Denis Savard

According to RDS, Denis Savard is being considered as a candidate for the Habs' assistant coaching job. The other prominent name being thrown about is that of former captain Kirk Muller, although reports out of Kingston suggest that Muller would like to spend more time honing his skills as head coach of the Queen's University mens' hockey team.

Third-round predictions

How I did so far: After going 3-for-8 in the first round, I was just as bad in the second round. I picked the Sens, Devils, Sharks, and Ducks, and went 1-for-4.

OK so maybe I should forget about pursuing a career as a psychic. In any case, here is who I predict will get the chance to compete for the Stanley Cup:

CAR-BUF: Sabres in 6.	ANA-EDM: Oilers in 7.

Coming up: why John Muckler should step down as general manager of the Senators, and a look at who the Habs should pursue in the free agency market. In the meantime, go Oilers!

Zed to W's?

Spector is reporting speculation that Richard Zednik is being offered to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for centre Robert Lang, although he asks whether the Wings would be getting a fair deal in picking up Zednik and his streaky scoring.

Recall that Lang and Alex Kovalev were teammates together in Pittsburgh between 1998-'99 and 2001-'02 and in that time they put up impressive points totals together. In those 4 seasons, Lang had an average of 50 points a season, while Kovalev averaged 71. Although Lang is 35, this deal would be great for the Habs - Lang is a proven scorer and a decent faceoff man, and would help make the useless Mike Ribeiro expendable.

Only two questions remain, though: 1.) Are the Wings interested in Zednik's services?; and 2.) Will the Habs be willing to absorb Lang's hefty contract, which goes until 2007 and pays in the neighbourhood of $3.8 million? I'm not sure that Lang is the guy that the Habs would want to use their free cap space saved from José Theodore on, but acquiring Lang would be a fairly short-term investment anyways. In my opinion, if the Wings bite, make a deal.

Second-round predictions

How I did so far: In the East, I picked the Habs, Sens, Rangers, and Sabres, and went 2-for-4. In the West, I picked the Wings, Stars, Flames, and Sharks, and went 1-for-4. Ouch.

I know the second round has already begun, which may make it a little easier to predict the series, but it seems like I need the help. Here are my picks:

OTT-BUF: Senators in 7. CAR-NJ: Devils in 5.	SJ-EDM: Sharks in 6. ANA-COL: Ducks in 6.

I'm taking a little break from blogging, but I do want to review the Canadiens' situation at some point. Keep checking for updates!

Game 6: Carolina 2 @ Montreal 1

To borrow from the Canadiens' marketing slogan of "Tricolore jusqu'au bout," the 'bout' has come. The Montreal Canadiens, winners of 24 Stanley Cups and makers of endless playoff magic, have been ousted from post-season contention by a team that resides in the heart of NASCAR country. For Habs fans everywhere, this loss hurts; just a week ago, lovers of the bleu-blanc-rouge were awakening to the hangovers that must surely have followed celebrations of their team's surprising 2-0 series lead over Carolina. This morning, however, they were jolted out of bed with the thoughts of what should have, could have, and might have been.

The worst part of it all? The Canadiens actually played a great game in Game 6. They got back into form just in time to force a seventh game, but their offense was stalled yet again by the Hurricanes' rookie goaltender, Cam Ward. And though Cristobal Huet made some amazing saves, keeping a flurry of shots out of the net in the final minute of play to send his team into overtime, he let in a pretty weak goal to end the series (and yes, I know it was deflected, but the deflection happened below the faceoff circle near the blue line, leaving Huet with plenty of time to adjust his positioning).

That being said, the truth is that this series was over the minute Justin Williams got careless with his stick - and got away with it. Not necessarily because Saku Koivu was missing, but because no one on the Canadiens, not Alex Kovalev, Mike Ribeiro, Radek Bonk, or Jan Bulis, was up to the task of filling the void left by Koivu's absence. The Habs made a mountain out of a molehill in interpreting Koivu's being sidelined, and lost all their confidence because of it. That, coupled with unabashedly one-sided refereeing, did the Canadiens in for these playoffs.

There are some who will attribute this Canadiens loss to the Hurricanes' switching of goaltenders, and while I admit that Ward was very good, I think the officiating helped the young goaltender out quite a bit. If you caught the goaltender interference penalty that was assessed to Jan Bulis in last night's game and compared it to the one Mark Recchi got, it would become pretty obvious that Ward was offered significantly more protection than his Canadiens counterpart, Huet.

In any case, what's done is done, and the Habs' 2005-'06 season is a thing of the past. It was, as I have said many times before, a season of extreme ups and lowly downs, and though their lack of effort became glaringly obvious at times in this series, there were also a lot of positives to come out this year - the play of young players Tomas Plekanec, Alexander Perezhogin, Chris Higgins, and Mike Komisarek, the emergence of veterans Francis Bouillon, Andrei Markov, and Craig Rivet, and the impending departure of the inconsistent Mike Ribeiro and perhaps even Richard Zednik.

Thanks for an exciting season, Habs, and, come September, we'll all be singing the familiar song that rejuvenates us year after year: Tricolore jusqu'au bout.

Check back here for player report cards, random thoughts on the rest of the playoffs, and Canadiens rumours and speculation. Happy playoffs, and happy off-season!

Best Buy

I know this isn't exactly the best time for Leaf-bashing, but I thought I'd post this anyways to help get Habs fans somewhat pumped up for the game tonight:



Enjoy Game 6, let's hope it's not the last!

Game 5: Montreal 1 @ Carolina 2

I don't know which game Jack Todd was watching last night, but the one I tuned into on RDS looked more like a lame-duck pee wee team taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in an exhibition game than a real NHL playoff game between the 'Canes and the Montreal Canadiens. This game was not exciting, nor was it close, nor was it entertaining. The Canadiens were pure awful for the second straight game in a row; they didn't put an ounce of effort into this one at all. And now they're down in their first round series against Carolina, 3-2, and on the brink of elimination from the playoffs.

It seemed like pretty much every Canadiens player out there had a complete change of heart after the Saku Koivu injury. Before that incident, the team was making perfect passes and dangerous offensive plays. They were skating amazingly fast, and, most importantly, were scoring lots of goals and winning games. The past two games, however, have been remarkably different. Only Tomas Plekanec, Alexander Perezhogin, Richard Zednik, and Francis Bouillon have really shown up to play. The rest of their teammates stayed home, and I have a theory as to why.

Koivu is injured; Kovalev is injured (where, we don't exactly know); and the refs are clearly not on the Habs' side (although, surprisingly enough, Kerry Fraser actually seemed to put away his personal vendetta against Montreal last night - he actually called high sticking and goaltender interference against the 'Canes!). All things considered, it doesn't make sense for the Habs to advance to the second round to face the Ottawa Senators. Why risk more injuries, and risk making Kovalev's worse, when you know there's no chance of beating the Sens if you're not 100%?

I don't believe anyone who says that Koivu's absence is the reason behind this club's lack of motivation. Koivu is not as big of an impact player as everyone makes him out to be, and he certainly hadn't been playing that way in the games before he got injured. A team just doesn't turn the switch to "off" when one of their players gets injured; if anything, they play harder to avenge his loss. The Canadiens have done nothing of the sort.

It's a shame that their season will have to end this way, but, truth be told, the 2005-'06 Canadiens were and continue to be a team of extreme ups and downs. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes with these Habs, especially considering that they are a team in transition. We'll look more at that later, but for now, let's just enjoy the last bit of active hockey this team will play before they pack up for the summer. There's no way this team is winning Game 6; one game is all we have left.