Draft day is just like Christmas for hockey fans. Well, for this hockey fan anyway. I love the excitement and the chance that teams may make some big trades. I smile when I see the hope and joy on the faces of the kids who get picked; who can see the fulfillment of their young lives' dreams just a couple of short steps away.
I have hopes too. I hope Trevor Timmins and Bob Gainey finally hit a real first-round homerun this year. I hope the organization lands a player who can eventually fill the long-empty first-line centre position. I hope the draft team isn't swayed into putting too much emphasis on the origins of the player and weighs talent and character alone when choosing prospects. I hope there's a small trade that will bring a second-round pick to the Habs. And, if there's a big trade, I hope it's one that won't hamstring the organization for the next ten years. (You know what I mean.)
Yet, despite the hopes and dreams around the draft, there are some stark realities. A full sixty percent of the players taken today and tomorrow will never play even one NHL game. Another one out of five of the remaining forty percent will play less than ten games in the big league. Most of the rest will be competent hockey players and maybe two or three or five out of the hundreds of kids taken will be true NHL stars.
The value of these kids, so coveted as draft picks, will plummet immediately after their names are announced. What you'd get in a trade for a first-round pick is much, much greater than what you'd get for a prospect who's a former first-round pick. The Habs would have gotten a valuable roster player for the number 18 pick in 2004, but they'd get very little now for Kyle Chipchura. Once the eternal possibility of a draft pick has a name and a face and a set of finite skills, the dream is over and he's just part of the business.
But all that will be real tomorrow. Today, dreams and hopes rule and the one the Habs pick might be the one they're waiting for. Today is a day of infinite possibilities, and we get so few of those, we must dream while we can.
Happy draft day everyone, and Go Habs Go!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Komisarek Question
I think right now, pretty much everyone expects Mike Komisarek to leave the Habs next week. I'm not sure, though, why everybody's so convinced he's gone. He's never said anything about not wanting to stay in Montreal, or about wanting to test the free agent market on July 1. On the contrary, he's only ever said how much he enjoys Montreal and how good the team and the city have been to him over the years.
So, when you look at the reasons people give for why they think Komo's gone, there's nothing certain among them. Some people say it's his body language when interviewed close to the end of the season, and how he didn't say he'd definitely stay in Montreal after his contract ended. I know people want assurances and absolutes from players, but in this case, I don't fault Komisarek for hedging. He knew he was having a rotten season, and he knew his agent still had a deal to negotiate with Gainey. In that situation, he'd look pretty dumb if he tipped his hand. Say he tells the reporter "Oh, yeah, Montreal's great and I really want to stay here?" Immediately you hand the team ammunition in negotiations and Gainey starts pushing a hometown discount. Then, if the deal falls through for some reason, and he ends up somewhere else, he has to wear the hypocrite label for the rest of his career. Or, worse from a pride point of view, imagine he says "Montreal is my team, and I'm here to stay," only to find out Gainey intends to let him go on July 1? A smart negotiator hedges and keeps his intentions to himself until the deal is settled. I think Mike Komisarek is no dummy.
Others say Komisarek wants six million dollars a year, and that's why he won't be back in Montreal. Well, sure, I want six million dollars a year too. Who doesn't? But the only "evidence" I've seen that Komisarek or his agent have put that number on the table is from that infamous Russian newspaper article that also claimed Kovalev had agreed to a one-year deal between 6-7.5 million and was going to be handed the team captaincy. Right. That was just filled with truth, wasn't it?
Here's what I see happening: Gainey, like the other 28 GMs in the league (I don't count Brian Lawton because he's obviously just a puppet of Koules and Barrie, with less power than a 20- watt bulb), is waiting for the salary cap number to be released. He's also aware there's a lot of wheeling and dealing in the works for the weekend. In order to be ready to field unexpected opportunities, the GMs are waiting until after the draft to make their decisions about re-signings. That's not to say they haven't laid any groundwork. I believe they have their priorities set, barring unforeseen circumstances, and they've already had some preliminary talks with agents. Gainey has indicated that Komisarek is a priority for the Habs, so I have to think the interest in retaining Komo is there on the Canadiens side.
In that case, one of two things could happen to derail a deal. One: Komisarek is really turned off of Montreal and any deal Gainey offers won't be enough. And two: the money offered by Montreal won't match the number Komisarek believes he's worth.
I'm not sure about number one. Unless something truly awful happened in the dressing room this year of which we're not aware, it seems Komisarek has always liked Montreal. He goes back and forth from his summer home in New York to attend events in the off-season. And he's always spoken positively about the lifestyle in Montreal. I also see him as the kind of person who thinks loyalty is important. So, assuming last year hasn't poisoned him on the city and the team generally, I don't see him disliking Montreal enough to walk away at any cost.
That leaves number two. Bob Gainey has a number in head head that he thinks Komisarek is worth. Komisarek's got one too. Assuming Gainey's willing to give a little extra when he takes into account the interest of other teams in Komo's services and the general requirement to overpay for free agents, and Komisarek's willing to take a little less out of loyalty, you'd have to hope the numbers aren't as far apart as we might think. I don't support the idea that Komisarek is worth more than 4-5 million dollars a year. However, if the two sides are only a little apart, and it would require a few hundred thousand dollars to bridge the gap, I think it's probably wiser for Gainey to bend.
I look at it this way: If the Canadiens didn't have Komisarek in the last couple of years, the defence would have been made up of various combinations of Markov, Gorges, Hamrlik, O'Byrne, Dandenault, Bouillon, Streit and Brisebois. Under those circumstances, I think we'd all be screaming for Gainey to go out and hire a free agent defenceman with size, grit and the ability to hit people hard. If Komisarek belonged to, let's say, the Rangers, we'd be looking at him with a lot more charity than we are right now. I think in that case, nobody would balk at paying Komisarek a Hamrlik-like salary to acquire him.
You can also look at it this way: if Komisarek walks, who takes his place? Will it be another case like that of Mark Streit last year, where the Habs let him go and then had to trade draft picks later in the season to fill the hole he left? The Canadiens don't have anyone else like Komisarek, either in the NHL or in the farm system. And I don't really see anyone who brings what he does on the open market this summer. I know he can't score to save his life, and his play without Markov can be very iffy. But I also know he was injured this season, which affected his game. A healthy Komisarek is important in Montreal, and if he walks it will make next season much, much more difficult.
