Stop calling the Bruins names

Zdeno Chara

I’m so tired of all these Habs fans grumbling about the Bruins, saying they’re a dirty team, that the only reason they’re where they are is goonery, cheatery and trickery.

If you’re still saying that today, then you’re not watching this white-knuckle Stanley Cup Final. The Montrealers who hate the Bruins are just like the many folks ’round these parts who love to diss Toronto, the city, but haven’t set a foot in T-dot since 1976. They’re talking past-due-date nonsense that has no connection to reality.

The Bruins are the real deal man. They’re a great team, period. And those Habsters looking down their noses at them do it at their own peril. Just try looking down at the Not-So-Gentle-Giant Chara – and you’ll soon realize that The Incredible Hulk is the one who does the looking down at people and if you don’t believe that one just ask Bryan Brickell what it’s like to have Shrek straddling you!

The B-Town mobsters have been smothering the superstars of the Blackhawks because, three games in, they’ve been the better team. And I’ll say it again – Chicago coach Joel Quenneville has to re-adjust or his team is going the way of the Penguins.

The Bruins are in the Hawks’ heads. Just like they were in the Pens’ heads. And the same thing is happening. The Blackhawks are getting frustrated and they’re resorting to playing Bruins’ hockey. Remember Montreal did it that night when everyone got in a fight and need I remind you how that ended – the Bruins beat up all of our guys. We can’t fight the Big Bad Bruins and neither can the Blackhawks. Go back and talk to Bickell.

It’s not goonery. It’s tough no-frills hockey with a little help from some magnificently talented players. Patrice Bergeron has been amazing. Jaromir Jagr has transformed himself into a gritty role player and every time he’s on the ice, watch out. I mean did you see Jagr’s seeing-eye pass across the crease to Bergeron for that power play goal Monday night in the Bruin’s 2-zip hockey-lesson for the Blackhawks at the Garden?

Habs fans love to hate the Bruins but while we were all whining about how Chara was a serial killer, Boston management was constructing a Team Built to Win Cups. The Habs? Our oddball bosses were busy building a team built for success in the first third of the season when no one’s hitting hard and small guys can do okay.

We need to get bigger, tougher and smarter now. The good news is Marc Bergevin knows this. How do I know he knows? Because he learned the ropes on a big, tough, smart Cup-winning team. The problem with Bergevin’s old big, tough, smart team is they’ve just run into a bigger, tougher, smarter team.

Sure it ain’t over. All Chicago has to do is win Wednesday night. But they won’t win by playing the way they did Monday.

Oh one more thing. Don’t fight Chara. Ever. Be nice to him. That way he’s less likely to sit on you.

- Brendan

 

The Habs are a long way from being ready for the Stanley Cup Final

It may seem like I’m stating the obvious but I’ll say it anyways – les Canadiens are Not Ready For Prime Time.

During this shortened season, with the Habs stylin’, all of us fans were on a major high, dreaming dreams of Cup glory, of bringing Lord Stanley’s mythic chalice back to its rightful home chez nous on the 20th anniversary of Montreal’s last championship.

Then we all came crashing back down to Earth with that absolute and total meltdown that smashed our reveries to teenie weenie pieces in the last two weeks of the regular season and that downright horrifying series against the Senators. You remember that great Nicolas Roeg/David Bowie movie The Man Who Fell to Earth? This was The Team That Fell to Earth. Smash!!

But even after that, the dreamers kept dreaming. The oh-so-slick Marc Bergevin performed some great magic tricks with his season-end press conference, making all of our worries disappear with his wit, charm, good lucks and pink tie. Carey Price feels like a hobbit in a hole? No worries, I’ll be his Gandalf and go to Loblaws for him, says Bergevin. Bergevin talks a great game.

And don’t get me wrong. I think he’s a terrific hockey executive, the first good one the Habs have had on mahogany row for years and he’s going to do good things with the team.

All I’m saying today is that he has one helluva a job ahead of him because the previous bosses have left him with one broken franchise. Like the rest of you, I’ve been watching this fine Cup final and like every Habs fan not wearing blinkers I’m realizing that Les Boys are not anywhere near ready to compete at this level of hockey.

At every position, Montreal quite simply is not even in the ballpark. (Eds. note: Shouldn’t that be ‘hockey arena’?) Goaltending? See ‘hobbit in a hole’ section above. Is Price as good as Corey Crawford? No. Tuukka Rask? You really need to ask? Did you see him in the first period last night when the Hawks were throwing everything at him?

