One of the easiest things for an armchair coach to do is criticize. We see the play unfold at TV speed, or from high up above if we're lucky enough to be in the rink. We can see the trailer sneaking in on the PK and the open man on the PP, and we scream at the player on the ice who doesn't see what we do. So, while criticism comes easy to us, it's sometimes a lot harder to give credit where it's due.
With that in mind, Scott Gomez played a helluva game last night. In a big game with deep psychological implications for his team, the guy who's looked like the inspiration for the Beatles "Nowhere Man" most of the year, shone. He used his speed effectively and went to the middle rather than peeling off to the left on his rushes. He worked hard on the boards, and made a great play to break up a Lightning chance on the PP. Most obviously different from his play in other games this season, he made some very quick decisions. The Pacioretty goal on the 2-on-1 was a perfect example. A month ago, Gomez would have waited, waited and then, out of time and options, let a shot go right at a goalie who was set for it. Last night, though, he fired a great pass to Pax at top speed and the kid buried it.
The surprising thing about his play last night wasn't that he actually had such a great game, but that fans seem so ready to dismiss it. Sometimes, we become so critical of a player (not that Gomez hasn't deserved it alot of the time) that we fail to see the good in him. What we forget is, even if the guy has sucked all year, is overpaid and deeply frustrating, he's still a member of the Canadiens. If Gomez starts playing up to his level of ability and producing, it might mean your pet theory about his level of suckitude is debunked, but it also means your team has a better chance to win. Gomez isn't my favourite player, but he's a Hab. And if he can help the team down the stretch and into the playoffs, I'm cheering for him.
The strong play of everyone else who contributed last night: Desharnais, Plekanec, Gill, Price, Gionta, Pacioretty, Subban, Hamrlik and the rest, we're beginning to expect. Those are guys who bring it every night and it's easy to root for them. It's the guys like Gomez and Kostitsyn who, because of their inconsistency, are tougher to love. That's why we have to remember to give them credit when they help our team...even if they drive you nuts the rest of the time.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Habs vs.Lightning - Playoff Preview Edition
Notes on the third:
-Credit where it's due. Gomez is burning hotter than the space shuttle on re-entry tonight.
-Pacioretty's just so, so good. He's a power forward we didn't even know about in October.
-Stamkos' shot comes with GPS. There've been a couple of very close calls with him.
-Seems that, once again, Pouliot takes a dumbass penalty and DD pays the price and gets benched along with him.
-Cammalleri is probably the forward worst at defending in his own zone.
-WHAT a poke check! That should be in an instructional video.
-Of course. You KNEW one of the Quebecois would do something to hurt the Habs.
-Price is very solid again. The kid's the MVP of the team, by a mile.
-Great win. Now, beat the Bs on Tuesday and we might have something here.
Notes on the second:
-Someone tell Sopel Price can play goal by himself. The D would be better off moving freakin' Dominic Moore out of the crease.
-Pouliot's one of those players with tremendous skill and a little tiny brain.
-Gomez denuded MAB at the blueline for a nice shorthanded chance. Maybe he's finally starting to give a shit.
-Price was farther away from his net than Ross Perot from the White House.
-I'd love to see what's in Martin's brain sometimes. Why has P.K. been removed from the PP?
-I'm so hoping this game doesn't come down to a bunch of regret over those wide-open chances Gionta and AK blew in the first.
-Seriously. Pleks on the point instead of Subban? Why? Subban comes out for the last thirty seconds of the PP and suddenly a goal ensues. What a shock, Penguin.
-The plan to stay out of the box is rapidly deteriorating. It's got the half-life of a carton of milk in a sauna.
-Habs are getting killed on faceoffs. That's going to hurt.
-Nice period. One more, please.
Notes on the first:
-I'd love to know what Pleks says to Price before every game.
-The amount of Gallic envy on RDS is a bit sickening.
-It's vital to stay out of the box against these guys. They live and die by the PP.
-Weber made a couple of very solid plays in front of Price. The kid doesn't have the flash of P.K., but he's talented.
-I don't know what's funnier: Gill scoring two games in a row, or the look on his face on the bench afterwards, as he tries to pretend it's no big deal.
-Desharnais' hands are softer than bunnies. What a lovely move!
-Gionta's not going to see a better chance than that this side of heaven.
-Lightning looking pretty disorganized here. Good to see.
-Oh, Eller. They were doing so well with the discipline.
-Credit where it's due. Gomez is burning hotter than the space shuttle on re-entry tonight.
-Pacioretty's just so, so good. He's a power forward we didn't even know about in October.
-Stamkos' shot comes with GPS. There've been a couple of very close calls with him.
