Do the the Habs stink? You bet they do. Tough to admit, especially when they are “only 3 points out of a playoff spot” but you are what your record says you are, so yes – right now, the Habs stink. How did they get to this damp and sullen place so quickly? In this blogger’s view, two solid years of poor strategic coaching, coupled with non-existent tactical coaching, questionable development of youth and inept managerial moves have crippled this team. Ownership has a good amount of stink on it as well for placing blind faith in a team that was hired to keep corrupted and brainwashed masses content.

The team was never retooled properly following the collapse and subsequent mass exodus of 2009. Jacques Martin was brought in to breathe new life in to the team, as well as to bring a level of professionalism behind the bench that had been missing for years. Surely he had a hand in selecting the players that they eventually traded for, and signed during that summer’s free agency period. Why on God’s green earth they opted for small, offensive-minded players, we will never know. Sure, they’re loveable, respectable, classy guys, which makes trying to be objective about them much more difficult, but their contributions – or lack thereof speak for themselves. The style of play that was promised by Jacques Martin was never delivered – not even close. Instead, he enforced the exact opposite style of play that would have maxed out the players’ talents.  What’s the French translation for ‘appeasement’? The ruse worked for a while…or did it? I think we can all agree that goaltending saved not just the team’s bacon, but the entire barn. Whether Carey Price since the start of last year, or Halak two seasons ago, the trip to the Conference Finals was enchanting, but it was a fairy tale. An anomaly. The road taken was unsustainable. When a game plan calls for a goaltender to stop 40-50 shots per night, and asks defensemen to block almost as many, with the desired end result being a 2-1 victory, it’s only a matter of time before the trap door that you voluntarily stood on top of opens wide. Sidney Crosby’s bewilderment at the conclusion of game 7 spoke for nearly everyone, much of Habsland included.

Last year the team had its ups and downs, eventually bowing out in the first round to the Bruins in seven games. Many saw that as some sort of accomplishment, considering the “injuries”. Yawn. News flash! there are no moral victories in the playoffs. None. There never were, and there never will be. Talk of “tomorrow’s another day” is for the regular season. The playoffs, on the other hand are merciless and not for the faint of heart. Any talk otherwise stems from apologists, exonerators and excuse makers. Pass me the barf bag. The cracks in the foundation were deep and visible, but covered up with Carey Price’s excellence. That Carey Price is even in a Habs sweater is a stroke of luck.

Fast forward to this season, and the slow slide to oblivion accelerated to avalanche speed, and not even Price’s continued fine play could stop it. Jacques Martin quickly lost the pulse of his team, which is not surprising given how he stamped out any semblance of energy and passion – what was left to measure when you don’t communicate with your players? He soon ran out of places to hide, kids to throw under the bus and people to blame other than himself by the time the axe fell. Last Saturday ended what was an infernally long tenure that really wasn’t that long at all; it just felt that way, which is a damning testament to the type of stodgy, stale, flaccid hockey that Jacques Martin had installed. It was, and still is boring, which speaks to the damage that he has done, and that Randy Cunneyworth has been tasked with fixing. Nothing is worse than failing, sleep-inducing hockey, especially when you’re one of the priciest tickets in the league. Nothing. Near the end, Jacques Martin said that it was less about entertaining the fans. Way to keep up with the times, Coach.

Now, as Randy Cunneyworth struggles to pump out the water, he seems as powerless as a nine volt battery trying to power a nuclear submarine. It isn’t his fault; he’s been set up for failure by ownership and management, and the jackals in the French media have already begun gnawing at the carcass before it has even flatlined. Dead man walking.

The result is a team in disarray, or at least the semblance of disarray. There are still some good players on this team: Cole, Pacioretty, Gionta, Plekanec, Cammalleri and Kostitsyn are all eminently capable of 25 goals each, but only one or two of those guys will hit that number…three would be stretching it. As the team spirals to 12th place and poised to sink even lower, fans are predictably calling for a tank & rebuild in the same vein as Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, and other teams that reaped all-star talent at the draft table by being appallingly bad for many years.

As tempting as it may be to dream of a lottery draft pick, it’s not needed for this iteration of the team. Serious tweaking? Absolutely. Blowing it up? Stop it. While this season is on the verge of being lost, (if it wasn’t lost in October) there is plenty of hope for 2012-13, provided Geoff Molson gets his priorities straight and stares down those that insist that they have a say in running the team.

Re-signing Price, Subban and Gorges are no-brainer decisions. Bringing back Andrei Kostitsyn isn’t quite a no-brainer, but it’s damn close. Unless he can fetch a king’s ransom in return, he should be retained, and quite frankly, I wouldn’t trust Gauthier to fetch that kingly ransom. Thanks to Gauthier’s panic moves designed to save his, and Jacques Martin’s job (bonjour to those who said that a healthy Campoli and Kaberle would fix all that ails the team), he has saddled the team with some contracts that are suffocating the Habs, and will continue to do so until they’re off the books. That being the case, whoever has the title of General Manager in the summer – because it won’t be Pierre Gauthier – should focus on moving Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Kaberle at all costs. Freeing up that kind of scratch and replacing it with the right pieces and coupled with the proper Coaching, will set it back on course in a hurry.

