I’m having trouble getting worked up about a Habs Senators series

Carey Price.

Don’t get me wrong. I am super excited that the Canadiens are in the playoffs for the first time in two years and even happier that Montreal finished second in the conference, giving them home-ice advantage through at least the first two rounds. This is all good.

And I know I have been preaching for quite some time now that I believe the ideal scenario was for Les Boys to meet anyone but the Leafs. So I guess I got my wish.

So why am I so underwhelmed by the match-up? I guess it’s ’cause we have no modern post-season history with the Senators. Habs fans can’t really get a hate on for the Senators the way we do for the Leafs and especially for the Bruins.

There’s a great rivalry – Battle of Ontario and all that – between the Leafs and the Senators. But Habs-Sens? Not so much. Heck it doesn’t even seem like going to a hostile arena when Montreal plays in Kanata – there seem to be more people cheering for the Habs than for the Senators, just underlining the team’s identity issues.

The weirdest thing is that I’m actually more pumped up about watching the Leafs Bruins slug-fest right now. La question qui tue – who’s gonna try to punch our friend Milan Lucic’s lights out?

That said, I’m sure Canadiens Senators will be a good series once it’s up and running. The teams have played close games for the most part this year and it’s likely to be a long series. In other words, by game seven we might even have a rivalry going.

There will be some great mano-a-mano combats. Will Craig Anderson be the difference-maker or will Carey ‘What Me Worry’? Price finally shed his sleepy playoff past history and show that he really is a thoroughbred?

The other great duel will be between two star blue-liners, in Erik Karlsson and P.K. Subban. I’m predicting P.K. wins this one. Price vs. Anderson, I’m not so sure.

So I joked on the Daybreak podcast Wednesday that it’d be the Sens in three – the Toronto media’s wet dream – but here in the lofty confines of the Top Shelf space I’m saying it’s Habs in seven, with the seventh game going to extra time.

 

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.

 

These are not the ’93 Habs…..

Vincent Damphousse

This is a tough week for Habs fans. With three consecutive rather devastating losses, it’s hard to be upbeat. (Since writing this Thursday afternoon, Les Boys eked out a 3-2 win with a dramatic last-second Brian Gionta goal so the panic is down a few notches for the moment.)

So it’s kinda fun to read all these pieces marking the 20th anniversary of the Canadiens’ last Cup win, in that miraculous spring of 1993. Which got me thinking. Does the 2013 edition of the Habs have anything in common with the last Montreal team to win the Cup? This year’s model certainly doesn’t compete in the scoring department.

It is often said that the championship victory in ’93 was all about Patrick Roy and there’s no doubt M. Roy had the biggest hand in that improbable run. But it’s worth remembering that that team had plenty of scoring punch. You just think Vincent Damphousse is a rather dull L’Antichambre panelist but he was once a pretty damn good hockey player. That year, he scored 37 goals and ended the season with 97 points.

The scoring leader on the team was an unassuming balding fellow named Brian Bellows, who scored 40 times in his first season wearing le bleu-blanc-et-rouge. Kirk (Is Work) Muller had 37 goals and 94 points, and a chap named Stephan Lebeau (eds. note: Where is he now?) had his Warholian 15 minutes of fame with 31 goals and 49 assists.

So they had guys that score. The 2013  Habs, not so much. The team’s leading point-getter this year is a defenseman! Yup P.K. Subban – the man everyone from Sports Illustrated to the L’Antichambre grumblers love to hate – is the top guy, with 11 goals and 25 assists. Next is Max Pacioretty with 12 goals and 35 points. The brightest light up front is Michael Ryder who has ten goals and 20 points in 22 games with the Habs, and has 34 points on the season.

The other forwards are not so impressive. Tomas Plekanec  has 13 goals and 30 points, David Desharnais has nine goals and 26 points, Brian Gionta has 12 goals and 24 points, and Lars Eller has 6 goals and 24 points.

