Wilco, without a doubt the best band in the world at this moment, released their latest album last week.  Titled Wilco (The Album), it was eagerly anticipated by a legion of fans and music media who, for the most part, have shared a similar sentiment about the new release…

While the album’s good, it’s not necessarily up to the high standards of past Wilco offerings. 

Which is unfair, and probably inaccurate, to already have decided the fate of a release a scant seven days into its public life (yes, it was available earlier on the band’s website).  Still, take your pick of some of their earlier work…Being There, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky.  All fine albums, with each one setting up massive expectations for the next release.  And so far, Jeff Tweedy and crew have managed to scale those self-inflicted peaks, though in each case, it’s taken some time for fans and critics to have their eyes opened to the gems contained within.

In an earlier life, I reviewed new releases by a wide spectrum of bands.  What always bothered me was the need, due to the magazine deadline, to pass judgement on an album after only, at the most, a half-dozen listens.  Some records/CD’s require time to reveal all their hidden beauty; a cursory listen may turn up the radio-friendly hits, but not the real gold underneath.  If anything, a music reviewer/magazine should be required to revisit a reviewed album six months later.

While listening to Wilco’s latest offering on the way to work today, the immediate lukewarm reaction to it reminded me of much of the hockey world’s reaction to what GM Bob Gainey has done with the Montreal Canadiens in the past two weeks.

After watching his team take a nosedive after the All-Star break, firing head coach Guy Carbonneau, taking over behind the bench himself, and getting swept by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs (all this during the overblown 100th anniversary celebrations), Gainey is understandably under considerable pressure to improve the lot of the Canadiens for the 2009-10 campaign.

He’s cast his lot with underachieving goaltender Carey Price, which might, in part, explain why Jacques Martin was brought aboard as head coach.  Gainey was facing a summer of significant roster turnover, as a number of players were set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1st.

While many in the media, and fans as well, were curious as to how Gainey would manage this off-season, most pointed to the fact that the Habs would benefit from having a lot of cap room to play around with.  Surely they’d be able to land the big stud centre the team has lacked since…since…Pete Mahovlich???

What about the Vinnie rumours?  How about Gaborik or Hossa?  Should they keep Komisarek or go a different direction?  And what about Kovalev and Kaptain Koivu?

So many questions, and Gainey began to answer them by engineering a pre-July 1st trade with the similarly underachieving New York Rangers.  Suddenly, Scott Gomez was a Hab.  That deal seemed to knock over a series of dominoes, which ended up revealing the names of Hal Gill, Mike Cammalleri,  Brian Gionta and Jaroslav Spacek, not to mention Perry Pearn.

Almost immediately, the reviews on Montreal Canadiens (The Album) were mixed, at best.  Were the Habs a better team now than they were in April?  Did they address any of the myriad of issues that faced this team going into the summer?  Are all these players too small?  Okay, Hal Gill excepted, but in his case, is he too slow?  Where’s that stud centre we’re all been clamouring for?  Why allow Kovalev to leave…and for Ottawa of all places?  Has he ever spent any real time there?  (To butcher Sinatra…I wanna sleep in the city that never wakes up).

Some have noted that Gainey and his Canadiens have moved neither forwards nor backwards with all these free agent signings and trades, but rather they have moved sideways.  As in, yes, things have changed, the team sports a new face today, but to what end?

This past weekend, a few of us from NHL Home Ice made the 10-hour car trip from Toronto, down over to Chicago (the home of Wilco), to catch the Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley on July 4th.  Being baseball season, there are White Sox and Cubs stuff everywhere in that town.  The NFL Bears were well represented, as were the Bulls.  Even noticed a couple of guys wearing Blackhawk caps, and more than a few shop windows displaying Blackhawk jerseys.

Regardless, for all the justified hype about the re-emergence of the Chicago Blackhawks, the Windy City is first-and-foremost an NFL town, then a baseball town, then the Bulls, and then the Hawks, make no mistake about it.

While we were there, the scandal involving possible contract errors by the Blackhawks were all the buzz back in hockey country, meaning Canada.  It was on the general sportscasts, as each and every hockey-related story is.

Nary a peep in Chicago, and I was monitoring the local television stations, and had my AM radio with me to listen to 670 The Score.  They had a brief mention of it, before going back to discussing the pennant chances of the Cubbies, and what Jay Cutler meant to the Bears.

