Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

There’s a brand new and highly-anticipated book about Patrick Roy, written by his father Michel, on the market now, with all the details at Joe Pelletier’s site, but I know one person who probably doesn’t feel like reading it right now.

And when Patrick Roy has his sweater raised to the rafters at the Bell Centre on November 22nd, this person’s television in Pickering, Ontario won’t be tuned in either.

Mike, who has bled Canadiens colours for five decades, says he won’t watch the game that night. He doesn’t agree with what will happen, and he’s angry. Because for him, wearing the Montreal Canadiens sweater comes with a clause. A clause that says it’s an honour to wear it.

For Mike, it’s all about that infamous night on Dec. 2, 1995 when Roy allowed nine goals against Detroit, and when he wasn’t yanked by coach Mario Tremblay, skated to the Montreal bench, walked over to president Ronald Corey, and declared that he’d never play another game with the Habs.

This didn’t sit well with Mike. He’s a fan who believes wearing the sweater is so much more than about bad games, or embarrassment, or even big personal numbers. It’s about wearing the sweater, and that’s it.

And so he said recently on this site that he won’t be watching that night when Roy has the sweater go up, and I asked him why, exactly.

All he said was just go back to recent comments from him, and so I did.

“To walk out on a team as he did precludes him from any honours,” he explained. “Roy thought he was bigger than the team, even dictating when he would practice or not. Mario Tremblay had the CH tattooed on his behind, and came from an era that cherished the right and honour to be a Canadien.

“The previous players who’ve been honoured were true Montreal Canadiens, not this self-serving ego tripper.”

For me personally, it’s also hard to understand how a player can simply quit like Roy did. And maybe Mario Tremblay was completely wrong to leave him in that night like he did. But I believe Roy should’ve just sucked it up, played harder in future games, and taught Tremblay through his actions on the ice that you don’t embarrass the star goalie like that.

Roy shouldn’t have quit on his teammates and Tremblay shouldn’t have done what he did. He and Tremblay had had a volatile relationship from the beginning, with both making jokes about the other’s ability to speak English, and Roy disagreeing often on how Tremblay handled other players.

So there was a personality conflict, and I suppose fireworks were bound to happen.

The younger generation supports Roy completely through all of this. I’ve seen this by comments on this site in previous Roy stories. They believe Roy almost single handedly won both Stanley Cups for the team in 1986 and 1993. They believe his numbers outweigh everything else. They get very upset and angry. And that’s good.

They’ll be watching, and they’ll be buying the book.

But every side has their story, and Mike’s stance is clear and has its own validity.

This is a guy who watches his Habs faithfully and loyally, in every game throughout the season, and has for years. He wears his Montreal sweater, cheers loudly, drinks his beer from his Canadiens beer mug, still worships Jean Beliveau, and lives and dies with each win and loss.

But that night he won’t be watching. Or reading the book either.

Good 2-1 shootout win tonight (Tuesday) against the Detroit Red Wings. However, pre-season is pre-season so I’m not going to go into great detail.

Highlights included Carey Price swatting the puck behind him to save a goal, and 19 year old Max Pacioretty notching the lone Habs goal, plus another in the shootout. He played really well and if this continues, he’ll be tough to send down.

TSN announcers Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire were hard to understand at times because they mumbled as they told their little ditties. They almost make me miss Bob Cole.

Sergei Kostitsyn played, but older brother Andrei didn’t.

Robert Lang didn’t look overly impressive, but I’m a patient man.

I wonder if the hot dogs are as good at the Bell Centre as they were at the Forum.

Detroit didn’t play Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. The Wings were probably concerned that I may have put the injury hex on them so they took no chances.

Maybe it’s nothing to worry about. Maybe it’s only just fluke. But I’m scaring myself and I feel I need to be careful.

It’s all about the laws of attraction, powerful magnetic forces, and controlling thoughts. That’s why I need to be careful. I don’t want to disrupt the perfect harmony which is, ahem, the NHL.

A few posts ago, I wrote, sort of tongue-in-cheek, that I hoped Nick Lidstrom of the Wings would substain injuries this year as he and a few others on that team make them a powerful problem in the Canadiens quest to win the big prize. I really didn’t mean a bad injury, maybe just a little muscle pull or broken finger. That’s not so bad, is it?

