Great Night For A Breakout

Greetings Habs Addicts,

What a great night in Montreal last night. The Canadiens retired Hall of Famer Guy Lapointe's #5 in an emotional pre-game ceremony then went on to beat the Minnesota Wild pretty convincingly in a 4-1 victory. For those wondering the significance of retiring Lapointe's number prior to a game against Minnesota, it should be known that Lapointe is currently the coordinator of amateur scouting for the Wild, a post he has held since the teams inception. Thomas Vanek had an assist on the lone Wild goal in his return to Montreal, but was otherwise in fine playoff form as he was rather invisible as he floated around the ice. No word on whether he lost money on the game, either. Carey Price stood on his head in the first period and kept the Canadiens in the game before they took over and dominated from the second period onward.

Photo Credit: NationalPost.com

First off, Guy Lapointe's jersey retirement was long overdue. A brief history lesson about the man affectionately known as "Pointu" for those who never saw him play begins with the fact he was a six-time Stanley Cup winner with the powerhouse Canadiens squads of the 1970s. As a member of the 'Big-Three' with fellow Hall of Fame defencemen Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, Lapointe holds the Canadiens record for goals in a season by a defenceman (28) and by a rookie defenceman (15). Savard and Lapointe were key members of the 1972 Summit Series against Russia. Lapointe put up big points, laid thunderous body checks and kept the locker room loose with his notorious pranks. Among those pranks is the story of Lapointe coating his own hand in Vasoline prior to shaking the hand of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada during a visit to the Canadiens locker room. For his career, Lapointe scored 171 goals and 622 points in 894 career NHL games. He shares his #5 in the rafters with the great Bernie 'Boom-Boom' Geoffrion. This honour is a long time coming. Credit to his daughter, Stephanie Lapointe (Twitter: @RavenMontreal) who spent many long hours working and rallying for this honour. Stephanie made appearances on MontrealHockeyTalk.com last year to gain support for a petition she started and the hard work paid off. Congrats to Guy Lapointe and family. Well deserved honour and we hope you enjoyed the moment!

This high profile game was also used by Jiri Sekac for his breakout performance as a Canadien. Sekac was a highly-touted off-season signing by Marc Bergevin after a solid performance in the Russian KHL last season. Sekac played in the first six games of the season before spending seven straight in the press box as a healthy scratch. Fans were clamouring for Sekac to return to the lineup, especially with veterans such as Rene Bourque and Travis Moen seeing undeserved ice time. Sekac returned to the lineup against Buffalo this past week and last night had a dominating performance on a line with Lars Eller and Brandon Prust, scoring a goal and adding an assist while being named First Star of the game. It was a great time for the Czech forward to step up into the spotlight. Hopefully this is the breakout game needed to get himself and the under-performing Lars Eller going. Eller is notoriously streaky and on a line with a gritty forward like Brandon Prust could spark the beginning of good things for the trio. One cannot forget how youngsters Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher started their careers strong on a line with Prust during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

Sekac has a ton of talent and has a great opportunity in Montreal. Spending time in the press box while Rene Bourque and his $3.3-million dollar cap hit went game after game contributing nothing to the offense was a waste of his talent and frustrated many fans. Here at HabsAddict, my own article 'Should #AlmostBourque be #AlmostBenched?' sparked some controversy with the listeners and fans at our affiliate MontrealHockeyTalk.com early on, however the analysis proved to be true as the next ten games played out and Bourque's on-ice effort continued to deteriorate. HabsAddict editor Fred Poulin's 'Jiri Sekac in Michel Terrien's Doghouse' echoed what was a growing sentiment among fans and media that Sekac was somehow being punished by Michel Therrien for his lack of offense through the first six games. Well, his replacements contributed nothing at all and Sekac finally returned to the lineup this week and hopefully will use this Saturday performance to get on a roll with Eller and Prust. There is just too much talent and potential there for him to spend the season watching the games from the rafters. The rafters that now hold another deserving legend's retired number.

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Nick Malofy is a transplanted Montrealer, currently living in evil LeafLand. He is a contributor here at HabsAddict.com and give him a follow, as he can often be found rambling on Twitter.