There has been, understandably, so much attention paid to the sub-par performance of Carey Price in the past couple of weeks and many have also been complaining, also with reason, about the shoddy D since Alexei Emelin was sent packing by Milan ‘The Wall’ Lucic. (Eds. note: Who knew the entire team was built around Emelin!) But the team also has some major scoring issues to deal with. How is it that the team’s top point-getter, Subban, only manages to land at the No. 31 spot in the league’s rankings? How is that we have almost never had a Top Ten forward in the two decades since Roy hoisted the Cup at the Forum? Food for thought.

Now might be a good time for Habs fans to panic

I got lucky tonight. I went to see the new Tom Cruise movie called Oblivion – a mildly entertaining slice of mindless sci-fi action – instead of watching the Habs playing their way to their own state of oblivion.

I did catch the end of the game and the highlights on L’Antichambre, along with the brilliant analysis – #joke – from the AC crew. They actually spent minutes trashing P.K. Subban – led by Carbo – for daring to laugh at the end of his fight with Brenden Morrow. Like that was the night’s biggest problem. Carbonneau actually said something to the effect that this horrific crime committed by Subban makes you understand why Subban is one of the most hated players in the league. It’s unbelievable the amount of crap P.K. has to take.

So what’s to say. 18 goals against the Habs in three games. There’s no other goalie to go to now. There’s no plan B. The same for the defence. Who knew Emelin was holding the entire team together?

On the upside, the Stanley Cup made a guest appearance on L’Antichambre. It even had its own seat. And it had its own ‘manchette’, something about coming back to Montreal in July. Right now, that’s not looking so likely.

So what does Therrien do? Some creative screaming at the top of his lungs might help. Maybe smash the 24CH cameras once and for all. Bring Kaberle out of mouthballs? (That’s another joke.)

Start Budaj against Tampa Bay Thursday? Call up actor and goalie Bruce Dinsmore from the farm-team on the outdoor rink in Hudson?

I say – think outside the box Michel! Who you gonna call? Tom Cruise. Hey he knows his hockey. He spent part of his childhood in Ottawa. And in Oblivion – spoiler alert – he saves the world pretty well single-handedly. And he nabs a saucy Eastern European Bond babe along the way. So bring in the Cruise-man. You heard it here first.

P.K. Subban is, as of now, the leading contender for the Norris Trophy

Okay Sunday I said let’s at least start the conversation about P.K. Subban as a candidate for the Norris Trophy. Well it’s Monday and I’ve changed my tune. Today’s message – the Habs defenceman should be considered the leading candidate for the hardware!

My friend and invaluable hockey source Simon Boisvert – who’s a professional hockey scout and indie filmmaker – tweeted me Monday morning to say: ‘I think Subban should win the Norris. No one else approaches him this season.’

And I always take Simon Snake’s opinions seriously. And you should do.

And this just in that further strengthens Simon’s argument – Subban was named second star of the month of March by the National Hockey League, coming in just behind a superstar named Sidney Crosby, who was named first star.

The NHL press release details Subban’s accomplishments in March. He had more powerplay points than any other player in the league, with four goals and seven assists. And he did better than all other D-men – hello Norris voters! – with seven goals and eleven assists during the last month.

Did I mention he had seven multi-point nights, including a pair of three-assist games, one against the Florida Panthers March 10 and another against the fading New York Rangers this past Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

It gets better. He also became the first Habs defenceman since Mathieu Schneider in February 1994 to score seven goals in a month!

You need more Norris arguments? He leads all defencemen with ten goals and is third in points for blueliners with 27 points (in 28 games for heaven’s sake!).

With six PP goals, he’s tied for first place in that category for D-men and with 18 PP points, he’s sitting pretty in the No. 3 spot amongst all players in the NHL in that area.

So yeah Simon has a point. Mail young Mr. Subban the Norris right now!

Can we at least start the discussion about P.K. Subban as a potential Norris Trophy candidate

It came up again last night on Hockey Night in Canada, the notion that P.K. Subban might be a Norris Trophy candidate, and the idea was quickly shot down by one of their commentators, which is par-for-the-course for that most Toronto-centric of TV shows.

