VIDEO: For the Montréal Canadiens, the season is over. The Hockey Guy analyzes what happened and what the future holds

After the Montréal Canadiens won the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs only to bow out to the Carolina Hurricanes last night, Poor Len Canayen, our National Sports (as long as it's hockey) Editor, is having trouble composing himself, let alone a post. 

Faut de mieux, he has sent along this video by The Hockey Guy, who gives an excellent analysis of what happened to the Habs, and what the future holds.

We fans of les Glorieux are disappointed, but not ashamed. We have put our sweaters and toques away until the fall, and look forward to an even better year in 2026-27. Bravo, les boyz!

It's that day again!

Happy Star Wars Day, from all of us at WWW.

Footnote added by Poor Len Canayen: 

Les Canadiens sont là! Ce soir à Tampa Bay: Habs 2 - TB Lightning 1. 

On Wednesday les Glorieux shuffle off to Buffalo! 

Is this the year the Habs bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada?

Ed. here. We welcome the return of our National Sports (As Long As It's Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen.

Tank youse, Hed. The last Canadian (or Canada-based) team to win the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the championship of the National Hockey League, was the Montréal Canadiens, who brought Lord Stanley's silverware home in 1993. They defeated the Los Angeles Kings in that year's final series. 

Since then, no Canadian team has won the Cup. And no Canadian team has played in the finals since 2021, when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Habs (for it was them, again) 4 games to 1.

In about 200 minutes, the same two teams will do battle again. in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They finished the 2025-26 season 2nd (Lightning) and 3rd in the Atlantic Division, behind the surprising Buffalo Sabres by a mere 2 points. Whichever team wins this round will likely meet the Sabres next. 

Who will win tonight? As I point my TV antenna towards Florida, I think of the last match between the Habs and the Bolts in the regular season. It was like the old Henny Youngman joke: I went to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke out! 

Les Glorieux gave as good as they got, and I don't think they're going to be bested in the rough stuff department tonight. I also think the Habs can compete in goal. They have the luxury of two goalies -- the two Jakes -- with save percentages of over.900. TB has only the one. 

As for scoring, Habs are better per the stats after an amazing season. How can anyone stop a power play unit consisting of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson?! The question is defence. 

The loss of Noah Dobson hurts. Alexandre Carrier may be able to play, maybe not. So that puts a lot of pressure on Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj. They've improved greatly in the second half of the season, but can they handle 20 minutes per game? It may come to that because coach will be reluctant to give much ice time to David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom who, IMHO, aren't yet ready for prime time yet. 

I hear you asking for a prediction. My heart tells me Habs in 7, but I wouldn't bet on it! Ed. says some blog posts end suddenly and inconclusively. This is one of them.

Ken Dryden, Canadiens' legend, RIP

Ed. here. It is less than a month until the opening of the National Hockey League's 2025-26 hockey season. We expect Poor Len Canayen's preview about two weeks from now, but have had to call on him today in the sad circumstances which he will now relate. Over to you, Len.

Tank youse, Hed. It is my sad duty to report to fans of the world's best sport, and the Montréal Canadiens in particular, that Ken Dryden, one of the best goaltenders of all time has died, after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 78.

Ken burst on the scene late in the 1970-71 season, when the Canadiens called him up from their Halifax AHL affiliate to lead the underdog Habs to one of the greatest upsets in hockey history. Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr led the Boston Bruins that year to one of the best regular seasons in NHL history but Montreal took them out in a seven-game semi-final series. 

He won the Conn Smythe trophy as MVP after les Glorieux beat Chicago in the final in seven games. He went on to win the Calder Cup as rookie of the year in the following season, and six Stanley Cups in his eight seasons with Montréal.

He and Tony Esposito backstopped Canada to that improbable win over the Soviet national team in 1972. He said after the series that during the eighth and final game, in which Canada trailed 5-3 before coming back to win, he feared waking up the next day and being the most hated man in Canada. 

After hanging up his skates, Dryden went on to practise law before being elected to the Canadian House of Commons as Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of York Centre.an MP. He was also, briefly, President of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but his heart was always in Montréal.

In 1983 he authored The Game, widely acknowledged as the best hockey book ever written. The Game is a reflective and thought-provoking look at a life in hockey, capturing the essence of the sport and what it means to all hockey fans. Dryden gives us vivid and affectionate portraits of the characters --Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard, and coach Scotty Bowman among them --that made the 1970s Habs one of the greatest hockey teams in history. 

Geoff Molson, le propriétaire et président du Tricolore, a décrit Dryden comme "un athlète exceptionnel, mais aussi un homme d’exception. Derrière le masque, il était plus grand que nature.

"Nous pleurons aujourd’hui non seulement la perte d’un pilier d’une des plus grandes dynasties du hockey, mais aussi celle d’un homme de famille, d’une personne attentionnée et d’un gentilhomme qui a profondément marqué nos vies et nos communautés à travers les générations. Il était de ces légendes qui ont façonné notre Club pour en faire ce qu’il est aujourd’hui."

The Montreal Gazette’s Red Fisher, called the Hall of Famer "one of the truly great goaltenders in Canadiens history." On wishing Ken Dryden a happy 65th birthday, Mr Fisher wrote, "Dryden, a winner of 258 of his 397 regular-season games (2.24 goals-against average) and 112 playoff games (80 victories) who started his NHL career with a 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1971. And who can forget that after playing in only six regular-season games, Dryden was GM Sam Pollock’s stunning choice over Rogie Vachon to start in the playoffs against the heavily favoured Boston Bruins.

"Dryden didn’t merely contribute to this team winning the Stanley Cup that year – in seven games against the Bruins, in six against Minnesota and in a seven-game final against the Chicago Blackhawks. They would not have won it without him in a string of postseason performances for the ages – with the Canadiens winning all of the series-deciding games on the road. 

"There are so many reasons why he was a member of six Stanley Cup teams in eight seasons. He had the size. He had the hockey sense. He had the passion. So many reasons why he was so special, not the least of which was – and is – his massive intellect. 

"You don’t lead your team to the Stanley Cup and win the Conn Smythe Trophy after only six regular-season games unless the goaltender is your most valuable player. This team was blessed with a number of great stars, but throughout his brief career he was my MVP. And make no mistake about it: he was also the players’ most valuable player. They, better than anyone else, understood what he was made of and what he meant to the team."

A glowing tribute indeed, and well-deserved. Comparing himself to Carey Price, a guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer, Ken Dryden said he (Dryden) was a good goaltender who was fortunate to have an excellent team in front of  him, whereas Price was an excellent goaltender playing behind a good team.

It is noteworthy, that through good times and tough times, winning and losing, la Sainte Flannelle has resisted the temptation to employ foreign goaltenders. All their greats have been Canadians, and many of those canadiens. One thinks of Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante, and, of course, Georges Vézina, who started their tradition of excellence. One hopes that Ken Dryden will smile down on young Samuel Montembault as he carries the torch passesd to him.

