Now that we have that out of the way…...

An exclusive photo, provided by the CBC’s Michel Godbout, from the Price family ranch in Williams Lake, BC.

Looks like the picket signs will not be needed after all, and will be used for a Labour Day bonfire, now that Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price has signed a two-year deal.

So can we all breathe again folks?????

With that out of the way, yours truly is taking some time off from the blogging world. So unless something mega-dramatic happens, there won’t be much new to see here until training camp begins.

Not going anywhere, as I will still be checking in on Twitter regularly, I’m just going to recharge the batteries and read a hockey book or four while doing some offline preparation for the upcoming season.

I will also be making a special announcement, regarding the future of Ya! The Habs Rule! in the coming weeks as well.

BBS!

Roping in some Habs reflections and predictions

Just tightening up the noose on a few links and stories that I’ve come across on the Habs over the past few days.

Carey Price: He’s on a horse. No, not like the Old Spice guy! Price took part in a rodeo event over the weekend. The following is the excerpt on his performance from the Chilliwack Times.

“Team roping, in which one rider attempts to lasso a calf's horns and another goes for a hind leg, doesn't normally get as much attention as the wild-animal riding contests. But Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price's attempt to snare a couple of calves shone a light on the sport.

Price learned the ropes, so to speak, on Friday and Saturday, before giving the event a go for real on Sunday. He should stick to hockey; he recorded two no-time scores as he was unable to snare the calf's hind leg with his lasso. But despite his lack of team-roping talent, Price was a hit with locals, according to organizer Helen Larson.

"The kids loved it; he posed for lots of pictures . . . and answered all the kids' questions," said Larson, who had Price sign her own Canadiens jersey, bought specially for the rodeo.

For those wondering, team roping was the only event the NHL would let Price participate in.”

It was the third event for Price in the B.C. Rodeo Association. He ranks 6th in the BCRA rookie of the year standings, earning $934.52 in prize money.

Clearly the Montreal Canadiens would rather that Price stick to his day job, once he signs a contract with them that is..Don’t worry kids, it will happen shortly.

Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau: “The horror! The horror!”

Boudreau was recently at an autograph signing in Toronto. I really should have gone and got him to sign a pic of that dumbfounded look he had after Game Seven. My first idea was to wear my Habs jersey under my jacket and go, “BOO!” would have been much more fun though.

A look at “old-time hockey: Dennis Kane profiles Habs Hall of Famer Sprague Cleghorn, arguably one of the baddest and dirtiest players in the game during his era.

All eyes on the blueline: The Checking Line’s George Prax looks at the Montreal Canadiens rear guards as training camp looms closer.

The Subban Network: P.K. Subban talked to TSN about his high expectations for the upcoming season.

Subban has been spending this past week, along with Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and other NHL stars at the BioSteel Sports Pro Hockey Week in Toronto. The Fourth Period brings exclusive photos, as well as video interviews with the participating players on their main page.

Gomez and Cammalleri on Price: While at the training session, Scott Gomez and Mike Cammaleri talked to Rogers Sportsnet on Carey Price.

Fantasy Forecasts: Crash the Crease looks at the Canadiens Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri and former Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak as fans start putting their fantasy rosters together.

Moving on to more predictions and prognostications: Alexandre Harvey, from the Canadiens’ website, looks at predictions on the team’s upcoming season and individual performances from Pro Pool, the Hockey News and Hockey le Magazine.

NHL.com looks at the Habs upcoming season in their “30-in-30” series.

The things Stevie-Y should really take from Montreal: A nice list, put together by The Active Stick, on some items that the Tampa Bay Lightning can just plain have, without argument.

Habs give Price a birthday gift, trade closest rival

Well it’s Carey Price’s 23rd birthday. I had expected that the Montreal Canadiens would have announced a new contract on his special day. It hasn’t happened as of 9pm EST, but there’s still time.

The Canadiens appear to have given him an early gift though, to perhaps make the contract negotiations go more smoothly.

Late Monday evening the Canadiens traded goaltender Cedrick Desjardins to the Tampa Bay Lightning for, wait for it…..Karri Ramo.

Here are the releases from the Canadiens and the Lightning.

Desjardins was recently ranked in the Canadiens Top-20 prospects by HockeysFuture earlier this month. More partial to goalies, I had him in the top 12 on a project I was working on..

Desjardins was coming off a career season with the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL), posting a 29-9-4 record with a 2.00 GAA, .919 SvPct and six shutouts.

The 24-year-old had just signed a one-year, $550,000 deal with the Canadiens. Playing in Hamilton, he would make $65K.

Ramo, also 24, spent last season in the KHL with Omsk (21-17-4, 2.11, .913) and has one year remaining in his contract with the club.

His NHL career numbers, all with Tampa, are a meager 11-21-10 with a 3.35 GAA and a paltry .885 SvPct.

Does anyone see this as a real head scratcher, in terms of an even trade? Probably not, but I think I can see the method to Habs GM Pierre Gauthier’s madness. I repeat, I think!

The move essentially gives Alex Auld the uncontested backup roll for the Canadiens this season. That was pretty much a given anyway, and Auld was prepared for that and to mentor Carey Price.

With Ramo committed to the KHL for another year, and veteran Curtis Sandford signed to a two-way deal, Robert Mayer should move up to Hamilton this season after playing last season in the ECHL.

Mayer would be at least a year from hitting the NHL, barring any serious injury issues.

That takes us back to the birthday boy.

By moving Desjardins, it essentially leaves Price with no serious contention in his age range down the road in Montreal.

Gauthier now gives Price and his agent some assurance in terms of contract length potential. Basically saying, “We want you to be our go to guy, and this is what we are willing to do for you. There’s nobody there to take your spot.”

It’s a true gamble and demonstration of commitment by the Canadiens to their 2005 First-Round pick. It may have been just what Price needed to keep any challenges/threats out of his head and focus on being the “franchise player” that he has been touted to become.

Fans may call it odd, but chances are the Canadiens and of course Price see it as job security.

We should get some more details over the next day or two, but I smell a signing by week’s end.

