable rebound.
Nice work Lars.
- And René too. I love it when you want the puck and act accordingly, and fire shots at the net. Keep it up big guy.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Michel Therrien in full command heading into his third season as Canadiens head coach.
I've often defended Michel Therrien, against my natural inclination really, because he wasn't the guy I wanted to coach the Canadiens. I wanted Patrick Roy. Still do, actually. But Geoff Molson and Marc Bergevin ignored my well-constructed arguments and hired Mr. Therrien, so I decided I'd be a team player and support the move, in that I wouldn't be openly seditious.
And grudgingly, I admit that the gruff, inartful coach has worn me down, he's earned all of our respect, based on the team's performance sure, but also in how steadily he's run the ship compared to some of our division rivals. With all the media hype, with a polarizing player like P.K. Subban on the roster, weathering the ups and downs of a season, he's starting his third season with the team firmly in his command, with little of the dressing room strife that is rumoured to exist in Toronto and Ottawa, or existed in Vancouver.
He has a young bunch of collegial hard-working gogetters, early-to-bed and early-to rise types, instead of the Mike Ribeiro posse, or the Carbonneau-Chelios factions. They have the world by the tail, but understand that loping behind their pack is an approaching group of challengers, so they can't ease off, lest they be caught and displaced. That de la Rose kid, among others, will have caught their eye, they know that what happened to Ryan White, Peter Budaj and Francis Bouillon could befall them next.
If hockey is our true national sport, second-guessing the head coach might be a close second. Michel Therrien was assailed continuously last season. He relied overly on his veterans. He didn't trust rookies. He played favourites, some were allowed to make mistakes, others were given a long leash. His system was ineffective, or the team didn't have a system, or his system was too stifling and killed the creativity of his players. Sometimes all in the same game. He was a coach who used violence as a tactic routinely, but failed to understand that he needed to dress tough guys to deter the opposition from taking liberties. He dressed funny, why he once wore a yellow suit fifteen years ago!
Marc Antoine Godin of La Presse has a good profile of the head coach, headlined 'The challenges of Michel Therrien'. I'll point out that it doesn't have the same negative connotation in French.
The article starts off by stating that the coach has indeed convinced most skeptics, being more mature and less arrogant and impulsive than in his first tour of duty. He starts the season with a contract extension freshly signed, and with a new leadership group of players, the four 'Assistants' and Carey Price, he meets with regularly to communicate his philosophy with the rest of the team. He thinks of himself as being in a partnership with the players, necessarily, since he says "we're all in the same boat".
He speaks of his relationship with Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban, and explains that when he first started working with them he outlined where they were as players, and where he thought they could/should get to. Now having reached that point with both players, he thinks they have another level to reach yet. He further explains that you can't use the same methods with different players, partially in response to the fact that he benched P.K. occasionally in the previous two seasons.
He speaks of the importance of progression, of how he installed a new system at camp, but one step at a time, using a university professor as an analogy, going one chapter at a time during the semester.
He speaks highly of Gerard Gallant, and explains that the team was lucky to be able to hire Dan Lacroix who has much the same skillset, but also a fresh voice which can be helpful. Mr. Lacroix will be in charge of the powerplay with Clément Jodoin, and additionally will do the pre-scouting of upcoming adversaries. Last season, that task was shared between Gerard Gallant and Jean-Jacques Daigneault, but this year Mr. Daigneault will focus more on teaching the young defencemen on the team. He will still retain responsibility for the penalty kill.
On how he'll handle Travis Moen's situation: "That's not easy for a coach. We ask players to arrive in camp in shape, and to have a good attitude, and he does all that. Travis is part of our depth. There is always going to be someone missing from the lineup, there will be injuries, everything will even out in the end. Travis is having a good camp. He does what we're asking him to do and he has an exemplary attitude. He's respected not only by the players but by the coaches. You can't have a better guy than him. With time everything will work out, but sometimes it will be hard on him, I'm aware of that. A veteran like him has his pride. Except that we like the competitiveness of Brandon Prust on the fourth line, and Dale Weise has progressed a lot. Some decisions won't be easy."