NHL Stanley Cup finals: how come fewer Americans are watching?

Yes, it's that time of year again! We know it's spring because the Leafs are out... of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But the defending champions, the Florda Panthers, will face off in about nine hours against the Edmonton Oilers, last year's runner-ups... runners-up?... the team the Panthers beat last year. The competition will be fierce, yet fewer and fewer Americans will be watching. Our National Sports (as long as it's hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, thinks he knows why.  

Tank youse, Hed! Even though la Sainte Flannelle didn't make it to the finals, Habs fans were pleased that they got through to the first round, and it was certainly no disgrace to lose to the Panthers. So I'm following the final series with interest, and am pleased to report that the quality of the games (as evidenced in Game 1) is excellent. 

The bad news is that statistics reported recently in Sports Business Journal, NHL viewership in the US of A was down 12% in the regular season, 25% in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs and a whopping 31% in the Conference Finals. Wha hoppen?!

IMHO it's not the quality of the hockey being played, let alone the sport itself, that's to blame. The NHL is suffering from a flawed business proposition, advocated for decades now by (((Gary Bettmann))), the American lawyer who never laced on a pair of skates, yet has tenure as Commissioner (read: boss) of the National Hockey League.

From Day One, Mr Bitchman argued that the only way to grow the sport was to put teams in locales other than the US northeast. He encouraged the establishment of teams in such sun-drenched climes as Raleigh NC, Atlanta and Nowheresville AZ. 

The Atlanta franchise failed twice and was moved to Calgary. The Arizona team, which had neither a permanent home nor more than two die-hard fans (Sid and Doris Bonkers), was moved this year to Utah... Utah!... because Gary wouldn't cave to pressure to restore the Québec team which he'd moved to Colorado.

The Carolina Hurricanes, based in Raleigh, got into the playoffs and played to SRO crowds. The Florida Panthers generally attract good crowds, because their home base is in Sunrise, part of Fort Lauderdale, where the majority of residents are Canadians. 

But does anyone watch the southern teams on TV? Nah. If you lived in North Carolina or Florida or Dallas, would you want to be sitting indoors of a warm May or June evening watching hockey? Fuggedabahtit.

That NHL viewership is in decline has to do with the business of TV sports rather than the location of the teams or the quality of the games. Today's hockey telecasts are carefully produced to fill three hours of air time, even though actual playing time is just one hour!

To pad out the allotted time, each 20-minute period is interrupted by three -- count `em, 3 -- "TV timeouts", which are filled with commercials. Then there are the two 15- or 20-minute intermissions, in which a panel of progessional gabbers tell us what we've just seen. The same thing happens before we get to watch the singing of the national anthems the puck drops, and afterwards, if the game finishes early.

Whoever's responsible for these incredibly boring TV shows obviously doesn't understand the audience. Today's young people -- the millennials and gen-whatevers -- have the attention spans of mosquitoes. They won't, they can't sit still for a quarter-hour of dreck. When I saw "Virtual PK" Subban on ABC/ESPN, I nearly broke my wrist changing the channel. More about ESPN's  "colour(ed) commentator" later today.

Yes, there are still die-hard traditionalists in Canada and the northeastern states who still watch hockey on TV. But was aren't as tech savvy as the kids, and less likely to subscribe to streaming services and specialty channels like Amazon's Monday night hockey or the Bank of Nova Scotia's Wednesday night version. And we resent being asked to pay extra... or anything... for what used to be free!

Putting business and the almighty dollar -- the almighty US dollar, that is -- ahead of sport has just about killed hockey, at least on TV. Maybe that's not so bad. Hockey is best viewed (as well as played) outdoors, in sub-zero temperatures (the ice is faster, then) or at least in an old, unheated barn designated as the Soandso Memorial Arena. Hockey isn't just another "entertainment product". It's a sport!

Salut, les Habs!

Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] join our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, in saluting the Montréal Canadiens, who were defeated 1-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, in what became the final game of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Congratulations on a playoff run as improbable as it was inspiring. Now over to Len for the wrap-up.

The spectacular playoff run of le Canadien, known to all as "the Habs", is over. They lost to a better team, the 2020 Stanley Cup winners who have now won their second in a row and could well do a threepeat next year. 

But the Habs have nothing to be ashamed of. They had one bad game -- Game 2 -- and just one really good game -- Game 4 -- but overall played as well against the Bolts as any other team could have. I don't think Las Vegas, who the Habs beat 4 games to 2 in the semi-final, could have done any better. 

Without doing too much shoulda-woulda-coulda, I can't help feeling that if the Habs' coaches had followed my advice and put Romanov and Kulak in place of Merrill and Gustafsson after Game 2, they might have won one more game. Ultimately, though, Canada's team lost through a lack of scoring, as was particularly evident last night. There weren't enough guys who were consistently able to finish a passing play, so it was rush, rush, rush, and the Lightning did a great job of defending against that.

The amazing thing about the Canadiens' playoff run is that many would say (and are still saying, shame on them) that the Habs didn't deserve to be in the series at all! Of the 16 teams who made the playoffs, le bleu-blanc-et-rouge had the worst regular season season, the only team to get into the playoffs in spite of a negative goals for/against stat. 

La Sainte Flannelle finished fourth in what was deemed to be the weakest of the NHL's four divisions, and to reach the finals beat not one, not two, but three teams who were better than they. First they came back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit to defeat the much-favoured Toronto Maple Leafs. Then they swept the Winnipeg Jets, four straight. Then they beat Las Vegas, who had finished second overall in the NHL, 4 games to 2. 

Indeed it was an impressive playoff run, of which les Glorieux and their fans right across Canada (and in Canada's 11th province -- Florida!) can be proud. All of us here at WWW offer most sincere congratulations and best wishes for 2021-22.

What about "next year", which begins in just 97 days? The Canadiens will have a much different roster. Although they don't get a pick until the third round of the entry draft, they will lose one of their better players (G Jake Allen?) in the expansion draft. And at least two under-performers -- I can think of four, but won't name names today -- will be gone. So I'll not make any predictions until I see who's in the training camp. See you in September!

Worth watching on YouTube: "Montreal's Cinderella Run Falls Short in 2021 Finals", with THG (Shannon, The Hockey Guy), 8/7/21.

Poor Len Canayen has some advice for Habs' Luke Richardson

Ed. here. Game 2 of the National Hockey League (G. Betchman, Prop.) Stanley Cup finals, between Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens, and the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning, is scheduled for 8 PM ET tonight.TB leads the series 1 game to 0 following a sub-par performance by the Habs on Monday night. Watch it on TVA Sports, SportsNet or NBC Sports. 

We hand over, now. to our National Sport Editor, Poor Len Canayen, who is taking time from his baking to give some advice to the Habs coaching staff.