Former Av’s draft pick invited to Habs rookie camp: In a report from Metro Halifax’s Matthiew Wuest, the Canadiens have invited Halifax Mooseheads goalie Peter Delmas to their rookie camp.

Delmas, 20, was drafted 61st overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2008. This is his review at Hockey’s Future.

Seeking answers to the Habs goaltending decisions.

The second biggest free agent concern for the Montreal Canadiens, after centre Tomas Plekanec, is how to deal with their goaltenders.

GM Pierre Gauthier’s concerns grew bigger when Jaroslav Halak came out as the teams No. 1 man between the pipes and had a spectacular playoff run.

Halak, through his agent Allan Walsh, had made it quite clear that he wanted to play regularly. He was given the chance by coach Jacques Martin, when Carey Price struggled, and it paid off.

At the beginning of the season, many felt Price would emerge as the top goaltender, making Halak more expendable when the duo became restricted free agents (RFA). Now, it’s not the case.

The question now is whether Price, who is an RFA for the first time, will be wanting to even stay in Montreal. It hasn’t been a good two seasons for Price, as the 22-year-old had moments of brilliance followed by runs of disappointment. The pressure of living and playing in a “What have you done for me, lately?” hockey town like Montreal has to add to his decisions.

The Canadiens know that Price is still learning and would be absolutely foolish to trade away their first round pick in 2005, especially when his stock value is down. For them to do so, it would have to be a massive deal, that evens out long-term for Montreal, to let Price go before he reaches his prime.

Halak’s stock has clearly soared, meaning he’ll seek earn top-dollar at his RFA level and likely be after a long-term deal somewhere. With the Canadiens on a tight cap already, it could be hard for the two sides to come to an agreement without clearing cap room.

In the cap era NHL, the Gauthier and advisor Bob Gainey have to be thinking of strategies and counter measures to keep at least one of these goaltenders. To let both go would be team suicide.

To keep Halak, and move Price, gives Montreal a goalie at the ready to be the No.1 guy. Cedrick Desjardins, who had a tremendous season with the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL), could be called on as the backup.

Desjardins has seen success at the Junior and ECHL level, winning championships in both, and led his team to the Calder Cup Conference final this season.

"They're going to have to make a decision," said Desjardins in an April 2009 interview with The Hockey News. "When they make that decision, I want them to consider that I'll be there.”

The 24-year-old’s contract is also up. Giving him some incentive to get his shot with the big club might save the Canadiens some money on a quality backup.

The question to keep Halak over Price does bring a bit of risk. Was his playoff run the pinnacle of his career with the Canadiens?

In Price’s case, he’s admitted to wanting to do what’s good for the team and could be easier to negotiate with to stay in Montreal. The Canadiens could be able to find a suitable veteran goalie to take the lead for another year or two while he continues to learn.

The Nashville Predators Dan Ellis could be a leading candidate in that regard.

After losing/splitting the starting job in Music City to Pekka Rinne, Ellis continued to put up respectable numbers and is a goalie strong under high shot totals. If the Canadiens are to be pelted with shots, the way Halak saw in the first two rounds of the playoffs, for another year or so then this is your man.

He’ll be 30, and a UFA, by July 1 with a current salary of $1.75 million and could be a nice fit in the Canadiens cap range.

The Hockey News recently ranked him as one of the “Top 10 Best Free Agents” last week, noting, “Ellis is a guy who will want to go some place he has a chance to steal some minutes, and even take over the No. 1 spot. But he won’t command many dollars to do so.” If Halak’s demands were too great, Ellis could be a good “Plan B” if the price was right. No pun intended.

Of course, Gauthier could work a deal to keep both netminders happy with a respectable salary. At the end of the 2008-09 season, maybe that could have happened. It would be surprising to see him be able to do it now.

Emotional maturity still a problem for Habs Price

Carey Price got a second misconduct penalty for this immature tap from the bench to Nicklas backstrom Wednesday night. – photo: Reuters

For the last couple seasons, we’ve heard from fans and bloggers alike that Carey Price needs to mature a few more years before he begins to the excel in the Montreal Canadiens goal.

The end of the third period on Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals showed evidence of that process is clearly needed at the emotional level.

On two separate occasions, the Habs netminder took unnecessary unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Both incidents are shown in the video below. It is followed with some post-game comments by Price.

The essential response from Price on the first infraction comes out this way, “It’s frustration. It’s not a good move. Let them know I’m there.”

To the next question, Price responds, “ I didn’t actually mean to hit them.”

So he admits that it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I’m stumped when he said, “Let them know I’m there” ? Sounds like there was intent to at least get the puck in the Capitals vicinity.

I never made it to the pros,or anything close for that matter, as people who play with me can attest to, but one thing I’ve never done in a game playing goal is shoot a puck at an opposing player or official. That’s just plain stupid.

Slam your stick on the post, yes. Shove or poke an opposing player in your crease short of going full Hextall, hell yes. Give your team mates crap, fine. But shoot a puck like that?

Just under eight minutes later, the boy wonder gives Nicklas Backstrom a tap on the leg from the bench.

Strike two on this one as it was clearly deliberate when seen in the below video and more stated in the top photo. You can see Price’s glove hand move the stick at Backstrom around the 52 second mark.

Coaches and teammates were quick to defend Price, who will not be disciplined for either infraction by the NHL.

"He's an emotional person but he's still learning," said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin post-game. "You don't want to take away that passion, you just want to direct it the right way."

Martin continued to back his netminder following Thursday’s team meeting, “You need to have emotion, it’s really important to play with it in a game at a high level. But at the same time, you have to have controlled emotion.”

“I’ve said it all year, I love Carey’s passion,” said team mate Mike Cammalleri. “There’s nothing better than when he shows it.”

Controlled emotion or common sense? I can think of two or three NHL coaches that would not have been to generous in their assumptions.

I can also remember another incident or two, where Price’s “passion” was questioned last season.

Immaturity aside, expect to see #31 between the pipes Friday night. Price clearly wasn’t to blame for the overall end result.

The Ovechkin snow job: I never saw it at the start of the game, but the tweets I read post-game made it sound like he sprayed him with a water bottle.