There’s no need to flush out everyone over the age of 27. No need to be voluntary doormats for years to come. No need to waste some of Carey Price’s best years. As long as pillars like Price, Subban, Pacioretty, Plekanec, Cole, Eller, Gorges and Gionta are around, there is plenty to play for, and it’s all the more reason to get things right without waving the white flag of failure.The only capitulations that should be made, if the team can’t pull out of this tailspin absolutely and immediately (meaning tonight vs Winnipeg, and no more consolation loser points), is to trade pending UFAs (except Gorges and Kostitsyn) for assets. That’s it.

The recipe, as challenging as it may be to implement, is really quite simple:

1- Get the organizational priorities straight. Winning? Or pandering & political appeasement?
2- Hire the best General Manager money can buy, language be damned.
3- Let him get the best Coach, and ask him to pretty please with a cherry on top become competent in French as quickly as possible.
4- Sign or trade for players that match the new Coach’s style and fill the team’s gaps.
5- Enjoy hockey again.

Now, if only Geoff Molson can summon the courage to stomp out the filthy agenda-driven rats in the Francophone media and political arena who have infested and warped the views of Habs fans all over Quebec, things might get moving in the right direction. These clowns have once again made the Canadiens a laughing stock, not only in hockey circles, but in global news. It’s not because “outsiders don’t understand”. It’s because it’s farcical that a segment of Quebecers carry the sense of entitlement that allows them to believe that they control the team. The legacy of the Canadiens hangs from the rafters of the Bell Center, and it was built by French AND English. The legacy doesn’t exist anywhere else. It’s a sport. You want to make a statement about your culture and language? Do it through other channels and stay out of the hockey rink. People and organizations trying to shape the Canadiens to reflect their narrow-minded, pig-headed views have no place in the business of sport.

The ball is in your court, Mr. Molson.

“The plan was not to sit back at all. The best defense is offense.” — Jacques Martin

Martin has tried to sell us many good yarns this year, but this one is really a shocker coming from the King of Passive hockey. But if we are to believe what the Coach said in the aftermath of a game blown to the Buffalo Sabres last night, then certainly he must have recent memories and statistical evidence track record that speaks to that belief, right?

Let’s take a look and see what the Coach may be talking about.

In 2009-10, his first season in Montreal, the Canadiens scored 217 goals. That was good for 10th overall in the Eastern Conference, 23rd overall in the NHL and the 2nd lowest of any Eastern playoff team. I know, I know. The Canadiens went to the Eastern Conference Finals, so stuff it, right? Blah blah blah. Spare me your circular logic. As I’ve said before, we know how the Canadiens got to the Eastern Conference Finals and it had little to do with a spectacular offense.

In 2010-11, his second season in Montreal, the Canadiens actually slipped to 216 goals, good for 12th in the Eastern Conference, 24th overall in the NHL and the LOWEST of any Eastern Conference playoff team. I can hear the homers already: “But they took the eventual champs to overtime in game 7…and the injuries…..THE INJURIES! ARGH!!!!”. Where’s the snooze button, because I’m going to push it. Hard. There are no moral victories in the playoffs, and there were plenty of other teams that had more injuries than the Habs last season. In fact, the Canadiens were pretty much right in the middle of the pack in terms of man games lost to injury.

This season, the Canadiens have scored 42 goals through 17 games. That’s 2.47 goals per game on average, and projects out to 203 goals for the season. So if the Coach think that a best defense is a good offense, his team is going in the wrong direction, and has been going in the wrong direction for what is now a 3rd consecutive season. The addition of Erik Cole, a full season of Max Pacioretty and a bounce back season for some vets were supposed to set the stage of a more potent offense, was it not? Aside from Markov, who has been a gigantic question mark for many months now, the team has been relatively healthy. Cammalleri and Kostitsyn have missed a few games apiece, but certainly not enough to be the sole reason for the Habs’ continued inability to score goals.

Going back to what the Coach said: “The plan was not to sit back at all. The best defense is offense.”…how exactly does the Coach practice what he preaches? As the moribund powerplay continues to circle the drain, the Coach still affords Mathieu Darche precious minutes while other more talented, more deserving players sit and watch from the bench. Does having Tomas Plekanec on the point help or hurt? Does the Coach get his team to continually push the pace? Does he encourage and motivate them to play the same way that put them in a position to have a 2-goal lead to begin with? Or rather does he stand pat while his passive 1-2-2 system kills any offensive momentum his team may have had? If he in fact does not preach sitting back to protect a lead, then why does he continue to let it happen? It’s his job to change his players’ habits, is it not? If the players come out and talk about how they sat back, yet the Coach says that wasn’t the plan, then where’s the disconnect from the Coach to the players? Are the players stubborn? Incompetent? Is the Coach’s message not getting through? Is it not properly delivered? No matter, getting the best from his team and ensuring that his message is getting through is HIS job.

We’ve taken a look at some of the things we can see with our own eyes, but now let’s delve a little deeper in to some stats to try and help paint a clearer picture.
The Canadiens have 14 third period goals this season, which puts them in a logjam with the likes of Phoenix, Columbus, Nashville, Winnipeg and Detroit for 21st in the NHL. Red Wings aside, those aren’t the teams I think of when I think of “offense” and pushing the pace. Until last night, the Canadiens were actually 5-0 when leading after two periods, so a 5-0-1 record this morning should not be the end of the world, and truly it isn’t. The record and team are not on trial here. But that 5-0-1 record still only places them 18th overall in the league when leading after two periods. Since a near-perfect record ranks them a mediocre 18th, it can only mean that more than half of the teams in the league have had more leads to protect after two periods than the Habs, which speaks to the Habs overall inability to score at any point in the game. But the Habs ranking of 21st in the NHL in 3rd period goals means two thirds of the league still manages to score more goals in the final frame. When you put these seemingly disparate pieces of information together, it tells me that the Canadiens don’t push the pace in the third period, whether they are leading or trailing (Habs remain winless when trailing after two periods with an 0-6-2 record) and do in fact sit on leads going in to the third period when they have a lead to protect.

