SUPERBOWL WEEKEND JUST SUPER FOR HABS

Canadiens Collect Four Points in Back-To-Back This Weekend

Coach Michel Therrien went on the record saying he wanted his team to send a message after losing 5-1 this past week in Ottawa.

Well I think the team received the memo.

Two strong team wins against divisional rivals the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators put your Montreal Canadiens in fourth spot in the Eastern Conference. And if you want to get technical about it, the Habs with 12 points are tied with the Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning -- and the Pens have played one more game but get the nod because they lead their division.

Who could have imagined this?

Well, GM Marc Bergevin and Coach Therrien, that's who.

But even they couldn't have anticipated their team going 6-2 to start the season. Hey, it's only eight games, but there's no doubt it's been night and day from last year and with a healthy team, excellent goaltending and scoring through the lineup, you're going to see results.

And there's the continuing, inspirational story of Max Pacioretty, who returned to action a week after undergoing an emergency appendectomy. He was scheduled to return in three to four weeks.

Last year's Canadiens gave up leads, lost games in OT and shootouts and found ways to beat themselves -- kind of like the Calgary Flames are doing this year.

This year's squad is playing a solid team game, standing up for each other and scoring goals. On Saturday the Canadiens came out flying and took it to the Sabres who looked flat and uninspired safe for Tomas Vanek -- who is making an early play for the Hart and Maurice Richard trophies.

But if we've learned anything from last year's Canadiens, one scorer or even one scoring line does not a team make.

And so after promising his mates pre-game he'd be better, Ryan Miller did his best to keep his team in the game by only surrendering one goal to Rene Bourque right at the end of the first period. Bourque nearly scored a few minutes back on almost the exact same play -- driving the net and deflecting the pass into the side of the net. Nice play. For a second he looked like Yvon Lambert, without the chest hair jutting out from his jersey.

Did you ever see Mike Cammellari drive the net like that? I tweeted this question to the official Calgary Flames twitter account last night. I didn't get a response.

Coach Therrien continues to keep his finger on the right button in getting the most out of Rene Bourque and he's been one of our most consistent players of this young season, scoring two goals in the Canadiens' 6-1 drubbing of the Sabres. David Desharnais and Lars Eller had big games too, D2 scoring twice and Eller scoring one along with two assists. The two Gallys also came to the party with Brendan Gallagher scoring the game winner and Alex Galchenyuk getting two assists.

But the Canadiens were in for a different test on Sunday afternoon with the well-rested Ottawa Senators in town and they grabbed the early lead on a nice top shelf shot by Jacob Silfverberg when he was sent in alone with a nifty pass by Patrick Wiercioch. Price had no chance.

The Habs special teams came to the rescue with David Desharnais and Erik Cole closing the scoring out in the first period to take the lead 2-1, though Cole's goal came just at the end of a power play. Desharnais' goal came off of a nice feed from Pacioretty who seems to be able to play no matter what is thrown at him. Just please Max, don't contract Hep C or anything!!

Then it was Carey Price the rest of way, turning back 32 of 33 shots and taking his record to 6-1. Carey Price, Vezina trophy winner sounds good. Though Carey Price, Conn Smythe trophy winner sounds even better! But I digress...

The Senators appeared to have tied the game early in the third but the goal was called off due to goaltender interference. It was pretty borderline in my opinion and according to Sean Gordon of the Globe and Mail Ottawa GM Bryan Murray was livid with the referee's call on that play. Well you win some, you lose some. Nice to see the Habs win some.

So the Canadiens are winning games all sorts of ways this year and don't seem to be counting on trends like having to score first or whatnot. The only trend that counts is winning, any and all ways.

Habs Nation is a very happy place right now and this sets up beautifully the BIGGEST GAME OF THE YOUNG SEASON so far against the hated Boston Bruins on Wednesday. Should be a good one.

Follow-moi on le twitter: @HabsFanLeafLand

Enjoy It!!

Montreal, Quebec. Was that your 2012 Canadiens or the 1977 flying Frenchmen??
A resounding 7-2 victory over the NHL-tops Detroit Red Wings does the Habs body good.

This really was a classic Original Six matchup. The Habs clobbered the Wings just like dem old times!

Bourque opened the scoring with a good ol' dirty goal, driving the net hard while the rejuvenated but still goal-less Scotty Gomez showed some speed and fed the puck into the crease before bouncing off of Bourque's leg.

Alexei Emelin congratulated by his teammates after scoring his first NHL goal against the Detroit Red Wings. Habs won the game 7-2.

And just in case you weren't paying attention, because you know I am:

Rene Bourque:
5 GP; 2 G; 1 A; +1; 5 PIM (for fighting)

Michael Cammalleri
5 GP; 1 G; 0 A; -4; 4 PIM

So who got the player in that recent deal, Mr. PuckDaddy???

