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Speaking of being thankful, what have the Canadiens got to be thankful about these days? Not a whole lot it must be said. Of course, they can be grateful for last playoffs’ magical run to the Stanley Cup Final, but this already feels like a lifetime ago and the Habs and their fans sure can’t be thankful for their measly 5 wins in 21 games. It’s quite doom and gloom in Habsland these days, and you’ve got to really want to see it to find anything to be thankful for.
I guess the most important thing to be grateful for is that this train wreck of a season means that there is absolutely no point in rushing Carey Price back. The netminder took a well documented pause to enter the Player Association’s help program and while he’s now back in the entourage of the team, he’s not even practicing on the ice right now and why should he? The disastrous season start means that Price can take all the time he needs to get himself right, not only mentally, but also physically. One must not forget that he did undergo a knee surgery this summer and the fact that he’s not currently training on the ice leads me to believe that perhaps his recuperation is not going as well or as fast as he would have liked.
The truckload of injuries that are currently plaguing the team have also been kind of a god send for a young player like Ryan Poehling. Just over a year ago, the center line seemed somewhat congested but with Danault and Kotkaniemi’s departure, Poehling looked like he could get a role out of camp, but his game wasn’t quite on. After starting the season in Laval, he was called up thanks to injuries to Mathieu Perreault and Cedric Paquette and he’s been doing well since then. Now, the fans must hope that the coaching staff will seize the opportunity to use him more, to test him for a bigger role. Considering that this season is lost already, the focus should really be on developing the young guys and once vets are healthy, it shouldn’t be an automatism that they get back in the line-up. With all due respect to Paquette and Perreault, I prefer to see a young player put through his paces than an aging forward who was signed as an insurance policy and to ensure that the Canadiens didn’t ice a team without a single French Canadian like they did last season. I don’t think it will surprise anyone to read that from me, but this should be the very least of this team’s worries.
What else is there to be thankful for? Well, for now, not much but I’m hoping that by trade deadline day, there will be. That whoever is at the helm then will have realized that this team needs to be a seller and maximize its return on vets that won’t be there anymore when the Canadiens can aspire to be relevant again and yes, to me, that includes Carey Price. As much as I’ve enjoyed watching him rock the Sainte-Flanelle, I think he would be ready and willing to move on to a contender and why shouldn’t he? His willingness to be left unprotected at the expansion draft made that crystal clear and there is no doubt that Price would love to have another chance to capture hockey’s biggest prize.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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