The reasons for this are many. Recently, the injuries sustained to key players became too much to bear. As much heat as Carey Price took in the final weeks of the season for sub-par play, we saw last night exactly what would happen to this team if Carey wasn’t the goalie for the long-term. This is not to over-state the importance of one guy, or to disparage the play of Peter Budaj, who frankly played as well as you could expect from a back up that rarely played this season. Still, the loss of Price to injury all but sealed this series as over for the Habs.

It didn’t stop there though. The loss of Lars Eller was an incredible blow to this team. And seriously – just how crazy a thought is that given how his season started? Its amazing to think of his very public benching earlier this year, given how incredibly he responded, finally getting the opportunity to play with skilled wingers instead of plugs. I’ve been a very public booster of Eller’s talent ever since the trade with St. Louis happened. He’s far from the perfect player, but his skill set as a skilled forward with good size and amazing vision is going to be critical to the Habs success next year and beyond.

I’m definitely bringing up the size issue because in this series – possibly more than in any other year, Montreal’s sheer lack of size was on full display. The spark of what could be is right there on view. Subban, Gallagher, Galchenyuk, Pacioretty, and Eller all played significant roles on this club. We saw glimpses of the future on defense in cameos by Jarred Tinordi, Nathan Beulieau, and Greg Pateryn. But there is some serious reason for concern as the team flips the calendar pages toward next season.

Andrei Markov started the year on a tear – and ended with a thud. The veteran defender is still an elite powerplay defenseman. Markov ended the season 3rd in goals and 4th for points among NHL defenseman, but in every other facet of the game, Markov started to show that he simply cannot be relied upon to play big minutes for a playoff contending team. Next year is the final of his current contract, and one certainly wonders whether or not he’ll be back again after that.

We can certainly expect that Tomas Kaberle will be bought out before the start of the 2013-14 season, lessening slightly the cap burden on the club – but at some point (and I expect early) in the season next year the Habs are going to need to lock up PK Subban long-term. There is no way at all that Montreal gets a discount on his next contract after what took place to start the year. Eric Karlsson makes $6.5M. Drew Doughty makes $7M. You don’t like those numbers? Tough. Dion Phanuef makes $6.5 which means PK’s agent is about to do very well.

Montreal’s defensive log-jam is further complicated by the dearth of rookies waiting to get NHL time, and the dearth of smallish NHL defensemen already signed to contract. If Raphael Diaz has a spot on your roster, you simply can’t afford to employ Francis Bouillion, Josh Gorges, and Yannik Weber. It seems crazy to speak ill of the former two players, given the fact that they play their guts out every game – but Ottawa showed that having a big, physical blue line is the best way to make sure that the types of scrambles that led to Montreal’s undoing in Game 4 don’t happen. The trick is to find big guys who are mobile and compliment them with the offensive guys like Subban and Markov. Josh Gorges is a warrior, but he’s not giving Montreal what Ottawa got from their young blueline.

I’m going to leave it there for now. I’m sure on the coming months there will be much to talk about with this team. As I said off the top – there is a core of young talent on this team that is good enough to ensure that Montreal is in the playoffs for years to come, but they need big help in the most literal sense.

Great season guys. It hurts right now – but a huge thank you to all of the people who come on this site, who participate, and follow this club through all of the ebbs and flows. It makes us crazy, and bitchy, and ecstatic – usually in the space of one period. It wouldn’t work without you.

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

The playoffs unfortunately have been an altogether different experience. The list of casualties is becoming rather long and dispiriting. Even if the miraculous happened, and Montreal were able to win the next 3 games of their first round series, they would need to do so without some incredibly critical players.

Lars Eller is done for the year. The injuries that he sustained during the violent open-ice check will require a significant amount of time to heal. He is reported to have skated with the team yesterday, which is fantastic news, but anyone who has suffered facial fractures knows that he will not be playing full-contact any time in the near-future.

Brian Gionta is also gone for the duration of play. Gionta re-injured his left bicept in Game 1 of the series which required surgery yesterday to fix. This definitely explains the quiet series for the captain who certainly did not look comfortable at any point this post season.

It was also revealed yesterday that Alexei Emelin has not yet had surgery on his knee following the devastating fall he took on a check that he put on Milan Lucic in April. This is definite grounds for concern as the recovery time for that type of injury necessitates a long rehabilitation meaning the Montreal will likely be without the services of Emelin for much of the first half of next season as well.

Ryan White and Brandon Prust are both unavailable for Game 5 due to upper body injuries. The latter never really looked healed from his separated shoulder injury sustained late in the regular season.I would be shocked if Prust were to return for Game 6 even if Montreal is able to grit out a win tonight, given that he has added an injury to his abdomen to his already ailing shoulder.

The final nail in the coffin is the injury to Carey Price. Price has been insanely durable through his career, but suffered a lower body injury on the final shot of regulation time in Game 4 of this series. Price hobbled from the ice following the awkward stretch and did not return in Montreal’s heart-breaking loss. He will not return to this series however much longer it lasts -suffering from what is almost certainly a strained or pulled muscle in his leg(s) or groin.

