11/29/01 -Caving to stereotypical hockey reporting?
Not this columnist and her first quarter review of the Montreal Canadiens.
After four measly columns, have I already succumbed to the traps of living room lazy-boy sports journalism? Am I taking the easy road, giving you a paper-thin report card that does nothing to enhance your already brimming brain of hockey knowledge? Heaven knows every mullet-headed hockey pundit, every part-your-hair-in-the-middle and squeeze-into-the-starch-white-collar hack has given you his thoughts on the first quarter of the NHL's 2001-02 campaign, of Montreal's surprising start. Is there anything more to say?
Damn straight there is! And not just names and numbers either. The Montreal Canadiens' "peaks and valleys" season so far has a million stories and I'll try to get through the best of them in my allotted bandwidth.
The numbers (well I have to start somewhere!)
After 23 games last season, Montreal had a 6-15-2-0 record. In fact it was just over a year ago that Coach Alain Vigneault and General Manager Réjean Houle were fired with the team mired in an awful ten-game stretch of 9 losses and 1 win.
This year's numbers are obviously better at12-8-2-1. But they don't really tell the story. Within those 23 games, the Canadiens had three significant streaks: 1) the fast start where they were undefeated in 6 right out of the gate; 2) the nine-game stretch where they had one win and virtually no starting goalie; 3) the current (as of November 28) 5-game win streak.
Think about it. Without that middle bit when Jeff Hackett and José Théodore were both on the sidelines, Montreal is having a great season. And while some of the naysayers will protest because some of those wins have come against bottom-feeder teams like Columbus, Atlanta and Florida, I say so what? You see it's that very point which proves that Montreal is a better team, a real playoff hope - because they didn't win the "gimme" games last year! In that awful 1-9 run they lost twice to Tampa Bay and had back-to-back losses to the Islanders - that was last year's Islanders, folks! They could get up for the big games and defeat the Sens, the Leafs and the Flyers. But honestly, there are so many gimme teams that the gimme points counted more than those spoiler wins. So far so good, eh?
You're bloody well right
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Brian Savage, the Canadiens' leading scorer, recently talked about the Donald Audette acquisition and what it meant to the team. His thoughts were eye opening. He said that as long as he'd been with Montreal, he'd never really had a solid right-handed guy to play with. I thought about it, trying to remember his line mates of old. Other than a brief fling with Stephane Richer around 1997-98, I realized it was true. Montreal, with its incredible history of right-handed snipers (Boom-Boom Geoffrion, Henri Richard and Guy Lafleur) has been without a big shot from the right side.
To get right down to it, they've been without a lot of shots, period! Which is why bringing Audette to Montreal has already made a difference. He shoots. A lot. And he scores too. If Doug Gilmour plays his dig and shovel game between these guys, he's got a sniper on either side who can finish the play. If it's Yanic Perreault at centre, it's a trio of smarts, finesse and power.
While we're on the "right" track, it should be noted that the last time Montreal brought in an aging right-handed ringer was 1992-93 when Brian Bellows came to town. He and another aging right-handed sniper by the name of Denis Savard both helped the Canadiens win the Cup that year. Just a tidbit to put away in that brimming brain…
Depth
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Over the past few injury-riddled years, we have seen a lot of Montreal's farm hands. The kids have carried the club quite honorably, but that kind of bench depth will only fill the holes so far.
Since André Savard has taken over the general manager duties, he has made a few little trades that at first glance seem insignificant. Zholtok for Kilger? Ho hum. Linden for Bulis and Zednik? Sure, why not? Even the off-season signings of Juneau, Dackell and Perreault had a sort of "whatever" feeling about them. But mix these new guys in with a Petrov, a Savage and a Robidas, and all of a sudden you have 4 strong lines. Well, that's what we're seeing in the first quarter anyway.
All 4 lines can score. All 4 lines back check and cover the defensive zone. When Coach Michel Therrien wants to dress 7 defencemen, any one of the guys on the top two lines can play an extra shift on the 4th line. On top of that, Juneau and Dackell have been strong on the penalty kill, while the once expendable Zednik has become an offensive threat.
So…?
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Maybe they aren't so surprising. Maybe it is all in the names and numbers after all and my analysis is redundant. Then again, I think it's good for hockey fans across the map to know and appreciate this year's Montreal Canadiens, since they've fallen out of the headlines for far too long. Whether or not they keep up this pace, Canada's most decorated hockey team is definitely exciting to watch again.