Bleacher Report - Articles by Camille Hamel

Montreal Canadiens Hit Rock Bottom: Report Card With Cam

Camille Hamel — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:05:27 -0400

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.

I like what I’m seeing from Hamrlik and Mara. Hammer has played extremely well on both ends of the rink, making big plays at the right time. Mara plays with emotion, something this team lacked so much of this year. I think he would look great with an A on his jersey he is well spoken, lovable guy, who has a ton of experience in this league.

I also want to note I love what I see out of the young Shawn Belle. The kid played for team Canada in ’04 paired with likes of Seabrook and a certain Dion Phaneuf. He was a first round draft pick.

An excellent skater he gets around the back end with speed and ease. He is a defensive D-Man he can throw around his big body and dish out punishing hits. He has made simple and smart decisions and that is extremely key for a rookie.

I would think twice before rushing him back down in favor of Marc Andre Bergeron. Let MAB get into pro form, so when the time comes he is ready both physically and mentally. We have had misfortune on the defensive side of the puck, but this is a perfect time for the Shawn Belle’s of this franchise to show their immediate value or lack there off.

Diagnostic: Injury plagued

Treatment: Prayer? Nothing can be done to bring back Markov except for good rehab, and that is entirely out of our hands.

There is also the issue that he may be back in time for the Olympics. Some believe that would be the end of the world. Markov is his own man if he feels ready to play in the Olympics its because he can.

I hope he can, this will allow him to get the rust off in game time situations which would have been impossible otherwise with a one way contract. Four months is a long time, we should not only be ok with him playing for his Motherland we should cross our fingers and hope he does. In doing so management can assess the situation on someone else’s terms.

Lets move onto our much talked about front line. I won’t go into as much detail here as I do believe we have some talented hockey players. Once, and trust me it will, the “smurf” line clicks it will be majestic.

They lack finish for now, but they are proven playmakers. Lets not throw them under the bandwagon quite yet. Mike Cammalleri got his first goal and it should be interesting to see if the Camy show begins.

The only thing that has been really blatant for me has been Chipchurra playing his way back to Hamilton. Love the kid, but its time to realize he may never be NHL caliber and take advantage that he hasn’t seen many NHL games and the fact he is a former first round draft pick and try and use him as trade bait to some extent, packaged or not.

The fourth line with Glen Metropolit plays amazing grinder hockey. With Metro back in the alignment sooner rather than later, things can go back to normal.

The first line is bound to become productive, with the sudden rise in stock of Andrei Kostitsyn and Tomas Plekanec it will be harder for teams to just shadow and prepare for only one line. Andrei is finally using that brillant shot of his and his size to his advantage.

Plekanec has been paying inspired hockey this is great timing as a young but potential ridden kid by the name of Max Pacioretty is starting to understand his position more and doing the little things better.

Diagnostic: Too much pressure and expectations for such a new team.

Treatment: Let the kid’s play some hockey. Five loses now is better than five loses towards the playoff push. We will talk about it a couple months from now, but for now let Jacques Martin continue to do his job.

A win would be a great remedy also for now it would get the proverbial monkey off of their shoulders and they can think about playing hockey.

It is going to be a close year. That one save or that one goal will be the difference day in and day out. This team needs to have that killer instinct, and that develops when a team gels. They won’t have to worry about individual play and thus avoiding getting caught up in the other teams traps, but play together without overplaying, there is a fine line and it takes time and confidence, something that’s a work in progress.

Photo Courtesy of Habsinsideout.com

A Montreal Canadiens Fan's Reply to "Montreal Morons"

Camille Hamel — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:06:17 -0400

Before you begin to read this article, please read Scott Moganroth's article, if you already have feel free to continue. (it seems the author has removed his article it was form his blog sorry for the inconveince. However I i have posted his article below, feel free to skip, but i recommend reading it.)

"Montreal Morons"
BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

"When I heard that the Montreal Canadiens fans booed “The Star Spangled Banner” before Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre on April 20, I was sick to my stomach.
It made me want to edit the Canadian National Anthem from “Oh Canada” to “No Canada” because they disrespected a neighbor, who would protect them during an international conflict.

Montreal was a city that had another franchise back in the 1930’s named the Maroons. On April 20, the fans in the Bell Centre were named the Montreal Morons.
After the incident, Canadiens Coach & General Manager Bob Gainey showed class by telling his fans their behavior was uncalled for. For years, I’ve always had a ton of respect for the Canadiens and their fans as being an excellent hockey town. This original six city has the same passion as Green Bay Packers fans do where everything revolves around the team on and off the field of play. Being the only game in town with a large city is what these towns live for.

