Monday Musings: #FreeSubban & Sochi Highlights

Greetings Habs Addicts!

I hope you are all enjoying the Sochi Olympic games. I know I have not followed along with too much of it. Truth be told, I've really only watched the hockey. Our athletes are performing fantastic so far and we've had an amazing medal showing and I'm proud of all of them. I'm just not interested in watching figure skating or curling. The hockey games have not disappointed, either. Very closely fought battles, with some surprising results along the way. Team Canada has had a closely contested defensive game, winning 3-1 against Norway and then exploded with a 6-0 rout of Austria, which saw Jeff Carter net a natural hat-trick and then had a nail-biting, rather disappointing 2-1 overtime win over Finland. Going to overtime dropped Canada from a potential 1st overall seed to 3rd, behind Sweden and the United States. Canada's next opponent will be the winner of the game between Latvia and Switzerland.

Photo Credit: Canada.com

- The prevailing theme of the tournament has been a surprising lack of scoring from the Canadian forwards. Drew Doughty has led the team with 4 goals from the blue line, including both goals against Finland. Shea Weber has contributed 2 goals himself and Carter had the hat-trick against Austria. The rest of the Canadian squad has scored a combined 2 goals. Aside from the rout against Austria, the other two games have been hard fought defensive games. Both Norway and Finland have utilized a trap-style system and it has stymied the offense. Carey Price has been solid in goal, starting against Norway and Finland. He has allowed a goal in each game while facing a low-shot total, but in his defense, both goals were deflected point shots through screens that even Roberto Luongo would not have saved. Bobby Lou was fantastic against Austria in his lone game, but it appears that the tournament will belong to Price going forward.

- P.K Subban has been a scratch in two of the three games played so far in Sochi. Subban sat in favour of Dan Hamhuis in the 3-1 win over Norway and the 2-1 win over Finland. Subban was in the line-up for the 6-0 win over Austria. The use of the reigning Norris Trophy winner has been subject to many Twitter comments as well as wide spread media commentary. Even Don Cherry on Coaches' Corner has lobbied for Subban to be in the line-up. Frankly, Canada has had trouble scoring goals in two of the three games and while Subban did not factor much into the offense, he moves the puck and has a much better offensive game than either Dan Hamhuis or Marc-Edouard Vlasic. His 'defensive liabilities' are overrated and often overblown in the media. Sure, Subban will take some chances with the puck and sure, he will sometimes turn over the puck. But so does Sidney Crosby. So does Alex Ovechkin. So does Drew Doughty. So did Bobby Orr. Elite playmakers take chances, sometimes they do not work. Often times, they do. With the amount of goal scoring coming from the defense, Canada is better served with PK Subban rotating through the line-up than they are having the limited offensive contributions of Hamhuis or Vlasic. While the latter two may be stronger defensively, Subban is used to playing in front of incumbent starter Carey Price and is hardly a drop-off defensively. Offensively, neither one of those two can bring to the ice what Subban can. How PK has not been in the line-up all tournament long is a slight to him and Canadian hockey fans. Knowing Subban, we can expect a beast of a performance down the stretch for the Habs as he uses his lack of ice time in Sochi as added motivation in his quest for a second-straight Norris Trophy. 

- Canada's next potential opponent is the Swiss squad led by former Habs' blueliners Mark Streit, Yannick Weber and Raphael Diaz. The Swiss finished the preliminary round with a 2-1 record, all three games 1-0 affairs. The Swiss have also been playing a trap-style defensive game; the same style of game that has given Canada fits so far in Sochi. Diaz has been paired up with Streit on the blueline. While they have not scored too much in the tournament, the Swiss boast a large number of NHL players in the line-up, especially on the back end with Roman Josi rounding out the top-4 and Anaheim Duck's goaltender Jonas Hiller manning the crease. The Swiss team should get past the Latvian squad in the quarterfinals and could provide Team Canada with a real test to open the medal round.