Although three giveaways sealed the Habs' fate on Monday, the real problem was lack of offence. TB's goalie faced fewer than 20 shots, with only a handful being quality chances. My advice, therefore, is mostly related to the defence. [??? Walt.] 

Interim interim head coach Luke Richardson has been playing, as his third defence pairing, last-minute pickups Jim Merrill and Eric Gustafsson. The latter was billed as a "power play specialist" but against a team that doesn't take many penalties, so what! Both Merrill and Gustafsson are slow of foot, so are reluctant to join a rush for fear of getting caught pinching. 

So, Monsieur Luc, what you do is sit those two and put in, as your third D pair, Brett Kulak and Alexandre Romanov. The latter is just a kid, and makes the odd rookie mistake, but he's fast, aggressive, and not afraid to shoot. The chippy Kulak takes more than his share of penalties, but remember that our guys lead the league in short-handed goals!

Up front, if Joel Armia is not yet ready to take his place on the fourth line, consider putting Tomas Tatar in there. He's been in the château du chien since a  listless performance in the last part of the regular season, but he should be tired of the view from the stands, and might just turn out to be an unlikely hero.

Don't listen to dose other guys, Luke! Listen to me! Have I ever steered you wrong? Lifetime pct .988.

PS - The bagels are from St-Viateur Bagels in Montréal. Get `em while they're hot! Or, if you're not up for the drive, you can get `em delivered, to addresses on either side of the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM).

VIDEO: "The little team that couldn't"... COULD... and DID!

Note from Ed.: We have left virtually unedited this report from our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen. Take `er away, Len.

`Ow about dat, hey, boys and girls? For the first time since 2011 a Canadian team will compete for the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the championship of the "National" Hockey League. And that team is Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens! 

Yes indeed, folks, the team that all the "experts" wrote off at the end of the regular season, when they just barely squeaked into the playoffs, defeated the much stronger Las Vegas Golden Knights last night at the Bell Centre, in a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory. Here's the video

Looking at the final standings for the abbreviated 2021 season, a neutral observer might have said, "No way!" The Habs finished fourth in the NHL's Northern (read: Canadian) Division, the only team to get into the playoffs with a negative GF/GA. The "experts" predicted an early exit, but "les vrais" (the true fans), including me and Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] remained hopeful.

Our hopes were rewarded (and smart bets duly collected) when les Glorieux defeated the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs, 4 games to 3, and then swept the Winnipeg Jets in 4 straight, to become the unofficial Canadian champions. 

But the naysayers and sour-grapers in Toronto refused to be impressed. "Wait until they have to play an American team," they said, predicting the Habs would get swept by Vegas. Wrong! In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz, "HA-ha!"

Looking at the reasons why the Canadiens have prevailed over three (count `em, 3!) supposedly better teams, I go back to what I wrote at the beginning of the season: "Habs off to a good start", WWW 17/1/21. 

Kudos to General Manager Marc Bergevin for some very good acquisitions during the off season, by means of which he put together a well-balanced team  which looked like contenders right from the first puck drop.

It's true that after a great start, the team slumped in the second half of the regular season, owing largely to several long injuries to key players including defenceman Ben Chiarot and star goalie Carey Price. Jake Allen covered admirably for Price, playing more than half the regular season games. And M Bergevin, seeing the need for more bench strength, wisely added old-timers Eric Staal (centre) and two more D-men, Jim Merrill and Erik Gustafsson.

Kudos also to assistant coaches Luke Richardson and Alexandre Burrows, who stepped up admirably after interim coach Dominique Ducharme was stricken with the kung flu before Game 2 of the Vegas series. Very smart of them to not play Merrill and Gustafsson together, but put them on the ice with stronger partners.

Throughout the playoffs, Ducharme and his helpers have had the luxury of being able to roll four forward lines, all of whom contributed to the scoring but also played well in their own zone. I will single out only rookie phenom Cole Caufield, brought in just before the end of the regular season, who has had an outstanding playoff run, including last night's beautiful goal. Caulfield's small but speedy -- reminds me of Yvan "the Roadrunner" Cournoyer, in his rookie year.

So... On to the Stanley Cup finals against either the Tampa Bay Lightning or the New York Islanders, who meet in their Game 7 tonight. (I'd prefer the Islanders but bet on the Lightning.) Four more wins will bring Lord Stanley's silverware home to Canada for the first time since 1993, when it was won by... wait for it... the Montréal Canadiens!

Montréal Canadiens - Canadian Champions!

Ed. here. Last night we received a message from a sports bar not 1000 miles west of le Centre Bell, where our National Sports Editor was in a celebratory mood.

Hooboy, Hed! Where are ya buddy? Lemme buy you a beer, a Canadian beer, not that American stuff which is like a couple making out in a canoe. [Readers puzzled by that reference may contact me by e-mail. Ed.] 

In fact I'll buy you two beers, to equal the number of chances people thought the Montréal Canadiens had of going deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Because, by golly, tonight they swept the Winnipeg Jets -- four games straight! -- to become the champions of the National Hockey League's Northern (read: Canadian) division.

To explain that... This season, because the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) was effectively closed to prevent the spread of the kung flu, the NHL (G. Bettman, Prop.) reorganized its four divisions so that one of them, the Northern Division, was comprised only of Canada-based teams, thereby becoming the (unofficial) "Canadian Division" -- a dream come true for Canadian fans.

During the shortened regular season, the Canadian division was, by most accounts, the weakest of the four. The stats proved it. The Canadiens finished 4th in the division, 18th overall, with a goals for/against record of -9. Yet, since the Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames couldn't even do that well, the Habs qualified for the playoffs.

The Canadiens, lacking any big stars (except Carey Price, whose star has dimmed somewhat in recent years) were widely expected to win maybe one game vs the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, and then go golfing. Wrong! After playing rope-a-dope for four games, they came back to win the last three, confirming the Laffs' reputation as Allstar Chokers.

That took the Habs to the quarter-finals against the Jets, the team that had swept Connor McDavid's Edmonton Oilers in four straight. Again, the Habs were the underdogs. Again they emerged victorious, winning four straight games -- including tonight's 3-2 overtime victory -- to earn the soubriquet Les Glorieux.  

How could that be?! How does a team of two 30-something players getting multi-millions a year without scoring goals, plus four kids with roughly seven years of NHL experience among them, beat teams whose players include trophy winners for scoring and not being scored on?

On paper, and according to the regular season stats, the Canadiens compare unfavourably to both Toronto and Winterpeg. But in the playoffs, certain intangible, unmeasurable factors are in play, the greatest of these being the ability to function as a true team, with a shared and instinctive understanding of how to "play right" and a common will to win!

