Poor Len gives up on Habs... for this season

Ed. here. Poor Len Canayen called me yesterday evening following the Montréal Canadiens 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, which puts the ABF nail in the coffin of their Stanley Cup playoff hopes. "Once you've finished crying in your Molson Canadian, write some advice to Marc Bergevin about what to during the summer to give fans a better team next year." Here's what he sent us.

Tank youse, Hed. Just to be clear, though, while I a happreciate evryting la famille Molson has done for Canada's team, I don't drink dat beer because it's just Coors in a can wit a maple leaf. I like Creemore Springs India Pale Ale. Look it up.

Hokay den, I'm not gonna rehash all the reasons/excuses for the Habs' poor performance, including two (2) 8-game winless streaks. I can't remember a season in which the team was so hard-hit by injuries, including two or three key players out at the same time.

Counting Charlie Lindgren, 8 of the players dressed for Thursday night's game vs Tampa Bay were from the AHL Laval Rocket. But there's more to the story than bad luck. If I could work out what's wrong, I'd be standing behind the bench instead of Claude Julien.

But I can't, and, since M Julien will be back next season, the most I can do is ask M Bergevin to ensure that Coach Claude has a bigger group of good players to work with. Here's my list of who to move and not move during the off-season which is fast approaching.

Players you keep, for sure: Carey Price and Shea Weber. Sure they're not getting any younger, but they're both playing well (allowing for the occasional off night) and are, with Brendan Gallagher, the glue that holds la Sainte Flannelle together. Besides, they both have hyuge contracts with years to run, and M Molson would have to eat part of their salaries if you trade them. And who would you get in return? Don't tell me about draft picks. You already have lots of picks; you just need to draft better prospects!

Jeff Petry. That guy's a horse. He can play 20-25-30 minutes per game without breaking a sweat. Sure he sometimes pinches too deep, but he's got a shot from the point second only to Weber's, and you need him on the power play. He's the only D-man you've got, besides Weber, who could even be in the conversation for the Norris Trophy.,

This year the Habs have had just one (1) solid forward line: Philip Danault, Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher. I wish we have a dozen Gallaghers, the kind of players who punch over their weight and never give up, no matter what. Danault is one of the most under-rated centres in the NHL, and he's consistent. I haven't heard any talk about trading those two, but in the run-up to the trade deadline, Tatar's name was mentioned more than once. Why?! "Tuna" was a great pick-up, for cheap, and was having a great year until he got injured last week. Why would you even think about trading him?

Players should probably keep, unless you get somebody who is really good, not just a prospect, in return: Max Domi, Paul Byron, and Nick Suzuki. All three have speed and skill. The trick is getting them on the right lines. Suzuki impressed the hell out of me in the first half of the season, but seems to have hit a wall in his rookie year. He needs some stability -- being on the same line with more experienced players -- to develop. Domi needs to keep it simple and shoot more. Byron's never going to be a 20-goal scorer but he's invaluable on the PK, good for a couple of shorties every year. Joel Armia's worth keeping, just needs to have more confidence in himself.

Back on defence, you should probably keep Ben Chariot, who's been steady if unspectacular throughout the year. Of those who came up from the Rocket, I like Xavier Ouellet, also steady and not trying to do too much. Down on the farm, there's also Cale Fleury, who had a good start with the big team before being sent down for seasoning. [How come he doesn't speak French? Ed.] And behind him, in goal, rookie Cayden Primeau looks like being capable of taking the back-up role next year.

Guys you should get rid of: Charles Hudon, who's had more than enough chances. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, ruined by being poorly managed in his rookie year last year. Arturi Lehkonen, Mr Choke. Charlie Lindgren, who makes the guys in front of him nervous.

So there you go, mon cher Marc. I gave you 13 guys who I'd like to see on next season's edition of the Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge. Shop everybody else around and see if you can get another 10 or 12 to round out the roster. Bonne chance! À la prochaine!

Poor Len Canayen worries about the Canadiens

From the Great No-longer-white North, our sports editor, Poor Len Canayen, shares his inquietude over the future of the Montréal Canadiens.

The last month has been distressing for fans of la Sainte Flannelle. Of the last 10 games, they've won only 2, lost 6 and lost in overtime twice, for a total of 6 out of 20 possible points. You don't get to the playoffs that way, and the Habs are currently fourth in the very tight Atlantic Division, close to a wild card spot... but not close enough.

