Milan Lucic is public enemy No. 1 in Montreal

Filmmaker Rafael Ouellet showing his true colours!

Milan Lucic was already pretty high up on the public-enemy charts in Montreal but he soared to the No. 1 spot Monday with the news that Alexei Emelin will miss the rest of the season after smashing into the freight train that is Lucic Saturday night at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens defenseman has a torn ligament in his left knee.

This is obviously very bad news for the Habs going into the stretch and if the Habs do meet the Bruins in the playoffs, the lack of the feisty, physical Emelin will be felt within the Habs ranks.

This is of course not the first time a Bruin has sidelined a key Montreal player in recent years – there was that ugly incident a couple of years back when Zdeno Chara came mighty close to separating Max Pacioretty’s head from his body. It’s also not the first time Lucic has done some damage to a Hab. Remember that infamous fight that left Mike Komisarek hurt all those years ago. Komisarek was never the same player after that.

That said, much as it pains us, you do have to give Lucic the benefit of a doubt here. Check out the video. Emelin is lining up Lucic for a big hit and Lucic puts up his arms to fight back and leaps a little into the air. It looks like there’s some knee-on-knee action going on but it doesn’t appear to be intentional.

I got into a bit of a fight with hardcore Bruins fan – and fine, fine filmmaker – Rafael Ouellet on Twitter Monday. Don’t tell him but the director of Camion had a point, writing that “Lucic had 1/8th of a second to react/protect himself….I don’t think any of it was intentional.”

But you know the Bs are sure happy to see the back of Emelin this year. He’s been a real pest for them. Remember when he whacked Tyler Seguin and seconds later Chara was on him, using Emelin’s surgically-reconstructed face as a pushing bag. The Boston boxers don’t like Emelin and you know they’re pleased as punch – pun intended – to have one less Hab who knows how to hit.

Cos let’s face it, Montreal doesn’t even remotely compete with Boston in the toughness department. Sure there’s Brandon Prust but much as I love the guy, what’s he’s going to do after Chara pulverizes one of our guys. Prust can maybe take a swing at Chara’s mid-section.

It’s always the same. The Habs are going to have to win it with speed, skill and heart, battling against the sheer physical might and street-smart team spirit of the Bruins. And as of today, that series just got a little bit harder for Montreal to win.

http://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/49297

A game-changer of a Habs-Bruins game

So what does that classic Canadiens Bruins game Wednesday mean for the Habs nation moving forward? Is it time to cancel that trip to Italy in late June and stay close to home just in case there’s a parade? Should I tell my son he is no longer allowed to cheer for the Bruins under threat of eviction?

Well for one thing Montreal now has sole possession of first place in the Northeast, one point ahead of the dreaded Bs. But there’s lots of time for that to change and remember Boston still has a game in hand.

No the real thing is – we’re in their heads, as Annakin Slayd so memorably put it. This is the second straight time that Les Boys have pulled out a startling come-from-behind win at the TD Garden in Beantown, following that inspirational 4-3 victory a few weeks back.

If I’m Boston – and really I’m not – I don’t want to meet the Canadiens in the first round this year because it looks like our team is back to their old tricks of somehow/anyhow beating the Bruins even though they have no reasonable right to. I have a hazy memory that Red Fisher may have written a column – or 200 – on a certain infamous playoff series in 1971 when the dominant Bruins – hello Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr and Gerry Cheevers – were deep-sixed by an under-rated Canadiens squad featuring a chap between the pipes named Ken Dryden.

So is the Habs jinx back working again after a couple of seasons when it was in the repair shop? The jinx on the Bruins most certainly wasn’t working in 2011 when if there was any poetic justice, the good guys would’ve won to give the Bs some karmic payback for Zdeno Chara’s dangerous hit on Max Pacioretty that year. The Habs lost, in overtime, in game seven, in a heartbreaker. Even more heartbreaking, the Bruins went on to win the Cup that year, which is just not right by any defintion of the word ‘right’.

It’s funny how much we hate the Bruins eh? A friend was telling me how happy he was that Jarome Iginla went to the Penguins rather than the Bruins. Now logically Habs fans shouldn’t be happy that Iggy went to either of these Eastern Conference rivals given that Montreal has to battle it out with both clubs. But we’re just happy Boston was deprived of the star veteran. Hey sports fandom isn’t supposed to be rational.

So was Wednesday night a turning point? Was this game a game-changer? Or did Brendan Gallagher – my hero! – just get lucky putting that piece of rubber through Tuukka Rask’s five hole and the whole team get lucky when that big lunkhead Chara scored on his own net in the dying seconds of the game?

