What is there to say that hasn’t already been said? Here’s a team that, on paper, and in terms of injuries, should no way no how be in a position to eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champions, this after taking down the best team in the regular season in 7 games as well!
Whatever happens, the Habs have caught lighting in a bottle and it’s been an amazing run.
But one thing sticks out: How so many of the Habs have really stepped it up to a level beyond what we thought possible, and how some “champions” have reverted to boy status. So here, on a slow day, is a totally subjective list of the MEN vs BOYS in this series:
THE REAL MEN
1. Hal Gill: Playing mucho-minutes, shaking off the early-season boos, and doing nothing less than holding down the two best players in the game. Yeah, Hal is MAN #1. If he pulled himself out of Game 6, it’s because the pain threshold was just too much. Which means it would be enough to make us mere mortals faint. And he’s a damn leader.
2. Mike Cammalleri / Brian Gionta: These pint size forwards are getting it done down in the corners, in the crease, and in front of the net. And no one has an answer for them yet.
3.Jordan Staal: Coming off a foot laceration? Are you kidding me?
"I don't hurt, I swear"
4. Josh Gorges: This guys bangs into the boards, into the corners, smacks into the goalpost, and he just shakes it off, over and over again. He’s the energizer bunny / indestructible pop up toy. Seriously – I think you would need to hang some garlic around your neck and drive a wooden stake into his heart for him to even realize what pain feels like. This guy is unbelievable.
5. Jaroslav Halak: He’s a “small” goalie, but he shakes off net crashers, team-wide doubt, Carey Price’s “Franchise” status, and the crazy pressure of never having played in the playoffs…what heart. WHAT A MAN.
6. Bill Guerin / Max Talbot / Chris Kunitz: They go about their business quietly, cleanly, with class and calm. All are banged up, Guerin more so, and they deserve the manly salute.
7. PK Subban: He was in Hamilton two weeks ago. He played 30 minutes last night. He also stuck to Crosby like glue, in the absence of Hal Gill in Game 6. Talk about stepping it up.
THE WEE BOYS
1. Sidney Crosby: Yeah, he’s a champ. He’s a national hero. And the face of the NHL. He also still lives with the team owner. Sorry, but at his age? He whines at every call. And that cross check against Pleky after the game? “It’s only Plekanec” says the champ. What a gutless dick.
"But I Wanna the Puck"
2. Sergei Kostitsyn: The whole team hates him now. What a pity.
3. Matt Cooke: Crosby without all the talent. Or charm. Or usefulness. Go away already.
And tomorrow night, we hope for the best in what will be a Game 7 classic for sure.
But no matter what happens, the MEN listed above, and so many more, have proved themselves worthy of their sweaters, and the adulation they’ve been getting from their hero-starved fans.
This is just plain fun. Somehow, some way, this team has taken Montreal by complete surprise and absolutely captured the imagination of the entire hockey world. It seems no matter what they face, they find the way to bounce back from it. Heart epitomized. But now with both Markov and Spacek out, facing the Staal-less Pittsburgh Penguins, they’re up against an arguably bigger challenge than even the Washington Capitals. Can they really keep it going?
This series has left a lot of very important people utterly speechless:
* Alex Ovechkin and Bruce Boudreau don’t know what to say.
* Ted Leonsis, and the good people of Washington, who all thought they had a winner: They do not know what to say.
* Alex Semin does not know HOW to say.
* Gary Bettman is crying in his wine cooler. He also does not know what to say (but he sure as hell knows what to do: While Boston-Philly doesn’t start until Saturday, the Habs play the Pens TOMORROW FRICKIN NIGHT!)
*Vice President Joe Biden – who was in attendance: For once, he really does not know what to say.
* Bob Gainey, also in attendance, knows EXACTLY what to say, but he’s not saying it.
* Ditto Pierre Gauthier.
* The highly-leveraged New Molsons are THRILLED they get to bank extra coin, but they’re not gonna say that.
* Jacques Martin never really says anything, anyway.
* Ditto Jaroslav Halak, and we love him that way.
* Carey Price doesn’t know what to say ….but I think if he did, it would go something like this: !!!@#@#@^%$#**!@#@??#@#***&^%$#@!!!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!
* Roman Hamrlik ain’t sayin’ nothin’ and you can’t make him!
* Mike Cammalleri, as usual, would have plenty to say. And he’s earned the right. Ditto Brian Gionta, Hal Gill, Josh Georges, Tomas Plekanec, Tom Pyatt, Maxim Lapierre(!!!), Dominic Moore and Andrei Markov. But apparently, the locker room was all business and hush-hush after last night’s game, the players already preparing for Friday’s game against the Pens.
So since no one else is saying it, allow us: “Hey Ovechkin: Did you have fun shaking Halak’s hand?”
