tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7036728174256869162024-03-13T23:24:38.269-04:00The Daily Hab-itA journalist's take on your Montreal CanadiensArpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.comBlogger580125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-78454485541815422982011-10-28T21:39:00.001-04:002011-10-28T22:03:26.861-04:00Adieu<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I’m not quite sure how to say goodbye.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">When I began writing The Daily Hab-it back on Aug. 26, 2008, I never really imagined it would become what it eventually did.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">And I didn’t imagine it would be so difficult to stop writing it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">But one of the motivations I had for writing the blog to begin with was to land myself a full-time job covering hockey, and I am extremely happy and proud to announce to you all that this has happened.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I have accepted a position with NHL.com to become the managing editor of the site’s new French-language brother – LNH.com – coming to a computer screen near you very soon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It’s an enormously exciting and somewhat daunting opportunity for me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The lone negative is that after 781 posts over the past three years, I’m kicking The Daily Hab-it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Starting this blog was probably the greatest decision I ever made. It gave me a chance to develop my voice, to hone my hockey analysis, to learn how to deliver my opinion to a large audience and – most importantly – it’s made me a better reporter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">But the biggest value was the relationship it allowed me to forge with you, my readers. You’ve called me out when you thought I was off base, given me a pat on the back when you thought I was right, and provided me with a window into the thoughts and anxieties of the Canadiens passionate fan base.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I’ve cherished every single one of your comments, tweets and e-mails, whether they were negative or positive, because it meant I struck some sort of chord – and that was always my goal.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There were many nights when I finished my work at the Bell Centre and didn’t really feel like sitting back down to write my blog, but knowing how many of you enjoyed reading it forced me back in my chair. It was a responsibility I took very seriously because I never wanted to let any of you down.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">So thank you. Every last one of you. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There are a lot of other people I’d like to thank when it comes to this blog and its success, but in the interest of brevity (never my strong suit), there’s two in particular that stand out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">First is Jed Kahane at CTV Montreal for incorporating The Daily Hab-it into the station’s hockey coverage. Having this platform at a major media outlet allowed me to grow my reputation as a hockey reporter exponentially, and for that I’m truly grateful.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The other would be The Gazette’s Mike Boone, who was practically this blog’s unpaid publicist. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Without the exposure provided by the constant links on Hockey Inside/Out, The Daily Hab-it would have remained my tiny little pet project forever. Instead, it grew into a major voice in a crowded Montreal hockey media landscape, and that’s due in large part to Boone. So thanks, Mike.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Now, this is not really goodbye, because I’m not going anywhere.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I’ll still be covering the Canadiens regularly for NHL.com, so you’ll be able to read me there. </span><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-size: 11pt;">Et pour mes lecteurs francophones, je vous invite à visiter le nouveau LNH.com une fois qu’il est en ligne dans les prochaines semaines.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">But this is the last time you and I will exchange ideas in this format. Even though I couldn’t be more excited about the reason this has to be so, it makes me sad to say that this is the end for The Daily Hab-it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It’s been a blast.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Au revoir.</span></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-83538351482087108372010-10-06T15:13:00.002-04:002010-10-09T22:54:17.387-04:00Moving day<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, we have hit a new level over at The Daily Hab-it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At some point today, my first post for my new blog of the same name will be appearing at the CTV Montreal web site as a small part of the ramped up Habs coverage over there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There will be a lot of exciting new features on what will be called The Habs Hub, including a place where you can see raw video straight from the room, this blog as well as others written by CTV's longtime Habs reporter Brian Wilde and Habs blogger Eric Engels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I couldn't be more excited about the development and I sincerely hope you all follow The Daily Hab-it over to its new digs at <a href="http://montreal.ctv.ca/habs">montreal.ctv.ca/habs</a>. I'm not quite sure when it will be fully up and running, but it should be today and you'll be able to read a Canadiens season preview I just finished writing before heading off to Toronto for Thursday's season-opener.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I will keep this site up to serve mainly as an archive of my 578 posts over the past couple of years, but all my new material will now be posted over at the CTV Montreal site.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, I want to thank all of you for continuing to check out the blog on a regular basis and I hope to see you over at CTV Montreal again real soon.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-11722618990194056392010-10-04T01:44:00.000-04:002010-10-04T01:44:53.326-04:00Intentions vs actions<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I know a lot of you just don't want it to be true, and that's why you're trying to blame the victim when discussing Michael Cammalleri's momentary lapse of reason Saturday night in Quebec City.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've heard via Twitter and through conversations with friends and people I don't even know that Nino Niderreiter got what he deserved for attempting to decapitate Cammalleri with a blindside hit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The problem I have with that argument - and it's a major one - is that the hit Niederreiter laid on Cammalleri was clean. He made no contact with Cammalleri's head, as far as I can see, and when that's the case a blindside hit like that is still legal, particularly when Cammalleri has just released the puck as he did Saturday night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Why don't you judge for yourself?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><object height="344" style="background-image: url("http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/jsi_fx3DtJw/hqdefault.jpg");" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jsi_fx3DtJw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jsi_fx3DtJw?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Watch that hit a few times and tell me whether or not Niederreiter actually made contact with Cammalleri's head. I really don't think so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If that's the case, who cares what he was trying to do? If we start doling out penalties or suspensions based on perceived intent, how big of a can of worms does that open up? If someone falls and his stick comes up and hits nothing, does that merit a high-sticking penalty because you can perceive that maybe he swung his stick intentionally in the hope of taking someone's eye out? How about when someone lines up an opposing player, charges after him, but misses? It happens at least four or five times a game, so do we penalize each of those plays because the player was attempting to commit charging, but simply failed?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The answer is no, and frankly, I don't know how anyone can honestly say that Niederreiter was trying to hit Cammalleri's head but missed. If Neiderreiter, listed at 6-foot-2, wanted to elbow the 5-foot-9 Cammalleri in the head, I think he would have done so. Instead, what he did was hit him in the shoulder with his own shoulder. He laid a bodycheck. Yes, it was lateral and met all the criteria for the new rule against blindside hits except for one crucial aspect - he didn't hit Cammalleri in the head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So Cammalleri is clearly upset, and he loses it. While watching the sequence, try to think to yourself at what point Cammalleri could have stopped himself, could have said this is a nothing game that's already been decided and I'm a veteran guy who is important to my team. Just watch:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fH3bqxNiJSo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fH3bqxNiJSo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm sorry, but Cammalleri had at least three opportunities to stop himself before laying the two-hander to the back of Niederreiter's skate. There was the initial hit in retaliation, then the brutally dangerous jab in the face with the stick, then another cross-check, and <i>then</i> he slashed him Bobby Clarke styles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You want to talk about intent? Cammalleri had a blatantly obvious intent in each of those instances, and he executed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That kind of stick work simply can't be tolerated, and I truly believe that if Cammalleri himself wasn't the perpetrator, he'd agree with that statement wholeheartedly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Monday is when Cammalleri finds out whether or not he'll miss the season-opener in Toronto, but I think it's a given that he will. I think he'd be lucky to play in Pittsburgh in Saturday as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And he has no one to blame but himself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">P.S. I know I haven't been very active on here lately but I'm still trying to nail down a very exciting development for The Daily Hab-it that I hope to be able to announce to everyone this week. Meanwhile, I'll be in Toronto covering the season-opener for NHL.com on Thursday and couldn't be more giddy about my first hockey game at the ACC. I'll be posting on Twitter throughout the trip and blogging as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It just remains to be seen if that blogging will be appearing here or someplace else. Stay tuned. </span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-90322333296302057312010-09-26T07:58:00.000-04:002010-09-26T07:58:15.089-04:00Boucher's legacy<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Though Guy Boucher and his entire Hamilton staff are in Tampa Bay this season, there remain numerous vestiges of his one year within the Canadiens organization that remain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The biggest and most obvious one is P.K. Subban, who clearly benefited from having Boucher as his first professional coach. Ryan White, Aaron Palushaj (briefly), Max Pacioretty Yannick Weber, David Desharnais and others might still be able to use some of the lessons they learned under Boucher and apply them in doses while playing for Randy Cunneyworth in Hamilton this season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But what appears to be the biggest residual Boucher effect is the pre-season implementation of his somewhat radical power play formation by the ever-so-unradical Jacques Martin. It's rare you get to see actual tactical changes in action in pre-season games, so it's been interesting to say the least thus far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For those who don't know, Boucher's wacky power play set-up is essentially a 1-3-1, with one defenceman on the blue line, another in the high slot, and the traditional forwards on the side boards and in front of the net. Boucher may not have invented it, but he is widely credited for being the one to first use it in world class competition when he did so with great success as an assistant coach for the Canadian junior team in 2008-09.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That team had Subban playing the high slot and Ryan Ellis setting up a one-man wall on the blue line. While most people pointed to Subban as being the catalyst for a power play that clicked at 50 per cent over the tournament, it was probably Ellis' uncanny ability to hold the blue line that actually made it work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Canadiens also have a defenceman who I feel is the best in the NHL at that very skill in Andrei Markov, and now that Subban is here, I like that Martin is experimenting a little bit with a formation made famous by a coach many fans wanted to see replace him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But I'd be pretty stunned to see it used in regular season play until Markov returns, which <a href="http://twitter.com/renhockey/status/25416380595">could be by Halloween</a>.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't address the fact that Carey Price has allowed 10 goals on 37 shots in two pre-season games, after taking a 6-2 beating Saturday in Ottawa.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But it will be brief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Firstly, this doesn't mean Price will play this poorly in the regular season, but it's admittedly not a very good sign.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The second thing is how even this sieve-like performance is exhibiting Price's growing maturity as a professional. He has every reason to call out Jaroslav Spacek who, as far as I can tell, has directly led to at least four of Price's 10 goals. In the past, Price would have done just that. But he hasn't, at least not yet.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Price did mention that there is a hodgepodge of players on the team in front of him as an explanation for the number of high quality scoring chances against him, and the low percentage of them he's been stopping.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But at least Price also said after Saturday's loss that he should be stopping more of those chances.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I can admit that I am forming a lot of my judgments on Price on subjective elements like the actual words coming out of his mouth, while the haters are using more tangible proof of his failings like goals against and save percentage. I would just ask that we give him a few regular season games before finally determining his fate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Finally, I pitched in on NHL.com Canadiens season preview with stories on <a href="http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=538519">Price</a> and <a href="http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=538593">Subban</a> that you can check out here.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-19444093363460097102010-09-18T22:59:00.000-04:002010-09-18T22:59:21.979-04:00What a debut<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Lars Eller's name was nowhere on the scoresheet the Habs handed out after Saturday's intra-squad game as on-ice workouts got underway in Brossard.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But you would have to be blind not to have noticed him.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Eller is as intriguing a player as the Canadiens have, except for maybe P.K. Subban, in that the tools are quite clearly all there.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Big frame? Check.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Willingness to use it (as evidenced by him taking on a charging Jeff Halpern today and winding up as the one still on his skates)? Check.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Blazing speed? Check and double-check.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Soft hands? Check.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That tried and true Danish hockey pedigree? Check.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Eller could very well turn out to be the player the Canadiens have been sorely lacking for years, though it's not likely to be this year. But I came away from a full day at training camp Saturday extremely impressed.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So much so, I wrote a <a href="http://sports.sympatico.ca/news/contentposting/lars_eller_hoping_to_make_a_name_for_himself_at_montreal_canadiens_training_camp/f80ebba5">big, long story</a> about him.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Another guy that impressed me today was Maxim Lapierre, who was flying on the ice and scored twice, missing his chance at a hat trick when he shot high on a breakaway. Lapierre's speed is such a big part of his game because it allows him to forecheck effectively, and when he didn't have that last season due to a nagging ankle injury, we all saw just how useless he could be.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now claiming to be at full health, Lapierre began training camp with a lot of jump, and he was beaming in the dressing room afterwards.