Defense? I’m looking for solid, big tough bruisers on the Habs blueline and I’m not liking what I see, other than the injured Alexei Emelin. You know I love P.K. Subban and he totally deserved to win the Norris Trophy. But he needs some gritty teammates to complement his razzle-dazzle offense.

Up front? That’s where things get downright scary when you compare the Habs to the Bruins or the Blackhawks. Listen I’ll go easy on the Habs. I won’t even bother to try to match the Smurfs…..I mean Habs with the Bruins first-liners Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton. That’s just not fair.

But let’s just cast a glance at that third line that brilliant coach Claude Julien cooked up half way through the game with Daniel Paille, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin. They produced both Bruins goals, including the heroic overtime winner from Paille, and let’s just be honest for a second and admit that that would be one fine line to have coached by Michel Therrien in Montreal.

The Blackhawks’ forwards. Toews. Kane. Hossa. Let’s just not go there. And let’s not even go into the discussion of how the Habs’ two first-line centres are…..well how do I put this politely? OK here’s the polite version – Plekanec and Desharnais are small, under-achievers.

Look I’m not despairing here. I’m just saying let’s be realistic about Montreal. This team has been beat down into the ground by two decades of mediocre management and it’s not going to suddenly be transformed with one wave of Gandalf’s wand into a Cup contender.

- Brendan

So has P.K. Subban won the Norris Trophy?

Nick Kypreos from Sportsnet tweeted Monday to say that sources in New York and Montreal have confirmed that P.K. Subban has won the Norris Trophy.

True? Good chance. Why? Cos there is some justice in the world.

But how accurate is the report? Francois Gagnon was on C’est Bien Meilleur le Matin on the Premiere Chaine (eds. note: Ici Radio, non??) Tuesday morning and he said Subban has close ties to Sportsnet and that he likely blabbed after being invited to the TV awards show Saturday. Apparently they are only inviting the winners this year because it’s a shortened show, which will run on CBC just before the second game of the Bruins Blackhawks Final on Saturday night.

So the theory goes, Subban got the invite and immediately told his pal Kypreos. We do know that Subban likes to talk so it’s not impossible to believe.

The other Norris nominees are Kris Letang from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ryan Suter from the Minnesota Wild.

And you know what? Subban should win it. He was the best defenseman in the League last season. It wasn’t just the 11 goals and 38 points – he was consistently the best man on the ice for his team every night.

And Habs GM Marc Bergevin should sign him to a long-term deal this summer. He low-balled P.K. last fall and at the time everyone applauded Bergevin for playing bad cop – well everyone except me – but if he doesn’t lock Subban up for several years, he’ll lose him at the end of the season. You read it here first.

Check out just one aspect of Subban’s exciting game – his monster hits.

And here’s the classic old highlight reel. (Eds. note: We need an updated YouTube Subban highlight reel folks!)

Let us now praise the Bruins (again)….and criticize Sidney Crosby

What a shocker! The Boston Bruins sweep the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-zip, outscore the Pens 12-2, shut-out Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. WTF!!!! (Where’s the Food!)

First-off, I’ll say it again. You gotta respect these Bruins. Best line on the series comes courtesy of my old pal Daniel Weinstock on Facebook: “Pittsburgh-Boston series: proof that teams beat assemblages.” The philosopher king nails it once again.

The Bs are the ultimate team. This is not a group built around a superstar. Yeah Zdeno Chara is a mega-star – his status simply solidified with his baseball catch of a Malkin shot flying toward an empty net in the dying seconds while lying on the ice with Tuukka Rask completely out of position.

But there’s much more to the Bruins than their mean six-foot-nine defenseman. How about Brad Marchand? I know, I know, I hate him too but let’s just admit – as Ray Ferraro suggested Friday on TSN 690 – that Marchand is this era’s Claude Lemieux – a clutch playoff player who plays nasty, drives the other team’s players nuts and then plays smart when it counts. Who set up Adam McQuaid with a just-perfect pass for the lone goal of the game last night? Ben oui, it was Marchand. The same guy who much earlier in the game, was holding on and just not letting go of Crosby’s stick as the superstar made his way to the Pens bench. That’s called getting under a guy’s skin and it works.

