What happened?

I always preferred Janis Joplin’s version of Summertime she really put some sexual soul into it. Anyways whenever it gets hot and sticky for some reason I start thinking about hockey again and the habs. Free agent frenzy day is just around the corner or as we used to know it as Canada day (and in Quebec moving day). So all the armchair GMs on Twitter are deciding which free agents Bergy should sign. Since I got a very comfortable armchair here are my thoughts on the matter. I am not saying that Bergy will sign anyone because as everybody knows many hockey players even from Quebec do not want to play in Montreal because of  the weather, the taxes, and the media circus. I have to agree with a few of the hockey pundits who think that Jake Gardiner would be a good fit with the habs. However, I disagree that he should be partnered with Shea Weber. I would prefer him playing with Jeff Petry. I still think that Weber and Mete are a viable duo. Mete is underrated as to how his...

Soon it will be October,  autumn has mysteriously crept upon us and of course this means the start of a brand new NHL Season. Here are my fourth annual absurd and bizarre but fundamentally insincere predictions for the 2018-2019 nhl season: 1) Nathan MacKinnon will win the scoring championship if he stays healthy. In the top ten I expect to see Tavares, Stamkos, Mcdavid, Marner, Barzal, and Drouin. Is this the year somebody reaches 130 points again? 2) I am not confident about the Norris. The wild card is Karlsson and how he fits in with San Jose and Brent Burns. One of them might win it. Subban and Hedman have a shot at it depending how their teams do. And then there is Rasmus Dahlin... 3) The Maurice Richard trophy will go either to Patrick Laine or John Tavares. Tavares is an underrated goal scorer and Marner may set him up on a constant basis. Laine is a natural and sooner or later gets on fire. Don’t be surprised if Pacioretty is in the top ten if not in the running....

Well I have had a great summer except when I think of the miserable state of the habs franchise. At least my memories have not faded of better times like the spring of 1971. As the 1970 -1971 hockey playoffs got under way, people were grudgingly accepting the Beatles had really broken up (but for how long), Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were already dead, and Jim Morrison had a few months to live. In Quebec, the October 1970 crisis was over, James Cross survived but Pierre Laporte had been assassinated. Pierre Trudeau, Robert Bourassa and Jean Drapeau were our political leaders. Richard Nixon was waging secret bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia to bring about his peace with honor. Filming of the Godfather had begun and George C Scott had refused the Oscar for best actor for Patton the best movie that year.  Roberto Clemente was leading the Pirates to the World Series and he would be dead a year later. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was centering the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA championship. M...

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...

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 ...