The final analysis says that if Jacques Martin believes that the best defense is a good offense, he does almost nothing to prove it. Is the Coach simply stating what he believes, but is unable to implement? Or is he trying to make us believe (similar to him telling us that young defensemen are to blame, or that his team plays puck possession hockey) what he wants us to believe? Given his track record, we know he’ll probably throw his friend and boss, General Manager Pierre Gauthier to the wolves for failing to provide enough talent. Hmm, that is curious, isn’t it? Tomas Plekanec, Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller, David Desharnais, Erik Cole, Andrei Kostitsyn, PK Subban, Yannick Weber, Raphael Diaz…does that sound like a talentless roster to you? Is that a list of names that evokes “can’t score goals” to you? It’s not to me.

Clearly rookie head coach Guy Carbonneau and General Manager Bob Gainey thought so, and awarded Guillaume Latendresse a 3-year contract worth $850,000 per season, which was the maximum allowable for a rookie. Immediately the skeptics voiced their concern that the Canadiens simply bowed to public and media pressure to keep the young francophone in Montreal. The cheerleader in this camp was Habs legend Patrick Roy, who stated that if Latendresse’s name was Smith, he would have been relegated to the minors.

The other popular refrain was that while Latendresse was the big body that the Canadiens badly needed on their top two lines, he should have served time in Hamilton under coach Don Lever…this camp was led by TSN analyst Pierre McGuire. After all, players don’t arrive in Montreal to learn; they arrive in Montreal to perform, where the pressure to win is the highest. The AHL and other “minor” leagues are where players go to learn to be well rounded. At least that’s the way it works in Montreal. While the skeptics were derided as being a bunch of scrooges, it wouldn’t take long for them to be proven right. While Latendresse scored 16, 16 and 14 goals in Montreal before his 22nd birthday, it was more than clear that he was an unpolished, unrefined hockey player that more often than not was lost on the ice. Those that demanded that he be given a permanent home in Montreal in the fall of 2006 blamed rotating linemates and a lack of ice time for his underwhelming presence on the ice. The truth is that Latendresse was a confused hockey player; yes part of the blame rests with Habs management for rushing him along, but much of it rests with Latendresse himself, who squandered each and every opportunity to better himself (i.e. skipping a preseason camp for young players in the summer of 2009).

Finally, on November 23, 2009, he was traded to the Minnesota Wild for Benoît Pouliot, another chronic underachiever. This trade was a classic ‘my problem for your problem’ scenario. Almost immediately, Latendresse showed a scorer’s touch, scoring 10 goals in his first 20 games with Minnesota, and going on to score 25 goals in 55 games over the remainder of 2009-10 season. Surely, those pumping Latendresse’s tires during his stay in Montreal felt vindicated in their belief in the young player, even as they continued to wipe the tears from their eyes over the trade. Meanwhile, Benoît Pouliot was busy mending a bum wrist, awaiting his debut with the tricolore. For his part, once he did return from a wrist injury Pouliot went on to score 15 goals in 39 games; 6 more than he had scored in 65 career games with the Wild. On the surface, it looked like a win-win trade. Except that the majority of Pouliot’s goals were scored during one hot streak which then quickly subsided. What we all know now is that when Pouliot isn’t scoring, he isn’t doing anything. At all. Except taking dumb penalties.

So, after scoring 24 points in 39 in his first half-season with Montreal (a statistic that flattered Pouliot’s overall quality of play), Pouliot showed his true colours by posting a flaccid 2 assists in 18 playoff games. Talk about being a passenger!

Here’s where rushing a player to the big show, then trading that player in an attempt to wash your hands of the problem that he had become morphs in to an even bigger problem. Not only did the Canadiens decide to keep Benoît Pouliot for the 2010-2011 season, they inexplicably gave him a $500,000 raise to $1.35M. There’s an argument to be made that the Habs had faith in his untapped abilities, and that he’d represent good value for the money. You could also say that you simply don’t give up on a kid who was drafted 4th overall (one place ahead of Carey Price). Fine, but the more plausible explanation is that the Canadiens were practicing “asset management”. Letting Pouliot walk after the 2009-2010 season would have meant trading Guillaume Latendresse for half a season (plus playoffs) of Benoît Pouliot. That would have caused a tremendous uproar and been a perceived stain on Gauthier’s resume. Quite simply, the Habs had to save face after trading away the media’s golden boy.