Me I don’t think luck had anything to do with it. The jinx is back in full operation. We’re in their heads.

http://video.canadiens.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20122013,2,488

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L816C7e4ej0

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The Bruins are sore losers

I have to say that’s the most pleasure I’ve had writing a headline in this space in ages. The Bruins are sore losers. Doesn’t that have a great ring to it? It’s right up there with my previous favourite – Gauthier must be fired now! (I liked that one so much I must’ve used it about a round dozen times last year!)

So Sunday night, the Habs come into Beantown and win maybe the most important game of the season so far. Montreal triumphed over the Bruins 4-3, coming from behind to boot (the B’s were up 3-2 coming into the third period). The result? Montreal is in first place in the Eastern Conference and they just stole two points from one of the teams that they’ll be battling with all year.

So what’s kindly old coach Claude Julien’s take on the loss? He says the game was all about embellishment, that the Habs were all pulling out their best thespian moves, faking like five-star Euro soccer players.

Here’s Bruins coach Julien’s take on the game: “It’s frustrating because tonight, as everybody saw, there’s a lot of embellishment. This is embarrassing for our game, the embellishing. And right now they’ve got over 100 power plays so far and it’s pretty obvious why. We’re trying to clean that out of our game, and its got to be done soon.”

What a joke! Actually I love it because it proves that Julien is so upset that he’s just making up crap to justify the fact his team lost this huge game. Embellishment? What about Zdeno Chara slamming his huge fist into Alexei Emelin’s metal-plated face for what seemed like 15 minutes? Julien defended that one too, saying he was happy to see his captain retaliate for Emelin’s harmless hit on Tyler Seguin. I am a big believer in retaliation – within reason.

If someone runs over Carey Price, I’m happy to see my man Brandon Prust go after him. But don’t try to destroy the guy for heaven’s sake. Someone tweeted – I can’t remember who – to say that Emelin was one punch away from having his career ended. That’s nuts. That shouldn’t be allowed. And what’s up with the refs just standing there watching that brutal violence? Again I don’t mind fighting and having the refs let them fight because most NHL fights are more choreographed than a Grands Ballets Canadiens performance. But when a guy is doing real damage to the other guy, step in and stop it man! And for Julien to say how much he liked Chara’s psychotic behaviour is just reprehensible.

To sum up – here’s what I’m trying to say to M. Julien: You lost pal. Suck it up. Take it like a man. Admit the Habs were a better team on this night. You tried to beat up the Habs and play the usual Boston Bullies game and Les Boys out-smarted you and out-skilled you. Oh one more thing, you might be familiar with this tune – cue the Habs victory song!

Na na na na, hey hey, good-bye!

Liking the NHL Awards – Pacioretty wins, Chara loses, Halak takes Jennings

On the eve of the most important draft for the Canadiens in a few decades, let’s celebrate a great night for us Habs fans at the NHL Awards.

The big news, of course, was that Max Pacioretty nabbed the Bill Masterton Trophy, beating out Joffrey Lupul from the Maple Leafs and favourite Daniel Alfredsson from the Senators. The award is for the player who is the best example in the past season of perseverance and sportsmanship.

Patch told The Gazette’s Dave Stubbs that “It doesn’t sound real right now but this is definitely the best thing in the world.”

Indeed. I’ll just say that I was listening to sports radio Wednesday – it does happen sometimes when my radio dial veers off CBC Radio One by mistake – and I heard the “experts” – who will remain un-named to protect the guilty – saying there was simply no chance that Pacioretty would win the Masterton. The argument was that it’s voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and that hockey scribes have radically divided views on the infamous Zdeno Chara hit on Pacioretty – when the Brunis D-man crushed Patch’s head into a stanchion at the Bell Centre in the spring 0f 2011, sending the Hab to the hospital in a stretcher with a fractured cervical vertebra.

So I take the win as something of a vindication for our take on this hit – that it was an ugly incident, that seasoned vet Chara knew exactly what he was doing when he rammed Pacioretty’s upper body into the stanchion. This is a story with a happy ending too – Patch bounced back from this potentially-career-threatening injury to play his best-ever season in the big leagues, notching 33 goals and 32 assists on the only happening line on a C-list team going nowhere fast (that would be our beloved Habs!).

But the NHL Awards story gets even better – cos Chara lost in the Norris trophy race to Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson. Poor old Zdeno – he has to watch Pacioretty win, he loses and he gets to sit there in the crowd thinking long and hard about how far the Bruins have fallen since their Cup victory the year before!

Last but not least, my main man Jaroslav Halak won the Jennings Trophy with fellow Blues netminder Brian Elliott for allowing the fewest goals during the regular season. Their numbers are just mind blowing – Elliott had a 1.56 goals-against-average and Halak had a 1.97 GAA.

So you know what? I like Carey ‘The Man in Black’ Price as much as the next Montrealer but let’s just admit that Jaro remains an effin amazing goalie!

And stay tuned. We’ll talk more about the 2012 NHL draft and the Habs third-overall pick shortly!