Michael Blunden has been inserted into the lineup in place of Brandon Prust and will at least give the Habs a player who has experience playing NHL hockey. The other player who will step in to the lineup has not been announced as of yet, but HIO has reported that Michael Bournival participated in the morning skate. Bournival has played big games in the past as a part of Team Canada at the World Juniors, but he is going to be in tough to make much of a contribution tonight in his first ever NHL playoff game.

I hate to be a pessimist (not really) but it doesn’t look good for your Canadiens tonight. Those injuries are going to be extremely difficult to overcome, and while it isn’t over until you lose 4 games, you can be forgiven if you don’t like the Habs odds in this one.

Let’s hope for the miraculous!

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

I bring this up again because I think this also occurs over the course of a playoff series (especially early). Montreal lost the first game of this series and then suited up for game 2 without Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller or Brian Gionta. The sentiment out there in the ether was that the Habs were done. Stick a fork in ‘em.

Then they won. Not only did they win, they won convincingly. It wasn’t a rout, but the Habs were the better team, and having pumped 50 shots on net in the game prior – the pundits and commentariat declared that this was Montreal’s series to win.

And then they lost. This time it was a rout. It got ugly. It got violent. The optics are bad. The team lost the puck battles, they lost the goalie battles and they lost the fights. They were forced to play a game that they aren’t comfortable with and now, it seems as though their number is up. Ottawa surely seems like the stronger of the two clubs, given how thoroughly they won game 3.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that in the playoffs you really need to forget what happened in the prior game. Game 4 has nothing to do with Game 3. What took place over the course of 3 periods has no bearing on what will happen tonight, and if you expect to see more of the same – then more times than not you will be wrong. This is no guarantee. I’m not saying that there won’t be a fight, or that there is no chance that we see a soft goal, or a defensive lapse. We’ve seen too much playoff hockey over the past few years (excluding last year of course) to expect that a series could be over simply because one team has a 2-1 lead. Montreal has overcome greater challenges than this in recent history.

Thoughts on the Norris

I did want to mention that PK Subban has been named a finalist for the Norris Trophy along with Kris Letang and Ryan Suter. In the end I think that PK’s goals (11) will probably give him the edge over Letang (5) – who ended up tied with Subban for regular season points.  Letang averaged more ice-time per game than Subban, though in fewer shifts per game. All of this will more than likely be moot however, as I suspect that Subban will probably lose the Norris to a more established player in Ryan Suter, who played more than 27 minutes per game and amassed 32 points. This is in no way a slam dunk, but the perception out there is that Suter’s overall game was more consistent than Subban’s over the course of the season.

I’m torn on this issue. I love PK Subban’s game and I’m admittedly biased in how I view these two players. I honestly also think that we’re just starting to see the true talent level that PK has. The fact that he’s a candidate for Norris at 23 years old is phenomenal. Even as a huge fan, I see room to grow in his game and ultimately I think this is why many will vote for Suter. PK probably made too many headlines this season for reasons other than his play on the ice, which always has an effect with the writers who vote for these awards. Ryan Suter is a fantastic defenseman though so my point is definitely not to suggest that the award was PK’s to lose. I’d love for the Habs to be able to sign Subban long term for something less than ALL of the money.. so maybe I’m biased in that direction too.

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

Go Habs Go!!
~Mats

Honestly.. It was a sickening sight to behold last evening to see a player lying unconscious, unaware that from his face a gush of blood was spurting on to the ice. Regardless of all else that has and will be said on the issue, I hope we can all acknowledge that a promising young player was hurt in a way that no one wants to see. I know that hockey is a fast game and that the play that was made by Eric Gryba was not the sole reason that Eller suffered such horrendous injuries. But I also know that I’ve never seen a player fall face-first to the ice without protecting themselves if they hadn’t been knocked unconscious while on their feet.Whether or not the head was the only or principle point of contact is for Brendan Shannahan to solve. Personally I don’t care whether or not Gryba caught some of Eller’s shoulder. I’ve said the same many times when Habs players were on the other end of the hit.

As has been the case just about every time a Montreal Canadiens player has been involved with a controversial play over the last 5 years – the hockey world has been quick to rush to the court of public opinion to explain away how this was a hockey play, or somehow the Canadiens themselves were to blame for the hit to the head. I find the whole thing exhausting, lame, tired, dishonest, and boring. No punishment that the NHL could hand down will magically insert the Montreal Canadiens’ best centreman back into the lineup.

That really is the worst part in all of this. Going into the game we all understood that if the Habs were going to have a chance at victory in this series, they would need an outstanding performance from Carey Price, and they would need to generate a truck load of scoring chances given how amazing Craig Anderson has been this year. Price wasn’t outstanding, and scoring goals is going to be a lot harder with the Habs missing the player who generated the most offensive chances on the team over the final 15 games of the season.