-Seems that, once again, Pouliot takes a dumbass penalty and DD pays the price and gets benched along with him.
-Cammalleri is probably the forward worst at defending in his own zone.
-WHAT a poke check! That should be in an instructional video.
-Of course. You KNEW one of the Quebecois would do something to hurt the Habs.
-Price is very solid again. The kid's the MVP of the team, by a mile.
-Great win. Now, beat the Bs on Tuesday and we might have something here.
Notes on the second:
-Someone tell Sopel Price can play goal by himself. The D would be better off moving freakin' Dominic Moore out of the crease.
-Pouliot's one of those players with tremendous skill and a little tiny brain.
-Gomez denuded MAB at the blueline for a nice shorthanded chance. Maybe he's finally starting to give a shit.
-Price was farther away from his net than Ross Perot from the White House.
-I'd love to see what's in Martin's brain sometimes. Why has P.K. been removed from the PP?
-I'm so hoping this game doesn't come down to a bunch of regret over those wide-open chances Gionta and AK blew in the first.
-Seriously. Pleks on the point instead of Subban? Why? Subban comes out for the last thirty seconds of the PP and suddenly a goal ensues. What a shock, Penguin.
-The plan to stay out of the box is rapidly deteriorating. It's got the half-life of a carton of milk in a sauna.
-Habs are getting killed on faceoffs. That's going to hurt.
-Nice period. One more, please.
Notes on the first:
-I'd love to know what Pleks says to Price before every game.
-The amount of Gallic envy on RDS is a bit sickening.
-It's vital to stay out of the box against these guys. They live and die by the PP.
-Weber made a couple of very solid plays in front of Price. The kid doesn't have the flash of P.K., but he's talented.
-I don't know what's funnier: Gill scoring two games in a row, or the look on his face on the bench afterwards, as he tries to pretend it's no big deal.
-Desharnais' hands are softer than bunnies. What a lovely move!
-Gionta's not going to see a better chance than that this side of heaven.
-Lightning looking pretty disorganized here. Good to see.
-Oh, Eller. They were doing so well with the discipline.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Aftermath: Regrets
The game last night was a hard hat, steel-toe-boot kind of game. The Canadiens came in with a job to do...beat the gutted Panthers...and they went out in a very businesslike fashion and did exactly what they were supposed to do. (Seriously, can you imagine how people would be freaking out if they'd lost last night? Or even made it close?) In the process of people doing their jobs properly, we saw a glimmer of what might have been this year.
Carey Price is having the breakout season we all hoped he would. There's maybe one game you can point to and say he didn't give his team a chance to win. He's relaxed in the net, and humble in the room. The team's MVP is a bargain too, at less than $3-million a season.
Max Pacioretty is vindicating Trevor Timmins' picking him over David Perron in the 2007 draft. The kid is a force since his Christmas call-up, and is giving us glimpses of the real power forward he's going to become.
David Desharnais is proving size issues can be overcome through determination and pure skill. He's done it at every level of hockey up until now, and now he's doing it at the NHL level too. At his current pace, he'd put up more than 20 goals in a full NHL season. Considering the fact that he was undrafted and only got signed by the Habs as a favour to Guy Carbonneau, that's a pretty impressive level of production. We're very fortunate he's grabbed his chance to shine with the Canadiens this year because if he walked this summer, someone else would take him and we'd be cursing management for fools when he scored 25 goals for another team.
Lars Eller's starting to come around too, now that he's got some NHL experience to draw on. And he's dragging Andrei Kostitsyn along with him. The pair are clicking like a Kodak and offering fans a tantalizing glimpse of what it looks like to have two big skilled players using their size to terrorize the opposition.
James Wisniewski is seventh in the league in scoring among defencemen. Tomas Plekanec is scoring and killing penalties like one of the best two-way players in the NHL. The team is 11 points better than it was this time last year, and sitting comfortably in sixth in the conference with a chance to move up. The Habs are also top-ten in the league in both penalty killing and power play, with a combined success rate of 103.1%. That's impressive, when you remember Scotty Bowman's rule of thumb that any combination over 100 on special teams is really good.
There's a whole lot of good about this team, and when it goes out and executes efficiently to get the job done like it did last night, you remember that. It also makes you think about the what-ifs. It's impressive that the team is doing as well as it is with three of the defencemen who started the year in its top six out of the lineup. You can't help wondering, though, how good the team would be with those guys.
The PP is ranked 8th in the league without Andrei Markov. Imagine if The General were there on the blueline, putting up 60 points? And what if he were there, stabilizing the D in its own zone and mentoring P.K.Subban? When you think about it, Markov's loss hurts more when you see how well the team is doing without him and picture how much better it could be with him.