The very next day, Lidstrom took a puck in the face and is now out with a broken nose.

And then some kind of opposite magnetic force came into play when I mentioned in the same story that Montreal needs to stay healthy, and right away, Koivu, Lang, Tanguay, Latendresse, Higgins, Hamrlik, Laraque, Kovalev, and Brisebois all went down with various groin, foot, and hip problems.

And so far, only Kovalev has returned. These injuries are why I need to learn to control this.

So you see why I’m scaring myself and am wondering about powers of the mind that I may have somehow obtained recently. I’ve never had them before, so why now?

I’ve never felt ill-will to anyone. Maybe just to Sean Avery and Jarkko Ruutu, but that’s it. And all I ever said about them is that I wish someone would wipe those smiles off their faces permanently.

So if you see on the sports news that Sean Avery was run into the glass and had his face wiped off completely, or that Ruutu decides no one likes him, especially by his coach, so he has no reason to smile and actually doesn’t anymore, then you’ll know my powers are in effect.

And if I channel these powers properly, I just may be able to make Bob Cole get through a game without forgetting names, both of players and himself.

is it possible my powers could move a team from a lousy US market back to Canada?

And maybe, just maybe, I can somehow use these new-found powers to change the minds of the Montreal brass to re-think their decision and let me be a flag guy at a game.

Or even better, stickboy.

The Canadiens played the Ottawa Senators last night and will play them again tonight and I noticed that nowhere in the Ottawa lineup did I see Frank Mahovlich.

What’s that? Frank Mahovlich is a senator in Ottawa, not an Ottawa Senator?  Ohhhhhh.

Never mind.

But speaking of Frank Mahovlich…..

In the late 1990’s, I owned a sports bar in Powell River called Kane’s Sports Bistro. It was a good little place and I was able to have my stuff all over the walls. Too much work, though. Way too much work. We sold it and the new owners kept the name.

During this time, the NHL Oldtimers came to town to play one of their many charity games and dazzle us with their playmaking, the skill that never seems to leave retired players.

On the day of the game, in the early afternoon, my partner and I were the only ones in the place when Red Storey and Frank Mahovlich walked in. They strolled around, looked at all the stuff on the walls, and then sat down.

Naturally we were very polite, offered them a nice spaghetti dinner (on the house), and started asking questions about hockey which they both seemed more than happy to chat about. We talked about the 1972 Canada-Russia series, modern-day hockey, and Red told me how hard it was to handle the Rocket sometimes when he (Red) was refereeing.

And of course, we had a big talk about the Habs.

From that conversation, the thing that most stands out is how Mahovlich went on about what a class outfit the Canadiens are. He said it was by far the best team in the league to play for. He said he didn’t get along with Punch Imlach in Toronto and wasn’t happy there, and when he was playing in Detroit and heard the news that he was traded to Montreal, he knew it was perfect for him.

He said the Canadiens treated the players first-class, and he considered himself an ex-Hab, not a Leaf or Red Wing.

That night at the game, Red Storey carried a microphone with him as he refereed, and told the sold-out crowd of about 2000 that everyone should go to Kane’s because the spaghetti was so good.  

Pittsburgh doesn’t worry me. Either does Boston, or Buffalo, or Tampa Bay, or the Rangers. Calgary doesn’t worry me, or Dallas, Anaheim, Vancouver, and Colorado.

In fact, no team worries me about getting in the way of Montreal’s big season. Except Detroit. They worry me. Not a lot, mind you. Montreal will take out any team. This is the year.

But Detroit is a concern.

It isn’t even so much that the Wings landed Marion Hossa. And I’m not at all concerned about Kris Draper and Tomas Holmstrom or most of this team for that matter, including Johan Franzen, who is probably just a one-hit wonder like Iron Butterfly was with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita.

 It’s three other guys in the Motor City I’m not crazy about.

I’m hoping Nick Lidstrom pulls a hamstring. Maybe a couple of times. And maybe Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg could break a finger or two. Nothing serious, just a finger. Even a pinky finger. They can still make whoopee with their wives. They just can’t shoot the puck.

But regardless.

This is the Year of the Habs. And all that needs to happen is this:

Carey Price, with a year under his belt, can’t be tired at the end of the regular season, and his confidence can’t take a nap at any stage in the year.

