Doug Harvey and PK Subban and the Molsons

-
I am at poolside at an extravagant hotel and I am pissed. Well I thought all was well in Habsland. Finally coming to their senses management got rid of overpaid deadwood Josh Gorges and Brian Gionta. They terminated George Parros, Doug Murray, and Ryan White forgettable non- NHL calibre players. Could Travis Moen and Tomas Plekanec be far behind?

I thought the reason for not keeping Gorges and not affording Gionta was simple -to re-sign the Norris trophy winning franchise defenceman PK Subban. Bergy gambled a couple of years ago when he signed Subban to a 2 year bridge contract. Even though most hockey pundits understood the superstar potential of Subban and the stats bore that out, Bergy newly hired wanted time to evaluate the star and leadership qualities of his inexperienced defenceman. Bergy was applauded two years ago for holding firm a little like Reagan when he fired the air traffic controllers as one of his first moves as President. In the ensuing two years PK did it all winning the Norris and dominating the best forwards in the league. He was prominent in eliminating the Bruins last year. His setbacks included his non appearance at the Olympics and maybe his lack of stamina against the Rangers in the semi-finals. There is very little issue about the popularity of PK in Montreal and even hardasses like Michel Bergeron and Mario Tremblay are becoming believers. 

So what happened. Maybe we should approach this from a historical perspective and the story of another legendary defenceman Doug Harvey. Harvey was the best defenceman in the NHL being an integral part of the legendary 5 Cups in a row team of the late 50's. He won 7 Norris trophies and only Bobby Orr won more. How did the Molson family treat this superstar defenceman? Well they paid him a measly $30,000 a year. Even at par value for today, it would only match an AHL salary. After all those Cup wins, Doug Harvey and a few other underpaid stars decided to try and form a player's union. Well the Molson family reacted like the Kim dynasty in North Korea. They basically sent Doug Harvey to a hockey gulag the perennial last place New York Rangers. Maybe Harvey was past his prime but he did win his final Norris trophy with the Rangers the following year. Even more callously they did not retire Doug Harvey's number until 23 years after Harvey played his last game with the Habs. Seriously the Molson family broke Doug Harvey and barely acknowledged him in his later years. We should also recall Ken Dryden did not play a full year in a contract dispute with the Habs. Even Guy Lafleur was a hold-out.


The Molson family has a history of being penny pinchers and not paying fair market value for their players. Is Geoff Molson following in the grand tradition of his Great Uncle Hartland Molson or his father Eric Molson? We the fans demand an explanation.

Footnote PK was just signed- never mind lol.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The week that wasn’t for habs fans

-
Image
What were habs management thinking? Habs fans were expecting a big splash this week after two years of misery. They listened when PLD said it was the habs or bust, the invisible enigma Michkov finally appeared and Hughes actually met him. Habs fans were salivating and had hope. Maybe the habs could finally compete goal for goal with the elite teams and elite players in the league. Well, Hughes and Gorton sure put the breaks on the fans delirium. No no no they were slowly building the back-end. What they forgot is sports is an entertainment industry and fans want to be excited and dream of the future even if some of the expectations will never happen.  The week that wasn’t started with the PLD theatrics. The sports pundits hammed it up as they proclaimed a bidding war between the kings and habs for the services of the quebecois. In the end the big winners were the Jets and PLD. The Jets squeezed the most out of the kings being put in an impossible negotiating position. PLD got the money
Read more

60 years later

-
Image
The new cottage industry for journalists is writing books about Trump. These so called expose and politically sanctimonious books become a surefire bestseller and a profitable venture. Previous to this but still viable as a money maker are the so-called researchers who have come up with a myriad of conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination.  How many thousands of books have been written about the whodunit  JFK assassination and the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Does anyone really care about this after 60 years to write a new book without a profit motive being involved. Athletes sell their memorabilia to leave to their grandkids, witnesses and researchers of the JFK assassination seem to write books to pad their retirement account. Which brings us to Paul Landis and his new revelations after 60 years. Seriously. 60 years. One unique thing about Landis is that he did quit the Secret Service 6 months after the assassination so he did not follow the path of others who stayed lo
Read more

Statement Game

-
Image
Statement games are important. The Canadiens victory over the Bruins a few weeks ago was just that. It was a tooth and nail game where the habs did not give an inch. Unlike the recent past,  Deslauriers fought Miller to a draw in a lively fight. Finally, even though the habs gave up a late goal due to a brain-dead penalty, they came back in overtime. This victory let the habs get back in the playoff picture. This habs team has confidence or attitude or whatever way you want to define it. It reminded me a lot of the 83-84 habs. That year, the habs had a subpar year barely making the playoffs. They had poor goaltending with the likes of Richard Sevigny and Rick Wamsley. There was a changing of the guard as Guy Carbonneau, Mats Naslund, Bobby Smith, and Chris Chelios began to take up leadership roles. The habs had also their version of Andrew Hammond as Steve Penney joined the team late in the season. Even though the team had a poor season, late in the year they played the bruins an
Read more