David Desharnais trying to find a new role after demotion from #1 line.

A new role for David Desharnais, now that he's been taken off the #1 line with Max Pacioretty, and put on a third line with P.A. Parenteau and Michaël Bournival and/or Brandon Prust.

Things change.  David Desharnais played his way off the #1 line, he can play his way back onto it.  It's not immutable.  It may be a little premature to pen his obituary.

The way he is a little bit rueful and introspective shows what a humble, character kid he is.  He's self-effacing, a good teammate, modest, a hard worker who's proven himself at every level, with an extra dollop of production to overcome doubt due to his size.  His light-hearted comments when Max was placed on a line with Alex that it was similar to a breakup with a girlfriend, when at first you think you'll never find anyone else, were clearly a joking allusion to illustrate that it's not that big a deal, that things work out.

But some posters were oh-so ready to twist that into a dark Freudian tangle of jealousy and bitterness, a campaign to reverse the change.  Some specifically stated they hadn't seen the video, but forged on anyway, and spouted more conspiracy theories.

Just as he's popular on RDS and with francophone fans due to his heritage, he's a favourite target on English social media because of it also.  His utility as a player is even more under the microscope because there is a significant segment of fans who will attribute such a player's presence on the roster and icetime solely due to marketing reasons.

Offered by analysts after Mike Cammalleri was traded to Calgary was the fact that he was a bit of a malcontent, always in the coach's office, with one of his demands that grated being that he wanted to play with David, not Tomas or some other centre.  Same with Erik Cole, who had a great season in 2011-12, but cooled off the next season after Gary Bettman's Third Lockout, and apparently resisted any discussion of how he should be used, including on another line.

Thomas Vanek upon his arrival in Montréal stated clearly that he was a left wing and much preferred that to right wing.  Michel Therrien had that discussion with him and accommodated him by putting him on the left with Tomas and Brian Gionta on the right, and gave them a few games to hit their stride.  Then, clearly thinking that time was of the essence, that "on a pas l'temps d'niaiser", he abandoned that experiment and put him on right wing with Max and David, and it took a couple of games, but they took off.  The line only was dismantled when Thomas Vanek's performance grew more muted against the Big Bad Bruins.  After the Habs were eliminated, he was forthright in explaining that he wished he'd been left on that line, that he thought they worked well together, even though that went against his stated preference to play left wing.

There must be some value to playing with David, or else these players wouldn't want to, wouldn't have reacted the way they did.  It seems they impute a greater benefit to it than many of David's doubters.

David is a player who I've compared to a scrappy scrum half in rugby, one who isn't a physical specimen with great wheels, but who always does the right thing with the ball and plays smart, or a wide receiver who doesn't wow you when running a fourty-yard dash, but during the game runs impeccable routes and becomes the quarterback's most trusted target, his go-to guy.  David is not Ryan Getzlaf, he's not the prototypical #1 centre, he is a player with many strengths and a few blind spots.  He's a puck distributor who makes superb, inventive passes, and works hard fearlessly.  We can wish he was tough and stout like Bryan Trottier or more productive like Adam Oates, but he is who he is, a player who if used correctly can be very effective.

As Michel Therrien said, “David knows exactly what we expect from him. He’s having trouble producing, just looking at his goal totals for example. But in the past, he’s always worked very hard to bust out of these slumps and I’m confident that he’ll do so again.”

24 CH, 2014-15 season, Episode 6: Notes

I'm falling behind on these.  This one deals with Guy Lapointe's jersey retirement ceremony.

02:00  We see the elbow/high-stick on Alex Galchenyuk by Brandon Bollig, sending him back to the bench with a fat lip and groaning in pain.  After a couple of minutes, one of the trainers is telling him he needs to leave the bench and go to the quiet room, which Alex spontaneously resists.

"You don't have a choice, you got hit in the face."

"Yeah, but it's only my lip," Alex protests.

"Just go and come back," Manny Malhotra cuts in, and Alex gets up and walks off.  Good leadership by Manny being demonstrated, again.

What we did see though is how refs are loath to 'inject themselves in the game', how they want to allow the players to decide the outcome of the game, how they 'let them play'.  In this case, by not intervening in the proceedings, they allowed a plug like Brandon Bollig to definitely have an effect on the game, by removing a talented young player from the play, and it was fortunate it was only to miss a few shifts, and then be 'off' for the rest of the game due to the pain and stitches.

05:15  Carey's superman-type save of a carom that was headed in the net, but he knocked out of the air and over his net.  Such an unorthodox save, I don't know that it'll make it in any year-end lists, but seeing that one during the game, I had to rewind on the PVR a few times to understand what happened, and appreciate it.  The boys on the bench sure do.

08:00  We see a small glimpse of Stéphane Waite's work with his goalies, in this case Dustin Tokarski preparing to start against the Sabres in Buffalo.  They work on some specific situations with shooters, talk about specifics with regard to mental prep before the game.

I don't understand goalies.

