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.
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5 comments:
The ugly, Guy Carboneau, benching Halak.(this guy's got a bad attitude and it shows.)
The bad, Huet, this guy single handily lost the game.(We got goalie problems,can anyone say carey price )
The good, Bob Gainey. Thank you for Sheldon Souray, Kovalev, Ryder, Higgins, Komisarek and the rest of the team.
Condolences to your family from ours.
tony spot on you really are impressing me getting better and better at what you do we your fans and theres alot are proud of you keep up the good work now who is going to win the cup need your answer by weds please thanks mike moretto
Somebody call the cardiac specialist because the Canadiens have no heart, from top to bottom with a couple of notable exceptions. Guy Carbonneau was in over his head and Bob Gainey once again did what Bob Gainey does....nothing. Kovalev is an overrated ass clown who gets too many breaks because of the talent he supposedly has but keeps it under his pillow...Samsonov- I wouldn't piss on this guy if he was on fire....Souray may have set the record for power play goals for a defenceman, but I would bet the farm that he got 12 times the opportunities that other guys had prior to the crackdown on obstruction-so inflated numbers=inflated talent= inflated cost to keep him him here.
I can lick my eyebrows and breath through my ears.
Tony,
Great blog. A couple of comments:
1)I think Carbo is in the same mold as Mario Tremblay. An in your face coach / old school kind of guy. Unfortunately, I don't think this works anymore. Why was Kovalev sitting when we needed a goal in To? Why did he chase Rivest when he was sick? Why could he not make Samsonov produce? Why did he put in a goalie who had not played in a couple of months and when he was playing, was not stopping much. I know it was easter weekend but Huet knelt more than usual on Saturday night. Why insert a guy on th first line when he has not played in well over a month? STRANGE to say the least.
2) On the Koivu leadership BS:
I believe that Koivu, Souray and Rivest were the leaders on this team. They were instrumental in chasing the three amigos out of town. The three amigos had some friends in the French media (it isn't difficult to guess who they are). These are the same guys who have continuosly knocked Koivu and to a slightly lesser extent Souray. This smells of revenge. Actually it smells period.
I agree with you that the habs didnt deserve to make the playoffs. They rode hot goaltending, and sourays bomb from the point all season. One thing i have lost faith in is saku koivu. I dont think he has what it takes to lead us to the promised land. The core needs to change. THe team needs to be younger. Down the stretch the young guns were the hungry ones. I mean yes koivu scored 15 points in 8 games down the stretch, but he was just flat saturday night. I mean all the offensive zone penalties, the request for a day off after the silver medal in turin, and now with him saying he doesnt want to be part of another rebuilding process. This does not sound like someone who is committed to the habs, and thats a problem. The one positive i took was the reaction from christopher higgins. His holding back tears just shows his competitiveness, and his commitment to this team becoming great once again. When the canadiens were flat in the first period, he took the game into his own hands. In my opinion, he is the future captain of this franchise.
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