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Dale Weise, P.K. Subban And The Habs Power-Play Struggles

Greetings Habs Addicts!

The Montreal Canadiens are 8-2-1 heading into this evening's game against the Calgary Flames. The record is certainly misleading on how they have played to this point. They have shown tremendous character by winning six of those games by one-goal margins, often after trailing to start the game. They have also scored three goals or less in eight of their eleven games (5-3 in those games) this season. The team is even in goals for/against at 29/29 and they are averaging only 2.4 goals per game while allowing 2.6 goals per game. While the penalty-killing is just as strong as last year (86.7%; 6th best in the NHL) the power-play has been power-less with only a 9.4% conversion rate (three goals in 32 attempts; two of the goals were scored in the same game). The Canadiens have been relying on all-world goaltender Carey Price to keep them in the games and he has thus far delivered. But is this a smoke and mirrors start or will the team turn things around offensively?

Dale Weise & P.K. Subban.
Photo Credit: montreal.ctvnews.ca

A couple of weeks back, HabsAddicts' own Fred Poulin analyzed the struggling power-play and offered up a hockey player's perspective on what is going wrong and how it can be corrected. Since that time, the Canadiens have not converted a power-play goal (five games; 12 power-play opportunities). Clearly the rest of the NHL has keyed in on P.K. Subban being the catalyst to the Habs' offense with the man advantage. Subban spends most of his time at the point awaiting an opportunity to unleash his booming slap-shot at the net. But Subban is rarely moved from the point this season and any hockey player will tell you that a stationary target is much easier to defend then a moving target.

Subban is an extremely talented offensive defenseman. His right-handed shot is one of the hardest point shots in hockey. He is very similar in that regard to Shea Weber, the right-handed shooting all-star from the Nashville Predators. Weber last year led all defensemen in scoring with 23 goals. A video montage of all of his 2013-14 goals can be found on YouTube. For those who do not wish to take the link to the video, the summary of this goals based on location on the ice are as follows:

The same page on YouTube also has a summary video of all of P.K. Subban's goals from last year's regular season and playoffs. Again, for those who do not wish to view the video the summary of those goals relative to position on the ice are as follows:

One noticeable difference, aside from Weber having more goals (23 regular season vs 15 for Subban in regular season/playoffs) is that Weber pinches more on rushes and power-plays and scored eight of his goals from within the face-off circles or the slot area whereas Subban is more content to stick to the blue line and fire lasers. As we have seen from some of his rushes, including his gorgeous breakaway goal against Colorado this season, Subban has the stick-handling ability to fight through traffic and score from in close. Having a player like Subban floating along the blue line waiting for one-timers is a waste of his immense talent. There is no reason why Subban cannot score 20+ goals in this league if utilized correctly.

Another difference in the videos is that in almost every single one of Weber's goals, there is traffic in front of the net. The Predators have never had top-level scoring talent on their roster. They are always a defence-first grinding team who scores by committee and yet they have a player leading the NHL in goals by a defenceman; one who's biggest weapon is a slap-shot, not necessarily creative stick-handling. They achieve this by having one or two bodies in front of the net, providing enough of a screen on the goalie that he cannot pick up the shot right away. If you cannot locate the shot coming at you from that velocity, you are not saving it. Ask a Major League Baseball hitter if he can hit a 100 MPH fastball if he does not pick it up right away out of the pitcher's hand. He will tell you there is no chance. And they are not being screened.

P.K. Subban has that kind of shot.

The Canadiens do not have a big body in front of the net on the power-play this year. Teams are keying on Subban and the goalie is getting a view of the shot as it comes in. Brendan Gallagher does what he can up front, but he does not have the size to truly screen the goalies, as most of them in the NHL are well over six-feet tall. Max Pacioretty is a sniper, not a net crasher. Little David Desharnais is not screening anyone and Alex Galchenyuk is not a power-forward.

