Montreal Canadiens Hit Rock Bottom: Report Card With Cam

Report Card with Cam: Ponder before Panic

Last season, I wrote a couple of opinion articles, all with some good success and great feedback. I would like to take a moment to thank all those who read my previous articles and took the time to comment, it is much appreciated.

I would also like to wish all Hab’s enthusiast B/R writers a great season and to keep up the great work. This year I will be doing a weekly assessment on the situation from my perspective, grading the Habs overall performance for that respective week.

October 11-18

Grades- Effort: B+, Performance: D+, Powerplay: D-, Powerkill: D-, 5-5: C, Goaltending:C-, Offence Overall: D, Defence Overall: C+

Overall Team Grade: D

Now on to the heavy stuff. … All kidding aside your 2009-2010 Montreal Canadiens, to put it abruptly, well suck.

Yes its harsh, but its still very early in the season, five loses in a row would give heart burn to even the most tenacious of fans. Simply put, Montreal Canadiens fans are like over protective parents who encumber their children with so much love that their child begins to resent them and fails to live up to his or her true potential

This team has played seven games together. Count them 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. When the NHL’s most disfigured team went under Bob Gainey’s knife, there were mixed feelings. However many optimists arose, a new era had begun, and the winds of change blew vigorously down Av. Canadiens-de-Montreal.

To understand how to win together; how to fight for goals; how to play as a unit; this team needs to lose together. From failure comes victory.

By no means will they emerge in the next week as a cup contender, but you can bet your lunch money that this team will grow together over the course of this home stand, win or lose. There is a sense of stability that has been lacking in the Bell Centre for a while.

With coach Jacques Martin we will be OK, he is one hell of a coach. I like what I am hearing and seeing believe it or not, when it comes to coaching of course.

Lets also remember that our newly acquired players are here to stay, so they know they have to live with one another, and by the looks of it they are extremely content to do so.

Now don’t let the fact I am an optimist fool you, I know there is much to be done here. I know that there are many glaring problems with the 2009-2010 Montreal Canadiens.

Lets start from the net out. Carey, Carey, Carey. Should I repeat that? That name is single handily the most important name within the franchise, his name will be synonymous with the success and failure of les Glorieux.

Carey came out of the box firing on all cylinders. He stole the first two games. What happened after that? Some say that Jacques Martin should have never benched him; he was the hot hand, and by doing so effectively removed any and all his mojo.

That being said, is a completely and utterly naïve and crazy belief. Lets face it, Carey has stunk up the joint since the Canadiens last victory a distant and dismal two weeks ago. Just look at his goals against and his save percentage they speak for themselves it is quite frankly Bush League.

That is not the Carey Price I have come to love and believe in. The team is slowly building its confidence; Carey needs to make those big saves, which he has failed to do. In doing so he would light a fire under the rear ends of those around him.

Goaltending is without a doubt, the most important position in hockey. Carey’s biggest problem seems to be his glove hand. He has tremendous form and size, his movements are fluent, quick, and out right sensational. Against the surprising Colorado Avalanche, his five hole looked open for business, in retrospect however two unlucky deflections can not be blamed on Price.

Diagnostic: Weak glove hand, which leads to the inability of making clutch saves.

Treatment: At this point Pierre Groulx, the Montreal Canadiens goalie coach should work purely on Carey’s glove hand, with repetition comes a keener sense of reflex.

Now onto the Canadiens Defense. Two words; can you guess’em? Andrei Markov. On the home opener, he was raucously applauded. I think it was the first time I saw Montreal’s stoic General smile. Him smiling brought a tear to my eye.

The man wants to play; the man wants to win. The man is Montreal’s most important asset outside of Carey Price. I believe that we have a very good defensive corps.

Josh Gorges has stepped up since last year, with the eventual return of O’Byrne and Markov will return stability to a shaken up team.

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