Same thing with Josh Gorges. The PK is tied for 7th in the league without him. Think about how much better it would be with his steady play and shot blocking in his own end. How much better would Hamrlik be with Gorges playing 20+ minutes a game, helping keep the veteran's minutes low? Perhaps, if Gorges hadn't been hurt, Pierre Gauthier would never have traded for Wisniewski. Then again, if both Gorges and Markov had stayed healthy, maybe Gauthier would have kept the picks he traded for Wiz, Sopel and Mara and made a bigger deal at the deadline.
We'll never know, of course, what might have been. Sometimes, though, you watch a game like last night's, when everyone's pulling together to get the job done, and you can't help wondering what if. What if the vagaries of Fate hadn't taken those key players out of a good lineup? Then you have to think, well, maybe next year we'll finally get to see what they can do when the whole crew can come to work.
Carey Price is having the breakout season we all hoped he would. There's maybe one game you can point to and say he didn't give his team a chance to win. He's relaxed in the net, and humble in the room. The team's MVP is a bargain too, at less than $3-million a season.
Max Pacioretty is vindicating Trevor Timmins' picking him over David Perron in the 2007 draft. The kid is a force since his Christmas call-up, and is giving us glimpses of the real power forward he's going to become.
David Desharnais is proving size issues can be overcome through determination and pure skill. He's done it at every level of hockey up until now, and now he's doing it at the NHL level too. At his current pace, he'd put up more than 20 goals in a full NHL season. Considering the fact that he was undrafted and only got signed by the Habs as a favour to Guy Carbonneau, that's a pretty impressive level of production. We're very fortunate he's grabbed his chance to shine with the Canadiens this year because if he walked this summer, someone else would take him and we'd be cursing management for fools when he scored 25 goals for another team.
Lars Eller's starting to come around too, now that he's got some NHL experience to draw on. And he's dragging Andrei Kostitsyn along with him. The pair are clicking like a Kodak and offering fans a tantalizing glimpse of what it looks like to have two big skilled players using their size to terrorize the opposition.
James Wisniewski is seventh in the league in scoring among defencemen. Tomas Plekanec is scoring and killing penalties like one of the best two-way players in the NHL. The team is 11 points better than it was this time last year, and sitting comfortably in sixth in the conference with a chance to move up. The Habs are also top-ten in the league in both penalty killing and power play, with a combined success rate of 103.1%. That's impressive, when you remember Scotty Bowman's rule of thumb that any combination over 100 on special teams is really good.
There's a whole lot of good about this team, and when it goes out and executes efficiently to get the job done like it did last night, you remember that. It also makes you think about the what-ifs. It's impressive that the team is doing as well as it is with three of the defencemen who started the year in its top six out of the lineup. You can't help wondering, though, how good the team would be with those guys.
The PP is ranked 8th in the league without Andrei Markov. Imagine if The General were there on the blueline, putting up 60 points? And what if he were there, stabilizing the D in its own zone and mentoring P.K.Subban? When you think about it, Markov's loss hurts more when you see how well the team is doing without him and picture how much better it could be with him.
Same thing with Josh Gorges. The PK is tied for 7th in the league without him. Think about how much better it would be with his steady play and shot blocking in his own end. How much better would Hamrlik be with Gorges playing 20+ minutes a game, helping keep the veteran's minutes low? Perhaps, if Gorges hadn't been hurt, Pierre Gauthier would never have traded for Wisniewski. Then again, if both Gorges and Markov had stayed healthy, maybe Gauthier would have kept the picks he traded for Wiz, Sopel and Mara and made a bigger deal at the deadline.
We'll never know, of course, what might have been. Sometimes, though, you watch a game like last night's, when everyone's pulling together to get the job done, and you can't help wondering what if. What if the vagaries of Fate hadn't taken those key players out of a good lineup? Then you have to think, well, maybe next year we'll finally get to see what they can do when the whole crew can come to work.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Habs vs.Panthers - Need the Two Edition
Notes on the third:
-Deboer looks like he's aged forty years since last season.
-Eller's gonna be good one day. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.
-AND just as I write that, he deflects Moen's cross-ice pass for a beauty.
-Gio was a bit of a pig on that 3-on-1.
-Great! The ref's got feedback on his newfangled mic, so he just makes the sign, blows the whistle and damn the torpedoes.
-One would hope the posts accumulated by AK and Pax will count for goals in the playoffs, in the grand scheme of equality.
-Way to go Price! Another shutout puck for the bums.
