Play It Again, Diane

     

    Diane Bibaud used to be a biter. 

    When she was seven years old, she was going to boarding school and regularly chomping on anyone who crossed her. The only time she found it easy to behave was in music class.

    "I started piano because I was a monster," she laughs. "But not in front of a piano. The nuns, they phoned my parents. They said you got to make her learn music because your daughter is a monster, but she's an angel in front of a piano. That's the best advice I ever had in my life."

    She started in keyboard lessons when she was eight and performed her first public solo, Beethoven's Für Elise, when she was nine. Music came naturally to her, gifted as she was with perfect pitch. 

    Ever since childhood she's been able to hear any sound and tell you what note it's making. Air conditioners, wasps in the garden, dishes clashing...she hears it all as music.

    "It's wonderful," she says when asked about what that's like. "The only thing is, we hear everything. Everything disturbs us. It's crazy, but it becomes handy, too."

    It's definitely handy when she's sitting at the Bell Centre organ in Montreal, playing her heart out for the Canadiens and their faithful.

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    Madame Bibaud's journey from seven-year-old wannabe vampire to the icon she is today was built on a dream. Just as the players for whom she helps create a special atmosphere started imagining the NHL as kids, she did too.

    "At 8 years old, we were watching every Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada," she recalls. "I was saying to my parents, one day I'm going to play for them. And that was my dream of a lifetime. So I started to play for arenas for little minor tournaments, then junior teams."

    "Then after I played two years in the stadium for the Alouettes. I went to the Forum and presented myself to (then Habs GM) Serge Savard and I said I've wanted to be the organist for the Canadiens for so many years. So they took me for one evening here and there and then after a few years they hired me full time."

    Still, it took many years of practice and working her way up the ladder to reach that lofty seat in the rafters of the Bell Centre. It wasn't always easy.

    "They say if you have a goal, everybody will try to stop you," she warns. "I just pushed them away and kept on going, and I got to my goal. And here we are. I live my dream and the players live their dream, and we're all part of the family."

    And she's been part of the family for most of the last forty years, barring a brief hiatus between 1987 and 1992 when the Canadiens thought they no longer needed an organist and decided to go "modern" with just a DJ playing the music. They called her back and she played until 2002 when the team again opted for a DJ only.

    "Yeah, they tried that. I never criticized that, but I had a broken heart. It was like a divorce, you know? But then they called me to come back. It's like popcorn and movies. Organ and hockey. You cannot split these two things."

    It took another seven years and the sale of the team to Geoff Molson for her to make a permanent return. Now it's hard to imagine a game without her, or an anthem that's not, to quote Michel Lacroix, "accompanied on the organ by Diane Bibaud."

    These days she works in tandem with the team DJ to create that special Bell Centre atmosphere.

    "It's so fun. He'll say, 'Go Diane! It's your turn.' And he's very good, been there for years," she explains. "It goes around between us but it's about the feeling. Like, let's say there are fights. He'll get me to play. He won't tell me what to do, but I'll do like Eye of the Tiger, boxing things and people like it." 

    "Even the players...like Cole Caulfield came to see me because he was injured and sitting in the press gallery. He told me the players really like what I'm doing."

    On game nights, Bibaud's evening begins long before the fans fill the seats.

    "An hour and a half before the game, I play an hour of music," she says. "So let's say New York would come in Montreal, I'll play New York New York and songs to please the team. I play as they come into the arena."

    The extra playing time helps her relax because even after all this time, she still gets stage fright.

    "I'm so nervous," she confesses. "Oh, my goodness. You wouldn't believe the days I go there I sometimes cry. But the thing is, I love it." 

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    While she's no stranger to pounding out Les Canadiens Sont La or Bleu, Blanc, Rouge after a goal, her real musical love is classical. It's what she studied at McGill University, but she can't see sliding into Für Elise at the Bell Centre.

    "No, it wouldn't be appreciated," she laughs in a big, hearty 'could you imagine that' guffaw. "Too bad, it's the best. That's my music, but it won't work there."

    Bibaud usually enjoys everything she plays...with one exception.

    "I shouldn't say it, but there's three broadcasts now this year with Amazon and they have a key song that they like me to play. So I do it, play it, but it's against my heart," she reveals.

    That's because when she's not playing for the Canadiens, she runs a music school and shop and has done since 1987.  Amazon and online shopping generally have not been kind to her business. 

    "They're competitive to our music store but in the end, it's not really Amazon. It's the customers who buy through there and then they bring their broken shit here to get repaired and they're not happy because we send them back to (Amazon.)

    "I mean the music stores or any store to be on the platform, they pay 15% of duty to this company," she continues. "So that the customer says they don't want to pay that. Then they say you won't repair my instrument because I didn't buy here. I say no, but your instrument was outside at -30° for whole day. So that's normal that your guitar is defective. So I sent that back to them." 