- Max Pacioretty and Team USA has had an impressive showing so far this tournament and has to be considered a legitimate threat to Canada. Another Canada vs USA final is not out of the question. Patches has played with Paul Stastny and T.J. Oshie in the tournament and they came out flying in the first game against Peter Budaj's Slovakian squad. Team USA scored 6 goals in the second period of the 7-1 drubbing. Patches had an assist to go along with a +2 rating and 4 shots on goal. His line-mate Stastny had 2 goals and Oshie added a pair of assists. This performance was the shining moment for Pacioretty, has he saw limited ice time against Russia and was a scratch in the third game against Slovenia. Former Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak started and was hung out to dry before giving away to Budaj, who allowed a goal on the first shot he faced. Budaj finished the game, but has not seen the ice in the subsequent games, as Slovakia went back to Halak before giving the third game to Jan Laco.

- Tomas Plekanec has been paired up with veteran Jaromir Jagr for the Czech Republic, as they often are in international play. Jagr has been snubbed by the Habs in free-agency the past few season, as he has bounced around from Dallas to Boston to New Jersey. Each time he has expressed interest in playing for Montreal and each time was not considered. Instead we signed Danny Briere. I've already expressed my opinion numerous times in the past about this topic. Plekanec set up Jagr for a goal in each of the first two games and has played well all tournament long, providing a penalty killing presence and the same solid two-way game we've come to expect from him each year.

- Rounding out our Habs presence in Sochi, Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin have been representing the home squad of Team Russia. While Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk form a very credible trio up front, the Russian squad has been somewhat of a disappointment so far in the tournament.  Filling out the roster with relatively unknown KHL players, the drop off in skill between the NHL players and KHL players is noticeable, as Russia has had some low-scoring games en route to a 1-0-1-1 record in round-robin play. Russia opened up with a 5-2 victory of a low-ranked Slovenia squad, before losing 3-2 to the United States in an epic shootout which has turned T.J Oshie into an American hero. Andrei Markov had 2 assists for Russia in this game. Russia ended the preliminary round by beating Slovakia in a shootout, with no goals scored in regulation. Very disappointing performance thus far in my opinion. Andrei Markov has played big minutes, which concerns me as he has faded down the stretch last year and has showed signs that his workload was getting to him prior to Sochi. Alexei Emelin has not done anything offensively in the tournament, but has played solidly in his own end.

That pretty much recaps our Habs showing thus far in Sochi. The biggest storyline coming up will be the goaltending of Carey Price and the usage of P.K Subban by Canada. The lack of offense from Canada will continue to draw attention to the fact that Subban has been watching from the press-box. Subban should be playing. He should have a big role for this team, but Mike Babcock has other ideas. Hopefully, his other ideas do not cost us the gold medal.

Three Questions From My Musings

A) Should P.K Subban be in the line-up every game for Team Canada?

B) Should Marc Bergevin make a play to bring Jaromir Jagr to Montreal for the stretch run?

C) Who out of Sweden, USA or Russia poses the biggest threat to Canada's gold medal chances?

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Montreal Canadiens: The Emergence of Ryan White

How about Ryan White?

The guy that was costing the Montreal Canadiens points in the 2012-13 season with his untimely penalties more or less every time he took the ice. Every time habs fans saw him on the ice, we'd watch with one eye, with that nervous feeling in your gut, afraid of what he would do next to cost his team yet another win. You remember, right? That game against Buffalo seemed to be rock bottom for Ryan, Steve Ott knew it was easy to get into White's head and he did exactly that. Steve looked to be going in for a hip check. Almost as soon as Ott made contact, Ryan assumed it was dirty and off came the gloves and Ryan just starts wailing punches at someone who had no intention in fighting. A 2 minute penalty for instigating, 5 minutes for fighting and a 10 game misconduct.



His night was over. A rough night would be an understatement, when he left for the showers, Montreal had a 4-2 lead. That penalty took away any momentum the Blue-Blanc-Rouge had and it would not be regained. His teammates visibly annoyed with his antics, a coaching staff that was fed up to a point where Michel Therrien had to call him out to the media.

Ryan wouldn't see much more game action beyond this the rest of the season. It was his first one way contract, making things very difficult for Canadiens General Manager, Marc Bergevin. He couldn't send him to the minors and risk losing him on waivers, he still believed in #53. He'd spend the rest of the season in the press box more than on the ice.