But I lost all of my respect for Montreal due to this classless incident due to the lack of common sense. I’m not buying the Us Vs Them excuse with the USA facing Canada because there are many match-ups in North America which feature these two countries. The Boston Bruins and Canadiens have indeed had many contested battles since they’re both original six teams however, to boo the other countries national anthem is crossing the line between politics and sports.
There is no question that the Canadiens success in their 100 year tradition is unmatched. They’ve won 24 Stanley Cups more than any other team and as a franchise this amounts to 26 percent.
On Dec 29, 2008, Montreal defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 to become the first team in NHL history to reach 3,000 victories.
But in recent years, the Canadiens have fallen onto hard times. Montreal’s last Stanley Cup occurred in 1992-93 when former Detroit Red Wings Coach Jacques Demers guided them to a title led by Hall of Fame Goaltender Patrick Roy.
Don’t expect anymore championships in the immediate future as a modern day player would rather play for a USA based team where the dollar has a much higher value.
Does anybody in the USA care or know anything about Hockey Night In Canada?
With the exception of the NHL Finals and a marquee match-up in the playoffs, you won’t see a Canadian based team on NBC. The Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche have been the primary teams featured on the game of the week.
While Canada’s hockey tradition speaks for itself, the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques moved south of the border to Phoenix, AZ and Denver because they couldn’t survive north of the border. Over the years, the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers have struggled financially. There are only six Canadian based teams with the Senators, Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference while the Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks compete in the Western Conference.

When sports fans around the continent look at Montreal, they view this market as a third world country because of the many failures of its teams. Major League Baseball’s Expos are now the Washington Nationals while Montreal has struggled to support two Canadian Football League teams. The Montreal Alouettes and Concordes have folded and revived over the years.

My advice to Canadiens fans is don’t embarrass yourself anymore because North American fans don’t view your city as a legitimate sports town.
Very few people in Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Tampa Bay, Southern Florida, North Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta know anything about Guy LaFleur, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard, Larry Robinson, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion, Ken Dryden and Jacques Plante.
But they do know that you booed “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s hard to believe that your championship drought has now reached 16 years.

I predict that the Detroit Lions will reach the Super Bowl before your team will hoist another Stanley Cup Trophy because teams in the NFL have been know to change their fortunes quickly if they make the right moves in the drafts, via trades and on the waiver market. The Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 to 11-5 in one calendar year.
The perception of Montreal by todays players is that your area is viewed as Hockey’s version of Siberia and they know the national television exposure and mega endorsement deals in Montreal are lacking.

Today’s players will take the same approach as the Montreal Expos did by using your organizations as stepping stones toward free agency and seeking greener pastures. Your 100 year tradition will carry less weight in contract negations.
Then again, USA fans won’t care about you and they’ll continue to say “No Canada.”
Scott Morganroth can be reached at ScottSports33@aol.com." (Scott Morganroth)

The Reply:

First and foremost, yes it seems wrong at a first glance. Now I have the opinion that sports and politics should not go hand in hand, and that us North Americans should take a page out of the European sports world, where anthems are not played before games. There is no room for them, as many players come from countries outside this beautiful continent, and beyond that its just plain rubbish. Where the fans in Montreal wrong, most definitely.

However, as a Habs fan, and having participated at the game myself, there was no booing, just a continued “go Habs go” chant, this during both anthems. The booing was last year, and even than it was directed purely at the Bruins, not the United States of America.

The Habs depend on many American born players, such as Higgins, Pacioretty, and Komisarek. Calling Montreal "a third world market city" was a complete classless and cowardly move. If you had any knowledge you would know Montreal is one of North America's finest jewels, a culinary leader, a cultural Mecca, and has a nightlife second to none in North America. If Detroit is Hockeytown, than MTL is Hockeycountry.

This is our sport and frankly we don't give two rats asses if you don’t care or pay attention to hockey, I am truly sorry if I just bursted your bubble, but wake up the world does not revolve around you.

Be that as it may, the NHL does not attract anywhere near the amount of spectators and media deals the NFL and MLB do. That being said the NFL and the MLB pale in comparison to other sports outside of this continent, and would have the commish’s drooling over the amount of people who watch Formula 1, Soccer, and Cricket.

Montreal fans don’t care about the NHL, they care about Les Canadiens, and regardless of how the NHL does, the fans fill up the largest Arena in North America to its capacity every single game. Those who don’t have a chance to watch the game at the arena pack the local bars. We live for this club day in and day out.

Hockey is part of our culture here, it helped bring our people together, and bring down a language barrier, that segregated against the French-speaking majority. For your information the Alouettes are doing fine, and if you really believe that the Lions will win a Superbowl before our Canadiens, then you really are just as bad as the Canadiens fans you so unknowingly condone.

