Goaltender of the Future

With Slovakia's tight win based on Jaroslav Halak's tight goaltending versus Russia, the goaltending debate for the Habs is picking up so much steam its beginning to scald. The problem is most armchair observers seem to be using logic reminiscent of a certain San Jose Sharks pro scout.

The Montreal Canadiens are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Tampa Bay (who have two games in hand) and two ahead of the New York Rangers who hold one game in hand. We may just make the playoffs this year, and if we do, we'd likely want the strong goalie we had for much of the season to try and keep us in against Washington, New Jersey, or whoever we get seeded against.
Reality however, states we'll likely make a first round exit unless we perform a miraculous upset. Our team has been too up and down to really be consistent - our longest winning streak all season is only three games. In that case we need to be focused as much on the future of the franchise, and which goaltender we hold on to. No matter what Pierre Gauthier thinks, both of our goalies are RFA at the end of the season and we really can't afford to have them both alongside a resigned Thomas Plekanec.

And this is why we need to resign Carey Price and trade Jaroslav Halak.
I'm sure right now there's coffee hitting your monitor not unlike a Jason Blake wrist shot to the chest of a goaltender on those words, but hear me out. Price has had certain flashes of brilliance this year, and is statistically better in save% than Olympian Marc-Andre Fleury, Ottawa savior Brian Elliot, LA starter Jonathan Quick, and most other hyped up underachievers (I'm looking at you, both Philedelphia goaltenders, all three goaltenders to suit up for the Maple Leafs this season, Nicklas Backstrom, and both Nashville goalies). Admitted Halak's .923 is nicer than Price's .911 but it's not like Price is making a huge gap of less saves - especially as he's generally been put in following a Halak loss, suggesting the team wasn't bringing much effort anyway (further proven by Price's GAA being higher than goaltenders with worse save percentages, though still a reasonable though not outstanding 2.81).
So Price can compete, he just isn't playing as well as Halak right now. But here's where the future comes in.

Halak is a positionally sound goalie, will be 25 at the end of the season, has calm emotions and fast reflexes. His weaknesses are controlling the puck, and his size ( 5'11 is short for a goaltender). While reflexes don't degrade quickly, it's unlikely they will ever improve noticeably, and as he's already positionally sound there's not a whole lot of upward motion. Halak can practice with the puck but he's never going to get four inches taller.

Price, 22, is excellent with the puck (can you name four goaltenders better than him with the puck?), 6'3, and has just as sharp reflexes. His biggest issues are a weak glove hand (that is nonetheless greatly overplayed), some positional awareness issues, and having some difficulty dealing with the emotional stress of working in the Montreal environment. In short he's immature. Funny thing is, in the league, there aren't a whole lot of mature 22 year old goaltenders - let alone 22 year old goaltenders to begin with. He calms down and works on his positioning, and he's got a clear advantage on Jaroslav, who has effectively reached his ceiling. Is it really a gamble to say that Price will be a different player at 24 than he is at 22?

Can we risk giving up that potential to try to hold on to our eighth place seed this season?
Can we risk not getting any return for our current hot goaltender?

Something about a rivalry

So as Brian Burke decides mortaging two first rounders is apparently worth a sixty point player... when playing next to the number one setup guy in the league, it's effectively hockey time.

Last night's game resembled a PR stunt for Bob Gainey; his new pickups got points, Carey Price looked good, and Curtis Sanford looked like a sieve showing why we can't trade Halak. At time of writing we're losing to the Senators so maybe this propaganda is illsuited... except that 2/3s of the Big Three and Price are not dressed.


Back on topic of Sir Truculent, one thing I'm looking for this season, even more than a post-season position or the competition between Pascal Leclaire and Marian Gaborik on who can play the most games, is a hopeful revival of the habs / leafs rivalry. Sure roughing up Grabo was fun and all, especially when he decides to retaliate against his fierce opponent, the NHL linesman, but really this year I think will be the most exciting series between the two teams. And lets face it, if we're not fighting, the Leafs need to pretend the Battle of Ontario has relevance, and no one wants that.

So here's why the Leafs / Habs rivalry may actually pick up again this year

Size vs Skill: While the Habs aren't nearly as small as we'd like every other team in the league to pretend, we very much are a quick, agile team, next to the pugnastic assault of the Leafs. Our speedy forwards dancing around theirs only to be then rocked by three checking lines will be fun as hell to watch, and is a legitimately different dynamic.

We both actually have players that can fight: Laraque being the de-facto heavyweight is standard by now, but adding Travis Moen is useful if BGL's crippling vegetarianism or back problems stop him from dropping the gloves against Colton Orr, as well as deflecting fists from Grabovski away from the officiating staff. If that fails, at least we can dazzle them with Mara's beard?

Burke and Gainey's UFA pissing contest: Didn't the entire month of July feel like Burke and Gainey moving to grab attention? Be it Burke's microphone magnetism or Gainey's "he seriously signed gionta?" moves, it seemed like the entire off-season was them changing their dynamic and making people think "Those guys are going to suck". Ignoring the negative reaction to team changes depending on where you live, it's kept both the Leafs and the Habs in the limelight all summer, with The Big Three drama, Komisarek deciding one Belarussian mobster teammate was enough, Moen, Mara, and Gill crouching to get in team pictures with Cammalleri and Gionta, and this whole Kessel traded for the Leafs foreseeable future drama, these two teams have not faded. Means that opening night they both get to strut so much more than everyone else.

Komisarek is a backstabbing dick with no tact, who's mouth emits a constant array of untrustworthy bile: Also bears shit in the woods

Montreal's best french player can actually take the body: Though Guilliame is also likely Montreal's ONLY french player, I'm sure this matters when he erases whatever AHL callup winds up in the neutral zone with his head down.

