Gone Scoutin'

Hi everyone. Thanks for checking in. I'm on vacation with the family at the moment, but I'll be updating properly in a few days. Hopefully you'll be reading!

Myths and Mythology

Isn't it funny how, when someone seems to come up with a plausible answer to a difficult question, people tend to buy into it until it becomes almost an accepted fact? For centuries, people believed the world was flat because someone needed to explain the horizon. They believed the plague was a punishment from God because they had to explain why so many thousands were dying. Now the prevailing sentiment among Habs fans is that Carey Price needs a veteran mentor backing him up because they need to explain why he went off the rails so badly last year.

I think the "veteran mentor" theory is right up there with the flat earth, heavenly vengeance and bleeding sick people to let out the bad humours. What's a veteran supposed to do with Price anyway, I wonder? If it's to teach him to handle pressure, I think he probably knows a bit about that on his own, based on his experiences in international play, his Calder Cup run and two seasons in Montreal. If it's to teach him how to play goal, well, he's got a goalie coach for that. And if it's to show him how to live like a grownup and a professional, you'd think that, at 22 years of age, he's got an inkling of what that's all about...even if he had to learn some of it the hard way.

This is a third-year professional we're talking about. He's young, true, but he's hardly an NHL virgin at this point. I believe he was pushed into the NHL too early, perhaps not in terms of his skill level, but maybe in terms of his personal maturity. But retrospect means nothing in the coming season. Price is in the NHL and he's there to stay, so he'll have to make the best of it. I just don't see how having a guy on the bench who's ten years older and will play maybe 20 games is supposed to magically help Price succeed at this point in his career. Playing goal is like being born or dying...you have to do it alone. Only one guy can stand in there, and if that's Price, then the guy on the bench, whether it's Halak or some thirty-five-year-old veteran, can't go out and hold his hand.

And the ubiquitous "veteran" goalie covers a whole lot of personalities and intangibles. Just because a guy has played in the NHL for ten years, it doesn't mean he's either a good teacher or a proper example for a 22-year-old number one. If he's been a number-one goalie in the past, there's no guarantee he won't be unhappy with a limited role in Montreal. If he's a career backup, is there really a whole lot he can teach Price about the handling the pressure and conditioning necessary to be a number one? A "veteran" can be surly, spacey, silent, stupid or a party animal as easily as he can be friendly, helpful, patient and responsible. Time in the league doesn't change a guy's basic personality.

We also don't know Price's mindset when it comes to his backups. Maybe he likes working with another guy his own age who understands where he's coming from. Maybe he's learned enough of the basics and needs to progress further on his own, with his own style and in collaboration with his own coach.

I think about last year and what difference a veteran "mentor" would have made to Price. Would the guy have been able to talk him out of coming back from injury too soon, just to be in the All Star game? Would he have been in the clubs and said, "Go home, Carey, you have to be at the rink tomorrow?" Would he have been able to talk Price down from the ledge of disaster on which he stood after the break last season? Somehow, I think these are things a guy can only learn by going through them himself. Young guys tend to listen with one ear to the advice of their elders and let it pass right out the other in any case.

I know the year upcoming really depends on Price and Halak and their ability to find consistency. But I think they can do it together, and the myth of the "veteran mentor" can finally be laid to rest. After all, now we know the world is round and the plague was caused by bacteria. I hope we soon learn that Carey Price can be the goalie we need, all by himself. And Jaroslav Halak can be a capable backup and partner for Price, even if he's not 35 years old.

Just Shut Up, Kovy

Alex Kovalev has done some wonderful things on NHL ice in his long hockey career. I personally loved his elbow to Darcy Tucker's chops, and the infamous "drop the glove, retrieve the glove and carry on with the puck" move against the Bruins a couple of seasons ago. He's created some masterpieces with stick and puck that rival those of the greatest savants in hockey history.

But as I watched L'Artiste's unveiling in Ottawa yesterday, the scales finally fell from my eyes. When Kovalev was a Hab, I always tried to make sense of him; the Great Enigma who was so sensitive and misunderstood. I tried to understand how such a prodigious talent could be so inconsistent and frustrating. He must be playing hurt, I'd say. Or his linemates aren't playing up to his level. Or any number of other excuses for why a guy whose teammates consistently christened him "the best puckhandler in the league" could so often dangle himself right out of puck possession.