Get over it, folks. He does that every game and maybe he’ll be a little more careful next time. The kid shouldn’t of been waiving the flag in front of the Capitals door anyways. Besides, he was likely the most popular kid in school today.

Habs Playoff Fact: The Canadiens have only come back from a 3-1 series deficit once in the franchise’s history.

Spacek out for Game Five: Jaroslav Spacek didn’t make the trip to Washington as he continues to battle a virus. That means the Canadiens will field the same six defenceman used in Game Four.

Hamrlik ice-time on the decline: La Presse’s Marc-Antione Godin made this notable tweet this afternoon, “Roman Hamrlik has been used less and less in the Mtl-Was series. His ice time has dropped from 23:19 to 15:27 in a four-game span.”

Interesting, given the loss of Spacek for Wednesday’s game. Then again he’s been the goat on both of the Capitals short-handed goals in the series. Personally I don’t understand using the aging rearguard on the power play to begin with.

Looking for work:  It’s a real shame that Moscow Dynamo will cease to be. The loss of the 64-year-old Russian hockey franchise would be the equivalent to an Original Six NHL team (yes even the Leafs) either folding or merging with say, Florida.

Dynamo is the second most famous club team in Russia, behind Central Red Army.

An excellent piece on the teams decline from TSN features insight from Yahoo! Sports’ Dimitri Chesnokov, who broke the story last week.

The club will release all players, coaches and staff on April 30.

One of the soon-to-be unemployed is former Habs prospect Pavel Valentenko, who bolted the Hamilton Bulldogs for the KHL. He is now NHL property of the New York Rangers following the Scott Gomez trade.

Afterthoughts on Game Three

I don’t know but last night may have been the most disgusted I ever felt as a fan of the Montreal Canadiens. Maybe it’s just the heat of the playoffs, as I’m sure there have been more disheartening moments over the years. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up on by beloved Habs, not at all. Just a little pissed off.

Instead of going on a rant that will likely contradict myself three times over, and the fact I’m short on time today, I thought I’d skim the good old WWW to see how others have been feeling.

First up, Dennis Kane gives his brief yet defining look back at Monday’s disaster.

Next my buddy Abe Hefter from CJAD gives his evaluation. Abe notes what was mentioned during the second intermission on TSN, that it didn’t matter who was in goal in the second period. The team simply pulled a disappearing act. Abe also sees Carey Price in for Game Four.

On that note, Robert Lefebvre asks you who you feel should be in goal, Price or Halak?

Before you vote, here’s what the two goalies said after Tuesday practice:

Halak: “We had a good first period. We had some chances and we didn’t score. It wasn’t the start we wanted in the second period. It still could be a long series. We’ve gotta put it behind us and start fresh tomorrow.”

Carey Price on the Capitals attack: “That’s their bread and butter, shooting pucks, getting pucks at the net and crashing the net. That’s why they scored 100 goals more than we did.”

…and on handling the crease crashing: “I’m a pretty big boy, I can handle myself. That could be advantage us. If they’re still coming to the net and we don’t retaliate, we could be drawing penalties.”

The entrenched blogger Arpon Basu, of the Daily Hab-it , says it’s not time to jump off the ledge, yet. You can also find a link to his CBC blog, in which he gets no credit for by name on the site – just sayin’, and his CP article there as well.

Oh Canadiens has a playoff beard contest going. Here’s the latest entry. I always saw MetricJulie more as a goatee gal myself.

Canadiens coach Jacques Martin has been under the gun from Robert, myself and other fans and bloggers alike in the past several days.

Scott Burnside, whos is covering the Capitals/Canadiens series for ESPN, seems to back some of our feeling that Martin lacks in emotion in his Tuesday writeup.

On the good side, there are reports that Martin has contacted the playoff series supervisor regarding the bumping of his goalies, and was more in conversation with referees during the game. I didn’t realize JM was a subscriber to my feed.

Nonetheless, Kyle Roussel has given us 22 reasons to fire the Habs bench boss. Four Habs Fans already have a replacement in mind. Could he be any worse?

Martin was observing the Capitals practice, on Tuesday morning, that focused primarily on a Washington power play that is 0 for the playoffs. Did Martin learn anything to counter it, or will Ovechkin and company light it up with the man advantage? Why do I sense the latter?

Canadiens.com has five keys to Game Four. This is rather interesting as it relates to the  post that I will have up Wednesday morning.

That’s it for today. I’m off to my last pick-up game of the season before they tear out the ice at the local rink.

Capitals/Canadiens Game Three: It was a game, for 20 minutes

The Washington Capitals took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night – Washington Post photo

Playoff hockey in Montreal is a sight to behold. The fans walking the streets have more life in their step and the Bell Centre crowd is always loud an excited. Unfortunately when the Montreal Canadiens don’t echo that feeling, or only show it for the first 20 minutes, home ice advantage quickly becomes non-existent.

Such was was the case in Monday’s Game Three playoff matchup against the Washington Capitals. The top seed in the Eastern Conference had four unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 5-1 win and a 2-1 series lead.

The pre-game opening featured a young lad, in a Canadiens “rocket” Richard jersey, carrying out the fabled torch to ignite a eye-popping lighting display.

With Habs legend Jean Beliveau appearing at the Bell Centre for the first time since his January stroke, all the positive energy appeared to be in place.

The Canadiens came out the gate, much like the Capitals had in the first two games, mounting the offensive pressure and limiting their opponents scoring chances.

Despite being out hit 15-7, the home team was ahead in shots in the first period for the first time in the series (10-7). Capitals Captain Alexander Ovechkin was held without a shot in the opening 20 minutes.

The Canadiens shut down two Capitals power plays, and even had more scoring opportunities than their opponents in the first one.

Since their power play units couldn’t connect, the Capitals gave it a shot with the PK unit in the second period. It worked when Tom Poti’s clearing shot eluded the Montreal power play, allowing Boyd Gordon to move in and cash his own rebound, between the legs of Jaroslav Halak, at 1:06.

Gordon, a healthy scratch in Game Two and not known for his scoring, emphasized the depth of the Capitals offence. “We’ve got a lot of quality guys on this team that can step in and play,” he said. “We have to take advantage of our opportunities when we get them.”