September 2013 is here. New season, new look, Ryan White has no hair????. That's Okay, he looks like a real bad ass now, I like it. He starts off season very well, a new Ryan White has emerged. A more calm, confident, and seemingly at peace with his role. Mr. Bergevin had a conversation with Ryan about what he needed to do, and it looks like he took it to heart.

On more nights than not, he's one of the most consistent players, not expected to score but chips in here and there with 2 goals, 3 assists this season. He was told to finish his hits, and specifically, stay out of the box. He's racked up 32 minutes this year, that includes 4 fighting majors. To do some number crunching, that's half the amount of minutes he had last year in double the amount of games, I'm impressed, you should be too. Bring energy to the lineup and he's bringing oodles of it. Can White get any better? I found myself asking this very question, Habs brass answered that question with a big YES, when a trade was made to bring childhood friend Dale Weise into the mix.

The combination of Weise and White hit it off real well from the start, and have the options of Travis Moen, whom also has really picked up his game this year or Brandon Prust onto that grinding line and Montreal Canadiens now look to have the best, most energetic 4^th line in all of hockey. A line of players that other teams will grow tired of quick, after only 3 games played before the Olympic break. One can only wonder How good can this 4^th line be? Will they stay consistent or will coach Therrien pull off another head scratcher and break them up before they get that chance?


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Writer for Habsolument, became a Habs fan after my father dropped me, a bruins fan, his words.

Follow me on twitter @Dewstyle_hockey

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Monday Musings: The Dale Weise vs Rafael Diaz Edition

Greetings Habs Addicts!

Photo Credit: Montreal.Ctvnews.ca

Well the Habs are officially on the Sochi Olympic break. Well, a third of the Habs are on the Olympic break anyway. The rest of the roster will be playing some high pressure, high intensity games on the worlds biggest stage - and ice surface, for that matter.  As always, we'll begin with a recap of this past week's games. The Habs played 3 very impressive games. Carey Price started all three, beginning with a tight-checking 2-0 shutout win over the Calgary Flames, this was followed by a thumping of the Vancouver Canucks.  Price out-dueled fellow Olympian Roberto Luongo, stopping 42 of 44 shots and Max Pacioretty netted a hat-trick (with two missed penalty shots) in a 5-2 Habs win.  Montreal headed into the break with a 4-1 dismantling of the Carolina Hurricanes, winning the season series 2-1. David Desharnais scored two goals in this one.  After a stretch where the Habs gave up 4+ goals in 6 straight games (1-5 in those games), the defensive effort came back strong in the past 7 games (2 or fewer goals allowed; two shutouts and a 5-1-1 record to show for it).  The penalty killing has been lights out over this stretch as well, allowing only 2 goals on 21 attempts during this stretch.

Recap aside, now its on to my musings.

- Biggest news of the week was the trade that sent Rafael Diaz to the Vancouver Canucks in return for grinding forward Dale Weise.  Hours before this trade went down last Monday, I had just finishing stating in my musings that I preferred to see Diaz in the lineup over Douglas Murray, feeling he'd pair up very well with Nathan Beaulieu, allowing the kid the chance to play on his natural (left) side instead of the right side. Needless to say, that will not be happening.  The stat geeks were up in arms over this deal, notably those who use the Corsi ratings who felt that Diaz has been our most effective defender.  While Diaz is a fluid skater, with decent puck moving skills, his shot is erratic and at 5'11, 197 pounds he is slightly undersized for an NHL defender. For the stat geeks, the average defenseman is 6' 1 7/8" tall, weighs 209.66 lbs and is 27.5 years old. Irrelevant, yes. But while Diaz blocks shots effectively, he provided absolutely no physical presence on the back end and while touted as an offensive defenseman, he was never going to develop into the second coming of Mark Streit on our power-play.