And grudgingly, I admit that the gruff, inartful coach has worn me down, he's earned all of our respect, based on the team's performance sure, but also in how steadily he's run the ship compared to some of our division rivals. With all the media hype, with a polarizing player like P.K. Subban on the roster, weathering the ups and downs of a season, he's starting his third season with the team firmly in his command, with little of the dressing room strife that is rumoured to exist in Toronto and Ottawa, or existed in Vancouver.
He has a young bunch of collegial hard-working gogetters, early-to-bed and early-to rise types, instead of the Mike Ribeiro posse, or the Carbonneau-Chelios factions. They have the world by the tail, but understand that loping behind their pack is an approaching group of challengers, so they can't ease off, lest they be caught and displaced. That de la Rose kid, among others, will have caught their eye, they know that what happened to Ryan White, Peter Budaj and Francis Bouillon could befall them next.
If hockey is our true national sport, second-guessing the head coach might be a close second. Michel Therrien was assailed continuously last season. He relied overly on his veterans. He didn't trust rookies. He played favourites, some were allowed to make mistakes, others were given a long leash. His system was ineffective, or the team didn't have a system, or his system was too stifling and killed the creativity of his players. Sometimes all in the same game. He was a coach who used violence as a tactic routinely, but failed to understand that he needed to dress tough guys to deter the opposition from taking liberties. He dressed funny, why he once wore a yellow suit fifteen years ago!
Marc Antoine Godin of La Presse has a good profile of the head coach, headlined 'The challenges of Michel Therrien'. I'll point out that it doesn't have the same negative connotation in French.
The article starts off by stating that the coach has indeed convinced most skeptics, being more mature and less arrogant and impulsive than in his first tour of duty. He starts the season with a contract extension freshly signed, and with a new leadership group of players, the four 'Assistants' and Carey Price, he meets with regularly to communicate his philosophy with the rest of the team. He thinks of himself as being in a partnership with the players, necessarily, since he says "we're all in the same boat".
He speaks of his relationship with Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban, and explains that when he first started working with them he outlined where they were as players, and where he thought they could/should get to. Now having reached that point with both players, he thinks they have another level to reach yet. He further explains that you can't use the same methods with different players, partially in response to the fact that he benched P.K. occasionally in the previous two seasons.
He speaks of the importance of progression, of how he installed a new system at camp, but one step at a time, using a university professor as an analogy, going one chapter at a time during the semester.
He speaks highly of Gerard Gallant, and explains that the team was lucky to be able to hire Dan Lacroix who has much the same skillset, but also a fresh voice which can be helpful. Mr. Lacroix will be in charge of the powerplay with Clément Jodoin, and additionally will do the pre-scouting of upcoming adversaries. Last season, that task was shared between Gerard Gallant and Jean-Jacques Daigneault, but this year Mr. Daigneault will focus more on teaching the young defencemen on the team. He will still retain responsibility for the penalty kill.
Michel Therrien in his own words:On Alex Galchenyuk's role at the start of the season: "Alex is comfortable playing on the wing. "I know where I'm going in one year, in two years, in three years with him. I shared that with him before training camp. I didn't want to confuse him by putting him at centre without explaining where we were headed. (...) I liked what I saw of him at centre. We'll make decisions for the good of the team and the good of the player."
> Sur le rôle qui attend Galchenyuk en début de saison: «Alex est très à l'aise de jouer à l'aile. Je sais où je m'en vais dans un an, dans deux ans et dans trois ans avec lui. J'ai partagé ça avec lui avant le camp d'entraînement. Je ne voulais pas mêler le jeune en l'utilisant au centre au début du camp sans lui avoir expliqué là où on s'en allait. (...) J'ai aimé ce que j'ai vu de lui au centre. On prendra les décisions pour le bien de l'équipe et pour le bien du joueur.»
Regarding which of his defencemen will face the opponents' first lines: "We've never made a practice of having one pairing against the other top line. There can be four or five defencemen who will face that line or the top two lines against which we want to match up. I don't like changing players on the fly. They're on the ice, they know who they're facing. Prove to me that you can do so. I don't want to send the message that one of my guys is out of his league, that he doesn't belong there. On the contrary, I want to show him I have confidence in him."
