What happened?

I have heard this more than once in the last few weeks that newly hired Habs VP Jeff Gorton should speak the language of Beliveau. I agree. However, the language of Beliveau was never french. The language of Beliveau was exciting hockey that included nifty stickhandling, great passing, smooth skating, and leadership that led to 10 stanley cups during his career. Beliveau loved hockey and his class on the ice was the true language he spoke. He had english players on his line throughout his career from Dickie Moore to Dick Duff and finally in his last year John Ferguson.  Marc Bergevin spoke french. His favored brand of hockey was not reminiscent of Beliveau and the flying frenchmen but of Bobby Clarke and the broad street bullies. The habs made the stanley cup final last year because of man-handling, cross checking defencemen and forwards and Bernie Parent goaltending. It was not the game Beliveau played and the 1976 habs tried to put an end to when they eliminated the ugly hockey the f

What in tarnation. Has a franchise had a more bizarre few months than the habs? It has been so weird making it to the Stanley Cup final seems like a distant secondary memory. It started even before the end of last season when Jonathan Drouin decided to take a leave of absence during a playoff race. The team made the playoffs and went to the stanley cup final not knowing what was ailing one of their star players.  Once the season ended things took a more twisted turn as the main pillars of the stanley cup run began to crumble or disappear.  I am not sure if I am chronologically listing the twists and turns correctly but here is what happened. Rumours began that Shea Weber was chronically injured and would probably retire.  These rumours have been proven to be true since Shea Weber never showed up for training camp and apparently is still at home in BC. The key word is apparently because all we have had are vague statements from Bergevin as to Weber’s status and zero communication from  

Well your move Bergy. Have to admit Carolina has pulled off a brilliant chess move in their feud with the habs.  The history of this feud as most people recall started a few years ago when Bergevin offer sheeted Sebastian Aho. Since the offer sheet stratagem had been shelved by most GMs, it startled the hockey  world and Canes management. In hindsight Bergevin saw the value of Aho and the offer was at fair market value and the Canes were smart to match.  However, Bergevin also made some comments at the time about the financial solvency of Canes ownership. I knew this would not go down well. Some of the habs fanbase then got on social media to ridicule the canes franchise and went so far as to attack some canes journalists. This was not going to end well and now we have the vengeance of Canes ownership two years later. The timing could not come at a worse time for the Habs who have lost Danault to free agency and are limited as to their salary cap.  The only reason Canes ownership could

Do I really need a vacation after the sports euphoria I just incurred being an azzurri and hab fan. Some of it I barely believe even now it was all so surreal. The Azzurri are Emperors of Europe and the Habs are Kings of the North. I was feeling positive about both teams as early as January (see some of my tweets back then) but my faith started to crumble a bit especially with the habs. The habs barely made the playoffs. Some of it was due to Covid and their tortuous schedule when some  of the games had been cancelled due to Armia testing positive. Some of it was also due to their collapse during the year which led to Julien’s ouster.   Bergevin and Molson were finally able to sign free agents when American owners decided not to spend after losing money in empty arenas. The cap space Bergevin had left unused for several years helped as well.  The new habs players brought enthusiasm and a winning culture. Corey Perry was a revelation as he symbolically stood in front of the opposing goa

The habs are once again in disarray . Is it time for our collective primal scream...Yes they were in disarray last year when the pandemic hit. There were few bright spots, players having good years could be counted on one hand. Tatar, Gallagher, a revitalized Weber, and the improving Suzuki were the only positives. On the negative side  Carey Price was a shell of his former self. Kotkaniemi was in the AHL, Drouin was recovering from an injury and unable to keep up, and Max Domi decided he was going to play like his Coyote days. Well the NHL resumed the season with an improvised playoffs, the habs played like gangbusters for one series and then gradually receded back to reality against the flyers.  Once again the habs came out like gangbusters this year with several new players. The new players produced and there was eternal hope. However, things started to fall apart at the 10 game mark and now the habs are in eternal freefall. They have changed coaches the conservative Julien replaced