Season 2, Episode 4: Let’s Drop the Puck!

It’s finally here, people! The first drop of the puck in the 2010-11 NHL season. Mike Cammalleri marked the occasion by getting suspended for the first game Thursday night in Toronto. It’s only one game, but the topic got plenty of mileage from the Three Habmigos (we’re working on the nicknames, we promise). Discussing everything from Cammy’s suspension to the Gionta captaincy to their season predictions, Pat, Eric, and Tal covered a range of topics and refused to hold back.

So take a listen and share your thoughts and opinions. At the very least, we’ll hopefully figure out the proper pronunciation of Lars Eller’s name.

 

 Season 2, Episode 4 [57:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Season 2, Episode 3: The First Cut is the Deepest

Ah training camp. The one time in the hockey season where the individual performances are actually more important than the final score. It’s in that spirit that we’ve come together once more to record another Habs podcast.

Just an hour before Pierre Gauthier and Jacques Martin made their first round of cuts, the three sages (Pat, Eric, and Tal) came together to discuss what they have seen so far and what they expect in the near future. In typical Tal fashion, Aaron Palushaj was cut by the Habs barely an hour after T. Pinch predicted he would push for a final roster spot. So you might want to ignore his advice the next time you play the stock market.

Nevertheless, this pre-season has already been ripe with intrigue. So just two weeks before opening night, les boys come together with plenty of discussion and a whole lot of booing. And not all of it for Carey Price.

 

 Season 2, Episode 3 [59:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to 2010-2011: The Make or Break Season

Pierre Gauthier’s press conference this week highlighted “team stability” and the “core strengths” of the Montreal Canadiens. Gauthier is telling the media that the current roster, which looks a lot like last year’s roster, will be the same roster for the foreseeable future. Yet there a number of players who, if they don’t play to expectations, will likely not return. It’s a long enough list that the entire organization may undergo a large overhaul in the summer of 2011. Perhaps not as big as the one the Canadiens underwent in 2009, but an overhaul nonetheless.

For instance, take Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouiliot, Ryan O’Byrne, Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche: It is IMPOSSIBLE to see how any of these players come back next year if they do not produce this year.

(more…)

Season 2, Episode 2: Pre-Season Prognosticationism

It’s about that time, people. That post-Labor Day period when anyone with a pair of shinpads suddenly starts chiming in with their prediction for what will happen in the upcoming NHL season. And why should we be any different?

Predicting what the Habs would ultimately do last season was next to impossible. Especially with half a roster’s worth of new players coming into le Centre Bell. This year should be less difficult to predict, but no less intriguing. With wunderboy Carey Price now entrenched as the team’s number-one keeper, the season could hinge on the play of one of the most-hyped players in franchise history. Throw in the unknown intangibles surrounding young players like Lars Eller, PK Subban, and Dustin Boyd and the 2010-11 season has all kinds of intrigue.

As usual, each of the three gentlemen behind the latest HabsRadio podcast have divergent opinions on where les Habitants will end up this season. Listen to their thoughts on the season and be sure to chime in with your own thoughts on how les boys in bleu, blanc, et rouge do this season.

 

 Habs Radio Season 2 Episode 2 [71:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Why We Like The Carey Price Deal…

Carey Price signed a two-year deal with the Habs today, for an annual cap hit of $2.75 million dollars.This deal is more than fair to both parties and I like it a lot.

1. It keeps Price hungry.

The message in this deal is clear: Price needs to perform at a higher level if he wants to earn that big multi-year contract. That’s a good thing.

True, signing Price to a short-term deal now may cost the Habs more in the long run. If Price performs well in the next two years, he will be asking for HUGE money. So yes, by comparison, Price would have been cheaper on the 3rd and 4th years of a long-term contract if he had signed for them now.

BUT – if the Habs HAD signed Price to a 4 or 5-year deal, like Eric suggested on last week’s podcast, who is to say that Price would have found the right motivation to perform at his very top level? All professional athletes, young goalies especially, are susceptible to a performance drop-off after signing a big deal in the same way that most athletes perform better in a contract year. It’s human nature.

No, in my mind, Carey Price develops into a better goalie if he stays sharp and hungry now and over the next two years. He has something to prove and that’s a good position for a young athlete to be in.