Dale Weise will never challenge Sidney Crosby for the scoring title (although he did show the ability to score in junior, so he's not a player who made his name solely by dropping the gloves).  He'll never win a Lady Byng award, either. Instead the gritty Weise brings size (6'2", 210 pounds) and strength to the Habs 4th line while possessing considerably more overall skill than George Parros. Weise is also fast.  He is the reigning back-to-back winner of the 'Fastest Skater' in a competition held each year at the Vancouver Canucks skills competition. Sure this is straight-line speed, but speed is speed. Weise is also a former junior teammate of Ryan White, who made his return to the lineup this week from a nagging "upper-body injury" after missing 14 games.  Paired up together with the speedy Michael Bournival, the energy line contributed 9 shots on goal and 9 hits, while averaging 12 minutes of ice time against Calgary.  Against his former team, Weise and Bournival set up Ryan White's first goal of the season, while contributing 3 shots and 5 hits, while averaging only 8 minutes on the ice (Bournival left with a concussion after only 5:02 of ice time; Weise played a line-high 10:28).  Saturday night in Carolina, White added another goal and assist and combined with Weise saw some time on the penalty kill and also added another 4 hits and 3 take-aways in their 10:55 and 14:02, respectively.

Ultimately, the Corsi-loving and stat based analysts hate this trade. But there is more to hockey than just stats.  Besides, there are stats to back up all arguments and only using select ones while avoiding others will allow for biased opinions to be made, even if they are backed up by the numbers. Much like Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) are used to make advance stat-based arguments in baseball, Corsi and Fenwick ratings are starting to gain traction to rate production levels in hockey. While valid and helpful, advanced stats are not the be all and end all of how a roster should be built. Moneyball illustrated how the Oakland A's could build a solid yet slightly flawed, playoff contending roster on a smaller budget by incorporating advance stats in determining how they made roster moves.  While this use of advanced stats became a trend in baseball, followed soon thereafter by teams like the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, the Oakland A's still have not won a World Series since incorporating the Moneyball strategy.  Sure, they've won games and made the playoffs, but they haven't won the championship with this strategy.  In hockey, the Montreal Canadiens can win games and make the playoffs with the lineup they have, but the goal is to win the Stanley Cup.  I think its safe to say, that in a seven-game series, a lineup of Dale Weise clones repeatedly coming at a defensive core of Rafael Diaz clones would ultimately lead to a lot of punishment suffered by the Diaz's, not so much the Weises.  That same core of Weises battling a bunch of Douglas Murrays would feel more physical pain on their end, while not necessarily scoring too many more goals.  There's no advanced stats to justify what a physical presence can have on a hockey game. Only hits. With that said, I much preferred to see Diaz in the lineup over Douglas Murray - because lets face it, sometimes the stats do tell the story as Murray has been horrible at anything that is not killing penalties.  However, that is no longer an option. We'll need to find another way to replace Murray.  Ultimately, the traditional way of grading players based on their skills and abilities to build lineups will never be replaced by paper stats. The stats can assist, but games aren't won on paper. Never were, never will be.

Truth be told, Marc Bergevin went out and solved a need while giving up an expiring asset.  Diaz has been a healthy scratch by Michel Therrien and was not going to make his way back into the lineup anytime soon. While a lot of fans on Twitter were angry over the deal, Diaz was never going to land us a P.A. Parenteau as earlier rumoured, or be a part of a trade for Thomas Vanek.  He was also going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and was surely not going to re-sign with the Habs.  So rather than trade him away for a draft pick who may or may not pan out (insert Trevor Timmins comments here) three or four years from now, Bergevin went out and filled a roster need by bringing in a fast, physical energy player in Dale Weise.

The fourth line has been a problem for the Habs all season long. Michael Bournival has been a solid contributor, providing a spark offensively coupled with solid defensive play.  Ryan White missed games with an injury, but has played well when given the opportunity.  White earned himself a spot in Therrien's doghouse last year with undisciplined play, but has continued to play a gritty, agitating game this season under a lot more emotional control.  Travis Moen has been ineffective again this season when healthy and George Parros has been injured and utterly ineffective when healthy (two concussions and 0 points with a -5 rating in 16 games played - averaging under 5 minutes per game).  The Habs have had a revolving door of AHL callups rounding out the 4th line this year: Louis Leblanc, Christian Thomas, Michael Blunden, Patrick Holland, Martin St. Pierre, Gabriel Dumont, Joonas Nattinen have all seen action and in a combined 25 games played have contributed a grand total of 0 points. Zero.  Dale Weise has out-scored all of them combined in his 3 games (1 assist). 