But enough’s enough. Can we at least start talking seriously about the entirely reasonable idea that Subban could well be on the shortlist for the 2013 Norris Trophy? The Habs most exciting player – in a tie for that honour with Brendan Gallagher – is having a career season.

The Canadiens defenceman has ten goals and 17 assists in 28 games. He’s a potential game-changer every night. Is there a player in Bettman’s League with a better one-timer from the blue-line? When he and Markov are roaming the blue-line on the power play, it’s a thing of beauty and you show me another team in the NHL that has such a powerhouse duo on its PP defence.

And he plays the game with such passion every night. He hits hard, he skates hard, there’s just no down time with this guy. Did you see that end-to-end rush in Boston Wednesday night? Pretty sweet. And I’m just sorry he missed Lucic by a couple of inches that night. Cos if he’d fully connected, our good pal Milan would still be wondering which team he was playing for today.

He had a goal and an assist that night in Boston – the most exciting Habs game so far this season – and notched another three assists in Saturday night’s 3-0 thumping of the sad-sack Rangers.

But still the Subban hating continues. He’s booed in every rink and there’s only one word for that kind of thing – and it’s an ugly word that speaks volumes about the lack of diversity in professional hockey. Same goes for that idiotic Sports Illustrated piece that claimed Subban was the most hated player in the League. Why is it that Subban has faced so much criticism from the moment he first started creating excitement with the Habs in the 2010 playoffs? Why do so many spend so much time giving him a hard time?

But it’s the grumblers who’re going to look like the bitter, short-sighted malcontents they are when Subban rightfully takes his place as one of the dominant D-men of this era. I’d bet money on that happening. Soon.

 

The wheels are off the Habs bus…..

And the million-dollar question is – can Coach Therrien get the bus repaired by the time the Habs lace-up Tuesday in sunny Florida to face the Lightning?

Saturday night’s 6-0 humiliation at the hands of the Leafs leaves the Canadiens in seventh place in the east and Toronto in fifth. Worse Montreal is just two points out of 11th place. Worse yet that’s three straight losses for Les Boys, making them just about as mediocre and uninspiring as that faux reality show 24CH.

If only Michel Therrien had followed my advice and let Ryan White play Saturday! Before you fire off an angry email, that last line was my attempt at a little gallows humour. Though even the new tougher Habs seemed small compared to these Leafs and when wee Brendan Gallagher has to get into the fisticuffs, well you know you have a problem in the tough-guy department. (Though you have to love this rookie. He crashes the net, scores beautiful goals, is willing to go mano-a-mano with much bigger guys. He’s effin amazing.)

But other than Gallagher’s spirit, there were simply no positive to take home from this Nightmare on Canadiens Ave. Erik Cole looked horrible. Andrei Markov made big mistakes. Subban had the big shots but they just couldn’t get beyond Optimus Reim. (To be honest, James Reimer was fairly spectacular, particularly in the second when he faced 20 shots, many of them quite dangerous. Montreal out-shot T.O. 37-27 and Reimer got a shutout so clearly he was on his game.)

At the other end, Carey Price was just ordinary. Oh and why did Therrien keep him in when it was 4-zip and the Habs were going nowhere fast? That’s one that folks will be talking about in the coming days, just like they second-guessed his poor choice of snipers in the shootout Thursday in Buffalo. Is the Therrien honeymoon over? To ask the question is to answer it.

Leave it to ‘What Me Worry’ Price to put it in perspective. Mr. Chill Out was his usual West Coast surfer dude personality in the room after the loss, saying: “That was a tough one but we can’t let it get us down.”

He’s right but I preferred Josh Gorges’s anger. He was just livid and maybe that’s what these Habs need to be. Did you hear what he said about Grabovski (apparently) biting Pacioretty?

“If you get in there, stand up for yourself, be a man, drop your gloves, and you’ll have respect. But bite somebody? That doesn’t belong in our league.”

I like that. As John Lydon memorably sang with PiL, “Anger is an energy” and heaven knows this team needs a little energy right now.