    "That's the way it is. It's hard to be in business today. With online shopping, we could have to close the store. It's crazy."

    While she's still hoping for the best for the business, Bibaud knows she'll always have the Canadiens. At 66, she has no thoughts of retirment.

    "Listen, it's funny, they asked me lately and I said I'm going to play until I drop. Unless they kicked me out, you know, because otherwise it's a love of a lifetime. Every day I think about them. The Canadiens are special. I'm in love with this team since I'm 8 years old."

    And these days, Diane Bibaud doesn't have to bite anyone to get what she wants.

La Première Étoile

    

     "Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen. Accueillons nos Canadiens!"

    Forty-one (soon to be 42) times a year, plus playoffs, Michel Lacroix exhorts the crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal to welcome their Habs to the ice. He's been the full-time voice of the Canadiens since 1993, taking over from the late Claude Mouton, but he got his first taste of the job way back in 1977.

    "To be honest with you, it's been a heck of a ride," he laughs. "I was working for a local newspaper and I was hosting corporate events and somebody said, well, you've got a good voice, maybe you should do some sporting events." 

    "So I went and did some preliminary competitions for the Olympic Games back in 1976. Then I was hired as the PA announcer for the junior team in Laval, where Mike Bossy played at the time. At the same time I was lucky enough to announce track and field competitions and I was asked to be the voice of the Olympic Stadium for the Olympic Games. 

    "Later, Claude Mouton needed to go back in the press box, so he came up to me and said well, if you're good enough to announce the Olympics maybe you should give it a try with the Montreal Canadiens. So in 1977 I worked my first game."

    "And I was maybe at the right place at the right time."

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    Now, all these years later, Lacroix is almost as well known as the players whose highlights he announces to the faithful. 

    "I saw somebody standing in Rome wearing a Canadiens T-shirt and I shouted 'Go, Habs, Go' and this guy turned around with a big smile," he recalls. "I remember vividly, I was covering the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in 2000.  And when I got there, somebody came up to me and said, 'Hey, you're Michel Lacroix from the Montreal Canadiens.' Then you go to Lillehammer, a little village in Norway and there's some kind of a sports store. And the only thing they had in their window was a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Wherever you go, there's always somebody."

    "I was in Italy two years ago, walking slowly. Somebody shouted 'Are you having a tough year?' My girlfriend looked at me and said 'Don't wear your Habs hat in Rome, please.'"

    Everywhere he goes, people want to ask him about the Canadiens. 

    "You just say yes, I'm part of it. And you do realize that it is to this day a very special thing."

    His pride in his work is earned. He's always careful to make sure he's as respectful as possible of the players and their names.

    "When I'm not really sure of the pronunciation I go and see the player," he explains. "Like we've got a kid from Austria, Reinbacher. If we want to be picky with the pronunciation, the German pronunciation, it might be a little hard for our fans. So we basically tried to make it as easy as possible. So like Reinbacher, I went to see his father. I said, if I say it this way, will you recognize your son? He said absolutely."

    "And for Demidov, we know that in Russian the accent is on the second syllable. So it should be Dem-ME-dov." 

    Once he's got all the pronunciations down, it's on to pre-game preparation and getting ready for the opening notes of Coldplay's "Fix You." Amazingly, after more than 20 years, he's still not tired of it.

    "We needed something different coming back from the from the lockout," he recalls. "Coldplay is a fixture now. It's unbelievable. The way people react to the song is incredible. I mean, people stand up in in the middle of the warm up and start chanting. You say, oh, if they're that hot during the warm up, imagine what the things will look like when we score a goal."

    "With Coldplay I think the setup is perfect. The timing is great. We know exactly what to do and when to do it. The goalie just jumps down when I say 'Mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen.' As soon as I say 'accueillons,' bingo! They're with you every game."

    He says the most fun part of the job is announcing big milestones and special goals, like Cole Caufield's 50th this past season. 

    "That was funny," he smiles. "When I introduced Cole after his 50th the crowd went wild with a standing ovation for about two or three minutes and I was excited, too. That was the longest I've ever seen."

    Calling the three stars is also a highlight for him.

    "It's a ritual. It's been going on for years and years and years. And the guys would come on the ice and go back. Now the first star stays up and they connect with the fans. So that's quite a quite amazing."

    "Then again, we do have to get the the entire sequence done quickly, sharply so it won't embarrass our public and it won't embarrass the players. And we've got to do it also to fit in with the broadcasters. So technically it's a little harder than people imagine, but we do it in about what, two or three minutes? And that's perfect for us."

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    Michel Lacroix been there through the Canadiens' highest of highs...and their lowest of lows. He says his most memorable night was captain Saku Koivu's return to play after undergoing cancer treatment.