In two years time, if Price does well, I am sure the Habs will find the money and cap space to pay him accordingly. It will be tough, but they will do it.

As an aside: this deal signs Price at a full $1million LESS than the deal Halak signed with the St.Louis Blues. Athletes are competitive by nature. Don’t think for a second that Price won’t be checking Halak’s stats throughout the year and comparing them to his own. For that matter, every Habs fan will be keeping running tabs on the two goalies throughout the year. Price is aware of that, too.

2. It protects the Habs if Price fails.

Carey Price is only 23 years old and has only played in the NHL for three seasons. He may turn out to be a great goalie. But if he doesn’t, the Habs can wash their hands of him and move on.

This also reveals something else. If the Habs were 100% sure that Price will pan out they way they hope, they would have signed him to a longer deal now. But they do not have that certainty. Better to play it safe than be stuck with a bad 4-year deal with little wiggle room.

3. It’s reasonable on the cap

Before today, the Habs had just over $4.1 million in extra salary cap space. Price’s deal is extremely reasonable, as it still leaves them with about $1.38 million dollars in cap space . That leaves plenty of room for a late season trade at the deadline, when the Habs would only be responsible for the REMAINDER of that player’s contract.

My math may be a little off, but if Gauthier feels the need, he could trade for a pending UFA forward who is earning about $5million a year. Pending UFA’s happen to include Brad Richards and Alex Semin, among others.

It also insulates Gauthier a little bit in case he has to compensate for injuries (like last year when Gainey traded for MAB after Markov went down).

That’s a nice chip to have.

But on the other hand…..

One thing that still gnaws at me: Dominic Moore was signed by Tampa Bay at $1.1 million dollars. He wasn’t signed by the Habs, according to Pierre Gauthier, because of “salary cap reasons”. Jaroslav Halak was traded away, according to Pierre Gauthier, also because of “salary cap reasons”.

Well, unless Gauthier has something else up his sleeve, and he might, I think its safe to say the Habs could have kept Halak instead of Price if they had wanted to. Sure, the cap squeeze would have been tighter, but it was possible. If the Habs opted to stick with Price, which they did, they could also have kept Moore if they wanted to.

The real reason players like Halak and Moore were not signed: Dollar for dollar, Pierre Gauthier thinks Price will be a better goalie than Halak. And Gauthier did not want to re-sign Moore because he wants the younger kids to have a shot to perform this year (re: Lars Eller).

This just says to me that Gauthier used the cap as a bit of an easy excuse to explain his player personnel decisions, another reminder to never fully believe what a General Manager says to the media.

Season 2, Episode 1: One Month ‘Til Training Camp

Can it be? Are the dog days of Summer really almost over? Ladies and Gentlemen, hockey season is almost upon us. More accurately, Habs training camp is almost upon us. And what better way to begin the countdown to Habs camp than with an all-new podcast? But not just any podcast, Habs fans.

This latest cast will be the first of what should be many to include the insight and corny jokes of TPinch. It may be too early to tell if he knows what he’s talking about, but he does somehow manage to add what certain Habs fans call a certain “je ne sais quoi.”

With a discussion of what to expect from les Habitants, Eric, Pat, and T officially get the 2010-2011 season rolling. Let the Lars Eller era begin!

 

 Habs Radio Season 2 Episode 1 [60:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Everybody Calm Down / New Blogger & Podcast Next Week

…and now, where were we?

Oh yes. Pierre Gauthier’s latest “blunder” is trading AHL backup Cedric Desjardins for some other goalie who will never play in the NHL. I’m not one to defend Gauthier, but the hysterical reaction found on other blogs and even the mainstream news media is ridiculous.

Seriously, the fake-outrage blasting over the net and airwaves makes us all look bad. This is a minor deal. If the Expos were still in town, this “story” would be buried on page C7 of the Sports section.

It won’t do anyone any good for us bloggers to scream bloody murder every time Habs management makes a decision we don’t agree with, or more likely, we don’t quite understand yet. First of all, how do we know that this trade will be a disaster? Granted, there have been a few trades lately that don’t make sense to me, but Gauthier hasn’t even been the GM for a year. The Habs have yet to play a regular season game with their new lineup. Scratch that: The Habs don’t even HAVE a final lineup yet. Exhibition season is still 35 DAYS AWAY.