08:40  An Yvon Lambert sighting, he's solidifying his reputation as a bon vivant, acting as MC for a game night at a Montréal brasserie.  We sure could use one of him right now, to tack onto the David Desharnais line with P.A. Parenteau, for example, a big guy who can occupy opposing defencemen in front of their net, and deflect a few pucks.  Yvon was really good to have on the team in the seventies, with Mario Tremblay and Doug Risebrough they were quite a good line.

09:55  Michaël Bournival's shoulder injury.  What a difference a year makes.  Last season he started as if shot out of a cannon, scoring big goals and being a factor throughout exhibition season and early on, earning a spot with le Grand Club.  This year, circumstances have conspired against him.

10:15  Max Pacioretty getting the boys up between periods, laying it on thick.  First he targets Brandon Prust.

"Go north.  They can't contain you.  You think Georgy's going to contain you?", referring to Josh, before turning his witty banter to Lars Eller.

"Your skin's too sensitive," he tells the Great Dane, "you can't go south."  Classic.

11:45  P.A. Parenteau scores in the shootout to seal the win, as Dale Weise, who was miked up, predicted earlier on the bench.  P.A. has picked up a nickname, they call him Master P.  Not bad.  Could be worse.

Tomas Plekanec inherits the boxer cape from Carey.

12:40  We see preparations at the New Forum for Guy Lapointe's jersey retirement ceremony.  During this segment, there's talk of how well the Canadiens pull these off, and some mentions of Jean Béliveau, some eerie foreshadowing there.

Guy Lapointe tells the story of how he was invited from the Junior Canadiens to attend the Canadiens camp, and he had made up his mind not to attend, since he thought he was just being asked to fill out one of the four teams they make up at camp for scrimmaging, that he was just going to be a body for the real team to sharpen their skills against.  In his mind, his career was going to be as a policeman, and he didn't want to 'waste' his time going to camp.  It's only due to his father telling him to take advantage of this invite, that these don't come around again, and that at the very least he'll be able to say years later that he skated with Jean Béliveau, that he decided to attend.

It's shocking to me that an eventual Hall of Famer, a player good enough to be on the powerhouse Canadiens Junior, didn't think he seriously had a shot to make the Habs.  That his career hinged on this, that we almost never got to see him play makes me wonder how many other players fell off the treadmill, never to be heard from again, accidents of history.

I imagine also how great the Police de Montréal hockey team would have been with Guy on their blue line, they'd have been unbeatable.

15:10  Media briefing on the day of the ceremony, with Serge Savard and Larry Robinson flanking him.  Then, Michel Therrien meets Guy Lapointe and congratulates him, there's a great camera shot again with the Big Three re-united.  Michel Therrien is asked by someone if he'll put them in the lineup that night.

I miss those guys.

Guy, ever the prankster, creates a mini-crisis when he dons the jersey he'll wear for the ceremony, and struggles to get his arm in, complaining to everyone that it's too small.  After a few seconds of this he cracks a smile and pulls it on smoothly, ceasing his O.J.'esque 'It doesn't fit' shtick.  Amusing to see that his wife and daughter, who've known him all this time, still fell for it, and now cluck their disapproval at his attempt at comedy.

Larry being interviewed in an aside says that Guy is using humour to decrease the tension, but that he's underneath a very emotional guy, and that he probably doesn't understand what a big deal it's going to be going through the ceremony.

16:50  Still think it's a great idea to involve Andrei and P.K. in the ceremony, have them bring the #5 banner to Guy.  Great way to plant that seed.

18:50  Jean-Jacques Daigneault to Nathan Beaulieu on the bench:  "Are you all right Nate?  What are you pissed off about?  No shot?  Yeah, all right.  Just relax," and then taps him on the shoulder.

Jean-Jacques Daigneault to Nathan Beaulieu and P.K. on the bench: "Time and space on the puck carrier, time and space."

"I was going to," P.K. replies, "but I thought it was an odd-man rush, that's why."

P.K. is definitely not a 'Sir, yes sir!' guy, he needs to get his two-cents in, needs to be heard.  For some old-school coaches that will rub them the wrong way, definitely.

This is one of those areas where I hope P.K. can develop the self-confidence to just accept the coach's patter, nod, and let it go, instead of having to discuss and explain his side of the story to everyone, the coaches, the refs, the media, etc.  Like I've said before, I'm sure there's a background there, there are reasons he wants to explain his viewpoint, but it's a waste of his energy, his focus.  Not everything he's told needs to be discussed or refuted.

19:40  Thomas Vanek's assist on his crazy no-look pass that he's patented, like a quarterback looking off a safety before throwing a pass.  No look is actually not quite the right description, it's a 'see the pass and the passing lane, then look away in another direction to fool the defender before making that pass' pass.

20:00  A couple of cool goals against Minny, one where Brandon goes face first into the post, but the refs clearly see that he's being pushed and goalie interference isn't called.  Then it's David Desharnais one-upping Thomas Vanek with his no-look behind the back drop pass to Master P to Max for the clinching goal that makes it 4-1.

20:30  Another look at the Nathan Beaulieu KO of Stéphane Veilleux.  Again, it's clear that Mr. Veilleux was approaching Nate, who was trying to back off, but doesn't hesitate to start the fight when he realizes that it's on.