Notes on the second:
-Wondering what all the shiny dots in the crowd were, and finally figured out they're the reflective number plates on the fronts of all the flipped-up, empty seats.
-Not much of a PP. At least the Knife let P.K. out on it for once.
-I wish Picard was better. He's the kind of guy you like and root for, but he's just not got the talent to stick around.
-DD! LOVE that kid. He's literally up to Gill's elbow.
-Uh oh...Pax looks hurt. It's great that he goes to the net, but it's not great that he keeps getting beaned once he's there. Looks like he got that one in the Top Secret zone.
-It's great that Pouliot's got a 100mph+ shot, but it doesn't count unless it's on the net.
-Price is sharp as clam shells in a game that could put him to sleep if he isn't careful.
-Good, tight period. One more, guys!
Notes on the first:
-There should be absolutely no reason to lose this game. The Panthers are tanking and the Habs are icing the team that will start the playoffs for them. Cue disaster.
-Price has wised up since the demise of Gorges. He now just whacks the puck out of the zone, every chance he gets.
-Awesome. A dumb penalty against FLORIDA. Way to go, P.K.
-SKILLSIE! Please, NHL, don't say it went in off Gomez' skate. The big man needs a goal.
-Plekanec, in the midst of defensive-zone confusion, is like an oasis in the desert.
-Can't help feeling the Habs should be dominating this game more. These guys aren't the Flyers, after all.
-Way to go, Kush...two points tonight already. He's celebrating his liberation from Camp Gomez.
-Habs really need to tighten up a bit. Passing should be more accurate and defensive coverage more precise. This is a practice game.
-Deboer looks like he's aged forty years since last season.
-Eller's gonna be good one day. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.
-AND just as I write that, he deflects Moen's cross-ice pass for a beauty.
-Gio was a bit of a pig on that 3-on-1.
-Great! The ref's got feedback on his newfangled mic, so he just makes the sign, blows the whistle and damn the torpedoes.
-One would hope the posts accumulated by AK and Pax will count for goals in the playoffs, in the grand scheme of equality.
-Way to go Price! Another shutout puck for the bums.
Notes on the second:
-Wondering what all the shiny dots in the crowd were, and finally figured out they're the reflective number plates on the fronts of all the flipped-up, empty seats.
-Not much of a PP. At least the Knife let P.K. out on it for once.
-I wish Picard was better. He's the kind of guy you like and root for, but he's just not got the talent to stick around.
-DD! LOVE that kid. He's literally up to Gill's elbow.
-Uh oh...Pax looks hurt. It's great that he goes to the net, but it's not great that he keeps getting beaned once he's there. Looks like he got that one in the Top Secret zone.
-It's great that Pouliot's got a 100mph+ shot, but it doesn't count unless it's on the net.
-Price is sharp as clam shells in a game that could put him to sleep if he isn't careful.
-Good, tight period. One more, guys!
Notes on the first:
-There should be absolutely no reason to lose this game. The Panthers are tanking and the Habs are icing the team that will start the playoffs for them. Cue disaster.
-Price has wised up since the demise of Gorges. He now just whacks the puck out of the zone, every chance he gets.
-Awesome. A dumb penalty against FLORIDA. Way to go, P.K.
-SKILLSIE! Please, NHL, don't say it went in off Gomez' skate. The big man needs a goal.
-Plekanec, in the midst of defensive-zone confusion, is like an oasis in the desert.
-Can't help feeling the Habs should be dominating this game more. These guys aren't the Flyers, after all.
-Way to go, Kush...two points tonight already. He's celebrating his liberation from Camp Gomez.
-Habs really need to tighten up a bit. Passing should be more accurate and defensive coverage more precise. This is a practice game.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Aftermath: Discipline
The Montreal Canadiens rank second in the NHL in a very telling category. They trail only the Pittsburgh Penguins in the number of candyass, lazy minor penalties they've taken this year, with a grand total of 285 as of last night. Included in that number are a league-leading 12 bench minors; the kinds of penalties that reveal a team's disorganization and indiscipline. In comparison, top contenders Detroit and Philly have just two bench minors apiece.
Some will argue the Canadiens take so many minors because they're small and use their sticks to compensate, or because they don't forecheck hard enough to force the other team into taking penalties. While there may be an element of truth to that against some teams, in reality, a lot of the penalties they take are out of pure carelessness or stupidity. Last night, for example, the Habs took another two too-many-men penalties, as well as a delay-of-game and two minors while on the power play.