    "It was charged with emotion," he recalls. "The fans, the players his teammates, the entire organization. I remember Saku was looking at me saying 'OK, stop that ovation, we've got to go.' And I said, 'I'm sorry, but it's 22,000 against one, so you'll have to put up with that.' I just couldn't stop the people and they wouldn't stop because it was much more than the hockey game. It was a celebration of life. And that's a totally different story."

    He was also there for one of the organization's biggest moves.

    "I closed the Forum and I opened the Molson Centre at the time, now the Bell Centre," he says. "That was also amazing. And I remember quite vividly saying 'Last minute of play in the history of the Montreal Forum' that was also something special. And of course all the captains there and the torch and all that stuff."

    Now he's cheering on a new generation of players. He enjoys Caufield's joy and energy, and Nick Suzuki's calm leadership, but it's the veteran players with whom he really connects.

    "A guy like Mike Matheson is a charm talk to this guy or Phillip Danault," he praises. "I think these two are really special. They're calm, they're having fun. And they're not afraid to go up front and say yes we did have a hard time tonight. Or we're quite happy about the way things are going."

    He's seen many versions of the Canadiens, but he thinks this one reminds him of another time.

    "Well, I think I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world because the Montreal Canadiens is a wonderful organization. I've been with the team for close to 50 years now," he beams. "In that time, we had a fabulous team in the 70s winning four Stanley Cups in a row with a talented players like Ken Dryden and Larry Robinson and Serge Savard and Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt. All these guys."

    "Talking with these guys, hanging around with them when we were on the road, that was amazing for me. We were part of a family and that's mainly what I think is the greatest thing about the Montreal Canadiens."

    "And then a new generation of players came in. We had a fun Stanley Cup in 1986 and then another one in 1993 with a different group of players. So it's renewal. You look at the 10 first ten years, then another 10, then another 10 then and there's always something different."

    It's been decades since Lacroix has had the chance to announce a Stanley-Cup winning goal, but he's seeing signs that his wait might possibly be over soon.

    "This team is a lot of fun," he says. "You do realize that these guys want to hang around together. They're having fun together and it shows. The same thing applied in in the 70s with all these great names and guys who were eventually inducted in the Hall of Fame. But you see guys like Caufield and Suzuki, (Ivan) Demidov, (Lane) Hutson, they're hanging around and they are having fun."

    "My point of view is that the new generation is close to being the same that we had in the 70s. You can easily compare characters that we had in the 70s and characters that we've got right now with the team."

    Lacroix will spend the summer doing other things like covering PGA tournaments for RDS. He says he'll get a few days off here and there, but mostly he's waiting for the new hockey season to start. And he's not ready to hang up the microphone any time soon.

    "Not for now. I'm still hoping to get number 25 in. Oh, yeah," he says. "Oh, I want to be able to announce that. That's it. That would be really something. Yeah."

    "As long as they they don't ask me to sing the national anthem, I'm OK."

Feeding the Beast

     

    If you've ever had to feed a young athlete, you'll know you sometimes forget what they look like because their head is always in the fridge. These kids eat a lot and your grocery bill proves it. 

    Now, multiply that by twenty. Then host a party with thousands of guests in multiple locations while making sure everybody gets a flavourful, nutritious meal. If you can do that, you might be able to do Yves Lowe's job.

    Lowe is the Montreal Canadiens' executive chef, and he does all that and more every single day. He didn't start out on the fast-track to culinary exclusivity though. Like many Canadian teens, his first kitchen gig was far from fancy.

    "At 15 years I old started at McDonald's. I had so much fun," he smiles. "I realized that it was probably the path that I should follow so I ended up in a cooking school. Got the chance to meet a great chef while I was doing that and I worked for him for like 2 years. And I learned quite a bit over there."

    The connections he developed in culinary school and in his early restaurant jobs opened a lot of doors for him.

    "I was lucky enough to work in one of the best restaurants back then in Montreal called Mediterraneo," he recalls. "I was there for three years and got along very well with the chef. He helped me out training for cooking competitions."

    "I took part in cooking competitions all around the world for five or six years internationally as far as New Zealand, China, Germany."

    From there he landed a job as a sous chef at the St.Paul Hotel, then the W in Montreal, where he graduated to head chef. That's where he met a guy called Patrick.

    "He became a mentor for me, Patrick," he says. "He was my food and beverage director over there. He moved from that hotel to Bell Centre. A few months later he called me for a coffee and we sat down. We spoke a bit and he was like, you know what? I think you would be a great chef for the Bell Centre."

    "I pinched myself and I'm like, are you kidding me? And I ended up over here as a sous chef to start. A year after I was high sous chef. Then I became the executive chef and here I am 10 years later." 

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    When asked what a typical day for the Habs executive chef looks like, he just laughs because there is no typical day.

    "I'm also overseeing the training facility in Brossard for the players," he explains. "The farm team has their own arena in Laval close to Montreal. So I'm overseeing those operation as well. So yeah there's quite a bit."