But when I watched him yesterday, smiling in his Senators sweater, lacking only the pomp of the Sens' Trojan to usher him into his new city in the style befitting a dearly-acquired superstar, my first thought was "I wish he'd just shut the hell up." There he was, earnestly telling the Ottawa throngs how he'd be coming to the Sens with the intention to compete hard every night. He talked about how his previous inconsistency was merely an invention of the media, and how he's never had a problem with a coach. He trotted out the old lines about being misquoted when he slammed the Habs in a Russian newspaper, and about his wish to play until he's fifty.

It's all a pile of manure and it all comes down to Kovalev looking out for number one. Yes, he's got a ton of talent. No, he does NOT use that talent every night, and when he doesn't, he sucks...badly. He's very, very lucky to be making millions of dollars to bring his skill to the game when he feels like it, and the Senators are just the latest team hoping he'll bring it consistently for the first time in his life. Well, sorry to tell you Brian Murray, but after a thousand-plus NHL games, that ship has sailed. Kovalev is what he is, and all the crap about how he's planning to compete hard every night is just another shovelful from the pile he's been spreading for the last fifteen years.

I have no problem with a guy looking after himself first. But cloaking it in various shades of hurt feelings while saying all the right things is just BS. For once, I'd like to hear Alex Kovalev tell the truth: "I will play like my hair's on fire when I'm motivated. There are several circumstances under which I shall be motivated, including when someone cuts me on the ice, when I'm trying to stick it to a former team (look out, Habs), when I'm voted into the All-Star game and when I'm pushing my luck with management and have to get back in the good books. Other than that, you can expect at least one long stretch during the season in which I will produce absolutely nothing except copious giveaways. I'm quite likely to fake or at least exaggerate an injury at some point when I'm not scoring, and there's a good chance I will open my big yap and say something controversial that will undoubtedly undermine either the coach, GM or my teammates. Despite all of that, I will do enough to maintain the illusion that I'm one of the most talented players in the world, even though my own national team is on to me and no longer invites me to play in the big tournaments. You can count on me to do good things for charities and kids, but if you're expecting me to win you a Stanley Cup, get real. I will do some beautiful things with the puck a dozen or so times a season, and I will play the fans so they'll go crazy for me and forgive me the frequent games in which I forget to show up. If all the stars align I might even have one last really good year, but don't take me in your hockey pool, just in case." See? Wouldn't that be refreshing?

In the meantime, all his seeming regret about the way things ended in Montreal fail to move me as it once would have. I was never an ardent Kovy-phile, but I liked his skill and his ability to score on the power play. I hated his apparent disinterest on too many nights, and the one-man rushes that caused so many gifts for the opposition. In the end though, the plain truth is he dithered long enough over a fair offer in Montreal to cost himself a contract there. Now he's a Senator and will be hosting the Kovy Smoke and Mirror Show in the nation's capital. I've learned in the last couple of days that if Kovalev and the senators in Ottawa's chamber of sober second thought have one thing in common, it's their mutal ability to talk the talk while doing very little walking of the walk.

Wipeout

Well, I don't know what the heck really happened in the Canadiens' room last season, but whatever it was, Bob Gainey obviously saw enough to prompt a massive house-cleaning this summer. When you think about it, it's almost unbelievable that of the eleven free agents, not one is back for next year. Of the restricted free agents, one is traded, one going to arbitration and one signed for what basically amounts to a cheap, one-year do-over. Even the coaching staff, including Gainey's long-time bosom buddy, Doug Jarvis, got torched. It's almost as though when Gainey was forced to fire Guy Carbonneau, all bets were off for everyone else.

The funny thing about this though, is that Habs fans seem to be clearly divided into two groups in their opinions concerning Gainey's strategy. One side (on which I, admittedly, stand) is a bit afraid that the gutting of the team was a little too drastic, but now that it's done, we're willing to give Gainey the benefit of the doubt once more and hope, for the sake of the sweater we love, that it all somehow works out. The other side (of which I'm already getting tired) seems to have caught some kind of bloodlust. For them, it's not enough that half of last year's team is gone and the other half, with the likely exception of Andrei Markov, on probation. The demands to dump any remaining Habs, like Plekanec, D'Agostini, the Kostitsyns and Halak, for something new are escalating.