In truth, none of us have any true idea whether Gauthier’s moves are going to work out. At this point, we can only SPECULATE. That’s really what all of this is about.

So, if we can only speculate, what the hell else are we going to write about?

I have no clue, actually. In fact, we’ve been trying to come up with something for the last six weeks. And ummm…we’re still working on it.

So Eric and I figured now would be a good time to invite someone new to the proceedings.  Hey, why not, right?

His name is Tal. He’s an actual, you know, journalist. He has written for the New York Times, ESPN, and some other publications. He’s from Montreal, he lives in New York (which will make our LA-NY-MTL podcasts even more complicated to schedule now), and frankly, he seems a little smarter than us. Most important, though, he is a die-hard Habs fan just like me, Eric and all the rest of you…which really means he’s another writer who goes through long periods of unemployment.

If he doesn’t work out, we can always ignore him when he calls us on Skype.

But you can expect that same fan-friendly, fan-directed speculation (with a little more credibility now) about all things Habs. And we promise to be reasonable.

Sometimes.

ps – We are going to get a jump on the season. Look for our new podcast next Monday, August 23rd. Hopefully, we’ll have something to talk about by then.

Maybe.

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They REALLY Love the Price

On a day when Dan Ellis went for $3mill / 2yrs, Chris Mason went for $3.7 mill / 2yrs, and Marty Biron went for $1.8mill / 2yrs, Pierre Gauthier signed backup goalie Alex Auld, who played 24 games last year, for $1mill/1yr.

I am scratching my head a little about this. Why trade for Ellis and not sign him at such a favorable rate? Ellis is certainly better than Auld.

Maybe Ellis wanted a guarantee of 40 + games? But then why did Ellis give several interviews in Montreal saying he would be comfortable playing behind Price? Maybe that’s what he said in public but felt otherwise in private?

Or, is the salary cap really that tight that even an extra $500k would cause issues for Pierre Gauthier? Maybe Gauthier really is planning to keep Dominic Moore, and wants to save every penny? But then why not sign Biron, who comes in even cheaper, and can mentor Carey and take the heat off of him with the press? Maybe Gauthier didn’t want to give him a two-year deal and didn’t want to run the risk of having the local press jeer on Carey in favor of homeboy Biron?

Or, maybe, with so many of the big name free agents already signed, Gauthier has some other kind of trade up his sleeve to get a player like Frolov? I still can’t see this happening, but maybe.

In Auld, Gauthier gets a very low-cost goalie, who is younger than 30, has a lot of international experience and has put up some decent numbers. Maybe decent enough that Gauthier thinks the extra $500k going to Ellis could be better spent elsewhere?

But I can’t help but think that getting Auld also serves as some kind of peace offering to Carey Price as well. Think about it: Auld is the same size as Price, so goalie coach Pierre Groulx will work with both goalies the same way, so Auld and Price will be learning off the same page. This limits the potential for any confusion. Auld also comes from the West Coast, too. Added bonus for BC native Price.

But maybe its because Auld is clearly not going to be a number 1 goalie, that makes him so attractive to Gauthier. Price will never be threatened by Auld or fear that his job is always at risk. No Halak breathing down his back.If Gauthier had signed Ellis, I imagine the possibility would have always existed that Ellis could have taken over.

Two things are for sure, I think:

1 – Gauthier has a lot of faith in Price: Price will play A LOT of games. We already knew that.

2- Price’s contract will cost more than we originally thought. There is no other explanation for why Gauthier would go for Auld, when marginally more expensive, but much better goalies were available. The only reason I can think of, barring an attempt at keeping Moore or some other move, is that Price is asking for $2.5 – $3million / year, minimum, and that puts more pressure on the cap.

I hope I am wrong about this. I hope the Auld signing comes down to money / something else in the works. But if it doesn’t, signing Auld, to me, looks like the Habs are once again coddling a player who has not yet fully earned the mantle of Number One Goalie.

This really does strike me as weird.

Russ Courtnall for John Kordic – Redux

Just kidding. But it’s a nice headline isn’t it?