What this all boils down to is a single mistake made in 2006 – bowing to fan and media pressure in keeping an unprepared youngster in the highest pressure market in hockey. Because of that mistake, the Habs were forced to trade Latendresse away for another underachiever and then compounded the error by keeping Pouliot around for another year. By the time the 2011 draft had rolled around, Pouliot’s stock had fallen so far that General Manager Gauthier could not even secure a low-level draft choice for Pouliot’s negotiating rights. With Pouliot’s tenure with the Habs on life support, Gauthier let the clock expire. He did not tender Pouliot a qualifying offer, meaning that he will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. The lesson learned here should be player development. Unless you’re dealing with a known quantity, a sure-fire superstar like Sidney Crosby, like Steven Stamkos, like Matt Duchene, like Taylor Hall, all players should be mandated to spend at least one full season in the AHL or an equivalent training ground.

Guillaume Latendresse sprang from the ether to have a tremendous preseason. That’s all it took for the external pressure to build to the point where the Habs made a catastrophic decision with Latendresse. Who knows what may have become of Latendresse if he had been made to learn the professional game in Hamilton. He could have arrived in Montreal a smarter, better, stronger, more rounded player, playing his rookie season at 20 or 21 years old. Instead, he was a teenager who was granted the keys to the city for scoring a handful of meaningless goals.

There’s no doubt that a single mistake can have far reaching effects many years later and that it is not always simple or easy to recover from those mistakes. While the Habs saved faced and hoped for Pouliot to fulfill his potential, a roster spot was taken away from somebody else who could have had a more meaningful contribution to the Canadiens.

I’ll include each player’s cap hit, and make a couple assumptions, namely that Markov will sign for a 5.75M cap hit, that Gorges will also be back, at an undetermined cap hit, and that Mathieu Darche will occupy a full-time 4th line role, as opposed to being a part-timer.

From there, we’ll have a solid idea of where Gauthier will be able to spend – assuming there’s place left on the roster.

Forwards

1st line: Tomas Plekanec (5M cap hit), Mike Cammalleri (6M cap hit), winger to be named later. 1st line cap hit today: 11M

2nd line: Scott Gomez (7.357 cap hit), Brian Gionta (5M cap hit), Max Pacioretty (1.625 cap hit). 2nd line cap hit today: 13.982M

3rd line: Lars Eller (1.27M cap hit), Travis Moen (1.5M cap hit), Andrei Kostitsyn (3.25M cap hit). 3rd line cap hit today: 6.021M

4th line: David Desharnais (.75M cap hit), Mathieu Darche (.7M cap hit), winger to be named later (likely Ryan White- cap hit TBD). 4th line cap hit today: 1.45M

Total for 10 forwards: 32.453M

Defensemen

1st pair: Andrei Markov (5.75 cap hit), Josh Gorges (cap hit TBD). 1st pair cap hit today: 5.75M

2nd pair: Hal Gill (2.25M cap hit), P.K. Subban (.875 cap hit). 2nd pair cap hit today: 3.125M

3rd pair: Alexei Emelin (.984M cap hit), Jaroslav Spacek (3.83M cap hit). 3rd pair cap hit today: 4.814M

Total for 5 defensemen: 13.689M

Goaltending:

Carey Price (2.75M cap hit) Backup TBD.

Total for 1 goaltender: 2.75M.

Buyouts: .5M (Laraque)

Final Tally:

The Canadiens have currently spent, to the best of my knowledge $49.392 million on 10 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 1 goaltender. This leaves 14.608M for a top line winger, a 4th line winger (White), and 2 press box attendees. On defense, they have to account for Gorges, and Weber (or another 7th defenseman). Finally, a backup goalie would be required to fill out the 23 man roster.

While 14 million sounds like a lot, consider that Gorges will take at least 3.5 million of that. White will eat up .75M. 7th defensemen and press box forwards also come cheap; let’s account 3 million for those 3 guys on the generous end. That’s another 7.25 eaten up, leaving 7.36M for a top line winger, as well as some buffer space for injury call ups and perhaps an addition or two at the trade deadline.

We’ll see how things play out, but it’s clear that Gauthier has a bit of cash to play with, provided the Habs are going to be a cap team again this year.

What are your thoughts on the current roster and the remaining cap space?

1- Habs need size up front

Yes, Jagr is big, but so was Peter Popovic. When folks say that a team needs size, it’s also implied that the size comes with grit and nastiness. Jagr brings neither. The Habs need a guy who can throw a few punches, score goals and lay the body. Is Jagr that guy? Was he ever? Nope. Yes, he can protect the puck and stick handle and shoot. Big deal, so could Alex Kovalev.

2- Mercenaries needs not apply

Jagr apparently wants to play with 5 teams (Montreal, Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington). Note how they’re all deep-pocketed teams with the exception of Pittsburgh, who instead just happen to have (hopefully) a recovered Crosby, Malkin and Staal. Want a guaranteed all-star center? Sell your services to the Pens. Otherwise, he’s knocking on the door of teams he’s played for, or that have lots of cash. You want a guy with all world skill, size and previous chemistry with Plekanec? Then go get *gasp* Alex Kovalev (there’s that name again). At least we know he WANTS to be here. And he’d be cheaper. Crazy eh? We’ve been down this road once, and I’m dumbfounded that Habs fans want to venture down it again. Stay away from both players in fact. Besides, do we really have interest in a guy who’s trying to leverage teams and leagues against one another? It’s obvious that he’s trying to squeeze top dollar out of somebody, somewhere. Don’t take the bait.

