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Questioning the Heart of These Montreal Canadiens. |
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As you all know by now, my second favorite team since I was a child is the Montreal Canadiens.
I follow the Habs very closely still and this year, early on, I had my doubts. I actually predicted the Maple Leafs would finish ahead of the Habs....I was happy to be wrong on that prediction.
And ALL the credit, in my opinion goes to Carey Price, a goalie I would consider for MVP this year. When I think about it I could imagine a scenario where Tim Thomas could win the Vezina, but Price could win the MVP. He has been the most valuable player on the Canadiens hands down. And without Price playing out of his mind the Habs aren't a playoff team...and probably WOULD have finished below the Maple Leafs...
I am just not a fan of this group of Habs forwards, and not just when it comes to scoring goals. Yes, they have been shutout the last three games. Yes the Canadiens have been shutout an incredible 9 times this season. But, I do believe the Habs can score goals. In the games they have managed to score goals, they have averaged over 3 goals a game. (200 goals in 66 games) So the Habs can indeed put the puck in the net. They are just wildly inconsistent.
But a fan of this team, scoring is not what bothers me.
What does bother me about their offense is much deeper. Let me explain...
If there is one thing the fans of the Montreal Canadiens have in abundance, as much as any fanbase in the NHL, is heart. Canadiens fans are a nation unto themselves. They are all Habs, all the time. I admire their passion and have learned so much more about it since starting this website. While is can be said many fanbases in the NHL "live and die" with their team, the Montreal fans are different.
In my experience there are two major differences with Canadiens fans.
#1. They don't just love their teams, they love the players on their teams. Players will tell you there is no city in the NHL which will embrace you more than Montreal. When you pull the sweater (still my favorite uniform in all of sports) over your head you pull with it the unbridled support of everyone who cheers for the Habs. Some say this support is almost an unconditional love which causes fans to not question management's decisions at times. That Canadiens fans are "glass half full" people who rarely blame a player for a mistake and overvalue a players worth. At times I have seen this (The rally to keep Kovalev perhaps) but for the most part I don't completely agree that Habs fans aren't able to see past the uniform and tradition and evaluate the talent.
#2. There are simply way more Habs fans than any other team in the NHL. This is best shown perhaps by the simply fact of how many watch the Canadiens on TV.
I recently talked to a NHL TV exec who told me that a major city NHL team in the states (say Boston, Philly, NYR, Chi, LA) for a game will have local TV viewership around 200,000. A big game on Versus between say Pitt and Philly will get to maybe 350,000.
The Habs, on RDS in Canada, average 800k per game, and they also will get another 200k for the SAME game in English.
Essentially, every time the Canadiens play there are 5 times the amount of fans watching..roughly one million viewers...
So what bothers me about this team's forwards?
This past week I don't care that they got shutout 3 times. I do care about what happened in Boston however. That game was so much more than a game. Regardless of whether or not Chara was suspended for what he did to Max, regardless of whether or not he even should have been suspended....a statement had to be made.
Perhaps it's because I grew up in Philly, where the motto was, "You can beat us 7-0, but you won't leave the game feeling good about it. We may lose the game, but there will be hell to pay..."
The Habs lost 7-0 to the Bruins and there wasn't hell to pay. The only Hab I saw even trying to make the Bruins night unpleasant was defenseman Paul Mara. That was it.
In the third period, with the game out of reach, it was the Bruins who took 4 penalties. The Habs took NONE. How can you get blown out by the Bruins in a revenge game and play a third period without ANY heart whatsoever?
Then last night. Getting off only 3 shots in a first period at home on Hockey Night in Canada. Only 18 shots in the game against the Caps in total. The team is obviously frustrated, but usually when this occurs someone will go out there and be aggressive. Watching the game last night, players like Gionta and Ryan White were picking up the hitting, but still nothing that was momentum shifting.
The Habs face the Thrashers on Tuesday (a team that has one of the nine shutouts against Montreal).
Gut check time. Canadiens fans deserve more heart than this team has shown to date. A lot more.
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