What happened?

With the passing of Ken Dryden and Guy Lafleur, I am reminded that in the last few years of their lives they were still keenly interested in bringing the winning tradition back to the habs franchise. The one depressing thing of the recent past is that habs fans basically exaggerated on the talents of a Subban or Weber,  Pacioretty or Price and blindly hoped these few could carry the team to the playoffs. This summer positive vibes have been ever-present in habs social media and for the first time in many years this positivity may have some realism and merit. In hindsight, trying  to figure out the exact time the franchise became reinvigorated may be difficult to pinpoint. Was it the Slafkovsky pick at the bell center, or maybe the under-the radar-Hutson pick the same year? Maybe it started with the Laine trade or Celine Dion picking Demidov. The 4 nations tournament helped to bring back the electricity in the bell center. The atmosphere during the Canada USA match in Montreal ...

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 ...

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 m...

What was Caufield thinking taking a pic of Dubois during the formula 1 weekend and posting it on his instagram. Many were wondering if Caufield had inside info. Dubois has been the most recent cause celebre in the quebecois hockey minefield. Will the habs sign and trade for the most recent local enfant terrible? PLD has himself caused some of the recent migraines for Gorton and Hughes by proclaiming his first preference is to play in his hometown. His agent Pat Brisson has added to the migraine by shrewdly stating PLD wants a long term contract at 9 million per annum. So is PLD worth it? He has shown signs of becoming a top notch center. His offence is steadily improving though of course nowhere near the superstar stats of Mcdavid, Matthews, and MacKinnon. Speaking of Mcdavid and Matthews, PLD played a major playoff role with Columbus when they eliminated the leafs and also was important  when Winnipeg eliminated the Oilers. One could say PLD played like a young Ryan O’Reilly. Howe...

Well I got a few. Some are probably  more important than others. Most are ulcer-inducing. To begin with all the people jumping on planes  and crowding airports during the past year. It was like people had never ever been on a plane before. Was it really that stifling to be cautious about the pandemic. When Martin Luther King Jr proclaimed free at last I doubt he meant a vacation in Europe or the Caribbean. Next pandemic related issue is all the maskless people sneezing and coughing in public and zero regard for your fellow human. Must you really go out to sit in a coffeehouse when you are not feeling well and clearly have flulike or covidlike symptons. So many examples I encountered this year of the callousness of a good percentage of the population. There was the time the nurse was coughing non-stop as we sat in a small cubicle waiting for her to give me my flu shot. Then there was the masked lady at the hotel reception desk who the instant she was about to cough lowered the ...

Yessssss, Habs won the draft lottery. All habs fans finally could scream we’re number one about something at the end of a disastrous season. It is not the first time the habs have had the first overall pick. Sadly the Flower’s passing reminded us of the shrewd Sam Pollock getting a generational superstar right after winning a stanley cup. Even then, choosing the Flower over Marcel Dionne was not a certainty and what may have clinched it for Lafleur was the fact his junior team defeated Dionne’s junior team in the Memorial Cup playoffs. In fact, even this was without controversy as Dionne’s junior team, trailing 3-2 in wins, forfeited the series because the Quebec city fans were too rowdy and Dionne’s team refused to play there.  Sam Pollock was behind another first overall pick when in 1976 he swapped the habs first pick for the Colorado first pick in 1980. He sweetened the deal with the Rockies  by adding a couple of prospects. Rockies finished dead last in 1980 and the ...

Well when Ovechkin scored his 600th much like his 500th, there has been a vocal minority that say Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer of all time. This conclusion is based upon the fact the decade Ovechkin plays in is the so-called dead puck era where 50 goals and 100 points are almost impossible mountains to climb for a player in a season. Many also say that Ovechkin is the GOAT due to the larger physique of athletes both in nets and on defence as well as the speed of the game. However, there are many other things to analyze when deciding who is the greatest of all time. Here is my analysis. First off, I think it is important to review a fundamental stat ‘goals per game’. Over his career, Mike Bossy has the best goals per game stats at a 76% clip scoring 573 goals in 752 games. Mario Lemieux comes in second if you consider his whole career. I would argue you should ignore the games after his comeback. After taking three years off Lemieux was obviously not the player he was before...

Many people consider the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1970’s to be the greatest hockey team ever. The stats sort of agree. The curious thing about the team is that they lost several players that could have probably made the dynasty even more omnipotent and maybe led to 8-9 cups in the decade rather than the 6 won. Here are a few players that left the team. Marc Tardif played on one of the greatest junior teams of all time. The junior Canadians were sensational in the late sixties led by future NHLers Rejean Houle , Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin, Jocelyn Guevremont, and Andre Dupont among others. Tardif was considered to be a future superstar when he joined the habs with his buddy Reggie Houle. Tardif won the cup with the habs in 1971 but was used sparingly on the talent laden club. In 1973, he won again with the habs and he scored 6 goals and 12 points in 14  playoff games outscoring Guy Lafleur who only had 8 points. The following year Tardif  joined the WHA.  I...

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 t...

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 commun...

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 Ca...

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 th...