3- Chemistry

The Habs are a tight room. Jagr’s mere presence throws that in to chaos with all the attention he’ll bring to himself. He can say all he wants that he’ll be a good soldier, and do his best to help the team. But we know that when things don’t go his way, he sulks, he pouts, and most importantly, he sucks. And he’ll drag his mates down with him. He doesn’t fit with this team in any way. If the NHL allowed for a “special teams player”, then maybe. If he had 6-8 minutes per night on the power play ONLY, then perhaps it could work. On a regular shift, he’s wasting everyone’s time.

4- “The System”

Has Jagr ever met his own goaltenders? Can he name one goalie for any team that he ever played for? How will this guy fare in a demanding Jacques Martin system that requires responsible play without the puck? That demands that he actually presents himself in the defensive zone? Jagr can’t spell backcheck if you spotted him the b-a-c-k-c-h-e-c. Backczech? No, thank you.

5- Endurance

He looked good in the Olympics and in the World Championships. Wonderful. He’s also been playing in the KHL for the past several years (for 10 million dollars per year I may add). The KHL is not nearly as rugged or grueling as the NHL is, especially today. There’s less travel and way less games. The KHL’s regular season weighs in at about 50 games. An NHL regular season consists of 82, an increase of more than 60%. Then there’s the playoffs where the tough really get going. The Bruins just played 25 games en route to a Cup win. Added to the 82 game regular season, they played 107 games. Roughly double that of the KHL schedule. How on earth does anyone have confidence that Jagr can simply step back in to NHL action – at 39 years of age, play in a defense-first system, and help the team in areas that he no longer excels in?

6- Habs need even-strength help

Jagr can certainly help a powerplay, I’ll admit that much. But the Habs don’t need help on the power play. They need to learn how to succeed at even strength. The Canadiens were among the very worst teams in the league at even strength scoring. In case you hadn’t noticed, the majority of a hockey game is played at even strength…you’d be well served, and the Bruins just amply proved, to be a team that does well 5-on-5. To do that, they need players who will drive the opposing net, and force other teams to think twice when they retrieve the puck in their corners. Does Jagr fit that bill? Only if you make him do that on your PS3.

It Makes No Sense

Even at a reasonable cap hit on a 1-year deal, I strongly believe that a gamble on Jagr is a wasted one. He addresses none of the Canadiens needs, while at the same time creating new problems and potential controversies. I believe Pierre Gauthier would be wise to give the “thanks but no thanks” reply to Jagr’s agent Petr Svoboda. I think too many Habs fans are under the spell that he can come back in to the NHL and be a 40 goal, 100 point guy again. He can’t. Not in Montreal, not under Jacques Martin, not at 40 years old. He’s not Teemu Selanne. The Habs don’t have Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, or Corey Perry, so don’t cite The Finnish Flash as a guy who can still bring it. This isn’t to say that Jagr can’t fit in with the Pens, or Caps or elsewhere on his wish list. It just can’t work in Montreal. He’s too much of a me-first mercenary that completely flies in the face of the Habs style.

So here’s your turn. Tell me how Jaromir Jagr can help the Habs.

Now that Colin Campbell has stepped aside, Bettman’s cousin gets to take the reigns as far as discipline goes from now, until Brendan Shanahan takes over at the start of next season. I wonder how warm and fuzzy Shanny feels this morning that Murphy went ahead and doled out a four game punishment to Vancouver’s Aaron Rome for knocking Boston’s Nathan Horton out of the playoffs?

While it would be nice if this 4 game ban was actually the start of some new standard, there’s no indication that Shanahan sees things the same way as Murphy does, or that he plans to pick up where Murphy leaves off. The general assumption (or hope?) is that Shanahan will rip up the book and start anew; beginning a slow and painstaking journey in restoring confidence in the NHL’s disciplinary process by bringing a fresh perspective and approach to how supplementary discipline is handed out. If that’s indeed the case, then Murphy just put Shanahan in a really unenviable spot; fans are perplexed with the Rome suspension – unless of course it’s a new benchmark for blows to the head, in which case I believe most fans will embrace this new standard. But in essence, he has forced Shanahan to follow suit next year by punishing players with at least four game suspensions (though many would argue that four games in the Cup Finals is worth at least twice as many in the regular season) for similar offenses. Anything less, and the usual “same old, same old” refrain will erupt once again. Whatever path Shanahan takes, he would be well served to behave in the opposite of the current guard. That is to say that he must be transparent and open with how he plans to deal with supplemental justice. And for goodness sake, he has to avoid consulting everyone under the sun before reaching a decision.

And what of the hit that has cost Rome the rest of the Cup finals? Opinion on the hit ranges from blaming the victim to villifying the offender. Personally I believe the hit was a tad late, but it was not blindside. The only way it could ever be defined as blindside is because Horton was admiring his pass and wasn’t looking at what was coming in front of him. It’s his responsibility to keep his head up. If Rome doesn’t hit Horton in that situation, he’s out of a job, plain and simple.

As I remarked a couple weeks back, the NHL’s department of hockey ops set the table for themselves as far as criteria goes a couple years ago when they suspended Alex Ovechkin for hitting Brian Campbell from behind. In his statement, Colin Campbell ended his statement with the following:

“If you cause a player to be injured, then you have to be responsible for the play that you’re involved in, if there’s any carelessness or recklessness in it.”

