This season for the Montreal Canadiens is starting to look like a Steven King novel.
For those that follow this section of the Sports Blog Network, you’ll remember my writeup back in mid November I chronicled Montreal’s rebuttal of their naysayers. At the time there was a lot of be thankful for; Price was poised and polished in his play, Michael Cammalleri and friends were bringing an actual offense to the team, and their star defensemen Andrei Markov was scheduled to return. And with the Northeast division looking about as challenging to win as the Eastern conference expansion division (aka the SouthEast) usually is, Montreal was not only looking to be taking that title in a runaway, but with hanging with the top five teams in the entire league. Yes everything in Montreal was looking grand.
Two months later, it makes you wonder if someone with the Habs broke a mirror, ran over a cat, or gave Colin Campbell a book on how to be impartial with the amount of bad luck that has befallen the team. While seeing Markov go back on the injured reserve list almost the same day he got off it had almost even odds of happening, it seems that Montreal has been bitten with the bad luck bug. Since the middle of November, Montreal has played just under .500 hockey, sporting a record of 10-11-2 with few of those loses being decided by just one goal. With Montreal’s offence being spotty this year (they currently have no players on pace for seventy points this year), the last thing this club needed was to have their defensive crops, the team’s strength, become any thinner depth wise.
Guess the hockey Gods didn’t get the memo.
Josh Gorges, who had went down to injury in the blowout against the Islanders (or at least a blowout where the Islanders are concerned), has been reported that he’s done for the year, with a knee injury that sounds very similar to what Markov is currently out with. And in what seems to be a cruel joke, it wasn’t a hard hit, a controversial play, or an amazing play that took him out, but just tweaking it in the wrong direction at the wrong time, as you can see for yourself.
(For those that are not fluent in French…well…enjoy the visuals)
Yep. it’s been that kind of stretch lately.
For those that don’t watch the Habs daily, or get a priority package of Schadenfreude delivered to you whenever anything bad happens to the Canadiens (Hi Leaf/Bruins fans!), your’e probably wondering what the big deal is about a defensemen that has a plus/minus of -3, and hardly ranks in the points total for the club. What the sexy stats don’t tell you however is that he has been one of the more reliable defensemen on the club, following only Ramon Hamirlik on the club for ice time for blue-liners and doing the tasks that are needed, but not registered on any stat sheet. He’s no Bobby Orr, but he was never expected to be; more a stay-at-home defensemen that is slated to keeping the other team from getting good shots at Price. And while his plus/minus points to him having a bit of a slump, it fits the team more then his performance.
So are the naysayers right that the Habs are dead in the water? Well if they were, the habs wouldn’t be even close to a playoff spot right now, since anything remotely detrimental is blown amazingly out of proportion (Price not playing in the home opener rings a bell). The Habs have above average depth in their defensive crops with players such as Subban, Picard, Spacek, and Wisniewski who Pierre Gauthier robbed from the Islanders soon after their loss to them. With these four, plus Gill and Hamrlik, their defensive crops aren’t as hurting as some teams would be.
So what will become of the Habs this year? The Habs have already gotten a cold blast of reality long before Boxing Day. They’ve gone from playing with the big boys like the Canucks, Red Wings, Penquins and Flyers to being back in the same spot they finished last year in hanging on in the last playoff spot. Granted another win and they’re back in third in the playoff picture, and if they win against the Bruins on Saturday they’ll have just that. Also they’re five points ahead of 9th place Carolina, which doesn’t look threatening at all. Still this is a team that now has no leeway, both in injuries, or in the standings. They’re still without true scoring threats (and no, Plekanec or Cammalleri do not fit that bill), that can keep them in games when the defense or the netminder has an off night, and they’re not giving Auld enough ice time to keep Price from being burnt out by the playoffs…if there are any. While the offense is helped a bit with Wisniewski on the roster, it’s not nearly enough to offset losing two of their best blue liners, and unless these are changed, the rest of the season is going to be one where the Habs cannot afford to make any mistakes.
And if they do, then the third piece of bad news will be the Habs not making the playoffs. And for fans that demand Lord Stanley being paraded down Saint Catherine street by June every year, that’s proof enough of a hex on the Habs right there.
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The owner of the Sports Blog Network, Chris tells it exactly as he sees it, be it in the stands, in front of the tv, or on his semi-trusty laptop. And always with a can of trusty Dr. Pepper by his side, and spell-check working overtime. 