That's why I think Gainey will work something out with Komisarek. And while we won't necessarily like the price, I think we have to accept that you have to pay for free agents, even your own. And sometimes the monetary cost is less than the cost of losing the player.
So, when you look at the reasons people give for why they think Komo's gone, there's nothing certain among them. Some people say it's his body language when interviewed close to the end of the season, and how he didn't say he'd definitely stay in Montreal after his contract ended. I know people want assurances and absolutes from players, but in this case, I don't fault Komisarek for hedging. He knew he was having a rotten season, and he knew his agent still had a deal to negotiate with Gainey. In that situation, he'd look pretty dumb if he tipped his hand. Say he tells the reporter "Oh, yeah, Montreal's great and I really want to stay here?" Immediately you hand the team ammunition in negotiations and Gainey starts pushing a hometown discount. Then, if the deal falls through for some reason, and he ends up somewhere else, he has to wear the hypocrite label for the rest of his career. Or, worse from a pride point of view, imagine he says "Montreal is my team, and I'm here to stay," only to find out Gainey intends to let him go on July 1? A smart negotiator hedges and keeps his intentions to himself until the deal is settled. I think Mike Komisarek is no dummy.
Others say Komisarek wants six million dollars a year, and that's why he won't be back in Montreal. Well, sure, I want six million dollars a year too. Who doesn't? But the only "evidence" I've seen that Komisarek or his agent have put that number on the table is from that infamous Russian newspaper article that also claimed Kovalev had agreed to a one-year deal between 6-7.5 million and was going to be handed the team captaincy. Right. That was just filled with truth, wasn't it?
Here's what I see happening: Gainey, like the other 28 GMs in the league (I don't count Brian Lawton because he's obviously just a puppet of Koules and Barrie, with less power than a 20- watt bulb), is waiting for the salary cap number to be released. He's also aware there's a lot of wheeling and dealing in the works for the weekend. In order to be ready to field unexpected opportunities, the GMs are waiting until after the draft to make their decisions about re-signings. That's not to say they haven't laid any groundwork. I believe they have their priorities set, barring unforeseen circumstances, and they've already had some preliminary talks with agents. Gainey has indicated that Komisarek is a priority for the Habs, so I have to think the interest in retaining Komo is there on the Canadiens side.
In that case, one of two things could happen to derail a deal. One: Komisarek is really turned off of Montreal and any deal Gainey offers won't be enough. And two: the money offered by Montreal won't match the number Komisarek believes he's worth.
I'm not sure about number one. Unless something truly awful happened in the dressing room this year of which we're not aware, it seems Komisarek has always liked Montreal. He goes back and forth from his summer home in New York to attend events in the off-season. And he's always spoken positively about the lifestyle in Montreal. I also see him as the kind of person who thinks loyalty is important. So, assuming last year hasn't poisoned him on the city and the team generally, I don't see him disliking Montreal enough to walk away at any cost.
That leaves number two. Bob Gainey has a number in head head that he thinks Komisarek is worth. Komisarek's got one too. Assuming Gainey's willing to give a little extra when he takes into account the interest of other teams in Komo's services and the general requirement to overpay for free agents, and Komisarek's willing to take a little less out of loyalty, you'd have to hope the numbers aren't as far apart as we might think. I don't support the idea that Komisarek is worth more than 4-5 million dollars a year. However, if the two sides are only a little apart, and it would require a few hundred thousand dollars to bridge the gap, I think it's probably wiser for Gainey to bend.
I look at it this way: If the Canadiens didn't have Komisarek in the last couple of years, the defence would have been made up of various combinations of Markov, Gorges, Hamrlik, O'Byrne, Dandenault, Bouillon, Streit and Brisebois. Under those circumstances, I think we'd all be screaming for Gainey to go out and hire a free agent defenceman with size, grit and the ability to hit people hard. If Komisarek belonged to, let's say, the Rangers, we'd be looking at him with a lot more charity than we are right now. I think in that case, nobody would balk at paying Komisarek a Hamrlik-like salary to acquire him.
You can also look at it this way: if Komisarek walks, who takes his place? Will it be another case like that of Mark Streit last year, where the Habs let him go and then had to trade draft picks later in the season to fill the hole he left? The Canadiens don't have anyone else like Komisarek, either in the NHL or in the farm system. And I don't really see anyone who brings what he does on the open market this summer. I know he can't score to save his life, and his play without Markov can be very iffy. But I also know he was injured this season, which affected his game. A healthy Komisarek is important in Montreal, and if he walks it will make next season much, much more difficult.
That's why I think Gainey will work something out with Komisarek. And while we won't necessarily like the price, I think we have to accept that you have to pay for free agents, even your own. And sometimes the monetary cost is less than the cost of losing the player.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Top Ten Things I Hope I Don't See This Summer
We all have our little pipe dreams about what we'd like to see happen with the Canadiens before the puck drops on the next season. My personal favourite is a neat trade for Jordan Staal. Yours might be signing Bouwmeester or the Sedins. But, being a long-time Habs fan, I'm well versed in the art of disappointed rationalizing. The constant disappointment tends to instill a sense of dread that hangs over every hope like the spectre of the leafs winning a Cup before the Canadiens manage to snag one. With that dread in mind, here are the top ten things I pray don't happen this summer:
10. Serge Savard becomes the right hand of the Molsons, with the power to make hockey decisions. Savard was a great, great defenceman in the NHL. He was a good captain of the Canadiens. He was a decent GM for several years. Now though, Savard is a businessman. He's not involved in hockey and hasn't been since well before the lockout and the birth of the "new" NHL. The man has never dealt within the cap world and hasn't been involved in team building for decades. The Molsons and Savard himself have to realize that his contributions to hockey are in the past and he should leave the hockey decisions to people who are actively involved in the game right now.
9. Gainey trades for Briere. The Flyers are desperate for cap space and the Habs are desperate for a scoring centre. I'm pretty sure Briere wouldn't exactly be on the top of Gainey's list at the moment, but we know how Plan A tends to quickly become Plan B or even Plan C in Montreal during the summer. If Plan A is signing Cammalleri for example, and Plan B is retaining Koivu, and neither of those work out, I fear Plan C is saving Holmgren from himself and taking Briere off his hands, for a hefty return to Philly, of course. I don't want Briere, because I think he's too small to make a big difference to the Habs. I don't want to send the Canadiens' promising, cheap young players to Philly to make their team better. And most of all, I don't want Gainey to be the one who lets Holmgren and his lack of foresight and bad planning off the hook.