    He says the days are very long and there's always something needing his attention or his problem-solving skills. In the summer he caters some festivals sponsored by Group CH, the Canadiens' management company, but his real work happens during the hockey season.

    "I would normally come in about 10:00 in the morning," he says. "I like to take the time to speak with all my chefs, all my sous chefs, but also our line cooks as well. I have 200 cooks and about 20 dishwashers. I like to know each of them by their name and also learn a bit of what they like. To me, it's really important to take some time and speak with them. And so during the morning, I'll walk around a lot of the building, make sure everyone's okay."

    "If there's anything I can do to help out, I do. Purchasing orders coming in are quite big. So one small mistake can have a huge consequence. So I want to double check, make sure everyone's all good."

    Lowe orders all the food and builds the menus with assistance from his sous chef. And there are a lot of menus.

    "We have 6 restaurants in the building, which is pretty unique in the NHL," he reveals. "There's a lot of different menus with a lot of options. We've built that up in the last 10 years and I'm pretty happy with the offerings that we have."

    As an executive chef, you'd think Lowe's most important piece of equipment would be a special pan or maybe a particular set of knives. In this case though, it's not a kitchen-related item at all. It's his cell phone.

    "It's a big building, your communication is quite key," he says. "The cell phone is very useful. But we also have radios. What's very specific and very unique about an arena like us is that people are all coming at the same time and they want to be fed and they want to be at their seats for for the beginning of the game, right? So you have an hour and a half for to feed about 6000 people."

    And then there are the VIPs in the corporate boxes.

    "We also have 130 suites and each can fit about 20 people and they obviously all have a buffet and their sweets, right. So right there you have about 2000 to 3000 people depending on you."

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    It's a lot of work for one person to handle, even with a team of assistants helping out. What makes it all worth it for Lowe is the love he has for food, coupled with the love he has for hockey...even if he grew up a fan of the Quebec Nordiques. He reveals that a little shamefacedly these days because now he's a Canadiens fan, through and through.

    Taking care of a pro hockey team means providing huge amounts of fresh, nutritious food. It also involves catering to the specific diet plans of each individual player.

    "In terms of the Montreal Canadiens, we have dietitians that also are putting down ideas for menus," he explains. "So when I took over the job as the executive chef a couple years ago, there was a demand to feed the players properly at the training facility as well. We used to have a catering company that did deliveries, but they wanted to get some sort of private chef service for the players. So I spoke to a good friend of mine. I hired him as a sous chef for the training facility."

    His friend who takes care of the meals at Brossard has four other chefs working with him to make sure each player's nutritional needs are met.

    "They're more like a big family now. So they know the specificity of each player. It's easier that way. But do you do you get special requests from the players. Some of them have some allergies. And sometimes they request special things."

    Like playoff pizza. When Philip Danault wants a slice after a playoff win, it's Lowe's team that provides it. There are also different expectations for different times of day.

    "After practice the diet is very simple, like a chicken breast with no spices on it. No sauces. They want to digest their food easily because they know they're going to have a game later on," he reveals. "But after the game, that's normally where they can have a bit of a permission to eat more what we call fun food, right? So chicken tenders are quite in demand on nights after a victory."

    He says most of the players, especially the younger ones, don't really demand much special treatment. A lot of them are still developing their palates.

    "They're very, very polite," he says. "They're always like, they don't wanna disturb anyone so none of them are picky or anything. They like to taste. So they're tasting, they're learning more about good food and now they're very much more open-minded when it comes to trying new stuff on the buffet."

    "They're 19, 20 years old. So yeah, obviously they need to be educated at some point."

    And of all the strapping young men he's feeding every day, who eats the most? Lowe says he can't really name names, but he does confirm one thing.

    "The goaltenders I would say are probably eating the most really. "

    More than Arber Xhekaj or Josh Anderson? 

    "Yeah. But every human is different. Some are making an effort and they're gonna lose a lot of weight. And then some of them are just gonna keep the same weight all the time. So it depends on where they are in their program."

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    Lowe and his crew aren't just there to feed the players. They want to create an atmosphere where the players can feel comfortable and be together while they fuel their bodies. It's meant to be a relaxing time which helps build that much-vaunted family atmosphere the team promotes.

    "I'd like to think is that we create that team spirit, that family, you know? They're sitting down altogether eating at the same time and sharing moments, sharing about food. And that's probably something that we can be proud of."

    Yves Lowe has come a very long way from his days as that 15-year-old McDonald's cook who cheered for the Nordiques. And he can definitely be proud of the work he does to keep this young Canadiens team in top shape.

    He feels like he's a part of it all and hopes that he'll still be providing post-game pizza in the Stanley Cup Finals someday soon.

