Since our last post, nothing surprising to report.....no real upsets in Round 1...I picked the NYR to beat Atlanta, but didn't think they would sweep them in 4. Atlanta is a mess. They have a bunch of individuals there; its not a team. Too many me, myself and I players....with Kovalchuk leading the way in that category. I wasn't high on the trading for Tkachuk and Zhitnik either. Surely, GM Don Waddell regrets acquiring those 2 players....
As for the other series, I was hoping Pittsburgh would have made it tougher for Ottawa....The Penguins I believe, along with Buffalo, were the most exciting teams during the NHL Regular Season and I wanted to see more of them. Clearly Ottawa was just too deep and too strong. For the Pens, not enough experience. They will be back and their time will come. Word has it, Ray Shero is hoping to extend the contract of coach Michel Therrien and you know what......Michel Mon Belle deserves to be back....I have to admit, I never thought I would say this after the whole Bill Lindsay taking the faceoff mess in 2002 vs Carolina. Nor, did I think I would say it after his Montreal team constantly gave up 35+ shots per game.....Nor, did I think I would say it after Therrien said his team needed to give up less than 15 scoring chances per game....And finally, I never thought I would say this after Therrien crushed his players with a 1 minute rant last year following a loss in Edmonton. BUT, here goes....Therrien, has grown as a coach. He is a better tactician and a much better communicator. He handles himself a lot better and is much more composed. Does he still have some things to learn? YES. To start, he has to give Crosby more icetime...makes sense, he's the best player in the league. But like I said, he's growing and deserves to be back behind the bench. All that being said, I would give him a 1, maybe 2 year deal.
Here are my Round 2 predictions (with certainty): Buffalo and Anaheim. (not certain): NJ and Detroit......the opposite result (Ott & SJ)wouldnt surprise me one bit....what I can tell you is I have liked Buffalo to win the Cup for months and Im not changing my mind. They have coaching, solid goaltending, 6 D that can move the puck and 4 line depth with quick strike offense.
Here in Montreal,,,,,same old....same old.....Kovalev not happy; complaining about his situation to a Russian Daily Paper.....Mind you, a lot of the things he said were true. HOWEVER, if Kovalev wants to be true to himself; he should take 1 long look in the mirror and blame himself for not delivering the goods....It just seems like AK27 is trying to jet from Montreal to another destination next year....If he needs a lift to the Airport, ''Fillipo the Taxi Driver'' has already volunteered.....
Talk to you in a bit.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Canadiens didnt deserve to make playoffs!
Back in 2005-06, the Montreal Candiens finished 7th in the Eastern Conference with 93 points. Come Late-September, many people believed the Canadiens would be better with Samsonov, Johnson, and Latendresse than they would be with Zednik, Bulis and Sundstrom. Although, the Canadiens looked sexier on paper, I said they would finish 8th, this time around. I remember going to the Bell Center later that day. As soon as I entered the Media Room, Mtl Gazette Columnist Pat Hickey looked and me and said, ''How can you pick them to finish 8th, they're a lot better team than they were last season. I looked at him and said, ''Im not sure about that, Pat.'' He said why not? I replied, three reasons Pat. (1) I needed to see if Huet could repeat (2) I wasn't sold on the coaching staff, two of which were rookie coaches and (3) I thought other teams got better. When all was said and done, I was wrong about the 8th spot, they finished in 10th (2 points out of 8th); however, I was right about the Habs not being better than they were in 05-06.
This past Thursday on the Montreal Forum, I was asked to predict the final 2 games, Mtl in NY and Mtl in Toronto. I predicted the Canadiens would lose both. Had the games been in Montreal, it would have been a different story. Montreal had won 9 straight at home. However, ''Road Warriors'' the Canadiens are not. They went into their game against the NYR with only 2 wins in their last 9 road games. Meanwhile, NYR were 12-2-2-2 in their past 18. Toronto had won 8 straight at home. I said it before, and I will say it again. The Montreal Canadiens are a Homer Team. They had a chance to get rid of that label and make the playoffs by winning their last game. Despite being up 5-3, they failed to do so. BTW, I flew to Toronto on Saturday afternoon to cover the game. Out of all the players I talked too after the game, the guy that really took the loss badly was Chris Higgins. He was holding back tears....he my friends, is ''The Real McCoy.''