It is hard to pick just three stars of the win over Winnipeg. Everybody contributed! Carey Price, who went into the game with a GAA of 1.67, look less than superhuman, especially on the second Winnipeg goal, but still, two was all the Jets could manage. That's thinks in large part to a fine defence, even with Jeff Petry, arguably the Habs best D-man, out with an injured hand. In fact, the previously suspect Érik Gustaffson, got Montréal's first goal, on the power play.

The injury to Petry gave rookie Alexander Romanov the chance to appear in his first playoff game, and he acquitted himself well enough. Kudos to defence coach Luke Richardson for figuring out how to pair his weaker D-men with stronger partners to make it impossible for the Jets to put more than 16 shots on Price.  

The Canadiens' forwards, by contrast, had 42 shots on Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who should get some kind of award for heroism under fire. Throughout the playoffs (unlike the regular season) the Habs' real strength has been their ability to roll four lines of more or less equal strength. 

The "greybeards" line -- Joel Armia, Eric Staal and Corey Perry -- nominally fourth, looked more like the top line at times, with Armia scoring a couple of key goals, as did Perry who was involved in at least half the highlight reel plays. The erstwhile first line -- Arturi Lehkonen (in the absence of Tomas Tatar), Philip Danault and the inspirational Brendan Gallagher -- was a factor throughout. Danault was particularly good last night.

The Habs' "kids" -- Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and rookie phenom Cole Caufield -- were very impressive, especially Suzuki and Caufield who combined on a couple of really pretty scoring plays. If those two had been played in the first games against the Leafs, that series might have ended sooner. 

Last but not least, a round of applause for speedster Paul Byron, who scored a short-handed goal while lying prone on the ice, and old pros Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, astutely acquired by GM Marc Bergevin in the off season. Toffoli (#73 in the photo) led les Glorieux in scoring during the regular season, and scored the overtime winner against the Jets, on a perfect pass from the Caufield (the little guy in the middle).   

All in all, a terrific team effort. The 2021 Canadiens may not be one of the best-ever Montréal teams, but they have been a great team for seven straight games. They go on now to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights or the Colorado Avalance -- whoever wins the Western Division -- who will be underestimate them at their peril. As the Hockey Guy said in today's review, "It's beginning to look a lot like 1993." 

Quick quiz for hockey fans

 Ed. here. We have received complaints that our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, always and only writes about the Montréal Canadiens. This year's edition of les Glorieux -- the best since 1993, according to former star player and General Manager Serge Savard -- is so exciting to watch that we can  hardly blame Poor Len. All the same, in the interests of fairness, we have invited Jacques Strappe, who cheers for another team, to write today's hockey column.

Thank you, Ed. Here is a quiz to test your readers' hockey knowledge. 20 seconds should be enough to answer each of the six questions, so total time should be no more a minute and a half, tops!

Q1. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Is your answer, "They're all French-Canadian goaltenders."? That is correct, but there's more.

Q2. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel "Bunny" Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... If you answered, "They've all won Stanley Cups", that is correct, but keep going!

Q3. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Bunny Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... If you added "...with teams other than the Toronto Maple Leafs" to your second answer, you're close, but no cigar. So...

Q4. What do Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Michel Larocque have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Give up? Thought you'd see the clue after Q3! Answer: They all played for the Maple Laffs but didn't win a Stanley Cup!

Q5. What do Trevor Kidd, Peter Ing and Darren Puppa have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... What? You don't know? OK, take one last stab at it.

Q6. What do Trevor Kidd, Damian Rhodes, Peter Ing, Jiri Crha, Doug Favell and Darren Puppa have in common?

20 seconds of "think music"... ... ... Surely you've figured it out by now? OK, I'm gonna give it to you. Those six, along with Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent and Bunny Larocque all played for Toronto between 1968 and 2009 without having their names engraved on Lord Stanley's silverware. Source: Why the Leafs Suck and How They Can Be Fixed, by Al Strachan (Collins, 2009).

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Besides the nine already named, the following goalies also played, between 1968 and 2009, with Leaf teams that never won a Stanley Cup. 

Allan Bester, Andrew Raycroft, Vesa Toskala, Grant Fuhr, Curtis Joseph, Bruce Gamble, Marv Edwards, Ron Low,  Eddie Johnston, Dunc Wilson, Wayne Thomas, Mike Palmateer, Pierre Hamel, Paul Harrison, Jim Rutherford, Félix Potvin, Tim Bernhardt, Don Edwards, Ken Wregget, Mark Laforet, Jeff Reese, Glenn Healy, Ed Belfour, Marin Gerber, Corey Schwab and the unforgettable Mikael Tellqvist.

You can look it up in Mr Strachan's excellent book, which I recommend especially to Leafs fans. Spoiler alert: Mr Strachan says the reasons for the Leafs' 53 years of failure (and counting) is not so much poor players -- they've had lots of good ones -- but ownership and management which ranged from mediocre to execrable. Names are named!

VIDEO: Latest Tuba Skinny webcast

Ed. here. It's been a while since Walt gave you a break from politics and religion. It's also some time since we reposted a video featuring Tuba Skinny (leader, Shaye Cohn), possibly the greatest New Orleans (formerly "Dixieland") jazz band extant. So here's their webcast from yesterday afternoon. If you like it, please tip the band: Paypal - tubaskinny@gmail.com; Venmo - @tubaskinny



Politics, religion... there was another topic we used to talk/write about... what was it... oh yeah, hockey! Poor Len Canayen reports that the 16 teams competing for the Stanley Cup have entered bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton and will start playing (in empty arenas, sadly) this coming week. Poor Len may... or may not... have something to say about the possibility of the Montréal Canadiens, seeded 16th, going home with Lord Stanley's silverware, in a few days.

Poor Len Canayen: the year the flu cancelled the Stanley Cup

Ed. here. With the National Hockey League forced to "pause" its season -- in the words of (((Gary Bettman))) -- and probably the playoffs too, we didn't expect our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, to contribute anything until whenever play resumes, probably in the fall. But here he is, with a timely story about the year the Stanley Cup was not awarded.

Today, April 5th, A.D. 2020, is the 101st anniversary of the death of Joe Hall. [Who he? Ed.] Tanks, Hed., for asking. Joe Hall played for the 1918-19 edition of Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens. That season, only the second for the NHL (founded in 1917), the Habs had finished at the top of the standings, and in March of 1919 went to Seattle to play the Seattle Metropolitans, of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, for the Stanley Cup.

The bleu-blanc-et-rouge were looking for revenge. They had won Lord Stanley's silverware, emblematic of North American (and therefore world) hockey supremacy, in 1916, defeating the Portland OR Rosebuds. (Seriously. That was the team's name.) But the Metropolitans thrashed the Canadiens the following year, bringing the trophy back to the west coast.

In 1918 the Toronto Arenas (or Blueshirts, depending on whose history you read) defeated the Vancouver Millionaires, [Where did they get these names? Ed.] in a series held in Toronto. This was back in the daze when transcontinental travel was a big deal, so the series alternated between the east and west, which meant that Seattle would be the venue for the 1919 rematch between the Metropolitans (no-one had dubbed them them "Mets") and the Canadiens.