    

A Thousand Words

     

Lane Hutson takes on the Lighting. John Mahoney photo published with permission

    If a picture is worth a thousand words, the Montreal Gazette's John Mahoney could have written the entire contents of the Library at Alexandria. Mahoney has been a newspaper photographer for fifty years, documenting everything from politics to protests to arts and, of course, sports. He was there in New York on 9/11 and when Covid-19 was ravaging Quebec. 

    For Canadiens fans, his best-known photos are those he's taken of the ups and downs, the stars and the duds of their favourite team over all those years. He captured the famous "too-many-men" goal by Yvon Lambert against the Bruins in 1979. He was there at Guy Lafleur's funeral. And these days he's recording the rise of the newest edition of the team and its young stars.

    "I grew up as a Montreal Canadiens fan and then later on as a Montreal Expos fan and an Alouettes fan," Mahoney recalls. "My dad was a big Alouettes fan as well. Once I covered my first couple of sports events, I kind of got hooked on it, you know, being being able to be that close to the players and going to training camps. And those days we were allowed to go in the dressing rooms. It was a bit of a thrill. I was 18 when I started. I was still a kid, so it was a big thrill for me to be able to be in that milieu."

    He says being a fan is partly what led to him becoming a good sports photographer, because that involves knowing the game and anticipating what might happen. Often, however, even though he's got an eye for the action, he doesn't realize he's snapped a keeper until after the moment passes.

    "You only identify it once the game is over pretty much. I guess it's pretty hectic in the in the moment," he explains. "Obviously there are certain scenarios especially during the playoffs, if the game is tied and there's 5 or 6 minutes left, you're pretty sure that the next goal is going to be the winner. So there are some situations where you can sort of predict it."

    "For the most part though, you'll only know once the game is over. You know what the decisive picture is gonna be."

    When you're clicking away all game long, not all the results are going to be meaningful.

    "Sometimes you'll get these really good pictures and they don't mean anything," he says. "They're really nice action pictures, right?  So as photographs, they're fine, but as news photographs, they lose their value because you know the goal that ties the game up at the beginning of the third is a nice picture, but it's eclipsed by the goal that wins the game."

    So what's a winning photo for Mahoney?

    "The context is important. I prefer pictures where the background is clean. I like pictures where you can see faces," he says.

    "Often, and especially shooting hockey in particular, you get these great goal-mouth scrambles where there seems in the moment like there's tons of action going on. But then when it's over, you look at your pictures and all you got is we call it backs and bums, you know."

    

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    Among the biggest changes over Mahoney's 50 years in the business is the quality of the equipment he gets to use.

    "Well, when I started in 1976, we were shooting black and white film," he laughs. "And motor-drive cameras were still fairly new at the time. So you were lucky if your motor-drive might have given you 4 frames a second, maybe 5 frames a second. Now we've got cameras that can shoot 20 frames a second. So that in itself is a is a huge change."

    The newer gear is a lot more forgiving as well, even as it produces more better-quality photos and creates more work for the photographer who has to sift through them after the game.

    "The current generation are just incredible. NHL arena lights are pretty bright. So that allows us to use really high shutter speeds. At the Bell Centre, I shoot at 1-2 thousandth of a second so you're able to freeze a lot of the action that way."

    "So the technology has been huge when it comes to sports photography. Also, when I started, you had to manually focus the camera, so you had to be constantly focusing, trying to keep the action in focus," he recalls. "That was a skill that is lost now because the auto focus on the modern lenses are so good and so accurate that the percentage of really good pictures is much higher than it used to be. When we were shooting film on manual cameras with manual focus, that was a real skill. I get a much higher percentage of sharp and usable frames nowadays than I did back then."

    The Lambert picture is one of Mahoney's favourites from his years of Habs coverage. Also a highlight was probably the most well-known shot of the Canadiens last championship in 1993.

    "Patrick Roy holding the Stanley Cup, celebrating after the last time they won. That's one of the most famous pictures that I shot," he says. "There were several other people that shot that same moment, but mine seems to be the one that has been used more often, and has shown up more often."

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    Although he's five decades into his photography career, Mahoney isn't quite ready to retire. He's enjoying being around the new generation and would like to see another Stanley Cup before he hangs up the camera. These Canadiens play the type of game photogs enjoy; fast-paced with lots of action and expression. And there are certain players that are a dream to shoot.

    "Oh, it's gotta be Cole Caufield. I would say because of the grin," he says. "When he scores or even when one of his teammates scores, he's just so expressive. He's just overjoyed. He seems to really find joy in playing hockey. He really does. It's so fun to watch, too."

    "Slafkovsky is very good too. He's quite uninhibited compared to a lot of others. He stands in a very sharp contrast to Nick Suzuki for instance, who's very, very stoic. He will celebrate and he will smile, but he doesn't have the same spontaneity that Slafkovsky or Caufield do." 