I don't get it, I confess. Take the "trade for Patrick Marleau" rumours, for instance. Sure, he's a big centre who can score some goals. But, in eleven full seasons with San Jose, he's broken eighty points once. He's good, but not what you'd call elite, and he's making elite-level money this year. If the Habs were to trade for him, as so many are demanding Gainey do, they'd have to clear up quite a bit of salary to make it work. It would likely cost Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn, as well as possibly Jaro Halak, and to me, it's not that smart a move to give up your backup goalie and two of your top-six forwards in exchange for one top-six guy. It would further stress the team's depth and force Gainey to rush some of the youth into bigger roles. Also, love them or hate them, Plekanec and Kostitsyn are relatively cheap compared to Marleau, and have yet to reach their full potential. And there's the issue of looming free agency for Marleau. It makes little sense for Gainey to trade two sure, cap-friendly assets for a guy who could very likely walk at the end of the season, especially in a year when we don't know whether the Habs will even come close to championship contention.

I know Kostitsyn and Plekanec and just about everyone else underperformed last season. But I find it strange that the patience to give them a chance to rebound seems pretty much non-existent in some quarters of Habdom. These are young guys and they do have talent. I think they'll be okay.

And Halak is the great unknown with the Habs, but nobody wants to hold onto him and see if he can boost his value. Why trade him now, when he could get a chance to prove himself as a really good NHL goalie and bring a better return later? Or even, heaven forbid, have him actually remain with the Canadiens who could then have one of the best young goalie tandems in the league?

I'm just hoping Bob Gainey doesn't have the urge to purge that some fans seem to have acquired in the last few weeks. Change can be good, but you don't have to go overboard with it. As my mother would say, you can scratch your arse without tearing it off you.

Re-Hab: The Gettin' To Know Ya Version

I think if we're going to really cheer for the new team wearing the CH this year, we've got to actually like the guys on the ice. So, I figure the first step in liking them is learning something likeable about them. I mean, really likeable...not just YouTube highlight reels. Something that gives us a little bit of insight into what they might bring to our team.

To that end, I did a little bit of research and found some interesting stuff about our new Habs. It's not much to tide us over until we see them up close and personal in our own team's colours, but it's a little introduction and a primer on what we can expect from these guys in the coming months.

What I now like about Travis Moen is that he's a farmer. As soon as the hockey season's over, he goes home to Saskatchewan and works from six in the morning until late afternoon on his family's farm. Then, when the farm day is over, he goes and works out for two hours in preparation for the next season. I like that he feels a responsibility to his family and isn't afraid of working like a dog all day. A lot of guys who graduate from farming to pro hockey would come home to visit, then take off to golf and spend their millions. Moen doesn't golf. I like that. I also like the fact that when he had his day with the Stanley Cup after winning it in Anaheim, he insisted on washing it himself after his family used it to hold ribs in a local restaurant.

His day with the Cup also gave me something to like about Brian Gionta. This is from the NHL's Stanley Cup journal, written by the guys who travel around with the trophy, from July 2003:

"Then, Brian snuck away with the Stanley Cup for a few minutes. He took the trophy up to his old room, still adorned with his childhood awards and trophies. "This is what every kid thinks about when he's playing," whispered Gionta. "I can't tell you how many times I've carried the Cup in my dreams." Had all the hard work paid off for the second year Devil? By watching Brian, his eyes closed and a slight smile tracing his lips as he held the Stanley Cup, you didn't need to wait for the answer. It was obvious. "

You've got to like a guy who brings the Cup back to the very place where he dreamed of winning it as a kid. I also like the fact that he's another guy who has worked at a real job outside hockey and who understands how the other half lives because of years spent helping out at his father's hardware store. And he's an experienced leader because he was captain of his team at Boston College. Lou Lamoriello, a pretty good judge of character, has only good things to say about him, explaining that the Devils drafted him despite his small stature because "you can't measure the size of his heart," and "we'd rather find out he couldn't play in the NHL than let someone else find out he could."