Still, I do agree with the league’s “stance” that if you hurt somebody by being reckless, you should be suspended. We can argue whether or not Rome was reckless in wiping out an opponent who had no idea what was about to happen. The fact is the league saw it that way, and so it’s a closed case. The trouble is that many, many other hits have adhered to these same criteria yet the offending player was not punished. Yeah, the Pacioretty hit is the poster child for the league’s hypocrisy in this instance, and that’s what has many fans, Habs fans in particular so angry and confused. Again.

Using Campbell’s statement above, Chara should have been suspended. He was certainly being reckless, and he obviously caused injury. Yet he skated away scot-free and even received a standing ovation upon his return home to Boston. The issue becomes even more confounding when you take Murphy’s comments on the Rome suspension. Murphy said that the result of the hit, and the lateness of the hit are what compelled Murphy to give Rome four games. How then, did that logic not apply to when Chara hit Pacioretty? Hypocrisy? Stupidity? Favoritism? Double standards? Different rules for stars? Whatever the reason was for not suspending Chara, it was wrong then, and that wrong has been amplified now.

By the same token, again, I have no problem with a suspension for a hit causing injury. It apparently is too much, however, to ask the league to be honest and consistent with their punishments. With vagaries like “we have our own formula at NHL hockey operations for determining late hits”, it’s no wonder that we fans have totally lost faith in the supplemental discipline process. Like any good chef, everyone knows that a formula can be tweaked on a whim, and the league has clearly been a mad scientist in the kitchen. They jerk around with the formula on a case to case basis so that the end result suits their taste. How else can we rationalize the haphazard, inconsistent and bizarre decisions the league has made over the years. Players are confused, and a decline in the quality of officiating indicates that the officials are also unsure of themselves.

The day after the hit that sidelined the Canadiens winger, the organization announced that Pacioretty had suffered a severe concussion and a fractured C4 vertebra in his neck. Bruins fans and media alike thought it was a conspiracy to get Chara suspended through embellishment of the extent of the injury. Yet in the same fashion, the Bruins organization was quick to divulge the severity of Horton’s concussion and that his season was over. They didn’t even wait until the next day; they let Horton’s status be known in the minutes following game 3. I wonder if Bruins fans figured it was another conspiracy to get Rome suspended? Naw, their team wouldn’t be that classless and devious…or whiny and weasly…would it? Of course not…just don’t listen to the trifecta of liars in Ference, Lucic and Coach Julien who want you to believe their words, but ignore their repeated actions.

A short time after being stanchioned, Pacioretty was released from hospital and resumed his recovery; opening a twitter account, and having the audacity of going to a movie theater were just two of the the things he did to fill his suddenly open schedule. Similarly, Horton was released from hospital the very next day after being crushed by Rome. Teammate Milan Lucic soon after admitted that Horton had been texting him. Tweeting. Texting. Tomayto, tomahto. I wonder if Bruins fans have embraced their own ”embellished injury” theory yet? Let’s see what happens if Horton is feeling well enough to be in attendance for game 4 in Boston. If he is, I’m guessing he’ll get on the jumbotron, and I’m guessing he’ll get an ovation. Movie theaters. Arenas filled with light and noise. Potayto, potahto. In short, these incidents are so strikingly similar, yet the hypocrisy spouting from Boston now that their guy has been felled is so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through it. If you’re a Bruins fan reading this, and your retort is “well at least we didn’t call 911″, then you have no leg to stand on.

I’m not here to say that the Bruins have embellished. Clearly Horton is hurt. The sight of his crumpled body on the ice is as sickening as seeing Pacioretty laying motionless. What I am drawing attention to is the manner in which the people in Boston reacted in the aftermath of the Pacioretty/Chara incident. Now that they find themselves in a similar situation, hopefully they now see things differently.

As Murphy addressed the media yesterday, he credited his buddy Colin Campbell on numerous occasions for teaching him everything he learned. The same Colin Campbell who was embroiled in an email scandal that revealed extreme bias and in which should have resulted in his immediate termination. The same Colin Campbell who went on TSN Radio earlier this year and confessed to not knowing the rules anymore. The same Colin Campbell with a conflict of interest. The same Colin Campbell that made a mockery of the league for over a decade. If that doesn’t say enough about Mike Murphy’s education, then I don’t know what does. Remember Mel Brooks’ role from Spaceballs? The supreme schmuck President Skroob? Towards the end of the movie as all hell is breaking loose, Skroob turns to one of his minions and says “Sandurz! Help me! I don’t know what to do! I can’t make decisions! I’m a President!” Somehow Spaceballs and the NHL seem to fit hand-in-hand these days. Surrounded by assholes. Major assholes.

Pierre Gauthier has presented with an opportunity that would make John Ferguson, Jr. drool with envy: the chance to sign an over-the-hill mercenary. Given the credentials of this particular mercenary, I’d consider it if he wanted to come for REAL cheap, for one year, and as a third liner/power play specialist but I don’t think this mercenary is down with any of that. In any scenario, Jaromir Jagr probably wants a multi-year deal, and clearly would only sign after being promised significant ice time with a given team’s top offensive talent.