You need more? What about the Horton-Lucic-Krejci line? Best line in the League? Just asking. David Krejci leads all playoff scorers with 21 points, Nathan Horton is second with 17 and Milan Lucic is in ninth position with 13 points. But obviously Lucic does so much more than put points on the board – he’s a force every time he’s out there. Horton? I know, us Habs fans hate him for the very good reason that he scored two – count ‘em two – overtime goals against Montreal in that heartbreaking playoff series two years ago. We hate him but if Marc Bergevin could pick him up this summer, we’d change our views on Horton Hears a Who pretty damn quickly.

And how about Rask? Yeah yeah Price is a thoroughbred (who’s never won nuttin in the playoffs) but this former back-up netminder is the real deal. He stopped 134 of 136 shots in the series. Nuff said. If they win it all, he’s your Conn Smythe man.

Then there’s Sid who’s not a Kid. I don’t much like the guy. I haven’t since the spring of 2010 when he was such a bad sport in that shocking seven-game loss to Halak (I mean the Habs). He just wouldn’t give the Canadiens any credit. That’s called being a sore loser and I don’t like it one bit. And it was the same thing Friday night.

“I don’t feel like they totally shut us down,” said Crosby after the loss Friday. “I feel like we got chances, but Rask made some big saves.”

That is what I call a no-class comment. Be a man Sid and just admit the Bruins were the better team. They outscored you 12-2 and you had a horrible series. The “best player in hockey” was held off the scoreboard – and looked like a ghost most nights – while his team was swept in humiliating fashion. Even Malkin fared better. Yeah he didn’t score but he had great chance after great chance.

But not Crosby. This series is gonna be a stain on his career. No other way to look at it. He’s the captain. He’s the superstar. It’s his team. And they collapsed. The coach will pay the price but Crosby should’ve at least stood up and took the blame. I’m unimpressed.

Now bring on that Bruins Hawks final. Oh baby, it’s going to be a dandy.

- Brendan

 

You gotta respect the Bruins

I know us Habs fans are supposed to hate the Big Bad Bruins. It’s a philosophical truism right up there with ‘I think therefore I am’. ‘I am a Habs fan therefore I loathe the Bs.’

And I will get the hate going again once les Canadiens start playing again. But with Les Boys comfortably lounging on the golf course, I’ve been watching hockey played by other better teams and following the Bruins’ stunning 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night, I think the time has come to state the obvious – you gotta respect the Bruins.

Admit it. You’d love to see Milan Lucic in a Habs jersey.

Notice I didn’t say ‘like’. But c’mon this team has some kinda mojo. Some kinda depth. And some kinda character. You might not like the character – it is indeed a little nasty – but they at least have a personality.

What’s Montreal’s personality? I know, I know, we’re a skill team, that’s the common wisdom. But you know what – ‘skill’ in our case is a code word for ‘small’. Boston has skill too, so do the three other former Cup champs still in the hunt for Lord Stanley’s Holy Grail. But they also have size, grit, character and – touche! – goaltending.

Yeah we love to hate the Bruins. Still…..you won’t say it publicly but admit to yourself that we’d trade our first-born to have Milan Lucic wearing le bleu-blanc-et-rouge. And we’d trade our old Phil Esposito hockey cards to get Nathan Horton. Not to mention their skill guys would also look quite nice with a CH on their chest, guys like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, the latter who scored two goals Saturday night.

But this Bruins love-fest has a limit – even if the Bs offer them for free, the Habs are not allowed to pick-up either Zdeno Chara or Brad Marchand. Those guys are evil.

Meet Alex Galchenyuk, superstar

Well this is what’s called a silver lining to the Habs’ bitter exit from the playoffs.

Did you see Alex Galchenyuk’s heroics Sunday for Team U.S.A.? The Habs rookie scored the goal to tie the shoot-out and then went and scored the winning goal, to give the U.S. the bronze medal at the World Championship, with a 3-2 win over Finland.

Check it out. And look forward to seeing this superstar-to-be playing for the Canadiens for years to come. And wonder why kindly ol’ coach Michel Therrien never had the confidence to play Chucky late in tight games, as my Twitter pal Rich Thorpe underlined.

- Brendan

http://video.tsn.ca/?dl=pipe42/latest/1/0/929918/clip/0

 

Marc-André Grondin suggests it might be time for Carey Price to shave his head and grow a curly moustache

Jay Baruchel, Marc-Andre Grondin and the Stanley Cup. That’s a shaved head under that toque if you’re wondering! Top Shelf photo by Brendan Kelly.

