|
Making Hockey Fun Again, Tim Lazier |
|
|
|
|
|
By Tim Lazier
Making hockey fun, again
Let’s skip the details. Beaulieu being dealt is arguably collateral damage of the Las Vegas expansion, and everyone has had roughly 72 hours to digest the ins-and-outs of the Drouin-Sergachev deal. Some love it, some think it’s Gomez-McDonagh 2.0. So let’s get to what really matters, us, the fans. Does the first blockbuster of the offseason make the Montreal Canadiens a more exciting team to watch in the 2017-2018 season? If you’re like me—and I suspect you are—let’s hope so.
Canadiens fans deserve better. When Saturday night rolls around and you crack open a cold one, you deserve to be entertained. The Canadiens’ brief playoff stint was tolerable at best. Yes they had flashes of excitement (ie: Plekanec’s heroics), but let’s not sugar coat this. The Habs were dull. They have been dull for quite some time and the only reason why they’ve gotten away with it is because #31 occupies our blue paint. Face it, you could have gone a lifetime without seeing their brilliant game six strategy of dump-and-chase. Watching teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, Nashville Predators, even the Toronto Maple Leafs, makes me think, ‘why aren’t the Habs this fun to watch?’ (Admit it, the Leafs were a bundle of fiery chaos that was exhilarating to watch.)
This trade is an admission from management that they’ve tried the safe route, and the farthest they’ve come is the Conference Final. Now they need to take a more offensive approach. When Bergevin picks up the phone this offseason—because you know he's not done yet—and starts dialling up other area codes, I want him to be bold. Be gutsy and even a little careless. Because otherwise fans can enjoy another season of Carey Price and his cute ensemble of forwards that no team truly fears.
By all accounts, Jonathan Drouin is as competitive as he is talented. Young, brash, maybe a little rough around the edges, but his tenacity is second to none. So what if he’s not Jonathan Toews in his own end, that’s not why fans tune in 82 times a season. It’s been too long since a forward has evolved into a superstar while wearing the red, white and blue. Still only 22, Drouin should give fans hope for a more entertaining product on the ice.
Give me energy over patience. Give me raw talent over discipline. Give me creativity over strategy. Give me a back-and-forth, edge-of-my-seat toss-up that goes down to the wire over a conservative 1-0 win with 18 shots on goal. Fans have seen that for far too long, now it’s time to have some fun. It’s time for the team to finally take that next step as a legitimate threat or to combust completely, either way, I want it to be entertaining.
So if you're a naysayer of this swap, stop overthinking it. Don’t think five years down the road and don’t think about the depleted depth of the farm system. One-for-one right now, the Habs got a young, talented steed that is waiting for those gates to bust open.
(Of course the irony is that is that Sergachev will likely be an offensively-gifted stud, but who knows. Just, stop!)
The Montreal Canadiens are the Cincinnati Bengals of the NHL. Just mind my madness for a moment, I’m almost done. Like the Bengals, the Habs have had moderate success for the past five years. Always in the playoff hunt and hopefuls talk themselves into the team every fall and think, ‘this is our year!' They’re good, but never great. Forever stuck in the purgatory of mediocrity until something changes. In a word: boring.
Hopefully this offseason is a step towards that change and just a little bit of fun.
Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»