The fact of the matter is, none of our AHL players are NHL fourth liners. They are not grind-it-out, big and physical energy players.  Their games are based on skill and scoring.  They are top-9 material but none of them have proven to be NHL ready.  Montreal's defensive prospects (Jarred Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn) are all closer to being NHL-ready than our forwards are.  In fact, Beaulieu has already made the jump and will most likely never return to Hamilton again.  We knew going into this season that depth at forward was an issue.  Instead of relying on this revolving door of non-production,  Bergevin went out and traded for an experienced, young proven NHL grinder to fill the role that has been a hole in the lineup all season long. Weise will be a restricted free-agent at the end of the season - thus still under club control - and will be easy to re-sign this off-season and ultimately ship to Hamilton if he is outplayed or replaced by other new off-season additions.

In the meantime, Weise may never lead the NHL in Corsi and Fenwick scores. But no one will argue that his first week in the lineup has been a successful one.  We can expect to see a lot more games like we saw this week from the newest Hab as he continues to make his father proud sporting the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

Coming up this week: SOCHI!  Go Canada Go!

While I'm proudly Canadian through and through and I fully expect the gold medal to come home again this year with Carey Price and P.K. Subban. I do want to wish the best to all our beloved Habs participating in the games: Max Pacioretty for the United States; Tomas Plekanec with the Czech Republic; Peter Budaj with Slovakia; and both Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin with the host Russian squad.  Also looking forward to watching a real underdog with three former Habs on it can do this time around: Team Switzerland boasts former Habs defensemen Mark Streit, Rafael Diaz and Yannick Weber.  We're in store for some great hockey over the next few weeks.

Enjoy it, folks!


Three Questions from my Musings:

A) Will Dale Weise continue to make a positive contribution to the Habs lineup?

B) Which current Hamilton Bulldog that has received a callup this year will make the jump and remain in the Canadiens lineup next season?

C) Who will in the Gold medal in Sochi?

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Montreal Canadiens Three Stars of the Week - Feb 3 - 10 2014

The Canadiens went a perfect 3-0-0 on their final week of NHL action be the Olympic break. Carey Price started the week off with a shutout against the Flames as the Canadiens skated off with a 2-0 win. The offense kicked in against Vancouver on Thursday, Max Pacioretty scored a hat trick leading the Habs to a 5-2 win. The week ended in Carolina where Ryan White scored the game winner in a 4-1 victory.

First Star: David Desharnais

David Desharnais put up 3 goals and 2 assists this week, scoring points in each of Montreal's 3 games. After starting the year with just 1 assist in his first 19 games, Desharnais is going into the Olympic break with 31 points in his last 37 games. DD's best performance of the week cam Saturday night when he scored twice against the Hurricanes, leading the way to the 4-1 win in Carolina.
 
Second Star: Carey Price

In his last 6 games, Carey Price has held his opposition to 2 goals or less. He opened the week off with his fourth shutout of the season, and finished it with his 26th win so far. Price hits the break with a .925 save percentage and a 2.33, he's fifth in wins and tied for second in shutouts behind just Tuuka Rask.

Third Star: Max Pacioretty

Max Pacioretty set a record this week, against the Canucks on Thursday he became the first player to draw two penalty shots in the same period. He's also the only player to miss two penalty shots in a game but still come away with a hat trick. Pacioretty finished the week with 3 goals and an assist, but he was forced out of action and did not return Saturday when he went crashing into the Hurricanes net. Despite the injury, Patch has said that he will indeed join Team USA in Sochi.

Honorable Mention: Ryan White

Ryan White returned from injury this week and provided the Habs with a huge spark in each of their three games. He was a Third Star Tuesday night versus the Flames, and again on Thursday when he scored his first goal of the season. White also scored the winning goal Saturday against the Canes, his first career game winning goal in the NHL.White had instant chemistry with newcomer Dale Weise, who the Habs picked up at the start of the week from Vancouver in exchange for Raphael Diaz. Weise picked up an assist and saw over 10 minutes of ice time each game this week.

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Montreal Canadiens: Love them, and Enjoy the Sochi Olympics

It’s never easy being a Montreal Canadiens fan. In fact, it’s pretty much always an emotional roller-coaster ride.