Desharnais scored two nice goals while Cole and Pacioretty each had one for the line that just keeps on clicking. Tommy Plekanec got one, and Alexei Emelin scored his first in the NHL. Well deserved Alexei. Both Lars Eller and Andrei Kostitsyn also had strong outings.


Desharnais and Pacioretty have serious chemistry together -- something they've put on display since playing together in Hamilton.

Habs now enter the All-Star break on a high and feeling a bit better about themselves, 8 points out of the last playoff spot in the East. At least we can have something to talk about other than P.K. Subban. 3-0-2 in their last five games is good with the clock ticking this team needs all the points it can get.

Two wins in a row is nice. Ten would be better.

Your Habs need to get on a roll. A serious roll, if they want to make the playoffs. It's still not impossible. Nobody is giving up... yet.

Et tu, Markov?

PS: Love Mike Babcock and love his loyalty and allegiance to McGill University -- my alma mater too. Always sports the McGill club tie when he coaches against the Habs. Now wouldn't he look good wearing that behind the Habs bench someday!? What would it take to get the man to coach the Canadiens????

Deal Done

Well that didn't take long, did it?

Leave it to the Montreal Canadiens to make last night's 2-1 loss to the Bruins an afterthought to what was going on off the ice last night.

Mike Cammalleri back in the days when he showed some emotion. Let's see if he's able to reignite that flame again in Calgary reloaded. Pic: Calgary Herald.

Of course if you believe Mr. Gauthier, it was in the works for over a month. Which I certainly hope is true because if he is a GM of any worth, he should have been shopping Mr. Cammalleri around the league for some time now.

The only thing about last night's trade of Michael Cammalleri to Calgary for Rene Bourque that strikes me as odd is its timing. Why the team didn't sit him if this trade was in the works is a mystery to me!? I can understand removing him from the game once the trade was made to avoid injury, but it still is a bit shocking and somewhat unprofessional.

Then again, so were Cammy's previous comments about the team -- in my view at least. Other pundits, like Yahoo's PuckDaddy, seem to think otherwise:

Cammalleri's frustration is expected. This isn't some ham-and-egger whining about a demotion from the third or the fourth line. This is a guy who has stepped up offensively when others have disappeared in the postseason, a player who worked his ass off to overcome physical limitations to succeed in the NHL.

If he wants out, fine; he wouldn't be the first to trade in his Habs sweater. But if he's being crucified for candor, it's an injustice.

Today, PuckDaddy even had the audacity to call the trade mid-game a calamity on the same scale as Patrick Roy's shipping to Colorado back in the '90's. Now that really is funny.

What Mr. PuckDaddy doesn't seem to realize is that Rene Bourque has more goals in the last 2 seasons than the supposedly "clutch" Cammalleri and frees up another 3 million bucks in cap space for the Habs to sign their more important -- and more professional -- players like Carey Price. Okay Pricey still has a lot of growing up to do but at least he takes responsibility for his play. Cammalleri returns to Iginla and hopes to reignite that flame. Good luck and enjoy the rodeo Mike.

Rene Bourque gives the Habs puck battling ability along the boards and the ability to score some dirty goals. Pic: Getty Images.

The Habs get a big, gritty forward who will win puck battles along the boards and give us additional net presence. He'll also take some pressure off of Max Pacioretty to perform in that way.

Sure it's not a blockbuster deal, but I'll come out and say it: I like this deal. We gave up Karri Ramo who was never going to play nets for the Habs anyway and a fifth rounder in return for the prospect Patrick Holland and Calgary's 2013 2nd round pick. And if Calgary tanks next year, that pick could be mighty high.

So we lose out by giving up a clutch playoff performer??? Well Jay Feaster's Flames will need to make the playoffs first to find out.

And you can bet that's not going to happen.

Cammalackey!!?? Buh bye.

Professional athletes make a lot of money. Crazy money. They also get privileges most of us never get to experience: meeting the great people; tables at restaurants; women; fame; women; did I say women? -- and other assorted perks.
You know. The good life. Ahh... it's good to be the King.

Pro hockey players get to play a game which I suppose they love. Why else put your body's through that punishment!? Oh yeah, the money, right.

Hockey is a game that I pay to play. And watch. Because I love it.

Pro hockey players also for all intent and purpose get paid handsomely to stay in peak form -- another perk. Getting paid to be healthy. Hmm... must be nice. I'd love to find a gig like that.

In the NHL you have all sorts. There's the Alex Ovechkin types who want to win, put their foots in their mouths and ultimately take the money and run. Then there's the Sidney Crosby types who, although a bit bland and sterile even, say a lot of the right things when all is well.