If the Capitals shorthanded goal didn’t silence the Bell Centre crowd, Brooks Laich’s screened point shot at 4:42 certainly did.

Three and a half minutes later, Washington increased their lead to three when Eric Fehr swept in to find a rebound right in front of Halak.

“It feels good coming into a hostile environment like this and play the game we play,” Fehr said. “It’s a tough building to play in for both teams. We were able to quiet the crowd down in the second period.”

Allowing three goals on the last six shots faced, and 8 in his last 28, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin pulled his starting goaltender in favour of Carey Price.

“You’re trying to change the momentum at that point,” Martin said. “We had a tremendous first period and lost our momentum and they capitalized.”

Things didn’t get any better as Ovechkin dumped the puck into the corner. Nicklas Backstrom got to the puck back out to his captain. Left wide open , and with a perfect shooting lane, Ovechkin made good on his only shot of the game to make it 4-0.

“It’s an unbelievable crowd. It’s a good atmosphere and our team loves to play here,” Ovechkin said on playing in front of Montreal fans that booed him every time he touched the puck. “I don’t hear it. I just concentrate on where the puck is and where my guys are and play hockey.”

Down by four goals, it fell apart at a disciplinary level for the Canadiens. Two minutes after the Ovechkin goal, Brian Gionta took a cross-checking penalty. Linemate Scott Gomez argued the call and wound up with a 10 minute misconduct.

“I probably said something I shouldn’t have said,” Gomez said. “I’m not going to comment on the refs because they’ve got a job to do. I just wont say that again. I gotta choose my words different.”

Almost three minutes after that Tomas Plekanec argued an interference call and was assessed a two-minute misconduct to close a humiliating twenty minutes.

After killing the Capitals power play, the Canadiens found themselves with the man advantage, where Plekanec managed to solve Simeon Varlamov at 2:25 of the third period.

Price did everything he had to do to keep his team in it, making 21 saves on the night, many spectacular.

“You gotta gather your chickens when your sitting on the bench,” Price said on getting called off the bench. “I didn’t think we gave up that many chances. A lot of the shots were from the outside.”

Unfortunately for Price, his team was unable to meet the task on the offensive end. Canadiens couldn’t capitalize on a later power play, then had one taken away when Andrei Kostitsyn was called on a questionable hooking call.

Maxim Lapierre’s ridiculous roughing call at 16:44 put the exclamation point of a lack luster 40 minutes of play from the Canadiens.

On the flip side, the Capitals played a disciplined game and refused to engage the attempted Montreal roughhousing attempts.

“They talked about it themselves on the bench saying ‘Don’t get involved, we don’t need it’,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, praising his clubs self-control. “Even though we didn’t score (on Plekanec’s double minor), I think it sapped a lot of the emotion out of the crowd and them.”

“We made a couple mistakes and we just didn’t respond,” said Montreal defenseman Josh Gorges. “We got frustrated and started making plays that weren’t working. When you get that far behind, it’s too hard to recover.”

As fans made their way out the Bell Centre, Matt Bradley had three chances on a helpless Price before finally connecting with 45 seconds remaining.

Varlamov had 27 saves for the win in the Washington goal.

“He loves these kinds of situations,” Fehr said on his goalie. “He’s a big-name player and he did a great job.”

On the stat sheet, the Canadiens remain weak in the faceoff circle but if anything positive came out of the loss, the Canadiens continue to shut down the Capitals power play, which sits at 0-for-13.

“We suck right now,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said on his team’s struggle with the man advantage. “It’s the worst stretch that we’ve gone through. We’ve had some good looks and chances, but none went in.”

The Canadiens also kept a better pace in hits, laying out 19 to Washington’s 22.

Game Four goes Wednesday night at 7pm. The Canadiens will have a 4pm practice at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

“We gotta respond and regroup tomorrow,” Gomez added, “We had our chances, we could have made the game a little different.

Though it won’t be official until Wednesday afternoon, one has to think that Price will get the start in goal.

The Canadiens netminder was able to defend his fellow backstop, who arguably cant have all the blame for all three goals pinned on him, “The best thing about Jaro is that he’s head strong. He’s a confident guy and I don’t think he’ll let that bother him at all.”

Game’s Three Stars: 1. Simeon Varlamov 2. Brooks Laich 3. Tom Poti

Limping Canadiens Host Red-Hot Capitals

Washington’s Michal Neuvirth faces off against Montreal’s Carey Price (neither pictured here) Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.

The Pierre Gauthier era with the Montreal Canadiens (28-26-6) gets it’s first test Wednesday as they host the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals (41-12-6).

The Capitals are blasting through their opponents, much like the winter storm systems that are currently passing through Washington.

The team is on a 14-game winning streak. Their Superbowl Sunday come from behind victory, over the Pittsburgh Penguins, was their second over the defending Stanley Cup champions during the streak.

Washington has outscored their opponents by a combined score of 68-33, and all but three victories were against Eastern Conference opponents. Of those games, all but one (Toronto) was against a team in the hunt for a playoff spot.

A win over Montreal on Wednesday would set a new franchise unbeaten record that has stood since the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons. The NHL record is 17, set by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Nobody wants to talk about it because we’re superstitious,” Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau said.

“Until you're perfect you've got stuff to work on and we're far from perfect. We've had to come from behind in an awful lot of games lately.

“We're not either getting off on the right track or taking it too easy or we're making to many mistakes. We have to get better in a lot of ways right now.

“The minute I relax, is the minute they relax. Any team we're playing right now is giving us their best effort."

Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin leads the charge with 14 goals, 15 assists and a plus-18 rating during the streak. The two-time Hart Trophy winner has been kept off the scoreboard just once (vs. NY Islanders) during the 14-game run.

Washington is currently carrying three goalies on their three game, pre-Olympic road trip; Semyon Varlamov, Jose Theodore and Michal Neuvirth.

While Montreal native Theodore tied a franchise consecutive win record(10) on Sunday, the team’s Wednesday morning skate points to Neuvirth (3-0-0, 1.20, .967 in his last 4GP).

