Meet (I Hope) Your 2012 First Round Pick: Mikhail Grigorenko

Lose lose lose, lose lose lose
All the Habs do is lose lose lose.

Even at home against the hapless Leafs who had to resort to a coaching change to try to salvage their playoff hopes, the Habs couldn't come up with a win.

No matter, I was rooting for the Leafs on that night.

If you read this blog, I don't have to tell you why.

The Habs are solidly the 3rd worst team in the NHL right now, ahead (behind) of Edmonton and Columbus. Now the Habs would probably have to lose the rest of their games to finish lower than the Blue Jackets, but they might have a chance at finishing 2nd worst if the Oilers can put a string of wins together.

The consensus around the hockey world is that Nail Yakupov, the Sarnia Sting winger of the Ontario Hockey League, is the "head and shoulders above the rest" Number 1 choice to go first overall in this year's NHL draft.

Yakupov is a talented, highly skilled Ovechkin-type player who stands at only 5"11 but has a knack for putting the puck in the net.

Mikhail Grigorenko. At 6"3 he's exactly what the Habs need up the middle. He's already playing in Quebec City for Patrick Roy's Remparts. If the team picks him at this year's draft, could that pave the way for Roy as head coach? Compelling stuff for sure...

By many other accounts, Mikhail Grigorenko -- another Russian -- will go second. So why am I so confident the Canadiens will nab him? Because the commonly-known word on the street is that the Oilers, who after picking talented forwards in Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in previous drafts, now need to go after a top defense prospect. And according to TSN's Bob McKenzie, there's plenty of options in that regard.

Grigorenko is being compared to Evgeni Malkin: an extremely talented centre with great hands. And at 6"3, just what the Habs have been lacking up front for years. The fact that he's playing for Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts makes him that much more appealing. Ovechkin is faltering, Malkin is leading the league in points and is a strong candidate for the Art Ross trophy this year. And all this without Sidney Crosby. Who would you choose?

You know the P.A. announcer Michel Lecroix would have a field day calling out his name after a Canadiens goal.

But McKenzie puts some interesting twists into the mix. What if Columbus decides to go with Grigorenko instead, because they end up keeping Rick Nash and could finally give the star winger a centreman who can get him the puck? What if Edmonton goes against logic and picks him after Yakupov? What if Montreal Canadiens head of scouting Trevor Timmins doesn't get his head out of his arse? All important considerations...

Even with Timmins, the Habs would be hard pressed NOT to get a top player this summer who can hopefully make an immediate impact with the team in the coming season. Whoever it ends up being.

But those I've talked to like the idea of a Malkin-esque type player on the Canadiens and I too have to agree. Maybe the Habs don't risk it, and trade up a spot to assure their choice!? Could be a possibility... of the course the lottery might change things.

For now, let the Canadiens continue to lose lose lose and it'll work itself out in the end.

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Olympic Stadium. Concrete. Yes you know, slabs of concrete, falling...AGAIN!!

This is how we can get the money to build a new stadium to get our beloved Expos back: hold a lottery at $20 a ticket, and the winner gets the unique opportunity to push the detonation plunger to implode the Big O. What a sight that would be eh?

Hey if you build a statue of Gary Carter at at the Big O, please make sure there's no concrete within falling distance.  Thanks.

Caps, Flaps & Rickety

CAPS AT BELL CENTRE FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT TILT: Ovechkin et al in Montreal tonight. Should be interesting since the Capitals got blanked 3-0 last night by the lowly Isles and the Habs are desperate to get on some sort of roll. The game marks the return of the much-maligned Dale Hunter, now Washington's head coach, a guy who is, let's say... somewhat disliked in Montreal. With the recent comparisons of Boston's Brad Marchand to Ken "the rat" Linseman and Brian Burke's "rats" rant of the other week, who was a better representation of the NHL's league of rats than Dale Hunter!? I hated him as a kid when he played for the Nordiques. But he was an effective player, no doubt about that.

And the other main storyline for tonight's game centres around Rene Bourque, who faces the Caps for the first time since his elbow to Nicklas Backstrom's head. Looking forward to seeing what comes of that.

FLAPS: Did you see what happened to poor Taylor Hall last night??? Helmet-less, he falls in the warmup, takes out two of his teammates, crashes his head into the boards, and gets cut in the face by his teammate's skate. Now that could've been real bad. Thankfully he's alright and just needed stitches, but as GM Steve Tambellini said after the game, moving forward "Taylor will probably wear a helmet walking around Edmonton's streets, just in case".

RICKETY: In my ongoing mission to improve this blog and provide you with interesting, pertinent hockey reads, I'm preparing a bunch of story outlines, with one focused on current, injury-prone players. Through my research, I found a great Sports Illustrated photo essay on Rick "Rickety" DiPietro who literally cannot deal with the weight and expectations of his crazy, 15 year contract. He's out for the season, again. Let's hope that Taylor Hall doesn't end up making the list.

HABS Lose Like Leafs!!

Boy, is it ever true what goes around, comes around.

If you believe in karma, then I definitely was asking for what happened last night.

After I tore the Leafs a second one because of their terrible loss the night before, the Habs went out and did the EXACT SAME THING losing 4-3 in OT to the Oilers.

With the game well in hand 3-1 with under 10 minutes to play in the game, the young Oilers seemed to gain a step on the Montreal defense as the period wore on and took advantage of some sloppy plays and poor decisions by the Habs, eventually tying it up, short-handed, on a 2-1 after P.K. Subban made a bad play at the Oilers blue line.

Habs fans wanted a penalty on a supposed trip on Cammellari, but actually I didn't think it was a penalty. It was just a bad play by Subban. There was no need to pinch on a power play with the Canadiens leading in the game. He'll figure it out.

Then in OT, Cammellari pulled a Luke Schenn by giving the puck away on a rush (this time in the neutral zone) leading to a Dustin Penner breakaway, where the lanky forward slipped a puck through Carey Price's legs for the game winner.

Price deserved better, he was solid and made some very good saves. But even he couldn't bail the Habs out this time. At the other end, Dubnyk was also quite solid and kept the Oilers in the game as the Habs carried most of the play for 2 periods.

At least the Habs still got a point out of it.

This is maybe the only good time to be playing back-to-back, as the Habs can immediately bounce back with a strong outing tonight in ulp, New Jersey against ulp ulp, Martin Brodeur.

Let's hope they show some character. I would have been fine with 2 out of 4 points for these two games -- with a good game tonight they can still get 3 of 4 and put yesterday's meltdown behind them.

Kudos to the Oilers though. They didn't fold, kept coming hard, and their young talent (esp. Taylor Hall) all had good efforts.

A FEW OTHER NOTES

1. P.K. Subban is sitting tonight!! Healthy scratch for the 1st time in his young career. Yannick Weber takes his place. Do us proud Yanny!
2. Carey Price was named 2nd star for November in the NHL, just behind Sidney Crosby. I'll take seeing Price's name after Crosby's any day -- except in Conn Smythe voting :)
3. Tony Molinaro of 990 radio in Montreal is reporting that Andrei Markov will be having surgery on his knee next week and may be out... 1 year!!!! ugh
4. Max Pacioretty was named AHL MVP for November. Way to go Max.