I actually like today’s trade sending Sergei Kostitsyn for pending UFA’s center Dustin Boyd and goalie Dan Ellis.

But it does have shades of that earlier pickpocketing that saw the Habs nab a player who could skate, shoot and hit (Courtnall) in exchange for a tough 4th liner whose career was on the downturn (Kordic):

a) There is no question that Nashville got the more talented player in this trade. The Habs get a potential 4th liner for a potential 2nd liner.

b) Nashville got cheaper, the Habs more expensive.

c) Boyd and Ellis are UFA’s, but Kostitsyn is signed.

But the fact that Pierre Gauthier was able to get something for S. Kostitsyn is a miracle. The fact that he got a capable 4th liner who is stronger, bigger, faster and ten years younger than Glen Metropolit and actually fills a need for the Habs, is something good too.Frankly, I am shocked that Gauthier was able to get as much as he did, considering Kostitsyn has poisoned the well so vociferously.

But one of these players needs to be signed for this trade to make any sense at all.

Plus, this trade raises a lot of  intangibles:

a) Will the Habs be able to sign Dan Ellis? If they do, this trade could be a huge win for them. If they don’t, and Sergei plays to most of his potential, Nashville wins this trade hands down. My gut says Ellis walks, because he is only 30, and might want to sign with a team that needs someone to play 40-50 games, pay him more than his current salary of $1.8 million but not want to pay out Tim Thomas money.

My gut: Ellis will look to San Jose or Tampa Bay before he even signs with Montreal! Boyd might just sign with the Habs, though.

b) Could this put more pressure on Carey Price to sign with the Habs? There might be some gamesmanship at play here. The Habs need to sign Price, but since the Halak trade, Price had all the leverage: He knew the Habs didn’t have any other goalie to negotiate with, so he could take his time until an offer came that he liked. Well, now the Habs have someone else to negotiate with, at least until July 1st. And if Price doesn’t get an offer sheet from another team, he is stuck with the Habs terms. This way, Pierre Gauthier might be sending a message: “I am going to sign this guy if I can’t sign you”.

My gut says: I may be over-thinking things here.

c)How will this effect the play of Andrei Kostitsyn (assuming he stays on):I’ve always found Sergei to be the more social and um… mentally stronger, of the two brothers. Sergei strikes me as someone who, in the right situation, can make friends wherever he goes. Andrei? Not so much. Andrei always produced better when his younger brother was around. Sergei didn’t seem to be effected by any of that, one way or the other. The question is this: Was Sergei a distraction for his brother or a friendly presence that made him more comfortable? The answer holds the key to Andrei’s season.

My gut: Andrei starts slow, but will eventually adjust. Sergei will have a great season in the NHL one of these years.

d) Post-Halak trade, what happens to Lars Eller and Dominic Moore? This is the trickiest question of all. Assuming Boyd takes the 4th line center position, that leaves the 3rd line center slot open for Dominic Moore (or Max Lapierre). So what would happen to Lars Eller? Does he stay down in the AHL or do the Habs play him on the wing?

This is another ramification of the Halak trade. For the trade to pay off and for Eller to live up to his billing, the Habs need to take every opportunity to develop Eller properly, which to me, means that he plays good minutes in his natural position and that the team is very patient with him and clear that they don’t need him to produce right away. But if he is good enough to make the Habs out of training camp, and Moore is also signed, where does Eller play? If the Habs let Moore go and pencil in Eller in the 3rd slot, well, what happens if Eller needs some fine tuning and experiences the inevitable hiccup? Who plays then?

My gut: Sign Moore, slot him in for the 3rd line. If Eller makes the team, let Eller play center on the 4th line and Boyd can play wing. He wasn’t brought in for his scoring touch anyway.

Things are certainly more interesting than I thought they would be just a few days ago.

Episode 28 – Season’s Over, Season’s Just Begun.

After taking our beloved Habs all the way to the brink of the Stanley Cup Finals (almost single-handedly at that), we reward Jaroslav Halak with a … trade.  Yet, after all but disappearing offensively in the later rounds of the playoffs, we reward Tomas Plekanec with a … 6 year, $30 million deal.  Makes perfect sense right?  We try and figure it all out.

 

 Habs Radio Episode 28 [50:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download