Habs head to Ottawa with all the momentum (or why I love Ryan White)

Ryan White

Patrick Roy got it right on L’Antichambre.

“Carey Price va à Ottawa avec le momentum,” said the last goalie to lead the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup.

The whole team heads to the nation’s capital – or make that Kanata – with all the momentum on their side after winning 3-1 Friday at the Bell Centre. All day, all I heard was dark talk from Habs fans. Price was weak in the first defeat. Oh my God, Eller, Pacioretty and Gionta are out. Life is over as we know it.

Then the chatter stopped and a hockey game broke out. And who would’ve thunk it. The Senators sleepwalked through game two and Montreal generally looked amazing.

And I’m not afraid to say it – Carey Price had a very good game. He lost teeth, made huge saves and only let in one goal.

But mostly I just loved the fact that tonight Ryan White decided it was just the right time to play his best game ever in a Habs uniform. He laid on big hits, scored a beautiful goal, the first of the night, which brought the Habs to life, and then ended the game with style yapping at Guillaume Latendresse, with The Tenderness looking visibly irritated. (Am I the only one who just has this instinctive distaste for The Tender One?)

It was a character game. Price dealt with his demons, Michael Ryder actually scored (for the first time since Newfoundland joined Canada), and Brendan Gallagher showed the same character he’s shown every time he’s taken to the ice in the past year.

And what a great way to end a great night, with coach Michel Therrien taking a few nice shots at The Walrus (aka Senators coach Paul MacLean).

Many – with good reason – were upset by MacLean’s comments Thursday night’s after Sens D-man Eric Gryba’s ugly hit on Lars Eller, which left the Hab lying in a pool of blood on the ice. MacLean basically laid all the blame on Habs defenseman Raphael Diaz for making a suicide pass to Eller just before the hit.

“The player I would be mad at is 61 (Diaz),” said MacLean. “That’s a dangerous place to be.”

Like he doesn’t know who Diaz is after spending several days preparing for the Habs series!

Prust was not amused.

“We don’t really care what that bug-eyed fat walrus has to say,” Prust said at practice Friday morning.

Therrien said MacLean’s comments rubbed him the wrong way.

“It was not about the hit….it was the comment,” said Therrien in his post-game press conference Friday. “When I saw the comment, I was pretty upset.”

Then he got off a good shot at The Walrus, when talking about how Diaz had another good game Friday.

“And No. 61, by the way, is Raphael Diaz, in case sometimes they don’t know.”

Did you get that Mr. MacLean? Want us to spell the name for you? Classic.

Tonight it’s the Habs making the jokes not the bug-eyed walrus.

Jay Baruchel and Marc-Andre Grondin weigh in on this year’s Habs

Jay Baruchel, Marc-Andre Grondin and the Stanley Cup. Top Shelf photo by Brendan Kelly.

Montreal actors Jay Baruchel and Marc-Andre Grondin are both dyed-in-the-wool Habs fans and during a recent private meeting with the Stanely Cup (?!?), they talked to me about how they were feeling about the 2013 Canadiens. They’re liking things a little more this year compared to last season’s apocalyptic, psychotic train wreck of a season. Just a wee bit!!!!

“(Marc) Bergevin saved the f—ing pride of Montreal,” says Grondin, whose movies include C.R.A.Z.Y., Goon and L’homme qui rit.

“Our team has a voice,” chimes in Baruchel, who co-wrote and stars in salty hockey laugher Goon. “Our team had no voice last year. What were the Habs? They didn’t make any kind of statement. This team has a character. You know it’s them. They play their hockey.”

This conversation was taking place about two weeks ago, just as the Habs were messing up big-time most every night, so I couldn’t resist throwing this one out (as my Daybreak pals will appreciate!).

And how do you guys feel now that the wheels have come off the bus?

“I believe they’re getting their willies out,” says Baruchel.

Baruchel talked of the importance of the loss of Alexei Emelin and Brandon Prust, the latter who wasn’t playing when we spoke.

“Without some of those boys, we’re back to being the softest team in the league,” says Baruchel.