What's happened to le bleu, blanc et rouge? IMHO their problems all amount to the same thing -- lack of depth. Ten or twelve games before the last 10, they iced a pretty good, nicely balanced team. Four decent forward lines and four or five reliable defencemen, plus, of course, Carey Price, when he was on his game. Then came the injuries.

Top forwards Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron fell in one game against Washington. And last week sophomore hopeful Jesperi Kotkaniemi was concussed by a vicious hit from Colorado's Nikita Zadorov. (See "NHL's Department of Knuckleheads disgraces itself again", by Jack Todd, in the Montreal Gazette, 8/12/19.) A couple of games earlier, Victor Mete, Captain Shea Weber's defence partner, injured his ankle during a game against Philthydelphia. That's four of the Habs' best/better players gone, likely until the new year.

To make matters worse, former all-star goalie Carey Price has been, shall we say, less than stellar so far this season. He allowed only one goal in Friday night's 2-1 over the Rangers, but over 24 games in which he's played, his GAA is 3.04 and his save pct just .902. That's in the bottom quarter of active (20 games or more) NHL goalies. It would be OK if backup Keith Kinkaid had been able to pull a couple of games out of the fire, but he wasn't and has now been sent down to Laval.

Who has come up from Laval to backstop Price and the four skaters? Well, Charles Hudon, for one. Hudon is the king of coulda/shoulda/woulda. He's been up and down like a toilet seat at a mixed party, always being given yet another chance to prove that he's capable of playing at the NHL level. Yet he never quite succeeds. Too bad for him. Other call-ups like David Gustafsson, Otto Leskinen and Matthew Peca (another up-and-downer), all of them Europeans, have similarly failed to impress. Too bad for them, too bad for the team.

I am still hopeful, though, for Cayden Primeau, brought up from Laval to give Carey Price a rest, especially in back-to-back games. Primeau's first start was against Colorado last week. He look at a bit shaky at first -- the nerves of a 20-year-old playing his first game with the big team -- but settled down and was not solely responsible for the 3-2 loss. His save pct so far is .914.

Conclusion? Les Glorieux need some new players who can score and/or defend, and, with the possible exception of Ryan Poehling, they're not going to come from the Laval farm team. So it's up to GM Marc Bergevin to find some new talent, and he'd better do it PDQ because if the Habs miss the playoffs again, his head will be the first to roll. He's made some good moves in the last three years, notably the Weber-for-Subban trade, but also some bad moves, like failing to resign Alex Radulov and Andrei Markov.

The Canadiens have lots of cap space -- some $8 million -- but to trade for top players they'll have to be willing to give up some top players. Such as... Drouin? Maybe. Max Domi? Possibly; he's off to a poor start this year. Weber or Price? Unthinkable? They're both getting older and slower, but are still at the very core of the team. And they both have hyuge contracts which few other teams would want to take on. So, is a puzzlement, but unless fresh forces are found, unclear the future is.

Poor Len writes: If I were Marc Bergevin...

Poor Len Canayen here. Ed. wanted an excuse to run this beautiful photo again, so has invited me to talk about what's likely to happen with/to our beloved Montréal Canadiens, now that the so-called all-star game is over and we can get on with real hockey.

It is often said that the position of the teams at the all-star break pretty much spells out where they'll finished when the regular season winds up in early April. That's good news for fans of le bleu, blanc et rouge, because the Habs, to the suprise of everyone including themselves, are in third place in the NHL's Atlantic Division, just one point behind the Toronto Maple Laffs.

Even if the positions are reversed, that would mean Toronto vs Montréal in the first round of the playoffs, something which hasn't happened since 1979. You couldn't ask for a better rivalry than that, although Montréal vs Boston would be pretty close.

The prospect of a playoff run has to change Habs' GM Marc Bergevin's plans for changes to the roster. Before the season started, when everyone was counting the Habs out before the first whistle blew, the conventional wisdom was that M Bergevin would stand pat with the team he'd assembled over the summer, and be neither a buyer nor a seller at the end-of-February trade deadline. The GM himself said he didn't see any need to pick up a "rental" to give the team a boost at playoff time. I'm guessing he is having second thoughts now, so here's my suggestion for a blockbuster trade that could keep les Glorieux from bowing out in the first round.

