Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

There are thirty teams in the NHL and it’s the law of the universe that says one of those thirty teams must be in last place.

And that would be the New York Islanders, whom the Habs play Saturday night, with a record of five points in nine games. (2-6-1)

So Montreal absolutely needs to win this game. And hopefully they’ll look good while doing it, and Alex Kovalev and Tomas Plekanec will be a force to be reckoned with. These two need a big, breakout game.

The Islanders will be wearing throwback jerseys from the 1970’s, similar to the Potvin, Bossy, and Trottier era.

So they’ll be looking good when they lose.

Meanwhile, I found my old grade two workbook with some serious pieces of my art in it. I think I was a better artist then than I am now.

If I had paid a hundred bucks or so, or more, for a ticket tonight in Minnesota, I’d ask for my money back. Because even though the Canadiens won 2-1, this sad excuse for a game was a combination of sloppy play by the Habs, boring hockey by the Wild, and a never-ending amount of penalties called by the officials.

Imagine taking your new girlfriend on a first date to a game like this? She’d get up and leave with the hot dog vendor.

Montreal still hasn’t got their act together. PJ Stock was right. If they want to be a dominant team in the league, they have to start playing like one. And so far, except for the game against Toronto, they haven’t been good enough.

But at least they keep winning. That says something. But in my book, they haven’t looked great so far.

And if I could say good things about the Minnesota Wild, I could say the front office is laced with ex-1970’s Habs, starting with Doug Risebrough, the Wild’s President and GM, who I delivered milk to in Calgary when he was with the Flames and I was a door-to-door milkman.

Jacques Lemaire, Guy Lafleur’s centreman for most of the seventies, number 25 with the big slap shot, is the head coach and the inventor of boring coaching methods.

Guy Lapointe, one of the big three defencemen in the ’70’s along with Larry Robinson and Serge Savard,is the head of amateur scouting for the Wild. If you’ve read Ken Dryden’s The Game, you’ll know that Lapointe was a heck of a funny guy when he played.

And assistant coach Mario Tremblay. I’m not going to get into that.

I also don’t mind their sweater design. Reminds me of the old Quebec Aces sweater only with the colours reversed. Just plain and simple, with the round crest and laced neck. No fancy-dancy shit here.

Notes:

Young Habs’ Russian prospect Pavel Valentenko, toiling in the salt mines of Hamilton, asked the Canadiens if he could go home to visit his family. Montreal said yes, then the guy turned around and signed a three year deal with Moscow Dynamo. I suppose he had simply forgot to tell Bob Gainey that his family’s name is Moscow Dynamo.
 

Steve Downey has been recalled by Philadelphia. After his big scare of being sent down, maybe Downey will now be the next Lady Byng winner. What do you think?

Next up: The team is in Long Island Saturday to take on the New York Islanders. After that, they’ve got five freakin days off before they play the Blue Jackets the following Friday. FIVE FREAKIN DAYS! Stay out of the bars, boys. 

This is an ad from a 1940’s newspaper I found years ago. As you can see, prices were somewhat less than they are today. 

Imagine, the Rocket, Elmer Lach, Toe Blake, Teeder Kennedy, Howie Meeker, Turk Broda - all the boys, for 75 cents.

I’m not going to go into great detail about tonight’s 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes, other than it was a bit of a sloppy affair, with the Habs being outshot 33-25 by the quick-skating Canes. The boys also took several bad penalties, including a puck over the boards by Carey Price with two minutes left, that almost cost them the game. 

But Saku Koivu pulled it out in the shootout.

My feeling is, the homestand was too long, and a little road trip, beginning Thursday in Minnesota, then back east for stops on Long Island, Columbus, and Toronto, can’t come soon enough.

There’s things to be worked on, that’s for sure. Yes, I know, it’s only October. I’m an impatient man.

But they got their two points, and that’s what we see on paper when all’s said and done.

What I really want to talk about is something that happened before the game began. The Canadiens honoured their three most successful coaches - Dick Irvin, Toe Blake, and Scotty Bowman, and when I saw Toe’s son Bruce, my heart did a little dance.