Marc-André Grondin and I have been having a good-natured argument about Carey Price for a couple of years now. As you know, I’m a #Halak kind of guy. And Grondin – one of Canada’s better actors – is a Price man.

Well the whole Price debate was re-ignited in recent days, both by the goalie’s inconsistent performance in the Senators series and the already-famous ‘hobbit in a hole’ comments.

On the weekend, after the Sens sent the Habs to an early summer vacation, Price talked about the pressures of playing in Montreal.

‘I don’t even go the grocery store anymore,’ said Price. ‘I hardly do anything anymore. I’m like a hobbit in a hole. I just don’t do anything anymore.’

I was talking to Grondin – whose film credits include C.R.A.Z.Y., Goon and L’homme qui rit – about how tough it is to play that position for the Habs and I was opining that Carey needs to learn to deal with the pressure.

‘I think he just cannot relax,’ said Grondin. ‘It’s really bad.’

Grondin thinks the team’s management should be making sure their star goalie is doing okay off the ice.

‘If a guy has a drug problem, they take care of him,’ said Grondin. ‘Well they should do the same with a guy who needs a little more liberty.’

I said I thought – from Monday’s presser – that Habs GM Marc Bergevin is sensitive to Price’s dilemma and he’ll likely try to do something about it. I can see Bergevin talking Price out to dinner for a heart-to-heart, something that is not even imaginable with previous GM Pierre Gauthier.

‘If I had one thing to say to Carey Price, it would be shave your head and grow a curly moustache,’ said Grondin. ‘And no one will recognize you. It worked for me.’

Grondin dealt with his own stardom issues by shaving his head and growing a curly moustache!

Marc Bergevin shows character

The best thing about the Marc Bergevin end-of-year press conference was the fact it was Marc Bergevin talking and not either Bob Gainey or Pierre Gauthier. Yes the G&G era is over. Yes there is a God.

Now I really like Marc Bergevin – as does every self-respecting Habs fan – but let’s be honest here. The jury is out on this dashing man – where does he buy his pink ties? – who is one of three finalists for the General Manager of the Year award in the National Hockey League. (As Warren Zevon put it in a very different context – I believe he was talking about a werewolf – ‘I’d like to meet his tailor!’)

The journeyman player, who underlined that he was never a finalist for anything in the more than two decades he toiled in the League as a player, is up for that hardware because he took one of the worst teams from last season and brought them to the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference.

But the way the season ended tarnished that achievement. The last couple of weeks of the regular season was a disaster for the Habs and losing to the No. 7 seed in five games is pretty damn bad. Bergevin made some great moves, notably bringing in a solid management team, snaring the great Brandon Prust, bringing back the heroic Francis Bouillon, and sending Scott Gomez packing.

But he made some major mistakes too – most notably signing wee David Desharnais to a four-year $14 million contract in the middle of the season (effectively sending DD on summer vacation a couple of months early), signing the sleepy Travis Moen to a big deal, and reaching out to bring in the useless Colby Armstrong. All bad moves.

Still early to make the ruling on Bergy – but I’m betting he’ll do us all proud. What I liked the most Monday is he made it clear he was not satisfied with that quick first-round exit. There was none of the crap we had to put up with every season-end in the G&G era where the underachieving bosses would make every excuse to explain the team’s mediocrity.

Bergevin doesn’t just want to make the playoffs. He wants this team to go all the way. He talked about Brendan Gallagher’s character. But the boss is showing some character too and I like that.

- Brendan

Who are Habs fans gonna cheer for?

That is the question. Who are we supposed to cheer for now that our Habs are on the golf course? This Bruins-Leafs series has presented quite the dilemma for us Habs fans. Here are our two most-hated teams battling it out in what I have to admit is one tremendous series.So who do you back here? I didn’t really know until I started watching the series and strangely, without reflection, I suddenly found myself rooting for the Bruins. I know, I know, we’re supposed to hate the big bad Bs and i will start hating them again – once they finish off the Leafs.

It suddenly dawned on me that I hate the Leafs more than I hate the Bruins. First off, Boston is the better team. That’s not even up for debate. But also we just live with a lot more resentment towards the Leafs because we live in a media universe – hello Hockey Night in Canada, hi there Toronto Sports Network – that just can’t control its Leafs boosterism.