Montreal suffered the loss of its top goal scorer in Robert Lang early on, than the list got larger by the day, until it claimed Andrei Markov, Montreal’s cog, and when he went down so sank the Canadiens post-season hopes. Then you claim to say that it’s easier for teams to turn it around in the NFL than in the NHL. You are talking about Montreal and Boston for crying out loud the eighth seeded Habs vs the first seeded Bruins, and a much, much stronger first seed.

Go back a year and you get the reciprocal, what a difference a year can make in the NFL; the Bruins and the Habs both play in the Bettman circus. Give the Candaiens a healthy roster, such as the Bruins, and a key FA pickup, which the Canadiens will have more than enough room for with the summer restructuring, and you have a cup contender in the next two years.

As for your Wings, yes they are good now, but they are digging their own grave with these lifelong contracts; 6-7 years down the road they will be where Montreal has been since '94. Montreal fans are some of the most loyal, most intelligent, and without question, most passionate fans around.

So choose your words wisely before you utter random gibberish that aims for an "US vs. them" mentality, I love the US and I love Canada there is no room for your childish antics, and there is no room for politics in genreal. Sports are sports; and it should be left at that. Do you think Boston fans acted any better than Montreal fans ?

One fine case was a guy around my age (20-21), who, when entering the pub proceeded to give the finger to a Habs fan majority. Needless to say he couldn’t handle the responsibility of having no adult supervision and was forced to leave and pass out outside of the pub due to in part his "fuck you Canada" chants and in other part for having heaved out his dinner all over the establishment.

You don’t see me writing an article on how classless Boston fans are, because its a generalization. I've been to the city of Boston, it’s a great city, and the citizens are even better. I am a passionate fan, but my passion stays at the arena, as it should. We are all people.

Mr. Mognaroth, you should be ashamed of yourself. Firstly, because of your dimwitted, boorish, ill-mannered, and ill-adivised reactions. You should also be ashamed of your predictable, anemic, and lame writing skills.

Montreal Canadiens: Hockey Stimulus Package

Camille Hamel — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:36:50 -0500

In these dwindling economic times, a savior, a face of hope emerges in Barack Obama.

In our hockey slump, is Bob Gainey the face of hope for Montreal?

A stoic and quiet gentleman—some say a "passive" GM, his method was praised and adored by the fanbase in general.

Why not, right?

A team last year that experts predicted to finish in the rutter (pun intended) of the East finishes first. A fire is now lit in the millions of Habs fans, Hab-aholics, and bandwagoners together, and hockey fever rapidly infects and contaminates the city of Montreal.

Now that reality has settled in, let's talk logistics here. Pierre Ladouceur writes in La Presse, "Pour le moment, le Canadien ne forme pas une équipe. C'est une bande d'individus qui porte le même chandail."

In English, this means the Canadiens do not form a team. They're a bunch of individuals wearing the same jersey. He could not be closer to the truth.

The Canadiens keep digging their hole deeper and deeper. If they lose their next game to a dismal Colorado Avalanche, I'm afraid they will have dug far enough to find their golf clubs and bury a centennial playoff berth.

Now, do desperate times call for desperate measures? The situation is extremely sensitive, and could snowball from bad to kill-me-now in less than a month if the right steps are not taken.

In Bob we trust? I have the utmost confidence in Bob Gainey. It's his colleague and peer in Carbonneau I am starting to question. Is he the right man for the job? Only time will tell.

This is his first real test as a coach. It is too early to abandon him and hang him out to dry. His methods are questionable, yes, but so is the team. He is doing the best he can with what he has. I hope that it works out because Carbonneau is a perfect fit in a close-knit Montreal system.

Now, just like a company with a substandard fiscal year in the midst of a depression, one must see what is mandatory to keep the company alive, and which assets are expendable. What will resuscitate the team from postmortem to the postseason?

Here is my take on it:

Gotta move: Kovalev, Plekanec, Komisarek, Kostitsyn x2, and Halak.

Gotta stay: Price, Koivu, Pacioretty, d'Agostini, Gorges, Hamerlik, Lang, Tanguay, Kostopoulous, and Latendresse.

Wait and see: Markov

My justifications for the gotta moves: Kovalev plays with no heart and no consistency. Plekanec can't produce or find chemistry with anyone on the team, and takes way too many bad penalties.

Komisarek wants to be either re-signed before the end of the season or traded, and since Bob has made it public he will not sign him before the end of the season, he has been playing with his head tucked in between his legs.

The Kostitsyn brothers could get us one big playmaker. They are too on/off, and are not producing what is requested from them. Halak, I really do like—but I think it's time to let him go. Carey, regardless of his play, right now is the future of this club, and the Habs will only win a Cup with Carey in net.

What Price needs is a veteran goalie who can help him with his technique and mental aspects of the game—mainly the latter.

This band of misfits needs a way to become a band of brothers. More to come soon.