“If I have a criticism of Bergevin it’s that he could’ve been a bit more aggressive on trade-deadline day,” adds Baruchel. “We could’ve picked up a rent-a-player or two.”

But you have to admit the turnaround from last year is pretty unbelievable, I suggest, and Grondin agrees, singling out the play of our two star rookies.

“This franchise will go forward with (Brendan) Gallagher and (Alex) Galchenyuk,” says Grondin.

Baruchel waxes poetic about young Mr. Gallagher.

“He’s been constantly underestimated his whole career. (They say) he’s too small. But I’d like him to play one shift without someone cross-checking him in the back of the head. I’m sick of that.”

I have a feature on Baruchel, Grondin and the Stanley Cup that will be on the Gazette web site later Monday and in the paper Tuesday.

- Brendan

 

So who’s afraid of the big bad Leafs now?

Not me. Not you. Pretty well no one. With a convincing 4-1 win Saturday night over the Toronto Maple Leafs, all of a sudden all of the momentum has moved down the 401 to Montreal and us angsty Habs fans are a lot less angst-filled this morning.

The season could not have ended in better fashion for the Canadiens. They showed they could beat the Loafs in their home rink, they humiliated starting goalie James Reimer (who got the hook!), moved into second place in the conference and first place in the Northeast division ahead of Boston (who lost 3-2 in OT to the surging Washington Capitals) and generally looked liked a team ready to battle anyone in the playoffs starting Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

Even better, the Leafs looked, to quote their perceptive coach Randy Carlyle, “brain dead”. I love it.

Before the game Joffrey Lupul made widely-publicized comments about how the big, tough Leafs could take advantage of the smaller Habs – which may have excited Don Cherry but obviously proved to be inspirational bulletin board material for the Habs.

The Leafs clearly thought they could intimidate the Canadiens and it didn’t work. They started bruisers Colton Orr, Frazer McLaren, and Mark Fraser, hoping to set the tone. But Montreal did what it did against Boston in that heart-breaking first-round seven-game series a couple of years ago – basically saying, ‘you can goon around all you like, we’re going to play hockey and guess what Colton, man for man, we’re a better team than you guys.’ Against the Bs that playoff, that brought Montreal within one P.K. Subban slapshot of eliminating the team that went on to win the Cup and last night it just deflated the Leafs balloon.

So I know many out there figure I only like to grumble, but there’s not much to gripe about this morning. Who at the start of the season thought that the team that finished last in the East last season was going to finish near the top of the conference this year? Exactly. No one.

General manager Marc Bergevin has done an extraordinary job of turning this team around in short order and if you think that’s easy, just look at how long rebuilding has taken in Toronto, Edmonton and Long Island. It’s a tough job and Bergevin has done all the right things, from coaching decisions – hello Jack Adams finalist Michel Therrien – to players pick-ups – bonjour Brandon Prust.

Sure there have been mis-steps – Bergevin should never have gone near Colby Armstrong and that big contract for Travis Moen isn’t looking that smart round about now.

But the facts are right there in front of you on nhl.com. The Habs will either finish second or fourth in the conference and will start the playoffs with home-ice advantage. Amazing.

And, with 20-20 hindsight, the choice to start Peter Budaj Saturday was a brilliant move. The team, I think, plays with more confidence right now in front of the Slovakian back-up goalie (eds. note: Hmmmm that reminds me of another playoff run) but by getting a solid game from Budaj, you’re free to start the thoroughbred Tuesday and if Carey Price stumbles – and honestly I hope he doesn’t – you have a plan B, B as in Budaj.

 

Top-drawer performances from Price and Prust deliver win for Habs

There are those of you out there – you know who you are – who simply don’t believe I’m capable of penning a positive Top Shelf blog post. Oh yee of little faith!

At some point in that absurd second period Thursday night, I tweeted – ‘Price is back. Okay let’s hang on to him.’ That was the period in which the Hurricanes outshot the Habs 21-5 – at one point it was 11-0 – and Price may not have stole the game but he most certainly stole the period. At the end of the second, the Canadiens had blown the dreaded two-goal lead and it was all tied at two but it easily could’ve been 5-2 ‘Canes at that point.