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">“You want to work as if it’s a playoff game right off the bat. We all want to pick up where we left off last year,” Lapierre said. “I know it’s just an intra-squad game, but that’s how you prepare for pre-season games, and that’s how you prepare for the regular season games. So you have to start somewhere.”</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">Lapierre started somewhere that was way ahead of last year's starting point, which is a good sign. And judging by how he skated today, Lapierre playing with Eller and someone like Dustin Boyd or Tom Pyatt could make for a very speedy third line that would give other teams problems.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">Lapierre said he worked hard in the offseason, something he was accused in the past of ignoring. He said he worked with some new computerized bike system, he did specific exercises to improve his acceleration, and he took boxing lessons for his cardio.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">And if the boxing lessons come in handy in other situations, such as those he creates himself when he yaps at the opposition, then so be it.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">"When (a fight) happens I’ll have a little more technique," Lapierre said. "My role is to play the way I did in the playoffs. But if I have to fight, I’ll fight."</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">But the highlight of my day was 15 minutes of one-on-one time with Tomas Plekanec after practice.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">You can read some of the things he said in <a href="http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=537950">my own debut on NHL.com</a>, but there are some parts of the conversation that didn't get in there.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">Basically, I continued on my crusade to get Plekanec to admit that he might be better served playing a more focused offensive role, rather than the jack-of-all-trades game he plays now that finds him on the ice in practically every conceivable game situation.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content">Plekanec insists he wouldn't have it any other way.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">“I’m happy with my role," he said. "That’s my job, and I’ve progressed through the organization to be that kind of player from day one in Hamilton. I started working on my defensive game right away because I was too offensive-minded when I got to Hamilton. So I’ve been raised to be a two-way player and I’m happy with that role. I think that’s the best way I can help the team.”</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">He said the fact the organization gave him a six-year contract kind of validates that position, because why would a team lock someone up for that long in the hopes he will change his game? It's not a bad point.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"They signed me long-term because they know what kind of player I am, what kind of person I am, so I don’t think they would like me to change too much," he said. "Obviously with a six-year contract it shows you that they really want you here and they’re happy with you, and that they want you to be part of the leadership group.”</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I tried to counter that with <a href="http://dailyhab-it.blogspot.com/2010/09/relief-for-plekanec.html">my take on the Jeff Halpern signing</a>, namely that his arrival could free Plekanec of some of his defensive responsibilities so he could focus a little more on offence.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
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</style> <![endif]-->"I didn't really look at it that way," he began. “But I was very happy with the signing. I’ve played against him many times and he’s tough to play against. He’s great on faceoffs and it’s a great signing for us. He makes us such a better team than we were last year.”</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've got to admit here how much I admire Plekanec, and I think some of his answers I related here can show you why. Most players would embrace the opportunity to be a scorer, to get the headlines, to be a star. Plekanec just wants to win because he's a competitor, one so intense that he can get down on himself when either he or the team aren't performing to his satisfaction. He's always first on the ice at practice, and when I asked him today how his summer was his answer said it all: "It was too long."</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm sure he, and all his teammates, hope the Canadiens have a much shorter summer next year.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="entry-content"></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-24675847382707672022010-09-17T23:00:00.000-04:002010-09-17T23:00:09.096-04:00Exciting times<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">These are indeed exciting times, and not only because the NHL is on the radar again with teams reporting to training camp.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But over at The Daily Hab-it headquarters in beautiful NDG, there's been a lot of change over the past few weeks and I thought it was time I filled you in on some of it so you know what to expect from me over the coming season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First off, I'm thrilled to announce that I've signed on to be the Montreal correspondent for NHL.com this season, an opportunity I've waited a long time for. I loved writing for The Canadian Press, and will still do so from time to time, but this move makes me the lone hockey writer in Montreal for NHL.com. That means I will cover every game (or close to it) and every morning skate, which wasn't the case in the past. I have goosebumps just typing that.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The thought of actually writing for a league-endorsed publication would have been unthinkable for me a few years ago, but I like what the NHL has done with its website over the past few years by giving its writers some liberty to cover the news properly. There are obviously limits to what can be written on the league's website, but the reason I love being a hockey writer is to do just that, write about what happened in hockey games and about what the players are like off the ice. And that's exactly what NHL.com does, so I'm very happy to now be a part of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So all of you will be able to see what I'm doing in one, easy to access location, but that doesn't mean I'm abandoning what I've built here. Not by a long shot. I hope to be able to continue providing the same level of coverage at The Daily Hab-it that I've been providing the past two years, and my work with NHL.com places no limits on what I can write here, so don't expect my tone to change.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's possible that I'll get lazy at times and simply post a link here to my work at NHL.com, but I don't anticipate that happening too often. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There are also some possibilities out there for the growth of this blog and I've had some encouraging discussions with people over the past few weeks that could lead to some changes here as well, but I'm not really at liberty to go into more details for the time being. I'll let you all know when I'm able to.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So sorry if you were expecting some Habs talk here, but what I really wanted to do today was make that announcement. I'll be attending Canadiens training camp on Saturday and will try to post something on here once my actual job there is done. But I've been walking on cloud nine about these developments the past few days and just wanted to share that with all of you, my loyal readers who I appreciate and cherish very much.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This blog has played a big role in helping me grow my profile over the past couple of seasons, and I have no one but you to thank for that. So thanks, and hopefully you'll keep coming back all season long to get your news and Canadiens updates right here at The Daily Hab-it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Game on, people.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-27886829850443444772010-09-07T23:32:00.001-04:002010-09-08T10:31:50.015-04:00Relief for Plekanec?<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tuesday's announcement that cagey veteran Jeff Halpern agreed to a one-year deal with the Canadiens for the bargain basement price of $600,000 will cause various trickle-down effects throughout the organization.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Firstly, it essentially removes any and all drama for training camp as Bulldogs hopefuls like Max Pacioretty, Ryan White, Ben Maxwell, David Desharnais, Aaron Palushaj and others have very little chance of sticking with the big club. The Canadiens now have 23 one-way contracts, while the aforementioned players all have two-way deals.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(<b>UPDATE, Sept 8, 10:27 a.m.</b> Thanks to commenter Marc-Philippe for pointing out that the Habs don't have 23 one-way deals, they have 20. Lars Eller, P.K. Subban and Alexandre Picard are all on two-way deals, the former two the entry-level variety. However, I think Eller and Subban are both locks to make the team, while Picard's low cap hit gives him the inside track on a roster spot. The Habs could also choose to go with a 22-man roster and send Picard to Hamilton, which would save a lot of cap space. My bad. Carry on.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Montreal is not so poverty-stricken that it would refuse to pay someone an NHL salary to play in Hamilton, but those guys are going to have to be far better than one of those players with one-way deals in order to make the team. It's not impossible that one of the Hamilton kids will see time in Montreal eventually, especially if injuries hit, but it's not likely to come out of camp.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not only that, but Halpern actually saves the Canadiens about $250,000 on the cap when compared to the Bulldogs players mentioned above seeing as all of them except Desharnais make at least $850,000 in the NHL (Desharnais would make $550,000, which is basically a wash with Halpern's contract).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With Halpern signed, Pierre Gauthier has a little over $350,000 in cap space remaining if he doesn't plan on using the bonus cushion (which he obviously would rather not do). If one of the Hamilton kids had made the team, that cap space would have been at $100,000 or less. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So, in addition to adding one veteran presence to the roster, this signing gives Gauthier the ability to add another veteran at the trade deadline should the opportunity or need arise. Working in highly theoretical terms, if Gauthier still had $350,000 in cap space available at the Feb. 28, 2011 trade deadline, it would allow him to acquire a player with a $1.58 million annual salary. Having only $100,000 in cap space, on the other hand, would get Gauthier a $451,000 player, which doesn't exist seeing as that's lower than the league minimum.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There's a <a href="http://www.capgeek.com/free_agents.php?Year=2011&Team=All&Position=All&FAType=2">long list of players</a> who risk missing the playoffs and are due to become unrestricted free agents after the season making less than $1.58 million, including Joel Ward ($1.5 million), Anton Babchuk ($1.4 million), Karlis Skrastins ($1.375 million), John Madden ($1.25 million), Curtis Glencross ($1.2 million), Marty Reasoner ($1.15 million), Todd Marchant ($1.125 million), Milan Jurcina ($1 million) and Ben Eager ($965,000), among many others. I know none of those names will make any of you jump out of your seats, but would the thought of adding Dominic Moore at the deadline have sent you into a frenzy last summer? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There's also the possibility that Gauthier could choose to use the bonus cushion if the team looks as though it will contend. That would bump the available cap space to nearly $780,000, which would allow for the acquisition of a $3.5 million player at the deadline.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the ultimate effect, potentially, I can see from adding Jeff Halpern is getting some defensive relief for Tomas Plekanec.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With Halpern on board from the start of the year, as opposed to adding Moore just before the Olympic break last season, it's possible Jacques Martin will reduce Plekanec's workload in his own end and allow him and his linemates to concentrate their efforts at the offensive end of the ice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Plekanec would never say this explicitly, and trust me, I tried as hard as I could to get it out of him at the end of last season, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind being freed up to save his energy for offensive shifts. Last year Plekanec started his shifts in the defensive zone <a href="http://behindthenet.ca/2009/new_5_on_5.php?sort=56&section=zonestart&mingp=&mintoi=&team=MTL&pos=F">more often than any other forward on the team</a>, which severely hampers not only his ability to score, but those of his linemates as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Plekanec insists he has no problem with this, but I also know for a fact he gets very annoyed when his lack of production in the playoffs is brought up, as it was in the conference call following his signing a six-year, $30 million contract earlier this summer. He had two extremely difficult defensive assignments in the first two rounds of the post-season and still produced reasonably well, all things considered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now, if Halpern could help form a true shutdown line with, perhaps, Dustin Boyd and Travis Moen on his wings, maybe Martin would be more inclined to send those three out there in defensive zone faceoff situations than Plekanec.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Considering Plekanec <a href="http://www.dobberhockey.com/frozenpool_linecombo.php?selForward=MTLPLEKANEC%2CTOMAS&situation=ALL&period=ALL&games=2009-2010%3AP%3A99&Submit=Show+Line+Combinations&sent=go">spent most of his time</a> last season playing with Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn - not exactly two of the more defensive-minded players on the team - just think of how many wasted shifts they had running around in their own end chasing the puck. Now try and think if the number of those shifts were cut in half because Halpern was taking them. Don't you think there would be some added benefit of Plekanec diverting that energy towards the other team's net? I do. It remains to be seen if Martin does as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Halpern could also take some of Plekanec's team-leading penalty-killing time away, further freeing some energy for offence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's also entirely possible that Halpern's arrival will have absolutely no effect on how Martin uses Plekanec, and that's fine as well. As I've tried to demonstrate several times here, Plekanec is one of the best two-way centres in the NHL and I see no problem with Martin using that versatility to its full potential. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But it would be at least interesting to see what Plekanec would be like offensively if he weren't so burdened with defensive responsibilities, and I think Halpern's arrival could offer a glimpse into that scenario.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'll conclude with what I feel could be the opening night line combinations at forward. Your thoughts on the matter are always welcomed:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cammalleri - Plekanec - Kostitsyn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Pouliot - Gomez - Gionta</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Darche/Pyatt - Eller - Lapierre</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Moen - Halpern - Boyd</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-69429857865815271352010-09-03T22:54:00.000-04:002010-09-03T22:54:08.050-04:00An opportunity lost<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's been nine months since New Year's day, the day Pierre Gauthier could have started to negotiate a contract extension for defenceman Andrei Markov. And while there was never any rush to do so, it now appears that one of the options Gauthier had available to him to keep Markov's cap number relatively low has been taken away.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With the NHL and NHLPA <a href="http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=332542">agreeing to amend the CBA</a> midstream by changing the rules on long-term contracts, Markov's next deal is likely to take up a big chunk of cap space.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don't think that Gauthier was actually considering throwing a 10-year contract Markov's way, in fact I'd have been shocked if he did. But now, he can't. Or at least it's not worth the trouble with this new formula for calculating cap hits on these long-term deals.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You've got to wonder if Gauthier won't have regrets that he didn't jump through this loophole while it was still open when Markov is suddenly counting for $7 million - or more - against the cap. And that cap situation will probably be pretty tight to begin with when Markov's contract expires on July 1.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Of course, this might also be a good thing because who knows how the Devils, Canucks, Hawks, Red Wings and Bruins will feel about those long-term deals five years from now when those players refuse to retire.