With Varlamov back in the lineup for the first time since Dec 7, Neuvirth is expected to be sent to Hershey (AHL) during the Olympics.

“It’s all good when they’re all playing great. I assume they all will. Neuvy and Theo have definitely been playing great,” Boudreau said. “With Varly (out since Dec 7), it’s sort of a wait and see scenario.”

“I think it’s remarkable,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges on the Capitals streak. “To string 14 together and not have one night where you don’t quite show up, or one when the pucks don’t bounce your way, or get a couple bad ones scored against you is quite impressive.”

Montreal will be looking to get back in the win column after being shutout Sunday afternoon by the Boston Bruins.

It will be the team’s first game for new GM Gauthier since taking over the reigns from Bob Gainey on Monday.

The Canadiens got some bad news on Tuesday, when it was revealed that defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron will miss at least six weeks with a new injury.

Bergeron has 10 goals and 14 assists in 51 games this season, with 16 points (6 goals) coming off the power play.

Forward Benoit Pouliot (14 points in 20 games with Mtl) is also out until at least the beginning of March with an upper-body injury.

The duo join Mike Cammalleri and Andre Kostitsyn on the team’s injured reserve list.

Battling injuries in the 2009-10 season is nothing new for the Canadiens and as they look to end Washington’s run. Despite missing key players throughout the season, they still remain in the thick of the battle for a playoff spot.

“We’ve played against them (Washington) with a banged-up lineup in two of our games against them, and got three out of four points against them,” said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin.

“The (Olympic) break will be good for us, he added noting the upcoming league shutdown will give players time to recuperate.

“Andre (Kostitsyn) was on skates for the first time today. Hopefully he’ll be back with us after the break. But before that, we have three huge games, starting with the Eastern Conference leaders.”

In the three head-to-head meetings this season, Montreal is 1-1-1 against the Capitals, and have limited Ovechkin to just a goal and an assist in the Capitals 4-3 shootout win on Nov 27.

“Montreal has given us fits all year, first of all,” said Boudreau. “They make a management change, they’re going to want to impress the new GM, and they lost the last game at home.”

Goaltender Carey Price has started all three games against Washington ( 2.95 GAA .910 SvPct) and will get the call on Wednesday night, despite the exceptional play of late from Jaroslav Halak.

“Carey’s been working extremely hard, I think he’s been very sharp at practice, so it’s a great opportunity for him to be in there,” Martin said.

Probable Starting Lineups

MTL	Forwards	MTL
Mathieu Darche	Tomas Plekanec	Sergei Kostitsyn
Tom Pyatt	Scott Gomez	Brian Gionta
Maxim Lapierre	Ben Maxwell	David Desharnais
Travis Moen	Glen Metropolit	Matt D’Agostini
MTL	Defence Pairings	MTL
Andre Markov		Ryan O’Byrne
Roman Hamrlik		Jaroslav Spacek
Hal Gill		Josh Georges
MTL	Goalies	MTL
S- Carey Price		Jaroslav Halak
WASH	Forwards	WASH
Alexander Ovechkin	Niklas Backstrom	Mike Knuble
Brooks Laich	Tomas Fleischmann	Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera	Brendan Morrison	Eric Fehr
Boyd Gordon	David Steckel	Matt Bradley
WASH	Defence Pairings	WASH
Jeff Schultz		Mike Green
Shoane Morrisonn		Tom Poti
John Erskine		Brian Pothier
WASH	Goalies	WASH
S- Michal Neuvirth		Jose Theodore

Habs Should Stick With Halak Until The Olympics

For the first time this season, Jaroslav Halak got a back-to-back start after sustaining a loss.

He did not disappoint, continuing the Montreal Canadiens “goaltending controversy” between him and Carey Price for yet another few days.

Halak may not be graceful, but he did what was needed with a 45 save performance against the powerhouse Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.

That should keep the “he plays sub-500 teams” critics quiet for a day or two.

The win puts Halak’s record, after coming off a loss, to 5-2-1this season. By comparison, Price is 6-9-3 in his next start after a losing decision.

Until Tuesday, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin never started Halak after a loss, but why? In only three situations, the team had played back-to-back nights, and on two occasions Halak had been lit up pretty bad.

Martin may have finally realized that after each of Halak’s ten losses (eight in regulation), Price went 4-5-1, including a humiliating 7-1 loss back in October to the same Canucks team.

So Halak has proven he can bounce back immediately after a loss, so what now?

With the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching, and six games to play for the Canadiens, Martin should use Halak as much as possible.

If he gets thumped by the Bruins on Thursday (note: Price is 2-0 vs. Boston), put him back in against Pittsburgh. Give him that chance again to prove himself.

Price’s record against the remaining pre Olympic opponents is 4-3-1, so why not give it a shot?

Keep in mind too that Halak will be seeing lots of ice time in Vancouver as the number one goalie for Slovakia, so when the NHL starts up again on March 2, he’ll have seen a lot of rubber.

Price in the meantime, will have time to practice, rest, reflect/prepare for the remainder of the NHL season to prove himself again.

That is of course, if Bob Gainey doesn’t make a deal before the Olympics or the March 3 trade deadline.

Mike Komisarek: Or as a friend tweeted, Karmaserek…Out for the season with a shoulder injury.

Lorelei O’Byrne 1953-2010: Condolences to the family of Canadiens defenceman Ryan O’Byrne, whose mother Lorelei passed away January 28 after a long battle with breast cancer. A celebration of life will be held on February 16 in Victoria, BC.

The Canadiens had given O’Byrne time off, for the first three weeks of January, to be with his mother and family. Many feel he played his best game of the season on Tuesday, against his home-province team.

Now That the Latest Habs Off-Ice Mess is Over, What Happens Next?

Carey Price and Andrei Markov will look to put whatever it was behind them and get back on the winning track Saturday vs. Ottawa – AP Photo

So glad to hear Carey Price and Andrei Markov have made nice after their alleged spat in the Canadiens dressing room last week, cause the thing was tearing me up inside. Well, not really.

The whole situation was a fabricated story out of the gate, and a quick exchange of emails, with a verifiable media source who covers every single game, quickly confirmed my suspicions.

