The Montreal Canadiens Thread

Rygar wrote:

This is what he said? A timeout would have been a great idea, I don't see the problem with his statement. I also don't speak or understand most french so that is lost on me too.

Right or not, it's always bad to criticize a coach decision in the medias, he should learn to shut the fuck up, it's bad for the whole team, plus i don't remember any kind of stoppage after the Komisarek penalty, you can't just wave your hand while the play goes to call a timeout. Anyway get rid of him, he's a cancer, he loves himself so much. As a veteran he should take his courage and go talk to the coach, instead of crying in the media, he was probably frustrated that it wasn't him on the ice in the end... poor crybaby... no need for that kind of guy in a hockey team. The rumor sending him to Calgary for Tanguay is just too great to be true, it won't happen, but it would be great if Bob Gainey could find a taker. Chance are bigger now since he has a good start on the ice, but he's no fit for this team. He did it to Julien, now he's doing it to Carbonneau.

Rygar wrote:

We're agreed on something...

At least the goaltending is great, we don't have that as an issue, the top 3 dman are good enough, but offense is so bad, and the team as a team also looks bad, nothing seem to gel, let's hope they'll find something to rally around, cause it doesn't look like a team. Right now it looks like a continuity of last year post december 23rd team, nothing changed, Carbo can't find lines that works (works = scoring goals), team keeps taking stupid costly penalty, maybe we should trade for McCabe... hehe.

Rygar wrote:

When did they put him with Koivu? One or two games in preseason match-ups??

They did it, at least a dozens times including in the playoffs (only year they made the playoffs with Kovy i think), it never worked, plus you don't hear Koivu or Kovalev talking about how they'd like to play together, or how their chemistry is great together. When Briere signed with Philly, he immediatly talked about playing with Gagné, you never hear that from Kovalev and Koivu. Plus the lack of other good forward means that the coach (whoever he is) needs to spread his talent around, Kovalev is the key to the second line, Koivu the key to the first line. Koivu is doing it well, Kovalev is having more problems to gel with teammates, i think they've tried everyone with him.

Anyway my point is, get rid of him if there's any takers, otherwise we'll have to deal with him, at least he's doing fine on the ice right now.

last night's game was lame
i just had a feeling florida would score and sure enough, with 10.2 seconds to go they score, lol

Here's what one of the greatest hockey analyst had to say about all this, great article, i agree with everything in there:

http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/mckenzie/
10/17/2007

The feeding frenzy is in full swing in Montreal.

As the Canadiens prepare for an important divisional match-up in Ottawa on Thursday night, head coach Guy Carbonneau is under fire after veteran star Alexei Kovalev wondered out loud immediately following Tuesday's loss to Florida why a timeout wasn't called in the late stages to get the "right players" on the ice.

Well, maybe because there was no stoppage in play to call a timeout? Yeah, that might be a reasonable explanation.

For those who didn't see it, the Canadiens were dominating the Florida Panthers but still nursing a 1-0 lead when Mike Komisarek took a slashing penalty with 2:14 remaining in regulation time. The Canadiens didn't call time out at that point, nor would you necessarily expect them to in case they needed it for a crucial late-game faceoff.

Carbonneau had the penalty killers he wanted on the ice. The Canadiens iced it once, got a change of their penalty killers and as play continued without a whistle, iced it once again to get another change of the PK unit. Florida then pressed, the Canadiens had a few chances to clear but failed to do so and with 11 seconds left in regulation time, Nathan Horton scored the equalizer with Tomas Vokoun on the bench and Komisarek just having stepped out of the penalty box.

For all intents and purposes, it was a six-on-four goal.

But the key point here is that there was no a whistle to be heard or a stoppage in play from the time puck was dropped with 2:14 remaining to when Horton scored with 11 seconds left.

Carbonneau is a sophomore head coach in the NHL. And he no doubt made mistakes last season as a rookie bench boss and was widely criticized for them.

But he gets a free pass on this specific issue.

Alexei Kovalev? Sorry, no free pass there.

What was he thinking? Not much apparently.

Carbonneau could not have called a timeout if he wanted to. There was no opportunity. And for Kovalev to say that to the media in the post-game scrum, well, it's beyond comprehension.

Kovalev is a veteran player. He has played in Montreal long enough to know what creates a stir and what doesn't. And wondering out loud why a timeout wasn't called, questioning a coach with whom he has had some bad history, the only logical conclusion is that Kovalev was intentionally lighting a fuse on a powder keg that was already simmering because Carbonneau had the audacity to scratch two fourth-line players (Steve Begin and Guillaume Latendresse).

But here's the bizarre part. There are those close to the Canadiens who don't believe Kovalev intended any ill will towards Carbonneau, that it was just an off the cuff remark in the wake of a tough, tough loss.

The cynic in all of us has a tough time believing that, but sources suggest Kovalev did seek out Carbonneau Wednesday and apologize for creating a stir, saying it was wholly unintentional and not aimed to cast the coach in a bad light.

Certainly, for whatever issues Carbonneau and Kovalev had last season, this brouhaha seemingly came out of nowhere.

Kovalev has been a model citizen so far this season. He worked hard in training camp, was often one of the best players on the ice. He has been positive and encouraging with the Canadiens' young players and played hard and well in the regular season thus far. He had what should have been the game-winning goal in Tuesday's game against Florida.

For him to suggest Carbonneau erred by not calling a timeout or not having out the right players, well, it's just so far out of left field. It makes no sense. There is no logic.

So it fuels the notion there are still hard feelings between the veteran and the coach, but outside of this post-game remark, there has been no evidence this season to suggest there's a problem.

Weird.

It will be interesting to see how GM Bob Gainey handles this one. He could look at it, shrug and write it off as a misunderstanding. Or he could think this is aggravation he and his team do not need, that the Canadiens are a rising young team doing some very good things and they don't need Cirque de Kovalev/Carbonneau. If so, Gainey could start laying a rail for Kovy.

If I were him, I would talk to Kovalev, try to discern where this all came from and as long as Gainey isn't convinced this was an intentional low blow, just put the gifted Russian on double-secret probation and the NEXT TIME he so much as rolls his eyes in Carbo's direction, pick up the phone and call Mike Keenan/Darryl Sutter in Calgary and eliminate the problem once and for all.

As for Carbonneau's critics, they might want to wait for him to actually make a mistake before blaming him for one.