If there’s a silver lining here (and there isn’t really but let’s stretch reality), it’s that the Leafs proved to be their usual classless selves late in this game. Did you see Don Cherry’s best friend Colton Orr trying to end Plekanec’s career by going knee-to-knee? And then there’s Michael Kostka pounding out the much smaller Gallagher. Yeah you’re a tough guy! Orr also takes a run at Brian Gionta, who’s the same pint-size as Gallagher. Then there’s Grabovski doing his vampire routine. Franchement. It is nice to be reminded why we loathe these Leafs so much.

But if the silver lining is that we’re reminded we hate the Loafs, that’s not much of a silver lining. It was brutal.

Let’s give the last word to Bob Dylan.

“She knows there’s no success like failure and that failure’s no success at all.”

You need it in simpler terms?

#FAIL

Habs call in the ‘fun police’ to deal with P.K. Subban

I am not a Ron MacLean fan by any stretch of the imagination but I liked when he used the phrase ‘fun police’ to describe what the team is trying to do to P.K. Subban by banning the triple low-five that he and Carey Price have been doing to celebrate wins over the past couple of seasons.

Just how wrong are the Habs in this case? All you need to know is that Don Cherry agrees with Michel Therrien’s decision to put the lid on Subban’s fun’n'games.

“I’ve known P.K. since he played for the Marlies and I told him – stop that silly stuff, the jumping around,” Cherry said on Coach’s Corner Saturday night. “Giving the high five and all that. Your own players will turn against you if you don’t stop it…..I tried to tell him that a few years ago. The same as I did with Ovechkin. You can’t do that and expect the players to like you.”

Well at least you have to admit Cherry is consistent. He’s been complaining about over-zealous celebrating for years. Though can I just point out the blatant hypocrisy of this coming from Dandy Man himself – here’s a guy who dresses up like an over-the-top Vegas showman telling young hockey players they have to stop showing personality.

But this is not about Cherry. I just bring Grapes into this to underline that if he and Habs management are on the same page, then the Habs bosses are on the wrong page.

The funny thing here is that there’s a whole new management/ownership team in place chez les Habs – from owner Geoff Molson to GM Marc Bergevin to coach Michel Therrien – but they’re following exactly the same philosophy that’s guided the Canadiens for a few decades now. The philosophy? No one is bigger than the team. You have personality? You’re a fan favourite? You’re a superstar? Well you’ll follow the system like the third-line grunts or you’re gone.

You need names? Chelios, Corson, Ribiero, a fellow named Patrick Roy. I mean the Roy debacle is the defining moment of the past quarter century of Habs history. One of the greatest goalies in the history of the game is publicly humiliated by a B-rate coach and the bosses side with the coach who, as we all knew, was going nowhere fast. I don’t need to remind you how that one turned out – Roy went on to win two more Cups with the Avs and the Habs went into a 20 year tailspin thanks to this near-Babe-Ruth-esque jinx.

For heaven’s sake, this is the team that destroyed Guy Lafleur’s career by trying to force him to play grinding, defensive hockey (thanks M. Lemaire!).

Okay fair enough, you’re saying, but we’re just talking about telling Subban and Price not to do low-fives and you’re right. But my fear is that the team is once again trying to reel Subban in. Before he returns, his teammates grumble openly to the media about him and then the first thing Therrien says is that P.K. has to learn the team philosophy before he returns to the ice.

I’m not the first to say it but it’s worth repeating – let P.K. be P.K. If you try to cage him, he’ll be a fraction of the player he could be. Let him do crazy stuff. Let him go and slam Monster Man John Scott into the boards. That was effin beautiful. This six-foot-eight/270-pound gorilla then slams his fist into P.K.’s face, P.K. shows brains by not swinging back, the Habs go on the power-play, Subban lets one rip from the blue-line, and David Desharnais knocks in the rebound. Then after the game, P.K. says he’s happy to get punched in the face for the team. He is a team player. But he’s also an incredibly exciting hockey player. The two things are not mutually exclusive. You’re not more of a team player just ’cause you’re boring. And by the way, you explain to me how Gorges, Markov and Eller bad-mouthing Subban is a good example of team spirit.

