I stand by my assessment that Jaroslav Halak is better than Carey Price. He proved it last night with a shutout that was nothing short of magnificent.
The really crazy part though, is that Halak looked, acted, and played just like Patrick Roy.
It was weird.
Did anyone else watching the game see what I saw?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
McGuire, Emrick, Milbury, Olczyk Finally Get a Clue
It took long enough, but it seems the NBC commentators and so-called "experts" have finally caught on to the fact that Alexander Ovechkin is the best player in hockey. And even then, they still gave lip-service to the fact that Sidney Crosby is somehow "still the face of the NHL." Why, I can't imagine.
The simple fact is, Ovechkin is more exciting, and has better numbers. Crosby seemed to realize that even the announcers beholden to the marketing strategies of this "New NHL" were turning on him on Sunday. His reaction? He retaliated against Ovechkin when he got hit, and started running his mouth. The only surprising part about his little all-too-common tantrum was that he didn't try to punch Ovechkin in the nuts.
Is this what the NHL wants? A petulant child who has no business being the captain of the SS Minnow, much less an NHL team, as the face and voice of the league?
In any case, the point was driven home when Crosby was running his mouth, Ovechkin just looked at him and waved bye-bye.
The simple fact is, Ovechkin is more exciting, and has better numbers. Crosby seemed to realize that even the announcers beholden to the marketing strategies of this "New NHL" were turning on him on Sunday. His reaction? He retaliated against Ovechkin when he got hit, and started running his mouth. The only surprising part about his little all-too-common tantrum was that he didn't try to punch Ovechkin in the nuts.
Is this what the NHL wants? A petulant child who has no business being the captain of the SS Minnow, much less an NHL team, as the face and voice of the league?
In any case, the point was driven home when Crosby was running his mouth, Ovechkin just looked at him and waved bye-bye.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sniff. Ya done me proud.
My cold and shriveled heart grew three sizes on Saturday after hearing the fans give Kovy a rousing cheer, and then seeing him score a goal and two assists, and kicking the holy shit out of the Ottawa power-play.
Hearing "Kovy! Kovy! Kovy!" gave me the strength of ten Kovies, plus two.
I'm so proud!
I still think Bob Gainey's an ass and that Carbo can't coach. But I'll enjoy the good fellings from saturday's gamefor the time being.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
SONOFABITCH!!!!!!!!!
Well, I always feared this day would come. Habsinsideout reports that this site's namesake has been sent home while the Habs continue their road trip. And not for medical reasons.
Well, those who are always saying Bob Gainey should "blow up the team" are getting their wish.
Gainey spoke pretty frankly about Kovalev's performance - too frankly. If there was any thought about him returning next year, Montreal fans can forget it. Players don't react well to being publicly embarassed. Patrick Roy comes to mind.
Debate Kovalev's merits all you want, but this is a larger issue than just one talented Russian.
Montreal has also just sent Sergei Kostitsyn down to Hamilton. This team managed to alienate Sergei Samsonov and Michael Ryder (both of whom, on further inspection, seem to be doing much better with a change of scenery). The first reaction a lot of people are going to have is that, when they see all these Russian names, they'll write this off as making sure the Russians play an NHL, not a European game.
Folks, that's a load of bullshit.
First of all, remember that Michael Ryder also floundered under Carbonneau's "leadership." Mike Ribeiro isn't doing so bad either. Keep in mind that Montreal will be unable to sign any Russian free agents if it gets a reputation as an inhospitable place. What's more, other players in general see playing in Montreal as an exercise in psychological torture. Mike Ribeiro and Michael Ryder have mouths, and they tell their teammates about the catty behavior of Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau. Or, hell, the players can see it for themselves when Bob Gainey fights with Kovalev in the media.
This is NOT the way good teams are managed. Good managers praise publicly, and criticize privately. Bob and Guy seem to have the opposite idea.
Monday, February 16, 2009
A quick note on Darcy Tucker:
Hockeyfights.com shows that most people scored Tucker's fight with Patrice Brisebois as a Draw. Those who took sides voted overwhelmingly for Tucker.
I have this to say. If Darcy Tucker has to fight an over-the-hill, incompetent defenseman in order to feel good about himself, I guess that's his decision. But folks, remember: Tucker ducked both Laraque and Bouillon in order to take a run at Montreal's goalie and then fight Montreal's weakest fighter. And despite all of Tucker's posturing, all of his dirty hits, his trash-talking, his utter bullshit, he still only managed a draw. With Patrice Brisebois.
