All Habs Hockey Magazine is proud to provide a platform for guest writers to express their views on current issues. Today, we present a fan piece on experiencing the emotions of seeing a favorite player traded and the path towards optimism for the upcoming season. If you would like to share your fan experiences, contact us. Your comments are welcome.
Looking Forward Through the Lens of Acceptance
by Josh Saunders, Guest Contributor, All Habs Hockey Magazine
It actually happened. They actually did it.
Elliotte Friedman detailed the events of June 29th in his excellent piece “The 23 Minutes That Shook the Hockey World.” But let me give you a fan’s perspective.
I can remember the day like it was yesterday. I was just finishing off a less-than-exciting shift at my part-time job when all of the sudden my phone was blowing up with Twitter alerts. Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, Steven Stamkos staying in Tampa, and… Wait, no. That can’t be right. P.K. Subban has been traded! And to NASHVILLE? For who? Shea Weber! But that’s a complete sideways move. What is going on? There’s no way this is actually happening right now.
It was. My favourite sports team on the entire planet had traded my favourite player.
Like many fans, I was devastated, to say the least. After leaving work in an incoherent state, I went down to the gym to work off some steam. The thing is, I didn’t remember a minute of that workout and I still don’t. My mind was going a mile a minute; how could they do this to us, after promising that it “probably wasn’t going to happen.’?
I wondered how could they trade P.K. after he made an insanely generous commitment to raise money for the Montreal Children’s Hospital? Didn’t the Habs just sign him to a 72 million dollar contract just last year?
Nothing made sense. I went to bed that night angry at the team: angry at the ownership, angry at the front office staff, angry at anyone who could have possibly been involved with this trade.
But as they say, the sun will rise again tomorrow. And it did.
That’s not to say I was happy about the trade the next day. Quite the contrary, in fact. But as more and more of my friends approached me about it (either asking my opinion or ribbing me) and the more I had to explain my feelings about it, the less I hated it.
As the weeks went on, after shaky explanations were given by management, and reading articles and watching highlight videos of Shea Weber, I started hating it even less. Now that the summer is done and the season is about to start, I’ve arrived at the last stage of grief: acceptance.
Acceptance is the key word here, because you don’t have to like something that you accept. But now that I’m finally here, it is easier to look at what the Canadiens have done in the off-season in a more positive light. And, in my opinion, the moves that team management made (the Subban trade aside) were pretty decent giving me reason to be optimistic heading into training camp.
For instance, you have to like the acquisition of Alexander Radulov, a top-6 guy with a ton of skill. Some fans have tried to liken this signing to Alex Semin (probably because of the ‘Russian factor’) but Semin was more of a reclamation project where Radulov is a player.
Obviously Radulov had that incident in Nashville a few years back in the playoffs with good ol’ Andrei Kostitsyn, but he’s settled down since then and had a position of leadership on his team in the KHL. Radulov got married and had kids. In a party city like Montreal, a stable family can be extremely important.
Most importantly, the guy can flat out play hockey. With a team last year that was starved for skill and goals most nights, Radulov can be a forward who brings people out of their seats, something Habs fans will love and appreciate (especially in the wake of the Subban trade.)
Snatching Andrew Shaw off of a cap-riddled Hawks team was a good move as well. You can argue against the cost or his contract, but you can’t deny that he is a gamer. As a team that was relatively easy to play against last year, the choice of playing against Shaw or Brendan Gallagher every second shift is enough to give any goalie in the league fits.
Montreal has always had a thing for heart and soul guys (looking at you, Brandon Prust) and Andrew Shaw fits that bill perfectly. If Shaw can chip in offensively and is used in the right role (looking at you, Michel Therrien) then I can foresee him becoming a fan favourite pretty quickly before the end of the season.
Drafting a stud Russian defenseman in Mikhail Sergachev ninth overall at June’s NHL Entry Draft wasn’t a bad call, either. He may be young, but many (including Trevor Timmins) are saying that this kid is physically ready to play in the NHL. The one thing that we do know about the current brass in Montreal is that they will give a young prospect a decent look if he earns it.
Sergachev may be facing an uphill battle to make the big club, however, as he has to contend with Mark Barberio, Greg Pateryn and Zack Redmond, all vying for that last spot on the blue line. But how the kid handles himself in his first NHL camp and if he can make an impact will be an intriguing story-line to watch as camp progresses.
Last, but certainly not least, was the signing of Al Montoya. After Carey Price went down with injury last year, things did not go well for the Habs. Mike Condon performed admirably most nights, but the inexperience and increased workload took a toll on both him and the team.
Montoya is a career back-up, so I am definitely not saying he could replace Price should the unthinkable happen again, but he’s been solid in the role before and has a little more experience on his resume. A competition for the back-up position might not be a bad thing as we head into this camp particularly, as both guys will probably see significant action in the preseason with Carey Price occupied at the World Cup of Hockey.
So as angry as I was, as betrayed as I felt by the team I put so much of my energy into, here I am with training camp approaching feeling just excited and intrigued as I am every year. During the off-season, there was some doubt that I would ever get to this point, but this organization managed to do it to me again through some clever moves. Part of me knew all along that this was going to happen, but it couldn’t have this quickly without acceptance.
P.K. Subban is gone and Shea Weber is here. As much as those words suck to type, that’s the bitter truth of it. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t once a dream of mine to see P.K. hoist the cup in a Habs jersey. But in the words of my favourite literary character of all time, Albus Dumbledore: ‘It does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live.’ We gotta start living, Habs fans, and start accepting. Who knows? We might even like it.
Or maybe we won’t. But it’s worth a try, at least.