It was tough to find something to like about Hal Gill because of the natural Habs-fan antipathy toward a guy who's been both a Bruin and a leaf. But I had to laugh when I found out he wears one of those Snuggy blanket-with-arms things around the dressing room and doesn't care what anybody thinks. There's got to be something to like about a guy who goes his own way, despite the abuse he knows he's going to get from his teammates. I also like his sense of humour. A lot of his former teammates have mentioned how funny he is. My favourite quote from him came when someone asked him if a soft drink should be called "soda" or "pop." He replied, "I call it beer." I like a guy who's quick and will keep his teammates laughing.

Speaking of beer, Jaroslav Spacek admits he used to like going out on the town probably more than he should have. But now he's got two little kids and he says they've changed his life. He's become the guy who can't wait to get home from road trips and who spends Friday nights with his kids instead of his buddies. I like that he's a family man who's got the partying out of his system already. I think Habs fans have had enough of the party boy types to last us for a while.

Like Gill, Paul Mara is the kind of guy who'll keep his teammates loose. He never shuts up on the ice, and he seems to be a real cheerleader type of guy. I said I was looking for something beyond YouTube highlights, but this one really illustrates what Mara's like as a teammate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX_pylSbJK4&feature=player_embedded

There's something really likeable about a guy who sings Christmas songs on the ice and whistles on the PP. He's also the guy who'll go out and get a birthday cake for the team's trainer and make the whole room sing happy birthday to him.

Scott Gomez has a sense of humour too, but that's not the thing that makes me like him. I like that he spends his summers fishing at home in Alaska, and that he takes his responsibility as a role model for Latin American kids very seriously. He takes the time to personally write back to every Latino kid who writes him looking for inspiration. It might not seem like such a big deal to those of us who understand that these guys have tons of free time most of us don't get. But so do the rest of his NHL colleagues, and not many of them bother with personalizing things with the fans. I also like a story about Gomez from his first NHL training camp. He called every one of the veterans by his last name..."Mr.Brodeur," "Mr. Stevens," etc. His teammates called him Mr.Polite and laughed at his manners, but I think was respectful and showed his parents' values are still part of him.

I think of all the new guys, though, I like Mike Cammalleri the most. I have a lot of respect for Michigan head coach Red Berenson's opinions about hockey players. Here's what he said about Cammalleri back in 2000, when the little winger was still in college:

"Every shift he's dangerous with the puck," Berenson said. "He's strong on his feet, creative and scores big goals in big games."
Not only did he use his crafty puckhandling to make opposing defensemen look silly, he also unselfishly did the little things that Berenson says make a player great.
"If you can ask your best players to do everything that everyone else is supposed to do, including backchecking and blocking shots - Cammalleri has no problem with that and goes into it headfirst."

Berenson liked him enough to give him an "A" on his sweater; not something the veteran coach ever does lightly. And Cammalleri proved he deserved it when his team struggled early in the 2001 season. He publicly admitted their play was unacceptable, and took it upon himself to lead by example, which he did by putting up 61 points in 42 games. But I think my favourite thing about Cammalleri is his ability to make a difficult choice and follow it through. He doesn't give up, a fact illustrated by his decision to finish high school in three years instead of four in order to get into college early and advance his hockey career. This is from an old article in the Michigan college newspaper:

"He took extra courses, night classes, and three straight summers of school in order to graduate high school in three years - making him eligible to play for Michigan this past season.
This didn't come without a price, however. His nonstop schedule of hockey and classes wasn't the life of a normal teenager, which caused Cammalleri to do some soul-searching.
"I had 11 classes on the go at one time," Cammalleri said. "I remember one night not being able to go to sleep because I was so stressed out. I thought to myself that it wasn't worth it."
After discussing with his father in a late night chat the thought of waiting one more year, Cammalleri made the decision to not back down from the challenge and stuck with it.
"You've got to prioritize," Cammalleri said."

That's a guy who doesn't quit, and you have to like that on your team.