Darcy Tucker has always been, is, and will always be, a joke.
I have this to say. If Darcy Tucker has to fight an over-the-hill, incompetent defenseman in order to feel good about himself, I guess that's his decision. But folks, remember: Tucker ducked both Laraque and Bouillon in order to take a run at Montreal's goalie and then fight Montreal's weakest fighter. And despite all of Tucker's posturing, all of his dirty hits, his trash-talking, his utter bullshit, he still only managed a draw. With Patrice Brisebois.
Darcy Tucker has always been, is, and will always be, a joke.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Good timing
On a personal note, the timing of this suck-slump from the Habs coincides beautifully with their western road trip, which means I don't even have to bother staying up late to watch. Cause, hey, I'm all Nostradamus and can predict the Habs are gonna lose. Instead I am devoting some quality time to either staying late at work or playing Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion... when Bride of Kovalev isn't making me take the dog out to go poopy... which only reminds me of the Habs. :-(
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Dear Don,
In response to your latest xenophobic rant about Russians, I would personally like to invite you to find out just how Russians fight. You can take the issue up with Alex Ovechkin, or if he is unavailable, I would be happy to offer myself as a substitute.
Oh, and happy friggin birthday, Don. Remind me again how a bunch of Bobby Orr highlights has anything to do with you?
Seriously, I love ya. But as Guns n Roses said, "You're fuckin' crazy."
Oh, and happy friggin birthday, Don. Remind me again how a bunch of Bobby Orr highlights has anything to do with you?
Seriously, I love ya. But as Guns n Roses said, "You're fuckin' crazy."
Monday, February 9, 2009
A fan commits heresy
For those of us who watched Saturday night's game against the Maple Leafs, the writing is clearly on the wall. Montreal may make the playoffs, but even if they do, they will not survive the first round.
The problems are manifold. Some are the fault of the general manager, some of the coach, some of Providence, and some are the fault of the players.
Bob Gainey deserves a large share of the blame for bad timing. Last year, Montreal was in an excellent position to deal for game-breakers who would put the team over the top. The team had excellent chemistry and was mysteriously free of injuries. Gainey opted instead to trade a veteran goaltender in favor of an untested rookie, and stopped at that. The iron was hot, and Gainey sat on his ass. Some may defend Gainey and say that perhaps another part of a deal fell through, or that the price was too high for players like Hossa or Richards. Those people need to remember that this a results-oriented business. If Bob Gainey cannot be relied upon to deliver a timely deal that makes the team a Cup favorite, or even recognize the prudent time to do so, then perhaps Montreal should consider hiring someone else as general manager.
Guy Carbonneau's tenure as coach has been an enigma, one that is slowly starting to come into focus. And the picture is not pretty. Guy Carbonneau seems to have a habit of getting the very worst out of his players when they should be giving their very best. You could consider Michael Ryder's miserable season last year, one in which he was playing for a new contract, was an aberration. Typically, players in the last year of a contract perform extremely well. But there's always an exception to the rule. So be it. One could also consider that Sergei Samsonov, a highly-touted free-agent signing, just had a bad year when he came to Montreal and scored all of 26 points. One could then look at Alexei Kovalev and consider that his lackluster season, playing in the final year of a contract, has been an aberration as well.
My point is that all of these sub-par performances are not aberrations at all. They are instead a disturbing trend. When searching for causal relationships, one has to look at common factors. The most obvious common factor linking Samsonov, Ryder, and Kovalev, is the coach, Guy Carbonneau. I submit that as coach, he has been unable to motivate players who should otherwise excel.
Carbonneau's sins go far beyond his inability to motivate his best players. He has shown a total lack of ability in line management, preferring instead to mix them up at the first sign of a slump. He has actively prevented players from developing any long-lasting chemistry. There is a fine balance in line-juggling. Some combinations that should make sense just don't work out, no matter how long the players stay together. That's true, but to expect success when players have no idea whom they they will be playing with from one day to another is foolish.
Carey Price is an interesting one to call. He has been perhaps the most analyzed member of the Canadiens organization recently, and his problems are renowned. My understanding is that he has three major flaws in his game.
The first is his positioning. On Saturday night he was obviously playing far too deep in his net. This is typical of a timid goalie, and is something Price will have to work on.