The problem with taking stupid minors is the way they influence every other aspect of a team's game plan. Take last night. The first too-many-men call came less than two minutes into the first period. At that point, any inclination Jacques Martin might have had to roll four lines had to be put on hold as the PKers took over for two minutes. They killed that off and started to build some momentum when Plekanec took a questionable interference call and put his team back on the defensive. Again, they killed it off and when they got rolling afterwards, they were rewarded by Max Pacioretty's goal.
Unfortunately, every time they'd build momentum with a good push or a PP, they'd scuttle their own chances with a dumb penalty. The time in the box meant P.K.Subban had to spend more than four minutes on the PK and only 0:25 on the PP. It meant less ice time for Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouliot, James Wizniewski and Pacioretty, who didn't kill penalties. Of course, they're also players with a better chance to score than PKers like Travis Moen and Hal Gill, so the penalties cut down on the Canadiens' offensive opportunities as well. And it meant Atlanta always had a chance to take over the game with a timely PP goal, or a goal scored off the momentum they built every time the Habs shot themselves in the proverbial foot.
It's a good thing the goaltender is often a team's best penalty killer. Carey Price was sharp as a north wind all night, and saved us from a bunch of dressing room cliches about how lack of discipline cost them the game. The kid is the Canadiens' MVP this year, by a mile, and he deserves every bit of applause and every grudging nod of approval he gets. If not for his solid play...make no mistake about it...we would be listening to those post-loss excuses today. In the wake of a quiet deadline day, the bellyaching of the Gauthier haters would have been pretty much unbearable if that had happened.
Going forward, though, the Habs have got to be more disciplined. They escaped with a win last night, despite their flirting with penalty-induced disaster. In the playoffs, assuming the team qualifies, games are decided on special teams. If the Canadiens are in the habit of handing out free opportunities in the post-season, they won't last long. They're not the kind of team that can score at will, so a PP goal scored off a dumb penalty is often enough to bury them. They need to develop better habits now, so they're playing much smarter when it really matters.
Staying out of the box means all four lines can get some flow going, the ice time is better distributed among the defencemen and the team has a chance to build momentum. With the challenges the Canadiens are facing on the injury front, they have to give themselves every advantage they can get. There's nothing they can do about how small they are, or their speed on the blueline, but they can control their own behaviour. They must.
Some will argue the Canadiens take so many minors because they're small and use their sticks to compensate, or because they don't forecheck hard enough to force the other team into taking penalties. While there may be an element of truth to that against some teams, in reality, a lot of the penalties they take are out of pure carelessness or stupidity. Last night, for example, the Habs took another two too-many-men penalties, as well as a delay-of-game and two minors while on the power play.
The problem with taking stupid minors is the way they influence every other aspect of a team's game plan. Take last night. The first too-many-men call came less than two minutes into the first period. At that point, any inclination Jacques Martin might have had to roll four lines had to be put on hold as the PKers took over for two minutes. They killed that off and started to build some momentum when Plekanec took a questionable interference call and put his team back on the defensive. Again, they killed it off and when they got rolling afterwards, they were rewarded by Max Pacioretty's goal.
Unfortunately, every time they'd build momentum with a good push or a PP, they'd scuttle their own chances with a dumb penalty. The time in the box meant P.K.Subban had to spend more than four minutes on the PK and only 0:25 on the PP. It meant less ice time for Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouliot, James Wizniewski and Pacioretty, who didn't kill penalties. Of course, they're also players with a better chance to score than PKers like Travis Moen and Hal Gill, so the penalties cut down on the Canadiens' offensive opportunities as well. And it meant Atlanta always had a chance to take over the game with a timely PP goal, or a goal scored off the momentum they built every time the Habs shot themselves in the proverbial foot.
It's a good thing the goaltender is often a team's best penalty killer. Carey Price was sharp as a north wind all night, and saved us from a bunch of dressing room cliches about how lack of discipline cost them the game. The kid is the Canadiens' MVP this year, by a mile, and he deserves every bit of applause and every grudging nod of approval he gets. If not for his solid play...make no mistake about it...we would be listening to those post-loss excuses today. In the wake of a quiet deadline day, the bellyaching of the Gauthier haters would have been pretty much unbearable if that had happened.
Going forward, though, the Habs have got to be more disciplined. They escaped with a win last night, despite their flirting with penalty-induced disaster. In the playoffs, assuming the team qualifies, games are decided on special teams. If the Canadiens are in the habit of handing out free opportunities in the post-season, they won't last long. They're not the kind of team that can score at will, so a PP goal scored off a dumb penalty is often enough to bury them. They need to develop better habits now, so they're playing much smarter when it really matters.