What I'd do... if I were Marc Bergevin... which I'm not, I know... is... wait for it... get on the phone to Chuck Fletcher, who was hired in December to manage one of the worst teams in the NHL... namely... wait for it... the Philadelphia Flyers. My feelings about Philthydelphia and its alleged sports teams are about the same as those of Bill Burr, but the Flyers have 5 -- count `em, 5 -- assets that could help the Habs, and vice versa. So I'm talking straight-up trade... or pick any 2, 3 or 4 from each list.

Philadelphia Flyers -- Scoring punch comes from 2 solid centres, Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux, and 2 good right-wingers, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds. (I should mention that Simmonds is black, and I say that to put paid to all the flak I've been taking for my repeated shots at P.K. Subban, who I'm still glad is gone.) And Habs still only have 3 experienced defencemen, so how about picking up Radko Goudas. He's the type who puts the fear on his opponents (as well as his teammates, sometimes) and Montréal needs that.

Montréal Canadiens -- Sorry I couldn't find a left-winger on Philly to trade with the Habs, who have a surplus. The real trade bait is Jonathan Drouin, who was supposed to be the next superstar who would single-handedly lift the team out of the cellar. Didn't happen last year. As for this, I see flashes of brilliance but I also see inconsistency, and I'd trade Drouin for someone who's going to show up for every game. The other two left-wingers, Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon, are, sorry to say it, choke artists. Hudon tries hard, but has a problem with his hand-eye coordination or timing or something. Lehkonen just doesn't seem to care. They've both had ample opportunity to prove their worth, but have failed.

The other two players on my time-to-go list are defencemen: Karl Alzner and David Schlemko. Last I heard, Schlemko got waived through the league and is presently toiling with the AHL Laval Rocket. There's a reason why no-one picked him up. The reason, in the case of Alzner, was the size of his huge contract, one of Bergie's poorer moves. He's not a bad D-man, but just can't play the style that coach Claude Julien wants. The emphasis now is on speed and the ability to move the puck. Alzner is only a bit faster than Hal Gill (who I really liked, by the way) and seems content to stop skating when he gets to the opponent's blue line, which used to be fine, but that was then.

There you have it, fans, 5 players from each team who could be the subject of trade discussions in this off week. I know I haven't factored in age, contract terms, upcoming free agencies and so on. That's the stuff general managers think about, and I am merely a humble fan. Selah.

Poor Len Canayen's mid-season report on the Habs

Ed. here. For the Montreal Canadiens, aka "the Habs", it's now three games past the half-way point of the NHL season. I've been bugging our sports editor, Poor Len Canayen, to get his report in, but he wanted to wait a bit to see if he could discern a trend sufficient to enable him to make a prediction. Monday and Tuesday nights' games yielded mixed results so he has given up. He writes:

Tank youse, Ed. Let's start with the trend. The Canadiens are up and down like a toilet seat at a mixed party. After 44 games, they are 23-16-5, for a total of 51 points, or, in baseball parlance, .579. If the playoffs started this morning, they'd have the second and last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the New York Islanders are right behind them with 50 points and three games in hand. Will les Glorieux be there for the post-season? Hard to say.

What I can say, with pleasure, is that the Habs are having a much better season than anyone, including moi, predicted. GM Marc Bergevin made some major deals in the summer which are paying off handsomely. Notable are the acquisitions of Max Domi, Tomas Tatar and whiz kid Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who are all contributing to a much improved offence.

The defence corp is still iffy. Stalwart (and now captain) Shea Weber returned from injury in December -- not a moment too soon -- to relieve the pressure on Jordie Benn and (especially) Jeff Petry, but finding three more reliable D-men seems to be a challenge. Star goalie Carey Price has stayed healthy most of the season so far and seems to be regaining his form, albeit a bit slowly. According to the stats, backup Antti Niemi is the worst goalie in the league (starting 10+ games) but has more wins than losses to his credit.

Now for a closer look...

Forwards: Playing alongside Max Domi seems to be helping Jonathan Drouin, who last year delivered much less than expected, but this year is one of the Habs' leading scorers. Still need to play better in his own zone, though. Tough little guy Brendan Gallagher plays his heart out every night and has the goals (and bruises) to show for it. Deserves the "A" on his chest. Andrew Shaw, another scrappy little guy, has finally got his temper under control and is playing the best hockey of his career, IMHO. More Irishmen on the team, please!