Arguments between players in the dressing room happen all the time, at any level of the game. It’s a common occurrence, but unfortunately some media yahoo decided to stir the pot. Was the 2008-09 season not enough for him, or is it ratings time?

Andrei Markov spoke to the media Thursday on the situation, addressing how some journalists make a living from bad stories.

All Habs has a great write-up on the off-ice events, from Wednesday and Thursday, but whether it happened or not, it should be really something of little concern to the rest of us.

For all we know, Price and Markov could have been fighting because one of the two forgot to flush the toilet.

We weren’t there, the reporters weren’t there, the players were…case closed.

The real concern should be the fact that the Canadiens came out of Florida with zero points and scored just a single goal in two games.

Montreal now sits ninth in a conference where sixth place and thirteenth place are separated by one point. Just one!

The two teams the Canadiens faced Tuesday and Wednesday are amongst that pack of teams. That’s two four-point games out the window, just like that.

The Canadiens will need to get it together, and fast, for any chance at a post season.

Leading up to the Olympic break, Montreal faces Boston and Philadelphia twice. Both of those teams are in that 6 to 13 grouping, and both have four games at hand on the Canadiens as of Thursday afternoon.

Games against Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Washington are also in those first two weeks of February, but who are we kidding?

Add a hot Ottawa squad (5th place by five points) in the mix on Saturday, and you get the idea of what could happen.

Call me a “Debbie Downer”, but if Montreal goes below .500 against  these three teams, you can call it a season before the torch is even lit in Vancouver.

In the meantime, what needs to be done? Arpon Basu at The Daily Hab-It looks at what little options the Canadiens have at the trade deadline, which falls three days after the Olympics.

Patience Please: Nice article by Mathias Brunet of La Presse on giving Price time to mature. On a similar note, this is something I put together for Bleacher Report last May.

HNIC Heats Up Canadiens Goaltending Controversies

Cassie Campbell-Pascal got this bloggers attention, when she asked Canadiens’ Jaroslav Halak if it was safe to say that he was the Habs #1 goaltender.

OK, for quite some time I’ve come to the defense of the CBC using Cassie Campbell-Pascal as a between periods interviewer or game analysis with “Hockey Night in Canada.”

Yes, it’s true she has no journalism background, but she does have a sociology degree, from the University of Guelph, and is an active public speaker throughout the year.

Cassie Campbell-Pascal got her big break on HNIC in Oct 2006 as the colour analyst with play-by play man Bob Cole.

Her background in women’s hockey, and the upcoming 2010 Olympics, brings a potential female viewership to the CBC’s flagship program that the network didn’t have before.

Her biggest flaws are that she becomes a deer in headlights in front of a camera, struggling with on-the-spot interviews and intros frequently, and some of her questions are not always well prepared.

Just like any other former pro athlete, that winds up on “The Panel” or in the booth, she’s on a learning curve in journalism.

But her most recent example, during this past Saturday’s post-game of the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens, really got my attention.

After a 6-0 victory by the Canadiens, Campbell congratulated Jaroslav Halak on his shutout, then stated a question along the line that it was safe to say that he was the number one goaltender in Montreal right now.

I couldn’t believe she asked that, and from what I saw on Twitter, several were stunned at the question!

The Canadiens goaltenders have been under the gun on this issue all season long, and not even a veteran Montreal journalist would dare pose that question to either Halak or Carey Price.

Maybe she was trying to catch Halak off guard. If so, it didn’t work as the netminder shrugged the question off.

In my opinion it was a boneheaded question. For anyone following the Canadiens this season, they know that Canadiens coach Jacques Martin prefers to ride the hot goalie.

Message to Cassie Campbell-Pascal: There is no number one goalie for the Montreal Canadiens!

Maybe she got that update on that shortly after, as she smartly stayed quiet during the John Tortarella post-game scrum.

Meanwhile back in Habs land, the debate amongst fans, as to who is the number one goalie, continues to roll on.

The Slovak-born Halak currently edges out Price in all statistics, and is fourth in the league in save percentage.

The argument for Price is that he has played in more games against a higher level of competition. Halak-a-maniacs can counter that this week as the New York Rangers are not the Carolina Hurricanes, and the New Jersey Devils, whom he beat Friday, are certainly not the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Many will say too that the Canadiens have a potential 1-2 combo similar to a Moog-Fuhr in Edmonton, or dare we say Roy/Hayward with Montreal in the late eighties.

Debate all you want as to which one becomes the Hall of Famer of the duo, or if it’s fiscally possible for GM Bob Gainey to sign both potential RFA’s, and keep them both happy splitting with sufficient playing time.

For the time being, it appears Halak is the one willing to step up to the plate. Regardless of that, Jacques Martin does not have a full-time number one and makes the final decisions on who starts and who doesn’t.

Something I’d like to see: Halak has yet to start a game coming off a loss. It would be nice to see how he bounces back from a defeat, rather than sit on the bench.

More Halak/Price Arguments from the CBC: HNIC’s Elliotte Friedman feels this may be the right time to trade Carey Price.

A few other Habs related stories can be found in his 30 Thoughts section further down the post.

…and a response to Mr. Friedman: From Lions in Winter.

So Who’s the Real #1? : Dave Stubbs, of the Montreal Gazette, has a feature column showing that Halak is the better number one, for time being. Stubbs points out that Martin’s decision on the goalie, against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, is a no-brainer on paper. Halak is 4-0 lifetime against Florida.

Team Slovakia Weighs In: The debate can go world-wide thanks to this tweet from The Sporting News’ Craig Custance:

“Just spoke with Slovakian GM Peter Bondra. He joked that, the way Jaroslav Halak is playing, he wishes the Olympics started tomorrow.”

Update: Thought everyone had their say, but here comes the Gazette’s Jack Todd.

Game action photos (Halak and Price): HabsInsideOut

Blues 4 Canadiens 3 (OT) : Early Jump Denies Habs Two Points

Andy McDonald scored 3:19 into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.

The loss gives the Canadiens a single point, but leaves one on the table, as the battle for an Eastern Conference playoff berth continued.