We can concoct any number of reasons as to why it would or wouldn’t work in Montreal, but one fact that I personally can’t ignore is the sincerity of a guy who’s doing his negotiating and leveraging through the media. Giving a potential short list of NHL teams he’d be willing to play for (NYR, PIT, MTL) just smacks of putting a bunch of male betta fish together in the same bowl and seeing who comes out on top. And by on top, I of course mean reaching deeper in to his pockets. Jagr is trying to play teams against one another, if not leagues against one another. Frankly I don’t think he wants to play in the NHL at all where he will surely get less money and less playing time than he would get in the KHL. The idea of a one last romp for the future hall of famer is cute and will have many fans dreaming of the flowing mullets of days gone by. Leave it in the past where it belongs; we can always look fondly back on pictures like this and romanticize about the phenomenal skills that Jagr brought to the rink.

As far as the player himself, circa 2011, I don’t think he has the legs, stamina or desire to compete as a 2-way forward in a Jacques Martin system. For the same reasons I don’t think Kovalev and Martin would have worked, I don’t think Jagr would work, either. It’s just that cut & dry for me.

But I’m willing to look at the other side with an open mind and see how and where Jagr would fit. Assuming for a second that Habs GM Pierre Gauthier pulled the trigger on the former NHL superstar, how would this affect the roster? Well for starters, it would likely mean that given their chemistry, Jagr would be paired with Plekanec at center, and Cammalleri on the opposite wing. This bounces Max Pacioretty or Andrei Kostitsyn down to the line featuring Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta. Would YOU want either of those guys playing on the black hole that is Scott Gomez’ wing? Would you even want to take the chance that Gomez just had a bad year and will bounce back? Think long and hard about that one. The other option is to put Jagr with Gomez…but there isn’t enough bleach in the world to dissolve that horrifying vision from my head. The only scenario in which this could work is to pair Jagr with Lars Eller on the 3rd line. But then we come full circle to the argument that Jagr likely wouldn’t want third line ice time & duty. If Gomez struggles again in the first half of the season, Eller could very well supplant him as the team’s full time second line center, but then we arrive back in the situation where Jagr is back where he can no longer play – among the top 6 forwards.

You may have also noticed a missing name from that list: Andrei Kostitsyn. Now, I’m fairly certain that the majority of Habs fans would cut Kostitsyn loose at the drop of a hat. They would not lose a wink of sleep if he ended up elsewhere next season as many have had enough of his see-saw performances. But I believe that as a cost-controlled RFA, he’s in the Habs plans for 2011-12, and he will once again figure in to the top-6. His final 20 regular season games salvaged an otherwise subpar season, and his physical presence cannot be dismissed. In other words: something would have to give if Jagr were brought in…but what? Jacques Martin is not the most creative coach in the world, and I can’t see him meshing with a wild card like Jagr.

I believe that the Habs are closer to Cup contention than most people think. It’s not that outlandish a thought when you get right down to it. They have the goaltending. With Markov and Gorges back in the picture, they have the main ingredients on the blue line. Up front, they’ve got to add some grit and size with skill, but beyond that, this is a fairly complete team with as good a shot as anyone. With some health next year, a key trade deadline acquisition or two may be the final pieces…maybe at that point Jagr would work to shore up the power play, but then again, he’s such a big name you’ve got to wonder what his presence does to a locker room at that point of the season?

But to me the Habs biggest and most glaring problem is even strength scoring, and I really, really can’t see Jagr as the answer to that problem. The Habs were ranked 15th out of 16 among playoff teams this year. They ranked near the bottom of the 30-team NHL in terms of even-strength scoring. Jaromir Jagr still has hands and he still has some ability to produce offense. But in a defense-first Jacques Martin system, how would a guy who has never adhered to a “system” fit in?

In the end, bringing in Jagr is too much of a gamble. He’s another ill-fitting piece to a puzzle that doesn’t need what Jagr has. Jaromir Jagr is like a denver boot to the Habs lineup. Just say no.

Now that I’m safely logged in, I just want to get something out of the way, and hopefully won’t take up too much of your time.

Every year around this time, we Habs fans sit around the campfire and look for the shiniest object with which we can adorn our team with. This year, many Habs fans have set their sights on Norris Trophy finalist Shea Weber. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a guy like Weber in the lineup, even at the hefty price tag he’s sure to command. But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) there’s a heavy cost to snatching a guy of Weber’s caliber away from the Predators over and above his nasty cap hit.

Most Habs fans simply assume that tossing an RFA offer sheet at Weber, and forcing Nashville – a team with its own internal budget that is surely far lower than the Canadiens – to match the Habs rich offer or surrender his services. Let’s all do the happy dance, right?

You see, there’s a reason why pilfering RFAs from other teams is a rarely used method of player acquisition. On one hand, it’s the NHL equivalent of M.A.D – mutually assured destruction. You want my RFA? I’m taking yours. And the spiraling costs will simply lead to another work stoppage. Just ask Kevin Lowe if he wants a mulligan on the Dustin Penner acquisition, or ask Buffalo how they feel about having to match Lowe’s ludicrous offer to Thomas Vanek. On the other hand, I believe that what goes around, comes around. If the Habs want to swipe Shea Weber, somebody will be all too eager to take a stab at acquiring PK Subban, Carey Price, Lars Eller, or Max Pacioretty in the very near future. Given the heavy contracts the Canadiens are already saddled with, you can safely bet that at least one of those players would be plying their trade elsewhere. Also, in the ultimate safeguard against making RFA pitches for all-star talent, there’s the little issue of compensation to the other team after they fail to match the courting team’s offer.