M Bergevin got rid of the Russians and brought in Finns. Apart from Niemi and Kotkaniemi, there's Joel Armia, who's a decent 3rd or 4th liner, and Artturi Lehkonen, who IMHO plays like a Swede and should be traded to a team like Vancouver. One of the few authentic Canadiens on the team, Phillip Danault, is improving every year and has earned his spot at centre of the first line. Compatriot Charles Hudon is only playing because of injuries to others, and can be relied on only to choke, as he did last night.

Paul Byron, who missed quite a few games due to injury, still has his incredible speed but doesn't always have the finish when he gets to the opponents' net. The 4th line is a work in progress. Kenny Agostino works hard but hasn't got much to show for it. Matthew Peca is a defensive liability, and Michael Chaput has discipline issues. The guy I like is Nicolas Deslauriers; every team needs a tough forward and Nic's da man!

Defence: It's great to see Weber back after missing over a season with a game leg. He still has the cannon shot from the blue line, and still dishes out fear-inspiring checks, but his passing seems a little off, compared with yesteryear. He brings solid leadership to the team and is a great mentor for the others. But can he teach guys who don't want to be taught or don't have the talent? Veterans Karl Alzner and David Schlemko have been waived through the league and sent down to the Laval farm club. They will not be missed.

That leaves the youngsters -- Victor Mete, Brett Kulak and Mike Reilly -- who have all done time in Laval and are with the big team "on trial"... and because the Habs don't have anyone else. Mete has speed but not size. Kulak has the size but not the smarts, same as Reilly. Mete seems like the best bet for a permanent spot on the blue line, but Bergie still needs to find a couple of good, big, fearsome guys to beef up the defence. Hint: Alexei Emelin is cooling his heels in Russia and would surely welcome a phone call.

Goal: To what I wrote above, I will only add that, as we saw a week ago, if Carey Price gets sick or injured, putting all the work on the aging shoulders of Antti Niemi, the Canadiens will be in big trouble. Charlie Lindgren is the No. 1 goalie on the Laval Rocket, but IMHO is not the one you want behind the Habs' D. Too "hot", compared with the ultra-cool Price. Young Michael McNiven sat at the far end of the bench when Niemi started three games in a row at New Year's, but (in spite of being endorsed by Don Cherry) is an unknown quantity. A seasoned, reliable backup goalie is needed... soon!

To all the Habs fans who read WWW, our best wishes for the New Year! Les Canadiens seront là!

Gazette's Jack Todd on the "Subban–Habs fault line"

Regular readers of WWW know that our sometime contributor, Poor Len Canayen (not pictured here), is a die-hard fan of the Montréal Canadiens, aka "the Habs". Poor Len is also mighty down on (not "down with") the Habs alleged defenceman, P.K. Subban. See "Is Habs' coach Therrien to blame for blaming P.K. Subban?", WWW 18/2/16. Spoiler alert: the answer is NO!

There's hardly a hockey fan or sports jock anywhere in Canada who hasn't taken sides on Michel Therrien's public shaming of Subban following either an accident or a truly bone-headed play in the dying minutes of Friday night's game against Colorado.

Opinion on the speak-your-mouth shows and in comments sections of the online sports pages and blogs has been divided, but leaning towards P.K.and against the coach. Demands for M Therrien's head outweigh those for the head of He Who Must Not Be Criticized. Sparing no expense to ascertain the true state of play in the Rome of ice hockey, Walt made the trek to Montréal to be present, along with Poor Len and a trusted Agent, at Monday night's game against Nashville.

We counted sweaters at the St-Hubert Windsor and Centre Bell Centre before and during the game to see which numbers fans were wearing on their backs, and Subban's number 76 predominated, by a long shot. Captain Max Pacioretty's 67 was a distant second. Also spotted were numbers 11, 13, 23, 29, 31 and 79. (True fans will know that two of those numbers have been retired, as well as who wore or is wearing the other four.) Which proves, I guess, that P.K. Subban is a fan favourite. But we already knew that. That's why Canadiens" owner insisted (over the objections of GM Marc Bergevin and Coach Therrien) on signing the sometime all-star to an 8-year contract at a salary almost as big as his ego. Good for business, eh!

The problem is which is more important, the hockey club or the Subban fan club. The sportswriters for the Montreal Gazette have been accused of being hopeless "homers" -- cheerleaders for the local team -- but that's normal, isn't it? It doesn't do for the meeja to be crying stinking fish in their own backyards. But Poor Len suggests that at least one member of the Gazoo crew is actually moonlighting as a PR agent for Mr Subban, turning a blind eye to mounting evidence of his inadequacies as a defenceman and disruptive behaviour in the dressing room and on the ice.