The Blues jumped to an early lead, on the power play, when David Perron deflected a point shot in front of Carey Price at 2:57.

Veteran Paul Kariya put St. Louis up by two, at 3:35, cashing in on a rebound that Price couldn’t handle, and banking it off his pads.

Feeling the pressure of the Montreal fans early, the Canadiens netminder then took things into his own hands.

Price was flattened while playing the puck, by Can Janssen, and with no Georges Laraque playing, peeled off teammate Roman Hamrlik to get at the Blues’ enforcer.

 

Price’s frustrations put him back in the crowd’s favour. It also got the attention of Blues’ goalie Ty Conklin, who crossed the red line to confront his counterpart and drew a minor penalty.

The incident motivated the Canadiens briefly, as Benoit Pouliot scored on the ensuing power play to put them within one.

The momentum died quickly, when Alex Steen took advantage of a poor back check by Scott Gomez and put a rebound into a wide open net at 19:47.

Price didn’t let the two goal deficit, or the lack of effort in front from his team, phase him through the second period, coming up big on the Blues scoring opportunities.

St. Louis had an opportunity to break the game open, with a 1:16 two-man advantage, late in the the period, but the Canadiens and their goalie shut them down.

Montreal’s momentum from the end of the second period carried into the third, putting pressure on Conklin and keeping the Blues to just one shot through the first 10 minutes.

The Canadiens got within one when a St. Louis turnover found the stick of Gomez, who set up Pouliot for his second goal of the night at 9:11.

The Canadiens persevered and with Price pulled, a point shot from Jaroslav Spacek deflected off the stick of Gomez, forcing overtime with just 33 seconds to go.

In overtime, Conklin continued to work his magic, denying the Canadiens Andrei Markov point blank.

Kariya then took a Canadiens turnover and fed McDonald, who fired a laser over Price’s blocker for the win.

St. Louis 5-3-1 under new coach Davis Payne, who took over when Andy Murray was fired on Jan. 2.

The Canadiens stay at .500 (23-23-5) for 11th in the conference, and head to New Jersey for a Friday encounter with Martin Brodeur and the Devils.

Three Stars: 1. T.J. Oshie 2. David Perron 3. Benoit Pouliot

Goalies: Mtl – Price (L) 4 GA 28 SA StL – Conklin (W) 3 GA 38 SA

Where’s Carey?: CJAD reports that Carey Price was not available to the media post-game.

Photos: Montreal Gazette, Canadian Press, canadiens.com

The Canadiens Weekend of Woe

Two games, two losses for the Montreal Canadiens. This team really knows how to start it’s fans  week off on a good note, eh?

Had these games been at least close, or against a top-four team, one could say “A for effort”, or “at least we stayed in it”.

In the case of these two games, it certainly wasn’t the case.

Last I checked, a regulation NHL hockey game is played in three twenty-minute periods. Maybe the Canadiens were erroneously given a rule change contrary to that fact, twice!

In Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, I’d say they were there for maybe half of it, and I’m being generous.

Carey Price’s performance was clearly not his best, in light of what coach Jacques Martin said post-game. What was essentially brushing off the media, after the loss, was also clearly not the actions of a number-one goaltender, win or lose.

Martin was right on one thing, they were beaten on special teams.

Benoit Pouliot’s cough-up with the Man advantage to an all-time Habs killer (Daniel Alfredsson) was a mistake more commonly seen in a beer league game, believe me I know, and should not happen at the NHL level.

Ottawa played an effective game for 60 minutes, blocking shots, shutting down the open lanes and throwing out hits. Not to mention Mike Brodeur played like distant cousin Marty.

Montreal, in the meantime, must have thought they were bakers, making 30 turnovers in the game.

It was a game where the Senators wanted the win, and the Canadiens clearly did not, and when you see that Georges Laraque logged over nine minutes for Montreal, you know there’s a problem.

Moving on to Sunday’s game against the Rangers.

I’ll be honest, I was away from the tube on Sunday, so I relied on updates off my Blackberry and replays later that evening.

Before the game, I tweeted the following, “#gohabsgo Need a solid 60 out of the #Habs tonight.”

After checking the score after 20 minutes, it appeared they were off to a solid start, 2-0 Habs.

But after 40 minutes, 3-2 Rangers with yet another shorthanded goal in the mess. That’s two shorthanded goals in two games, equaling their total allowed in the first 48 of the season.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Rangers outshot the Canadiens 15-2 in the second period, and Montreal was held to just four over a 26 minute span.

A too-many men penalty didn’t help things either, and can someone tell me why Pouliot and Josh Georges were out there fighting?

Final score, 6-2. A game dominated by the Rangers in every almost facet of the game, notably the faceoff circle (31-20). Six New York players were +3.

At least the Habs’ bakery took the night off, just two turnovers.

Martin summed it up this way post-game, and my comments are in parenthesis.

"We played a strong first period, and then we gave it away (Ya think?). We had turnovers (well not really, just 2) and a lot of bad play selection (Yeah I’d drop the giveaway play on the PP, not working). I think it’s a matter of us playing the type of hockey we are capable of (tick tock tick tock). If we play like we did in the first period for all three periods, we’d be alright. (Heard that before, Jacques)"

So two straight four point games, against the kind of teams Habs GM Bob Gainey said they had to take head-on and two losses. The team walked away with nothing to show for it, not even a shred of dignity, and currently sitting in ninth place.

With just 32 games to go, the Montreal Canadiens are now in a shape-up, or book your late April tee-times now situation.

The good thing for the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge is that they play in the Eastern Conference, as The Hockey News’ Ryan Dixon points out.

James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail has set the bar for the Eastern Conference playoff seeds at a very generous 89 points. That said, the Canadiens would have to go 19-12-1 the rest of the way to clinch a spot.

Of the remaining 32 games, all but six are against Eastern Conference teams. Twenty-two of those games are against the top thirteen teams with five of them against the top-four.

With 5th to 13th separated by just eight points, that leaves 17 very crucial one-to-one matchups against teams still in contention for the NHL’s second season.

If The Canadiens work ethic from this past weekend is any indication however, season over at around 9:35 EST on April 10, barring an OT and shootout.