8. Mike Komisarek signs for more than five million a year. I really like Komisarek, and I really think the team needs him. But in the real world, Komisarek's value is about 3.5 million a year. Add another million onto that for the typical Montreal overpayment required in the inflated free agent world, and that's about the limit Gainey should offer. However, because he has some intangibles the team needs like size on the blue line and leadership in the room, Gainey might stretch the offer to five million a year, or close to it. If Komisarek wants more than that, he'll have to walk. I hope it doesn't come to that, because he's a useful player who was hurt last year. And I want to believe that some of the players we cheer for are actually loyal to the team. Andrei Markov did it two years ago, and he's about seventeen times better a defenceman than Komisarek.
7. Alex Tanguay walks. I like Tanguay too. He's the first point-a-game player the Habs have acquired since Alex Kovalev. He's a fabulous passer and not afraid of physical contact. It was just bad luck that he ended up sustaining a major injury last year. The guy is in his prime and his style of play, which relies on vision and smooth hands, probably means he's got another five or six good years left in him. But beyond his value as an on-ice asset, I think the team can't afford to let Tanguay go right now. Gainey gave up valuable draft picks to obtain him, and if that works out to be a first and second pick for a half-season of Tanguay, that's a bad trade. Last year was basically a season-long trial period in which the Habs had a chance to show Tanguay how well he fits in Montreal. That needs to work out, for the good of the franchise.
6. Gainey is let go. A change of ownership usually means a full-scale revamp within management. I know Bob's made his share of mistakes, but so has every other GM in the league. If you look at the state of the team in the last two years, compared to the way it looked in the years before, you can see a pattern of overall improvement. I think Gainey is a good fit for the environment in Montreal and knows hockey and the difficulties of running the Habs better than most. At the moment I just don't see another candidate who could conceivably do a better job than Gainey, so I think it would be a mistake to get rid of him.
5. Saku Koivu walks. There aren't a whole lot of quality centres available as free agents this summer, and anyone who's an improvement on Koivu will cost a fair amount in a trade situation. This is one of those cases in which a bird in the hand is better than two Sedins in the bush. Koivu is no longer a number-one centre, but he's a good centre and will help any team he joins. Considering his long history with the Canadiens and the fact that he's probably willing to accept a slightly smaller salary and a different role on the team, then he should be re-signed. Look at it this way: Koivu is better than Lapierre, Metropolit and Chipchura. He's comparable to Plekanec. If Gainey can't swing a trade for a centre without using half the team's roster and prospects to do it, or if he can't attract another UFA to fill the role Koivu plays, the Habs still need the captain.
4. Fans boo the Habs first-round draft pick. I expect the fans in the Bell Centre to jeer whatever kid Trevor Timmins chooses at number 18, if the player's name doesn't sound French. It's not fair, it's mean and it's potentially damaging to the team's selection. What kind of start in building a relationship with the city and the team is it when the player is on the defensive on his first day as a Canadien? I hope it won't happen, or that the team will just pick Louis Leblanc and get it over with. But I'm not expecting much.
3. Any of the Canadiens' UFAs sign with arch-rivals. It was bad enough last year watching Michael Ryder play for the Bruins and subsequently destroy the Habs in the playoffs. Imagine how awful it would be to see Komisarek with a big, blue leaf on his sweater hammering Plekanec or Kostitsyn? Or Kovalev cashing Malkin's feeds with the Pens? Or Bouillon helping shore up the Rangers' iffy blue line? If the Habs don't re-sign them, I hope they go west. Or to really bad teams.
2. Gainey overpays for mid-range players to fill good players' roles. I don't want to see any downgrades. If Komisarek or Koivu leave, I don't want to see big money spent to bring in guys not quite as good, who will barely keep the team at the same level it was last year. If Gainey can't attract better players, he might as well spend the money to keep the ones he's already got.
And the number one thing I hope doesn't happen this summer:
1. A trade for Vincent Lecavalier. English is a fairly limited language when it comes to expressing emotion, so words aren't quite sufficient to explain how much I want Lecavalier to remain far away in Tampa. His questionable health, his acquisition price which would gut the Habs, and most of all, his ridiculous, bloated, too-long contract make him an untouchable for me. I just foresee any such trade ending in disaster. Imagine the hopes and dreams riding on this thirty-year-old in Montreal? The moment he puts up only a 75-point, 30-goal season while cashing his ten-million dollar salary, the love the city has for him now will turn to disappointment. The booing will start when he slips below the 70-point threshold at age 35, and he's still ringing up a 7.7-million dollar cap hit. It won't be pretty. And, in the meantime, the five or six players the Habs would have traded away for Lecavalier will help make Tampa a much better team as the Habs get poorer overall. Vinny didn't make the Lightning win all by himself, and he won't make the Habs win either. If we can get through the weekend without hearing Bettman announce that particular trade, I'll consider the draft a moral victory for sensible Canadiens fans everywhere.
10. Serge Savard becomes the right hand of the Molsons, with the power to make hockey decisions. Savard was a great, great defenceman in the NHL. He was a good captain of the Canadiens. He was a decent GM for several years. Now though, Savard is a businessman. He's not involved in hockey and hasn't been since well before the lockout and the birth of the "new" NHL. The man has never dealt within the cap world and hasn't been involved in team building for decades. The Molsons and Savard himself have to realize that his contributions to hockey are in the past and he should leave the hockey decisions to people who are actively involved in the game right now.
9. Gainey trades for Briere. The Flyers are desperate for cap space and the Habs are desperate for a scoring centre. I'm pretty sure Briere wouldn't exactly be on the top of Gainey's list at the moment, but we know how Plan A tends to quickly become Plan B or even Plan C in Montreal during the summer. If Plan A is signing Cammalleri for example, and Plan B is retaining Koivu, and neither of those work out, I fear Plan C is saving Holmgren from himself and taking Briere off his hands, for a hefty return to Philly, of course. I don't want Briere, because I think he's too small to make a big difference to the Habs. I don't want to send the Canadiens' promising, cheap young players to Philly to make their team better. And most of all, I don't want Gainey to be the one who lets Holmgren and his lack of foresight and bad planning off the hook.