Pat Hickey from the Gazoo quotes Price saying that kindly ol’ coach Michel Therrien had a message for the players after that sad-sack second period – “I won’t go into the details, but we got the message loud and clear,” said Price. “It was all deserved and well put.”

Given the white-bread, corporate spirit of the “reality” series 24CH, don’t expect to see that fiery Therrien speech on TV any time soon.

Whatever Therrien said, it worked and Les Boys woke up in the third, scoring two more, to win it 4-2 and hang on to the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Any hoo, I am here today to say loud and clear myself – Price had a great night and if it wasn’t for him, Montreal would not have won this game. (Though he was weak on that second Carolina goal, but let’s not dwell on that.) He made a Patrick Roy-like glove save on Justin Faulk in the first and he stared ‘Canes captain Eric Staal down on a penalty shot in the second.

“At that point in the game, it was kind of important,” opines Price in Hickey’s column, once again displaying his unique What-Me-Worry Hey-Dude-Chill-Out style of hockey analysis.

Quick someone check this guy’s pulse. Is he awake?

But the other reason the Canadiens came out of Raleigh with two points is Brandon Prust. Man my Twitter timeline was just awash with love for Prusty. The best line, as usual, came from Les Justiciers Masques – ‘On ne veut pas que Marie-Pier Morin soit jalouse, mais on veut clamer haut et forte notre amour pour Brandon Prust.’ For those living in a cave in rural China, Morin is Prust’s girlfriend and this eye-catching Quebecois TV star – who launched her career via a memorable appearance on saucy reality show Occupation Double – is one of the main reasons Prust is wearing a Habs not a Rangers uniform this season.

Prust had a three-point night Thursday, with a goal and two assists, his first-ever three-pointer in the NHL. And it just underlined what we all already knew – Prust adds the kind of toughness the Habs haven’t had in a decade (thanks to Bob Gainey’s wrong-headed philosophy that tough guys were no longer needed) and he’s the first Hab maybe since Chris Nilan who can duke it out and actually play hockey. I mean did you see that pass on the Josh Gorges goal?

And he’s funny. “Backhand saucer pass, my specialty,” Prust said. lol

Yeah, a pretty good night at the office. So there. A Top Shelf post with hardly a negative word. Put that one in your pipe and smoke it.

- Brendan

A pleasant, if sleepy, night at the Bell Centre

I took my son to the Rotisserie Italienne on the way to the Habs game tonight in part because this old-school Ste. Catherine St. eatery is a great, reasonably-priced place to grab a quick bite. But mostly I brought Keane there because I remember eating there so many times before games at the old Forum a few blocks west of the resto.

I even went there with my dad once before taking him to a Bruins game at the Forum. We had a great time. You have to understand that my dad was never a hockey fan – unsurprising for a guy who grew up in an isolated fishing village on the west coast of Scotland during the Great Depression. He actually has never been an organized-sports kind of guy but we had a great dinner that night and had even more fun in the blues at the Forum soaking up the party that was going on around us. Dad might not know a face-off from a penalty shot but he knows a good party when he sees one.

Keane liked the Rotisserie – though he preferred my penne arrabiata to his Napolitana pizza, which I should have advised him not to take because anchovies and kids just don’t mix.

And the game? Well it was a sleepy first two periods and then the Habs exploded for three goals to blank the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0, winning their fourth in a row. Montreal is back in first in the Northeast and second in the East. Brandon Prust slammed one in following some amazing stick-handling from Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec rocketed one in off of Cam Ward’s shoulder and then just seconds later Max Pacioretty finally scored his first of the season with a blooper lobbed in from the red line. Gotta wonder if that flukey goal will open the floodgates for Patch.

Seeing the game in the flesh, we got to appreciate some of the unsung heroes like Josh Gorges, who just plays such a solid game on every single shift. He’s anything but flashy but man does he get the job done in his own zone. And Galchenyuk creates chances every time he touches the puck. Peter Budaj wasn’t tested all that much but when he was, he looked very, very good, something we haven’t said that often over the past couple of seasons.