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Speaking of tight quarters, with Carey Price's contract being signed yesterday the Habs cap figure has come into focus. I've seen it reported that Montreal has over $1.3 million in cap space remaining with 22 players signed, but that's not entirely accurate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, Gauthier could spend another $1.3 million if he wants, however he would have to use the dreaded bonus cushion in order to do so. His real level of penalty-free flexibility is a little over $950,000 (by subtracting Lars Eller's $425,000 in bonus money), which would get largely gobbled up as soon as a forward from Hamilton makes the club.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That's why it wouldn't shock me to see the Habs go with a 22-man roster to start the season, with defencemen Ryan O'Byrne and Alex Picard as the only two extras.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-64844941496297271082010-09-02T20:07:00.000-04:002010-09-02T20:07:33.387-04:00Haters, step forward<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here is your chance to shine, for those of you who believe Carey Price is a spoiled brat who hasn't deserved anything he's received as an NHL goalie.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The news Thursday afternoon that Price had signed a two-year deal worth $5.5 million is bound to make many among you scream bloody murder. Not because Price is grossly overpaid with that contract, but rather because it comes one day after the Stanley Cup winning goalie signed a deal that was far less generous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Many looked at Antti Niemi signing a one-year deal for $2 million with the San Jose Sharks as a clear sign that Price cannot possibly ask for any more than that, and should even receive considerably less. But the differences between the two don't begin and end with the number of Cup rings on their fingers (actually, seeing as Niemi hasn't yet received his ring, they do in fact have the same number. But you get my point).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Niemi's regular season numbers in 39 games played last season were a 26-7-4 record, 2.27 GAA and .912 save percentage. On the surface, that looks miles ahead of Price's numbers of 13-20-5, 2.77 and, curiously, a .912 save percentage in 41 games played. I think it's pretty widely accepted that save percentage is the most accurate statistic to determine a goaltender's performance, so how is it that Niemi's and Price's other numbers are so vastly different?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Allow me to demonstrate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First of all, and perhaps most obviously, Niemi was playing behind the best defensive team in the league, allowing an NHL-low 25.1 shots per game. For Niemi that number was even lower, as he saw only 24 shots per game during the regular season. Price, in only two more games played than Niemi, saw 308 more shots on goal over the course of the season, or 6.3 per game.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'll be curious to see how Niemi does playing for a team that allowed 31.4 shots per game last season, 20th in the league. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Then there's the age and experience factor. Niemi was playing his first full season and he's already 27 years old, while Price just completed his third season and just turned 23.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But before you start screaming about how it's all about winning and that their won-loss records are practically polar opposites of each other, consider one other factor in your judgment: goal support.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://dailyhab-it.blogspot.com/2010/07/call-me-apologist.html">I went into much greater detail</a> a couple of months ago about how little of it Price received last season, but I think this comparison makes it even clearer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Only Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov of the high-scoring Washington Capitals received more even strength goal support than Niemi did last season, as his teammates scored 3.04 goals for every 60 minutes he was on the ice. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Even during the playoffs, Niemi's Hawks scored 3.54 goals per game, tops in the league.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Price? He got 1.87 goals for per 60 minutes, better than only three other regular goalies in the whole league. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So what's the point of this exercise? I guess I'm trying to make a counter to an argument I anticipate hearing ad nauseum over the next few days. But really, I'm trying to show that a $2.75 million cap hit over the next two years is a good deal for both Price and the Canadiens. It gives both sides a good window to see what will become of this talented young man who clearly lost his way at last year's All-Star break, but who hasn't necessarily lost it altogether. For Price, he makes a very decent wage and has two years to prove himself. For the Canadiens, should Price completely flop his contract is not an albatross and is only on the books for two years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Could Gauthier have waited it out for a lower cap figure? Probably. Could Price have threatened to hold out from camp to get $3 million? Also probably. But neither of those moves would be beneficial to this relationship, one I believe the player and the franchise hope lasts for several more contracts after this one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Price said all the right things in his conversation with the Montreal media this afternoon, as he has pretty much ever since he lost his starting job to Jaroslav Halak last season. He twice repeated that a starting job "is not given, it's earned," noting he learned that the hard way last year. I've <a href="http://dailyhab-it.blogspot.com/2010/06/for-what-its-worth.html">gone on record</a> as believing last season taught Price an enormous lesson and knocked him off the pedestal he was on after being voted as a starting goalie in the All-Star game. Many brought up his petulant behaviour in his lone playoff start against the Washington Capitals as a sign that he hadn't grown up at all, and that may very well be true.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But I'm still willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt because the risk/reward ship has already sailed for him. Halak is gone, that decision's been made, so Price had better fulfill some of that tremendous potential. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Personally, I believe he will.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-11442183004626681412010-08-31T23:17:00.000-04:002010-08-31T23:17:00.932-04:00A peek into the Salary Cap crystal ball<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Though Carey Price remains unsigned, the Canadiens salary cap situation this season appears pretty clear. And while there isn't a ton of room to spare, Pierre Gauthier should have some money left in the kitty to acquire some help at the trade deadline should he see fit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But what about next year? Will the Canadiens be in any position to do some free agency shopping next summer? Will the situation become more flexible? Probably not.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Bob Gainey and Gauthier's spree last summer will still hamper the club next season, with Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez and Jaroslav Spacek taking up over $22 million between them. Add in Tomas Plekanec and Price (assuming he signs a deal for two or more years), and you may be looking at upwards of $30 million tied up in six players. Travis Moen ($1.5 million), Lars Eller ($1.27 million, including bonuses) and P.K. Subban ($875,000) are the only other players under contract for 2011-12.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If the cap for the 2011-12 remains relatively stable, the Canadiens will likely have about $25 million to fill out the remaining 13 or 14 spots on the roster, again depending on what happens with Price's contract. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A sizeable chunk of that money will likely be earmarked for Andrei Markov, assuming he's still around after the trade deadline. An extremely conservative estimate would have Markov re-signing for an average of $6 million a year, though I believe he could get considerably more on the open market.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But while Markov is the one who will likely get most of the attention, there's another defenceman on the roster who may present an equally difficult conundrum for Gauthier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Josh Gorges will be a restricted free agent after this season, one of four Habs rearguards with expiring contracts (Roman Hamrlik and Hal Gill are the others). I highly doubt Hamrlik and Gill will be brought back, but I have to believe Gorges has been identified as a member of the core group that needs to be locked up long term.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gorges just turned 26 on Aug. 14 and last spring established himself as a key penalty killer and shutdown defenceman for the Habs. Last year's playoffs provided a league-wide showcase for Gorges as he was matched up against the two most dangerous players in the world in the first two rounds and shone.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Over the past two seasons Gorges has missed only one game, tying for the team lead in games played both years. Durability is definitely worth something. As far as his <a href="http://www.behindthenet.ca/2009/new_4_on_5.php?sort=6&section=goals&mingp=&mintoi=&team=MTL&pos=D">penalty killing is concerned</a>, he and Gill were the only two Montreal defencemen among the regular top six who gave up fewer power play goals against when they were on the ice as the team gave up when they were off the ice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For those who may think that penalty killing prowess was largely due to playing with Gill, consider that Gorges allowed the fewest goals against per 60 minutes of shorthanded ice time on the team in 2008-09. In fact, his on-ice/off-ice difference in power play goals against per 60 minutes was 3.43 two years ago, and dipped to 0.33 playing with Gill this past season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But his skill-set and potential for continued growth makes Gorges a difficult player to price, since his value is not measured in goals and assists, but rather the complicated, headache-inducing stats I referred to earlier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Looking around the league for similar type players, I found three potential comparables for Gorges who all suggest it may cost the Canadiens more than they're willing to spend to retain him. They are Dan Girardi of the New York Rangers (26 years old, forms top shutdown pairing with Marc Staal), Jeff Schultz of the Washington Capitals (24 years old, team's top defensive player) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the San Jose Sharks (23 years old, same as above).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gorges will be older than all three of these players when his contract expires, but in terms of games played he's in the ballpark with all of them (Gorges - 328 GP, Girardi - 280 GP, Schultz - 247 GP, and Vlasic - 309 GP). All three of these players were signed to four-year contracts hovering around $3 million per year. Vlasic is entering the second year of his $3.1 million per year deal, while both Schultz ($2.75 million a year) and Girardi ($3.25 million) each signed their contracts this summer. You could add Nicklas Hjalmarsson's four-year deal at $3.5 million per to the list as well, though that came as a result of an offer sheet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Speaking of which, if Gorges' contract negotiations are handled the way Price's have been, could he be open to an offer sheet himself?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If indeed Gorges gets a deal worth about $3 million, and Markov somehow signs for a $6 million cap hit, that would theoretically leave about $16 million to sign four defencemen, seven forwards and a backup goalie. This is when you have to hope players on entry level deals produce big, guys like Eller and Subban this year and eventually Louis Leblanc, Danny Kristo, Alexander Avtsin and others.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Because even though Hamrlik, Gill and probably Andrei Kostitsyn will come off the books to free up nearly $11 million after this season, it doesn't look as though the Canadiens will get any cap relief for quite some time. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Other tidbits:</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- CBC News reporter Michel Godbout caused a bit of a stir on Twitter today when he <a href="http://twitter.com/GodboutNews/status/22641895463">tweeted</a><b> </b>that Price plans to hold out unless he gets $3 million a year out of Gauthier. That led Quebecor's crack staff over at the QMI News Agency to write up a <a href="http://fr.canoe.ca/sports/nouvelles/hockey/canadiens/archives/2010/08/20100831-152427.html">whole story</a> based on a tweet<b>.</b> Brilliant. Later, RDS put out a <a href="http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/305451.html">story </a>that Price's agent Gerry Johansson feels negotiations have progressed, but there is a long way to go (Uhh, Gerry? Training camp is a little over two weeks away. How long are we talking about here?). Frankly, I have little doubt that Price wants $3 million a year, but I have huge doubts that he would holdout. Or as Godbout put it, "strike."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- RDS also <a href="http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/305327.html">reported</a> on Monday that Markov has begun skating on his own, which is an encouraging sign that perhaps his agent Don Meehan wasn't blowing hot air when he said his client may in fact be back in time for the start of the season. Basically, any time Markov returns before the calendar turns to November would have to be considered a miracle, so this news may make Markov's orthopedic surgeon a candidate for sainthood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- Finally, my buddy Eric Engels made his <a href="http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eric-Engels/No-Brainer-Habs-Should-Offer-Guerin-a-Contract/82/29914">case</a> for why the Habs should reach out to Bill Guerin as a free agent. I can't say I disagree, assuming Guerin is willing to play for $1 million. He'd be a great addition to the team even if he's lost a step (you don't have to be particularly quick to play on the power play). He'd add some insurance against the strong likelihood that either Kostitsyn or Benoit Pouliot - or both - will not live up to their top-6 forward billing.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-14229960567193061482010-08-25T13:04:00.001-04:002010-08-30T12:36:33.710-04:00Will past be prologue?<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">I would say it's pretty likely. In fact, there's not much about the Pierre Gauthier regime to suggest much has changed since Bob Gainey was in charge, including the fact that Gainey himself remains on staff as an advisor/consultant/puppet master to Gauthier.</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the defining philosophies of the Gainey era was a reluctance to negotiate new contracts with free agents until the very last, possible moment, by which point it was often too late. The guiding principle applied to just about every impending free agent who played under Gainey.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the end of last season, after all the players had made their rounds through the media and not long after Andrei Markov told us his priority this summer was to rehab from knee surgery and not necessarily think about a new contract, I asked Gauthier whether or not the injury would affect his plans of negotiating a contract extension with his best player.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Not at all," Gauthier said. "We know he's a good player."</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Of course, nowhere in that answer did Gauthier actually say that he planned on opening negotiations for an extension with Markov, and when pressed further on it, Gauthier clammed up. Would you expect any different? I didn't, but I had to try.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So here we are, three months later, and my buddy Jean-Francois Chaumont of Radio-Canada is <a href="http://www.radio-canada.ca/sports/hockey/2010/08/24/004-markov-meehan.shtml">reporting</a> that Markov's agent Don Meehan has not received an invitation to the negotiating table from Gauthier. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shocking? Hardly.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But one would think the Canadiens will have learned from their past errors and would want to eliminate this potential distraction before it gathers steam. Gainey admitted it became one two years ago when half the team had their contracts up for renewal, and last season it dogged Tomas Plekanec as he found himself among the league's scoring leaders and proved to be the team's most durable and consistent forward.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meehan told Chaumont that Gauthier wants to wait for the right moment to start negotiations for Markov. I would suggest that moment is right now.