Bruce Blake came out for the ceremonial faceoff wearing what probably was his dad’s old team cardigan sweater. And if that wasn’t good enough, he put on a fedora which also probably belonged to his dad. So there he was, dressed like his dad dressed in the good old days of the 1950’s and ’60s.

It was a tremendous moment, and I hope the younger generation picked up on this.

Last year I had a nice long talk, for about an hour, with Doug Harvey’s son, Doug Jr., and he told me that when he was growing up in Montreal, his best friend was Bruce Blake. Imagine being young kids with dads who were members of the famed Montreal Canadiens of the late 1950’s?

Bruce and Doug Jr. were. (Although Doug said it was like growing up the same as any other family, which is hard to imagine.)

And Doug Jr. told me that Bruce still has all those huge players’ murals that hung in the old Toe Blake Tavern, which sat just down Ste. Catherines Street from the old Forum.

Coming Up:

Thursday’s game in Minnesota should be an interesting affair. Montreal’s record after eight games is 6-1-1 for 13 points. The Wild’s, after seven games, is 6-0-1, also for 13 points.

It should be really interesting to see how the Canadiens rebound from their less-than-stellar performance against Anaheim when the Carolina Hurricanes blow into town.

The Hurricanes are no slouches so far this season, but they’re not setting the world on fire either. Led by Ray Whitney, Eric Staal, and Rob Brind’Amour, this team has so far garnered a 4-2-1 record for nine points. Montreal stands at 5-1-1 for 11 points, so they haven’t exactly left the Canes in their dust.

However, the Canes have a special weapon, like so many great teams in the past have had. Boston had Orr, Edmonton, Gretzky. Detroit, Yzerman, Chicago, Bobby Hull etc. etc.

Carolina has Sergei Samsonov.

You can’t really look at the numbers. Okay, so he has no points and is minus 3 after seven games. But I’ll just bet, by the time the season has wound down, this Russian forward will have accumulated probably four goals and two assists!   

You know, there was a time when Samsonov was a real player - when he was a fresh-faced newcomer in Boston. He had been a primo Junior star in Russia, and in his first year in Boston, he won rookie of the year. But it all went away, never to be seen again, like dinosaurs, or Milli Vanilli.

Samsonov was soon dealt to Edmonton where they paid this underachiever 7.05 million over two years, and of course, he underachieved. From Edmonton it became Chicago, then the minors, and now Carolina, where they’re giving the guy 7.6 million over three years.

Every good young player in the minors, and those in the NHL making much less than Samsonov, must wonder what kind of Houdini tricks this guy knows.

Samsonov was the ultimate failure in Montreal too. In his year there, 2006-07, he notched nine goals and 17 assists in 63 games. He had become the new Vladimir Krutov, which certainly would give Canucks fans something to shudder about.  However, there’s no word on Samsonov’s hot dog eating abilities, which Krutov was a force to be reckoned with during his short stay in Vancouver in 1989. He was labelled Vladimir Crouton.

Montreal really needs this game on Tuesday. Get back to their winning ways. Get back on track. Don’t let Samsonov score.

And I’d like to see Alex Kovalev explode. It’s time. He needs to have a big season, like last year.

This is a letter sent to the Montreal Gazette from someone named Steve Bourgoin in Oneonto, NY, expressing his dismay at the lack of size down the centre for the Canadiens. Of course, in a perfect world, the Habs would have either Joe Thornton or Vincent Lecavalier, who both stand at 6′4″.

But we don’t.

Dear Montreal: I have been a Canadiens fan since the 1970s, and think I know a thing or two about the sport. My first impression of this year’s team, and its makeup, is that with Saku Koivu and Tomas Plekanec as our top two centres, we will advance only so far in the playoffs. Playoff hockey is a different game altogether, and as last year’s semifinals showed, we lack a dominant big man up the middle with size. It pains me to say this, but until that vital position is filled, we only go so far. Happy anniversary, Montreal Canadiens.

