Even Leafs Fans Are Laughing at Montreal

In regards to Montreal, the hockey season is now over. The city doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. The Expos are gone so there’s no real reason to complain about the Olympic Stadium at the moment. The Formula 1 Grand Prix is not happening this year so people are not fastening down the hatches to prepare for the rich Europeans that would have besieged the city for the event. The Impact are still not on most people’s radars and the Alouettes don’t start to choke play for another couple of months. This leaves us to the city’s second pastime; complaining about the failure of the Montreal Canadiens.

The two reasons why the team fell apart should be obvious to everyone; the players and the management. The players are the easiest targets to pick on because they are the people we see perform for 7 months of the year. It’s easy to look at a player like Carey Price and say that he’s playing bad because not only do we see that he is playing like a fish out of water in his crease but we also have the statistical information that says he can’t stop a puck unless there is some sort of weird sorcery involved. Cold players are a problem but when they don’t care that they’re playing like garbage, well, that’s a bigger issue. Montreal has a team that it seems when the league went on break for the All-Star Game weekend, the Habs forgot that they had to play the second half of the season. Many of them went out partying several nights of the week until the end of the season without a care for their day job (actually, I guess it’s their night job since rarely play afternoon games).

So when the entire team is doing badly, what do you do? You fire the coach, of course. The theory behind the move is that when an entire team is playing poorly, it’s because the coach isn’t motivating them properly. After Guy Carbonneau was fired and the GM Bob Gainey took over the team, the Habs won a couple of games. However, after a few victories, the team started to lose a bunch more games. One of Carbonneau’s last decisions was to remove Carey Price as the starting goaltender and replace him with backup Jaroslav Halak who was playing much better. Gainey reversed this decision because he felt that since Price was the future of the team, he needs the experience now.

The Habs narrowly make the playoffs because of a statistical tiebreaker. They Habs are slated to face a tough Boston Bruins team. The Habs are squished during the first two games in Boston and Price is chased from the nets in Game 2. Gainey again stands in front of the media and proclaims that Price will still start for the Habs in Game 3 because he is the starting goalie and blah blah blah. The Habs lose Game 3 and then during Game 4, after playing poorly again and the crowd jeering him, Price decides to celebrate a minor save off a dump in by throwing his arms in the air. This did him no favours with the crowd as many still remember when Patrick Roy pulled the same stunt during his final game as a Hab.

I will give credit to Price though because during a press conference sometime after the game, he admitted that he knew he wasn’t playing well and that he knows when he’s in trouble with the boss. Since his bosses are the fans, he knows that he’s got a lot of work ahead of him. Gainey again defended Price; going so far as to call many in the media (and unruly fans) bullies for criticizing Price for every little thing.

First off, the media’s job is to criticize. If Price (or the rest of the team) is playing awful, their job is to say that he’s playing awful and indicate why that may be. It is also a fan’s right to cheer or boo whoever they want. They paid to be there and if the players on the ice are not performing to a certain standard, they have every right to call for blood (considering the price of Canadiens tickets, I would demand a refund, actually). Even those who don’t go to the games but watch on TV or listen on the radio have the right to complain too. If they don’t watch or listen to the games, the team would not receive any TV or radio revenue (just look at the whole TV situation in the States for the NHL as my proof). The team (and players) make millions upon millions of dollars solely because of the fans and if a customer doesn’t like the service and products that they are getting, they should every right to complain.

Secondly, I would think that the Montreal media has been quite restrained about Price’s problems. Considering the amount of evidence that is available if you do a little bit of digging on the Internet, the media was protecting Price more than hurting him. Even though he’s playing like a seal with vertigo, many kids still admire him because he’s one of the faces of the team. These kids know nothing about his extracurricular activities where he spends much of his leisure time unwinding at several of the biggest clubs in the city. From the stories that I’ve heard and the photos that I’ve seen, it’s almost as if he thinks that clubbing and drinking is a cure for playing bad hockey. While many media outlets have alluded to Price’s many adventures, there has been very few details about them. In fact, his escapades are nowhere as detailed or reported on by the media compared to the Kostitsyn brothers affair. Price got off really easy and can’t really say he was bullied. Nobody stole his lunch money and stuffed him in a locker. He was partying when he should have been resting and the press rarely calls him on it. They have his bad performances to use as fodder instead.

For me, it’s easy to talk about Carey Price because most of his issues and activities are out in the open. It’s almost not fair for me to pick on him and not other players of the team because it’s not like he’s the only player who’s being a goof on and off the ice. Other players, who will remain nameless because there isn’t enough leaked information about their idiotic off-ice conduct, are just as guilty as Price for not being committed to the betterment of the team. They do some skating, shoot some pucks and collect a paycheque. It’s an epidemic for the Habs that started during the 90s but really became clear with the whole Samsonov debacle in which one of the better players in the league came to the team and flat out decided that he was no longer going to put any effort in.