Even when the Habs were on that winning streak a couple of months ago (it feels so long ago), I was mentally preparing myself to expect the kind of play we have witnessed over the past couple of weeks. Let’s just say that the mental prep failed to diminish the frustration and disappointment while watching our team…tank miserably. Some may call the previous description as melodramatic, but need I remind you that I’m a Montreal Canadiens fan?

I was one of the unlucky fans to attend a game at the Bell Centre this weekend. Sometimes I wonder, why should I bother cheering for a team that makes me want to get a refund on my ticket (although I’ve been fortunate enough to go for free, but you get what I mean)? I deserve to cheer for a team that WINS (I also happen to subject myself to some torture with FC Liverpool…but that’s a story for another time folks). Despite watching one of the more boring games of the season, something hit me…
There’ something so special about seeing a game at the Bell Centre. I have been blessed with a number of opportunities to watch games in the amphitheater, and I have never passed up on the chance. How could I refuse? Lord knows how hard it can be to purchase a ticket, and yet summon the funds to actually seat your ass down (and don’t get me started on the price of food.

MINOR DETAILS (but not really) aside, the atmosphere at the Bell Centre is something people talk about time and time again, and it always lives up to the hype. It’s one thing watching a game at a bar, or at home with friends…but it’s a completely different story watching the game with 21 000 crazy fans (apart from the boring business men who sit in front…have a little life guys!).

21 000 mostly hungry, self-proclaimed hockey experts cheering and critiquing their beloved team is testament to the love we Montrealers have for our hockey.

It would be nice if the Habs could give back. It would be nice if they could play like a team fans should be cheering for. Yes, if you’re a true fan, your devotion to the team is infallible.

Let’s just say that I would be willing to be a crap ton of money to watch them if I was fairly certain of seeing a good spectacle. Despite this mini-rant, I still watch them on TV, read up on the latest news surrounding the team, and listen in on the ongoing debates on Briere and many other issues.

Heck, I even take the time to write about them every week!

Why? Because there is something beautiful about uniting yourself behind a group of individuals trying to restore their past pride and glory. This group of men, whatever their skills or shortcomings, represent an integral part of our city and are an important piece to our identity as a Montrealer.

Even if I told myself: “ Screw this, I’m going to cheer for the Blackhawks!”, I could never genuinely adhere to them. I bleed, you bleed, we all bleed the blue, white and red. Now, after this miniature grammar lesson, let’s enjoy the last game against the Hurricanes before some of our boys battle it out in Sochi.

Sit back, relax, and go Habs go, no matter what.

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Montreal Canadiens: Is Giving it Your All, Really that Hard?

Fire Therrien!
Trade Markov!
Trade Gionta!
Fire Bergevin!

Ok, ok, we’ve heard it all the last two weeks so no need to repeat those topics, bottom line Habs are slumping big time and the flaws of these team are more visible now then earlier this season. It’s as simple as that. We all knew what this team was; too small, not enough scoring, not tough enough, blah blah blah. Unfortunately it’s going to take time to fix those areas, and that means Mr. Bergevin is right, we have to be patient. Fine, I can live with that.

But let’s see the plan.

What is this team’s identity? Are they checkers and grinders, defence first, high-octane offense? No one seems to know. But it would sure be nice if someone could figure it out and be nice enough to let us all know in the process, but even more so, might be a good idea to let the players know.

All that being said, here’s what confuses me………how can players look like they are sleep-walking through their games? I don’t get it. If I did that at work, I’m fired. Let’s take Rene Bourque for example (yes I’m picking on him because quite frankly he deserves it). I’m not even going to go after a guy’s salary as it is what it is. That’s the industry; they make a lot of money, end of story.

I’m more perplexed by the lack of effort.

Rene Bourque on average this year plays 15 minutes a game. 15 minutes! This guy only needs to give 100% for 15 minutes per game. That’s it. That’s all. I’m removing the fact that he has practices and he has to work out. Allen Iverson made it very clear what practice really is (24 times in fact) so that doesn’t count.