Staying out of the box means all four lines can get some flow going, the ice time is better distributed among the defencemen and the team has a chance to build momentum. With the challenges the Canadiens are facing on the injury front, they have to give themselves every advantage they can get. There's nothing they can do about how small they are, or their speed on the blueline, but they can control their own behaviour. They must.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Habs vs.Thrashers - Stretch Run Edition
Notes on the third:
-Pouliot has a lot of pluses, but passing isn't really one of them.
-Hamrlik reminds me of Sam McGee in the crematorium...sitting cool and calm in the heart of the furnace roar.
-AK hits like a V-1 rocket.
-Next time the Thrashers sell off all their assets except Kane, I'd love the Habs to get Stewart.
-If Desharnais' hands were any silkier, they'd have to sew them into ladies' undergarments.
-Gill's stick is so long, it enters the TV frame half a second before he does.
-Oh! Pacioretty converts on that breakaway, and we can breathe.
-Ugh. Sergio Momesso is blaming poor Gomez coverage for the Thrashers goal, but that was on Sopel. He forgot which team he was playing for and made a soft pass up the middle for a surefire interception.
-When the Habs start waving at the puck more often than the Queen waves on a walkabout, they're in trouble.
-Clever! The arena people have recorded a "Let's Go Thrashers" chant and play it over the sound system.
-Gio burned up the engine on re-entry for that EN goal. Good for him. I don't remember the Habs potting one of those very often.
Notes on the second:
-Nice dirty little PP goal. DD's so good in those situations, and AK made a sweet pass for Wisniewski.
-Another too-many-men? They must be having a sale.
-Price has got to give up the baseball. That's the second DOG penalty he's taken in a week.
-As Murray Wilson used to say, there's lots of reaching going on here. Sticks waving at pucks instead of bodies hitting puck carriers. That'll come back to bite them.
-As will the parade of idiotc penalties.
-Price is quicker than rabbits.
-Gionta versus Byfuglien is a bigger mismatch than Madonna and Messier.
-Amazing. How on earth did Cammalleri miss that chance at the end? That would have been nice.
Notes on the first:
-Too many men. Habs must have enough to start a shop by now.
-Evander Kane is the kind of guy the Habs will get at the trade deadline in a dozen years, after he's become a "solid, Cup-winning veteran with one more run in the tank."
-Price handles the puck better than half his defence.
-Gill takes his helmet off and settles in on the bench to watch the PP. Not that it's much of a show.
-Mara hit Dvorak so hard, he almost drove him into the playoffs.
-Not really enjoying the Plekanec yapping every time he gets called. He should save it for the *really* egregious calls.
-Must be nice to walk into an NHL hockey rink and be guaranteed your choice of seat.
-Great point shot by Pax. Might be something to keep in mind on the PP.
-Gomez must have a wheel out of alignment. Maybe that's why he always drifts left.
-You know what'd be a cool stat? Kilometers skated per game. Pleks'd be halfway home to Kladno by now.
-Poor Hammer. Kane danced him around like a marionette.
-Oh, you could just see the stupid crosscheck on Hamrlik coming after he let the puck go after the horn. Hope this doesn't turn into a crap fest.
-Pouliot has a lot of pluses, but passing isn't really one of them.
-Hamrlik reminds me of Sam McGee in the crematorium...sitting cool and calm in the heart of the furnace roar.
-AK hits like a V-1 rocket.
-Next time the Thrashers sell off all their assets except Kane, I'd love the Habs to get Stewart.
-If Desharnais' hands were any silkier, they'd have to sew them into ladies' undergarments.
-Gill's stick is so long, it enters the TV frame half a second before he does.
-Oh! Pacioretty converts on that breakaway, and we can breathe.
-Ugh. Sergio Momesso is blaming poor Gomez coverage for the Thrashers goal, but that was on Sopel. He forgot which team he was playing for and made a soft pass up the middle for a surefire interception.
-When the Habs start waving at the puck more often than the Queen waves on a walkabout, they're in trouble.
-Clever! The arena people have recorded a "Let's Go Thrashers" chant and play it over the sound system.
-Gio burned up the engine on re-entry for that EN goal. Good for him. I don't remember the Habs potting one of those very often.
Notes on the second:
-Nice dirty little PP goal. DD's so good in those situations, and AK made a sweet pass for Wisniewski.
-Another too-many-men? They must be having a sale.
-Price has got to give up the baseball. That's the second DOG penalty he's taken in a week.
-As Murray Wilson used to say, there's lots of reaching going on here. Sticks waving at pucks instead of bodies hitting puck carriers. That'll come back to bite them.
-As will the parade of idiotc penalties.
-Price is quicker than rabbits.
-Gionta versus Byfuglien is a bigger mismatch than Madonna and Messier.