Yet in Montreal, a hundred or so fans of the Canadiens held a rally to demand that GM Bob Gainey re-sign Alex Kovalev.  Have they seen Kovalev actually play these past few seasons?  Madness, I tell you.

Blackhawks’ GM Dale Tallon can screw up by signing over-priced over-rated free agents Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, and the hardcore fan base in that city will pillorize him for it, but he doesn’t have to face the same degree of pressure as a Bob Gainey, or a Brian Burke, or a Ken Holland.  While it’s on the radar, hockey gets lost in cities such as Chicago.  Let’s face it, hockey gets lost in almost every American city.  Make no mistake about it.

Yet in Canada, where apparently we have nothing better to do, every story is magnified, often far beyond its relative importance.  But that’s the way it is up here in Hockeyland.  Which helps to explain the overwhelming number of thumbs down reviews about Gainey and his moves so far this off-season.  We all think we know better up here.  There’s no allowance to actually see what these new acquisitions might do come October, we’ve already passed judgement.

50,000,000 critics can’t be wrong, but like all those stellar Wilco albums, this one will take some time to see if Gainey has engineered a masterpiece, or if all those signings were just the thrashings of a desperate man.

- Mick Kern

It’s not like the Baseball Hall of Fame, where fans and media engage in debates as to which cap the likes of catcher Gary Carter should don when he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown.  The Kid came to fame with the Montreal Expos, but reached the pinnacle of his career with the 1986 New York Mets, combining clutch hitting and some fortuitous bounces in downing the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox as New York’s 2nd team became the toast of the town after winning the World Series.

Even though the player has a say in the decision, the tall foreheads at Cooperstown have the final word, and they went with the tricolour of the now defunct Expos, which did not sit well with Mr. 7-Up, who no doubt envisioned a healthy amount of appearance money flying away, thanks to the prospect of having to sign his John Hancock on BHOF memorabilia bearing the logo of a dead franchise, instead of the mighty Mets. 

Carter himself publicly showed his disdain for that choice, when he was recently introduced at the Baseball All-Star Game.  Festooned in the distinctive Expos cap, he also made a point of holding up a Mets cap.  There was no sign of a Dodgers, or Giants cap, even though he also suited up briefly for those franchises.

William Scott Bowman didn’t have to make that choice when he was handed the gold key to the Hockey Hall of Fame back in 1991.  At that point in his storied career, Scotty Bowman had won five Stanley Cups as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, in addition to three Cup Final appearances with the expansion St. Louis Blues.  Bowman’s tenure in Buffalo did not end in the manner he would have liked, and after a few years in TV, he returned to the league with the emerging Pittsburgh Penguins.

At the time of his departure from the Sabres, Bowman was already one of the greatest NHL coaches of all-time.  If he had never again stepped behind an NHL bench, his legend was sealed.  As life would have it, Penguins’ head coach Bob Johnson was struck with brain cancer, and tragically passed away in November of 1991.

The defending Stanley Cup Champions mourned for their beloved coach, and got back to the business of defending their title…with Bowman as their new head coach. 

The Penguins were a juggernaut, and swept aside Bowman wannabe Mike Keenan and his Chicago Blackhawks in the Cup Final.  Bowman won likely his most unexpected Cup, which just added to his legend.

Except there was a considerable backlash building against the Master.  There were many who clung to the faulted belief that anyone could have coached the late 70’s Canadiens to victory, that all Bowman had to do was open the door on the bench.  The same surface criticism was levelled at Bowman about these talented Penguins, and it only intensified the following spring when the heavily-favoured Pens fell in Game Seven overtime to David Volek and the New York Islanders.

Bowman moved on to the eternally under-achieving Detroit Red Wings, and initially experienced a bumpy ride with the Wings, including a sweep in the 1995 Final at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, coached by former Bowman disciple Jacques Lemaire.  Suddenly, the naysayers were emboldened with fresh evidence that Bowman was overrated.

Undaunted, the Red Wings did what any champion does.  They refused to panic.  They didn’t blow things up and start again.  They stayed the course, made the changes they deemed logical, and were rewarded with back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.

The 1997 celebration remains, for me, the most joyous post-game celebration I have ever watched on television.  The pent-up frustrations and expectations of Red Wing fans finally had a platform for release, and Bowman took part in the festivities, donning skates and hoisting the Cup.