8. Mike Komisarek signs for more than five million a year. I really like Komisarek, and I really think the team needs him. But in the real world, Komisarek's value is about 3.5 million a year. Add another million onto that for the typical Montreal overpayment required in the inflated free agent world, and that's about the limit Gainey should offer. However, because he has some intangibles the team needs like size on the blue line and leadership in the room, Gainey might stretch the offer to five million a year, or close to it. If Komisarek wants more than that, he'll have to walk. I hope it doesn't come to that, because he's a useful player who was hurt last year. And I want to believe that some of the players we cheer for are actually loyal to the team. Andrei Markov did it two years ago, and he's about seventeen times better a defenceman than Komisarek.
7. Alex Tanguay walks. I like Tanguay too. He's the first point-a-game player the Habs have acquired since Alex Kovalev. He's a fabulous passer and not afraid of physical contact. It was just bad luck that he ended up sustaining a major injury last year. The guy is in his prime and his style of play, which relies on vision and smooth hands, probably means he's got another five or six good years left in him. But beyond his value as an on-ice asset, I think the team can't afford to let Tanguay go right now. Gainey gave up valuable draft picks to obtain him, and if that works out to be a first and second pick for a half-season of Tanguay, that's a bad trade. Last year was basically a season-long trial period in which the Habs had a chance to show Tanguay how well he fits in Montreal. That needs to work out, for the good of the franchise.
6. Gainey is let go. A change of ownership usually means a full-scale revamp within management. I know Bob's made his share of mistakes, but so has every other GM in the league. If you look at the state of the team in the last two years, compared to the way it looked in the years before, you can see a pattern of overall improvement. I think Gainey is a good fit for the environment in Montreal and knows hockey and the difficulties of running the Habs better than most. At the moment I just don't see another candidate who could conceivably do a better job than Gainey, so I think it would be a mistake to get rid of him.
5. Saku Koivu walks. There aren't a whole lot of quality centres available as free agents this summer, and anyone who's an improvement on Koivu will cost a fair amount in a trade situation. This is one of those cases in which a bird in the hand is better than two Sedins in the bush. Koivu is no longer a number-one centre, but he's a good centre and will help any team he joins. Considering his long history with the Canadiens and the fact that he's probably willing to accept a slightly smaller salary and a different role on the team, then he should be re-signed. Look at it this way: Koivu is better than Lapierre, Metropolit and Chipchura. He's comparable to Plekanec. If Gainey can't swing a trade for a centre without using half the team's roster and prospects to do it, or if he can't attract another UFA to fill the role Koivu plays, the Habs still need the captain.
4. Fans boo the Habs first-round draft pick. I expect the fans in the Bell Centre to jeer whatever kid Trevor Timmins chooses at number 18, if the player's name doesn't sound French. It's not fair, it's mean and it's potentially damaging to the team's selection. What kind of start in building a relationship with the city and the team is it when the player is on the defensive on his first day as a Canadien? I hope it won't happen, or that the team will just pick Louis Leblanc and get it over with. But I'm not expecting much.
3. Any of the Canadiens' UFAs sign with arch-rivals. It was bad enough last year watching Michael Ryder play for the Bruins and subsequently destroy the Habs in the playoffs. Imagine how awful it would be to see Komisarek with a big, blue leaf on his sweater hammering Plekanec or Kostitsyn? Or Kovalev cashing Malkin's feeds with the Pens? Or Bouillon helping shore up the Rangers' iffy blue line? If the Habs don't re-sign them, I hope they go west. Or to really bad teams.
2. Gainey overpays for mid-range players to fill good players' roles. I don't want to see any downgrades. If Komisarek or Koivu leave, I don't want to see big money spent to bring in guys not quite as good, who will barely keep the team at the same level it was last year. If Gainey can't attract better players, he might as well spend the money to keep the ones he's already got.
And the number one thing I hope doesn't happen this summer:
1. A trade for Vincent Lecavalier. English is a fairly limited language when it comes to expressing emotion, so words aren't quite sufficient to explain how much I want Lecavalier to remain far away in Tampa. His questionable health, his acquisition price which would gut the Habs, and most of all, his ridiculous, bloated, too-long contract make him an untouchable for me. I just foresee any such trade ending in disaster. Imagine the hopes and dreams riding on this thirty-year-old in Montreal? The moment he puts up only a 75-point, 30-goal season while cashing his ten-million dollar salary, the love the city has for him now will turn to disappointment. The booing will start when he slips below the 70-point threshold at age 35, and he's still ringing up a 7.7-million dollar cap hit. It won't be pretty. And, in the meantime, the five or six players the Habs would have traded away for Lecavalier will help make Tampa a much better team as the Habs get poorer overall. Vinny didn't make the Lightning win all by himself, and he won't make the Habs win either. If we can get through the weekend without hearing Bettman announce that particular trade, I'll consider the draft a moral victory for sensible Canadiens fans everywhere.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Rethinking Strategy
Trevor Timmins is a BPA man. We know that, and, in theory, picking the best player available when you step up to the podium at the amateur draft isn't a bad strategy. But this year, I think it might be time to make an exception to the rule.
The fact is, the Canadiens need a solid, offensively-talented centre with some size. They've had the same need for well over a decade and drafting the BPA has failed to address it. I hate to beat the 2003 draft to death yet again, but if Timmins had been looking for a big, strong centre that year, he might have chosen a guy like Getzlaf, instead of the best player available who, in Timmins' book, was Andrei Kostitsyn. Not that I don't think Kostitsyn's got talent. On the contrary, I think only a lack of consistency is preventing him from becoming a seventy-point player. But Kostitsyn is another winger on a team with lots of wingers and no top centres either on the big team or in the system.
The theory behind the BPA is that you can't draft for immediate needs because the dynamic and composition of a team will likely change by the time the kid you draft is ready for the big time. The common defence of Timmins' strict adherence to that theory is the Carey Price selection. Just about everyone was surprised to see the Price pick when Jose Theodore was number one in Montreal and had won a Hart and Vezina trophy in the not-too-distant past. Who would have predicted Theo's massive implosion after Price was picked? So, by choosing the BPA in 2005, according to Timmins' list, the Habs snagged themselves a possible franchise goalie who became the organization's top hope at that position after Theodore was traded. Sure, they could have taken Kopitar who would now be the team's number-one centre. But they wouldn't have Price to guard the net for the next ten years. It's still too early to say whether that argument is a valid one. Would the team be better or worse off with Kopitar centering the first line and a Halak/Huet tandem in nets? We won't know until Price develops fully and we see how important he is to the Canadiens in the next several seasons. In the meantime, the hole at centre is still not filled.
