Adieu

I’m not quite sure how to say goodbye.

When I began writing The Daily Hab-it back on Aug. 26, 2008, I never really imagined it would become what it eventually did.

And I didn’t imagine it would be so difficult to stop writing it.

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.

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.

It’s an enormously exciting and somewhat daunting opportunity for me.

The lone negative is that after 781 posts over the past three years, I’m kicking The Daily Hab-it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So thank you. Every last one of you.

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.

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.

The other would be The Gazette’s Mike Boone, who was practically this blog’s unpaid publicist.

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.

Now, this is not really goodbye, because I’m not going anywhere.

I’ll still be covering the Canadiens regularly for NHL.com, so you’ll be able to read me there. 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.

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.

It’s been a blast.

Au revoir.

Moving day

Well, we have hit a new level over at The Daily Hab-it.

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.

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.

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 montreal.ctv.ca/habs. 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.


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.


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.

Intentions vs actions

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.

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.

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.

Why don't you judge for yourself?



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.

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?

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.

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:



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 then he slashed him Bobby Clarke styles.

You want to talk about intent? Cammalleri had a blatantly obvious intent in each of those instances, and he executed.

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.

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. 

And he has no one to blame but himself.

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.

It just remains to be seen if that blogging will be appearing here or someplace else. Stay tuned.   

Boucher's legacy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But I'd be pretty stunned to see it used in regular season play until Markov returns, which could be by Halloween.


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.


But it will be brief.


Firstly, this doesn't mean Price will play this poorly in the regular season, but it's admittedly not a very good sign.


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.


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.


But at least Price also said after Saturday's loss that he should be stopping more of those chances.


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.


Finally, I pitched in on NHL.com Canadiens season preview with stories on Price and Subban  that you can check out here.

What a debut

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.

But you would have to be blind not to have noticed him.

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.

Big frame? Check.

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.

Blazing speed? Check and double-check.

Soft hands? Check.

That tried and true Danish hockey pedigree? Check.

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.

So much so, I wrote a big, long story about him.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.

"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."

But the highlight of my day was 15 minutes of one-on-one time with Tomas Plekanec after practice.

You can read some of the things he said in my own debut on NHL.com, but there are some parts of the conversation that didn't get in there.

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.

Plekanec insists he wouldn't have it any other way.

“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.”

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.

"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.”

I tried to counter that with my take on the Jeff Halpern signing, namely that his arrival could free Plekanec of some of his defensive responsibilities so he could focus a little more on offence.

"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.”

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."

I'm sure he, and all his teammates, hope the Canadiens have a much shorter summer next year.