Max Pacioretty confused by Brendan Shanahan’s decision….and who can blame him

I was listening to clips of Max Pacioretty on 98.5 earlier Tuesday night and man did he sound peeved off. He was giving his first public reaction to the National Hockey League’s decision to suspend him for three games and it’s hard not to sympathize with him.

Listen, I’m not contradicting Monday’s blog. Patch deserves the suspension – though it kills me to say that given that he’ll miss a crucial three-game road trip through California that just might decide the Canadiens’ season (and coach Jacques Martin’s fate). It was a dangerous head shot on Kris Letang Saturday night and there’s no place in the League for that kind of hit.

But Pacioretty is quite right to say the players have no idea what’s right and wrong given the nutsy inconsistency of NHL head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan’s decisions on head shots this season. Milan Lucic can do a pretty good job of taking off Buffalo Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller’s head and there’s no supsension – ’cause he’s a Boston Bruin I guess. Ryan Malone also nearly decapitates the Habs’ Chris Campoli and again there’s no suspension – ’cause the guy getting his head ripped off is a Hab I guess.

“I’d like to see a little bit of consistency,” Pacioretty said on Tuesday. “If the onus was on the hitter every single time I’d be fine with the suspension, but you’ve seen instances where they’ve placed onus on the person receiving the hit as well and that’s why I’m confused and a lot of other players are confused as well.”

What Patch is referring to here is that Shanahan said he was NOT suspending Tampa Bay’s Malone because Campoli changed the position of his head just before the hit. But that’s almost exactly what Letang did Saturday, dropping his head in order to rip a shot in Carey Price’s direction. Pacioretty says he made eye contact with Letang, the Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman saw him coming, but still elected to put his head down to make the shot.

Pacioretty really sounded genuinely upset and you gotta know he was thinking – ‘WTF! I nearly got killed by Zdeno Chara, with a hit from behind. The guy slammed my head into a partition at the Bell Centre, I was carried off the ice on a stretcher, taken to the hospital and might never have played hockey again. And Chara? He got nada!’

Why not just give an automatic two-game suspension for a head shot? How complicated is that? But instead Shanahan’s inconsistency has folks – and particularly Habs fans – wondering if the League doesn’t have it in for the bleu-blanc-et-rouge.

Pacioretty deserves the suspension but the NHL is a joke

I said it Sunday and I’ll say it again today – Max Pacioretty’s hit on Kris Letang was an illegal head shot and he deserves to be suspended. That play has to be taken out of the League. It doesn’t matter what you think of Patch or what you think about what happened to him last year, that was a dirty play that merits a suspension. So NHL head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan is quite right to send Montreal’s most talented forward to the press box for three games. 

But you know what? The NHL is a joke. If Pacioretty deserves that three-game suspension, what about Tampa Bay’s Ryan Malone who nearly took off Montreal Canadiens defenceman Chris Campoli’s head this past October? It was an almost identical hit to the Patch hit yet Malone was not suspended. That’s a joke.

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Then there’s the Milan Lucic attack on Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. That was a deliberate attempt to injure a goalie from a player renowned for his dirty play. Again no suspension.

http://youtu.be/TERA-GY2K1o

Both of those bad decisions came from Shanahan.

And the icing on the cake is the now-famous Zdeno Chara hit on Pacioretty last year when he smashed him into a partition at the Bell Centre. Pacioretty was carried off the ice on a stretcher. No suspension. Montreal fans are gonna be mighty upset in the coming days and I understand why. Pacioretty deserves the punishment but so did Chara, Lucic and Malone.

There are two choice words to describe this League – Mickey and Mouse.

- Brendan

 

Max Pacioretty should be suspended for hit on Kris Letang

I hate to say it. Like every self-respecting Habs fan, I love Max Pacioretty. He might just be the Canadiens’ best forward this year – the only guy who comes close is Habs newbie Eric Cole. Patch has ten goals and 19 points so far this season and he might just be the only Hab other than Carey Price who gives his all every night out there on the ice.

But Pacioretty’s hit on Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Kris Letang late in the game Saturday at the Bell Centre sure looked like a suspendable offense. The infamous Rule 48 on head shots is pretty clear – though how it’s administered by NHL discipline boss Brendan Shanahan isn’t nearly so clear. The rule states that – “A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted.” (Actually that is one terribly badly written sentence!)

Letang was coming in with the puck, didn’t see Patch coming, and Pacioretty, who was racing along the ice, just smashed into Letang with a rough shoulder to the head. That, by NHL rules, is illegal. Letang lay bloodied on the ice and we now know Pacioretty broke Letang’s nose. The Pens D-man came back in classic old-school hockey fashion and ended up scoring the winning goal in overtime (under equally controversial circumstances).