On the surface, it seems that Bob Gainey has added a whole bunch of small, speedy talent and some big grit to back it up. That's what all the critics will be talking about when they make their inevitable predictions about where the Habs will finish this year. But if you look a little bit beneath the surface, you see he's also added leadership, experience, honesty, dedication, hard work and fun as well. A lot of those qualities seemed to be lacking on last year's team, and I'm glad to see Gainey try to bring in the intangibles a winning team needs, as well as the on-ice ability.

So, that's what I've found to like about our new Habs. Now that I'm starting to care about them a little bit, I'm off to check out those YouTube highlights!

Whooo Are You? (hoo hoo)

Now that our captain has departed for sunnier, distant climes, the rest of us (and Mathieu Dandenault) remain standing here, staring blankly around in the rubble of what was once our hockey team. Emerging from the dust cloud are a whole bunch of new guys for whom we're supposed to be cheering in a couple of months. Right now, the shock from the explosion is too deep to even contemplate embracing the newcomers. But as reality starts to settle in for us, our first question has to be, "what kind of team has Bob Gainey installed in place of the one we used to love?" Closely followed by "who are these guys, anyway?"

The good thing about this is there's no answer to that question right now. No learned pundit can say whether the Habs will be a first-place or a last-place team with any credibility because nobody has a clue. I think it's good that whatever this new team turns out to be, it will develop its identity without any outside expectations. Expectations undoubtedly played some part in last year's complete collapse.

Looking at the collection of new guys, however, we can start to make some educated guesses about what we might see. Those who've complained in the past that the Habs had no identity will now be able to stop. If you can say Cammalleri, Gomez, Gionta, Plekanec, the Kostitsyns, Lapierre, Stewart and Metropolit have anything in common, it's that they're fast. Really, really fast. The big complaint about this group is that there're not a whole lot of bruisers among them. But it's becoming obvious that Gainey's vision for the team is one of a fast, skilled group that relies more on quickness and brains than brawn. So, the team has an identity. We may not like it, but there is one.

Leadership is the next question. With Andrei Markov standing as the longest-serving Hab and the team's best player, he'd be a natural choice for captain if it weren't for his quiet nature. Maybe a chance to step forward and be a leader will be good for him. Maybe he doesn't want the challenge. Either way, the leadership question will be resolved with Markov. If he wants to be captain, I think he will. If not, I expect there will be a leadership-by-committee approach with three assistant captains instead. In the end, I think we'll see the three "A" solution, at least until Christmas. Considering the uncertainty about all the changes within the team, I think sharing the leadership role is the best thing for the new players. It's like lying on a bed of nails. Lie on one nail and it pierces your skin. Lie on a whole bunch of them and the weight distrbution minimizes the pain. I think in giving responsibility for the team to several players, the resulting pressure will be significantly reduced.

I hope as the shock lessens, we will learn to like...even love...the new Habs. The drama this summer is really unfair to them because they're coming in for a new start and the first thing they'll have to do is answer a whole bunch of questions about how they're going to replace the guys who have left. That's why I'm going to ignore the predictions and the expectations and the questions and the contracts. I'm going to look at the arrival of the new Habs as the beginning of a new era and find something to like about each of them. They've done their part by agreeing to play their best for our team. Now we have to do ours by welcoming them without comparisons and reservations.

They're coming to rebuild on the site where our team used to stand. It's not going to be easy, with the memories of the recently fallen hovering at the Bell Centre. But the least we can do is give them a chance.

Farewell, My Captain

For the last several years, I've had a recurring dream. I never remember much about what actually happens in the dream, but I always wake up with one clear image in my mind. It's of Saku Koivu, stubbled and haggard, grinning hugely as he accepts the Stanley Cup. In the dream I can see every detail. He's wearing his white CH sweater, and he's got raw knuckles and a stitched cut above his left eye...an eye glistening with tears of joy at finally bringing a championship to his adopted hometown.

That dream has always been bittersweet because it often comes when the Habs are in absolutely no condition to win a Stanley Cup. Now it will just be bitter because even the small hope of one day seeing Koivu accept the trophy as Canadiens' captain has been extinguished.

I don't know what Bob Gainey is trying to do with the Montreal Canadiens, but in letting Saku Koivu walk away, he has successfully amputated the team's heart and its soul. I don't think he can replace those vital parts in the next two months. Or ever.

I wish Saku the best in Anaheim. I just wish the dream had ended differently.