Did you watch the Leafs-Bruins game Sunday night on Hockey Night in Canada? I mean the boys on the show couldn’t control their enthusiasm, waxing eloquent about James Reimer – who was amazing, I’ll grant you – and losing themselves in poetic reveries about their beloved Leafs. Don Cherry appeared in a blue-and-white Leafs wig – I swear, I’m not making this up! – and predicted that “WE” would win 3-2.

Now when I noted this on Twitter, some defended Grapes saying we all know this is part of his routine but c’mon man. Just imagine this happening in the States. That John Madden while working a Super Bowl broadcast takes sides in the game. Exactly. It’s unthinkable.

So I’m pulling for the Bruins just to p— of all the Leafs fans in the Toronto media. But once the Bruins finish off the Leafs – which they will Monday night, mark my words – I’ll be back to hoping they’re humiliated by whoever they face next.

Then I’m moving back to the team I loved as a kid in the ’70s in Montreal – the mighty Chicago Blackhawks. I’ll be cheering on the Hawks – along with great Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh, who is one of the Blackhawks’ most vocal fans.

But for today, it’s – Go Bruins Go!

The dream is over

Okay I know the Habs were never going to be competing for the Cup this year but you gotta admit that’s a brutal way to go out. 6-1 to the Senators and pretty darn close to a sweep in the series.

So the dream is over. You remember that blog from a few weeks back when Montreal went off the rails – after they made the playoffs – and I suggested that maybe the first 35 games were “all just an illusion to me now” Well that’s ringing truer than ever now.

The Canadiens have not played with any kind of consistency since they clinched a playoff berth with that win in Buffalo. They were playing above their talent level all year and once they made the post-season, they just had nothing left in the tank. And yes they were more like last year’s team than we ever thought.

There were some great additions this year. Short version? The kids are alright. Brendan Gallagher, of course, was the sensation and that’s why he’s up for the Calder. Alex Galchenyuk is going to be amazing, probably as early as next year. And what do you say about P.K. Subban. Well you say what I said when Marc Bergevin was playing hardball with him during those negotiations – he’s a superstar and you better sign him up for as long as you can.

Bergevin made a mistake refusing to sign him for more than two years and I’m pretty sure he’ll correct that mistake by inking a rich long-term deal with the Norris finalist this summer.

The other major plus was Brandon Prust. This guy is the team’s real leader and I’d give him the ‘C’ in a heartbeat.

That’s the good news. Then there’s the rest of the team. The sad-sack regular-season end and even-worse playoffs does not reflect well on a bunch of guys. David Desharnais hasn’t played a good game since he signed that big deal. He should be ashamed of himself.

The only silver lining with Michael Ryder is he’s no longer under contract with the Canadiens. He looked bored over the past month. Now you get why teams don’t hang on to Ryder. Travis Moen? See the comment about Desharnais above. Colby Armstrong? See comment about Ryder above.

Then there’s my bete noire, Carey Price. Look he’s not the main reason Montreal lost the series. Montreal lost because our forwards were worse than the Senators’ forwards.

But Price wasn’t good enough in this series. Again. The guy in the mask at the other end delivered a truly great performance. Price was inconsistent. Again. How long are you going to keep saying next year will be his year?

But maybe the most depressing thing about the series was how Paul MacLean out-coached Michel Therrien from game-one on. The Walrus played Therrien and Therrien never seemed to understand he was being played. Take the famous end-of-game time-out that so enraged Therrien. Mr. Walrus did that to upset Therrien and get him off his game, and it worked a charm.

Instead of looking long and hard at how to make his team better, Therrien got hot under the collar about MacLean. That was the idea. The Walrus got inside Therrien’s head.

So sure it was a surprisingly good season in some ways. The team finished second in the conference. But it was at least partly an illusion. They weren’t really a second-seed team, a fact proved by their whacking at the hands of the seventh-seed in this series.

And yes there are lots of positives. For the first time in years, there’s a core of young stars in Gallagher, Galchenyuk and Subban. But Bergevin has his work cut out for him in the summer. And guess what? The most important piece of the puzzle missing is a big, strong talented first or second-line centre. Sound familiar? Bergevin is facing the same problem that’s dogged Habs GMs for 20 years.

And no there will be no 20th anniversary Cup. Sigh.