Later in the dressing room, he explains to a trainer that he "missed him", that he punched him in the neck rather than the head.  That explains why Mr. Veilleux dropped like he did, getting hit in the right area in the neck is essentially the same as being subjected to a Lateral Neck Restraint, the mis-named 'choke hold'.

For his trouble, Nate receives the boxer cape from Pleky.

Game 31: Canadiens 6, Kings 2

"Canadiens Express" thoughts on the Canadiens' 6-2 loss to the Kings.  Uh, I mean win.  This result was unexpected, really went against script, for a few reasons, not the least of which is our inferiority complex against big teams, or Stanley Cup winning teams, or Western Conference teams, or...

-You'd have thought that the Kings were the fresh team and the Canadiens were the ones with the dead legs and had played and traveled the previous night.  Shots: 46-20 for the Kings.

-The Canadiens Express didn't give you a real sense of the flow of the game, they have to snip out some minutes here and there.  Tonight, they chose some sequences when the Canadiens were bottled up in their zone for a while and probably had to ice the puck.  There'd be the flash-forward effect, a couple of minutes or so would disappear off the clock, and Pierre Houde would comment on how the five players on the ice were exhausted as they lined up for a faceoff.  

So watching the game, with all the scoring and all the Canadiens highlights, I didn't get that the Kings were that dominant.  

Thank you Gary Bettman.

-Why did the Canadiens win?  Opportunistic offence, sure.  More saliently, Carey Price kept the Canadiens in it and finished with a .957 save percentage.  L.A. King goalie Martin Jones?  .700.  Yikes.

-We often say that a goalie can't be blamed for this or that goal, but over a long season, these things average out.  Eventually, a goalie has to make difficult saves.  There were a few occasions where Carey was borderline miraculous, got a huge gasp and cheer out of the New Forum crowd.  They chanted his name a few times.

-Conversely, it's hard to point the finger on any one goal on Martin Jones.  Well, this one was on a powerplay, and so was this one, and this one ticked off a stick, this one was one a 2-on-1, this one Jiri was alone in front point blank, ...  Eventually, a goalie has to make saves.

-I'll speak for the detractors and castigate Michel "Clueless" Therrien, who really needs to start heeding the peanut gallery, to heed our advice.  He couldn't resist his line-shuffling impulses tonight, mixing in Brandon Prust with David Desharnais and P.A. Parenteau.  What possible benefit can be derived from using a trusted, beloved, responsible, heart and soul veteran player on the third rather than the fourth line?  He never gave our 'Fringe Line' a chance to get off the ground.

-That David and P.A. responded with two points each is really beside the point I'm making.  It's actually inconvenient when your mention it, quite frankly.

-David got the monkey off his back by scoring his first 5-on-5 goal in half a season.  It came on a 2-on-1 with Pierre-Alexandre giving him a beautiful feed he could one-time into the net, that built the cushion back up to three goals after the Kings, who were trailing 3-0 at the start of the third, had scored to make it a little closer.  

Let's hope that the change benefits David, that it forces him to play a little bit differently, and not just look for Max or Thomas Vanek or Erik Cole for his seeing-eye passes.  Your shot isn't very hard Davey, but it's quick, accurate, you can surprise goalies when you're darting around in the slot.  Especially when opponents by now all expect you to pass.  Unleash that slingshot of yours.  It was enough to slay that 6'4" goliath in the L.A. net.

-Let's give P.K. a mumps scare four or five times a year, or maybe just on an 'as needed' dosage.  After being away for a day for flu-like symptoms, he got a goal and an assist tonight.  Heck, do that every night P.K., and we won't lose many games, and I'll allow you a couple of penalty minutes per.  He played just under 25 minutes, at +2, on top of his powerplay assist.  

-Sven Andrighetto muddied the waters further by scoring another goal, his second, and his third point in three career NHL games.  Hey kid, can you quit it with that, how we ever gonna send you down if you keep doin' that?

I'll stick up for my boy Davey here.  On that sequence, Manny Malhotra had gone to the bench for a change after he, Michaël Bournival and Sven had forechecked the Kings for a while in their zone.  David had hopped onto the ice and coming up behind the defencemen he probably let them know he was there, so Alexei Emelin could make the decision to stay on the blue line instead of falling back, and he broke up a zone exit by the Kings with a pokecheck.  

Michaël gathered in the loose puck, made a sweet pass to Sven who buried it on a one-timer.  But it all started with David providing cover for his defenceman, who could be aggressive on the opposing blue line.  

-Michaël Bournival must have let out a sigh of relief.  He's back in the lineup playing, had a great assist, it must feel great for him after a difficult start to the season for various reasons.

-Same with Manny Malhotra.  He finally racks up a point, his first in a Canadiens uniform.  When a guy can expect if everything falls into place to score 15-20 points, if he doesn't get the bounces, the dry spell will seem enormous, compared to a Phil Kessel or Max Pacioretty, who can't be denied more than a handful of games at a time.