The defence, led by Mike Komisarek and Andrei Markov, has to play mean and ugly and dangerous. And this also means Ryan O’Byrne. He in particular has to play with an edge that scares the bejeesus out of opposing players. 

Up front, Saku Koivu needs to have one of his best years ever. Alex Kovalev has to take his magic into the playoffs. And Tomas Plekanec needs to become a household name throughout the league.

Alex Tanguay has to play like he’s been a Hab for years.

It’s time for Chris Higgins to become a real star this year. A big star. A huge star.

The Kostitsyn boys have to continue to blossom, as they’re expected to do.

Robert Lang has to make us all forget what Mats Sundin might have done in Montreal and be the final piece of the puzzle that’s been missing.

Guillaume Latendresse has to finally become a player. It’s time. We’ve been waiting patiently. 

Tom Kostopoulos, Steve Begin, Josh Gorges, Francis Bouillon and the rest just need to keep doing what they did last year because they were great.

Georges Laraque has to become the new John Ferguson.

The team needs to have a very fine power play again, like last year. And they have to score a lot of goals, like last year.

And they have to be stingy with goals against.

Youppi has to relive past glory and become the mascot he was with the Expos.

The Ole song must only be sung when the team’s about to win, not when it’s close.

And everyone, please stay healthy. (I’ve noticed that Koivu and Laraque are already nursing minor injuries.)

And that’s it. It’s simple!

Pre-season update:

The boys lose big to Boston 8-3, but take out Buffalo in Roberval, 3-2.

And with those cameras so low at the Roberval arena, it felt like we were there, in about the fourth row. It reminded me of the outdoor game in Edmonton a few years back

Waiting for Mats Sundin to figure out what he wanted to do turned sour after about the first month. And finally, in the middle of September, with training camp close to happening, Bob Gainey made his move.

Because I’m sure Gainey was even more sick of the Sundin thing than we were.

So he went out yesterday and landed centre Robert Lang from Chicago, and now the team is set for training camp with all the pieces in place, and scoring Lang instead of Sundin isn’t that bad a thing at all.

It’s all strength down the middle now, with Lang, Saku Koivu, Tomas Plekanec, Maxim Lapierre, and Kyle Chipchura.

Robert Lang’s been around. He’s 37 now, and has played with six previous teams, LA, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, Detroit, and Chicago, and was even Alex Kovalev’s centreman in Pittsburgh. He’s a playmaker who averages 50 points a year, and is going to be, in my estimation, a key player with the Habs.

This means the Canadiens are now a mix of older and young, of experience throughout, with Carey Price beginning his second full season.

The Canadiens gave up a second-round draft pick in 2010, which is fine. Because this is a team gunning for all the marbles this year, their 100th season, and the time is ripe.

This Lang thing puts me in a good mood. I’ve got big expectations for him. They say he might he play alongside Kovalev, just like in the old days. And he seems really happy to come to Montreal, which is of the utmost importance. “You never want to get traded or have to move your family,” he said, “but I think it’s going to be a great situation. It’s a great hockey town.”

Of course it is, Robert. It’s the greatest hockey town on the planet. You’re walking into a great thing, and I know you’re 37 years old, but you now belong to a historic and legendary team and you’re going to do great.

Welcome aboard, Robert. Wear the CH with pride.

ALSO:

Patrice Brisbois has resigned with the Habs and this is good too. Brisebois, mistakes or not, is a classy guy with something to offer, but unless there’s an injury from another blueliner, he won’t see tons of ice time. 

And this is another guy who wants to play in Montreal and had hoped that Gainey would resign him so he could stay. And he may even pop the odd power play goal.

 This is a set of Sherriff/Salada hockey coins from 1961-62. I’ve had these since I was eleven years old. They came in Jello and potato chips, and I pressured my mom to buy handfuls of Jello instead of just one or two. So we had a kitchen cupboard with lots of open boxes of Jello in it. I also ate more potato chips than any one human should possibly eat.

At school we would play closest to the wall, just like hockey cards, and I was devastated if my hoard of coins had dwindled. But on the other hand, if I went back to class after recess with dozens more than I had started out with, then all was right with the world. I think it was kind of like having sex before I really knew what sex was.

You could send away to the company for the shields, which I did, but after putting them in their holes and trying to hang them on the wall, most would fall out because they didn’t fit well. So I added small amounts of glue to the backs. When you see these coins in their shields on ebay, which you don’t see very often, most have been glued like mine.