And the Bell Centre beer? Glad you asked. I ordered a large – un gros – but when I saw the size of this Super-Sized Molson, I sent it back. Really. Okay the $15 price tag had me worried but have you seen the size of these things? It was a lethal weapon. So I had the mini beer which only set me back eleven bucks!

 

And so the Habs line-juggling begins

Michel Therrien. Courtesy of RDS.

I was just listening to CBC Radio – it does happen sometimes, in spite of what Shawn Apel thinks (which is that I’m addicted to rock radio and jock radio) – and there was my pal Andie Bennett telling Sue Smith about the new lines designed to cure all the Habs woes. Sue, by the way, who sounded like she still hadn’t recovered from Saturday night’s massacre on Habs Ave.

So it appears kindly ole coach Michel Therrien has matched the wonder kids – Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk – with Max ‘Bite-Sized’ Pacioretty, while Brandon Prust is demoted to the No. 1 underachieving line with Erik ‘Can I retire now?’ Cole and David ‘I’m acting like I’ve already retired’ Desharnais.

You like the changes? No I don’t either. That Brendan/Brandon line was a good one – from the name on down, with Prust providing the muscle to protect the young skill guys, and they were always dangerous. They will probably still find the back of the net with Patch but what has me more worried is the so-called first line (that’s obviously no longer the first line).

Cole has four points after 11 games and mostly looks like he just can’t compete at anywhere near last year’s level. M. Desharnais isn’t much better, with just five points so far this season. And now they’re gonna be playing with a less talented guy on the wing.

Well you can’t blame Therrien for trying to do something. You look at Saturday night’s shell-shocking and you can’t just sit there. But I fear that the team will return to the bad old days when the lines changed from shift to shift as the bench-meister desperately tries to find a magic formula to transform a just-OK team into something more.

To return to my favourite theme (of the month), is Ryan White really the only player on this team that deserves to be benched? You could probably bench any Hab after Saturday night.

What Therrien really has to do is motivate a club that’s looked a little like last year’s sad-sack team for at least part of the last three games (and all of the last game). Last time he got mad, he turned off the 24CH cameras (as he admitted on Tout le monde en parle). He should actually tell the boys he’ll leave the RDS cameras in the room and running while he chews them out next time they suck out the joint. Then the whole country can watch them facing the wrath of Therrien. Hey Michel, consider this suggestion a free gift from a Habs fan happy to do anything to help bring a couple of points the team’s way.

Who are these Habs?

Really. Who the heck are these guys? You tell me. It’s almost the same team as last year’s cellar-dwellers and here they are 6-and-2 after their first eight games.

Really. Who predicted that? I don’t remember seeing any of the sports scribes calling that one prior to the first puck-drop of the season.

So clearly a wee management change makes a difference. Clearly Randy ‘Parley-vous’ Cunneyworth wasn’t quite the modern incarnation of Toe Blake we imagined he was.

So yeah the new coach, Michel Therrien, is a plus. Having a sane man – that would be the dapper fellow Marc Bergevin – running the Habs shop is another plus.

But that’s not enough of an explanation. Well fact is it isn’t the same team. There is a whole new line for one thing. That would be the Brendan/Brandon line of Gallagher/Prust/Galchenyuk. Alex Galchenyuk, who’s just 18 and isn’t even really supposed to be in the NHL, has a goal and six assists after eight games, and he looks quite simply astonishing at least two or three times a night. Brendan Gallagher – with three goals and two assists – is a relative oldster at 20 and you gotta just love this little guy – five-foot-nine/163-pounds – crashiing the net in fearless fashion. And then there’s Brandon Prust who’s ready to rough up anyone who touches his speedy, talented line-mates. But he can actually play hockey too, something we haven’t seen in a Habs tough guy in some time (yes that is a shot at Georges Laraque).

But just as important is the stellar play of Carey Price between the pipes. Longtime readers of this blog know I have had my Price issues – #Halak (that joke is for Marc-Andre Grondin) – but I am man enough to concede that Pricey has been pretty darn good this season. He’s 6-1, has a save percentage of .938 and GAA of 1.70. Hard to argue with those numbers.

You also have a healthy Andrei Markov looking like a superstar – or a dandy, if you’re to believe Bob ‘What Century Is This?’ Cole – and P.K. Subban back in the line-up looking just fine after only two games.