This was one of the reasons why Carbonneau was let go. Samsonov and Alex Kovalev decided they didn’t want to listen to the coach anymore. Kovalev is one of the most talented players in the league and much like the NBA’s Allen Iverson, he can basically play very well on the playing surface without giving a damn. It’s kind of both scary and sad to watch a player play and do well when he’s mind is not about the game. It makes you wonder how great they can play when they really are motivated. Samsonov was essentially kicked off the team because he was a poison to the team and played badly. Kovalev is the worse offender though because he doesn’t care and still plays well. The team needs his performance but his attitude doesn’t help. When you have a star player who can still play at a better than average level but treat the sport and team with an air of disrespect, it sends the wrong message to younger and more impressionable players. When he does show grit and determination, he is an inspiration to the team but since coming to Montreal, these moments come as frequently as Hailey’s Comet.

Getting back to Carbonneau, I don’t think it was entirely his fault. The team as a whole is the problem. Too many players don’t care about their performance. Those who do might get easily discouraged at the fact that playing well doesn’t add up to much (just ask Cristobal Huet or Jaroslav Halak if they think they are better goalies than Carey Price). Those who play badly will most likely forget about their poor play three seconds after they leave the arena to cruise some of the downtown hotspots. My dad told me stories about how years ago he would sometimes find players in some of the bars he’d frequent after a hard loss and he’d see the players sulking in their drinks. None of them had smiles on their faces. Much different from today’s generation of players since it is only a job to them and after even after a loss they go out to have a good time and act as if they won a Stanley Cup.

Now before people criticize me for cramping down on people’s fun, I will say that understand that what happens outside of the rink should stay outside of the rink (as long as it’s not illegal). The issue I’m trying to bring up is that too much partying is not a good thing for today’s hockey player that needs to be in tip top shape. All play and no work makes Price a crappy goaltender. Some professional sports teams have imposed curfews on their players because they know how bad certain temptations can be. A part of me can’t blame Price because being a star hockey player for the Habs in this city makes you a deity and everyone wants to party with you. The way I see it though is that at my job, I can easily be replaced because it requires relatively little training and skill. That’s why I’m only being paid in the tens of thousands of dollars and Carey Price is being paid in the millions. He’s paid so well because it’s not like the Canadiens can hire anyone off the street to tend nets for the club. His job requires him to be in the best shape possible physically and mentally and I just don’t believe that can be possible if he’s out partying on a regular basis.

The Montreal Canadiens are a team of hockey players that, for the most part, do not care about the hockey team or the city’s love for the team. They may say they do, and some of them might actually want to believe they do, but such erratic behaviour on and off the ice is proof that they don’t care. I know that some people are already saying that the ten players up for free agency in July should not be resigned and we need new blood on the team but I have a more drastic solution. We should hold a dispersal draft and give away all our players to the rest of the league/minors/Tim Horton’s and rebuild the team with an expansion-type draft. Then maybe we move the team out of the Bell Centre to something more suited to hockey like the Colisee in Quebec City and we change the team name from Canadiens to the Nordiques to symbolize that we love to play hockey in the North where it’s cold. It’s either that or we stick Youppi! in nets next season.

My money is on Youppi! to win the Vezina and Jennings trophies next year.

Montreal News

Luckily this happened before the start of the Jazz Festival in June but a fire on Wednesday caused the evacuation of the Complexe Desjardins next to Place-des-Arts and has kept a couple of stores closed due to water and fire damage. It’s kind of hard to read the story and feel sympathetic towards the owner of the furrier who lost around 75 furs in the incident and damaged leather. I’m not anti-fur but the article to me feels like the furrier doesn’t really appreciate how lucky he is not to lose his entire business to the fire. This is what insurance is for and considering the business is located next to a restaurant, you would think that it would be considered a necessity although the article declines to write whether or not the owner actually has insurance. Or maybe I’m just being too difficult today.

Canada News

There has already been a bit of controversy about the lack of bilingualism in the lead up to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. The heat is on now as a Senator is complaining that there will be no French signage at the speed skating rink during the games. I thought the line about Cantonese was pretty funny but in all seriousness, I don’t get why this is an issue. Sure the bilingual country argument is everyone’s favourite trump card (as well as it should) but the better argument is that French is one of the two official languages of the Olympics (the other being English). In fact, if during the Games, and announcement is made in both languages but they they differ from one another, the French one will be considered the official one. The only time a third language is used at the Games is when they are held in another country where the primary language is not English or French.

International News

In the Netherlands, a man who decided to use his car to attack the Dutch royal family during a parade died from his injuries. His motives other than to attack the royal family are not apparent at this time. Five people died and 12 people are still in hospital with injuries. I find this notable simply because usually parades are supposed to have a festive atmosphere (or at least the ones we’re used to in the Western Hemisphere) and the Netherlands is seen from an North American perspective as a peaceful country. It’s as bizarre as it is sad.

Sports News

Apparently and allegedly, the NHL might be taking over the operations of the Phoenix Coyotes as they continue to haemorrhage money (or perhaps already has according to the Canadian Press). I took the Toronto Star article because it mentions that Toronto would love a second NHL franchise. You paying attention, Winnipeg?