These plastic hockey coins began the year before, in 1960-61 and I had a bunch of them years ago, but not anymore. They also came out as metal coins in 1962-63, and I still have the full set of these.  And there were no shields available for these other years.

The coins made a comeback in 1967, but I don’t think they became all the rage like they were in the earlier years. These later coins have become quite rare and valuable because, I suppose, there just weren’t that many.

Baseball and football also had their own coins, as did old cars and airplanes. But it’s the hockey coins that I cherished the most. 

They should bring back hockey coins for the modern generation. Maybe they’d get kids away from computer games for awhile.

1. Retired Famous Race Horse. You were Northern Dancer and Secretariat, and you were the toast of the town. You retired on top of the world and were given a fancy stable and told to get out into the field and make love to the finest fillies out there. Whenever you feel like it. Every day.

2. Guy Who Crashes Cymbals In A Symphony Orchestra. You’re in Carnegie Hall, and the horns and violins are working their way up to big crescendo. The crowd is enthralled, and then, at the precise moment, you crash your cymbals.
That’s it! And for this you get to wear an expensive tuxedo, make lots of money, and probably even sign a few programs!

3. Red Fisher. Play poker with the Rocket, Beliveau, Harvey, and Geoffrion on trains to Chicago, Boston, and the rest. Go for a cold one after the game with Lafleur, Savard, and Robinson, and talk shop. Cover the Montreal Canadiens and become just one of the boys for nearly fifty years. HE MAKES ME SICK.

4. George Martin. He’d put on his cardigan sweater, jump into a limo to take him to studios like Abbey Road, and help the Beatles weave their magic on their recordings. He was there almost from the start, and he also made zillions doing it.

5. Playboy photographer. Do I really need to explain this one?

6. Phil Pritchard. Phil’s job is to babysit the Stanley Cup, 12 months a year. He takes it all over North America and Europe so players from the winning team can show it off where they live. He brings it out onto the ice with his white gloves on when a team wins it in the final game. He’s practically married to it, and it never talks back.

Can a good US college football team beat a Canadian Football League team?

Excluding Tiger Woods and the better equipment players use now, are golfers better now than they were years ago?

Is Henrik Zetterberg the best player in the NHL?

Marc Crawford Joins Hockey Night In Canada

Marc Crawford is joining the Hockey Night In Canada crew as a between-period analyst. This comes just after the announcement of Mike Milbury joining the show and doing the same job. Both former players and coaches are expected to give important tips about what conditioners to use, how to detangle, and how to apply lemon juice for natural highlights. 

Scotty Bowman Leaves Red Wings For Blackhawks

Scotty Bowman is leaving the security of his job in Detroit for a new one in Chicago. A Detroit spokesman said the team was sad to see him go, and that he had done a great job with the Wings. When asked what Scotty had actually done for the Wings, the spokesman replied that Scotty had done, uh, well, uh…”he sat in the owner’s box and offered advice about, uh, well …..he told us to play Nick Lidstrom quite a bit and he also told us to play Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk quite a bit also, and we really appreciated that.”

Patrick Roy’s Son Faces Assault Charge

Patrick Roy’s 19 year old son Jonathan will appear in court in September to face assault charges stemming from the on-ice incident where the goalie skated the length of the ice and pummelled the other goalie after it appeared that coach Patrick had waved his hands to motion his kid to do this. It’s expected that Patrick will be in the courtroom on this day, and so the judge, obviously worried for his own safety, has ordered that Patrick sit on his hands during the proceeding. Jonathan has also been warned to refrain from giving the finger to the judge, police officers, defence counsel, prosecution, clerk, reporters, and friends and family of both his and the other goalie, Bobby Nadeau. Speculation is that young Jonathan will also be ordered to sit on his hands.

Senators Re-sign Antoine Vermette

Antoine Vermette has agreed to continue playing for the Ottawa Senators after interest was shown for him by the Vancouver Canucks. This normally wouldn’t be a big news item, but the Canucks had strongly felt that with Vermette in the lineup, it would’ve made the team a legitimate Cup contender. As soon as the Canucks’ statement regarding being a contender was made, the hit series Last Comic Standing was quickly cancelled. “None of our comics could compete with such a hilarious line as that,” a Comic spokesman said.