I was maybe most impressed by Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Senators. That was a hard-fought game against a good team. Martin McGuire on 98.5 called it “Un match pour hommes” and he was right. And the Habs held on to take the two points (and the four points from Super Bowl weekend).

But now comes the toughest test of this young season – their first bout with the dreaded Bruins, a must-see game coming Wednesday night at the Bell Centre. As Bob (not Eric) Cole might say – Oh baby!

Habs get P.K. Subban for a song

Let me make one thing clear right off the bat – we need to get Halak back.

Oops. No that’s another blog (and a dumb joke!).

No the thing I want to make clear is that it’s totally great to have P.K. Subban back in the Canadiens line-up. I was at my son’s hockey game tonight and a couple of us hockey dads were thinking out loud about just how good the Canadiens are gonna look with P.K. on the blue-line. Here’s a team that’s gone 3-and-1 in its first week, with Markov on fire, Galchenyuk looking like a superstar-to-be and guys like Bouillon and Prust adding some much-needed oomph to the Habs game. (I mean have you seen lil’ Frankie Bouillon crushing guys on the boards? This is a guy that our old friend Bob ‘What About Bob’ Gainey was insisting was washed up…..four years ago!)

Add P.K. to the mix and well…..rent that balcony with a good view of Ste. Catherine St. for June’s festivities right now!

But there’s one other thing that’s clear – the Habs got Subban at a bargain-basement price. $5.75 million for two years. You know Habs general manager Marc Bergevin won this little game of chicken. Subban and his agent Don Meehan wanted more years and more money and they got neither.

Short version? Subban and Meehan rolled the dice and lost. They figured Bergevin would have to budge from his philosophy of signing bridge contracts for young players and simply wouldn’t take the chance of losing Subban. But what they hadn’t considered was that the Habs would go on a tear in their first week and, worse for Subban, that the star of the show would be none other than a D-man named Andrei Markov.

Markov has four goals in four games and he has quite simply looked like a phenom this week. Obviously it would’ve been better for Subban’s negotiations if his team had been struggling in the early going – presumably putting pressure on Bergevin to bring in the patented Subban one-timer to light-up the score-board and the folks in the stands.

“It really was the right thing to do at this time,” said Meehan on Le Match on TVA Sports Monday night.

The key phrase here is – “at this time”. As in, Subban and Meehan would’ve never dreamed of signing this deal last week back when we were all thinking this team would be in the same garage-leagues as last year’s sad-sack club.

There really is a new sheriff in town – and his name is M. Bergevin. First he solves the Gomez riddle in one decisive move and then goes mano-a-mano with Subban and comes out the winner.

So does Subban feel burned by the Habs? Will he feel little or no loyalty when his contract expires in two years? By playing hard-ball with Subban and refusing to sign a long-term deal, does Bergevin potentially lose this ultra-popular, super-talented blue-liner in two years?

We’ll see. But for now it’s just great to think we’ll once again be seeing Subban racing around the Bell Centre ice.

“He wants very much to be part of the Montreal Canadiens, not just now but in the future,” Meehan said on TVA Sports and I’m certainly hoping this isn’t just agent-speak.

So is it gonna be Markov and Subban together on the power play? Man that could be a thing of beauty.

Well that was a good game…..for P.K. Subban

Well that was special. You wait nine-and-a-half months, you forgive the owners in a nanosecond with promises of a free hot dog and chips, and you’re just totally pumped for the first game since last spring starring your beloved Montreal Canadiens.

Things start in promising fashion with a great opening ceremony with the passing of the torch and as you look at Henri Richard, it’s hard to not start dreaming about the glory days of Les Glorieux. But alas that was just a dream. The best line I heard on the game came from – I think but I’m not sure cos I was flipping from sports channel to sports channel Sunday morning – Postmedia columnist Bruce Arthur who said Montreal would be fine if they could play hockey games nearly as well as they do opening ceremonies.

