Wilde Horses

  • Peter Budaj has been a true horse for the Habs in the wake of the Price injury. This whole season could have crumbled if Budaj didn't play so well. So credit to Bergevin as well to have a credible back up in place. Not a lot of teams do.
     
  • Jarred Tinordi and Nathan Beaulieu are both ready. Get the driftwood out of the lineup and get these kids a regular spot instead of the rancid rotation. Tinordi fought Clifford in the first, picking up an important assignment with both Parros and Prust not playing. He also looks solid on D. Sure some things to learn but the management has to start trusting these kids or the future comes later not sooner.
     
  • Man for man, the Habs competed well. The Kings are too good but Montreal was right there peppering in the last minute. Credit to them. That's not worth any points, but memories of getting bombed out west are pretty fresh and confidence has been destroyed before. At least confidence will actually be gained here even in defeat.

 

Wilde Goats

  • I feel like I need to preface whenever I criticize Michel Therrien with, "The Habs are winning a lot of games they should not and he must get credit for that"..... BUT IN WHAT WORLD DOES IT MAKE SENSE THAT MURRAY GETS MORE ICE TIME THAN SUBBAN FOR TWO PERIODS? Come on, he won the Norris. Subban plays so safe now I actually have fear for him when he carries the puck that he will make the tiniest of mistakes and spend the rest of a game on the bench shaking his head, smiling wryly and scripting his Roy-Corey. I think RDS needs an ISO camera in the corner of the screen when Subban's on the ice. The main camera on PK and a closeup of Therrien in a little box in the corner where we can see the level of his disgust with his Norris winner. Ah hell, do it too for Murray when he tries to shoot the puck out of the zone and it moves five feet, so we can watch Therrien's delight with the effort. The Therrien Cam would make the games more enjoyable.
     
  • Eller has one assist in 21 games. Stunning. So much there. Big. Strong on puck battles. Doesn't mind dirty areas. Defends well. Great attitude. Barely saw the ice in the third. Lost all confidence. It will be interesting to see if he can get it back. When a player hits a low like this you always wonder what moment saved him when he comes out of it. How did he recover from rock bottom? For Desharnais it was game 20 after one assist in his first 19 that his life changed. The coach put him in a shootout and he scored and won the game. Eller needs a moment like this to feel like he isn't letting everyone down. That's a hard burden to live with on a team. Players hurt when they care. This is killing Eller inside.
     
  • The Habs organization for thinking they have to knock Nathan Beaulieu down a peg all the time. Why are we always so prepared to believe that a kid has an attitude problem? Perhaps the attitude problem is with all the old men who won't accept this kid won't be tamed how they need him to. So Beaulieu didn't like going to Hamilton during the Olympics. That makes perfect sense to me; instead he gets punished? That's bad behaviour all right. I agree. But the bad behaviour is Bergevin's. He's my goat here. Not Beaulieu. The kid should be insulted, and he was. Good for him. Now get him up here to keep being a great player because he was before you sent him down and insulted him.
     
  • Again the head coach is called out when looking for the equalizer. Gorges and Emelin with the goalie pulled. Ask the coach and he will say Subban and Markov were tired from the previous shift. So why were they out the previous shifts. The key shift is the last minute one. It's like a powerplay that you know is coming, so have your powerplay specialists Subban and Markov ready to go. The Habs had nice pressure on the last shift. Perhaps if Subban was wiring two from the point instead of Emelin the end could have been different. We'll never know. We should always know.

 

Wilde Cards

  • It''s 50/50 whether Markov gets traded at the deadline Wednesday. Markov has a modified no-trade clause. This is vital because he can say no to many teams. In fact, you should consider that he would say no to Edmonton so that wasn't a very good rumour to be honest. I believe Bergevin should ink Markov before March 5. It's the only way to guarantee a return for the player. Souray. Kovalev. Koivu. Three players who could have fetched some real talent and all left for nothing. That's not good GMing. If you're worried about how your fan base is going to react all the time, then you don't really have a chance as fans make lousy GMs.