Good power-plays have traffic in front of the net. In their primes, both Todd Bertuzzi and John LeClair were forces to deal with in front of the net. Boston uses Milan Lucic in that role. Pittsburgh has Chris Kunitz to bang home rebounds. Montreal does not have skilled players with size like this on the roster. But they do have one gritty player who is skilled enough to hold his own with the puck and big enough to stand in front of the net and bang in rebounds. One player who can use his tremendous speed to get to the corner and win battles for the loose puck off dump-ins. That player is Dale Weise.

Weise is not a sniper. He is not a pure goal-scorer, but he is a strong and sturdy presence who can get in front of the net and take the abuse from an opposing defender. He showed in the playoffs that he can score a big goal and win the battles. With skilled shooters such as Pacioretty and Subban on the ice along with puck-handlers such as Galchenyuk or Desharnais and the general at the point in Markov, having a player like Weise on the ice to take the onus off Gallagher in front of the net could be an effective way to occupy a defender up front and force two bodies to be blocking the view of the goaltender. If the Canadiens can find ways to move Subban into the slot or pinch from the blue-line more, there is no reason why the Habs cannot have a Shea Weber of their own. We do not need Weise to score 20 goals, just create a solid screen and occupy a defender and let the goal scorers do their work.

When trying to score goals the conventional way is not working, it may be time to think outside the box. Teams are keying on the point with Subban and the Canadiens are not generating any traffic in front of the goal. That is allowing the four defenders to box them out and keep the Canadiens on the perimeter. There is no reason to take a defender away from Subban. Forcing one of those four to fight Weise in the slot will open up more space for Subban to maneuver around. Allowing him to pinch into the circles or the slot to shoot will give a screened goalie even less time to locate and react to one of the NHL's hardest shots. Like a the ball player trying to hit the fastball, you will not hit what you cannot see.

Michel Therrien is making some changes to his line pairings tonight against Calgary. What he should be doing is changing his power-play strategy. It has been ineffective all year long.

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Nick Malofy is a transplanted Montrealer, currently living in evil LeafLand. He is a contributor here at HabsAddict.com and give him a follow, as he can often be found rambling on Twitter.

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Monday Musings: I Hate Being Right.. Sort Of

Its Monday, Habs Addicts.

Well this past week was a challenge for us as fans.  Trounced by Pittsburgh 5-1, beaten soundly by Detroit 4-1 and soundly whooped by Washington 5-0. Embarrassing performance by everyone involved. Was it surprising? Hardly. Let me take you back to the concluding paragraph of last Monday's Musings:

This weeks games include matchups on the road in Pittsburgh to face Sidney Crosby's Penguins on Wednesday, followed by an original-six battle in Detroit on Friday night. The Habs return home to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Saturday. With the defensive showing we saw this past week, going 0-3 and allowing 15 goals against is a very distinct possibility

Photo Credit: Days of Y'Orr

Wow! I hate being right.. sort of.  Truth be told, they went 0-3 and allowed 14 goals against. While scoring 2 goals in those 3 games.  Two. Deux. Dos.  No matter how you say it, its terrible. This week puts the Habs 2014 record a.k.a the month of January at 4-6-1. In those games they've scored 25 goals (2.27 per game) while allowing 40 goals against (3.64 per game). Needless to say, thats pathetic.  The defensive slide actually commenced just prior to the new year, as the last to games in December were losses as well (4-1 to Florida & 5-4 in overtime to Carolina).

What happened? How did one of the best defensive teams in the NHL suddenly turn into the Edmonton Oilers of the Eastern Conference?  Where did our scoring go?  Our friend Andrew Berkshire (@andrewberkshire) at "Habs Eyes on The Prize" has delved into this at depth.  I'm not too much of a stats guy, so I'll let him breakdown whats happening this season compared to last season.  Its not pretty.

• Comparing Last Season's Habs to This Season's After 48 Games

I'm not going to talk about the lack of scoring. Even-strength scoring has been a problem for us all season long.  Solid goaltending and defensive play put us in the position we were in before the swoon started (Top 4 team in the Eastern Conference).  Since the calendar year has changed, the scoring output is the same but the defensive effort has evaporated.  Its gone. Carey Price has allowed some weak goals but has otherwise been hung out to dry most nights.  Surely he must be frustrated.  Why has this happened?