The other argument in favour of the BPA theory is that you can't have too much talent. So, in theory, if a team decides the best player available is a defenceman four or five years in a row, that's no problem because it can later trade one of those talented young D-men for the other pieces the team needs. Or, it can bring in free agents to plug the holes. That's great...in theory. But the reality is because of the salary cap, teams are placing greater value than ever on cheap, young talent. That means they're reluctant to trade prospects until they have a very good idea about the kid's upside and potential to contribute in the NHL. Nobody wants to unload a kid if there's a chance he might bloom for another team. So they hold onto the prospects until they know if they're NHL quality or not. But by then, the other teams know it too, so there are few bargains to be had in trades. The strange irony of the value teams place on their own prospects, however, is that they don't place the same value on other teams' kids. So, while a GM might be willing to part with a couple of D-prospects in exchange for a good young forward, the other GM might not think prospects are worth as much as his NHL-calibre forward. And most organizations have only a few real prized prospects that might interest other teams. The problem is, those are the kids a GM's own team needs to build around.
Take the Habs for example. While they're flush with defence prospects, they have very little at centre. If they want to trade for a centre, what can they offer? Subban and Weber for Getzlaf or Staal? Right. So, the trading thing, while ideal in theory, doesn't exactly pan out as imagined very often.
As for filling holes through free agency, well, that might work for other teams, but Montreal has never been successful at that. As we know.
So, it's back to the draft. I agree that in most cases it's tough to predict what a team's needs might be in five years, when a mid-round draft pick is finally ready to contribute at the NHL level. But in Montreal, the greatest need is the same one the team has had for years, and there's nobody on the farm team who looks like he'll be capable of filling that need in the next several seasons.
That's why, when Trevor Timmins steps up to the mic, I hope he picks the best centre available. He may gamble and miss, but the draft is just that way, regardless of which strategy you use. I'm sure he thought David Fischer was the best player available three years ago, and that's not exactly been a huge homerun yet. Perhaps if he'd been drafting for need that year, Patrik Berglund would have scored 21 goals in his rookie NHL season in Montreal instead of St.Louis. While I agree drafting for need isn't the best way to go generally, I think it's a special circumstance in Montreal this year. At least we'll know the team tried to fill that hole in centre, even if it ultimately doesn't work out.
The fact is, the Canadiens need a solid, offensively-talented centre with some size. They've had the same need for well over a decade and drafting the BPA has failed to address it. I hate to beat the 2003 draft to death yet again, but if Timmins had been looking for a big, strong centre that year, he might have chosen a guy like Getzlaf, instead of the best player available who, in Timmins' book, was Andrei Kostitsyn. Not that I don't think Kostitsyn's got talent. On the contrary, I think only a lack of consistency is preventing him from becoming a seventy-point player. But Kostitsyn is another winger on a team with lots of wingers and no top centres either on the big team or in the system.
The theory behind the BPA is that you can't draft for immediate needs because the dynamic and composition of a team will likely change by the time the kid you draft is ready for the big time. The common defence of Timmins' strict adherence to that theory is the Carey Price selection. Just about everyone was surprised to see the Price pick when Jose Theodore was number one in Montreal and had won a Hart and Vezina trophy in the not-too-distant past. Who would have predicted Theo's massive implosion after Price was picked? So, by choosing the BPA in 2005, according to Timmins' list, the Habs snagged themselves a possible franchise goalie who became the organization's top hope at that position after Theodore was traded. Sure, they could have taken Kopitar who would now be the team's number-one centre. But they wouldn't have Price to guard the net for the next ten years. It's still too early to say whether that argument is a valid one. Would the team be better or worse off with Kopitar centering the first line and a Halak/Huet tandem in nets? We won't know until Price develops fully and we see how important he is to the Canadiens in the next several seasons. In the meantime, the hole at centre is still not filled.
The other argument in favour of the BPA theory is that you can't have too much talent. So, in theory, if a team decides the best player available is a defenceman four or five years in a row, that's no problem because it can later trade one of those talented young D-men for the other pieces the team needs. Or, it can bring in free agents to plug the holes. That's great...in theory. But the reality is because of the salary cap, teams are placing greater value than ever on cheap, young talent. That means they're reluctant to trade prospects until they have a very good idea about the kid's upside and potential to contribute in the NHL. Nobody wants to unload a kid if there's a chance he might bloom for another team. So they hold onto the prospects until they know if they're NHL quality or not. But by then, the other teams know it too, so there are few bargains to be had in trades. The strange irony of the value teams place on their own prospects, however, is that they don't place the same value on other teams' kids. So, while a GM might be willing to part with a couple of D-prospects in exchange for a good young forward, the other GM might not think prospects are worth as much as his NHL-calibre forward. And most organizations have only a few real prized prospects that might interest other teams. The problem is, those are the kids a GM's own team needs to build around.
Take the Habs for example. While they're flush with defence prospects, they have very little at centre. If they want to trade for a centre, what can they offer? Subban and Weber for Getzlaf or Staal? Right. So, the trading thing, while ideal in theory, doesn't exactly pan out as imagined very often.
As for filling holes through free agency, well, that might work for other teams, but Montreal has never been successful at that. As we know.
So, it's back to the draft. I agree that in most cases it's tough to predict what a team's needs might be in five years, when a mid-round draft pick is finally ready to contribute at the NHL level. But in Montreal, the greatest need is the same one the team has had for years, and there's nobody on the farm team who looks like he'll be capable of filling that need in the next several seasons.
That's why, when Trevor Timmins steps up to the mic, I hope he picks the best centre available. He may gamble and miss, but the draft is just that way, regardless of which strategy you use. I'm sure he thought David Fischer was the best player available three years ago, and that's not exactly been a huge homerun yet. Perhaps if he'd been drafting for need that year, Patrik Berglund would have scored 21 goals in his rookie NHL season in Montreal instead of St.Louis. While I agree drafting for need isn't the best way to go generally, I think it's a special circumstance in Montreal this year. At least we'll know the team tried to fill that hole in centre, even if it ultimately doesn't work out.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Whew!