The Master would put an appropriate exclaimation point on his stellar career, capturing the Cup one final time in 2002, his final year behind the bench.  In total, William Scott Bowman won nine Stanley Cups, and led a team to the Final on an additional four occasions.

He set seemingly unassailable records for games and Cups won.  Along the way, he alienated players and fans alike with his style, but both parties understood one plain fact about Bowman.  He was a winner.

So when Bowman decided to jump ship and join the resurgent Chicago Blackhawks as an advisor (joining his son Stan in the Chicago front office), he once again exhibited a perfect sense of timing.  The Master tested the wind, and knew which way it was blowing.

During a recent game against the Red Wings, the TV cameras found Bowman in the crowd, surveying the game unfolding in front of him.  Which got me to thinking.

If Bowman was not yet in the Hockey Hall-of-Fame, and someone had to choose which NHL sweater or cap his plaque would display, which team would he represent, particularly if one was only to consider his record as an NHL head coach?

Statistics don’t always present the entire picture, but they’re a pretty good starting point.   Let’s agree that his days with the Blues and Sabres are not in the discussion, despite his early success with St. Louis.  His six plus years in Buffalo are without doubt the most disappointing of Bowman’s NHL career.  His time with Pittsburgh wasn’t long enough to warrant inclusion either.

Which means, rather obviously, it comes down to his legendary stint with the 1970’s Montreal Canadiens vs. his more recent success with the one modern dynasty still operating in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings.

In Montreal, Bowman returned to the organization he got his start in, including a Memorial Cup win in 1958.  After a power struggle in St. Louis, Bowman left and took over the reins of the Canadiens, who the season before, had won the Stanley Cup with an underrated team that featured rookie Ken Dryden in net, and was captain Jean Beliveau’s final year in the league.  The trouble was, head coach Al MacNeil was called out by Habs’ icon Henri Richard concerning ice-time during the playoffs, which the French media ate up, and even though the Pocket Rocket tried his best to calm the waters after the season was over, the damage was done.

Bowman got the job, though that 71-72 team lost in the first round in six games to New York Rangers, who made it all the way to the Cup Final, only to lose to the Bruins.

The next season, Bowman steered the Habs to first place in the East Division. in the process losing only 10 games, as Montreal regained the Stanley Cup.  But the best was yet-to-come.

After losing Dryden to a contract dispute, Montreal came up short in ‘74 and ‘75, the years of Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke, and the Broad Street Bullies.  The emergence of superstar sniper Guy Lafleur, the maturing of the Big Three on defence, the addition of effective role players such as Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis, and the return of Dryden all added up to a dynasty, one that won four straight Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979.

It was on the strength of these magnificent teams that the legend of Bowman was forged.  By the time he left for Buffalo, Bowman had won five Stanley Cups in five Final appearances during his eight years with Montreal, and compiled a gaudy 419 wins in only 634 regular seasons games, as well as posting a .714 winning percentage in the post-season.  These were truly Hall-of-Fame numbers.

Fast forward to the late 1990’s, and Bowman behind the bench of the Detroit Red Wings.  During his nine-year head coaching tenure in Michigan, Bowman won three Stanley Cups in four appearances.  He won 414 regular-season games in only 706 games, and his playoff winning percentage was an impressive .642.  Along the way, in part thanks to an additional two games added on to the regular season NHL schedule, Bowman’s 95-96 Wings set a league record by winning 62 times that season, two better than the 76-77 Canadiens, coached by Bowman.

The overall numbers are similar.  The Montreal numbers are slightly more impressive, though one has to factor in the circumstances under which these two franchises operated.  The late 70’s Canadiens were the most powerful team in a league that still featured a number of weak sisters.  The Habs were challenged by the young Islanders, and the very talented Boston Bruins, but managed to overcome all obstacles during that four-year run.  Montreal and Boston were among the powerful teams that fattened their averages against the likes of the Cleveland Barons, Washington Capitals and Minnesota North Stars.

By the time Bowman was hoisting the Cup with the late 90’s Red Wings, the landscape of the NHL had changed considerably.  Thanks to better training techniques, better coaching, better goaltending, and a resulting tighter style of play, there was more parity in the league than when Bowman was with Montreal.  There were less opportunities to feast on the unfortunate, which meant less inflated numbers.  Taking all that into account, Bowman’s final stats with the Red Wings compare very favourably with his halcyon days in Montreal.