They'll both be fighting for second in the division: Ottawa's yo-yoing positioning notwithstanding, their division is tight, and that means all six meetings actually matter for once, instead of being a curbstomp battle by the conference leader and everyone else middle of the pack, the rest of the conference is likely going to be deflecting much of eastern Canada from the playoffs, making every loss to a divisional rival that much more frustrating... and more fun to watch




We'll find out Oct 1


... Oh and good for theo fleury on the shootout winner. I hate to admit it but that may be his last big moment in the NHL and at least it was in front of thousands of fans who love him.

Less than a month until I run out of excuses for not updating

Well, I'm sure all six of my loyal readers are as let down as Brian Gionta learning he couldn't ride the rollercoasters when the carnival is in town, but I'm getting ready to buckle down and write blogs with actual content and not just jokes gleaned from hockeybuzz comments and DownGoesBrown articles.


I'm not well-connected enough to have the scoop on prospect events and training camp, I'll leave that for people who are actually connected, have real contacts, or pretend to and ask for people to give them money to avoid autoplay videos. That said, we're less than a month away from the season so it's time to see how the conference may play out.

I won't give a seeded rank, I'll just say whether a team will likely be in the postseason or not.

Boston - Boston had an outstanding run last year! They managed to make both Tim Thomas and Paul Maurice look good in one season, which is an outstanding goal. I think though, they'll do what Montreal did last season and drop from first to middle of the pack. Their competition is tougher, their backup is less solid, it's unlikely they'll still have Kessel, they're broke, and Milan Lucic may get serious arm strain after six more thrashings of Mike Komisarek. Expect them middle of the post-season pack. Which, by the way, is where Montreal will be. Here we go again.


Washington - Doing all they can to prove you can win without ever actually using a goaltender, expect Washington to be just as strong as last year. Jose Theodore suffered a terrible loss which will likely effect his playing time. Expect Washington to do better than last season.


New Jersey - Their talented goaltender is aging, their offense that wasnt there is now.. less there.. their coach is more defensive without a whole lot of real defensive tract. Expect them to fall faster than Marty Turco after making a dramatic save.


Pittsburg - They still have Crosby and Malkin. They have less defensemen. Expect them to either finish embarassingly out of the playoffs as it seemed last season and to do their best Carolina Hurricanes impression, or to shock no one and still be a contender.


Philidelphia - If Chelios doesn't resign anywhere, these guys will likely be where I direct aging-defensemen jokes all season. That said it's not as if they've really changed more than that except for adding a goalie with a suspiciously runny nose. Will make the playoffs for sure.


Carolina - Paul Maurice will remember he's actually a bad coach, Cam Ward will realize again he's not good enough to hold a lackluster team afloat. Martin Broduer will cry.


New York Rangers - They lost a playmaking centre and added two wingers; one of which couldn't score on a shootout with an empty net the other is professionally imitating Samuel L Jackson from the movie Unbreakable. Don't expect a long playoff run.


Montreal - Our forwards can get points but can't get on rides at an amusment park. Our defense is tall and slow. Plan the parade. We'll make the post-season in the middle of the pack


Florida - Florida gave up a good D-man for an average one and a good goalie for nothing. Which is exactly what they can expect from this season outside of a high draft pick.


Ottawa - Currently employing two wingers who'd rather be playing elsewhere (thanks for the shout-out by the way, Alex), they nonetheless have at least three players who can light the lamp, and a goaltender who is solid when he's not hanging out with Marian Gaborik and Rick Dipietro in a hospital ward. I honestly can't predict how they'll do considering how different their results with the same group of players are.


Toronto - Proud employer of half the defensemen in the conference, Toronto will be a pain in the ass to face assuming you're a team without a goalie. Look out Washington! Expect them to injure the rest of the division, helpng every other team make the playoffs.


Atlanta - Now with the more threatening additions of Pavel Kubina and Nik Antropov, Atlanta looks to for the first time in recent memory, finish tenth overall.


Tampa Bay - Improved all around, but still have too many question marks for me to assess or come up with something witty about. How is Tanguay making less than Plekanec/


Kansas New York Islanders - Have a star of the future and more backup goalies than anyone should rightly need. Expect them to finish 14th overall to find a winger for Tavares

Goalies, second line centres, and trade bait.

To the chargin of much of the fanbase, we've signed Thomas Plekanec for 2.75 million dollars. out of around 240 players in that price range, he puts up better numbers than about 200 of them. Not too shabby. Now if only he were Finnish, and wore number eleven.

In the past few days we've picked up Curtis Sanford. He's already gotten in touch with Rick Dipietro and Pascal Leclaire on cool things to do in the Eastern Conference while injured.

With a new backup goalie (and somehow, also with Plekanec's one year deal) rumours are flying everywhere that Gainey is getting ready to trade for Lecavalier, Marleau a big centre, because we totally have that kind of money, what with a whole three million in cap space and Gregory Steward and Matt D'ags to resign. I think we've come to grips with the fact we don't need any more centres, as we only have one year to finally start using Chipchura anyway (who, go figure, is a big centre). But even then, who would want Halak right now anyway? Biron certainly has more experience and exposure and could only get less than two million backing up a backup (though with Rick Dipietro's glasslike status he could still see a lot of exposure), and Andrew Raycroft has already found work so it's not like people are desperate to avoid calls from his agent. If anything, Halak may be moved some time in the mid-season, around the deadline, if it begins to look like the big three are floundering, and we're being run over by Buffalo a listless team out of playoff contention.