-Amazing. How on earth did Cammalleri miss that chance at the end? That would have been nice.
Notes on the first:
-Too many men. Habs must have enough to start a shop by now.
-Evander Kane is the kind of guy the Habs will get at the trade deadline in a dozen years, after he's become a "solid, Cup-winning veteran with one more run in the tank."
-Price handles the puck better than half his defence.
-Gill takes his helmet off and settles in on the bench to watch the PP. Not that it's much of a show.
-Mara hit Dvorak so hard, he almost drove him into the playoffs.
-Not really enjoying the Plekanec yapping every time he gets called. He should save it for the *really* egregious calls.
-Must be nice to walk into an NHL hockey rink and be guaranteed your choice of seat.
-Great point shot by Pax. Might be something to keep in mind on the PP.
-Gomez must have a wheel out of alignment. Maybe that's why he always drifts left.
-You know what'd be a cool stat? Kilometers skated per game. Pleks'd be halfway home to Kladno by now.
-Poor Hammer. Kane danced him around like a marionette.
-Oh, you could just see the stupid crosscheck on Hamrlik coming after he let the puck go after the horn. Hope this doesn't turn into a crap fest.
Lost in Translation
Another trade deadline day has come and gone, and now it's time to analyse where teams line up for the playoffs, and what might be their chances of using their new acquisitions to help them win the Stanley Cup. A few of the Canadiens have given us their thoughts in the wake of the deadline non-frenzy. Sometimes, though, if you don't speak hockey babble, it might be tough to pick through the cliches for some real meaning. So, with the intention of making it easier for you, the fan, to understand what the Habs think of their position post-trade deadline, here are some of their statements, followed by hockey babble translation.
Pierre Gauthier:
We've made a lot of changes this year because of injuries to the defencemen. I feel like the guy who saves all his vacation time and all his money to go on a nice holiday in the summer, then he notices his roof is leaking, so he has to spend all his money and the whole summer fixing the roof. We probably were in a position early in the year when we had accumulated assets and some financial resources to see as things went along if we could do something to improve the club. Instead, we ended up patching things along the way.
Translation:
Sorry fans. We thought this might be the year when we might actually be able to do something noteworthy. We had a couple of second rounders and some guys we thought we could move, like Maxwell and Lapierre. But all the blown knees on defence meant we had to toss out our big plans for improving and buy enough useable parts to keep us in the playoff picture. I could have thrown in the towel and traded a bunch of guys for picks and prospects for next year, but Mr.Molson would have killed me.
Mr.Sopel has won a Stanley Cup as recently as last year, and he's an experienced person who will bring some good leadership to our group.
Translation:
Yeah, he's another placeholding geezer, but this one's actually played for a good team in recent memory, so maybe some of that will rub off on some of the rest of these guys.
There were probably some (deals). It depends on how much you want to pay.
Translation:
We're broke. Outside of the couple of first-round prospects we've got left, nobody wanted anything else we had to offer. It's a yard sale in a trailer park around here.
It's very easy not to like your players. You see them all the time. They all have their pluses and minuses. But we see a lot of what's going on around the league and we see how the other teams perform. And I'm sure they feel the same way sometimes about their players.
Translation:
Yes. Gomez has been sucking out loud, but we're stuck with him. Hey, at least he's not Souray, am I right?
Mr.Spacek has been reevaluated by the doctors today, and we will give you some more news in the next hours or days.
Translation:
Spatcho could be having his leg amputated later this afternoon, but next week I will tell you he's got a lower-body injury and his return is undetermined.
We just got Mr.Cammalleri back. That's a strong addition to our team.
Translation:
Cammalleri had better light it up like New Year's Eve, or we're probably screwed.
Brian Gionta:
All the guys are comfortable with the team we have. When we play the way we can, we're a tough team to beat.
Translation:
Sucks we didn't get somebody to keep Chara off my ass. Oh well, I guess it's back to eating rubber and elbows every night for another playoff season.
P.K. Subban:
We've always been a confident bunch in here, and we've beat some of the best teams...you look at last year, and we've got the same core of guys we had last year. I know there's some injuries, some veteran and key parts of our team aren't in the lineup, but we've had guys stepping up all year to help us.
Translation:
Man, I hope I don't sound like I have an opinion. Everyone hates it when I do that. Do I say "confident?" No, better not...they'll say I meant "cocky." Oh, damn, it slipped out. Okay...focus on the other guys. Credit to the veterans...credit to the veterans.
Hal Gill:
I like our team. We've worked a lot on coming together. We're gonna go out and win with the guys we got.