In the end, both incarnations of Bowman are deserving of accolades.  And despite what the great unwashed may rant about on internet billboards, not just anyone could have coached these teams.  It takes a special kind of coach to be able to juggle all the demands of a talented group of athletes, each of whom believes they have what it takes to be on the first line, or start in net. 

A large number of books have been written about Bowman and his coaching style.  Suffice to say, Bowman is arguably the greatest head coach in NHL history.  His two greatest stretches of accomplishements happened in Montreal, and Detroit.  Each incarnation was impressive to behold.  My heart says Scotty Bowman is first-and-foremost identified with the Montreal Canadiens, but my head says that his most impressive coaching job was with the Red Wings.

The better question might be, who would win in a best-of-seven battle between the 1977 Montreal Canadiens and the 1997 Detroit Red Wings?

- Mick Kern

Less than a minute to go in the game.  The net at the other end of the rink is empty, the goaltender cooling his heels on the bench.  The visiting team is desperate, needing a goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.

The puck is dropped, and a mad scramble ensues.  The visitors keep the puck hemmed in the zone, and launch a volley of shots, but not one finds the back-of-the-net.  To the fans of the home team, the seconds on the overhead clock drag at an infuriatingly languid pace.  To the fans of the visiting team, it’s all over in a flash.

In this case, the Washington Capitals were unable to put the puck past Henrik Lundqvist for the tying goal, and the hometown Rangers escaped with a 2-1 win, and take a 3-1 stranglehold on their best-of-seven series.  What would have to be classified as the biggest upset in the first round is all set up to be completed in the next couple of days.  The Rangers will get three cracks at it.

If the Caps had been able to score the equalizer, MSG would have been deflated, and Washington would no doubt have entered overtime with all the momentum.  That’s how much things can change on the strength of one solitary goal in such a situation.  But it was not to be.

Name me one other sport that is blessed with the same edge-of-your-seat excitement.  In a key baseball postseason game, when the bases are loaded, and there’s nowhere to put the hot-hitting batter, and the bullpen is exhausted, and the closer has to come in with a pitch in the strike zone, and the crowd is on its feet, and the noise is deafening, and their cheers help keep winter away for a few more hours…well, that’s close.

In football, when a team is in the red zone, and the defence has to hold, late in the game, and the crowd is on its feet, and you can’t hear yourself think, well, that’s also pure gold.

But hockey has them both beat, because of the fluid nature of the game.  No other team sport features the constant ebbs and flows of hockey, due to the fact it’s played on ice, with grown men on skates.  The speed of the game, and the unpredictability, and the endless possibilities that are presented when the linesman drops the puck, all add up to create pure magic.

It’s games like the Rangers/Washington tilt that remind me why we slog through an overly long regular season.

On the other hand…Goodnight Montreal.  The Party is Over.

In truth, it ended sometime in January, but people were having too good of a time to notice it.

So much for the overblown 100th Anniversary Season.  Starting Monday morning, half price on all memorabilia.  Everything must go, including a large number of free agents.

I think I finally get what GM Bob Gainey was trying to do with goaltender Carey Price.  Unlike a lot of Montreal fans, Gainey no doubt knew that this team wasn’t deep enough to make a long run in this year’s playoffs.  His man in net is, without a doubt, young Mr. Price.  Why not throw him right in and get his feet wet, toughen him up using live ammo.

Trouble is, that strategy can backfire horribly if the goaltender’s confidence is shaken to the point he doubts the very things that carried him this far.  That has always been my worry with how Montreal has handled Carey Price.  He’s now played in three playoff series over two straight seasons, and he hasn’t looked good in any of them.

Mind you, this year’s edition of Les Canadiens were nothing to write home about, and my mother actually asked me to stop with the emails.  The real test for Montreal will be this summer:

- which unrestricted free agents do they attempt to keep?
- can they coax any key unrestricted free agents from other teams to sign here?
- is Gainey preparing to clear cap room in order to try to trade for Vincent Lecavalier?
- will this team finally get physically bigger, now that they’re been pushed around
   for two straight playoff years?
- who will be the head coach of this team?
- will GM Bob Gainey keep his job?  Does he still want the job?
- is this team for sale, or not?
- entering his third NHL season, it’s time for Carey Price to begin to
   realize the immense potential he has.

That’s a lot of stuff for one off-season.  The best news?