On this assist, he got the puck in the zone by giving it Dale Weise, then headed for the net.  P.K.'s shot beat Martin Jones cleanly, but Manny did all the right things, and got rewarded with a bit of puck luck, finally.

-Obvious point coming up: it's easier to win games when you have scorers in your lineup, who can snipe goals.  Hear me out.  A month ago we were giving René Bourque and Travis Moen every opportunity as veterans, and Jiri was in the pressbox, and Sven was in Hamilton.  So you can't make a direct subtraction, it's not that direct a transaction, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway: without these two kids in the lineup, three of those goals don't happen.  

They won't score three every game, they'll cool off, they'll make defensive mistakes, but that's the bed we're in right now.  And it's a bit of a refreshing change.  Especially since Erik Cole and Mike Cammalleri left, we've bemoaned the lack of scoring ability on our team, and our farm system as well.  If we have guys who can skate, ingest the coaches' system and be positionally sound, and can be dangerous, productive at the other end, I'll take the loss of thumpitude we endured with the loss of Travis and René.

-Maybe that's an aspect that ended up on the cutting-room floor at "Canadiens Express" studio, but the Kings, for all their ballyhooed size and toughness and reputation for wearing down other teams, they played it straight.  We didn't see much cross-checking or slashing or facewashing and headlocky defencemen when Brendan Gallagher was nearby after a whistle.  

Same situation when we played the Blues a while back, for all their size and grit, no spearings or mayhem, just straight ahead hockey, with bodychecking and puck battles.

So the Bruins, it's not so much that they're big and tough, it's just that they cheat, they intimidate as a tactic, and the refs let them get away with it, bashful to incur the attention of Don Cherry.  

Same goes for the Leafs and the Senators, they've been sucked down that drain into the cesspool as well.  

-That slapper from Drew Doughty from the faceoff dot?  Whew!  Carey was cannon fodder on that one.  I'm glad it got by him, it might have broken his hand or clavicle or brain pan if it hadn't missed him.  That was such a free shot, it reminded me of James Gandolfini on Patricia Arquette in "True Romance".

-Aside from shots, the numbers looked better for the Habs.  2/3 on the powerplay, but they shut out the Kings in five attempts.  They blocked 32 shots, and won 40 of 63 faceoffs.

-Mario Tremblay was so enamoured of Jiri Sekac's performance, I thought he was going to say he's 7'4" and 540 lbs, and start calling him Jiri the Giant.

-The RDS boys have been preaching patiency with Jiri, that while he's rolling along we shouldn't put too much pressure, load too much responsibility on his shoulders despite a good start to the season.  They'll explain that players new to the NHL start to fade later into the season, so we shouldn't kill our golden goose so early, let him ease into the pressure cooker.  But the more he plays like this, the harder it will be to resist the temptation.

-Now we get three days off and an easy two-pointer on Tuesday against the 'Canes.  Right?

Manny Malhotra's null point production so far needs to be taken in context.

Canadiens fans are renowned for being hard to please.  We're now turning our focus to Manny Malhotra’s point production, or lack thereof, now that Alex Galchenyuk at centre or not, and David Desharnais as the #1 centre have been robbed from us as issues.

There’s a very healthy middle ground here. Manny is much more effective as the fourth-line centre than Ryan White or Daniel Brière could have been to fulfill this strict job description. He brought skating and size to the roster, functional size, not George Parros size that sits on the bench. He plays a large role in the team dynamics as a veteran with good communication skills. And of course, the effect he’s had on the faceoff prowess of our team is tangible, significant.

And yes, he shouldn’t be expected to bring in thirty points, not with his recent production. Not with his two most recent full seasons’ tallies being 18 points in 2011-12, and 13 last season.

But on the other hand, a total of zero points to this stage of the season is hard to ignore. It’s a part of his game that he needs to improve on. Maybe he’s in a comfort zone right now, one in which he cheats, but in the unusual way that he cheats towards the defensive side, an anti-Pierre Larouche, or Bizarro-world Nail Yakupov.

In her biography of Pat Burns, Rosie DiManno described how Pat Burns clashed with Guy Carbonneau, challenging him to give him the same level of play defensively, but to not satisfy himself with just that, telling him he needed some offence on top of that. There were bruised egos and ruffled feathers, but Guy responded with his best season in 1988-89 with a 26 goal, 56 point tally.

So maybe Manny can focus a little more on his offence, provide a little more pressure in the offensive zone instead of bailing out too soon, in a single-minded concern for preventing goals. Maybe he can easily tilt the balance a touch and provide some chances for his wingers, without taking away from his defensive priorities.

Jean Béliveau nights: all fans to wear suits and evening dresses at the New Forum

Just as an aside, the practice of wearing a team jersey to games is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the seventies and earlier, very few fans, perhaps an oddball or two, would wear a Canadiens jersey to a game.

In fact, one of the marks of distinction of the Canadiens franchise was that the fans would get dressed up for the games, much the same way that some of my Western lout friends marvel at how people dress up to go out to the club in Montréal. Anyway, you’d see men in their finest suits and women in their evening dresses, with opera glasses, on a Saturday night. There’s untold “La Soirée du Hockey” and NFB footage of this.