As for the gym, we all try to go to the gym just very few of us are actually paid to go to the gym, so that’s a wash. As for the other stuff, yeah I know he has to make promotional appearances and charity stuff, yeah ok fine, but that’s not work. His job, for which he is paid for is to play hockey. So if the Habs play three games this week, Rene Bourque only has to actually work for 45 minutes. Wow.

Again I ask how these guys can NOT GIVE ANY EFFORT.

Everyone reading this at a minimum has to work for arguments sake 40 hours this week. That’s a long way from 45 minutes. Let’s put that in perspective; that’s an hour long TV show that you’re watching on PVR so there are no commercials. You wake up Monday morning at 7:00 am turn on the TV and press play on the PVR to watch The Following season premiere you recorded last week and 45 minutes later your actual work week is done. That’s it. Thanks for the effort, here is your pay cheque and have a nice week. Everything else is a wash, we all have to travel for work, we all have to commute, but we still have to work for many more hours.

Unreal.

The sad thing in all this (and this will be my only point regarding his salary), is that this guy has all the tools to be making $5 million per season instead of $3.333 million. Wouldn’t that be incentive enough to give more for 45 minutes?

by Andrew Anderson (posted by Kamal Panesar)

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Pregame Preview: Canadiens at Hurricanes (Game #59)

Match Up:

The Canadiens (31-21-6) are in Carolina Saturday night to face the Hurricanes(25-21-9) before taking the next two and a half weeks off for the Olympic break. The game starts early at 6:00 pm and can be seen on CBC and RDS.

This is the third and final meeting between the Habs and Canes this season. The Canadiens have collected 3 of 4 points so far against Carolina, but when these teams met on New Year's Eve, the Hurricanes scored 4 straight goals to nullify a 3-0 third period and put the Habs on their heels late in the game. PK Subban eventually drew the two teams even again but Alexander Semin's overtime goal sealed the victory for Carolina.

What to Watch:

Ryan White has played two games since returning from injury and was named a Star in each contest. White was the Third Star in Tuesday's contest against the Flames and again on Thursday versus the Canucks, when he scored his first goal of the season. Max Pacioretty scored his second Hat Trick of the season against Vancouver, the third in his career. Pacioretty leads the team with 26 goals on the season.

Cam Ward's last start was the New Year's Eve match up against the Habs. Since then, Anton Khudobin has played all 16 games for Carolina going 11-5-0 and posting a .930 save percentage while Ward was sidelined with a lower body injury. Cam Ward has returned to the line-up recently but that hasn't stopped coach Kirk Muller from going with Khodobin

What's at Stake:

What a difference a couple of wins (or losses) can make. The Canadiens are back within striking distance of the Lightning for second place in the Atlantic division heading into Saturday's game. The Habs are just 1 point back of the Bolts, but Tampa Bay holds a game in hand. Montreal has also padded the lead over some of the playoff bubble teams, but the Maple Leafs are still tied with the Habs, though the Leafs have played one more game.

Who's Out:

Michael Bournival (head) did not travel with the Canadiens to Carolina, he was forced out of Thursday's game after getting hit hard in the face by Dale Weise's stick. Alex Galchenyuk (hand) and Travis Moen (lower body) are also out.

The Hurricanes could be without John-Michael Liles (lower body) but are otherwise healthy.

What Else:

The Olympics have already started and NHL players representing their countries are set to join Zdeno Chara in Sochi after Saturday's action. Chara was the flag bearer for Slovakia during the opening ceremonies Friday, countryman Peter Budaj is one of seven Canadiens taking part in the Games. Carey Price and PK Subban representing Canada, Max Pacioretty for Team USA, Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin playing for the host nation, and Tomas Plekanec set to wear the 'C' for the Czech Republic, there could be as many as five medals coming back to the Canadiens locker room at the end of the month.

The Question Mark:

Are you worried about certain Habs risking injury or burning themselves out by playing in the Olympics?

Let us know what you think, leave a comment or send us a tweet by using the #MTLHockey hashtag on Twitter.

Be sure to tune into the Montreal Hockey Talk Pregame Show an hour before the puck drop and the Post Game Show 5 minutes after the final siren. Join the live conversation by using the #MTLHockey hashtag on Twitter.

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