It’s the 101st season for the Canadiens.  Time to forget the distractions and get down to business.

Just wait ’til next season!  Go Bruins.  You guys look good.

- Mick Kern

“IN BOB WE TRUST”

Montreal fans, for the most part, cleave to these words, for you sir, Bob Gainey, represent all that is righteous and pure about Les Canadiens.  On a mid-70’s team crowded with superstars and game-breakers, you made a name for yourself with what was then considered a rather sublime skill set…and hard work.

Now that you’ve been the GM of the Canadiens for the past half-dozen years, this once-proud franchise appeares to have put itself back-on-track.  You’ve hired the right people, who have made all the right decisions, particularly when it came to carefully re-building the infrastructure of this organization.  Your Habs drafted well, which sets the team up to overcome the ongoing obstacle of attracting top-name free agents to the city.

After a surprising Eastern Conference regular-season title last year, everything slowly has come unravelled this season, and all under the unremitting glare of the overbaked 100th Anniversary celebrations.

There are a number of reasons why Montreal fell to eighth spot this season, and are barely alive in their first-round playoff match with the Boston Bruins, and all are worth closer examination in the rapidly approaching off-season.

But writing as a long-time fan of this team, Bob…I have only one question on this late Saturday night.

What is with your ongoing fascination with goaltender Carey Price?

No doubt about it, the kid has size.  He’s been a success at every other level of hockey, so when you took him 5th overall in the Sidney Crosby entry draft of 2005, us loyal Habs fans didn’t blink an eye, despite some negative things a number of scouts may have said about Price.

Most goaltender take a while to develop, but this is the Montreal Canadiens, not the Atlanta Thrashers.  There’s no place to hide, particularly for a top-rated goaltending prospect. 

Montreal has been a goaltending factory stretching all the way back to Georges Vezina himself.  Just look at some of the names.  George Hainsworth, Bill Durnan, Gerry McNeil, Jacques Plante, Gump Worsley, Ken Dryden, and Patrick Roy.

You can also add the names of Charlie Hodge, Rogie Vachon, Phil Myre, Michel Plasse, Wayne Thomas, Michel Laroque, Denis Herron, Rick Wamsley, Doug Soetart, Brian Hayward, Roland Melanson, Jeff Hackett, Jose Theodore, and Christobal Huet.

The franchise even survived the likes of Richard Sevigney, Steve Penney, Andre Racicot, and the dude who played a couple of minutes when Roy had to use the washroom.

They traded away the likes of Tony Esposito, and Tomas Vokoun, before those guys even had the chance to get real good, because there was no room at the inn for them.

Point being, and Bob, you understand this more than most, the starting goaltender is THEE focal point of the Montreal Canadiens.  More so when the franchise hasn’t had a bona fide 50-goal scorer since Stephane Richer, and has been without a true superstar since the glory days of Guy Lafleur, and baby, that was thirty years ago.

Jaroslav Halak can be a frustrating goaltender to watch, as he’ll follow up a couple of stellar games with a so-so effort.  But here’s the thing.

Halak has stolen, OUTRIGHT STOLEN, a couple of games for the Habs this past season.  A game in Denver comes to mind, when Montreal had no business taking home the two points.

Price is your bonus baby, and as he’s a young man, his day may yet come.

But it is not right now.  Not when the guy doesn’t seem fully awake during play.  Sure, he’ll make a fine save, but then he’ll follow it up five minutes later with what appears to be a half-hearted effort at covering the puck…something that cost his team a goal in Game One of this series against the Bruins.

Like any goaltender, regardless of stature, Price is reliant on his team in front of him.  The current roster of the team has been exposed as being weaker than first advertised, so Price hasn’t always received the support he should rightfully expect, but neither has he returned many favours.

At this time of year, in order to get anywhere, as everyone who follows hockey knows, your goaltender has got to be The Man.  Meaning he’s got to be solid, not necessarily spectacular, but reliable.  And every so often, he’s got to steal a game or two for his team.

Bob, when was the last time Carey Price stole a game for the Montreal Canadiens? 

And even when the guy makes a good save, he’s often out-of-position following that initial save.  Much in the same way some baseball pitchers are described as throwers, not pitchers, Price is a blocker, not a goaltender.  Which may explain why he’s looked so lousy on some shootouts during the regular season.  Get his big body moving, and he looks sluggish.  Didn’t Stan Fischler call him a big stiff?  Harsh, yes, but possibly true??