Want an interesting stat? Going into the last game in Toronto, the 1st line duo of Koivu and Ryder had 1 even strength goal on the road since December 1st. The duo of Downey and Murray (a couple of 5th liners) had 2 goals. Pathetic. This team DEFINITELY didnt deserve to make the playoffs.
So lets look at the Good:
markov, komisarek, souray on the PP, ryder when he shoots and does nothing else but shoots, plekanec, streit, halak, lapierres energy, flashes of kostitsyn's ability, 16 goals from latendresse , higgins dominating before the ankle injury and dominating again in the final game, koivu's career high 22 goals, and huet for a couple of months.
The In-Between:
bonk, johnson, perezoghin, begin (only because his Hits Per Game stats are up there)
The Ugly:
Samsonov (bust) , Kovalev (no longer a clutch performer), Niinimaa (damaged goods), Aebischer (a technical disaster in goal), the d-men struggling to get the puck out of the zone (with the exception of markov), the dumb penalties they took in the final game (johnson, begin, koivu), the not showing up for the start of the game (8 out of 10 games) The Minus Stats from their top players...
As for The Management Team and Coaching Staff:
Two weeks prior to the trade deadline, I said the Canadiens should be ''Sellers'' and never changed my mind. The organization decided differently. Six weeks later their season is over and they are left with bigtime off-season decisions. The Mangement Team & Coaching Staff, did some good things and some not so good things. But, at the end of the day when the goal is to make the playoffs and you don't; you have failed.
Congrats to the NYI for making the playoffs. Good to see a team rewarded for pulling the trigger on Feb 27th the way they did; and for not giving up when their #1 goalie got hurt. And, btw Ted Nolan could coach my team any day! Unfortunately for the NYI, their season won't last much longer. I'm picking BUFFALO to win the Stanley Cup.
Playoffs start Wednesday. Enjoy.
This past Thursday on the Montreal Forum, I was asked to predict the final 2 games, Mtl in NY and Mtl in Toronto. I predicted the Canadiens would lose both. Had the games been in Montreal, it would have been a different story. Montreal had won 9 straight at home. However, ''Road Warriors'' the Canadiens are not. They went into their game against the NYR with only 2 wins in their last 9 road games. Meanwhile, NYR were 12-2-2-2 in their past 18. Toronto had won 8 straight at home. I said it before, and I will say it again. The Montreal Canadiens are a Homer Team. They had a chance to get rid of that label and make the playoffs by winning their last game. Despite being up 5-3, they failed to do so. BTW, I flew to Toronto on Saturday afternoon to cover the game. Out of all the players I talked too after the game, the guy that really took the loss badly was Chris Higgins. He was holding back tears....he my friends, is ''The Real McCoy.''
Want an interesting stat? Going into the last game in Toronto, the 1st line duo of Koivu and Ryder had 1 even strength goal on the road since December 1st. The duo of Downey and Murray (a couple of 5th liners) had 2 goals. Pathetic. This team DEFINITELY didnt deserve to make the playoffs.
So lets look at the Good:
markov, komisarek, souray on the PP, ryder when he shoots and does nothing else but shoots, plekanec, streit, halak, lapierres energy, flashes of kostitsyn's ability, 16 goals from latendresse , higgins dominating before the ankle injury and dominating again in the final game, koivu's career high 22 goals, and huet for a couple of months.
The In-Between:
bonk, johnson, perezoghin, begin (only because his Hits Per Game stats are up there)
The Ugly:
Samsonov (bust) , Kovalev (no longer a clutch performer), Niinimaa (damaged goods), Aebischer (a technical disaster in goal), the d-men struggling to get the puck out of the zone (with the exception of markov), the dumb penalties they took in the final game (johnson, begin, koivu), the not showing up for the start of the game (8 out of 10 games) The Minus Stats from their top players...