Price's second problem is his weak glove hand. Teams are exploiting it more and more, and Price must fix it soon.
Price's first two problems are his own fault, but the third comes from bad coaching. Roland Melanson, Montreal's goaltending coach, has a habit of turning out goalies whose scouting report always contains the caveat "goes down too early." Granted, practically half of the NHL's goalies have that same problem. But Price did not come to Melanson that way. Price plays (or played) a hybrid style that emphasizes his large frame, where he stays up for more shots. Melanson and Price seem to be at odds on technique. Some games, one can see Price playing on his feet, while in others, he goes down for every single shot. Saturday night was one of the latter, and Price looked terrible. An NHL Network commentator said that Price is playing small these days, using the butterfly excessively. In order to be succesful, Price needs to start playing HIS game, not Roland Melanson's. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but it seems Melanson needs to have more of a give-and-take relationship with Price, not a dominant, "do what I say" one.
Montreal seems to have caught injury bug in a bad way. They've fought through as well as could be hoped for, but it's starting to catch up to them,. Latendresse, Lang, and Tanguay are out, and Koivu, Price, Komisarek, and Higgins have had their seasons interrupted. Mama said there'd be seasons like this. But dammit, Bob Gainey should have realized that he had a rare opportunity last year with his freakishly healthy team. Spilt milk now.
Finally, the players do share much of the blame for what happens on the ice. Two immediate problems are that the defense has been extremely poor, and everyone is making passes into each other's skates. When they are passing well, it seems the Habs are always making one pass too many.
I'll go out on a very thin limb here and say that I hope Montreal does NOT make the playoffs this year. I love the Canadiens. I want the best for them. But right now, I feel a case of tough love coming on. I want them to fail and LEARN from their failures. Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, and the entire team have to come to terms with their weaknesses and work on them. It is that sort of soul-crushing failure that forces a person to re-evaluate his decisions. It seems like that's the only way Bob Gainey will learn when and how to make a trade, or that Guy Carbonneau will discover good coaching, or that Melanson will see that his way is not always the best way, or that the players will re-tool their game.
The problems are manifold. Some are the fault of the general manager, some of the coach, some of Providence, and some are the fault of the players.
Bob Gainey deserves a large share of the blame for bad timing. Last year, Montreal was in an excellent position to deal for game-breakers who would put the team over the top. The team had excellent chemistry and was mysteriously free of injuries. Gainey opted instead to trade a veteran goaltender in favor of an untested rookie, and stopped at that. The iron was hot, and Gainey sat on his ass. Some may defend Gainey and say that perhaps another part of a deal fell through, or that the price was too high for players like Hossa or Richards. Those people need to remember that this a results-oriented business. If Bob Gainey cannot be relied upon to deliver a timely deal that makes the team a Cup favorite, or even recognize the prudent time to do so, then perhaps Montreal should consider hiring someone else as general manager.
Guy Carbonneau's tenure as coach has been an enigma, one that is slowly starting to come into focus. And the picture is not pretty. Guy Carbonneau seems to have a habit of getting the very worst out of his players when they should be giving their very best. You could consider Michael Ryder's miserable season last year, one in which he was playing for a new contract, was an aberration. Typically, players in the last year of a contract perform extremely well. But there's always an exception to the rule. So be it. One could also consider that Sergei Samsonov, a highly-touted free-agent signing, just had a bad year when he came to Montreal and scored all of 26 points. One could then look at Alexei Kovalev and consider that his lackluster season, playing in the final year of a contract, has been an aberration as well.
My point is that all of these sub-par performances are not aberrations at all. They are instead a disturbing trend. When searching for causal relationships, one has to look at common factors. The most obvious common factor linking Samsonov, Ryder, and Kovalev, is the coach, Guy Carbonneau. I submit that as coach, he has been unable to motivate players who should otherwise excel.
Carbonneau's sins go far beyond his inability to motivate his best players. He has shown a total lack of ability in line management, preferring instead to mix them up at the first sign of a slump. He has actively prevented players from developing any long-lasting chemistry. There is a fine balance in line-juggling. Some combinations that should make sense just don't work out, no matter how long the players stay together. That's true, but to expect success when players have no idea whom they they will be playing with from one day to another is foolish.
Carey Price is an interesting one to call. He has been perhaps the most analyzed member of the Canadiens organization recently, and his problems are renowned. My understanding is that he has three major flaws in his game.