Boy, I'm glad things are moving along and the sale of the Habs is official, if not final. I like the idea of the Molson brothers as owners. They've got the family history with the team and the Quebec roots. They get it. They know what's important to the people who pay the bills, and it isn't the hyped-up pageantry of an overblown Centennial celebration we saw last season. Fans want a winner, and so do the new owners. Hopefully, that means they're willing to pay for what they want and keep their noses out of hockey decisions.
Say what you will about George Gillet though, he's leaving the Molson brothers some pretty big loafers to fill. Even though he doesn't know hockey the way Canadians who are weaned on the sport know it, he was a good owner. He never dropped into the dressing room with ideas for the powerplay, as the loonies in Tampa like to do. He never imposed an artificial salary cap within the team or stinted on the essentials (such as a scouting staff) to save money like the guy in Buffalo did. He never publicly questioned the competency of the hockey men he hired to run the team. He did give Bob Gainey and his staff the freedom to improve the team dramatically in the last six years.
But Gillett's greatest strength as an owner lay in the fact that he's a good guy. He cheered for the team and he treated the players with a great deal of respect and care. He was generous with his employees both generally, by doing things like building them the state-of-the-art Brossard training facility, and personally. When Saku Koivu was sick with cancer and wasn't allowed to fly on commercial airlines, Gillett sent him home to Finland on his private jet. He did the same thing for Mike Komisarek when the latter's mother was dying of cancer. He had Chris Higgins over for dinner at the Gillett family home while the player was recouperating from shoulder surgery in Colorado.
The Canadiens might not have a great many selling points when it comes to attracting new players or enticing current ones to stay, but Gillett was one of them. So, I'm wondering now what impact his cutting ties with the Habs will have on the players who had developed a personal loyalty to the man? Will a contract offer now seem a little less appealing than the same deal would have with Gillett paying the bills? Komisarek and Koivu certainly must consider how different the Canadiens organization will seem for them under new ownership. And they'll be weighing the Canadiens against potential offers from other teams in two weeks' time.
I just hope Gillett's departure doesn't make the Canadiens side of the scale too light to tip the balance in Montreal's favour. I'd like to believe the Molsons will be at least as good as, if not better than, Gillett when it comes to owning the team. But until they prove they are, I'd like to see the players give them a chance rather than follow Uncle George out of Montreal.
Say what you will about George Gillet though, he's leaving the Molson brothers some pretty big loafers to fill. Even though he doesn't know hockey the way Canadians who are weaned on the sport know it, he was a good owner. He never dropped into the dressing room with ideas for the powerplay, as the loonies in Tampa like to do. He never imposed an artificial salary cap within the team or stinted on the essentials (such as a scouting staff) to save money like the guy in Buffalo did. He never publicly questioned the competency of the hockey men he hired to run the team. He did give Bob Gainey and his staff the freedom to improve the team dramatically in the last six years.
But Gillett's greatest strength as an owner lay in the fact that he's a good guy. He cheered for the team and he treated the players with a great deal of respect and care. He was generous with his employees both generally, by doing things like building them the state-of-the-art Brossard training facility, and personally. When Saku Koivu was sick with cancer and wasn't allowed to fly on commercial airlines, Gillett sent him home to Finland on his private jet. He did the same thing for Mike Komisarek when the latter's mother was dying of cancer. He had Chris Higgins over for dinner at the Gillett family home while the player was recouperating from shoulder surgery in Colorado.
The Canadiens might not have a great many selling points when it comes to attracting new players or enticing current ones to stay, but Gillett was one of them. So, I'm wondering now what impact his cutting ties with the Habs will have on the players who had developed a personal loyalty to the man? Will a contract offer now seem a little less appealing than the same deal would have with Gillett paying the bills? Komisarek and Koivu certainly must consider how different the Canadiens organization will seem for them under new ownership. And they'll be weighing the Canadiens against potential offers from other teams in two weeks' time.
I just hope Gillett's departure doesn't make the Canadiens side of the scale too light to tip the balance in Montreal's favour. I'd like to believe the Molsons will be at least as good as, if not better than, Gillett when it comes to owning the team. But until they prove they are, I'd like to see the players give them a chance rather than follow Uncle George out of Montreal.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Trade Winds: Light
Yesterday, my kid went a field trip to a museum. All the kids in the class brought some money to buy a trinket at the museum's gift shop and on the way home, they were comparing the amount of change they had left over. My kid suggested to her bus seatmate that she'd like to trade coins. When the negotiations were completed, the other kid had traded a loonie AND a piece of hand-painted driftwood for a quarter. I asked my daughter if she thought it was right to take the other kid's dollar while giving only a quarter in exchange. She said, "Well, the other kid wanted to do it."
The whole story made me wish there were GMs in the NHL who'd be similarly willing to trade their dollar players for the Canadiens' quarters. But while my kid may be the Sam Pollock of schoolyard trades, unfortunately for the Habs, the heyday of Trader Sam is long gone.
Right now, fans are desperately hoping for a major draft-day trade that will bring a real, true superstar to Montreal. Lecavalier, Heatley, Staal and Kovalchuk all have their factions of support within Habs fandom. The problem is, Bob Gainey doesn't have much of value to trade for them; or, more precisely, anything of value from which he's willing to part.
The Canadiens have more free cap space than any other NHL team this summer. That's because nearly every big salary the team paid out last year is now off the books, and with the salaries go the rights to the team's best players. You know, the ones who might actually be worth packaging in a trade for a superstar. So, what Gainey's looking at as trade bait is a somewhat skilled, if inconsistent and largely unproven, young core of forwards. It's hard to imagine Ottawa accepting a package consisting of Max Lapierre, Andrei Kostitsyn and Guillaume Latendresse for Dany Heatley. Those three all together barely come close to Heatley's goal totals. In any case, the loss of three or four roster players from the Canadiens would hurt the team more than the addition of one superstar would help it. Even if they don't score a ton of goals, they do fill important, if lesser, roles on the team.
So, assuming teams with superstars to trade wouldn't be satisfied with a package of second or third-tier forwards, you then have to consider the other players the Habs still have under contract. Of those, Andrei Markov and Carey Price have the most value on the market, and could possibly be the centrepiece of a trade on the Canadiens' side. But Markov is the team MVP and one of the top puck-moving defencemen in the league. Trading him might bring a good forward in return, but it would open up a massive hole on defence which would counteract any positives up front. And Price is the hoped-for superstar-to-be on which Gainey is staking his career as general manager. There's no way he's getting traded, partly because Gainey loves him and partly because of the huge fear of him developing into the next Brodeur in some other city.