When a team is winning, it's easy to say what needs to be said. It's easy to act like you're a class act.

Michael Cammallari has been a huge disappointment in a season where he should be leading the team in goals. Pic: Getty Images.

But when the Pens were busy getting beat by the upstart Habs in the 2010 playoffs, methinks me remembers how one Mr. Crosby came off a bit like a sore loser at how the Canadiens were able to beat his team.

You know where I'm going with this, right?

So far, the 2011-2012 season has been a total disappointment for the Montreal Canadiens and its fans. You all know about my prediction back in the summer -- no need to restate. So far we've seen an assistant and head coach fired, an experienced dman traded, a string of injuries including a 3rd knee injury to our best dman, and a possible future captain signed to a 6 year contract. We've also seen the underwhelming performances of many of the team's scorers along with a few pleasant surprises. And of course a language debate that needs no introduction.

But you also all know that I've been calling out Mr. Michael Cammalleri since November for his lack of production. And because he makes 6 million a year, and the fact that the Canadiens need money to lock up my man between the pipes Carey Price, I think numero 13 should be traded.

Now let's look at the facts. This is M.C.'s 3rd (and not his last) team in his career. His highest goals production was 39 with Calgary. Why didn't Calgary re-sign him if he had all this supposed chemistry with Jarome Iginla??

He's shown he can be a playoff performer, especially on that fun run the Habs had in 2010. And he's also shown to be someone who says all the right things, especially about the team as a whole. Of course, if we don't make the playoffs and he can't perform during the regular season, what's it good for?

But that was then. This is now.

A true measure of a professional is not how he/she performs when all is well. It's how they perform and act when things aren't going well. Tiger Woods may or may not have learned this lesson. Keeping with golf, the great Jack Nicklaus is and always will be a class act in my mind, always one who applauded those who beat him, and one who always came out with his best when the chips were down. And when everyone wrote him off, he won the '86 Masters at age 46.

Michael Cammallari has been off right from the get-go this season. Don't ask me why. The problem is, he's bringing others down with him. I already wrote in a previous post that he implied (read between the lines, right? I did!) he didn't like playing with Plekanec anymore. And guess what? Plekanec also doesn't look happy. And he's not playing up to snuff either. But I'm not going to knock Plekanec, still our best 2-way forward.

Sure, the Bell Centre crowd can be fickle. They'll back you a la Kovalev and show you love like no other. But they'll also nail you to the cross if you don't deliver. Scott Gomez knows this. Now so does Cammy. The boos, they were deserved this time.

9 goals is just not enough for a guy who's paid to be a sniper and only a sniper; and when he fails to compete, he's even more of a liability.

Andrei Kostitsyn may not be having his best offensive season, but you can't knock the guy's compete level this year. Plus he's doing a lot of other things on the ice. Sign him now! Then maybe trade him. But sign him!!!

Michael Cammalleri is a one-dimensional player. He's paid to score. Point finale. And scoring, he ain't!!!

So after everything else that's gone down this season, do we really need to hear how the team is preparing to lose and has a "losing mentality"??? Is that so?

Well maybe if you put the puck in the net like you're getting paid to do, the team wouldn't be losing!?

Maybe you can take some responsibility for your game, like Plekanec, Price or Subban have, suck it up and work hard at getting better!? Remember Erik Cole earlier this year!? Slow start, only 10 minutes of playing time, no powerplay!? The guy didn't say a word. Instead, he sucked it up, put his nose to the grindstone and worked, worked, worked and now, he's proven to be our most valuable player this year.

So rather than blaming your team or your coach, how about looking in the mirror and taking some stock? Because it's been known for awhile you aren't the greatest guy in the room and now, way to go at making it worse for the team and organization as a whole.

You're upset about having your ice time reduced?? A move that former coach Martin should've done a long, long time ago? Start performing, see your time go up. Your arrogant and selfish comment about how for the Blues' first goal of the other night's 3-0 loss, your lack of backcheck was due to having had only your 5th shift instead of your 15th as per the past is completely embarassing!!

I knew this guy was off and has been for awhile now. His voice sounds as if he's hurting. Doesn't sound confident. The game back in November against the Penguins, he was interviewed pregame by RDS's Chantal Machabee and he had the same cracking voice. Guess what? First shift, soft forecheck, Penguins rush and goal less than a minute in!!!

So are we to believe those first shifts don't count for you, M.C.???? Who needs primadonnas like this on the Canadiens!? And with Brendan Gallagher waiting in the wings no less.

Hopefully GM Gauthier will just man the phones and wait for the calls for Cammalleri's services instead of shopping him around because he's just lessened our bargaining position. Now the guy is saying he's being misquoted. Well I understood him full well.

Don't want to get misquoted!? Zip it and let your playing do the talking.