And that’s a tradition that should be revived. Since I know Geoff Molson reads HIO and my posts assiduously, I’ll prevail upon him to declare one or two Saturday games next season as games where everyone should wear their best formalwear to the game. Make it a buzzworthy event, something women will love to attend, team up with menswear stores and rental places to get synergies. Offer discounts or gifts for those fans who participate.

This should probably be held for games against Original Six teams, add even more cachet to a Blackhawk or a Red Wing game.

Or, we could be strategic. These evenings should occur when we play the Bruins and the Leafs, such that these games become a hot ticket not so much because you can scalp it to a bozo from Scarborough, but because it’s the ‘it’ thing to do, one of the great events of the winter. Your wife or girlfriend would assassinate you with her stare if you told her you were planning to sell your tickets and not take her to the game. It might decrease the number of enemy fans in our own barn by half or more.

Penalty minutes are not a boon to a team.

Adam Gretz has a great article debunking the myth that players with high penalty totals are tough players, and benefit their team thus.  

Excerpt:

One of the most maddening elements of hockey analysis over the years has been the, at times, glorification of penalty minutes, from its inclusion as a key figure in fantasy hockey, to the way penalty minute leaders are often held up as a standard of toughness and “gritty” play.

Last season, an opponent in a fantasy hockey league got a huge boost when his player Milan Lucic had a night that should be standard for him but which rarely happens, since the refs seem to give him a wide berth, for some reason. On that night, he got a two, a five and two tens, something crazy like that, and the fantasy team owner got something like five or six points out of it. I went to the highlights and found that it wasn’t like Milan did a great job of righting a wrong or sparking his teammates, he just did something stupid and mouthed off to the refs and it degenerated from there.

I can’t remember the situation but I assume the ref got his walking papers from Daddy Campbell last summer. In any case, the Bruins forward didn’t get his penalties from his bruising, intimidating style, but rather from throwing a tantrum, and somehow the fantasy league team made points off that. Madness.

The penalty differential described in the linked article is a useful way to look at this. To go one step further, we should differentiate the lazy or dumb penalties, the hooking and tripping and other such administration of the game calls, from the type of penalties a player who brings toughness would sensibly be expected to take. So a Steve Downie would be excused if he got elbowing, crosschecking or boarding penalties, but not so if he got a holding the stick call, or misconduct calls from unsportsmanlike behaviour.

That might be a useful stat, if we do indeed accept the postulate that these players bring an intangible benefit to their team by playing a physical style.

Stéphane Robidas decks Shawn Matthias, skates away from supplemental discipline. So it goes...

Marc Crawford is on the phone with Bro Jake and Dave Pratt of TSN 1040 Vancouver, defending Stéphane Robidas’ hit on Shawn Matthias, saying that he played for him for two years and he’s “not that kind of player”.

This headshot and concussion crisis is never going to change until the mindset changes. I’m sick of hearing that the never ending parade of player committing dirty deeds are really just good boys at heart, that I’d love Chris Neil if he played for my team.

It’s so, so frigging simple. If a player hits another player in the head, or knee on knee, it’s automatically a penalty. Period. No muddling through the player’s intentions when he tried to crush his opponent. If he misses and hits him in the face or neck or head, it’s a penalty with automatic, severe consequences for him and his team.

The NFL has a much better handle on this. You can’t rough the kicker, period. If you hit the punter when he’s in the act of punting, it’s a penalty, automatically, unless you actually get your hand on the ball and block the punt. Cut and dried.  No exegesis of the defender's intentions before he snaps the punter’s patellar tendon.

Same with roughing the passer penalties. If you hit the QB when he has the ball, fill your boots, hit him hard, as long as you don’t piledrive him or hit him in the head or dive at his knees. If you’re a half-step too late, ease off, hold on to the quarterback and make sure you don’t deck him if your momentum actually carries you into him, or it’ll be fifteen yards against your team, and your coach won’t be too happy when you get to the sidelines.

Critics argued that the game was too fast and players wouldn’t be able to avoid contact, but the penalties have had their effect, and defenses have adjusted. It hasn’t ruined or pansified the game, everyone is actually getting richer. The sport is better if Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck are actually playing on Sundays rather than on IR. And the line, while still debatable on some calls, has been moved significantly in the direction of greater player safety, and of letting spectators enjoy a great sport that allows the stars to wow us.

The NHL, and the abysmal Colin Campbell, could easily move the bar, set the standard like the NFL did, and impose a strict liability on a player about to bodycheck another that if you get out of position and you ‘miss’ or are about to miss your bodycheck, you have to let your opponent go, rather than extending an arm or elbow, reaching out to make contact, sticking out your knee to not let him by you. It’s on you to make the check legally, or let your opponent go.

But that would be common sense. It would go against the circuits hard-wired in the calcified brain of an old no-talent thumper like Colin Campbell who thinks that the game will shrivel up and die if his idiot son isn’t allowed to “finish his checks” and “play with an edge”, that grinders have to be given a chance or else the skill guys will take over, and who knows where that might lead.