Translation:
I block shots with Crosby; I block 'em with Gionta. Makes no never mind to me. It'd be nice if these guys could pull a miracle out of their ass, though. We had some fun last year.
Scott Gomez:
We're confident in this group. We believe in it. We like the makeup of our team. If we can get better, that's obviously our goal. We all get along here. It's a great group of guys with a good vibe in the room. It's a close-knit group. We're going to get as far as we can.
Translation:
Whew. Thought someone might take my contract for a while there. Ha ha. Anyway, nobody here gives me a hard time, so it's nice. We'll have some fun in April, but don't hold your breath, fans.
There you go. Post-deadline comments translated for your reading pleasure. The Canadiens will undoubtedly do their best to make the playoffs and advance in them, but they will be hard-pressed to do so. Just as Gauthier was hard-pressed to turn a lack of expendable assets into concrete help. All we can do is support the team and hang on for the ride.
Pierre Gauthier:
We've made a lot of changes this year because of injuries to the defencemen. I feel like the guy who saves all his vacation time and all his money to go on a nice holiday in the summer, then he notices his roof is leaking, so he has to spend all his money and the whole summer fixing the roof. We probably were in a position early in the year when we had accumulated assets and some financial resources to see as things went along if we could do something to improve the club. Instead, we ended up patching things along the way.
Translation:
Sorry fans. We thought this might be the year when we might actually be able to do something noteworthy. We had a couple of second rounders and some guys we thought we could move, like Maxwell and Lapierre. But all the blown knees on defence meant we had to toss out our big plans for improving and buy enough useable parts to keep us in the playoff picture. I could have thrown in the towel and traded a bunch of guys for picks and prospects for next year, but Mr.Molson would have killed me.
Mr.Sopel has won a Stanley Cup as recently as last year, and he's an experienced person who will bring some good leadership to our group.
Translation:
Yeah, he's another placeholding geezer, but this one's actually played for a good team in recent memory, so maybe some of that will rub off on some of the rest of these guys.
There were probably some (deals). It depends on how much you want to pay.
Translation:
We're broke. Outside of the couple of first-round prospects we've got left, nobody wanted anything else we had to offer. It's a yard sale in a trailer park around here.
It's very easy not to like your players. You see them all the time. They all have their pluses and minuses. But we see a lot of what's going on around the league and we see how the other teams perform. And I'm sure they feel the same way sometimes about their players.
Translation:
Yes. Gomez has been sucking out loud, but we're stuck with him. Hey, at least he's not Souray, am I right?
Mr.Spacek has been reevaluated by the doctors today, and we will give you some more news in the next hours or days.
Translation:
Spatcho could be having his leg amputated later this afternoon, but next week I will tell you he's got a lower-body injury and his return is undetermined.
We just got Mr.Cammalleri back. That's a strong addition to our team.
Translation:
Cammalleri had better light it up like New Year's Eve, or we're probably screwed.
Brian Gionta:
All the guys are comfortable with the team we have. When we play the way we can, we're a tough team to beat.
Translation:
Sucks we didn't get somebody to keep Chara off my ass. Oh well, I guess it's back to eating rubber and elbows every night for another playoff season.
P.K. Subban:
We've always been a confident bunch in here, and we've beat some of the best teams...you look at last year, and we've got the same core of guys we had last year. I know there's some injuries, some veteran and key parts of our team aren't in the lineup, but we've had guys stepping up all year to help us.
Translation:
Man, I hope I don't sound like I have an opinion. Everyone hates it when I do that. Do I say "confident?" No, better not...they'll say I meant "cocky." Oh, damn, it slipped out. Okay...focus on the other guys. Credit to the veterans...credit to the veterans.
Hal Gill:
I like our team. We've worked a lot on coming together. We're gonna go out and win with the guys we got.
Translation:
I block shots with Crosby; I block 'em with Gionta. Makes no never mind to me. It'd be nice if these guys could pull a miracle out of their ass, though. We had some fun last year.
Scott Gomez:
We're confident in this group. We believe in it. We like the makeup of our team. If we can get better, that's obviously our goal. We all get along here. It's a great group of guys with a good vibe in the room. It's a close-knit group. We're going to get as far as we can.
Translation:
Whew. Thought someone might take my contract for a while there. Ha ha. Anyway, nobody here gives me a hard time, so it's nice. We'll have some fun in April, but don't hold your breath, fans.
There you go. Post-deadline comments translated for your reading pleasure. The Canadiens will undoubtedly do their best to make the playoffs and advance in them, but they will be hard-pressed to do so. Just as Gauthier was hard-pressed to turn a lack of expendable assets into concrete help. All we can do is support the team and hang on for the ride.
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