So the Habs have held the lead in the series 3 times as long as the Capitals. The goaltending has gone from suspect to otherworldly. The team as a group clearly never quits. The coaching has suddenly gotten more creative and has officially turned into a big edge in the series. Special teams has been incredible throughout. So who do YOU think is gonna win game 7? You might be surprised to hear what we have to say…
There is an excellent piece of writing by Mike Wise of the Washington Post describing what it felt like to be an outsider at the Bell Center during last night’s 4-1 Habs stolen victory over Washington. The goods are here.
The golden nugget I want to talk about:
…if you could hear this unbelievably charged building at this very moment — the symphony of sound, some 20,000 screaming raucously as Halak was announced as the game’s No. 1 star — only one emotion could be felt by an authentic fan who followed the Washington Capitals’ record-setting, ridiculously good season thus far: Panic.
Montreal Canadiens / Bell Center fans have plenty to be embarrassed about this season. They’ve booed the American anthem, arrived in blackface (okay just two fans did, but….really???), whined incessantly over calls the refs made against the Habs. They’ve booed their own players as early as the first period, not to mention their coaching staff and general manager. Just last week, Sal the Angry Habs Fan went on a guido- tirade on Team 990, sounding both stoopid and remarkably cogent at the same time.
In truth, I feel like most sports fans just aren’t as classy as they used to be – if they really ever were. But somehow, in the eyes of the mainstream Canadian and American media, Montreal Canadiens fans are still depicted as classy, knowledgeable and accommodating fans who support their team to the final whistle no matter what. “The best fans in the league” is what we hear over and over, with apologies to Minnesota, Toronto, Edmonton or Detroit.
Well, rose-colored glasses aside, last night the Habs fans were SENSATIONAL.They were so good that I tivo’d the game and I am going to keep it saved just so I can show my American friends how awesome a real hockey game can be. They were so good that after I finished watching the game, I had a caffeine-buzz running through my veins that kept me awake all night. They were so good my own neighbors in Los Angeles were shaking in their apartments.
They were so good I was practically clutching my Habs Jersey and Expos cap in unison, sobbing tears of nostalgia, grateful like a stranded Israelite after getting manna from heaven.
No, I don’t think I am getting carried away here, because THAT, people, is the power of the Seventh Man!
Seriously, watching the game last night, it was clear that the Habs ran out of steam at about, oh… say, fifteen minutes into it (except for Halak, and a handful of skaters).The fans didn’t boo their own players, they didn’t whine, they didn’t despair. Not once.
Instead, the were LOUD.
Instead, they actually cheered for their team.
Instead, they gave Jaroslav Halak a standing ovation AFTER HE GAVE UP A GOAL.
“Hey – we got your back because you are amazing” they were telling him. And amazing Halak remained, turning away a barrage of Ovechkins and Backstroms as the rest of the Habs underwent cardiac arrest right there on the ice. The fans (and Halak) willed their team to victory. There’s no other way to look at it.
And they gave the Habs all the encouragement they need to go to Washington and steal this damn series.
For our first official Playoff Podcast, we turn up the intensity a few notches and are pretty much at each other’s throats for most of the show. You gotta hear it to believe it. Somehow amidst the fire, we manage to delve into how the Habs lost control of the series so suddenly, who starts in nets for game 4, and who starts on D: O’Byrne, Bergeron, or … Subban?
Everyone is bloviating about Halak’s sublime performances these last few weeks. Especially on the heals of the 4 points he just stole from Vancouver and Boston.
We here at habsradio.com – well me actually, because ERIC never believed me – predicted at season’s start that if the Habs were to make the playoffs, Halak would be the starter. Remember, that sounded CRAZY just 3 months ago. And we won’t know for awhile if it will come true. But one thing is for sure, if the playoffs started TODAY, Halak would start in nets. And that in itself is a HUGE shift from where we used to be.
***Look Ma, with me eyes closed***
HOWEVER - this is the first time we’ve had the chance to really watch Halak for a sustained and consistent period of time. So far, he is doing everything he can to just stop the damn puck. His mental toughness is great, his energy factor is way high. He’s the consummate teammate. And his numbers? Well, they are out of this world right now. A .930 save percentage? Are you kidding me? And those game-saving saves? WOW!
BUT - In watching Halak last night, I realized a few things about his game.
* He gives up A LOT of rebounds. If not for some well-timed defensive plays, the scores against him would be higher (we can call this even of course, because if not for Halak bailing out the defencemen night in and night out, they’d all be in Defenceman jail). But at some point, other teams are going to figure this out, no?
* Opponents hit A LOT of posts with him. So is this good luck or good positioning? I don’t know yet.
* He flops around.
It’s this last point that has me most concerned. At times, in watching Halak, I don’t know if all this fish-like behavior is part of his style, or because he is just doing everything he can, on sheer willpower, to beat the puck. In this new era of bigger goalies, it makes sense that Halak would have to move around a little bit more than others.
Halak: He not big man. But style is….mess.
Look at how tsn.ca describes Dominik Hasek. Sound familiar?