After weeks of denying expansion rumours, Gary Bettman fuels them, denies them some more.

Hearing Gary Bettman speak is so revolting, an insult to everyone's intelligence.  He's trying to get everyone to not read too much in the fact that he's 'not objecting' to a billionaire holding a season-ticket drive in Las Vegas.  To me, I'm reading quite a bit into it.  They've selected a robber baron to join their monopoly, and the location they'll use to pluck taxpayers of their public funds from.

Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago that he was eye-rolling and condescending to the media scrum he was facing that the league hadn't even considered expansion, they just weren't there yet, they hadn't even taken the mental journey to evaluate this, so he couldn't discuss it with the scribes if they'd undertaken that fanciful, unrealistic trip themselves?  Wasn't he supercilious and not only evasive, but outright mendacious in his responses?

There might be very good reason for Gary Bettman to not want to discuss these matters openly, but he's supposed to the be the Commissioner of the League, and he acts like a cheap shill instead, completely the opposite of Jean Béliveau, whose word meant something and treated people with respect.

He could choose to remain above the fray and withhold comments, like when Marc Bergevin says he's always looking to improve his team, but he won't discuss rumours or specifics before he announces anything, since it's harmful to the process and disrespectful to the players.  Instead, he wades into the mire with glee, lecturing everyone out of one side of his mouth while in his actions he clearly is doing the very opposite, and spatters anyone within range with his filth.

Game 28: Canadiens 3, Blackhawks 4

Dave Wannstedt, who's a dead ringer for Dennis Farina, and who was the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh and of the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears in the NFL among other stints, was introducing the PAC 12 Championship game between the Oregon Ducks and the Arizona Wildcats.  He talked about how both coaches had lots of freshmen and young players on their roster, and needed to approach the game in a positive, encouraging way, and set the right temper.

"In a game like this," he said, "as a coach, you're scared to death because you want your players fired up, you want your young kids playing reckless, you're talking about that all week.  But in the back of your mind, you're saying 'We don't need to force any big plays, just don't make the mistakes.'  That's what you're thinking, but you don't want to negative-coach.  So there's a fine line of a freshman going out there playing reckless, making plays, or making mistakes."

I thought of this analysis as I watched the football game and waited for RDS' Canadiens Express condensed broadcast of the game, since I was blacked out of the real-time version.  

Thank you Gary Bettman.

We've spent a lot of time angsting over the relegation of Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu to Hamilton to make room for Sergei Gonchar and Bryan Allen, and earlier this season on Jiri Sekac being sat in favour of Travis Moen among others.  We try to balance the benefit of players apprenticing in a lower level, paying their dues, getting up to speed, versus being exposed to the speed of the NHL and learning on the fly.  So what Coach Wannstedt spoke of resonated with this Habs fan.

Of course, football and hockey are different in how players approach the game.  Certainly on defence and on coverage teams, you want football players to play with recklessness, with abandon, or at least controlled aggression.  Hockey requires a more cerebral approach.  By necessity, you need to pace yourself a little bit, you can't go all out for five seconds and then catch your breath for thirty. 

But it's easy to imagine Coach Therrien having the same inner battle when coaching his players, about wanting to foster their passion and creativity, but also wanting them to be positionally sound, and maybe wondering if one doesn't necessarily detract from the other.  

Lars Eller's injury, which seems relatively serious, and should require him to miss a few games, could crystallize this discussion.  There not necessarily being a centre in Hamilton who can step up and replace Lars as the third-line centre, even on a short-term basis, and Manny Malhotra being ill-suited for anything other than fourth-line duty, we may have to shift Alex Galchenyuk to centre for a few games, and live with the mistakes, and the games where he's just confused and overmatched and dominated.

And it does seem things will go that way, with the announcement that it's Sven Andrighetto who got called up from Hamilton, not centres Charles Hudon, Gabriel Dumont or Jacob de la Rose.

As far as the game goes, the fishtail ending was unfortunate, but this was certainly a better showing than the game in Minnesota.  End to end action, exciting play with lots of organized breakouts, scoring chances, pucks hitting posts, it's just too bad we came out of it with a 4-3 loss, when we were within a minute of sending it to overtime, and when we'd come so close to putting the game away ourselves.

Alexei Emelin and Tom Gilbert have received some deserved criticism lately, but they had some flareups tonight when they showed what they can do, why we can and should expect more.  Tom Gilbert had a couple of sequences in the third where he almost helped put the 'Hawks away.  Alexei earned an assist on Sergei Gonchar's goal, one that was fully deserved since he got the puck in the zone despite being slashed from behind.  We often talk about being strong on the puck, making strong plays, well Alexei's sequence could be the video exemplar of that.

Lots was expected of Andrei and P.K. tonight, having to go up against the dangerous Chicago forwards, and they mostly delivered.  P.K. seems out of his funk, and now has reverted to the incarnation from the playoffs last spring.  Just checking his numbers, he had 6 shots and 5 hits in 25 minutes of play, and scored a powerplay goal.  He just needs to do that 82 times a season, and shift into a higher gear in the playoffs, to earn his $9M.