No-one with any grey matter left in their brain honestly expected Montreal to win this series, though the Habs had a legitimate shot at winning Game One. 

Game Two?  A different story.  Price simply did not rise to the occasion.  He did not make the saves when his beleagured team needed him to.

Yes, to place the blame solely on his shoulders is not accurate; it appeared many on this team gave a half-hearted effort.  But we all know hockey.  Good, steady goaltending can cover up a lot of flaws.  A 3 dressed up as a 9, as that cheesy old Trooper song went.

Montreal did not receive such goaltending in Game Two until you put Halak in net for the third period.

The Washington Capitals made the right move when they put Simeon Varlamov in net for their second game against the Rangers.  Yes, they lost 1-0, but the kid sure looked better than Jose Theodore recently has, and anyhow, Varlamov may be the future of goaltending in D.C., while Theodore was a band-air solution once Christobal Huet jumped ship for more money in Chicago.

Trouble is, Bob, in Montreal, Carey Price has already been anointed the future of goaltending.  Even if the glass slipper doesn’t fit, you’re going to force it onto his foot.

- Mick Kern

Okay, let’s do a quick summary of how the 100th Anniversary Party for the Montreal Canadiens has been going.

EVENT: Montreal hosts the 2009 NHL All-Star Game.
ANALYSIS: Big deal.  Sure it was a great party, but in the end, it’s a meaningless floater game.  I’ve been told some people were falling asleep in the press-box, and that wasn’t because they were up all night at some of the more wicked parties raging across the city.

EVENT: Young Habs like holding wicked parties.  Internet pictures say so, so it must be true.
ANALYSIS: At least they kept their clothes on in the pictures.

EVENT: Montreal wears a series of throwback uniforms.
ANALYSIS:  Exactly as advertised…throw them back before I throw up.

EVENT: Hockey Hall-of-Fame goaltender Patrick Roy has his number 33 raised to the rafters.
ANALYSIS: Long overdue, but there was that old family spat to overcome.  Many wanted Roy himself raised to the rafters.  Others wanted him to don the pads again.  Still others think he should be the next coach of the team.  Apparently, this franchise has never completely gotten over their public divorce with Saint Patrick.

EVENT: Players on the roster linked to Organized Crime.
ANALYSIS:  So many nasty rumours.  Like me Mom said, when there’s enough smoke, there’s gotta be someone barbequing.  But which rumours to believe?   Players linked with Organized Crime?  That doesn’t have to be so bad.  Maybe they could organize the Habs’ power play.

EVENT:  2009 NHL Trade Deadline.
ANALYSIS:  GM Bob Gainey shops early, picking up ex-pat Mathieu Schneider from the Atlanta Thrashers, apparently so he’d have more time to contemplate exactly when would be a good time to fire head coach Guy Carbonneau during this celebratory season.

EVENT:  Canadiens fire head coach Guy Carbonneau.
ANALYSIS:  Ahhhhh, I don’t see this anywhere on the program.

EVENT: Les Canadiens want to host an outdoor game.
ANALYSIS:  Except it would be played inside the Great Toilet Bowl, aka the 1976 Olympic Stadium, aka The Big O, aka The Big Owe, aka The House That Rick Monday Destroyed, aka The White Elephant, aka, the Building With the Retractable Roof Which Didn’t Have An Actual Roof For Years Before Finally Getting One And Then It Couldn’t Be Retraced.  All this meaning…one Outdoor Game a year in the NHL is enough.  Talk about killing the Golden Goose.

EVENT: Montreal to host the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
ANALYSIS:  Details to follow.   No doubt plenty of time for the Habs to trade away the past half-decade of carefully planned drafting in order to get Vincent Lecavalier into a Canadiens’ uniform.

EVENT: Canadiens’ principle owner George Gillett may sell the Montreal Canadiens.
ANALYSIS:  WAIT!  I thought this rumour was quickly shot down earlier this season.  Now you’re telling me there might be truth to the rumour?

EVENT:  The Montreal Canadiens are odds-on-favourites to win the 2009 Stanley Cup.
ANALYSIS:  Okay, who REALLY thought this was true, except for the new breed of Canadiens’ fans…the type that will take to the streets to celebrate a lousy first-round playoff victory….just like Maple Leaf fans have pathetically done for years.  Shudder the thought, but the Canadiens are the new Leafs.

