Tank youse, Hed.! Honestly I can't answer that question or make a prediction that I'd back with real money -- the green-coloured kind. Seems like only yesterday [It was two months ago! Ed.] that I wrote, in my mid-season report on the Canadiens, "Les Canadiens seront là!", meaning that at playoff time, they'd be there! Now I'm not so sure. Back then, in the middle of a hard winter, les Glorieux were doing better than expected, fighting it out with Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division. For about half an hour, one night, they were actually in second, just ahead of the Toronto Maple Laffs, who hadn't finished their game that night. Almost everyone was healthy, and (With a couple of exceptions -- Hello, Artturi Lehkonen!), everyone was playing well. In fact, the team was doing better than anyone expected at the start of the season, and the question was: Is this real? When will they come down to earth? [That's two questions. Ed.]
Sadly, the answer was: In February. The cruelest month was just that for the Habs. The team's star defenceman, Captain Shea Weber, has slowed down, not just in his skating but in his thinking, according to what I see. Perhaps he's playing hurt, but his scoring has dropped off -- the booming blast from the point isn't there lately -- and he's been guilty of some lapses which have cost goals and games. Who else is playing defence still varies from night to night. Victor Mete seems confirmed as Weber's partner, but has yet to score his first goal. Christian Folin, acquired just before the trade deadline, brings to four the number of D-men who are good, but not great. Claude Julien needs to settle on three solid pairs who can be counted on to give the goalies [Is there more than one? Ed.] physical as well as moral support, every night. When a team loses 8-2, as the Habs did on Friday, you can't put it all on the goalie.
Which brings us to Carey Price. Yep, he's the one who had to tough out the last game of last week's disastrous journey through LaLaLand, but honestly, he didn't play that badly. In fact his record since the beginning of January has been pretty good -- not world's-best-goalie numbers, but more than respectable, and he did steal a couple of games for la Sainte Flannelle. Not so for his backup, Antti Niemi. The aged Finn has one great game in mid-January, which I celebrated in "Poor Len Canayen apologizes to Antti-hero", WWW 16/1/19. It was my hope, then, that Niemi would be able to start 10 or 20 percent of the remaining games, to give Price a rest so he (Price) would be in good shape for the playoffs. I was wrong.
In his last couple of outings, Niemi has looked shakey, and that's putting it charitably. True, he didn't get a lot of held from the defence, but he's clearly snake-bit, expecting to fail and succeeding. Out of the 61 goalies who have started more than 15 games in the NHL, Niemi ranks second-last in GAA and dead last in save percentage. So he's toast, and Charlie Lindgren has been called up from Laval. Don't count on Lindgren turning out to be this generation's Ken Dryden. I have said before that Lindgren is too "hot" in net, a stark contrast with Price, who is cool as the Chicoutimi Cucumber. (Look it up.) That's what wins games. Sorry.
Then there are the forwards, the guys you count on to score goals, lots of goals. Sometimes they do -- 8-1 vs Detroit a couple of weeks ago -- and sometimes they don't, as in last Friday's debacle. The Habs have have the talent and the depth, with three 20+ goal-getters, and eight more at 10-19. But there are still too many -- three is too many! -- who are just along for the ride, and either can't or won't score. I refer to Jonathan Drouin, who seems not to care enough to show up, a lot of the time, and Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon, who are choke artists supreme. In "If I were Marc Bergevin...", WWW 28/1/19, I suggested trading those guys for somebody, anybody, who could be counted on to play hard and put one in the back of the neck from time to time. M Bergevin did get some new faces, but the less-than-productive trio are still there. The only solution now, IMHO, if for M Julien to let them warm the end of the bench and give more time to proven scorers and playmakers. Selah.
[So what about a prediction? Ed.] Hokay, hokay... There are 13 games left in the regular season, beginning with Detroit visiting le Centre Bell tonight. IF Shea Weber can up his game, and the right partners be found for Jordie Benn and Jeff Petry... IF Charlie Lindgren can calm down sufficiently to be a reliable backstop for Carey Price... and IF the fourth-line guys can start producing... THEN the Habs will make the playoffs, in the first or second wild card spot. Of course it would help if Pittsburgh, Columbus and Carolina would hit and end-of-season skid. I'm not betting more than 5 beaverbucks ($3.75 in real money). You, dear reader, can do what you like.
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