Steve Bourgoin

Oneonta, N.Y

So that’s his letter, and it got me thinking a little. I’ve been happy with the size of the team this year, and I wondered if Steve Bourgoin was right or not. So I looked at our centres and here’s what we have, then I show you the size of the centres in Detroit, who won the Stanley Cup last year, and in Pittsburgh, who made it to the Cup finals. Then you be the judge if we’re too small or not.

The Canadiens at centre are:

 Saku Koivu - 5′10″.

Robert Lang - 6′2″

Maxim Lapierre - 6′2″

Tomas Plekanec - 5′10″

Kyle Chipchura - 6′2″

Then there’s the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings:

Pavel Datsyuk - 5′!!”

Jiri Hudler - 5′10″

Val Filppula - 6′0″

Kris Draper - 5′10′

Darren Helm - 5′11″

The Pittsburgh Penguins centres are:

Evgeni Malkin - 6′3″

Sid Crosby - 5′11″

Jordan Staal - 6′4′

Maxime Talbot - 5′11″

Tyler Kennedy - 5′11″

My conclusion? We’re not too small. Although like I said, Thornton or Lecavalier would be nice.

At least Ottawa lost, so that’s good.  But then again, Toronto won. So that cancels out the good part.

Oh, and there was a game at the Bell Centre.

Chalk that one up to one of those nights, forget about it, and move on. Because nights like this, a lousy 6-4 loss to the Ducks, are gonna happen. It’s a long season.

We just don’t want it to happen too often. Almost never, as a matter of fact.

We could say the five-day layoff made the team rusty, and that might be true.

Or we could say that Jaroslav Halak stunk, and that might be true too.

And we could say the Habs just didn’t have it on this night, although they fired 51 shots at J.S. Giguere.

The fact is, the Canadiens played their poorest of their seven games so far this season (although opening night in Buffalo was pretty bad too), and the Ducks, just like I was worried about, have used this little eastern road trip to snap out of their doldrums, having also beaten Toronto and Ottawa on previous nights.

Watching Halak reminded me of so many nights from recent years, when you never knew what kind of goaltending you were going to see, and far too often, weak goals were scored on the good guys. It was discouraging for the skaters, and nerve wracking for fans whenever the puck made its way inside the blueline. But that changed, for the most part, with the arrival of Carey Price.

Halak didn’t have it, allowing four goals in a period and a half, and was replaced by Price, who’s been fighting the flu all week. Price wasn’t tested a whole lot and gave up two goals, which is a whole lot better than giving up four goals.

You have to wonder what the outcome would have been if Price had started. 

On the positive side, Alex Tanguay notched a couple more to make it five in seven games, and Saku Koivu and Tom Kostopoulos also bulged the twine.

That’s it for positives.

Next Up:

The Carolina Hurricanes are in town on Tuesday. The game may be televised back in Raleigh as long as there’s no car racing and high school basketball going on.

Bob Gainey, at the GM’s meetings, proposed a change in the game that can be looked at as either brilliantly innovative, or completely laughable. Either way, it’s interesting.

Gainey’s idea is to make it illegal for a player to slide across the ice to block a shot, therefore creating more offence, more shots on goal. He wants to do away with exactly what he and Guy Carbonneau did on a nightly basis when they both played.

Players would have more teeth if this was implemented. There’d be less bruises, less chance of getting killed. I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.

Goalies would hate it. More blasts from the blueline getting through.

Players with less guts than players like Gainey and Carbonneau would love it because then they wouldn’t have to look silly by not diving in front of a Sheldon Souray shot. They could say to the coach, ”I would’ve slid and blocked it but it’s against the rules so I couldn’t.”               

Don Cherry would hate it, because not doing this hard-core type of thing isn’t lunch-pail hockey.

Fans might like it because of the added offence. Fans might not like it because a good fan likes to see the brave and unselfish task of blocking a shot in the face for the good of the team.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It’s never good when a fairly good team starts slow out of the gate because eventually they’ll break out of it and there’s always that chance they’ll break out of it against your team.