    "I love photographing Lane Hutson as well.  He's just so dynamic," he enthuses. "When you do action pictures of him,  his legs are going one way and his arms are going another way or he's jamming on the brakes. So we got a lot of really good pictures of the spray when he does that. He changes direction so often, you know, he plays that sort of that water bug kind of style. The pictures have a lot of tension in them, a lot of action, they're very interesting to look at because they tend to be a little bit more unusual than some of the other players."

    For a guy who loves to shoot action and see faces, taking goalie photos through their masks can be a problem. The Bell Centre gives photographers two options to set up. They can be upstairs with a familiar broadcast view, or they can be ice-level and shoot through the holes in the glass. That's where Mahoney likes to take pictures of Jakub Dobes.

    "Even if there's action going on elsewhere the last 10 seconds or so of the game,  I often will just focus right on him because he will let out a yell and he's expressive at the end of the game, especially if they win. So I have been able to get a few pictures where you can sort of see through the mask and see his expressions."

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    Mahoney says his family and friends are encouraging him to publish a book of his favourite work, but after all those years of  images, narrowing it down to a manageable number is tough.

   "I have to admit that I'm finding it a little daunting," he explains. "There's a lot of magic. There's some volume that you have to get through. At this point there's thousands of pictures and the "keeper" file is only since since around 2001 or so when we switched to digital. So you've gotta go back to the old negatives."

    He says a fellow photographer who's done books before advises him to develop a focus and stick to a particular subject to make it easier to organize. If ever he decides to share his years of Canadiens pictures he can be sure Habs fans will line up to grab a little piece of team history for their very own.

    In an age when traditional newspapers are disappearing, photographers with the skill and experience of John Mahoney are a rare and special breed.

Tick Dach

     

***UPDATE: Now we know the qualifying offer was a two-way, so the hurt feelings and decision to go to arbitration have a more clear explanation. ***

    It couldn't have been an easy decision for Kirby Dach.

    The 25-year-old former third-overall NHL draft pick is at a crossroads in his career. At his age players are either moving into their prime years or still struggling to prove themselves. If the latter, the chances of him succeeding become fewer and fewer as time passes.

    Dach is seven years past his draft and he still has not proven to be the kind of player Kent Hughes wants to lock in for either big term or big money. Of course, his long string of unfortunate injuries (beyond his control) have hampered his career development. Still, when a player has sat out more games than he's laced up, it doesn't give the GM much to work with in evaluating his potential with a team.

    In Hughes' case, that evaluation is all-important. He's built a reputation on knowing when a player has reached peak potential and making the best decision he can for the team and its salary structure. With so much time missing from Dach's resume, Hughes may have thought the best option was to qualify the player at a respectable four million dollars and give him a year to prove he is worth keeping around for a longer term.

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    Dach had other ideas.

    Either he or his agent, Gerry Johannson, or both, think the player's body of work is enough to earn him more than his qualifying offer and elected to go to arbitration. This will not end well.

    Arbitration creates division and bitterness; two things Hughes has no interest in introducing to his tight-knit "family atmosphere." And there's little chance of avoiding that. By its very nature, arbitration is antagonistic. The player has to talk about why he's so great and the team has to talk about why he's not. Hughes will bring up Dach's injury history and his lack of expected production overall. He'll have to tell Dach he's not at the same level as the players...Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov...who are years younger than Dach and already locked in long-term for excellent money. Deep down, Dach may recognize the truth of that, but it will hurt all the same. Even if he wins his arbitration case, the relationship with Hughes won't be the same.

    The thing with Dach is he's been given every opportunity to do well in Montreal. His 6'4" frame, nice hands and good mobility are like catnip for most GMs. It's why Hughes took a flyer on a guy the Blackhawks had already decided wasn't going to live up to his draft hype, and why he gave up a promising young D and two strong draft picks to acquire him.

    Considering his price, you have to think Hughes wanted to either sign him to a reasonable deal to give him one more shot in Montreal or sign him and then package him in a trade. Dach's decision to go to arbitration ties Hughes' hands. If the team wins the arbitration case, he can keep an unhappy Dach for a year, or walk away from him with nothing in return. They can still trade him if they win the case, but the way this plays out could negatively impact his value, especially if he costs more for another team to acquire. It's hard to imagine the Canadiens signing him to a bigger deal, only to retain part of it in a trade.

    Hughes does not like taking those kinds of losses on investment and it may indicate he was blindsided by Dach's choice.

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    If Dach wins his case (although it's difficult to imagine what kind of convincing argument he can make since he's got 51 career goals which Cole Caufield matched in a single season), it would force Hughes to either pay him or trade him. Since Hughes manages his cap very carefully, one can imagine paying an extra couple of million to retain Dach isn't in his plan. So at this point, it looks like Dach will be moved whether he wins or loses his case.

    That's what likely made this a tough choice for him.