NOW HOLD YOUR FIRE KIDDIES – I don’t think anyone can say yet whether Jaroslav Halak’s floppy- flopping and acrobatic outstretched toe-saves is indicative of an intentional style (like it was for Dominik Hasek), something he does to keep moving out of sheer desperation (like Arturs Irbe), or something in between (Tomas Vokoun).
Those goalies had storied careers and they lifted their teams (and/or countries) to heights they would not have otherwise reached. Halak may yet have that potential.
Or he could be something else entirely.
This is a breakout season for him, and the truth is, we’re all just starting to REALLY get to know him. But his style, if it is a style, is unorthodox – it makes my heart skip a beat, in a bad way – and it’s the kind of thing that could really go either way, or even, season to season (Irbe had some leans years).
In the meantime, let’s enjoy the ride and hope it lasts as long as possible. Because it sure is exciting to watch him.
UPDATE: From Habs I/O. Here’s Pierre McGuire, on Team 990: ‘Per Rick Curren, if Pleks isn’t signed by July 1st, he is gone’. Listen for yourself.
Our inaugural, end-of-year-2009 podcast will be posted on Friday. Eric and I have a lot of goodies planned.
Until then, some notes:
The margin of error for the current Habs is, and always will be, razor thin. Injuries, penalties, slumps, goaltending, special teams…all these factors have to break the Canadiens way for them to pull out the win. Why? They simply do not have enough top-line talent across all positions, so they can not afford any off nights.
It is going to be hard for the Habs to get less penalties as the season goes on, for three reasons:
1 – The Habs play an aggressive style on the backcheck, and a lot of their d-men are a little slow. That translates into a lot of hooking and cross-checking penalties. No one wants to be the one to cough up the puck to the enemy.
2 – Now the Habs have a reputation – so it is difficult for the refs to look the other way. For a variety of reasons, refs are sometimes hesitant to call a penalty if its close (if it’s late in the game, if its against the home team, if they don’t want to unduly influence the outcome, etc). But the Habs’ bad reputation will only reinforce the refs’ thinking when they see the Habs misbehaving: “there they go again”. It’s very tough to change a reputation in mid-season.
3 – Fatigue: As Eric Engels notes, there may be a fatigue factor setting in. Again, the compressed schedule, injuries, penalty kill and coach’s penchant for playing 3 lines instead of 4, could all add up to fatigue. Which means mental mistakes and stupid penalties. Interesting to note that coach has not been running practices on off days lately.
The Department of ‘Please don’t trade Halak, AK-46, or D’Agostini’: I don’t think Bob is going to be able to get equal value for AK-46 right now. Same with Halak. These players are worth much more to the Habs than they are to another team.They know their roles, they know the system, and on the Habs, they know the pressure is on them to play their best every game. And they are CHEAP, YOUNG, and SIGNED, so they have no leverage against the Habs. Not to mention, their good play puts pressure on other young players to play their best (see Carey Price and Max Pacioretty for examples). So why is there any urgency to trade these guys?
We are now 20 games into the 2009-10 NHL season….and the Habs record is 9-11 (boy that sounds ominous).
Is it time to panic, as the record suggests?
All the big signings, the equally big-name departures (how good would R. Lang and A. Tanguay and F. Bouillon look in Habs uniforms right now?) and bottom-up organizational restructuring has not produced the results most fans expected at this point into the season. The reasons/excuses are plenty: new coach, new system, injuries….etc.
But the league is littered with teams going through big changes and injuries (see New Jersey, Colorado, San Jose, Philly and L.A. as teams going through either or both). So what’s going on with the Habs? Is it a question of adjustment and patience, or is it simply that the Habs don’t have the horses?
Only the next 40 games hold the answer – so we’ll just have to watch and see. I actually think the Habs will get better this season – barring injuries, they can hardly get worse. What really worries me is this: looking past this season, the prospects are ever diminishing. The young ones aren’t performing, the draft picks aren’t developing and until Price convincingly earns the No. 1 over Halak and/or the Kostitsyns start scoring, the Habs have no one who can bring a good return in a trade. The Habs overall salary is at the cap limit, so free agency may not work out either. Even worse, if Pleks doesn’t get signed to a deal soon, he may be as good as gone (how much you wanna bet he makes the All-Star team and will still be unsigned for next year)!
Yikes. Right now, the Habs are looking like a version of the NY Rangers….a big-market team that spends to the cap every season in order to appease its fan base, with some admittedly good players…but the team is never able to fully break out of its mediocrity because the organization isn’t firing on all cylinders and is unable to excel in all facets of the business: Scouting, drafting, developing, trades, early signings, smart contracts, and patience, etc.
One thing’s for sure, and I know Jacques Martin agrees, is that the Habs need to play with more gusto and make their presence felt. Like Paul Newman said: “Let ‘em know you’re there”.
Tune in later as Eric and I discuss the above goodies and lots, lots more.
In our tightest episode yet (if I do say so myself) we talk about the Habs’ (mis?) handling of Carey Price, Gomez vs Koivu, and … oh yeah, why hasn’t Jacques Martin named a captain already?