Andrei had the unfortunate bounce of the puck off his backhand right to Brandon Saad for the game-deciding goal, and that was unfortunate, a little hard to overlook, but it's also true that he had that pokecheck off Jonathan Toews on the rush.  Andrei gets a warehouse full of mulligans from me.

But why is Dan Carcillo not in jail?  What possible justification can he have for his two-handed pile-driving of Alex Galchenyuk's face into the ice, a minute or so after the play was whistled dead?  And more saliently, why did the refs even listen to that maggot, instead of immediately sending him to the penalty box?  When they had grounds to assess five or six different penalties?  That's the NHL for you, killing hockey for decades now, for your enjoyment.

Well, it's "on to Dallas", as Bill Belichick would say, where a win will still salvage a .500 record for this roadie, which isn't half bad.

Game 26: Canadiens 4, Avalanche 3

Thoughts on the Canadiens win against the Avalanche, after gleaning the gist of how it went, this due to being reduced to watch in on RDS' "Canadiens Express."  I have to say I'm feeling very well served as a hockey fan by the new Sportsnet-TVA deal.

Thank you Gary Bettman.

-Idle thought that upwelled in my mind during Saturday's loss to the Sabres: Are the Canadiens the worst in the league at committing offsides when entering the offensive zone?  Is that statistic kept, somewhere we can look it up?  Do the coaches notice that, and coach the players on this subject?  As in, you have the puck, cross the blue line no matter what before you start dipsy-doodling, or else?  Can they make this a point of emphasis?

On 24CH a few weeks back, Dan Lacroix was trying to fire up the guys, and gave them the mission to reach fourty shots before the end of the period.  The Canadiens were trailing at the time, but he didn't focus on that, he focused on the process.  "Fire pucks at the net!  Let's get two more, get to fourty!" he told the boys, not "Even up the score!", which is tenuous direction.

Maybe one game, it could be "Headman the puck, or bang it in off the boards, every time."  No stickhandling.  No going East-West when a defenceman closes the gap, for cripes' sake.  

-I won't go into how all these offsides are tedious and officious, they do nothing for the flow of the game and for the spectators.  Hockey would do well to look at how rugby handles offsides.  Instead, it's similar to how NFL football stringently enforces illegal procedure penalties.  Sure, you don't want the offence to have an advantage over the defence, but so many of them are for technicalities like not covering up the tackle or twelve men in the huddle.  No Fun League indeed.

Good thing I won't go into it.

-But sure enough, the first goal was scored when Brandon Prust carried the puck into the neutral zone on a three-on-two, but had Jiri Sekac ahead of him.  He fed him the puck, and deprived the linesmen of an opportunity to whistle the play dead and wow us with their subsequent kabuki at a never-boring faceoff.

-Another good thing on that goal, once Jiri Sekac had the puck, both Brandon Prust and Lars Eller went directly to the net.  It didn't directly result in the goal, I think Jiri beat him clean, but maybe they gave the Avalanche goalie something else to think about, maybe he couldn't go and challenge the shooter freely.  And, we had two big guys in front of the net ready to bat in a rebound if it came to that.  Nice work.

-This line had gone a bit cold over the last few games, after a torrid start post-René Bourque.  As I posted during the playoffs last season, when René and Lars were scoring, and Alex Galchenyuk found his stride, we suddenly had three lines that were clicking, and a formidable lineup.  Lately, not so much.  

If the Canadiens can get back on the winning track, it will probably have to come from the other lines taking pressure away from the Desharnais line.

-The Ironic Department of Irony brought us Daniel Brière's goal against his former team, ironic in the same sense that the cat burglar Malloy was caught by Homer Simpson, the very same person that was trying to catch him.  

-On that play, Lars Eller was caught trying to poke at the puck with his stick and missed, he was already turning up-ice, leaving Danny a clear path to the net.  Lars missed a great opportunity to bury his shoulder in Danny's xyphoid process and essentially take him out for the rest of the game, but I guess that's not the type of player he is, and not the way we coach.  A Shawn Thornton or a Ryan Smyth would have slavered at being given the same opportunity, but our boys look for the quick break out, they're not out to thump and outhit other teams.

To flip it around, other teams know this too, and may be a little more confident when playing against the Habs.  Daniel Brière's head would have been on a swivel against the Bruins or Kings with the puck at his feet, he might have backhanded it behind the net at the first opportunity, 'cycled' it.  Against the Canadiens, he doesn't need to play 'du bout de la palette', as Mario Tremblay would say, he can take a few more chances, hold on to the puck a little longer, keep his head down to find the puck.  

-I know this stat is unreliable, but the Avs were credited with nine hits in the first period, the Canadiens three.  See?...

-Early in the second, we see a good illustration of the maxim that there is no defence against perfect execution.  Alex Tanguay makes a perfect pass from behind the net to Ryan O'Reilly in the crease, who puts the puck in a small opening above Carey Price's shoulder.  Pierre Houde seems to think that Alex Galchenyuk was caught out on this play, but short of tackling someone, I don't see how you stop that play.