    He appears to be liked by his teammates and likes them in return. He's not been a vocal distraction through all his struggles. He's been part of something special as part of the renewed Canadiens team, playing for a coach other players name as a reason why they'd sign with Montreal. That's a lot to give up for the sake of a bigger paycheck.

    Yet, the crossroad remains. He knows he's got fewer years left to make the money he'll need to support his family and his lifestyle for the rest of his days. He knows his injury history is troubling and he has no idea if it will end his career in a year or two. He had a relatively healthy playoff, so this may seem to him the best opportunity he's going to get to start banking for his future. Seeing some of the ridiculous contracts others are signing this summer probably reinforces his belief that this is his opportunity.

    There's still a chance the two sides can reconcile and avoid arbitration with a compromise deal. 

    At this point, though, Dach has made his choice for better or for worse.

 

Big Money, Big Risk

    

    In July of 2002, Bobby Holik signed a contract extension with the New York Rangers. The forward's compensation of nine million dollars a year came right before the NHL introduced its first salary cap after the 2005 lockout. Holik's deal soon proved unsustainable within the new pay structure and New York bought him out when the league reopened for business. Critics pointed to him as the poster child for crazy signings and why there needed to be a cap in the first place.

    "I thought I was worth the money, but maybe on a different team or a team that played a different style," he recalls years later. "As soon as the lockout ended, I knew it was coming because the Rangers weren't heading in the direction that would make me a valuable player to them."

    "Ever since the salary has been published, that's all the people and the reporters think about. They don't think of you as an athlete who's dedicated his life to a career in which he's being the best he can be. It's, 'he's making this much money...is he worth it or is he not?'  That's the biggest negative of published salary. Unfortunately, people always forget the money was voluntarily given them by the general managers or the owners of the team."

    For a while after the introduction of the cap most GMs tried to be careful and not throw the budget away on one or two guys. Now, however, the salary cap is slated to rise significantly in the next three years and managers are back to spending like they've got the back-door keys to Fort Knox. Holik says that's going to resurrect some of the problems players of his generation faced.

    "The system is set up so if the GM or owner makes a mistake, the players will pay for it," Holik explains. "That's the way it is. The GM signs a player that doesn't fit the system, he doesn't do his homework, but he's just available, it's easy for them. It's not their money. It's somebody else's money. We'll just throw 40 million dollars at him and see what happens when the season starts. If it doesn't work out, two years into the seven year deal, it's ah...just send him to the minors."

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    Wade Redden knows that first hand.

    After the 2005 lockout, the Ottawa Senators had to make a tough decision. In order to stay within the newly-established cap, they could only sign one of its star defencemen: Redden or Zdeno Chara. They chose Redden and Chara decamped to Boston.

    Redden signed a new deal, making him the highest-paid Senator as well as providing him with a no-movement clause. When Redden vetoed a trade to Edmonton, then a second move to San Jose, Ottawa decided to cut him loose and the Rangers swooped in, shedding money. New York gave him $39-million over six years but Redden's play couldn't keep up with expectations. He got sent to the AHL, becoming the highest-paid player in the league's history.

    "It wasn't easy. It's happened to a number of guys now in the last number of years. It's unfortunate," Redden recalls. "For me, I tried to approach the game the same way. I wasn't happy about it, but I went down and tried to work my way back to the NHL. You have to keep playing hockey and you're still making a lot of money, so you have to approach it the same way."

    He says he just tried to make the best of it, but it was disappointing.

    "I just tried to find the joy in it again and that's how I approached it. The AHL has a lot of young guys, and there was a great bunch of kids in Hartford when I went there. I kind of fed off their enthusiasm and that made the transition easier. I didn't want to sit and pout and sulk the whole time. That wasn't going to get me anywhere either."

    And if he had a chance to do it over again?

    "If they're going to give you the money, you have to take it, then go out and play as hard as you can. Obviously, you look at where you'll fit in, where the team is, where you want to be and how much money is on the table. You have to follow your heart. You can't overthink it too much, but if it feels right, take the money."

    In the end, Redden did get to play 29 more games in the NHL before his career ended, but it wasn't the way he wanted to go out.

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    This year, for the first time in a while, NHL general managers have significant new money to spend. Bowen Byram isn't a bad defenceman, but signing for $12.5-million per season for six years in Chicago could easily land him in the Holik/Redden Hall of Cap Fame. What will Hawks management do if his play falls off three years into this deal and they're stuck with an immovable contract no other team will touch? When you consider Lane Hutson is making less than nine million and Byram is nowhere near Hutson's caliber, it's not hard to tell the crazy days of free agency are back. 

    In Montreal, Kent Hughes has decided not to throw his money away just to fill a hole that could be filled in other ways as long as he's got a stable full of young colts to pay. It's probably better for him and for the players that he's playing the long game in cap management.