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">If Markov is around for training camp - and Meehan suggests it's not out of the question that he will be recovered in time for the season opener - then does anyone honestly believe his contract status will not become THE story of the pre-season? Aside from the possibility that certain pockets of the media might start pushing for Louis Leblanc to make the team, this would be the number one talking point of camp.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand, the argument could be made that players care little about what the media talk about or what fans stress about, but precedent would suggest that if Markov remains unsigned by the start of the season then anything is possible with regards to his future in Montreal.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Markov could be a jewel of the 2011 free agent, one that will potentially include the likes of Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Brad Richards, Patrice Bergeron and Tomas Kaberle, not to mention restricted free agents like Jeff Carter and Shea Weber.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Markov will be 32 on July 1, 2011, which may seem old but compared to other defencemen of his stature actually isn't. If I'm Meehan, or Markov for that matter, I'm pushing for a five-year contract in the $30 to $35 million range.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And that's where things get dicey for Gauthier. Does he want to commit that kind of money to a player who has had two major injuries in the past 10 months? Or one who will represent a $6 to $7 million cap hit at age 37? Or does he want upwards of $30 million in cap space tied up in only five players? Then there's the matter of the collective bargaining agreement expiring next September, a moment that appears to be the start of phase two of the NHL's attempt to mask its business deficiencies by further weakening the players in their "partnership" with the league. (<b>UPDATE</b> Aug 30, 2010 - Sorry, but I screwed up the expiry of the CBA, which is in September of 2012 and not next year. Still, it remains a factor to consider when signing Markov to an extension).</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With all these factors to consider, perhaps it's wise on Gauthier's part to at least see how Markov recovers from this latest knee surgery before entering into negotiations. The problem is that with impending free agency comes trade speculation, especially as the deadline begins to approach, and even more especially if the Canadiens are struggling in the standings come February.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The thought of trading Markov away for what always amounts to prospects and/or draft picks at the deadline is probably revolting to most Habs fans, and rightfully so. Markov is without a doubt the best draft pick the Canadiens have made in the last 20 years, a player who developed here and has grown to love the city and his team. Being jettisoned as a rental is no way for that service history to come to an end, particularly when you consider how Saku Koivu departed here.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But besides sentimentality, Markov remains a top-end NHL defenceman who would undoubtedly garner tons of interest should he be allowed to hit the open market while still in the prime of his career.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The last time he was a free agent, Markov agreed to a contract after the season but prior to July 1. It was a deal that many people believed was somewhat outlandish at the time, but which now represents one of the best bargains in the NHL. Will that same scenario play itself out again in spite of all the warning signs Gauthier is facing?</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm not sure, but it's looking more and more like we're going to find out, for better or for worse.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-43623505445211283402010-08-17T01:23:00.000-04:002010-08-17T01:23:42.996-04:00Beyond comprehension<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was busy covering the Rogers Cup tennis tournament this evening when word began filtering its way through the press box that the Canadiens had traded away AHL All-Star goalie Cedrick Desjardins to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Karri Ramo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Once I got past the initial feelings of disbelief, it was confusion that took over my thoughts as I tried to figure why - in the same summer you traded away perhaps the finest young goalie in the league, let alone the organization - you would immediately trade another promising young goalie for a castaway who has been relegated to KHL duty?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Several hours later, and I'm still wondering the same thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ramo is reportedly under contract for one more year with Omsk and therefore will not be anywhere near Montreal this season. Desjardins, meanwhile, may get a chance to start in Tampa Bay sometime in the near future if Dan Ellis and Mike Smith falter. But frankly, if ever Carey Price doesn't find his game this season Desjardins might very well have been playing in Montreal this year as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Admittedly not a likely scenario, but a possible one nonetheless. Now, if Price were to get injured and Alex Auld proved inadequate as a full-time starter, what do the Canadiens do? Turn the reins to Curtis Sanford? Robert Mayer, for God's sakes?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm too tired to go into this in great detail right now, but frankly even if I weren't I'm not sure I'd have much more to add. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The move is, in a word, baffling. </span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-53097710532725951842010-08-11T22:52:00.000-04:002010-08-11T22:52:27.722-04:00A philosophical change?<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It's hard to know for sure, but with the last two Canadiens first round draft picks foregoing the colege route in favour of junior hockey over the past couple of weeks, one has to wonder whether or not Pierre Gauthier and the organization as a whole has decided to push its prospects in this direction.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We'll never know to what extent Gauthier pressured Louis Leblanc to leave Harvard for the Montreal Juniors or Jarred Tinordi to do the same to Notre-Dame in favour of the London Knights, but I would find it difficult to believe the Canadiens did not at least slightly nudge the two of them towards junior hockey.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That would be a pretty major philosophical shift, one that may have began when Max Pacioretty left the University of Michigan after his freshman year to sign with the Habs. Ironically enough, that's a case where leaving the player in school may have ultimately been the right call.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">From an organizational viewpoint, the collegiate option looks like it has the best of both worlds. You have four years to evaluate a player before signing him to a professional contract, thereby slowing the free agency clock, but also delaying that player's arrival in Montreal. The case of David Fischer shows how a team can sometimes benefit from this, because the Canadiens didn't have to pay a dime to determine he is not NHL material (though he still may make it with another team).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Since the 2007 draft, or the year after Trevor Timmins went completely off the board to nab Fischer with the 20th overall pick, the Canadiens have used 13 of their 27 draft picks on players who were either in or heading to college. Of those, eight were selected in the third round or later. Of the remaining five who were selected in the top two rounds, Ryan McDonagh (12th overall, 2007) was traded and just signed his first pro contract with the Rangers, Pacioretty (22nd overall, 2007) is entering his third year in the pros, Danny Kristo (56th overall, 2008) is playing his second and possibly final season at North Dakota, Leblanc (18th overall, 2009) is playing with the Juniors and Tinordi (22nd overall, 2010) is heading to London.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So basically, three of the four first round picks since 2007 played two seasons of college hockey combined, and the other was traded.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Previously, both Mike Komisarek and Christopher Higgins played two years apiece in college before making the jump, while Ryan O'Byrne played three years at Cornell.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Again, I can't say for sure whether or not this is true, but it appears to me the Canadiens no longer want their top end prospects learning the game at the collegiate level. Which begs the question, why do they keep using their best picks on players they know are planning on attending college?</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-91163640046884617122010-08-02T16:11:00.000-04:002010-08-02T16:11:23.054-04:00The coach, the goalie and the Next One<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know I promised this quite some time ago, but I went ahead and got caught up in summer laziness. So here, without further ado, are a few thoughts on what's been going on with the Habs of late. Consider it making up for lost time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Validation for Martin</b></span><br />
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</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's rare that I agree with anything Michel Bergeron says, but I actually did agree with <a href="http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/302917.html">his take on the hiring of Randy Cunneyworth</a> as head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs. OK, agree may be a bit too strong of a word. But a few things become clear with this decision by Pierre Gauthier, and the most important one is that the hiring was a big show of support for Jacques Martin.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As Bergeron mentions, the Canadiens have a unique dynamic when hiring a coach for their minor league affiliate because they need to continue grooming potential coaches to take over the big club. Like it or not, the Canadiens are drawing from a limited pool of coaching options because they must hire someone who can express himself in both official languages. In that sense, Cunneyworth is extremely unlikely to get promoted within the organization unless he goes out and signs up for French lessons.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When Guy Boucher was in Hamilton, there was grumbling among a large sector of the fan base to get him in Montreal as quickly as possible even though Martin had been on the job for less than one year. Much like many people didn't want Gauthier to get a French-Canadian back-up for Carey Price (assuming he's ever signed, more on that later) to avoid potential language-based controversies, hiring Cunneyworth to coach the Bulldogs takes a potential source of heat off of Martin.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cunneyworth is a very capable coach who, having played for Martin in Ottawa, will know how to prepare players for the strict (some would say stifling) regime that awaits them in Montreal.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But Martin will no longer have to be looking over his shoulder at who's coming up from behind, because the No. 2 in the organization is simply not qualified to take the main gig.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Still, I feel Martin will have a heavy burden this season to show that he actually had a role to play in the Habs tremendous run through the playoffs last season. It's been too readily accepted that Jaroslav Halak was the one and only reason the Canadiens made the Eastern Conference final, but I believe Martin deserves some of the credit.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just when it looked like he was repeating the same mistakes that made him a playoff bust in Ottawa - refusing to shorten his bench, losing match-up battles - Martin took his game up a notch. Down 3-1 to the Washington Capitals, Martin took it to his counterpart Bruce Boudreau and won the battle. Yes, Halak was outstanding, but there was a game plan surrounding him, one that worked to unlikely success for two playoff rounds.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now Martin has to prove he can shape another game plan around Price and with the other pieces he's been given. He's adding P.K. Subban for an entire season, will Martin give him the liberty to express his offensive flair and creativity? Will Lars Eller be allowed to make mistakes as a rookie and play through them, or will he find himself on the bench for long stretches like Benoit Pouliot? Will Martin be able to coax something, anything, out of Andrei Kostitsyn on a consistent basis, especially now that the distraction of his little brother is gone? Will he be able to absorb the loss of Andrei Markov for the first couple of months now that it isn't coinciding with Martin having to learn about all his players for the first time?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These are all questions that Martin needs to answer this season, but he will do so secure in the knowledge there's no one in Hamilton knocking on the door looking to steal his job.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>It's getting dicey with Price</b></span><br />
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</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Clearly, Carey Price's agent Gerry Johansson is trying to play a little hardball with the Habs, likely trying to squeeze a bit more term and money out of Gauthier. But I think Gauthier knows that ultimately, Price will have to come crawling to him and accept whatever he's offering. Will he really want to holdout when half the fan base (if not more) already resents the fact he was retained and Halak was shipped out of town?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When Gauthier last discussed the negotiations with Price, he went out of his way to mention that he is a restricted free agent with no arbitration rights. In other words, all the leverage is on the Canadiens side. The only recourse available to Price to put a little pressure on the other side is to hold out and leave Gauthier to ponder to possibility of starting the season with Alex Auld as his starting goaltender.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It really wouldn't be the smartest course of action for Price, especially if he wants to avoid the headache of getting his own fans off his back while he tries to re-establish himself as one of the league's most promising young goalies. But on the other hand, Gauthier might be wise not to be too vicious in his negotiating either, because if this is the goalie of the future any bad blood will wind up costing the team in the future.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Blackhawks walked away from their Stanley Cup-winner today after Antti Niemi was awarded a $2.75 million contract by an arbiter. Niemi becomes an unrestricted free agent as a result, but this really has very little impact on what eventually happens to Price. Niemi is 26, Price is 22. Niemi has won a Stanley Cup, Price was won a series in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And finally, Niemi is a UFA, Price is an RFA with no arbitration rights, as Gauthier so menacingly pointed out.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And for anyone who thinks the Habs will sign Niemi and trade away Price, stop it right now. Too much time and heartache has been invested in Price at this point for the team to cut its losses. Say what you will about how he was handled, and we can see now that Price was probably rushed to the NHL, but he is not a hopeless case. The Habs need to see if he can recover and continue his development. In fact, they don't really have much of a choice because they can still come out of this investment a winner if Price blossoms as he should. To see that happen in another uniform would be simply too painful.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Leblanc sees the light</b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While working on a story for <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/QMJHL+smartening/3350190/story.html">The Gazette on education in the QMJHL</a> I found myself in the Montreal Juniors offices a couple of weeks ago, and the decision facing Louis Leblanc was obviously a hot topic for team president Martin Routhier. Juniors GM and head coach Pascal Vincent gave up a lot to get Leblanc's rights from Chicoutimi, former first round pick Guillaume Asselin and the team's first-rounder in 2011 (though that draft pick and another would have come back to Montreal if Leblanc decided not to leave Harvard). Routhier was adamant that the best place for Leblanc was playing with the Juniors if he hoped to have a career in the NHL.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It appears Leblanc and his agent Pat Brisson (who no longer has to be referred to as an adviser) agreed with Routhier's assessment. And frankly, so do I. Leblanc was not playing enough hockey at Harvard, and considering the talent on that team I have no idea why they did so poorly last season. Playing with the Juniors (assuming the Canadiens don't assign Leblanc to Hamilton, which would be shocking) will give Leblanc a better chance to make the Canadian junior team because he'll arrive on the same footing as everyone else. Last year Leblanc had to write an exam during the final selection camp in Regina. This year he should have no such problems, even though he would likely be taking a few courses at McGill while playing for the Juniors.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But ultimately, it will speed up Leblanc's hockey development and give him the best chance to make the Canadiens within the next two or three years. Plus, if ever hockey doesn't work out, he can always return to Harvard and finish his degree later.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's a win-win situation for Leblanc, and a promising sign for the Canadiens.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Moore signs for a pittance</b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the first time in his professional hockey career, Dominic Moore signed a two-year contract with the Tamps Bay Lightning at a very reasonable price tag of $1.1 million per season. He proved to be a valuable player in the playoffs, and at 30 years of age (as of Tuesday) still has some good hockey left in him.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I still fail to understand why he wasn't brought back to Montreal, especially at a price that is $250,000 lower than what Pouliot will pull in this season. Let's hope Maxim Lapierre continues his performance from last season's playoffs, but I got the impression that Moore played a big role in Lapierre's resurgence.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Koivu hails Markov as captain material</b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Speaking from Finland to Richard Labbe of La Presse, <a href="http://www.cyberpresse.ca/sports/hockey/201007/29/01-4302422-koivu-verrait-markov-comme-capitaine.php">Saku Koivu feels Markov would make a fine Montreal Canadiens captain</a>. I've been on record as saying that Markov was my original choice to fill that role, and Markov himself said he hadn't been asked and wouldn't necessarily say no if he was.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There's been a bit of a manufactured controversy lately on whether or not Markov should learn French, an issue that haunted Koivu through the latter part of his record run as Canadiens captain. But really, I don't know if that will play into Martin's final decision, because it is clearly his decision to make.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After last season's playoffs I shifted my opinion on this, and I now feel Brian Gionta is the man for the job. As far as "lead by example" leadership is concerned, Gionta is the perfect candidate because his effort level never drops on the ice, and only goes higher when the situation warrants it. In the dressing room, he is just as good as Koivu was at saying a lot to reporters without saying a whole lot. The team definitely likes that about him. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Timmins on thin ice?</b> </span><br />