> À savoir lequel de ses duos de défenseurs affronterait les meilleurs éléments adverses: «On n'a jamais eu comme philosophie d'avoir un seul duo de défenseurs contre le meilleur trio adverse. Il peut y avoir quatre ou cinq défenseurs qui seront appelés à affronter le gros trio de l'autre bord ou deux trios avec lesquels on voudra se synchroniser. Je n'aime pas ça, changer des gars "sur le fly". Tu es sur la glace, tu sais contre qui tu joues? Prouve-moi que tu es capable. Je ne veux pas lancer le message qu'un de mes gars n'a pas d'affaire là. Je veux au contraire lui démontrer ma confiance.»
> Sur la façon de gérer le cas de Travis Moen: «Ce n'est pas facile pour un coach. On demande au joueur d'arriver en forme, de maintenir une bonne attitude, et il fait tout cela. Travis fait partie de notre profondeur. Il va toujours manquer quelqu'un dans notre alignement, il y aura toujours des blessés, et tout s'égalisera au bout de la ligne. Travis connaît un bon camp. Il fait ce qui lui est demandé et il a une attitude exemplaire. C'est un gars respecté non seulement de ses coéquipiers, mais des entraîneurs aussi. Tu ne peux pas avoir un meilleur gars que ça. Le temps va arranger les choses, mais parfois, ça doit être plus dur pour lui, j'en suis conscient. Un vétéran comme lui a de la fierté. Sauf qu'on aime la combativité de Brandon Prust sur le quatrième trio et Dale Weise a beaucoup progressé. Certaines décisions ne sont pas faciles.»
On how he'll handle Travis Moen's situation: "That's not easy for a coach. We ask players to arrive in camp in shape, and to have a good attitude, and he does all that. Travis is part of our depth. There is always going to be someone missing from the lineup, there will be injuries, everything will even out in the end. Travis is having a good camp. He does what we're asking him to do and he has an exemplary attitude. He's respected not only by the players but by the coaches. You can't have a better guy than him. With time everything will work out, but sometimes it will be hard on him, I'm aware of that. A veteran like him has his pride. Except that we like the competitiveness of Brandon Prust on the fourth line, and Dale Weise has progressed a lot. Some decisions won't be easy."
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Can Eric Tangradi actually help the Canadiens?
One intriguing, longshot thought is that Eric Tangradi might be a Dale Weise-type of acquisition, a player coming from a team that can't use him properly, on which the role he could play is already filled, while on the Canadiens the opportunity exists for a player with his skill set to thrive.
One point that Paul Maurice made when he took over in Winnipeg is that his team had great size, he explained that when the team congregated for chalk talks on the ice during his first practice, he was mostly looking up at his players, which he liked, since he says he's a pretty big guy to begin with. On the other hand, this summer at training camp, while being respectful of Claude Noël, he said he wanted to change the country club atmosphere and the work ethic, the dedication of players to winning.
So Eric Tangradi had guys like Evander Kane, Andrew Ladd, Blake Wheeler, Chris Thorburn and Michael Frolik ahead of him on the depth chart on the wing, all with good or great size. He didn't bring anything to the table that wasn't already well stocked. The Canadiens are still on the smaller side and able to use a big body who can crash and bang and cancel out another tough guy when he's looking for trouble. He may get a chance to play and put things together in terms of producing on offence, he may have a better crack at sticking in the big league than he did in Winnipeg.
Just as Peter Budaj, with his experience and good team and people skills, may have a larger role to play in the Jets roster, on the ice and dressing room, and assist Paul Maurice with his team attitude overhaul he's undertaking.
So we may have taken two pegs and found them appropriate holes with this trade, and there's a small but significant chance that Eric Tangradi could blossom in Montréal when called up.
And I'll repeat the point that we've been making for a while now, just because it pleases us so, but two years ago the only player with any appreciable size in Hamilton was Steve Quailer, and he wasn't a reasonable callup candidate. This year, we'll have Drayson Bowman and Mr. Tangradi as immediate options, and down the line Connor Crisp, Nick Sorkin, Jack Nevins among others. Winning.
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