Of which writer do we speak? Not Jack Todd, author of a "special to the Gazette" piece which appeared on Sunday, headed "Therrien's rant reveals Subban–Habs fault line", which I commend to all true fans of la Sainte Flannelle.

Mr Todd has rather more respect for P.K. Subban's abilities than does Poor Len. [That's not saying much. Ed.] But he, alone amongst the writers whose thoughts the Gazoo casts before us, pinpoints with great accuracy the real problem of which the instant kerfuffle is only a symptom. Quote: With Subban and the Canadiens, the trouble goes beyond the coaching staff. The organization and the star defenceman have always been, if not at loggerheads, then at right angles to each other. Even as he has become the most charismatic skater to wear the CH since Guy Lafleur, P.K. and the Habs have come to inhabit different worlds. There’s Planet P.K. and Planet CH and it’s rare that the two meet, from Subban’s independent charitable activities to the team’s selection of its captain.

Exactly! So Poor Len is right to ask whether next year's edition of the Habs is to be Team Canadien or Team Subban? Is one man more important than the other 19? Can Subban win the Stanley Cup single-handed? Such questions about Subban's future with the Habs and/or the Habs' future with Subban must be answered sometime between now and July 1st, when the no-trade clause in HWMNBC's contract kicks in. Poor Len thinks the team must come first. Will the Molsons and the Molson Minions agree? Stay tuned!

M Bergevin, les amateurs du CH vous prient!

Cher Marc Bergevin... Poor Len Canayen tried to tell you in January. Walt tried to tell you before the Olympics and again after the Olympics. Today, fans of your Montréal Canadiens (like the one pictured) are begging you: trade P.K. Subban!

Cher Marc, you've got to stop listening to those guys who defend Subban because he's enthusiastic and flashy and an inspiration to... well, you know what I mean. He may be all of those things, but he's a liability to the team! That's why, even though he was chosen for Team Canada in a fit of political correctness, Mike Babcock refused to play him, except for a token 11 minutes in Canada's least challenging game.

In an exchange of e-mails with Agent 3, the Montreal Gazette's respected Red Fisher pointed out that Subban's +/- (plus/minus) stats are positive, which is true. But the +/- number is skewed by the fact that Subban plays on the power play (about 75% of the time) and does not play on the penalty kill. Why? Because Michel Therrien has little confidence in his ability to play defence when it counts! See "P.K. can't be trusted on the P.K.!".

Here's what Walt, Len and Habs fans (like the one pictured) saw last night and the night before.

Wednesday night: Detroit 2 @ Canadiens 1Cher Marc, your team stank. There's plenty of blame to go around, but Subban should take more than his share. Of 3 Habs penalties, P.K. took 2, neither of them "good penalties". Detroit scored its only goal in regulation time while he was in the box. He was on the ice when Montréal scored its only goal, with less than a minute to go in the third period.

But he went into the box again in the overtime period, for a cheap retaliation shot, nullifying what should have been a Montréal power play. He returned to the ice in time for Detroit's winning goal. His +/- was therefore 0, but if you had to pick one player whose work hurt more than it helped, P.K. would be that player.

Thursday night: Canadiens 6 @ Pittsburgh 5A very lucky win for the Habs in a shoot-out after a crazy game! (And congratulations to Petr Budaj for stopping Neal, Crosby and Malkin!) Subban was on the ice with poor Josh Gorges for the first two Penguins goals. So far away from the play was he on the second goal that Rene Bourque wound up playing P.K.'s position.

The really egregious mistake, though, was a horrible example of Subban's showboat style, an astounding turnover at the Pittsburgh blueline on the power play, no less, which gave Sutter a clear break on which he scored to give the Penguins a 4-3 lead. The expression on Therrien's face was indescribable -- so horrific and fierce that the TV camera cut away. Except for the rest of the power play, Subban rode the pine for the rest of the game, and rightly so.

Cher Marc, Red Fisher says 29 other NHL teams would be glad to have P.K. Subban. Walt doubts it, but in the name of all Habs fans asks you to make a few phone calls, for the good of the team! Please! We beg you!

Note from Len: Marc, call Vancouver! Maybe you could get Alex Burrows and a draft pick (or two). We need some grit and scoring punch up front, and the Canucks need some D, so there's your deal!