If you want to sign an RFA, then depending on the annual cap hit they bring them, you have to give up the following assets to the other team:

Now we can safely assume that Shea Weber will fall somewhere between the last two brackets. The Canadiens already fairly thin on the farm, with little prime talent on the horizon. Dropping more high-end picks would be nothing more than a short-term payoff with a suicidal ending. Moreover, when you factor in that Montreal typically has to overpay free agents to compensate for the fishbowl, taxes, politics, (take your pick), it’s also reasonable to believe that Shea Weber would fetch over 7.533 million per season, thus forcing the Habs to kick back four first round picks to Nashville.

Read that again.

Four.

First.

Round.

Picks.

Gone.

Sure, Gauthier could always try to recoup those lost picks in other ways, but you’ve got to ask yourself if the high cap hit and lost assets would be worth acquiring one defenseman. And as a final killshot to this fantasy, let’s remember that the collective bargaining agreement is up at the end of next season, and is sure to have ramifications on how teams dole out contracts over the next year or so. It would be similarly stupid for Gauthier to saddle himself with another fat contract while ridding himself of prime assets.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

In the meantime, I’m going to write down my username and password for safe keeping.

This series was an epic battle to be sure, and each team had to dig deep for results; Boston salvaged their playoff lives just in time after falling behind two games (a shame that now is the time they get their first series win after dropping the first two games), while the Habs fought back to force a deciding seventh game; and fought back even harder to push that game in to sudden death. When a series goes to overtime in a seventh game, it’s obviously anybody’s to win, and sadly for Habs fans, there was only so much blood to be squeezed from the stone.

Prior to the start of the series, if I had told you that David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Zdeno Chara and Tomas Kaberle would combine for a total of 2 goals and 4 assists in 27 games played, and that the Bruins would score exactly zero power play goals in the series, you would have thought that the Habs were certainly going to take it. Strangely and cruelly enough, you’d be wrong.

Today isn’t the day to point fingers, but here’s a stat that reveals a fatal flaw in “The System”.

The Canadiens and Bruins both scored 17 goals in the series, for an average of 2.43 goals per game. It doesn’t get tighter than that. The issue is this: While the aforementioned invisible Bruins combined for a paltry 6 points, they were also a combined +1. How does that happen? Looking at the teams a little more closely, we see that only 5 Bruins players were on the wrong side of the +/- stat: Krejci (-1), Thornton, Seidenberg, Paille, and Campbell were all -2. Needless to say, three of those guys are not what I’d call crucial to the Bruins success and as such don’t receive a heck of a lot of ice time. Contrast that with the Habs, who had 13 players on the wrong side of the ledger: Gionta and Gomez at -6. Cammalleri at -5. Wizniewski at -3, Spacek at -3, Subban at -2, Sopel at -2, and half a dozen others at -1. Only Weber and Eller were +1. Again, I’m not pointing fingers at individual players, but rather at a system that forces the Habs to win the special teams battle by such a wide margin that it essentially negates what happens at even strength, where the vast majority of a hockey game is played. The power play was terrific, and the penalty kill was better than perfect when you factor in Plekanec’s short handed goal. But without even strength production, you can’t win in the long run.

There are other factors contributing to the series loss, and I’m sure you’ll read about them. While losing to the head-hunting, bird-flipping, lie-telling Bruins stings in the worst way imagineable, there’s never been more reason to be optimistic. The Habs core is in place, and youngsters like Price, Subban, Eller, Desharnais, Pacioretty all revealed themselves to be superb NHL players over the course of the season – and they’re all going to make huge strides in development in the coming years (Dear Salary Cap: Please keep rising!). Gauthier has a lot of work in filling out and improving the roster, but this is clearly the best team we’ve seen in a very long time, and I’m already looking forward to October.

HEY! YOU! Put your hand down. You’re LYING!

Thursday’s 2-0 win was heartwarming and spirit-lifting in the best of ways, but I have to admit that I got a little greedy in the moments prior to game two on Saturday when it became known that Bruins’ all-star defenseman Zdeno Chara would miss the game with dehydration. With him out of the lineup, I reverted from being satisfied with a “worst case scenario” 1-1 split in the series to calling game two a virtual must-win because opportunities like that don’t present themselves often. The Habs capitalized early and never looked back, fulfilling my greedy desires.

Needless to say, I think I speak for a lot of Habs fans in saying that being in this position feels a little surreal. Now with the series back in Montreal, where the Habs have dominated the Bruins this year, I can’t shake the feeling that the hockey gods have something nasty lined up for us. How to best represent how I feel? This clip says it all. Playing the role of the hockey gods is Lucy. The Habs and Habs fans are represented by Charlie Brown:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m probably wrong. The Habs have shown more poise, guts and determination than even last year’s Cinderella team if you ask me. They’ve out hit, out skated, out worked, out coached, out smarted and out classed the Bruins in nearly every facet of the game. There’s no reason to think they’ll feel the nerves now after putting the 8-6 “Boston Beatdown” and 7-0 crushing way behind them. The Habs won’t deviate from their game plan, which is to score early, then apply the king of all sleeper holds. Even Jacques Lemaire has to be envious of how the Habs are able to smother opposition for such long stretches.

So as I sit here nervously working my way through a cold, cloudy Monday, tell me that the hockey gods are enjoying this as much as we are.

So for all those I called a liar at the start? Maybe you’re right and I’m wrong. After all, as George Costanza reminds us:

Click here to view the embedded video.