Montreal Canadiens: Habsolutely Horrendous

Camille Hamel — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:07:29 -0500

Montreal, a city of many cultures, a city encompassed in history and architecture, a city where you can swear by the smoked meat and the bagels, a city where a hockey team is so much more than a hockey team, it is a religious and cultural statement of who we are and who we were.

A city where parading down the main boulevards are a celebration of a people rather than a team. The Montreal Canadiens are so much more than the four lines composed by the genius of Guy Carbonneau, it is the city itself.

Some can not handle that pressure, that is playing in Montreal. If Detroit is H, Montreal is Hockey Heaven/Hell (insert season record to see if its the latter). 100 years of history and winning, where the likes of Maurice Richard gave heart and soul to his city, and his people.

Their is a certain responsibility and honor, that wearing the bleu, blanc, et rouge brings. One hundred years, celebrating names like, Plante, Richard, Morenz, and many others.

The All-Star Game given to us by Bettman and his circus as a reward for this accomplishment of longevity and tenacity, but would the Ghosts of the Forum be proud of the heart that drives this team right now ?

In what has been a roller coaster of a season, we receive an all star game, to honor the heroes that hang in the rafters of the most intimidating arena on the circuit.

You would think that having 60 of the worlds best players, a wide array of fans, personnel, GM's, and so on, would drive les glorieux to put on a show so to speak. That it would light a fire in their heart, that all the NHL herd is migrating to the Hockey Mecca of the world.

There is the fact that last time we received an All-Star Game when Montreal won its twenty-fourth Stanley Cup and so many reasons to be motivated I could write a thesis about it and probably start a class at l'Universite de Montreal.

These past two games, have brought shame to a city where Maurice Richard skated day in and day out, for his people.

With the return of Koivu, we can already start to notice that team chemistry has taken a hit. Now that Carey Price is back, Halak stopped trying, and this hurts, as Price gave a less than stellar performance last night.

This Cup is bigger than them but most dont realise or care it seems. The drive for 25 is bigger than any one of us can imagine, and I am not asking to win every night, but les boys must play with their hearts, not their heads, because no one can ask for more.

Show the people that idolize and worship you like gods on blades, that their is a fight worth fighting, and install that essential hope in our heart. I leave you on this note.

    "Men who for truth and honor's sake
    Stand fast and suffer long.
    Brave men who work while others sleep,
    Who dare while others fly...
    They build a nation's pillars deep
    And lift them to the sky.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Montreal Canadiens: Khemistry Kounts

Camille Hamel — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:34:11 -0500

At first, many thought that the plethora of injuries in the Habs' locker room was a plague. However, this has not been the case.

It has been a blessing when it comes to the young players' development such as Lapierre, Latendresse, and Kostitsyn. It has also allowed for the resurgence of veteran players like Lang, Plekanec, and Kovalev.

Lapierre has jumped light years ahead in his development—something he would have never been able to do without the absence of certain veterans. The discovery of D'Agostini and Pacioretty (although they were no secrets) has both now rising in NHL value.

It's a shame that D'Agostini is playing on the fourth line, but Carbonneau doesn't have much choice with team chemistry at an all-time high this season. Now the question is how to reinsert the comeback players, with the exception of Carey Price, without rearranging?

Carbonneau did an outstanding job when the players went down, and without a doubt Coach All-Star will do whatever is best for this team when it comes down to reinserting. Nevertheless, how can you give less responsibility to a Lapierre, Plekanec, or Pacioretty?

Higgins, who has been plagued with bad luck this season, has a lot to offer. Although he is often shunned and dismissed by the fans of this city, he is actually the player Montreal should keep an eye on. He is a man on a mission.

Carbonneau is faced with making some hard decisions. Does he possibly hinder short-term success and lose the magic recipe that has allowed Les Glorieux to go 11-2? Or does he immediately think about the big picture and bring back the veterans?

Two of Montreals' most prolific lines as of late have been AK 46-Pleks-SK 74 and Latendresse-Lapierre-Kostopoulos. Both of these lines are surrounded by hard working, fast-flying young-ins—they forecheck, backcheck, score, fight, and play with all around heart.

Changing these lines could very well slow down the hot, hot Habs. But where do you put Koivu and Higgins? Koivu is a captain who has had a stellar season. The heart and face of this franchise for 12 years now deserves nothing less than a Stanley cup.

Should he be placed on the first line by demoting Plekanec? Or is the answer removing a line that has revived Kovalev's play maker and scoring capabilities, removing the second line where Lang has gelled perfectly with the brothers, or removing the third line which is all about hard-grinder hockey?

This is not taking anything from Koivu who is tough as nails—it's not his style of hockey. Do you really place the captain and most productive player of the season's first half on the fourth line? Now, what about Higgins?

Carbonneau is going to need patience and Tylenol to try and figure this one out—without harming the current success of the team.

Some food for thought.

Photo by Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen