9-1-1: 20 Games in and the Line is Flat

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.