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</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Canadiens hiring of former New York Islanders assistant GM and head of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski as an amateur scout has to be a source of mild concern for Canadiens director of player recruitment and development Trevor Timmins.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier's decision to revamp Timmins' scouting staff was the first sign that his reign as the Canadiens draft guru could be coming to an end, and Jankowski's arrival could be another sign.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then again, it could mean absolutely nothing. With Subban set to make his mark with the team this year and other Timmins draft picks like Alexander Avtsin and Leblanc coming down the pipe, maybe the Canadiens will be able to unearth an impact player from the large number of solid-yet-unspectacular players he has drafted over the years.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Speaking of which, 2010 first-rounder Jarred Tinordi (who cost the Canadiens their second-rounder as well) was cut today from the US Junior team's selection camp roster, meaning he will have no opportunity to try out for the team that will compete in Buffalo at Christmas time. Not a very good sign, especially when Brock Nelson, a big centre that would have been available at the Canadiens original slot of 27th overall, will be attending the camp.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Governance lessons from Toronto?</b> </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Very quickly on this one, but I don't see where Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment president <a href="http://www.cyberpresse.ca/sports/hockey/201007/27/01-4301801-la-famille-molson-fait-une-grosse-erreur.php">Richard Peddie gets off telling Geoffrey Molson he's making a big mistake</a> by taking over from Pierre Boivin as president of his own team. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Leafs are not exactly a model of governance in professional sports. I see his point, that Boivin is a good man and did a great job as president of the team, and also that owning a team while serving as president can be problematic. But I'm not sure a team that had been mired by meddlesome ownership prior to the arrival of Brian Burke should be giving out advice on how other owners should handle their own teams. Just my two cents.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-53388291749888256252010-07-25T22:35:00.000-04:002010-07-25T22:35:09.410-04:00New commenting rules<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is just a quick note to say I've switched the settings that allowed just anyone to comment on the blog. You now need to sign in via OpenID in order to post a comment, just so you'll be identified to all the other readers when you spout off your opinion on what I wrote.</span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I really hope this doesn't discourage people to comment on the site. I love it when something I write provokes long, drawn out debates/discussions. But I find that taking part in such a debate with four or five different anonymous users can be aggravating. OpenID is very easy to use, and will work if you're a member of basically any website in the world (Google, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Facebook etc...).</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Anyhow, let me know if you run into any problems with the new system, and if you refuse to sign in you can contact me via e-mail by clicking on my profile link on the right hand side of the page.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I am working on (which means thinking about, which means procrastinating) something about Jacques Martin that I hope to have posted very soon. </span></span></span></span></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-63791808575069419842010-07-19T03:38:00.001-04:002010-07-19T10:10:05.394-04:00Call me an apologist<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I wouldn't blame you if you did. For the amount of times I've used this space to defend Carey Price in the face of seemingly undeniable evidence that he is ever so obviously destined to be a bust, it could seem like I'm on Price's payroll.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I'm not. Trust me.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, from time to time I read things that inspire me to try and interject a little dose of perspective on things. Today, it happened twice.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first was <a href="http://www.cyberpresse.ca/sports/hockey/201007/17/01-4299087-cest-combien-pour-price.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B13b_canadien_427188_section_POS1">Richard Labbe's piece in La Presse</a> where he claims an enormous number of hockey people have told him Price does not have the mental makeup to succeed in Montreal. This is a theory that has gained pretty widespread approval, though I'm not quite sure why. Because the kid likes to party? Because he's shown his frustration from time to time?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm not sure what kind of person it takes to succeed in Montreal. Yes, people love hockey here. Yes, people have high standards here. But do the Nashville Predators as an organization tolerate losing more than the Canadiens do? Don't all athletes making millions of dollars have an inherent pressure to perform? I suppose a player for the Canadiens needs to enjoy that "spice" of Montreal, as Bob Gainey put it, but I refuse to believe it takes someone with superhuman powers to overcome the pressure from the fans and media here.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then, refreshingly, I was reading a <a href="http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2010/7/18/1575207/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-carey">blog post from Robert L</a> of Habs Eyes on the Prize on how fans need to cut Price some slack, how he's going through the same growing pains everyone does, how he shouldn't be branded for the rest of his career just because of a few transgressions early on. It was refreshing.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But then I read a comment in response to the blog, and it led me right back on this path to writing in the wee hours of the morning about just what Price has accomplished thus far, no matter what people may perceive or think.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know everyone has heard the comparisons of where Price stands with some of the greats of the game in terms of his age and what he's done. I'm also aware it gets tiresome. But the reason it is brought up so often is because it needs to be said.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are Price's career numbers at age 22 (he turns 23 on August 16):</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">134 GP, 60-48-18, 2.73 GAA, .912 SP</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are the career numbers of some of the league's other top goalies at the same age, in no particular order:</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Martin Brodeur - 91 GP, 48-23-14, 2.45 GAA, .909 SP</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Roberto Luongo - 129 GP, 35-57-12, 2.74, .915</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ryan Miller - 15 GP, 6-8-1, 2.63, .902</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tomas Vokoun - 38 GP, 12-18-4, 3.04, .905</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cam Ward - 88 GP, 44-29-8, 3.12, .892</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Marc-Andre Fleury - 138 GP, 57-57-17, 3.10, .901</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The list is a short one (it is by no means exhaustive) largely because many of the best goalies in the NHL today hadn't even made the NHL at age 22. They include Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Backstrom, Tim Thomas, Henrik Lundqvist, Evgeni Nabokov, Marty Turco, Jonas Hiller, Pekka Rinne, Dan Ellis and many, many others.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The point here is clear, that Price has gained a lot of valuable experience before many goalies even made the league, and among those who did Price measures up pretty darn well.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some might respond that bringing Price to the NHL so early was a mistake, and it's a fair argument to make. Gainey never hid the fact his management, or mis-management, of Price was based on his desire to get the goalie this experience that will serve him well in the future. Gainey did so seemingly to the detriment of the team, and definitely to the detriment of Jaroslav Halak.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But in Boston we see a perfect comparison to Price, the one that took the more conventional route of learning in the minors and paying his dues before earning his starter's position. Tuukka Rask just completed his first full season in the NHL, even though he's five months older than Price, and he was dominant. You see a 22-12-5 record with a 1.97 GAA and .931 save percentage and you say, "See? Price should have waited." Except who knows how Rask will respond to being the clear starter? Does anyone have any idea how he reacts to adversity? Has his head gotten used to being heaped with praise?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps, but perhaps not. I would say that the most valuable "experience" Price has gained came this season when he was knocked down a peg and saw his own mortality, for lack of a better term. He said it himself after the season that he got a wake up call watching Halak take his job and realized that he had stopped improving. Of course, talk is easy. Now that talk needs to be put into action.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Except while everyone is hoping Price shows a miraculously dramatic improvement this coming season, the fact is he doesn't have that far to go.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yes, his won-loss record was atrocious at 13-20-5, and for whatever reason the Canadiens became a horrible team whenever Price was manning the net. A lot of people have some cockamamie explanations for why that was the case, like, for instance, Price didn't work as hard as Halak so his teammates didn't work for him. But his won-loss record needs to be looked at in the proper perspective.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The goalie stats at <a href="http://behindthenet.ca/">Behind the Net</a> show that Price was really put behind the eight ball by his teammates more often than not. For starters, Price received just about the <a href="http://behindthenet.ca/2009/5_on_5_goalies.php?sort=9">worst offensive support in the NHL</a> among goalies who played at least 20 games. Only three goalies - Brian Boucher, Tim Thomas and Chris Osgood - were on the ice for fewer 5-on-5 goals per 60 minutes of ice time than Price's 1.87. Now, it's not as if the Habs were lighting it up for Halak seeing as he's at 2.30, but still, that's better than 19 other goalies. Price's goal support was better than only three.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When a team is leading, especially the Jacques Martin-coached Canadiens, they have a tendency to shore up defensively. When you're trailing, or even tied, risks need to be taken and that subjects your goalie to higher quality scoring opportunities. It's true that Price appeared to rarely bail his teammates out when those chances came, but it's also true he saw an inordinate number of them.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The biggest statistical difference between Price and Halak came on the <a href="http://www.behindthenet.ca/2009/4_on_5_goalies.php?sort=10">penalty kill</a>. Price allowed over a full goal more than Halak for every 60 minutes they each played while down a man. Price was at 5.99 goals against per 60 shorthanded minutes, while Halak was at 4.96. But even here, there's an odd discrepancy to how their teammates played in front of each goalie. Price spent 5.87 minutes on the penalty kill for every 60 minutes of ice time, while Halak was only at 5.37 shorthanded minutes. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While half a minute doesn't explain the wide gap in goals against, consider that Price's shorthanded minutes were seventh highest among goalies that played 20 games, yet his goals against was only 26th highest among that same subset. Halak, meanwhile, was 25th in the league in terms of shorthanded minutes and 42nd highest in goals against (or 12th best, depending on your perspective).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't profess to know why the Canadiens were such a wildly different team with Price in goal, nor am I able to figure out in any concrete way how many wins the lack of goal support and increased penalty-killing time may have cost him.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I do know that Price will only be 23 when training camp begins, and while he has a lot to prove, he also has a lot to be proud of. In closing, I ask you this: Do you think Columbus fans should give up on Steve Mason just because he had a poor second season in the NHL at age 21?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Didn't think so.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-9266004118236522102010-07-16T00:31:00.001-04:002010-07-16T09:11:46.775-04:00Gauthier vindicated by Koivu deal?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While spending much of the last season trying to figure out a price point for Tomas Plekanec as he put up crazy numbers while serving as one of the league's top penalty killers, I always figured Minnesota's Mikko Koivu would be a pretty strong comparable.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Except Koivu was still a ways away from his date with unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2011, so the lone remaining player - at least <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/stanleycup/Er2-1/story/2010/05/08/sp-tomas-plekanec.html">in my eyes</a> - was Vancouver's Ryan Kesler. And as it turned out, Plekanec got the exact same six-year, $30 million contract Kesler did.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But then the Wild went and blew the doors off both of those deals by signing Koivu to a seven-year, $47.25 million contract on Thursday night, a whopping $6.75 million cap hit for a player who has never topped his output of 22 goals and 71 points of the past season.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mike Gillis must be really smiling these days, because of the three players mentioned here he has the one with the most upside. Kesler is the youngest of the three at 25, he had the best numbers of the three with 25 goals and 75 points, and he has the most size of the three (granted, by only two pounds over Koivu) at 6-foot-2, 202 pounds.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But in light of what Koivu just received, I would think Pierre Gauthier has to be pretty happy with himself for locking up Plekanec at $5 million a season.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Minnesota Star Tribune's Michael Russo <a href="http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/blogs/98550124.html">reported</a> in the immediate aftermath of breaking Koivu's contract signing that both he and Wild GM Chuck Fletcher agreed that Koivu could fetch $7 million a season on the open market next summer. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the CBA entering it's final season in 2011 and Donald Fehr about to take over the reins of the player's union, I'm not entirely sure Koivu could have fetched that much in that environment of uncertainty. But his value, in my eyes, is not far from that neighbourhood, maybe one or two blocks away.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So if that's the case, where would Plekanec's value had been on the open market, or Kesler's for that matter? Definitely north of $5 million a season, despite the cries of shock and dismay coming from some corners of the hockey media like HNIC's <a href="http://twitter.com/FriedmanHNIC/status/16795046779">Elliotte Friedman</a> and the Globe and Mail's <a href="http://twitter.com/mirtle/status/16794704396">James Mirtle</a>, just to name a couple.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When a follower on Twitter mentioned to Russo just after he broke the Koivu signing that Plekanec was as good if not better than him, Russo's <a href="http://twitter.com/Russostrib/status/18642754962">response</a> was, "Give me a break man. I just coughed up a lung." ESPN's EJ Hradek quickly backed him up by <a href="http://twitter.com/EJHradek_ESPN/status/18643057404">writing</a>, "Mikko Koivu much better than Tomas Plekanec...Period."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh really? Much better? Why exactly? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's what the straight numbers say:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mikko Koivu</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Age 27</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Regular Season</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">362 GP - 79G - 176A - 255pts - plus-10 - 0.70 ppg</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Playoffs</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">11GP - 5G - 1A - 6pts - minus-1 - 0.55 ppg</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tomas Plekanec</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Age 27</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Regular Season</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">393 GP - 103G - 151A - 254pts - plus-25 - 0.65 ppg</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Playoffs</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">40GP - 8G - 16A - 24pts - minus-8 - 0.60 ppg</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pretty similar, wouldn't you say? But when dealing with all-around players like these, the normal statistics don't really suffice. Which is why we're lucky we live in an age where you can delve a little deeper into a player's value to a team.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For instance, both Koivu and Plekanec are their respective team's primary penalty killers at the centre position, with Koivu logging 2:10 in SH ice time per game last season and Plekanec playing 2:44 per game. The advanced statistics found at the exhaustive web site of Gabe Desjardins <a href="http://behindthenet.ca/">Behind the Net</a> show that when Plekanec was on the ice in a penalty kill situation, his team was better off than if he wasn't. Whereas when Koivu was on the ice, his team had a worse plus/minus than when he was on the bench.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A lot of factors can go into a stat like that, namely the strength of your goalie, your fellow penalty killers and also the efficiency of the first power play units in the two conferences. But stats are stats, and they do paint a picture, as limited as that picture may be.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some other hockeymetric aficionados count on the Corsi rating to serve as the ultimate judge of a player's value. In basic terms, the Corsi rating counts how many shot attempts (which counts shots on goal, shots that were blocked and shots that missed the net) your team has versus the attempts of the opposing team while you are on the ice. To that you can add the Relative Corsi rating, which compares a player's on-ice rating to when he is off the ice. In this category, Koivu wins big with a plus-12.5, while Plekanec is at minus-2.3.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course, a lot of factors go into that number as well, such as how strong (or weak) the other lines are on your team, how good your linemates are and how often you face the opposing team's best defenders.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To figure things like that out, Desjardins blesses us with quality of competition and quality of teammates stats, and in both these areas we see that Plekanec faced tougher opponents with weaker teammates than Koivu did, all the while producing at a near equal rate all season. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Plekanec's quality of competition rating last season was 0.069, which sounds minuscule but is actually quite high. In fact, among NHL centres who played at least 20 games, Plekanec ranked 16th in quality of competition. Koivu, meanwhile, ranked 90th among centres with a 0.007 rating. Inversely, Plekanec had a quality of teammates rating of 0.166, while Koivu's was 0.205. Yet, in spite of this apparent disadvantage for Plekanec, he produced 2.07 points per 60 minutes of ice time, just a shade underneath Koivu's 2.09 points.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, the whole point of this exercise - which I hope has not given you a headache - is not to slag Koivu or the Wild for handing him that contract. In fact, I commend Fletcher for locking up a core player who is just entering his prime, has improved his point per game totals in each of his five seasons and who has a unique skill set in the NHL. As a big, young, strong player who covers every inch of the ice and would have been entering a contract year, he probably deserves the money and could very well have gotten it on the open market (though, again, I doubt it just because of the labour circumstances).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I just feel it needs to be reiterated how good the Plekanec contract really is when compared to Koivu's and that, as unbelievable as it may sound, $5 million a year for one of the rare do-it-all centres in the NHL is very fair, if not a bargain. Even though I didn't think so a few months ago.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also wanted to touch briefly on some of the other Habs news to emerge Thursday, led by the apparent candidacy of <a href="http://www.cyberpresse.ca/sports/hockey/201007/15/01-4298334-direction-tampa-pour-julien-brisebois.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B20_en-manchette_403_section_POS1">Julien Brisebois to become Steve Yzerman's assistant</a> in Tampa Bay. The Canadiens resident capologist, Brisebois was a busy boy as the Canadiens had to walk a tightrope all season to give them the wiggle room that allowed them to add Dominic Moore prior to the Olympic break.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Losing him would hurt, especially since Gauthier has never before been the head man in a cap world until now. Brisebois has an encyclopedic knowledge of the CBA. Whenever I had a question about some convoluted process such as Long Term Injury Relief or bonus overage or anything like that, Brisebois always had a quick answer that he could shoot off the top of his head. It was impressive, even though he could have been totally pulling my leg and I wouldn't have known the difference.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But as painful as a potential Brisebois departure would be, I don't know if a capologist is impossible to replace, especially seeing as RDS is <a href="http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/302601.html">reporting</a> Gauthier already has someone in mind.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alexander Avtsin also signed a three-year entry-level contract with the team Thursday, which makes his desire to play in North America official. I would have to think he will be bound for Hamilton eventually, but it adds some depth in an area where the team really needs some - scoring wingers with size. If Andrei Kostitsyn or Benoit Pouliot don't work out and are shipped out of here at season's end, what's in the cupboard? Max Pacioretty and not a whole lot else. The tantalizing potential of Avtsin, who was prolific as a junior in Russia, could prove to a be a wild card down the road, or maybe even as soon as this season. Kind of like Sergei Kostit... Oh, never mind.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And finally, congratulations goes out to Andrei Markov, who will officially<a href="http://www.radio-canada.ca/sports/hockey/2010/07/14/002-AndreiMarkov-mercredi.shtml"> become a Canadian citizen</a> on Friday. I guess he finally figured that since half his pay cheque goes to the government, may as well be a citizen, right?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Can't say I blame him.</span></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-65265205631400703552010-07-13T13:16:00.000-04:002010-07-13T13:16:48.125-04:00Lapierre latest one-year wonder, expect Price to follow<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In spite of a pretty remarkable playoff run, Maxim Lapierre still has a lot to prove.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is he that motor-mouthed ball of energy we saw in the playoffs, or the passive, non-forechecking softy we saw in the regular season?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lapierre revealed late in the regular season when his play began picking up that a lingering foot injury is what caused his performance to dip, and that once that had gone away, he was able to play his own game again.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course, that's a pretty easy crutch to throw out there as a reason, but you can only do that when you are once again an effective member of the team, which he clearly was in the playoffs.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The lasting image for me of Lapierre's post-season came late in Game 7 of the first round, chasing Capitals "defenceman" Mike Green for a puck deep in Washington territory and distracting him enough to allow Dominic Moore to swoop in, grab the puck and score far side on Semyon Varlamov. That would turn out to be the winning goal of the series and allowed the Habs to continue a magical spring ride that sent emotions sky high in Montreal and also put millions in pure profits in the team coffers.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, like many of the decisions he's been forced to make this off-season, Pierre Gauthier had to decide which Lapierre he was signing to a new contract. Was it the one that clearly got under his opponents' skin to great effectiveness in the playoffs, the one that used his speed to force turnovers on the forecheck, the one that was very often one of the best Canadiens forwards on the ice? Or was it the Lapierre that spent most of the season peeling away from finishing his hits on the forecheck, that didn't look the least bit fast and didn't appear to have any impact on the outcome of a game?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It appears that Gauthier decided that he didn't want to decide.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Giving Lapierre a one-year deal for $900,000 tells me that Gauthier doesn't buy his post-season performance, that he wants to see it for 82-plus games before giving him a long-term deal that would keep him in his hometown for the foreseeable future.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now it's up to Lapierre to go out and prove that last season's lethargy really was injury-related and that he is in fact the guy we saw in the playoffs and especially two years ago, when he was often times the lone shining light in what was a dismal season.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With Lapierre signed the Canadiens cap situation becomes even more clear, and it also explains what is taking Gauthier so long to sign Carey Price. According to <a href="http://www.capgeek.com/charts.php?Team=2">capgeek.com</a> the Canadiens have $4.7 million of cap space remaining, except that doesn't count Price's contract plus those of the Hamilton players who will make the team this year. Also, it does count the $425,000 in bonus money included in Lars Eller's contract, and I'm sure the Canadiens would rather not use the bonus overage if it can be avoided.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, if we take for granted that there will be two players from Hamilton that will make the team this year and they will cost no more than $900,000 each, plus if we remove the overage for Eller's bonuses, that leaves around $2.5 million to get Price signed and leave a little wiggle room for the upcoming season.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That amount of cap space essentially rules out the possibility of getting Price locked up long term because Gauthier can't offer an average salary greater than $2 million per year. Considering the Canadiens have essentially handed the No. 1 job to Price and the team has no other viable options, it's hard to imagine Price accepting so little on a multi-year deal. If he were signed prior to the Jaroslav Halak trade, then maybe something could have been worked out, but not now.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, like Lapierre, it looks as though it will be up to Price to prove himself this year and earn himself a big contract, because I'd be stunned to see either side agreeing to each other's terms on a long-term marriage.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-16492795311027855692010-07-07T00:25:00.000-04:002010-07-07T00:25:58.470-04:00Are these your Montreal Canadiens?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pierre Gauthier met with the media Tuesday to say very little, but the one revelation he did provide was that the team will not be extending a contract offer to Dominic Moore and that, for all intents and purposes, his team is set going into next season.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course, Carey Price and Maxim Lapierre still need to be signed, but once that is done Gauthier wants to make sure there will be spots remaining for some young (read: cheap) players to fill out the bottom six forwards.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Canadiens, not including the potential bonus overage for Lars Eller's contract, have just about $5.2 million in salary cap space with Price and Lapierre still to sign, and with the contracts of one or two Hamilton players to add.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That really shouldn't be too big of a squeeze for Gauthier to manage, but what might this team look like, and are you comfortable with it? Because it appears Gauthier is.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's how I see a healthy Habs team lining up in the fall (or early winter, if you will, when Andrei Markov is ready to play).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Line 1A - Benoit Pouliot - Scott Gomez - Brian Gionta</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Line 1B - Michael Cammalleri - Tomas Plekanec - Andrei Kostitsyn</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Line 3 - Maxim Lapierre - Lars Eller - Travis Moen</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Line 4 - Tom Pyatt - Dustin Boyd - Mathieu Darche</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Knocking on the door: Max Pacioretty, Ryan White, David Desharnais, Brock Trotter</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Defence pairing 1 - Andrei Markov - P.K. Subban</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Defence pairing 2 - Roman Hamrlik - Jaroslav Spacek</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Defence pairing 3 - Hal Gill - Josh Gorges</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Odd man out - Ryan O'Byrne</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't know about you, but considering the injury-riddled season the Canadiens just went through, and the maddeningly inconsistent season both Kostitsyn and Pouliot had, would you not rather have Moore on board to serve as some measure of insurance and depth? To at least know that the third line is set? That it can build on what happened in the playoffs? I would.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier said the realities of the cap and youngsters pushing for lineup spots made signing Moore and the team's other UFA's impossible. Sorry, don't buy it. If Gauthier wanted to have Moore back he could have, unless his salary demands are completely outrageous. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But how can they be? Moore is not an idiot. He saw himself skating at his alma mater Harvard when the season began last year. He knows he's never scored more than 13 goals in a season. He knows there's not a whole lot of money available out there when even Ilya Kovalchuk's contract demands can't be met.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So Gauthier could have negotiated with Moore if he chose to do so, but he didn't. Unless, of course, today's news that he wouldn't be signed is simply another part of the negotiation. But I doubt that.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So Moore is gone and I feel that's a mistake, though I can admit it's probably not a critical one.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meanwhile, with Tuesday's signing of Sergei Kostitsyn by the Nashville Predators, it looks as though no compensatory draft picks will be changing hands between the Habs and Preds. <a href="http://predators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=533906">This article</a> on the Predators website spells out the conditions attached to that trade, and it appears as though draft picks would only be tacked on if any of the three players involved failed to sign an NHL contract with <i>any NHL team</i>. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, because Dan Ellis, Boyd and Kostitsyn all signed NHL contracts, the conditional picks are washed away. Except there was never any doubt that Ellis and Boyd would sign somewhere. The only doubt here surrounded Kostitsyn, so I wonder why Gauthier agreed to the conditions seeing as Kostitsyn was also probably the player with the most upside in the trade. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And finally, Jaroslav Halak signed a four-year, $15 million deal with the Blues on Tuesday, thereby confirming he was out the Canadiens price range. The contract was actually a very good deal for the Blues, who purchased Halak's first two years of unrestricted free agency at a reasonable cap hit of $3.75 million annually.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But having that hit instead of whatever Price will sign for may have prevented Montreal from signing Tomas Plekanec, and who knows if Gauthier would have been able to get an NHL-ready prospect like Eller for Price on the trade market. So while I think the Blues got a bargain, I still believe Halak was too pricey for the Habs, and that was only confirmed on Tuesday.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But as I said right after the trade, this Eller kid had better be good. </span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-53400262007100845392010-07-06T01:15:00.001-04:002010-07-06T01:17:06.051-04:00What will change?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Canadiens, in their uniquely charming, understated, late-afternoon way, announced Monday that Pierre Boivin will be entering his final season as team president after an 11-year tenure where he helped establish and oversaw perhaps the greatest marketing machine in the National Hockey League.</span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As people will soon start coming out of the woodwork to talk about Boivin's career as the business head of the most storied franchise in hockey, many will undoubtedly mention that his era also coincided with the darkest period in team history. Those people will find some way to blame Boivin for that, even though he really had very little to do with any of it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In fact, it is that very same dark period that made what Boivin accomplished so extraordinary. Never before in Canadiens history has the team really had to worry about marketing. When you win Stanley Cups in every decade of your existence, it's not necessarily that tough to convince people to come watch your team play.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boivin's arrival as team president almost perfectly matches up with my career covering the Canadiens. My first season, 2000-01, had players like Eric Landry, Christian Laflamme, Juha Lind, Patrick Poulin, Craig Darby, Patrick Traverse and other similarly forgettable players patrolling the ice at the Bell Centre. My seat in the press box, perched high above the visiting bench, often had wide expanses of empty seats behind it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But who would want to watch that team, you may ask? Well I would counter, who would really want to watch many of the Canadiens teams since the lockout, which have mostly been middling teams that squeak into the playoffs? In a market that prided itself on expecting excellence, on poo-pooing first round playoff wins because it was beneath them, this was not an easy sell. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boivin, to his credit, realized this and created a monster, one that has the Canadiens at the forefront of the city's thoughts nearly 12 months a year, one that has produced a sold out building every night since 2005. He has managed to convert the first generation of Canadiens fans in the team's long history never to have truly experienced a Stanley Cup victory, a generation the team just as easily could have lost to the ravages of mediocrity, but didn't at least in part due to Boivin's foresight and refusal to sit on the laurels of past success.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The team's head of marketing Ray Lalonde deserves a good deal of the credit (or is it blame?) for creating the frenzied fervor the city now has for what is really a middle of the pack team. But Lalonde got his mandate from Boivin, and it is that undying popularity that allowed George Gillett to more than double his investment in the team when it was sold to a group led by Geoff Molson.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So now, it will be Molson making all these business decisions, and that's his prerogative, even though it would be unreasonable to expect Boivin to do a much better job than he's already done from a business perspective.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Where I suppose he could be criticized is failing to hire the right people that would win the Canadiens a Stanley Cup. When Boivin was hired, Rejean Houle was still general manager of the team. He quickly replaced Houle with Andre Savard, who was replaced by Bob Gainey. I don't think anyone could fault either of those hires.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">His latest decision to replace Gainey with Pierre Gauthier without so much as conducting a search for any other potential candidates merits some criticism, but Boivin did not make that call on his own. Molson was already in place at the time.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So how will things change under Molson's presidency, which doesn't officially start until June 30, 2011 but in reality must begin immediately? I'm not sure, but if I had to bet I would imagine that most fans won't see much of a change at all. If Molson is to be believed, he will not interfere with the hockey department, which was always Boivin's way as well. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But the one area of the hockey department that Boivin did interject from time to time was the importance of having francophones on the team. He spoke up just before and after the Habs made their unsuccessful run at Daniel Briere as a free agent, and also said that Vincent Lecavalier would be an obvious free agent target for the Canadiens, only to have him sign what amounts to a lifetime contract extension with the Lightning. And finally, when defending the decision not to open up a search to replace Gainey as GM, Boivin admitted that the two main requirements for the job were NHL experience and bilingualism. That whittled the list down to a very low number, and three members of that extremely short list had already been fired as Habs GM (one who wasn't, Dale Tallon, might have at least merited an interview).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Funnily, I feel like on this matter, Boivin didn't satisfy either of the two solitudes. Some anglos who would rather have a winning product than worry about the ancestry of the players felt Boivin was too preoccupied with this reality of running a professional hockey franchise in Quebec. Many francophones felt Boivin did not view the language issue as the reality that it so clearly is.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One of those francophones is Bertrand Raymond, who wrote on the RDS website that this was a <a href="http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/302045.html">foreseeable move</a>. He wrote that Boivin was surely pushed out of a job he would have loved to keep for many more years, and that Molson surely had this move in mind when the purchase was completed but wanted to wait and let the dust settle before taking a more active role running the team.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But he also writes of Boivin's supposedly poor record for insisting that having francophone players be a priority for the organization. He cites the example of Francois Beauchemin being passed over as a free agent last summer in favour of Jaroslav Spacek for the same amount of money (Spacek actually makes a little over $33,000 more per season that Beauchemin), or Martin Biron being allowed to sign with the Rangers for less money than was given Alex Auld on July 1.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Geoff Molson would never go so far as to establish the difference between a Biron or an Auld in hockey terms," Raymond concludes, "but when he seriously mentions during a board meeting that the Canadiens, who have never been this poor in this area, must have more Francophones in their ranks, people would be best served to listen to the remark.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"And maybe things will change for the better very soon."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That might be true, but I doubt it will come in the form Raymond refers to. I seriously doubt Molson will be sitting in Gauthier's office looking over trade proposals and insisting he choose the one that brings a francophone to the team, nor will he instruct Gauthier to base any personnel decisions on a players ability to do television interviews in french.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But one area he may have an influence is at the draft table, or at the very least having more of a team presence in the junior and even midget hockey rinks of the province. With Gauthier jettisoning half his scouting staff prior to the draft, there's only one, part-time scout working for the team in Quebec. For much of Boivin's time here, Quebec scouting was a clear weakness that - considering the public relations repercussions - he should have addressed. I don't think Molson would be stepping on the toes of either Gauthier or Trevor Timmins if he strongly suggested the team hire a team of, say, five scouts devoted solely to Quebec. Perhaps that would allow the team to avoid the public embarrassment of missing out on a David Perron or Claude Giroux on draft day.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But, almost more importantly when it comes to Molson's job as president, it would be the right message to send to the fans and media that the Montreal Canadiens will spare no expense in trying to unearth the next francophone hockey star, which appears to be a dying breed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The failure to deliver that message to the population was probably Boivin's greatest failing. And perhaps even his only one.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But other than this one, largely cosmetic area of team management, I highly doubt we will see much of a change in organizational philosophy with Boivin gone and Molson taking over. Because ultimately, was Boivin not there to serve as the owner's eyes and ears, to carry out the mandate handed to him by his boss? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So all Molson is really doing here is cutting out the middleman.</span></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-88695090173638702282010-07-02T00:54:00.000-04:002010-07-02T00:54:57.550-04:00Gauthier's got a short alphabet<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Back when he traded Jaroslav Halak to the Blues, Habs GM Pierre Gauthier said he not only had a Plan B, but had a plan for every letter of the alphabet.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm wondering where on that alphabetical chart the signing of Alex Auld fit in? Clearly, Plan A was signing Dan Ellis to play alongside Carey Price and challenge him for ice time. But when that didn't work, what was the next option? Auld? Really?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Martin Biron, according to people who know these things, inquired with the Canadiens whether or not they would be interested in his services. He was given a "no" answer, and promptly signed with the Rangers for two years at $875,000 per to sit and watch Hanrik Lundqvist.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shortly thereafter, Gauthier came to terms with Auld on a one-year, $1 million contract. Baffling, really, when you consider what the goalie market was shaping up to be.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I understand Gauthier had his hands tied in terms of the salary cap, and the unknown commodity of Price's next contract (though by this point you would hope Gauthier has at least a ballpark figure on how much that will cost). But once it became clear that he wasn't going to give Ellis the extra year and $500,000 per season it would take to match the offer he ultimately accepted with Tampa Bay (though he likely would have had to pay more to compensate for Quebec's income taxes), Gauthier should have just sat back and let the dust settle a little bit to see what was left.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was a game of musical chairs for the goalies, with far fewer jobs than there were players. At the end of the day, Evgeni Nabokov, Marty Turco and Jose Theodore remain available. Johan Hedberg may have jumped at the chance to actually play more than once a month before deciding to go back up Martin Brodeur in New Jersey for $500,000 more than Auld received from Gauthier.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Again, going back to when he traded Halak, Gauthier said he would go out and get another good goalie to complement Price. But Auld will not compete with Price for ice time, he will play a very traditional back-up role. And whether or not he's a good goalie is barely even debatable.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of Auld's 19 starts with a pretty bad Dallas Stars team last season, he gave up three or more goals 13 times. He had what was probably the best season of his career a year prior with Ottawa, when he went 16-18-7 with a 2.47 GAA and .911 save percentage. But just when it looked like Auld was going to be the man in Ottawa, he fell apart.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After starting the season 9-6-3, Auld went 7-12-4 from Dec. 8 to the end of the season. Of course, we all know (or at least we should) that a won-loss record is not a good reflection of a goaltender because it's more of a team stat. So, in compiling that 9-6-3 record, Auld had a stellar 1.98 GAA with a .925 save percentage, but from Dec. 8 on he went to a 2.86 GAA and a .902 save percentage.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The season before that Auld played extremely well for the Bruins, going 9-7-5 with a 2.32 GAA and .919 save percentage. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But aside from the numbers, this is Auld's eighth team since 2006. That's about two teams a year. Does that fill you with confidence?</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps I'm wrong about Auld. Maybe he'll become a revelation this season and be able to log 30 starts without costing the Habs a playoff spot. But if not, if I'm right, Price had better be ready to fulfill his potential right now.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course, that's assuming Price will come to terms on a new contract, because he remains unsigned as a restricted free agent with no arbitration rights. If ever there was a situation where a holdout would be in order, I would imagine this would be it. If I'm Price's agent Gerry Johansson, I'm shooting for the moon with this contract. The Canadiens were negotiating from a position of strength before trading Halak and signing Auld, but they aren't anymore. Johansson knows very well the Habs have no recourse if his client isn't taken care of, and he can use that to his advantage.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm sure he doesn't want to holdout and will likely sign prior to training camp, but the way Gauthier has handled this situation - or at least the order in which he's gone about his business - has empowered Price a great deal. He has to know Gauthier won't want to start the season with a tandem of Auld and Curtis Sanford, who was also re-signed Thursday. Will Price use that to his advantage? Only time will tell.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aside from the goaltending, Gauthier was able to lock up Dustin Boyd to a $650,000 a year contract. That makes the Sergei Kostitsyn trade worth it, even though Ellis got away. Boyd is not a game-breaker and has nowhere near as high a ceiling as Kostitsyn does. But he won't make headlines, and that's what the Canadiens want out of their fourth-liners, which was also a big reason Georges Laraque was asked to leave.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boyd may turn into another Pyatt type with more offence, and that's just fine.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the Boyd and Auld signings, Gauthier has a little under $5.3 million left in cap space if the bonus overage allowance is not used. If Max Pacioretty is included on next year's team, that cap space drops to $4.4 million to take care of Price, Maxim Lapierre and perhaps one other forward like Dominic Moore, who I still think Gauthier should bring back.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So Gauthier is probably done in the free agent pool. And right now, I can't say he was a very strong swimmer.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-72588439910315265072010-06-30T13:17:00.001-04:002010-06-30T13:30:52.323-04:00The goalie price tag determines all<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As I type this, there are less than 24 hours remaining until the unrestricted free agent market opens its doors wide open.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pierre Gauthier has quite a day of negotiating ahead of him.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First on the docket is newly acquired goalie Dan Ellis, and one would think Gauthier would have all his focus on this one matter for the bulk of the day.