What we all know just by watching the games is Michel Therrien has had a revolving door of defenders this past month with no set pairings.  The past few games, Douglas Murray has been paired up with P.K. Subban. I can see the logic. Murray has been atrocious. He has no offense abilities, and while he was never known to be mobile, he'd make Hal Gill look like Erik Karlsson out there. Murray can still lay the body on people - he's still a 240 pound monster - but only if you skate right at him. Its like watching a Steven Segal fight scene (PG-13 for violence). Sure he'll whoop you, but only if you come right to him.  What was the result of this pairing?  We saw the 3 worst games of the season for P.K. Subban. Not an improvement in Douglas Murray.  Murray is now -13 at even strength, tied with Alexei Emelin for worst on the team.  Emelin has also looked shaky since returning from his knee injury and has been a healthy scratch recently. Mind you, he's also playing on his off-wing (the right side as a left-handed shot) and is clearly not comfortable on that side.

Andrei Markov has recently started to slow down, just like he did at this point last year.  Its clear that his legs cannot hold up to the workhorse minutes (25:18 average time on the ice per game) that he could in the past.  Things aren't going to get better for Markov, either.  For 1) This is an 82-game season, not the abreviated 48 games we saw last year and 2) He'll be logging big minutes in high pressure games for Team Russia at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi. While other veterans are resting, Markov is logging more ice time on his already tiring legs.  Oh, and we still have the home-stretch of the season right after that.

Therrien's revolving door of defenders also seems to have no rhyme or reason behind his choices.  Pittsburgh and Detroit are both speedy, skilled teams. They play an up-tempo game, not a physical grind-it-out style that you see from Boston and Toronto. So naturally, Murray replaced Rafael Diaz in the lineup.  While Diaz has not played very well this season, he represents a better puck-moving option as well as possessing the ability to skate, which is a very important skill in today's NHL. Markov and Subban have been paired up. Markov and Emelin. Subban and Gorges. With that said, pairings have also changed mid-game.  No rhyme or reason. No chemistry either. On the plus side, rookie Nathan Beaulieu was inserted into the lineup this week and has played well, considering the outcomes of the game. He should be here to stay. Hopefully.

Two very good articles have been written this past week about Michel Therrien's coaching abilities and anyone who follows us on the #mtlhockey tag on Twitter knows that Habs fans are calling for a coaching change.  Habs Addict's own Fred Poulin (@fredpoulin98) wrote the following piece:

•  Top-10 Reasons to Fire Michel Therrien

This article more-or-less sums up the entire season, with some very valid points by one of our knowledgeable contributors.  Hard to disagree with his assessment.

Andrew Berkshire also has another good read, this one directed at Habs management on his Eyes on the Prize blog.  Again, Andrew is a stats guy so he has a lot of numbers to back up his arguments and also has some very good ideas.

• An Open Letter to Marc Bergevin: Its Time To Do The Hard Thing, The Right Thing

Normally I spend my Monday Musings recapping the week that was. Not much to say. It played out basically how I predicted it would play out. Horribly. What's in store this week: A home game Tuesday against the surging Carolina Hurricanes (8-3 in 2014), a road-trip to Boston to face the Bruins Thursday, capped off with a home game against a strong Tampa Bay Lightning team.  I expect the Habs to win one of these games at the very least. Carolina won 5-4 last matchup in over-time and the Habs and Tampa have exchanged 2-1 wins this season, both games going into the extra frame as well. And lets face it, no matter what, we always step things up for Boston.

Three Questions from my musings:

A)  Will Marc Bergevin make the coaching change we are all calling for or will Michel Therrien be given the rest of the season to turn things around?

B)   Will Nathan Beaulieu stay up with the big club and remain a steady contributor on the blueline for the remainder of the season?

C)  Will we beat Boston?

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Habs extend Francis Bouillon, plus some other good reads

Greetings Habs addicts!

Photo credit: CBC.ca

Big news (pun intended) out of Montreal on Wednesday!  The Montreal Canadiens extended the contract of 38 year old, 5'8" defenceman Francis Bouillon on Wednesday. His extension is a short one (pun intended), just one-year at 1.5 million.

