What happened?

So we are reaching the half-way point in the season time to review my third annual absurd and bizarre but fundamentally correct predictions for the 2017-2018 nhl season that I posted in September: 1) Connor Mcdavid, Auston Matthews, Nathan Mckinnon, and Jonathan Drouin will challenge for the Art Ross. Will they get 100 points? Every year I expect a 120 point season and it just doesn't happen. Kinda pleased with this prediction. I can see Mackinnon and Mcdavid catching up to the leaders and surpassing them by year’s end. The young legs and talent will take over. I am especially pleased with my Mackinnon choice that many were calling a dud. The concussed Matthews may still make the top ten. Now for Drouin. Maybe I was one year too early and was not expecting the total mess that are the habs. I also did not expect the Pacioretty meltdown and Weber to be injured. 2) I predict a 3 way fight for the Norris. My choices from last year are back in PK Subban and Victor Hedman. My surpri

What in hell have we witnessed in the first half of the season. Talk about plans going awry. The habs had a disasterous pre-season and they followed that up with a shocking start to the season. Now as we head to the halfway point the season is probably over in terms of making the playoffs. What went wrong? Everything. The hardest part of the habs season has been watching their A list players falter like Price, Weber, Pacioretty, and Drouin. So why did things go sour? We can start with the coaching staff. Sorry I expected more from Claude Julien. Both defensively and offensively the habs have looked disorganized and confused. Julien still has not been able to stabilize the defence pairings or the line combinations. Some of the blame no doubt belongs to Bergy and his off-season signings. There have been way too many defensive lapses and way too many impotent powerplays. Kirk Muller was brought in to help a sputtering powerplay. There has been no visible improvement since Muller’s arriv

Soon it will be October, the multi-colored autumn is creeping upon us, and of course this means the start of a brand new NHL Olympic-free season. Here are my third annual absurd and bizarre but fundamentally correct predictions for the 2017-2018 nhl season: 1) Connor Mcdavid, Auston Matthews, Nathan Mckinnon, and Jonathan Drouin will challenge for the Art Ross. Will they get 100 points? Every year I expect a 120 point season and it just doesn't happen.  2) I predict a 3 way fight for the Norris. My choices from last year are back in PK Subban and Victor Hedman. My surprise choice as the 3rd challenger is Shea Weber. PK might win it this time because Ellis will be missing for several months which should increase PK's ice-time. He is also more comfortable with his teammates. Weber will be set up by Drouin on the powerplay and this should add to his goal total. He will also have an increased work-load after the exit of many veteran hab defencemen. I did not take Karlsson because

Yeeehaaa it's September 1st the official start of the hockey bitching season. I guess the Marvel folks got it right when they named one of the recent Avengers movies Civil War. This has been the theme in Habsland since the Subban trade in June 2016. Tweet grenades have been launched in the twittersphere as the warring sides have dug in for a surreal lengthy fratricide. It has also led some blow-hards to try and silence media criticism. Lest we forget that not so long ago any critique of a professional sports team was met by censure or dismissal whenever the franchise decided to exert their influence and power. Hopefully, we will not go back to those dark ages. Well, one thing you gotta credit Bergevin with, there is rarely a dull moment off the ice as he remolds the habs on a yearly basis. Dare I say Bergevin is the risk-taker in chief of NHL GM's, even allowing David Poile to win GM of the year.  After the habs early playoff exit, the whole left side of the defence has been

I am thinking what moves does  Bergy have to make this off-season to save his job. Elementary dear Watson let the most experienced habs blogger give you direction as James Comey would say. First, you need some quebecois stars to join the team. Yes, the Montreal Canadiens should always have a french flavor. The only stars that may be on the trading bloc are Claude Giroux and Jonathan Drouin. Giroux not technically a quebecois being born in Ontario has had a poor year and could be had for the right price. Tampa has monetary cap issues and Drouin could be let go again if the return is affordable. What do Montreal have to offer? The flyers had originally signed Shea Weber to the contract he presently has and it was subsequently matched by the Predators. I would offer Weber for Giroux and maybe pry loose Shayne Gostisbehere as well. Both flyers have had unproductive years and both are due for a rebound. Giroux is only 29 and Gostisbehere had a sophomore jinx last year. Clearly with a goa

What a fine mess the habs are in. This playoff series versus the Rangers exposed the Habs. They had one good game the whole series. In fact at home they played poorly all three games and just pulled out a win in game 2 when scoring in the last few seconds. Does anyone really expect the habs to be competitive in the next few years? There was the excuse last year that Carey Price was injured. The supposed distraction in the dressing room that was PK Subban had been traded for all Canadian defenseman Shea Weber. Well at least we did have a decent  regular season finishing first even though the annual dog day swoon led to Therrien's firing. The first round of the playoffs exposed the habs' weaknesses. And god there are many. First off the myth that is Carey Price. He is an above average goaltender but please he is not the greatest goalie of all time as some Montreal pundits were extolling. He has not been the difference maker in most playoff years. He has not led an average

Okay I know I know I was a little off in my NHL predictions. Ahem I posted the following predictions in October. Here are my excuses: 1) Sydney Crosby will exceed his highest point total in a season. His record is 120 points. He will be playing stress free now that he has won as many cups as Mario. Well he was not close but Sid had a great year anyways. His early season concussion did not help. Second, he really has mediocre linemates that stifle his assist totals. He took matters in his own hands this year and won the Maurice Richard trophy for most goals. Other reasons are the injury to Kris Letang and to Malkin. The Penguins will not win the cup either because of Letang's injury. 2) Stamkos will win the Maurice Richard trophy now that he has signed long-term. If not him then it might be Milan Lucic! Well, luckily I did say my predictions could collapse due to injury. I was wrong about Lucic because Maroon seems to have more chemistry with Mcdavid. 3) Conner Mcdavid

Welcome back Claude I hope you know what you're getting into. My first impression of Claude Julien is how he has unfairly been fired. When he was fired by Bob Gainey, I thought it was just the GM Bob Gainey wanting to take over the reigns of the team from someone he had not hired. Julien was not doing a bad job at the time. Since this was Julien's first coaching stint in the NHL no one considered this firing a big mistake. Julien took over the New Jersey Devils the following year and had coached the Devils  to a wonderful season when he got fired again with a few games left in the season. Rumours were that leaders of the team led by Martin Brodeur did not want him. It has been unclear why this revolt occurred and seemed to stain Julien's persona. Julien's next coaching assignment was with the Boston  Bruins. During his tenure with the Bruins he lasted long enough to win a Cup and go to a Cup final another year. Julien had coached a colorful character-filled team led b