As for The Management Team and Coaching Staff:
Two weeks prior to the trade deadline, I said the Canadiens should be ''Sellers'' and never changed my mind. The organization decided differently. Six weeks later their season is over and they are left with bigtime off-season decisions. The Mangement Team & Coaching Staff, did some good things and some not so good things. But, at the end of the day when the goal is to make the playoffs and you don't; you have failed.
Congrats to the NYI for making the playoffs. Good to see a team rewarded for pulling the trigger on Feb 27th the way they did; and for not giving up when their #1 goalie got hurt. And, btw Ted Nolan could coach my team any day! Unfortunately for the NYI, their season won't last much longer. I'm picking BUFFALO to win the Stanley Cup.
Playoffs start Wednesday. Enjoy.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Habs horrendous in the Big Apple
Its been a while....worked a lot more on-air over the past week and didnt have much time to update my blog.....apologies. Busy week,,,,,on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I was on air from 11am to 3pm; not to mention 2 postgame shows during that period. Furtermore, I am working on a hockey project (will give you details in near future). And, when I wasn't involved with that, guess what I was doing??? yep, you guessed it,,,,,i bought a horse. Ok, not just me. Along with 42 other people I bought a 3yr old racehorse....she's beautiful. Her name is Sumwonlovesyou and she will race in Kentucky next week. If all goes well, I will visit her at Saratoga in August. Im starting to get hooked on horseracing....if I can ever witness her win a race, that will be truly something special.
Speaking of winning, thats something the NYR did earlier this evening. Credit to The Blueshirts, they dominated and were deserving of the win. As for the Canadiens.......they were awful. Before leaving for NY, rookie goaltender Jaroslav Halak said he was too young to feel any pressure. Was he serious?
1st period: Less than 3 minutes in, Mtl is down 1 zip. For NY, 1 shot 1 goal. On the play, Janne Niinimaa was outskated by Petr Prucha down the right side and his shot from the right faceoff circle beat Halak. Janne Niinimaa, is a great team guy.....he has experience and he plays his heart out, BUT Carbonneau has to realize that Niinimaa's best just isn't good enough. It's mind boggling that Josh Gorges was the #5 d-man in San Jose, but can't crack the Habs Top 6. I would have Gorges in there,,,,weeks ago. No doubt it was Niinimaa's mistake, BUT I also think Halak could have done bettter on this one too. I know,,,,I know, people will say it was a good shot, BUT in the biggest game of the year, you have to stop that shot IMO.
Onto Period #2: Bouillon can't get the puck out of the zone....it's picked up by Shanahan who dishes it to Nylander, he feeds Jagr and its 2 nothing NYR. Kudos to Tom Renney for inserting Shanahan on that line and catching the Canadiens with Bouillon and Souray out there, instead of Markov and Komisarek. Great coaching. Tom Renney did real well and his team followed the gameplan perfectly. The Canadiens couldn't gain speed through the neutral zone and their inability to get pucks deep cost them. On the other hand, NY pressured the Mtl d-men and forced turnovers.......Mtl had a few chances to narrow the lead but Ryder couldn't lift the puck over Lundqvist and Koivu picked up the loose puck and missed. With only 94 seconds remaining in the frame, Marek Malik's point shot beat Halak short side. That one was clearly a shot Halak should have stopped....HOWEVER, I would also like to add that had it not been for Halak, it could have been at least 5-0 NYR after two.....It was that ugly.
3rd Period: Cristobal Huet starts the 3rd which was the right move for a couple of reasons. (1) sometimes goalie changes can a give a team a spark (2) Huet needed to shake off some rust (3) he might be needed on Saturday, either to start or come in at some point. Only guy to get the Canadiens on the board was Sheldon Souray, he scored his 26th goal of the season, it was a PP marker. Too little, too late. Rangers win 3-1.....the only good news is Toronto also lost in NY, 5-2 to the Islanders....