There was no penalty called on the Pacioretty hit but it was announced Sunday that the Habs forward will have a phone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Shanahan Monday morning and I think Shanahan has to suspend Pacioretty. It was an illegal hit, period.

It’s nice to see that Pacioretty went up to Letang when he returned to the ice and apologized to him – take note of that class move Zdeno Chara! – and it was also classy of Patch to say all the right things after the game.

“I feel terrible that he got hurt and I’m thankful that he came back,” said Pacioretty. ”It’s a quick decision there. He’s coming across the middle, he’s got the puck and is maybe in a scoring opportunity. If I let him go, he could potentially score on us. I knew I had to hit him but I didn’t want the result to be like that. I’m sorry for what happened and I’m glad he’s okay.”

For sure it’s more than a little ironic that Pacioretty is now on the other side of a controversial hit. Last year, major controversy ensued after Chara viciously smashed Patch into a glass partition at the Bell Centre, breaking Pacioretty’s neck vertebrae. Chara was not suspended for the play.

The league totally blew it on the Chara hit and most everyone except the most hardcore Bruins fans know it. But that shouldn’t influence Shanahan’s decision Monday. Pacioretty broke Rule 48 and he should pay the price for what was one mighty dangerous hit.

- Brendan

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Montreal Canadiens unveil their 2011-2012 schedule

Habs fans, get ready to open and close the season yet again with the beloved – NOT! – Loafs. The Habs unveiled next season’s schedule on Thursday and, as usual, the action will kick-off with a dust-up at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto against the Maple Leafs. That’s Thursday, Oct. 6. And 876 games later – okay, 81 – the endless regular season winds down with the same hapless Leafs visiting the Habs at the Bell Centre. That game is Saturday, April 7.

Let me guess. Going into that last game, the Leafs will be way out of playoff contention and we will be hanging on by the skin of our teeth to 8th place. Sound familiar? Sure it does.

The Canadiens will play each of their division rivals – Boston, Buffalo, Ottawa and Toronto – six times and Montreal will play each of the remaining ten teams in the Eastern Conference four times. Sadly, Montreal will only play 18 games versus teams in the west. It remains a sore point for me that we get so little chance to see the Habs playing teams from out west.

Here’s a couple of games to mark in your calendar. The Habs meet the Winnipeg Threats  – or whatever they’ll be called – Sunday, Oct. 9 in the Peg and the first regular season meeting with the Stanley Cup champion – excuse me while I barf in a paper-bag – Boston Bruins is Thursday, Oct. 27 in Boston, a home-and-home series that continues that Saturday at the Bell Centre. That should be intense. How sickening is that? Just imagine our pals Chara and Marchand rubbing the Habs’ noses in the Cup victory (and you just know they will). Like I said, should be intense.

- Brendan

 

Don’t put too much pressure on Max Pacioretty

The Habs have signed Max Pacioretty for two years, at $1.5 million next season and $1.75 million the following year. Click here for a good piece from The Gazette’s Pat Hickey on the signing and what it means re the Canadiens’ cap.

Obviously it’s good news that we have Patch signed up, though clearly there was never any question that he was going to play anywhere else. My only fear is that fans and the media are going to put too pressure on this 22-year-old forward. There has been so much attention focused on Pacioretty ever since that nasty Zdeno Chara hit and it is indeed true that Pacioretty was just beginning to come into his own when he got levelled by Chara.

But let’s put things in perspective. He only played 37 games with the Habs last year, playing another 27 with the Bulldogs, and, in the big league, he had 14 goals and 10 assists. Those are decent numbers and there’s no question that Patch fits the profile of the big, fairly tough forward that we need.

But just give the kid time and don’t expect him to lead the team. That shouldn’t be his job. At least not now.

- Brendan

 

Just horrifying to see Chara hoisting the Cup

Okay let’s make one thing clear right off the bat. The Vancouver Canucks did not deserve to win this Stanley Cup. They didn’t show up for game seven, case closed. Did we mention that the Sedins slept through the series and Roberto Lunogo was downright terrible for four games out of seven?

That said, it just killed me to see the Boston Bruins winning the Cup. Throughout the series, I was more in Boston’s corner because they clearly wanted this more than the Canucks. But kind of feeling sympathy for the Bruins during the series and watching Zdeno Chara  hoisting the Stanley Cup are two different things.

My pal Meredith Dellandrea tweeted to say she – quite smartly – turned off the TV right after they won in order to not see the celebrations. I watched it all partly ’cause I was watching with my son Keane and if there’s anyone who loves watching a celebration, it’s Keane.

But no Habs fan can be happy about this Cup victory. You know the Bruins will be taunting us with this next season and with good reason. They got there, in part, because they managed to intimidate the Habs.

So were the Habs one goal away from winning the Cup. As Steve Tyler so memorably put it, Dream On.

- Brendan