Unfortunately, the "Spanish flu" got to Seattle before the Habs did. The epidemic is thought to have started at Camp Funston, in Kansas, in March 1918. From there it went with American doughboys to Europe, where it mutated in the trenches of the Great War, and spread around the world. The name "Spanish influenza" resulted from Spain's neutrality during WWI, which meant that Spanish newspapers, unlike those of the belligerent nations, did not censor news of the devastation caused by the disease.

The Spanish flu came back to North America wih wounded soldiers in the summer of 1918, and spread quickly and with deadly effect across the major cities of the USA and Canada. About 8500 Chicagoans died in September and October. In New York City, 851 people died in a single day. In Toronto, more than 1600 people died in the last three weeks of October. Montréal reported over 16,000 cases in that same month. In the East, the disease seemed to disappear by December of 2018, but in the West, Seattle suffered through its worst month of the epidemic.

The Canadiens arrived in Seattle on 18 March 1919. That spring's series had all the makings of a classic, but turned into a tragedy. Five games were hotly contested, with Seattle thrashing the Habs in games 1 and 3. Montréal prevailed in game 2. Game 4 was an epic, ending, after two 10-minute overtime periods, in a scoreless tie! Game 5 also went into overtime, with la Sainte Flannelle coming out on top.

So as April Fool's Day of 2019 dawned, the two te4ams were even, with two wins apiece and the 0-0 tie. A victory for either team in Game 6 would mean the Stanley Cup. Both teams appeared to be tiring, but it wasn't fatigue. It was the Spanish flu. On the morning of April 1st, George Kennedy, the Canadiens' owner/manager, and three players were confined to their hotel. Joe Hall and a teammate had fevers of 104 degrees and were taken to Providence Hospital.

The game that night was cancelled. There was some talk that Game 6 might be played later, perhaps in Vancouver BC, which had not been so hard hit, once the players recovered. But it was not to be. Joe Hall died in Sattle's Columbus Sanitarium on April 5th. Two teammates and the owner died later. No winner for 1919 was ever declared.

Footnote: More than half a century after the NHL started expanding in 1967, Seattle will finally get a team in the Big League, starting in the 2021-22 season, if such event ever eventuates. The name of the new franchise is as yet unknown, but it probably won't be the Metropolitans... or the Rosebuds.

Another footnote: For a long time it looked as if there couldn't possibly be another season in which there would be no Stanley Cup champion. Then along came Mr Bitchman, on whose watch the NHL saw the entire 2004-5 season cancelled. If the Cup is not awarded this year, as seems likely, it won't be his fault... this time... just the flu... again. But take heart, hockey fans. Hockey survived, the NHL survived, the Montréal Canadiens not only survived, but came back stronger than ever!

Poor Len congratulates St. Louis Blues - Stanley Cup Champions!

Poor Len Canayen here. The loooong NHL season is finally over. Last night the St. Louis Blues surprised everyone -- perhaps including themselves -- by defeating the big bad Boston Bruins 4-1 to take the Stanley Cup back to their city. Congratulations to them!

The story of the Blues' rise from last to first, to win their first ever championship, is a truly remarkable one. On New Year's Day they were dead last in the NHL. Instead of talk of a playoff run, the chatter around the club six months ago centred around which players would be available at the trade deadline.

Then they got a new "interim" coach, Craig Berube, who worked some kind of magic with a squad of has-beens, never-weres and rookies. They went 30-10-5 to make the playoffs and disposed of the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks in the first three rounds. The final series went the full seven games, culminating in an outcome which was the opposite of that predicted by most punters, notably "Donless" Cherry and (ahem) yours very truly.

The star player in the Blues' climb from outhouse to penthouse was rookie goalie Jordan Binnington. He was called up on December 9th, and during the regular season gave no indication that he would become the Blues saviour. But he sure shone in the playoffs. I haven't seen anything like it since Ken Dryden came from nowhere in 1971 to help the Montréal Canadiens win Lord Stanley's silverware. Dryden was voted playoff MVP that year. Binnington set a rookie goalie record, with 16 W's in this year's payoffs, and looks a sure bet to take home the Conn Smythe Trophy.

But the big win was the result of an outstanding team effort. The Blues hit hard, forechecked hard and they were unrelentingly diligent in their own end. Whatever shots the skaters didn't block, Binnington saved. They were also overwhelmingly physical, no mean feat against the rough tough Bruins. It was a textbook road game, grabbing a quick(ish) lead and then defending fiercely until the final buzzer. The best team won, and we at WWW salute them. Well done, Blues!

VIDEO: Don Cherry for NHL Hall of Fame!

Poor Len `ere. Last night I was watching the Boston v Columbus game on Hockey Night in Canada, and I got to thinking about that Don Cherry (aka Donless Cherry -- that's what Ron Maclean calls him), who was all dressed up for May the 4th (geddit?) and talking about "When I had the Bruins and Bobby Orr..." And I got to thinking, why isn't Don Cherry in the National Hockey League Hall of Fame?!

Wikipedia calls Donald Stewart Cherry (born 5 February 1934) "a Canadian ice hockey commentator". He is more than that. He is THE Canadian ice hockey commentator. Along with Ron Maclean, he co-hosts the "Coach's Corner" intermission segment on Hockey Night in Canada, the longest-running show on Canadian TV. He is a Canadian icon, known for his outspoken manner, his nationalistic opinions [How does he get away with it, nowadays? Ed.] and his flamboyant dress (see pic). Those Edwardian shirt collars must be damn uncomfortable.

Don toiled for years with the AHL Rochester Americans, and was called up for one (1) game with the Boston Bruins, the only game he ever played in the NHL. He went on to coach the big bad Bruins for five seasons, during which he had the good fortune to have on the team Bobby Orr, one of othe greatest -- Don says THE greatest -- defencemen ever to play the game. He never lets us forget it (see above).

Mr Cherry was voted the seventh greatest Canadian on a CBC television special called, errr, The Greatest Canadian (duh). In March 2010, his life was dramatized in a two-part made-for-TV movie, Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story, based on a script written by his son, Timothy Cherry. In March 2012, CBC aired a sequel, The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II. And yet the selectors for the NHL Hall of Fame keep passing over him. I can't understand it.