So, when it comes down to it, when other teams put their crown jewel players on the market, the Canadiens just don't have the players of equal value to give in return. Fans will continue to be disappointed when Gainey doesn't make a massive trade on draft day, but last year's acquisition of Alex Tanguay for draft picks is about as good as it gets when a team is as limited in star players as Montreal is right now.
In other words, you might be able to trade a quarter for a loonie on the school bus, but it's not very likely to happen in the NHL. And that's somthing fans are just going to have to deal with.
The whole story made me wish there were GMs in the NHL who'd be similarly willing to trade their dollar players for the Canadiens' quarters. But while my kid may be the Sam Pollock of schoolyard trades, unfortunately for the Habs, the heyday of Trader Sam is long gone.
Right now, fans are desperately hoping for a major draft-day trade that will bring a real, true superstar to Montreal. Lecavalier, Heatley, Staal and Kovalchuk all have their factions of support within Habs fandom. The problem is, Bob Gainey doesn't have much of value to trade for them; or, more precisely, anything of value from which he's willing to part.
The Canadiens have more free cap space than any other NHL team this summer. That's because nearly every big salary the team paid out last year is now off the books, and with the salaries go the rights to the team's best players. You know, the ones who might actually be worth packaging in a trade for a superstar. So, what Gainey's looking at as trade bait is a somewhat skilled, if inconsistent and largely unproven, young core of forwards. It's hard to imagine Ottawa accepting a package consisting of Max Lapierre, Andrei Kostitsyn and Guillaume Latendresse for Dany Heatley. Those three all together barely come close to Heatley's goal totals. In any case, the loss of three or four roster players from the Canadiens would hurt the team more than the addition of one superstar would help it. Even if they don't score a ton of goals, they do fill important, if lesser, roles on the team.
So, assuming teams with superstars to trade wouldn't be satisfied with a package of second or third-tier forwards, you then have to consider the other players the Habs still have under contract. Of those, Andrei Markov and Carey Price have the most value on the market, and could possibly be the centrepiece of a trade on the Canadiens' side. But Markov is the team MVP and one of the top puck-moving defencemen in the league. Trading him might bring a good forward in return, but it would open up a massive hole on defence which would counteract any positives up front. And Price is the hoped-for superstar-to-be on which Gainey is staking his career as general manager. There's no way he's getting traded, partly because Gainey loves him and partly because of the huge fear of him developing into the next Brodeur in some other city.
So, when it comes down to it, when other teams put their crown jewel players on the market, the Canadiens just don't have the players of equal value to give in return. Fans will continue to be disappointed when Gainey doesn't make a massive trade on draft day, but last year's acquisition of Alex Tanguay for draft picks is about as good as it gets when a team is as limited in star players as Montreal is right now.
In other words, you might be able to trade a quarter for a loonie on the school bus, but it's not very likely to happen in the NHL. And that's somthing fans are just going to have to deal with.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Hopes and Hindsight: Twenty Years Later
Once upon a time...lets call it June, 1989...there was an eighteen-year-old hockey player with stars in his eyes and a first-round ranking in the upcoming NHL draft. The kid was a francophone defenceman from Montreal; not a huge guy, but a dynamic offensive force and powerplay quarterback for his team in the Q. The kid talked to Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Hartford before the draft, but since the Whalers had already sent him a team cap and jersey and verbally expressed interest in making him their first-round pick, he was all set to join the Whale. That's what was going on behind the scenes.
In public, the fans and media were clamouring for the team to draft a hometown boy. The Canadiens were picking thirteenth overall, and there was an exciting Montreal-born prospect ranked fifteenth. When the Canadiens' turn came, surprisingly, the local boy was still available, having been passed over by the Whalers who had said they planned to take him at the number ten spot. The Whalers picked Bobby Holik instead. The kid's heart jumped when Habs' GM Serge Savard stepped up to the mic and announced "The Montreal Canadiens are pleased to select...from the Seattle Thunderbirds, Lindsay Vallis." Then, he thought for sure Buffalo would take him at fourteenth, but again, it didn't happen. The first round ended, and the fifteenth-ranked pick was still there.
In the end, the Canadiens, picking in the second round at number thirty overall, called his name...and Patrice Brisebois became a Hab. Fans were thrilled their team landed the best Quebec-born prospect in the draft, and in the second round too. He was a steal. Back then, twenty years ago this draft, Brisebois was over the moon to be chosen by his hometown team. He said, "I'm so happy! From the age of five, every Saturday night I watched the Canadiens on television. I knew everything about the club. And now I've been drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. I can hardly believe it!" He went on to talk about the sacrifices he'd have to make to make the big time and how he was willing to do whatever it took to be an NHL player.
Remembering the starry-eyed kid Brisebois was back then, and knowing now how things worked out for him, twenty years of hindsight should be able to give us a bit of perspective on this year's draft. The kid who was ranked fifteenth overall, with such high hopes piled on his future, went on to become a serviceable, if fairly soft, fairly risky, NHL defenceman with a nice point shot. Still, out of the sixteen QMJHL players chosen in the twelve rounds of the 1989 draft, Breezer played the most games in the NHL and was the only one to play a real role in winning a Stanley Cup. (Andre Racicot, also drafted by the Habs in 1989, was backup to Patrick Roy in 1993, but played only one period, giving up two goals on nine shots.)
It just goes to show that the draft is a crap shoot. I'm sure the Habs thought their first pick twenty years ago, Lindsay Vallis, would be the big, strong offensive forward they've been looking for ever since. And nobody thought much of it when the Red Wings drafted a smallish defenceman from Sweden in the third round. Nicklas Lidstrom has won four Cups, a Conn Smythe and six Stanley Cups since.
I recently rediscovered a book written about junior hockey players and their struggle to make the big time. It profiled six players who would go on to play in the '89 Memorial Cup playoffs, and the dream of every one of them was to make an NHL team. Four of them...Mike Ricci, Donald Audette, John Tanner and Breezer...did. The other two never came close. So many things can ruin a player's chances at a hockey career. An untimely injury, a coach who doesn't help him develop properly, a bad supporting cast, lots of heart and not enough talent: any of those can end a dream before it's realized.