Here’s Saturday night’s Coach’s Corner:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/CBC%27s+Hockey+Night+in+Canada/Coach%27s+Corner/ID/2331653080/

And here’s what I’m talking about, Desharnais’s goal on that Subban rebound.

The dream is over…..

Remember when John Lennon sang that? No? Well then ask your grandfather. It was on his best album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

That album came out right at the end of 1970 and was received like unwanted electro-shock therapy by most Beatles fans at the time. Lennon was right in the midst of primal scream therapy and it was a raw, punk-before-punk blast of bitter, hurting rock. The phrase ‘the dream is over’ comes near the end of the totally epic tune God, which is the one where Lennon rants on with a list of all the things he doesn’t believe in, a list that includes Hitler, Zimmerman, yoga, and the Beatles.

But I digress…..

Of course I’m referring to last night’s nightmare in the nation’s capital, a horror movie starring Habs-killer Daniel Alfredsson – who now has, according to Pat Hickey’s calculations (and who am I to question Pat’s math skills?) 30 goals and 74 assists in 86 games against the Canadiens – and way-too-yappy Ryan White, who is starting to remind me of that old Ramones chestnut, Loudmouth. Montreal lost 5-1 to the Sens and if you were on Twitter while it was happening – and for heaven’s sake, who wasn’t? – it was like a wave of depression hit our timelines, as La Presse film critic Marc-Andre Lussier mentioned (tweeted). ‘De la parade à la déprime en deux minutes. Ma TL est en maniaco-depression. #habs’

All of a sudden it felt like last year all over again. It’s funny because I had been conversing somewhere online earlier in the day that I kind of missed the punk fury of the Top Shelf blog from last season when Pierre ‘Chuckles’ Gauthier was running the club into the group in spectacularly psychotic fashion. ‘Anger is an energy’ as John Lydon once memorably put it. So with the goals flying past Budaj quicker than Scottish reporters fleeing from Pauline Marois, I for a moment thought I might be off the bandwagon and back lobbing verbal grenades at the Canadiens.

I had my headline – Return of P.K. Subban derails the Habs. The Subinator – Pernell to Lars ‘Underachiever’ Eller – was in the house, in the press gallery, not on the ice, but why not blame P.K. Most everyone – from his team-mates to the bitter ex-coaches on L’Antichambre – has been doing it since the first day he laced up for the Habs. So yeah it’s all P.K.’s fault.

By the way, not only are guys like Eller, Gorges and Markov giving Subban heck, but even coach Michel Therrien has jumped in, saying that P.K. will have to grasp the team’s “philosophy” before he hits the ice. Like which philosopher are you following this week Michel? Descartes? Thomas Aquinas? (That joke’s for you Daniel Weinstock!)

I mean give me a break. It’s time to stop treating Subban like crap. The guy has done nothing wrong. He ended up signing with the team under Marc Bergevin’s terms. So cut the kid some slack. End of rant.

To get back to last night’s game, I actually am not panicking. It’s just one game. My son Keane had the right attitude at breakfast (a rare thing indeed) – he said, what’s the Habs’  record? Well it’s 4-and-2 for 8 points and fifth in the east. This is good. Do you need to be reminded where we were in the standings last year?

As Dave Bronstetter said to me last night, they’re a young team, they’re gonna have nights like this and it kills me to say this, but Dave makes a good point here. Ryan White has to stop taking dumb penalties, though I have to chuckle at Therrien getting into a lather over White yapping to the ref given that Therrien’s yapping rather famously cost the Habs a playoff series way back when (ask your grandfather).

So this morning, here’s the philosopher I’m following. Me. My philosophy is you get back up, dust yourself off and get back out there and do whatever it is you have to do. In the Habs’ case, that’s starting to get ready for two afternoon games this weekend at the Bell Centre.

Uh-oh, the Habs hate afternoon games. Yikes…..maybe it is time to panic after all.

- Brendan

Here’s the Alfredsson goal:

And here’s God by John Lennon. Listen all the way through. ‘God is a concept by which we measure our pain.’ Now that’s some kind of a philosophy.

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.