Don Cherry IS famous, for:
- coaching Bobby Orr (see above)
- being a Canadian nationalist
- disliking European-born players, especially "chicken Swedes"
- loving Canadian guys in uniform: soldiers, cops and hockey player
- owning a succession of white bull terriers, all named "Blue"
- turning down an offer of appointment to the Canadian Senate
- other stuff

But what Don is most famous for, IMHO, is something that happened forty years and five days ago, on the evening of 10 May 1979. The Bruins were playing in the seventh game of the NHL Stanley Cup semi-finals against arch-enemies, the Montréal Canadiens. The series was tied 3 games each, and the winner of the 7th game would go on to play for Lord Stanley's silverware. Boston was ahead 3-1 going into the third period and looked to be on the verge of victory. The Habs responded with goals from Mark Napier and Guy Lapointe to tie the game. With just under four minutes to play, Rick Middleton managed to bounce a puck off the arm of goaltender Ken Dryden and into the net to take a 4-3 lead. Here's what happened next.



With only 2:34 to go, the Bruins were caught on a sloppy line change -- too many men on the ice... two-minute penalty! Changing the lines is the coach's responsibility, so, as Don Cherry later told the Grope and Flail, "It was my fault. The guy couldn't have heard me yell. I grabbed two other guys trying to go over the boards. That would have made eight on the ice. Might as well have let them go."

Not wasting an opportunity, Montréal coach Scotty Bowman put out his elite power-play unit: Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Steve Shutt and Jacques Lemaire. Unlike Don Cherry, all five players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lafleur scored the a beauty, beating Gilles Gilbert on the short side, to tie the game at 4-4. In the overtime that ensured, les Glorieux went on to win. They would then beat the New York Rangers to win yet another Stanley Cup.

Later that May, Bruins GM Harry Sinden fired Don Cherry. But here's the thing. To this day, a clip of Don responding to the derision of the Montréal crowd is still included in the intro to every "Coach's Corner". He's a classy guy, an asset to the game and to Canada, and should damn well be in the Hall of Fame, EH!

RIP Johnny Bower (obituary by Poor Len Canayen)

So farewell then, Johnny Bower. You were the greatest goaltender to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the modern (post-WWII) era. You helped the Leafs win their last Stanley Cup, over half a century ago. You hoped you would live to see them win another... but you didn't.

Poor Len Canayen here. Regular readers of WWW will know that I am a lifelong fan of the Montréal Canadiens. I call the Habs "Canada's team" but there are many, especially in Ontario, who take issue with that appellation, claiming "Canada's team" is really the Toronto Maple Leafs.

What I can say is that there is no greater hockey rivalry than the Habs vs the Leafs, and no team I would rather see le Canadien beat than the Leafs. And if les Glorieux can't carry off Lord Stanley's silverware, then let the victors be the Leafs, and I will congratulate them and be happy.

That's what happened in the spring of 1967 -- I remember it well -- when Johnny Bower, along with the estimable Terry Sawchuk, backstopped the Mapleos to a surprise win over a strong Montréal club. Bower was the old man of the team, officially 43, although there were those who said he was five or ten years older. During his long hockey career, his age seemed "flexible", but his family confirmed his age following his death from pneumonia yesterday. He was 93.

I can now reveal that Johnny Bower was a Ukrainian-Canadian. His real family name was Kiszkan. He grew up, with eight sisters, on a farm outside of Prince Albert SK, where I had the displeasure of living at one time. He taught himself how to play hockey, using a branch as a stick, and made goalie pads for himself out of old mattresses.

In 1940, when he was 16 (or perhaps 15), he lied about his age (not for the last time) and enlisted in the Canadian Army during World War II, where he served in England from 1940 to 1943. His service ended when he was discharged due to rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. "It's a good thing I didn't [see action]", he told an interviewer, "because the Germans were right there waiting. A lot of guys there were killed on the beaches. I know four or five good hockey players from Prince Albert who were killed. They never came back."

Upon his return, Bower played junior hockey with his hometown Prince Albert Black Hawks. When he turned pro with the AHL Cleveland Barons in 1945, he changed his name to Bower because he felt Kiszkan was too difficult to pronounce. He played eight seasons in the AHL, earning MVP honours three times, before getting a chance in the NHL.

Bower played all 70 games for the New York Rangers in 1953-54, but for the following year the team chose to go another of my old-tyme all-time favourites, Gump Worsley, and Bower was sent down to the minors for another four years, before being traded to Toronto in 1958. "I didn't even want to come to Toronto, to be honest with you," he said, "because I was 35 years of age at that particular time and I didn't know I could help them." (Let's see. 1958 minus 35 would make his birth year 1923.) "I had the experience, mind you. But I was happy in Cleveland, I enjoyed myself there and had a good job. When they picked me up, I didn't want to go. And [Cleveland GM James] Hendy said, if you don't go, they'll suspend you."

Johnny Bower went on to become a fixture with the Maple Leafs, finally retiring after playing just one game in the 1970-71 season, four months past his 45th birthday, or so he said. 1971 minus 45 is 1926! He was always coy about his age. When asked about it upon his retirement, he said, "If you don't know by now, you never will."

He played 552 regular-season NHL games with 250 wins, 195 losses and 90 ties. He posted 37 regular-season shutouts and had a goals-against average of 2.52. Combining his AHL and NHL appearances, he appeared in a total of 1207 regular-season games. He won the Vezina trophy twice and had his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup that one time, with the 1966-67 Maple Leafs. After his retirement, he stayed in the Toronto organization, working as a goalie coach and a scout.

In his later years, he was involved in numerous charity causes and made numerous appearances for the Leafs on special occasions, including his (supposed) 90th birthday, always to warm applause. Right up until his death yesterday, Johnny Bower remained one of the most beloved Leafs. He will be missed by his former teammates, Toronto fans, and all those who love the greatest winter sport of all, including... Yours very truly, Poor Len Canayen.

Footnote: The defenceman shown in the picture, No. 7, is Tim Horton. Canadians will know what that means.

Poor Len sets the table for the NHL Stanley Cup finals

Poor Len here here, with a few words before catching up on my sleep after Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference finals. I won't pretend it was a great hockey game, and the result seemed to me inevitable. After 85 minutes of play, Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Ottawa Senators 3-2.

A big tip of the toque goes to Sens beleaguered goalie Craig Anderson, who kept his team in there. Finally, though, Ottawa had the same problem that beset the Montréal Canadiens. It takes more than a great goalie and an all-star defenceman to win a championship. You have to have guaranteed goal-scorers up front. Pittsburgh has 3, and Ottawa... not so many.

Time now to review my picks (as adjusted) for the Stanley Cup finals, which begin this coming Monday night. I had the Eastern Conference pretty much figured out, although I thought (hoped?) the conference final would pit les Glorieux against the Penguins. The upside of being slightly wrong on that was that I didn't need my crying towel last night, and didn't lose any money. In fact I made a couple of bucks from Canucks dreaming of a big upset following their team's Game 6 win.

As for the Western Conference, the Nashville Predators continue to astound and confound me. I thought the Anaheim (Formerly Mighty) Ducks had a nicely balanced team and should have been able to get by the Preds. I underestimated Pekka Rinne, who is a contender for MVP in the playoffs and must be rated right up there -- perhaps above -- all-star goalies Carey Price, Hendrik Lundqvist and Braden Holtby, all of whom are now on the golf course or practising for the rodeo (Carey! Carey! Carey!) or whatever they do in the off season.