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ellis appeared on the NHL Network's "NHL Live" show just before 1 p.m. today and said all the right things, about how he dreamed of wearing the Habs jersey as a kid growing up in Northern Ontario, how the tradition of the franchise is appealing to him, how he's looking to play on a winning team and if that means sharing time with Carey Price, then so be it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But it also sounded like if nothing is done by this time on July 1, then all bets are off.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Right now Montreal is the most present situation, and like I said, I'm really excited," he said. "I hope something works out, but if not I'll have to move on."</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Frankly, Ellis has to realize what the situation is here. The Canadiens are not desperate to sign him before he becomes a free agent, because as soon as that happens there will be about <a href="http://www.capgeek.com/free_agents.php?Year=2010&Team=All&Position=G&FAType=2">10 other legitimate goalies</a> that will also become available. That has to play into Ellis' salary demands because this is a buyer's market, and though he's a solid goaltender he is not a top-10 guy in the league.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Coming off a contract that paid him $1.75 million per year, Ellis probably can't expect to get much more than that from Montreal if there is any hope of him signing here.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He did mention on the show that he spoke to both Gauthier and head coach Jacques Martin after the trade on Tuesday, and he sounds sincerely excited about the possibility of signing with Montreal and playing in a hockey hotbed. Will that excitement translate into a bit of a discount to go to a winning situation, which he says is his priority? We'll see.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Otherwise, Gauthier is in no rush to lock up his other free agents, even Dominic Moore. It's a dangerous game, because after watching Moore in the playoffs some GM out there may want to grab him right off the bat. There won't be too many players available who will give you more bang for your buck than Moore did for the Canadiens last season.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier, however, can't address the Moore situation until his two goaltenders are locked up, whether that's Price and Ellis or Price and someone else like Martin Biron or Antero Niittymaki or whoever. I would have to imagine Gauthier is hoping his total goaltending bill will come in for less that $4 million, or basically how much he would have had to pay Jaroslav Halak alone if he'd decided to keep his playoff hero.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If he manages to do that, and I find it hard to see how he will if he hopes to sign Ellis, then he can afford to give Moore some money to come back as the third line centre and build on that chemistry we saw with Maxim Lapierre. But if the goalie bill comes in closer to $5 million, then I don't see how Moore can return.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com <a href="http://twitter.com/Real_ESPNLeBrun/status/17421959417">reported</a> that Marc-Andre Bergeron should be hitting the market tomorrow, which is not a shock, but still newsworthy when the agent admits as much. Otherwise, the only other UFA Gauthier needs to concern himself with is Dustin Boyd, who I doubt will be fielding a ton of phone calls tomorrow, but would still be important to lock up to avoid the possibility that Sergei Kostitsyn was traded for nothing. Well, I guess that's not so important, but still.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If Gauthier is a good boy and gets his homework done today by somehow signing Ellis, Boyd, Price and Moore, then there would be a slight chance we could see some movement by the Canadiens on other free agents who are made available tomorrow. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But until the goaltending situation is settled, I don't think we should expect any Canada Day fireworks coming from the Habs.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>UPDATE (1:27 pm)</b> TSN.ca has some more quotes from Ellis' appearance on NHL Live <a href="http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=326152">here</a></span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-90787651927515470892010-06-29T18:27:00.002-04:002010-06-29T21:22:51.289-04:00Gauthier kills three birds with one stone<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In trading the rights to Sergei Kostitsyn and future considerations to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday in exchange for the rights to restricted free agent centre Dustin Boyd and unrestricted free agent goalie Dan Ellis, Pierre Gauthier solved three problems at once.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Assuming, of course, he can get Ellis and Boyd to sign here.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ellis, obviously, would be a tremendous insurance policy should Carey Price falter this season. The 30-year-old (his birthday was June 19) was 15-13-1 with the Preds last season with a .909 save percentage and 2.69 GAA, numbers that are at least competitive and at most better than Price's.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier said he would seek a good goaltender to "support" Price, and that's what he's done. It remains to be seen if Ellis is willing to accept a backup role and, consequently, backup money to come to Montreal. He made $1.8 million last year, and if he's willing to take similar money from the Canadiens then something could probably be worked out.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, earlier Tuesday Ellis wrote on his <a href="http://twitter.com/DEllis39">Twitter account</a> how <a href="http://twitter.com/dellis39/status/17347972076">excited he was</a> for Thursday's opening of the free agent market. However he did send out a <a href="http://twitter.com/dellis39/status/17364168957">"Pretty cool"</a> just before the trade was officially announced.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boyd, who turns 24 on July 16, would seemingly be a perfect fit as a replacement for Glen Metropolit on the fourth line. At 6-foot, 187 pounds, Boyd is no giant, but he plays the game hard and has good speed with decent hands. He was credited with 81 hits in 78 games last season in just under 11 minutes of ice time per game. Offensively, he had 11 goals and 13 assists in 60 games with the Calgary Flames and 18 games with Nashville.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So in one fell swoop, Gauthier has potentially filled the backup goalie spot, the fourth line centre spot and jettisoned the <i>enfant terrible</i> to Opryland.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Not a bad day's work.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>UPDATE 6:36 p.m.</b> The <a href="http://twitter.com/dellis39/status/17367524832">latest</a> from Dan Ellis' Twitter: "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 36px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Very excited about the trade! Its an honor to be part of a team with such great tradition and passion! Hope we can figure something out!"</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 36px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>UPDATE 9:21 pm</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> - It appears Boyd was not given a qualifying offer by the Predators and is in fact UFA</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-56136263623099621862010-06-29T01:34:00.000-04:002010-06-29T01:34:06.624-04:00Cap issues hinge on Price<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Canadiens salary cap situation cleared up a bit Monday when Tom Pyatt and Benoit Pouliot <a href="http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/301584.html">agreed to one-year deals</a> for the upcoming season.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With Pyatt taking the league minimum at $500K and Pouliot getting a raise to $1.375 million, Habs GM Pierre Gauthier has about <a href="http://www.capgeek.com/charts.php?Team=2">$6.9 million to play with</a> to fill five or six roster spots. July 1 being Thursday, it's still difficult to say just how much of that money Gauthier can use on signing a new player.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Why? Because of the sticky situation that is Carey Price, the team's No. 1 netminder who remains a massive question mark and a huge gamble for Gauthier. But just how far does he take that gamble? </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Price could simply be asked to sign his qualifying offer for about $900,000 and make things easy on the team's cap situation, but that's really not the way to go here, not right after anointing the guy as your starting goalie.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But at the same time, Gauthier can't throw gobs of money at Price nor can he sign him to a long-term deal that would buy some of his free agent years without knowing just what kind of goalie he's getting. A six-year, $15 million deal may look like the biggest bargain in the league by the end of the contract, or it could be a $2.5 million burden on the Habs cap halfway through if Price never realizes his limitless potential. By the same token, a two-year, $3 million deal means Gauthier may have to pay up extremely large when Price is only 25.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Therein lies the Catch-22 Gauthier finds himself in, but as far as I'm concerned he's already hitched his wagon to Price, so he may as well go all the way. Sign Price long term in the hopes that the contract will be a blessing rather than a curse.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier's decision - and Price's willingness to accept it - will go a long way toward determining how active the Canadiens are when the free agent market opens its doors Thursday.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The $6.9 million in available cap space does not include Maxim Lapierre, Sergei Kostitsyn and the other restricted free agents who received qualifying offers last week. I'm going to include Lapierre at $735,000 and also Max Pacioretty at $910,000 because I feel he figures large in the Canadiens plans next season.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That gets us down to around $5.25 million in remaining cap space, with Price, his backup and three or four more forwards to sign. Will one of those forwards be Dominic Moore? If so, that's at least another $1.3 million gone, leaving just under $4 million for two goalies and at least two forwards. If those other two forwards make the league minimum, that's $3 million left for the goalies.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So you see how this remains an extremely touchy situation for Gauthier, even though he was handed a gift when the salary cap was increased to $59.4 million for next season thanks to the player's association invoking their right to lose even more money to escrow.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then again, there is always the possibility that Gauthier can shed some salary to make room for a move or two, and while many of you may be thinking of Andrei Kostitsyn, I'm not. He's only got one more year left on a deal that does not break the bank. He's been a maddeningly streaky player who takes forever to get going, but once he does, it can be special to watch. That month he strung together when his line with Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec was among the best in the league was good enough that Gauthier should take a chance it can happen again.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But a player like Roman Hamrlik could be intriguing to certain teams, especially with the news of the cap going up. Because as the cap rises, the salary floor rises as well and every year we see some teams scrambling to make it there. Next season, the floor will be $43.4 million, and by my count there should be five teams who will need to throw some money around to make it there: Phoenix, Nashville, Anaheim, Colorado and the New York Islanders.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two of those teams jump out at me as potential trade partners for the Habs - the Ducks and Islanders. Anaheim just lost Scott Niedermayer and the defence could use a veteran presence aside from Lubomir Visnovsky. The Islanders, meanwhile, are known territory for Hamrlik, which is important because he has a limited no trade clause until Feb. 1 and would have to approve the team he is sent to.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If Gauthier can pull a trade like this off in the couple of days, then all bets are off as to what he does on July 1. But it's not very likely to happen that way, so Gauthier will probably have one singular focus on Thursday and that's to find a backup for Price. Because depending on whether or not the Chosen One grabs the reins of this opportunity and runs with it, that free agent signing may very well make or break the Habs season.</span></div>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-59939300374530999592010-06-26T00:27:00.000-04:002010-06-26T00:27:55.738-04:00Is this Timmins' home run?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It had better be, because it cost the Canadiens a pretty big price to move up five spots and grab hulking American defenceman Jarred Tinordi with the 22nd pick in the NHL Draft on Friday.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Clearly, Trevor Timmins felt strongly enough about Tinordi to convince Pierre Gauthier to surrender the team's second round pick at #57 to the Phoenix Coyotes to move up and grab him. In return, the Canadiens also received the 113th pick in the draft.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If Tinordi turns out to be a top-four defenceman in the NHL, the trade will most definitely be worth it because there didn't appear to be much of a chance that he would survive all the way to Montreal's original pick at #27. The Sabres took another defenceman, Mark Pysyk, right after Montreal, and it appears as though the Canucks were prepared to scuttle their deal to acquire Keith Ballard from Florida if Tinordi were still on the board at #25.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But for now, I wonder if it was really worth it to use a second round pick to move up and grab Tinordi, especially with so many other players that appear to suit the Canadiens needs still on the board. Had they stayed at #27, the Habs could have chosen hulking centres Tyler Pitlick or Brock Nelson, or could have taken a chance on John MacFarland, or even taken the speedy California kid Emerson Etem.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's hard to say if the Canadiens made the right move or not because I've never seen any of these people play, and from the sounds of it Tinordi is a very tantalizing prospect. Already 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds, he was captain of the US under-18 team that won the world championships this season and it appears he can skate pretty well for a giant.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The timing may also be just about right on this one.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hal Gill is likely entering his final season in Montreal, ditto Roman Hamrlik and perhaps even Andrei Markov. Jaroslav Spacek has two years left on his untradeable contract. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That's two thirds of the Montreal defence corps which may be turning over in the next two years, which is at least how long it will take Tinordi to make the NHL. In fact, seeing him in Montreal in three or four years is probably way more likely.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By then, the Canadiens may have P.K. Subban, Ryan O'Byrne, Yannick Weber and Mathieu Carle playing in the top-6. Having Tinordi coming down the pipes will probably be pretty comforting by then.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But now the Canadiens will not pick again until the fourth round, and that 57th overall pick could have been used to shore up the depth of Montreal's farm system, which is starting to thin out after years of being considered one of the deepest in the NHL.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are some links to read more on Tinordi from <a href="http://www.nhl.com/ice/draftprospectdetail.htm?dpid=2574&tab=prf">NHL.com</a>, <a href="http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=24944">TSN</a>, <a href="http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/jarred_tinordi">Hockey's Future</a> and Red Line Report's Kyle Woodlief in <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/columnist/woodlief/2010-06-08-defense-prospects_N.htm">USA Today</a> (it's about two thirds of the way down the page).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now the focus shifts to Gauthier playing the trade market Saturday. Benoit Pouliot was the only Canadiens restricted free agent not to receive a qualifying offer from the team, a baffling move unless Pouliot is on the verge of being traded. In fact, even then it's baffling, but it does show some degree of reticence on the part of Gauthier to have Pouliot around. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then there's Sergei Kostitsyn, who <a href="http://www.ruefrontenac.com/sports/canadiens/24600-sergei-kostitsyn-halak-latendresse">spouted off again</a> on the Canadiens to a Belarusian newspaper. He slammed the team for trading away Jaroslav Halak, slammed Carey Price, slammed Jacques Martin. The guy just never learns.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gauthier says Pouliot will likely receive his qualifying offer by Monday's deadline, but if that's the case, why wait? And as far as Kostitsyn goes, I think if Gauthier is unable to trade him he'll go to the KHL.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Seeing as Gauthier won't have much to do for a lot of the day Saturday, maybe he can work on resolving these two nagging issues.</span>Arpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.com12