Now okay it’s just one game and they weren’t blown out, it’s true. But keep in mind they were playing a team that will be battling with Les Habs for 12th place in a couple of months;. There just weren’t many positives in Montreal’s 2-1 loss Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Hot prospect Alex Galchenyuk looked like a hot prospect, with two decent shots and over 13 minutes of cie time, and even I have to admit that Carey ‘What Me Worry?’ Price looked just fine. (Though I would be remiss in not underlining that Jaro ‘Saint’ Halak nabbed a shut-out in his first game of the season with the Blues and Halakit a lot.) The rest of the Habs? Not so much positive to say.

Fact is they looked a lot like last year’s underachieving bunch, which is not all that surprising since they are in fact last year’s underachieving bunch. GM Marc Bergevin added some sandpaper with Brandon Prust (who had his first fight as a Hab), Francis Bouillon, and Colby Armstrong, but didn’t add a whole lot of talent to the sad-sack roster that finished dead last in the East.

They’re also missing one of their best players, a fellow named P.K. Subban, who was watching last night’s game at home in T.O. I gotta think his value goes through the roof after Saturday’s game and it’ll be even higher Tuesday at ten if the Huberdeau/Kovalev show provide the entertainment at the Panthers-Habs match-up that night.

My good pal Tom Burke had it right with his tweet: ‘PK’s ego must be through the roof. They chant his name, they spend the 2nd intermission on HNIC talking about him. King PK.”

So they need to sign him fast. Will he solve all their problems? No. Is his ego an issue in the room? Probably. (Josh Gorges’s comments in Richard Labbe’s piece in La Presse Saturday certainly suggested his team-mates are kind of fed up with him and his dispute with Bergevin.

But this Habs squad needs any help it can get – fast. Sure it’s only one game but what a pathetic game it was.

Here’s the highlight of Saturday’s game, the opening ceremonies:

And here’s a clip of the Simple Plan gig outside the Bell Centre before the game.

 

NHL stars take to the ice in Quebec

No the NHL is not back in action. That would entail The Two Egos That Walk – Gary ‘Little Man’ Bettman and Donald ‘This Is My Sandbox’ Fehr – actually getting down off their soapboxes, rolling up their sleeves and making an effort to find a solution so that us fans can see some hockey.

But there will be some hockey, with La tournee des joeurs, which kicks off with a game Thursday night at the Centre Multisports in Chateauguay. This is an initiative of two Quebec players on the Philadelphia Flyers, Maxime Talbot and Bruno Gervais, who were talking it up on Tout le monde en parle last Sunday. They have set up two teams, Montreal and Quebec, and will play a series of friendlies as we say in the world of soccer (eds. note: Isn’t that ‘football’ mate?) in the coming days.

This is one star-studded line-up. The Montreal Not-the-Habs bench includes goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, Josh Gorges, Andrei Markov (!), Gervais, Brian Gionta, Jason Pominville, Colby Armstrong, Derick Brassard, Talbot, Mathieu Darche, Steve Begin, Guillaume Latendresse, and Alexandre Burrows. The Quebec Not-Nordiques includes netminder Jonathan Bernier, Brandon Prust, Francis Bouillon, Roman ‘The Hammer’ Hamrlik, Lars Eller, Benoit Pouliot, David Perron, Simon Gagne, Marc-Edouard Viasic, David Desharnais, Steve Bernier, Mathieu Perreault, and Travis Moen.

In short, for twenty bucks you’ll see way more talent than you would at your average Habs game (which would set you back a lot more than $20). Gaston Therrien will coach Montreal while TVA host-with-the-most Dave Morissette will be running the Quebec bench.

Will it be great hockey? Of course not. My favourite sportscaster – sorry Randy Tieman! – Andie Bennett from Daybreak had tape of Gionta Thursday morning on Daybreak saying this is “not real hockey”. But he went on to say it’s a “win-win” situation for everyone and he’s right. It gives us hockey-starved fans some ice action to watch, the players get to lace up and all the money goes to charity.

Tickets are available only at the venues and go on sale at 5 p.m. the day of the game. I think it’s a great initiative. On the weekend, my pal – and arch tennis rival – Daniel Sanger was talking up an idea he wrote about years ago, that the players should set up an alternate league if the lock-out drags out. Why not? Just make sure to invite Bettman to first game!