Nashville too has a nicely balanced team, and play as such, in spite of the efforts of one egotistical player (hello, P.K. Subban!) to glorify himself. (Memo to P.K.: Nothing wrong with blessing yourself before a game, if you're Catholic, but you don't kneel on the ice in front of your bench to do it. Nor do you tear off your sweater to reveal your black body after your team wins. Those showoff stunts are for soccer players.) I watched most of the Preds vs Ducks games, waiting for Mr Ego or someone else to make some horrible gaffe. No-one did. Congratulations to coach Peter Laviolette on great work getting these guys to play as a team.

Will the Predators' (and Rinne's) hot streak continue through the Stanley Cup finals? Will Penguins' Phil Kessel be wrapped in a wet sheet and taken to the funny farm before the series ends? Will P.K. Subban "lose an edge" and cough up the puck for a Pittsburgh goal? Can almost-rookie goalie Matt Murray stand the heat for six or seven games? If not, will Marc-André Fleury be mentally ready to get back between the pipes? Should be an entertaining series. I stand by my earlier prediction: Pittsburgh in 6... or maybe 7. Lifetime pct (still) .973.

Poor Len offers strategic readjustments following NHL round 1

Poor Len Canayen here, recovering from shock after Round 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Hockey is Canada's national winter sport. [The national summer sport is lacrosse. You're welcome. Ed.] Being what eye yam, I support the NHL's so-called Canadian teams, and the Montréal Canadiens -- la Sainte Flannelle -- in particular. I was therefore pleased, after no Canadian teams made it into the 2015-16 playoffs, to see no fewer than five (5) in this year's first round. I admit my excitement may have influenced my predictions a bit. Here are some explanations and revisions.

Careful readers will notice that I cleverly picked nine (9) teams to qualify for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Only eight such spots exist so there was obviously a fudge factor there. The Tampa Bay Lightning didn't get in; the Boston Bruins did.

In the first round, I was surprised to see les Glorieux lose in 6 games to the New York Rangers. Rangers' goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, woke up after his worst-ever regular season performance, and was one goal better than Habs' Carey Price. The real difference, though, was Montréal's lack of scoring, and a couple of defensive gaffes. Look for Alex Galchenyuk and Nathan Beaulieu to play elsewhere next year. The Rangers go on to meet the Ottawa Senators, who bounced the aging and rebuilding Bruins in 6. No surprise there. I'll be cheering for Ottawa but predict Rangers in 6.

In the other half of the Eastern Conference, I really enjoyed the series between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs. The enthusiasm of Toronto fans, most of whom have never seen their team win a Stanley Cup, is contagious. The Leafs made it tough for the Caps, with all but one game going to overtime, before Alexander Ovechkin finally caught fire and put an end to things, in Game 6. Kudos to Toronto's goalie, Freddy Andersen, and certain Rookie of the Year, Auston Matthews. A couple of hundred miles to the west, the Pittsburgh Penguins put the Columbus Bluejackets out in 5. Bluejackets played over their heads for much of the regular season and had nothing left for the playoffs. Now it's OV vs Sid the Kid, and my bet is on the Penguins, in 7.

Further west, the really big surprise of Round 1 was seeing the Nashville Predators rout my favoured Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games straight! Chicago's goalie, Corey Crawford, was sub-par, while the Preds' Pekka Rinne was hot. My other pick in that series was the Minnesota Wild, who got dumped by the St Louis Blues in 5 games. Another case of having a better-than-expected regular season and then coming back down to earth in the second season. Also shows to go ya that (as with the Canadiens) you need more than a top-notch goalie. So it's Nashville vs St Louis next, and I'm going with St Louis in 7, just because I don't like Nashville.

Way out west, I expected the California teams to put out the Canucks -- meaning the Canadian teams, not the Vancouver Canucks, who didn't qualify -- and was half right. The Edmonton Oilers, led by the league's youngest captain and budding superstar, Connor McDavid, defeated the San Jose Sharks in 6 games. Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames were extinguished in 4 straight by the Anaheim Ducks. [Can't they do something about that name? Put the "Mighty" back in, or substitute "California" for "Anaheim", which I don't believe is a real place. Ed.] I would love to see Edmonton [also not a real place. Ed.] win the coming series vs Anaheim, but can't see betting that way unless somebody gives me good odds. Ducks in 6.

Looking farther ahead, Chicago's shocking first-round exit screws up my prediction of a Chicago-Pittsburgh final, not to mention the outcome. Unclear is the situation in the West. If the Ducks beat Edmonton, they should be able to dispose of either St Louis or Nashville, but... here it comes... in my crystal ball I see Sidney Crosby hoisting Lord Stanley's silverware one more time. Lifetime pct (after some slippage thanks to Round 1) .973.

Poor Len Canayen's Stanley Cup predictions

Ed. here. The National Hockey League regular season ends in a couple of weeks. We haven't heard a whole lot from our National Hockey Analyst, Poor Len Canayen, presumably because "his" team (the Montréal Canadiens) have been atop the Atlantic division most of the year, so we call on him now to explain why Les Glorieux will win the Stanley Cup... or not. Len?

Thank you, Ed. Here is the view from Ste-Thérèse, or Centre Ice, as she is known en anglais. Although the final standings are yet to be finalized, the picture of which teams will make the playoffs is pretty clear. I'll run it down for you, so you'll know which way to bet. First, the four contenders in each division.

Metropolitan Division
A much stronger division than could have been expected at the beginning of the year, thanks to an amazing run by the Columbus Bluejackets, backstopped by Sergei Bobrovsky, who looks to have a lock on the Vezina Trophy.
Washington Capitals finish in first, followed by Columbus, Pittsburgh Penguins and, just to make up the numbers, Tampa Bay Lightning.

Atlantic Division
After the first 11 games of the season, I figured the Montréal Canadiens would run away with the division, the Eastern Conference, and maybe the entire NHL. I didn't think they'd have to struggle to finish first. But they did and they will, provided Carey Price stays healthy and happy under Claude Julien. The Toronto Maple Leafs, with three great rookies, look to be in the playoffs, as do the Ottawa Senators, making possible a three-cornered battle to advance.
Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto and New York Rangers should be the final four, but I'm hedging my bet with a little money on Boston Bruins.

Central Division
The Chicago Blackhawks dominate the division and the Western Conference, with all-star forwards and fine coaching from Joel Quenneville. The Minnesota Wild (stupid name -- what's wrong with "Moose" or some other animal?) deserve to finish second.
Chicago, Minnesota, Nashville Predators, and St. Louis Blues. Only the first two matter.