I like this signing. Its nothing flashy, nothing risky; just a solid depth move by GM Marc Bergevin. Bouillon has bought into coach Michel Therrien's system and he has played well, contributing 1 goal, 6 assists with a plus-6 rating in his 29 games thus far this season.  Frankie has also worked well with the younger players on the team, recently paired up with callups Greg Pateryn and Jarred Tinordi.

This is a no-risk signing.  If he is out-played next year in training camp and the pre-season by our younger players, he'd become a solid 7th defenceman who can fill in for injuries or just sit in the press-box as a depth scratch.  For 1.5 million, there's nothing wrong with that.  The Habs are paying four times that to Tomas Kaberle to do the same thing this season.  Bouillon wants to retire in Montreal and I would be shocked if he doesn't stay within the organization either as an assistant coach or in player personnel capacity after his playing career is over. While TSN did report he is a Montreal native, truth be told he's a New Yorker. But he's certainly adopted Montreal as his home.

Good for you, Frankie!!

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Crosby & Toews May Attend Meetings, Sabres Don't Care, More...

Good Morning HabsAddicts!!!

Well, this all important day has finally arrived. And while the NHL has divulged its list of attendees, the NHLPA has kept their list close to their vest.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks are expected to be among those attending on the players' side, but the union hasn't confirmed anything yet.

To get a better understanding, Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com explain the importance of today's meeting.

Habs And Hockey News and Notes:

- Fred Poulin updates us about the Habs' CHL prospects via The Hockey Writers.

- Olean Times Herald beat writer Bill Hoppe examines why players from the Buffalo Sabres don't want to be bothered with the players/owners meeting.

-And while you're at it, take a look at my newest What If instalment for Montreal Hockey Talk, where I ask what the NHL's motive for such a meeting are.

- With MLSE's Larry Tannenbaum involved in the meetings on Tuesday, Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun explains why the players trust and respect him.

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Fred Poulin Talks hockey on Fan vs Fan Radio Network

On the Ice by Fan vs Fan Radio Network

This weeks guest is Andrew Hirsh from The Hockey Writers.com. Andrew is a Credentialed NHL columnist covering the Carolina Hurricanes.

Also joining the broadcast was HabsAddict.com's own, Fred Poulin. Fred also writes for Hockey Writers.com.

Click play below to listen in. Fred starts at around the 67 minute mark.

Listen to internet radio with Fan vs Fan Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio

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New Beginnings: Montreal Canadiens Season and HabsAddict.com Redesign

Greetings Habs addicts!

The 2011-2012 NHL season is finally upon us and what better time for us to unveil our long awaited site redesign.

In addition to the new look, you'll notice a few new faces around here.

Louis Moustakas has come on board as the Associate Editor of HabsAddict.com. He brings a wealth of writing experience with him and I'm sure you'll love his stuff.

In addition, he head-manned the redesign so my hat is off to him.

Way to go Louis!

Along with Louis, we are happy to announce that Fred Poulin will now be writing for HabsAddict.com. Fred is well known in the blogosphere, writing on Hockey Independent and Dobber Baseball, and helps round out our coverage of the Montreal Canadiens.

The last piece of news is that we have partnered with long-time friends of HabsAddict.com, Habsworld.net, to offer you a joint discussion forum.

Habsworld.net has had their forum running for some time now but agreed to co-brand the forum, thereby increase traffic and discussion on the site.

The new joint venture is up and running and you can access it by clicking 'Forum' in the nav menu. Once you're there all you have to do is sign up and start chatting!

So welcome to the new HabsAddict.com. We hope you like the site and will take part in the discussions.

Exciting times all around. Enjoy the season folks and, as always, your feedback on the site, the forum and anything else we do, is always welcome!

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Kamal is a freelance writer, Senior Writer/Editor-in-Chief of HabsAddict.com and Montreal Canadiens Blogger on Hockeybuzz.com. Kamal is also a weekly contributor to the Sunday Shinny on TSN Radio 990 (AM 990) every Sunday from 9 - 10 AM. Listen live at http://www.tsn.ca/montreal/

Follow Kamal on Facebook and Twitter

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