EVENT:  The Montreal Canadiens are sold to Jim Balsillie and moved to Kitchener/Waterloo.
ANALYSIS: Don Lever cancels the Berlitz lessons, and is now able to become the head coach of the team.

- Mick Kern

A uncharateristically warm, windy, rainy mid-February Wednesday night in the great metropolis of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Took the boy to another minor hockey game tonight.  Had a great time.  We both enjoyed the work of both goaltenders.

Got home a bit late, got the kid in bed by 9 pm…an hour later than preferred, but hey, it was for hockey.

Poured a tasty beverage and proceeded downstairs to watch the Montreal Canadiens limp into Edmonton, after a round of bowling.

Was bowled over to discover the basement was covered in a foot of water.  Very cold water, thanks to about a half-hour torrential rainfall around 8:30 that evening.

Put down the tasty beverage, called the wife as she drove home from her knitting class, who then went straight to her parents and picked up the Shop Vac.

Moved what stuff I could salvage from the basement, and resigned myself to a night of no hockey.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one…under water and resigned to no hockey.

Mr. Dan Blakeley had emailed to say he had water coming in and the good ship and crew were in peril.  There would be no War Room on Thursday (hold your applause).

After five hours and at least 36 gallons of melted snow/rain water, I quit for the night, and turned to the internet to catch up on the NHL action I missed.

What…The…Hell?

The Canadiens get thumped 7-2 by the host Oilers?  Goaltender Carey Price battles the puck in the first, and allows four goals?

Excuse me, ’cause I’m covered in sweat and filth (hey, sounds like an average day on The War Room), and I’m just getting over this sinus infection thing, and I’m drop-dead tired, and I haven’t eaten since a very nice bowl of chili at Tim Horton’s back at 6 pm, but…

Carey, what up?

Is your confidence that shattered?

This is, after all, a very young man.  Many, myself included, publicly mused last season that Bob Gainey was putting a heck of a lot of pressure on the lad’s shoulders this early into his career.

Add on to that weight this year-long overblown, geesh aren’t all we sick of it by now 100th year celebration, and the TOTALLY unrealistic expectations by a sizeable portion of Canadiens’ fans that this team would win the Stanley Cup this season, and maybe it’s understandable that young Mr. Price is burnt out.

He can’t even lift his glove hand to snare shots that the two young goaltenders my son and I watched tonight could have stopped.  Apparently, Price played tonight’s game in Edmonton like good ole’ Hardy Astrom.

Talk is now that Price is more Steve Penney than Patrick Roy. 

Wait a minute, Penney had a very nice run in the 1984 playoffs, and not a bad 84-85 regular season, before his bubble burst.

Taken 5th overall in the Sidney Crosby (and now Bobby Ryan…and good for Ryan!) draft of 2005, there were rumblings at the time that the jury was still out on how effective big Carey Price would be in the NHL.  He backstopped the Canadian junior’s to gold, including that memorable shooutout win over a very talented American team, and he backstopped the Hamilton Bulldogs to a Calder Cup championship.

About twenty years earlier, Patrick Roy led the Sherbrooke Canadiens to the 1985 Calder Cup Championship, and a year later, a number of those players, led again by Roy, won the Stanley Cup.

There would be no repeat of that pattern this time.  Price was suspect in the opening round seven-game win over the Bruins last spring.  He’d follow a solid game with a sub-par performance, so much so, the Bruins forced their way back into this series.

In the next series against the Flyers, Price was exposed.  His glove hand was weak; his concentration appeared to wane.  Arguably, if the Canadiens had received even slightly above-average goaltending, they could have beaten Philadelphia.

Well, they didn’t, and going into this season, I had two questions I was curious about when it came to Montreal.

One, how would super-talented Alex Kovalev follow up his fine 07-08 season?

And two, how would Carey Price bounce back from his second-round playoff disaster?

We know the answer to the first question (and it’s not good), and it appears clearer every day we know the answer to the second question (also not good).

Still, I want to know why?

Why is Price playing this badly?  Was he overhyped?

Actually, the answer is yes.  But even an overhyped player can still be a good player.

Right now, would you want Carey Price starting in net for your team?

Carey, what’s wrong?

I’d cry, but I’ve seen enough water for the night.

- Mick “Poseidon’ Kern