You have to figure that the Anaheim Ducks, with players like Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, will figure things out eventually. Right now, before their game with Ottawa Friday night, the Ducks’ record stands at two wins and five losses, which is quite mediocre to say the least.

The Ducks certainly have one thing going against them - the incredibly stupid name, ” Ducks,” which is only slightly less stupid than “Mighty Ducks.”

And Brian Burke is probably an excellent front office-type, except he always looks like his boxer shorts have too much starch in them. And his “I’m smarter than you” attitude, his childish fights with Kevin Lowe, and his distaste of reporters’ questions makes you think he’d rather be doing something more important, like running the world.

I was told once by an ex-sports editor of the Calgary Sun that Burke and former league executive Brian O’Neill were the two most miserable characters he ever had to deal with in the NHL.

Habs and Ducks Saturday night.

Go Habs.

May the Ducks lose like they’ve never lost before.

Hockey items you could discuss with your friends after five or six beer:

The Philadelphia Flyers have sent Steve Downey down to their AHL affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms.

Players around the NHL now stand a much better chance of not having their skulls cracked. AHL players, however, are putting extra padding in their helmets and have told their wives to remarry if anything happens to them.

Steve Downey is Sean Avery on crystal meth.

Gary Bettman says everything’s rosy in the the league and so talk of a team in Canada is silly, especially the part about having two franchises in the Toronto area. Bettman may or may not have said this as he overlooked the three franchises around New York from his office window.

This is a guy who probably even makes French-Canadian oldtimers long for Clarence Campbell.

And why are teams like Atlanta, Florida, Nashville, Phoenix etc. so important to the little man, and placing a team in Canada isn’t?

There has to be a reason. I just don’t know what the reason is. Is he getting fat little Christmas bonuses from people?

Was the bully who picked on Bettman in school a transplanted Canadian?

Rumours contimue about Wild star Marian Gaborik being traded to Montreal. I’m assuming Gary Bettman is against this because if it makes the Habs even stronger and even more of a Cup contender, the Stanley Cup could end up in the dreaded backwaters of Canada, one of the commissioner’s worst nightmares.

And one of my worst nightmares is a major trade involving the Canadiens which disrupts the harmony and chemistry they’ve got going now.  If they landed Gaborik for future draft picks only, then great. But they’d need to clear out some salaries to make room for him, which means moving some existing players.

Is this a good idea?

Did the Boomer-Pocket commercial make you smile?

Bobby Clarke says Sean Avery is an idiot and someone should punch him out. Of course, when Clarke played, he was an angelic, gentlemanly fellow whom the whole hockey world loved. But aside from that, I completely agree with him.

This five-game break in the schedule for the Canadiens may or may not suck. Players can nurse their wounds and certain things can be worked out in practices, but geez, they’ve been on such a roll. And don’t forget about the poor wives who have to put up with them for this long. This isn’t normal for the little ladies.

Hope all this doesn’t affect the big game against Anaheim Saturday night.

Is it possible Gary Bettman told the schedule planners to give good Canadian teams big long days off to disrupt their play?

Comments are nice to get here. Even sometimes from people with attitude. Even sometimes from people who don’t quite get it.

A guy wrote me and said I must be completely out of it for not knowing until recently that Montreal restaurant chain Les Cage aux Sports does a “more than five goal, eight free wings” special.

I suppose he thinks all Habs fans live in Montreal. I live as far away from Montreal as you can get. Where I live, the Pacific Ocean touches the shores, and it takes two different ferries to get here when you head north from Vancouver.

Then he said I must not be a good Habs fan because I’ve only had RDS for a very short time.

This is also connected to where I live. Here, a digital box or satellite is required to get RDS. Regular cable doesn’t include it. Years ago, in Ottawa and Calgary, I got RDS on regular cable, but it’s not like that here.

And until this year, it wasn’t in my budget.

But I can assure this fellow, I knew just as much as him, or more, about what went on in games I didn’t see but he did. 

You know, I shouldn’t bother with stuff like this, and I normally don’t, but I just saw arrogance throughout the comment, and I’m not a fan of arrogance.

And he called me buddy.