-Same principle applies to the Canadiens powerplay goal to tie it up at 2-2.  Alex Galchenyuk from behind the net makes a perfect elevated pass to Andrei Markov who's sneaking in back door, and immediately shoots the puck in the deserted net, with goalie Calvin Pickard still hugging the other post.

-Imaginative use of personnel on this man-advantage, the coaches had Lars and Max with David Desharnais up front, and P.A. Parenteau on the point with P.K.  I fear poor Bob Cole having to call the play for this combo.  In any case, the puck moved well, the players roamed around, and that's two big guys up front who can shield the goalie.

-I've been hard on P.K. Subban and Nathan Beaulieu in the past for making a singularly dumb play, and breaking one of the Commandments for defencemen, which is that you don't pass through the middle when in your zone.  Sure enough, Andrei did that tonight, but it didn't end up in our net this time.  He had a clear lane to pass to Jiri Sekac who was open along the left side boards, but instead he tried to sneak a pass behind two Avs, to go counter to their flow as it were.  It was a risky move, the danger being that the pass might be intercepted.  Sure enough, he flubbed his pass, and Daniel Brière pounced on it.

A few seconds of scrambling later, the crisis was averted, but it's a surprising mistake from a vet, an error of execution, yes, but more grave, a mental error, a move which he knew he shouldn't do but still went ahead and did anyway.  There's no risk he'll land in Hamilton for it, he's earned our indulgence, but it was startling to see it happen, and not from Bryan Allen or Gaston Gingras, but our most trusted and smartest defenceman.

-Mike Weaver earned some quality bench time for being indirectly responsible for the third Avalanche goal.  He pinched deep into the offensive zone but the puck skittered by him on the boards, and suddenly they were off on a four-on-one.  Tom Gilbert did the dead-man-sprawl and defended it well, but a backchecking Brandon Prust also slid in extremis, and once Tyson Barrie threw he puck at the net it went in off Prusty.

Have I ever told how much I hate the slide?  It's anti-hockey, no skill needed.  I can make that play, anyone can lie on the ice.  

When I'm NHL Commissioner, that's one of my first decrees, no sliding to block shots or defend odd-man rushes.  Stay on your feet boys, use your stick.  Or go to the box and feel shame.

-P.K. Subban tied it at three on a blast from the blue line.  The Avalanche's Maxime Talbot had broken his stick on the faceoff, and les boys controlled the puck and took advantage.

P.K. played an excellent game.  He skated hard, was creative without taking gasp-provoking chances.  When he makes his tight turns and protects the puck, and uses his moves to can-opener a team's defence, it's like an aardvark busting open an anthill, with opponents flailing around in panic.

-We see the pressure on David Desharnais to score more, to shoot more.  On a couple of occasions he took an extra second to shoot instead of passing, and nothing came of it.  Justin Bourne wrote about this, how a player's game should be instinctive, and when they start to try to do something different, it can sometimes hurt their game, not improve it.

-David made up for it with an assist on Max's go-ahead goal.  It was noteworthy that Max scored on a two-on-one with Dale Weise, using him as a decoy and taking a great snipe.  David had the same situation thirty seconds earlier, but he tried to toe-drag to the front of the net to improve his angle and got stick-checked.

-I like the way Michel Therrien and Dan Lacroix have been sprinkling Dale Weise on various lines for effect, it's like a shot of adrenaline for whoever gets him for a shift.  In keeping with Michel Bergeron's principle that you have to reward your heart-and-soul types, not bury them on a fourth line, and especially since I've started to note what an offensive black hole his centreman Manny Malhotra is, it's not a bad practice to give him some shifts like that on Tomas' or David's line, to mix things up, and keep everyone on their toes.

-Tyson Barrie, a player I shrewdly acquired for my fantasy team when the computer auto-drafted him for me, was a whirling dervish in the last couple of minutes.  Off the faceoff, he carried the puck to the net, wheeled behind and passed in front, creating a great scoring chance for the Avalanche.  Later on the same sequence, he drew Pierre Houde's admiration for a poke-check at the blue line that prevented the Canadiens from breaking out cleanly.  As it was, Eric Tangradi ended up with the puck in the neutral zone, but his long-range wrister missed the net.  

Later, he twice prevented Max Pacioretty from scoring again and putting the game away, once by playing goalie behind Calvin Pickard, who had gone in for a neutral zone faceoff, and once by playing goalie, without a stick, and deflecting away Max's shot at the yawning cage.

-I'll ask the question again: are the Canadiens the worst team in the league at scoring into an empty net?  Is there a stat for that?

-Excellent game overall, as these Avalanche tilts have been lately, with lots of skating and end-to-end action, but no goonery or mindless antics after the whistles.  Lots of scoring chances, posts hit, lots of chances to ooh and aah for the crowd.  I'd watch games against the Avalanche rather than the Leafs or Senators any day.

-Lars Eller should play like this every game.  Strong on the puck, decisive, shooting at the net rather than trying to dangle through the entire team.  He got credited with six shots, but RDS noted that he had six in the second alone, so he must have had at least double that in attempts, with a few being deflected or blocked.