The first is his positioning. On Saturday night he was obviously playing far too deep in his net. This is typical of a timid goalie, and is something Price will have to work on.
Price's second problem is his weak glove hand. Teams are exploiting it more and more, and Price must fix it soon.
Price's first two problems are his own fault, but the third comes from bad coaching. Roland Melanson, Montreal's goaltending coach, has a habit of turning out goalies whose scouting report always contains the caveat "goes down too early." Granted, practically half of the NHL's goalies have that same problem. But Price did not come to Melanson that way. Price plays (or played) a hybrid style that emphasizes his large frame, where he stays up for more shots. Melanson and Price seem to be at odds on technique. Some games, one can see Price playing on his feet, while in others, he goes down for every single shot. Saturday night was one of the latter, and Price looked terrible. An NHL Network commentator said that Price is playing small these days, using the butterfly excessively. In order to be succesful, Price needs to start playing HIS game, not Roland Melanson's. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but it seems Melanson needs to have more of a give-and-take relationship with Price, not a dominant, "do what I say" one.
Montreal seems to have caught injury bug in a bad way. They've fought through as well as could be hoped for, but it's starting to catch up to them,. Latendresse, Lang, and Tanguay are out, and Koivu, Price, Komisarek, and Higgins have had their seasons interrupted. Mama said there'd be seasons like this. But dammit, Bob Gainey should have realized that he had a rare opportunity last year with his freakishly healthy team. Spilt milk now.
Finally, the players do share much of the blame for what happens on the ice. Two immediate problems are that the defense has been extremely poor, and everyone is making passes into each other's skates. When they are passing well, it seems the Habs are always making one pass too many.
I'll go out on a very thin limb here and say that I hope Montreal does NOT make the playoffs this year. I love the Canadiens. I want the best for them. But right now, I feel a case of tough love coming on. I want them to fail and LEARN from their failures. Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, and the entire team have to come to terms with their weaknesses and work on them. It is that sort of soul-crushing failure that forces a person to re-evaluate his decisions. It seems like that's the only way Bob Gainey will learn when and how to make a trade, or that Guy Carbonneau will discover good coaching, or that Melanson will see that his way is not always the best way, or that the players will re-tool their game.
Stay Tuned
Lots of content coming this week. I'll be covering the Habs' suckiness, synthetic ice, and Don Cherry's most recent stupidity.
So keep checking back: I promise I'll have lots of posts this week.
So keep checking back: I promise I'll have lots of posts this week.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Do not adjust your television sets: yes, those are the Canadiens jerseys, and yes, the team really does suck that bad
So the Habs are back to their sucky ways after losing a Super Stinker on Super Bowl Sunday.
Is anyone surprised? Guy Carbooneau reminds me of the dad from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." He has one simple solution to any problem that comes his way:
The team isn't scoring. "Mix the lines up."
Our players are standing around. "Mix the lines up."
The power play sucks ass. "Mix the lines up."
I have a pimple on my wedding day. "Mix the lines up."
Fortunately, I have found a way to cope with my grief. John Cleese once said that in order for comedy to be effective, one must have some degree of contempt for the main character. Well, I have moved on from the days when this team could do no wrong, and am now in a much darker place where I see a general manager who sat on his ass while opportunity pounded on the door and rang the bell and finally left in frustration at last year's deadline, where I see a coach who is consistently outmaneuvered, where I see a defenseman who has no right to play and yet keeps on getting opportunities to fuck us all over. Granted, Breeze-by didn't play yesterday, but he is symptomatic of this team's self-deception. Bob Gainey deluded himself into thinking that last year was not the time to strike a red-hot iron. He failed to recognize that the time to make a Cup run was not this year, but last year. The coach has somehow convinced himself that he knows what he is doing when he puts ill-conceived lines together and never allows teammates to develop any chemistry.
I most assuredly have contempt for the Montreal Canadiens, despite my undying love for them. As the saying goes, I love them, but right now I don't particularly like them. It makes it easier to handle watching the games (which I do less and less these days), and when I see them give up yet another awful goal I don't yell, I just roll my eyes and say something sarcastic. I'm not particularly fond of the management or some of the players in Montreal these days, but I will always love the team. I hope they'll let me know when they plan on being GOOD.
That said, I have made a vow to the Hockey Gods that if Montreal wins the Stanley Cup this season, I will customize my blank Montreal jersey with "Brisebois". God help us.
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