Next up, final game of the season for the Habs. Game #82; Montreal in Toronto. Huge game; 1 point for Mtl eliminates Toronto, but might not be enough because if the NY Islanders beat Philly and Jersey, then Ted Nolan's club would make the playoffs and Mtl and Toronto would not....unreal. So, what will happen? Who will start in goal? Guy Carbonneau faces a difficult decision. On one hand, Huet was stellar during the midway point of the season. On the other hand, Halak did the job down the stretch. Even though Huet wasn't tested much, my gut feeling tells me Guy Carbonneau may sense that Halak is nervous and he'll start Huet. As for the result, anything can happen. But, lets face it. The Montreal Canadiens are a ''Homer Team'' At the Bell Centre, they have won 9 straight, but on the road they have won only 2 times in their past 10 games. Thats not very re-assuring heading in to the ACC.
May the team that works harder and wants it more be compensated on Saturday nite. I'm off tomorrow.....talk to you soon. Ciao.
Speaking of winning, thats something the NYR did earlier this evening. Credit to The Blueshirts, they dominated and were deserving of the win. As for the Canadiens.......they were awful. Before leaving for NY, rookie goaltender Jaroslav Halak said he was too young to feel any pressure. Was he serious?
1st period: Less than 3 minutes in, Mtl is down 1 zip. For NY, 1 shot 1 goal. On the play, Janne Niinimaa was outskated by Petr Prucha down the right side and his shot from the right faceoff circle beat Halak. Janne Niinimaa, is a great team guy.....he has experience and he plays his heart out, BUT Carbonneau has to realize that Niinimaa's best just isn't good enough. It's mind boggling that Josh Gorges was the #5 d-man in San Jose, but can't crack the Habs Top 6. I would have Gorges in there,,,,weeks ago. No doubt it was Niinimaa's mistake, BUT I also think Halak could have done bettter on this one too. I know,,,,I know, people will say it was a good shot, BUT in the biggest game of the year, you have to stop that shot IMO.
Onto Period #2: Bouillon can't get the puck out of the zone....it's picked up by Shanahan who dishes it to Nylander, he feeds Jagr and its 2 nothing NYR. Kudos to Tom Renney for inserting Shanahan on that line and catching the Canadiens with Bouillon and Souray out there, instead of Markov and Komisarek. Great coaching. Tom Renney did real well and his team followed the gameplan perfectly. The Canadiens couldn't gain speed through the neutral zone and their inability to get pucks deep cost them. On the other hand, NY pressured the Mtl d-men and forced turnovers.......Mtl had a few chances to narrow the lead but Ryder couldn't lift the puck over Lundqvist and Koivu picked up the loose puck and missed. With only 94 seconds remaining in the frame, Marek Malik's point shot beat Halak short side. That one was clearly a shot Halak should have stopped....HOWEVER, I would also like to add that had it not been for Halak, it could have been at least 5-0 NYR after two.....It was that ugly.
3rd Period: Cristobal Huet starts the 3rd which was the right move for a couple of reasons. (1) sometimes goalie changes can a give a team a spark (2) Huet needed to shake off some rust (3) he might be needed on Saturday, either to start or come in at some point. Only guy to get the Canadiens on the board was Sheldon Souray, he scored his 26th goal of the season, it was a PP marker. Too little, too late. Rangers win 3-1.....the only good news is Toronto also lost in NY, 5-2 to the Islanders....
Next up, final game of the season for the Habs. Game #82; Montreal in Toronto. Huge game; 1 point for Mtl eliminates Toronto, but might not be enough because if the NY Islanders beat Philly and Jersey, then Ted Nolan's club would make the playoffs and Mtl and Toronto would not....unreal. So, what will happen? Who will start in goal? Guy Carbonneau faces a difficult decision. On one hand, Huet was stellar during the midway point of the season. On the other hand, Halak did the job down the stretch. Even though Huet wasn't tested much, my gut feeling tells me Guy Carbonneau may sense that Halak is nervous and he'll start Huet. As for the result, anything can happen. But, lets face it. The Montreal Canadiens are a ''Homer Team'' At the Bell Centre, they have won 9 straight, but on the road they have won only 2 times in their past 10 games. Thats not very re-assuring heading in to the ACC.
May the team that works harder and wants it more be compensated on Saturday nite. I'm off tomorrow.....talk to you soon. Ciao.
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