    Looking back, Wade Redden says his playing days were tough after signing his big Rangers' deal, but now he's got a different perspective.

    "There's a lot of factors, depending on where you are, what your personality is, what kind of team it is, what the money is," he says. "It is a big part of it. We have agents to help guide us and give us advice, and they kind of have a different perspective. When you're playing, you don't look that far down the road, but money's a big part of it. I look back now and I'm glad I have the independence I do and made the money I did."

    As for Bobby Holik:

    "Every time you step on the ice, it could be the last time you play forever," he states. "There's so many possibilities that's your last shift, your last practice. Every single time. So players, when they're presented a contract, they don't think "Oh, if I sign this, I'll be in the minors in two years." They think they have an opportunity to sign the contract and never worry about money again. Nobody really asks the players what they go through day to day. I don't regret any of my decisions. I loved New  York, but unfortunately, it was the wrong time for me to be there. I gave them my best. I didn't work out, so I moved on."

    "We're human beings, and we don't ask if we're the best fit. We have families and lives. We are just part of the business. We're part of the big machine. We're not more than that. GMs use you and when they don't need you, they get rid of you. To be successful, you have to have the love and passion. But if you're doing it for a long time, you have to be mentally tough and separate you the person from you the business."

    As long as Hughes in in charge in Montreal, Canadiens players can hope for better than that.

    

The Lost First

    

     On NHL draft day, 2022, things were looking good for the Montreal Canadiens. Their season had been dreadful, but the result of winning the draft lottery meant they had a shot at a player around whom they might restructure the rebuild Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton had been hired to deliver. It was a stellar first draft for them.

    Juraj Slafkovsky was far from a slam-dunk at first overall when Shane Wright seemed to have a lock on that honour. Four years later, Slaf gets better all the time and has figured out how to use his big frame to produce points and drive the first line. He cracked the thirty goal plateau this year and put up 12 points in 19 playoff games. Meanwhile, Wright has struggled to adapt to the NHL game and has a total of 36 career goals.

    The second round was probably even better for Montreal, taking Lane Hutson with the 62nd-overall pick. Just about every re-draft concocted by pundits has Slafkovsky/Hutson as the top two. Owen Beck at 33 and Adam Engstrom in the third round aren't at that level, but they've both played NHL games and are useful assets for the trade market. 

    Then, there's Filip Mesar. The Canadiens had two first-rounders in 2022 and Mesar was the second, chosen at 26th. It was a thrill for Slafkovsky who grew up with Mesar and was delighted he'd get to play pro hockey with his old buddy. It hasn't panned out that way though. While Slafkovsky got the kid-glove treatment with entry to the NHL at just 18, Mesar has languished in Laval. He's a lot smaller than his countryman and he's been told he'll have to learn to play a tougher game if he wants a shot at making the Habs' roster. This season, he put up just 27 points (nine goals) in 71 games for the Rocket, becoming a healthy scratch more than once.

    That's not going to cut it on a steadily improving Canadiens team.

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    Complicating things for Mesar are the forwards chosen in the drafts after him. Big Florian Xhekaj came along in 2023 and offers a toughness Hughes wants to see in the Habs bottom six. Then 2024 brought elite forwards Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage, both in the first round. Last season it was Alexander Zharovsky. Tonight, Hughes will try to add another piece to his rebuilding roster, pushing Mesar farther down the depth chart.

    Hughes hasn't made too many errors in evaluating talent, but Mesar is one of them. He just hasn't been able to put his prodigious skill to use the way he'd like because of injuries, streakiness and his lack of mass (he weighs about the same as Hutson, but of course is most definitely not Hutson.) Now he finds himself slipping down the depth chart with every draft. He's not big enough or tough enough for a bottom-six role and he's got way too much competition for the top six.

    Hughes is well-known for having a keen eye for recognizing, before anyone else, when a player's development has peaked. He may have reached that point with Mesar by now and could try to sell him off as a reclamation project to a team with a need for an offensive-minded forward.

    Any way you look at it, though, his future probably isn't in Montreal. It's probably just a matter of time before the Habs cut bait on him and Hughes will have to act smartly to get whatever return he can now, because in every year Mesar doesn't make it his value drops. 

    It may be at the draft table tonight, or sometime over the summer, but you have to think Hughes is quietly looking for a new home for his former first-rounder. Especially because he's got a do-over with the 28th pick this year and a chance to recoup the value Mesar was supposed to bring.

    A team can't hit a homerun on every draft pick, but the Canadiens of the past have proven what happens when their first-round picks end up being busts. Those players have the best shot of making the pros and generally becoming the cornerstones for their teams. Franchises invest a lot of time, patience and money developing their high draft picks, so when one of them doesn't measure up, the team loses in more ways than one.

    In Mesar's case, he came with the draft and we'll see tonight if he leaves with it as well.