In the book, Brisebois...the bright-eyed, big-dreaming version...writes with wonder about getting a chance to play in SaskPlace for the first time. He enthuses about how great it was to stay in the Holiday Inn, and how good the meals were there. Yet he wasn't naive enough to think getting drafted was the end of the hard work and sacrifice for him.
We look at Brisebois now and forget he was that kid twenty years ago. Now he's a grizzled veteran of 1009 NHL games whose career is probably over. Maybe he wasn't what he was projected to be back then, but he made something of his opportunity and played to the best of his ability. He might not have been a star, but he was useful.
So, this year, when the draft opens up and we all cross our fingers hoping the Habs will pick our favourites, remember the Breezer. A lot of fans are shouting for the Canadiens to trade up and pick Louis Leblanc, or take Jordan Caron, because the draft is in Montreal and they want a francophone pick. One of those guys might be the best player available when Bob Gainey goes to the mic. They'll likely be hoping to hear their names called by their childhood favourite team. And, let's say one of them does get picked. He might be Lindsay Vallis, who plays one game in the NHL...or he might be a useful, dedicated player like Brisebois. Maybe he'll be a star. The point is, we never know how a draft pick will pan out.
I just hope people remember every one of the kids whose names will be called in Montreal is the living embodiment of hope and promise. Some of them will live up to the hype, but most won't. Maybe the Habs' guy will be a diamond in the rough, like Lidstrom. Maybe he'll be someone who never lives up to his ranking, but, like Brisebois, can help contribute to a winning team. Whoever he turns out to be, francophone or not, I hope the fans cheer for him and welcome him and his dream to the Canadiens. That day will be one of the most important days of his life. Let him take good memories away from the Bell Centre, because that may be all he ever has of the NHL. Or it may be the first NHL moment in a long career he'll remember forever.
At least the Breezer got a Cup before he was booed out of Montreal.
In public, the fans and media were clamouring for the team to draft a hometown boy. The Canadiens were picking thirteenth overall, and there was an exciting Montreal-born prospect ranked fifteenth. When the Canadiens' turn came, surprisingly, the local boy was still available, having been passed over by the Whalers who had said they planned to take him at the number ten spot. The Whalers picked Bobby Holik instead. The kid's heart jumped when Habs' GM Serge Savard stepped up to the mic and announced "The Montreal Canadiens are pleased to select...from the Seattle Thunderbirds, Lindsay Vallis." Then, he thought for sure Buffalo would take him at fourteenth, but again, it didn't happen. The first round ended, and the fifteenth-ranked pick was still there.
In the end, the Canadiens, picking in the second round at number thirty overall, called his name...and Patrice Brisebois became a Hab. Fans were thrilled their team landed the best Quebec-born prospect in the draft, and in the second round too. He was a steal. Back then, twenty years ago this draft, Brisebois was over the moon to be chosen by his hometown team. He said, "I'm so happy! From the age of five, every Saturday night I watched the Canadiens on television. I knew everything about the club. And now I've been drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. I can hardly believe it!" He went on to talk about the sacrifices he'd have to make to make the big time and how he was willing to do whatever it took to be an NHL player.
Remembering the starry-eyed kid Brisebois was back then, and knowing now how things worked out for him, twenty years of hindsight should be able to give us a bit of perspective on this year's draft. The kid who was ranked fifteenth overall, with such high hopes piled on his future, went on to become a serviceable, if fairly soft, fairly risky, NHL defenceman with a nice point shot. Still, out of the sixteen QMJHL players chosen in the twelve rounds of the 1989 draft, Breezer played the most games in the NHL and was the only one to play a real role in winning a Stanley Cup. (Andre Racicot, also drafted by the Habs in 1989, was backup to Patrick Roy in 1993, but played only one period, giving up two goals on nine shots.)
It just goes to show that the draft is a crap shoot. I'm sure the Habs thought their first pick twenty years ago, Lindsay Vallis, would be the big, strong offensive forward they've been looking for ever since. And nobody thought much of it when the Red Wings drafted a smallish defenceman from Sweden in the third round. Nicklas Lidstrom has won four Cups, a Conn Smythe and six Stanley Cups since.
I recently rediscovered a book written about junior hockey players and their struggle to make the big time. It profiled six players who would go on to play in the '89 Memorial Cup playoffs, and the dream of every one of them was to make an NHL team. Four of them...Mike Ricci, Donald Audette, John Tanner and Breezer...did. The other two never came close. So many things can ruin a player's chances at a hockey career. An untimely injury, a coach who doesn't help him develop properly, a bad supporting cast, lots of heart and not enough talent: any of those can end a dream before it's realized.
In the book, Brisebois...the bright-eyed, big-dreaming version...writes with wonder about getting a chance to play in SaskPlace for the first time. He enthuses about how great it was to stay in the Holiday Inn, and how good the meals were there. Yet he wasn't naive enough to think getting drafted was the end of the hard work and sacrifice for him.
We look at Brisebois now and forget he was that kid twenty years ago. Now he's a grizzled veteran of 1009 NHL games whose career is probably over. Maybe he wasn't what he was projected to be back then, but he made something of his opportunity and played to the best of his ability. He might not have been a star, but he was useful.
So, this year, when the draft opens up and we all cross our fingers hoping the Habs will pick our favourites, remember the Breezer. A lot of fans are shouting for the Canadiens to trade up and pick Louis Leblanc, or take Jordan Caron, because the draft is in Montreal and they want a francophone pick. One of those guys might be the best player available when Bob Gainey goes to the mic. They'll likely be hoping to hear their names called by their childhood favourite team. And, let's say one of them does get picked. He might be Lindsay Vallis, who plays one game in the NHL...or he might be a useful, dedicated player like Brisebois. Maybe he'll be a star. The point is, we never know how a draft pick will pan out.
I just hope people remember every one of the kids whose names will be called in Montreal is the living embodiment of hope and promise. Some of them will live up to the hype, but most won't. Maybe the Habs' guy will be a diamond in the rough, like Lidstrom. Maybe he'll be someone who never lives up to his ranking, but, like Brisebois, can help contribute to a winning team. Whoever he turns out to be, francophone or not, I hope the fans cheer for him and welcome him and his dream to the Canadiens. That day will be one of the most important days of his life. Let him take good memories away from the Bell Centre, because that may be all he ever has of the NHL. Or it may be the first NHL moment in a long career he'll remember forever.
At least the Breezer got a Cup before he was booed out of Montreal.
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