Photos: Getty Images/HabsInsideOut.com

Master Plan Failure?: CJAD’s Abe Hefter thinks Bob Gainey’s master plan is lacking consistency.

The Gods Are Angry: Apparently the Montreal Hockey Gods are not impressed by the weekend’s performance, taking their toll on Canada’s west coast, as attested to by Hockey54’s Dennis Kane.

Underachieving Numbers: A nice compilation by HIO regular “Chuck” who came up with this:

“Just finished doing some number crunching with goal-scoring for all teams, through January 17th (722 games played x 2 teams/game = 1444 team games)

• A team scoring 4 or more goals in a game: .681 win% (326 wins in 478 times that it's happened)
• A team scoring exactly 3 goals in a game: .597 win% (200 wins in 335 times that it's happened)
• A team scoring exactly 2 goals in a game: .294 win% (96 wins in 326 times that it's happened)
• A team scoring exactly 1 goal in a game:  .057 win% (13 wins in 225 times that it's happened)

And of course, if you score 0 goals your win% = .000 (0 wins in 80 times that it's happened)

Average it out, and if you score under 4 goals in a game, the league-wide win% is only .319 (309 wins in 966 times that it's happened)

As for the Habs:

• Scoring 4+ goals in a game: 12 wins in 13 games = .923 win% (vs. .681 league average)
• Scoring 3 goals in a game: 6 wins in 10 games = .600 win% (vs. .597 league average)
• Scoring 2 goals in a game: 5 wins in 15 games = .333 win% (vs. .294 league average)
• Scoring 1 goal in a game: 0 wins in 8 games = .000 win% (vs. .057 league average)
• Scoring 0 goals in a game: 0 wins in 4 games = .000 win%

In other words, the Habs have just a .297 win% when scoring fewer than 4 goals in a game (vs. the .319 league average). However, they outperform the rest of the league's winning percentage when they score 2 or more goals per game. The main problem is that they've scored 1 or fewer goals in 12 of 51 games (23.5%) while the league as a whole has scored 1 or fewer goals in 305 of 1444 team games (21.1%)

Our problem really isn't goaltending. What the Habs need to do is cut down on the number of games where they score 1 or fewer goals.

Of course, the other (unreasonable) alternative is to expect the goalies to start racking up the shutouts.”

 

Third Star for Latendresse: Ex-Hab Guillaume Latendresse was named the NHL’s Third Star of the week. He had a four-point night earlier in the week, and a hat-trick Saturday night. Latendresse was left off the score sheet in the Wild’s other game, as they were shut out by Second Star Steve Mason of the St. Louis Blues.

AHL All-Stars Show They Got Skilz: The AHL All-Star Skills challenge goes Monday night in Portland, (TSN), with the game going on Tuesday. Habs prospects P.K. Subban and Cedrick Desjardins will represent the Canadian AHL All-Stars.

In Case You Missed It: Habs News and Blogger Views for January 4, 2010

Still recuperating from the chaos of the holiday season, I came across a few things of interest to peruse through as the Canadiens make their way to Washington.

Habs World Junior Championship Alumni: Props to Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette/HabsInsideOut for tweeting a list Canadiens players, on the current roster, with a WJC medal.

Gold (3): Tomas Plekanec, CZE, 2001; Benoit Pouliot, CAN, 2006; Carey Price, CAN, 2007

Silver (4): Paul Mara, USA, 1997; Andrei Markov, RUS, 1998; Mike Cammalleri, CAN, 2002; Josh Gorges, CAN, 2004

Bronze (2): Andrei Markov, RUS, 1997; Mike Cammalleri, CAN, 2001

In total, 14 players on the Habs roster, have played in 24 World Junior Championships tournaments. Sergei Kostitsyn and Paul Mara have each played in three tournaments.

 

 A Resolution for Tolerance: JT at the “The H Does Not Stand for Habs” has her New Year’s resolution, but may have a list of snags.

 

Lack of Support for Price: I brought this to attention, earlier in the season, on the lack of scoring support by the Canadiens for Carey Price.

Marc-Antoine Godin, of La Presse, divulges into it further, noting the Habs score and average of 3.24 goals-per-game with Jaroslav Halak in net as opposed to 2.19 with Price in goal.

 

 Desjardins honoured by AHL: Cedrick Desjardins, of the Hamilton Bulldogs, has been named the AHL Goaltender of the Month for December.

The goaltender went undefeated (8-0), posting three shutouts, a 1.16 GAA and .949 SvPct.

The 24-year-old prospect  is 14-5-1 in 21 games for Hamilton this season, ranking second in the AHL with a 1.66 goals-against average, third with a .932 save percentage and first with five shutouts.

Habs World has their weekly recap of the Hamilton Bulldogs here.

 

What the Habs are driving, and wearing: Nice piece at All Habs on a visit to team practice, and seeing what the players are driving.

I never saw Travis Moen (pictured) as the Hyundai type, especially as a rental. Hopefully he has snow tires on it. Scott Gomez, in a Mini Cooper, in the Montreal snow?

Habs vs. Nordiques Rivalry Continues: Veterans from the wars of the Battle of Quebec will have a chance to renew their rivalry in March.

The former players will meet in a pair of games, March 13 in Quebec City and March 14 in Montreal.

Tickets can be purchased at GEG.CA for the game at the Bell Centre, or at La Colisée Pepsi

 This Day in Habs History: On January 4, 1975 Guy Lafleur scores his 5th career hat trick and adds three assists as the Canadiens crush the Washington Capitals 10-0.

Lafleur would finish his breakout 1974-75 season with 53 goals, breaking the team record of 50 first set by Maurice Richard and later equaled by Bernie Geoffrion.

When Canada left the IIHF: With Team Canada’s Junior team ready top play for a 6th straight title , and the Olympics just weeks away, here’s a great piece by Joe Pelletier at Greatest Hockey Legends.

Joe looks back 40 years ago, when Team Canada walked away from the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Mr. Tretiak goes to Pittsburgh: The Pittsbugh Tribune caught up with former goaltending great Vladislav Tretiak at a recent Penguins game.