To add insult to injury, it was disclosed that both Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta will miss tonight’s game with “upper body” injuries. This may explain why Gionta had such an invisible night himself collecting only two shots of the Habs 50, and why Pacioretty was held off of the scoresheet in almost 20 minutes of action. The question is: who will replace them?

Montreal will now be missing Gionta, Eller and Pacioretty, who combined for 37 regular season goals. The assumption was that Colby Armstrong would be the first player into the lineup should a player get hurt, but there is no way the Habs were planning on losing 3 players in the first game of the playoffs. Montreal will certainly not be able to muster 50 shots tonight. They are going to have to try to get back to a game plan that includes puck possession, traffic in front of the net, and defensive hockey that can limit the one-off chances that lately have crippled this hockey team.

I’m cheering for my team – but before game 2 – things look pretty bleak.

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

Its that time of year where you can get pre-game jitters at breakfast! Tonight the Habs will face the Ottawa Senators in Game One of their first round playoff series. The fun gets underway in Montreal tonight for a series that has all of the potential to be an epic one.

The rivalry between the Canadiens and the team from “down the street” has always been somewhat underwhelming. This is probably in part due to the phenomenal rivalries that both teams enjoy with other teams in their division. Montreal-Boston IS the rivalry. Toronto-Ottawa has in the past been a close second. Because this is the first time that these two clubs will meet in the post-season, they have never had the chance to develop that special feeling toward one another.

But here it is. Both teams are young. Both teams are hungry. The stage is really set – and if we see a good series, we could have the makings of a very FUN rivalry going forward.

There is enough hyperbole and narrative to fill a hundred newspapers at this point. I’m not going to get into that. Both teams like their chances – and they have every reason to. A quick start in this game could have a big effect on the series – but I’m going to warn for caution at this point regardless of how tonight plays out. We’ve had enough playoff experience in the past few years to know very well that the top seed doesn’t always win and that you don’t win or lose a series in Game 1. A good start can’t hurt though. So let’s get on them!

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

So what do you guys think about this first series? Ottawa has typically given Montreal fits. Though the Habs controlled the play during most of the season series – Ottawa’s other-worldly goaltending was supremely good. The Sens are bolstered by the return of their Norris-winning Swedish defender Erik Karlsson. But who will score their points? Their top scorer this season was Kyle Turris. Surely they miss the presence of Jason Spezza.

How do your Habs stack up?

Just play smart!

Go Habs Go!!
~Mats

Jarred Tinordi was among the callups that have been added to the expanded roster once the AHL season ended for the Bulldogs. Tonight he will find himself in the lineup as Montreal attempts to find a way to beef up its defense corps. I think this is an excellent idea. I would also consider bringing Drewiske back into the lineup. Anything so we don’t need to see Raphael Diaz and Yannik Weber in the same defense corps. No offense to those guys, but when you consider the fact that they play in a lineup that also features Andre Markov, PK Subban, and Josh Gorges necessitates that Montreal find someone to play physically. They don’t need to fight every shift – but they have to be able to win a puck battle in the corner.

Anyway – I’m not going to get into the hyperbole of this being an important game. It is. But not for the standings or any win/loss record. Tonight is an important game to see if Montreal can play well. That’s all I’m looking for tonight. Its not asking too much.

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats

No one could confuse the start of the NHL playoffs with a sprint. They are a war. When the second season starts you go to the battle with the army you have. In this regard, the short 2 day break that followed yet another lopsided loss couldn’t have come at a better time. With a couple days to regroup, this Montreal squad has had an opportunity to look in the mirror, to rest bumps and bruises, and most importantly – to practice together for the final three games of the season. In doing so, Montreal worked to regain the habits and cohesion that led them to incredible success in the first 40 games.

In this regard, one hopes that the Habs can view the next 3 games as a low-pressure tune-up rather than a high-stakes dog-fight. The team currently sits 4 points clear of Toronto for 4th spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal could finish 2nd, 4th or 5th. Ultimately, the difference between those is small. All of the matchups in the East are going to be tight. There really aren’t any push-overs in playoff contention this season. Sure, home-ice advantage could be an important issue, but essentially the most important key to the final three games is to be playing the best hockey once game one of the playoffs finally happens. Whether the team wins tonight, or not at all over the next 3 games, they are guaranteed to be in the playoffs. As long as they can sort out the defensive lapses, and goaltending issues that have arisen over the past five games, the rest are details.

So tonight is an opportunity for the Montreal Canadiens. It was not that long ago that we were all praising this team’s work-ethic, cohesion, and tenacity. Despite the injury to Alexei Emelin, the cast of players remains unchanged. All that is left is to regain that confident swagger that served this team so well for the majority of the regular season. Doing so will require attention to detail, commitment to the system, and calm in the face of adversity, and heck – a little puck luck wouldn’t hurt.

Go Habs Go!!

~Mats