Pacific Division
Two more Canadian teams look like going to the playoffs. Well, one, anyway -- the Edmonton Oilers. The Anaheim Ducks (formerly Mighty Ducks) and San Jose Sharks are the ones to beat. Bet on the Calgary Flames to squeak into the playoffs, only just.
Anaheim, San Jose, Edmonton, Calgary.

Now for my fearless predictions.

Quarter-finals

In the Metropolitan Division, I see the Caps choking, as usual. You can have a great goaltender (Braden Holtby) but you need more than one guaranteed ace scorer. If you have one, you're got a chance, which lets Columbus out. Winner: Pittsburgh Penguins.
If they do make it into the playoffs, Rangers won't go beyond the first round in the Atlantic Division. "King Henry" Lundqvist is past his best-by date. I'd love to see Montréal and Toronto clash, for the first time in many years. The Maple Laffs have been unable to beat the Habs since, errr, 2014, so that's a no-brainer. If it's Montréal vs Ottawa, you pick 'em. Winner: Montréal Canadiens.

Calling the Central Division is easy. The only question is how many games it will take Chicago to dispose of Minnesota. Winner: Chicago Blackhawks.
When it comes to the Pacific Division, I'm going to forget the analytics, and perhaps common sense too. Calgary will be lucky to be in the playoffs at all, but could be spoilers. My hope is for the Oilers to face off against the Sharks or the Ducks and surprise them, with the series-winning goal to be scored by... wait for it... little David Desharnais! Winner: Edmonton Oilers. [I'll take that bet. Ed.]

Semi-finals

Eastern Conference - I can only avoid statistics, analytics and common sense for so long. The Canadiens have the Greatest Goaltender in the World (TM) in Carey Price, but not one single forward that you can count on to score. The Penguins' goaltending is suspect, but with Sid the Kid and at least two other certified scorers, I don't see how they can lose. Pittsburgh over Montréal in 5 games, or 6, tops. Sorry.
Western Conference - Following the same reasoning, I don't think it matters much who wins the Pacific Division. The Blackhawks have the size and the speed, plus adequate goaltending and a bunch of guys who can find the back of their opponents' nets. Chicago beats Oilers in 5, or (if I was dreaming back there) Sharks in 7.

Stanley Cup Finals

That sets us up for another Chicago-Pittsburgh match-up, which would be a terrific contest between two evenly-matched teams, both of whom have hoisted Lord Stanley's silverware recently. My bet would be Chicago, in 7 close games. Lifetime pct .985.

Carey Price out for 6 weeks; P.K. Subban to learn to play defence

Poor Len Canayen here, with a report on Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens -- first in the Atlantic Division, first in the Eastern Conference, and first overall in the National Hockey League.

Yes, the Habs have made an excellent start on the road to the Stanley Cup -- their best since 1960. 25 games played, 18 wins, only 4 (four) losses in regulation time, and 3 losses in overtime/shootouts -- total 39 points. There are two reasons for this success: superior goaltending and lots of scoring.

The difference between the team's offence this year and last has been that of night and day. In the 2014-15 season the Habs won a lot of one-goal games, only because Carey Price generally allowed about 2 goals per game, and the defence corps usually managed to pot a couple, with the forwards lucky to find the back of the net once. So far this year, the Habs' goals-for-and-against record is +32 -- they've scored 32 more goals than they've allowed -- and everyone is contributing, even such unlikely types as Dale "the Machine" Weiss and Devante Smith-Pelly.

As for goaltending, Carey Price has been his usual magnificent self... he's been able to play. Something happened to him during the warm-up when the Canadiens were in Edmonton just over a month ago, and he missed over a week's worth of games. The new backup goalie, Mike Condon, proved more than equal to the task. In fact, his goals against average was even better than Price's for awhile there.

Carey Price came back for a couple of games against the NY Islanders on Nov. 22nd and 23rd, winning both, but had to leave the game on the 25th against the NY Rangers after the second period. Condon finished that game (counts as a win for Price) and has played well in two games against the Jersey Devils this weekend (3-2 shootout win, 2-3 overtime loss).

Now the bad news. Carey Price apparently re-injured himself, or aggravated the October injury, not having been allowed enough time to heal properly. The team says only that it's a "lower-body injury", which could mean anywhere from groin to ankle. Whatever it is, they're not going to hurry Price back between the pipes this time. He will be out for six (6) weeks, during which time the Habs will have to get along without him.

That means the pressure on Mike Condon is going to be intense... INNN-TENSE! In his last two games, you could see that he has been learning from Carey Price, trying to stay calm and quiet in the net, learning to handle the puck to help out the defence when they're shorthanded. But can he keep it up until mid-January?

And what happens when they have to play back-to-back games? The usual strategy is to let the No. 1 goalie play one game and put the backup goalie in for the other. The backup is little Dustin Tokarski, who had the position last year but was relegated to the AHL farm team. IMHO, Tokarski would have trouble stopping a taxi on rue Ste-Catherine, so that's a problem, but I have a solution!

Here it is, the latest in a long string of brilliant ideas which I pass on to Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien gratis. [Your advice is worth every penny! Ed.] I suggest someone teach the Habs' "star defenceman", P.K. Subban, how to actually play defence. They're paying him 9 million beaver-bucks a year because of his prowess on offence, which is fine if you've got a Carey Price to bail him out when he gets caught deep in the opponents' zone or coughs up the puck at his own blueline. But when you have a more mortal, it's time for to make helping the goalie Job No. 1. Selah.

Stanley Cup: Chicago vs... errr... BOSTON?!

Walt will man up and admit when he's wrong. Or even half-wrong, as was the case with my predictions for the Stanley Cup semi-finals.

I was right about the Western Conference clash between Chicago and Los Angeles. Last night, in the second double-overtime game in a row, the Blackhawks prevailed to win the game 4-3 and the series 4 games to 1.

Noteworthy: The Los Angeles team's first goal was scored by #74, known to those fans not afraid of being punished for blasphemy as "King of Kings".

Trivia: The Blackhawks have (IMHO) the second-coolest sweaters (not jerseys!) in the league. Not counting black and white as colours, how many colours can be seen on said sweaters? Answer later.

Meanwhile in Beantown... the Pittsburgh penguins folded up like a cheap suit and were swept by the big bad Bruins of Boston in four straight games. Walt is ahhh-mazed. How a team with Crosby, Iginla, Malin, Neal and Letang could have trouble scoring is beyond me.

Score on Walt's prediction for the semi-finals: .500. Lifetime pct. .978.

What about the Stanley Cup final? It's axiomatic that it winning playoffs all comes down to goaltending. Chicago's Corey Crawford is usually very good, "usually" being the key word here. Boston's Tuuka Rask is almost always excellent. Although I'd love to be wrong, I'm betting on the Bruins.

Answer to trivia question: Looks like SIX (6) colours to me: red, tan (or whatever colour the Indian is), yellow, green, dark red and orange -- the most colours on any NHL sweater.