Ek's Note>>>Karine is an amazing Habs writer, full of the kind of energy excitement that is so uniquely amazing about this fanbase...You all truly deserve a Canadiens writer like Karine, so please join me in welcoming...


Loss to the Sabres not a reason to worry
By Karine Hains

In April, the sky in Habsland was insanely grey. The Canadiens had failed to make the playoffs, had an horrible season in which Carey Price looked human and the defence looked as bad as the Mighty Ducks did at the start of the 1992 movie. Fast forward to June and Alex Galchenyuk was sent to Arizona in return for Max Domi, the Habs picked Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the draft and they finished their offseason by finally trading captain Max Pacioretty. Most fans were annoyed; who would score goals? Domi’s latest season had been a disaster! Why did they pick the Finnish kid? Sure he was a centre but the Habs faithful had already adopted Zadina and felt let down…As for the captain, were a healthy scratch for Vegas in the playoffs, a prospect and a draft pick enough to survive the loss of a more often than not 30 goal scorer? Needless to say that optimism was not the general feeling when training camp delivered the fans from what seemed like a never ending summer.

Much to everyone’s surprise though, the Canadiens came rushing out of the gates. While they had an abysmal preseason in 2017, they looked pretty good a year later and Kotkaniemi soon had fans excited again. The end of October is now fast approaching and the team has got 12 points from nine games and are sitting in fourth place in the Atlantic division with a game in hand on both Boston and Toronto! Iif that is not exceeding the (un)expectations, I don’t know what is. However, this almost fanatical fan base is often prone to hit the panic button and a loss to the Sabres in regulation can be just the thing to trigger it. The social medias were full of harsh comments following the loss and a journalist even went as far as to question Claude Julien’s ability to coach the new speed orientated Habs.In the now famous words of Carey Price himself I say to them: Chill out! It’s a single loss and the Canadiens have plenty of reasons to feel good right now. Here are my top 3 reasons:

1. The new system

It’s been years since the Habs iced a team which was properly entertaining to watch. In the last few years, there was a lot of puck dumping and heavy defending. When Therrien was fired and Julien brought back, it seemed to mean that this was not about to change…After all, Julien had always been a defence first coach... It turns out that he put his long summer to good use though. We’re seeing a more aggressive team, a fast team that is hell bent on getting the puck back when they lose it. Tortorella might have said today that players are too friendly with the opposition and lack intensity but this version of the Canadiens looks like an entire team of Gallaghers and lord knows he is intense! This is a welcome change of pace and I suspect that one of the summer’s new hire may not be a stranger to this new system. I couldn’t help but notice that the Habs’ system looks a lot like like the one used by Dominic Ducharme coached teams.

2. Max Domi

I will admit that I was disappointed with the Galchenyuk trade initially. To me, it looked like the Canadiens were giving up on a top three draft pick for a player who had scored nine goals and only notched 45 points last season.Then in the preseason, there was that ill advised punch to Ekblad and the suspension that came with it. This made a lot of people wonder if Domi was nothing more than a hot head which would cost the team dearly. After nine games though, we’re forced to admit that Bergevin made a good move. Domi has transitioned to centre from the wing without any issues and has by the same token freed Jonathan Drouin who looks better than he ever has in the bleu, blanc, rouge. Domi has 10 points and Drouin has seven, hard to argue with these numbers and the sad tweets about Chucky being traded are history.

3. The Pacioretty trade return

When the deal was made, experts all agreed that Nick Suzuki was the main piece of that trade and Tatar was almost seen as a throw in. Of course he was a healthy scratch in the playoff for Vegas but people forget that he got there at the trade deadline and joined a team which was already working at full steam and on which there already were working lines and great chemistry. This season, in a new environment, Tatar is shinning. Not only has he already got eight points but he fitted in right away with Brendan Gallagher and Philippe Danault. He appears to be a rather hard worker and he does not give up on pucks. We’ve already seen him make a few plays from his knees and this kind of dedication reminds me of Radulov during his too short stay in Montreal. That being said, even if Tatar is a pleasant surprise, we must not forget about Suzuki who was named captain of the Owen Sound Attack in the Ontario junior hockey league and has 16 points in 10 games. So far, so good for that trade!


Of course, nothing is perfect…Shaw has taken more than his share of bad penalties already, Nikita Scherbak has yet to see the ice this season and Charles Hudon is rather frustrated by his current status as a healthy scratch but remember Habs fans: We didn’t expect much this season and it’s already been more satisfying than last season. Last night’s loss to the Sabres? Don’t worry about it and get excited for tomorrow’s match-up with the Bruins, that usually makes for an awesome Saturday night.

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