Take 5 | Habs News: Price, All Star Game, Fatigue, Mid Season, Prospects

by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens obtained four of the six possible points this week as they beat Dallas 3-2 in overtime on Monday night, before heading to the Bell Centre to beat the Canucks 2-0 on Thursday and lose 4-1 on Saturday against the Predators. Claude Julien wasn’t impressed with his team’s performance against Nashville. “I thought we were soft, losing battles, second to the puck everywhere. From start to finish I don’t remember much of a time, except when we scored that goal, that we got any kind of momentum or life. Then they came back and scored right away and that killed it. We just couldn’t get anything going.”

Montreal has a busy schedule this week as they host the Minnesota Wild on Monday night, before heading on the road to face the Red Wings on Tuesday and the Blues on Thursday. The Habs finish the week hosting the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Here are my top 5 takes of the week:

1. 1. 1. Price to All Star Game – On Wednesday, the NHL announced that Carey Price will be the Montreal Canadiens representative at this year’s All Star Game that’s taking place in San Jose at the end of the month. For the first time in many years, I think that you can put up a reasonable argument that other players on the team deserved the spot more than Price. I think that Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, and Max Domi would have been other names from the Habs that could have been named and I wouldn’t have had issues with the selection. With the NHL’s rule that each team must have at least one representative at the game, I understand that this creates a puzzle for the league to figure out and some very talented players don’t make the cut. To avoid a repeat of the John Scott fiasco, the fans only have the option of voting in one player per division based on a pre-determined list. Weber is the Canadiens candidate that can be selected by fans, with voting ending on Thursday night.
      2. Play or rest? – With Alexander Ovechkin announcing that he will not be participating in the All Star game and will use that weekend, which is combined to their bye-week, to rest and get ready for the playoff push. Coincidentally, the Canadiens have their bye-week immediately following the All Star game weekend which has raised discussions on whether Price should skip the festivities and get some extra rest before the final stretch of the season. “I’m planning on going right now” said Price on his plans. I don’t think that this should even be a discussion. Unless he has an injury that prevents him from playing, Price should participate. He’s an elite player of the league and his participation in the events is part of being a good professional, and Price has been a good professional. If rest is needed, the Canadiens have five days off coming off that weekend that will allow him to do so. Is the All Star game format a good one? We can have that discussion at another time.
      3. Fatigue – “It’s not a perfect game, I also feel a little bit fatigue. We were on the road a lot” said Julien following Thursday night’s win against the Canucks. It’s not the first time this season that the coach has brought up fatigue. I agree that schedule of a NHL player is extremely difficult, and I don’t want to sound like I think that the players are robots, but all the NHL teams have similar schedules. The Canadiens schedule isn’t harder or even easier than the average team. I’m not a fan of the coach using it as a reason to explain his team’s performance. If the coach feels that he has some tired players on his team, he can manage their ice time and there’s always extra players on the team that can be dressed to give players rest. I will point out that besides in goal, there was no lineup changes between Monday’s and Thursday night’s game. It was also reported this week that Charles Hudon has asked that he gets a chance to play in Montreal or on another NHL team. I’m also certain that Matthew Peca and Karl Alzner aren’t tired either.
      4. Mid season review – With the Canadiens reaching the mid-point of the season last week, it’s a good opportunity to look at the team’s accomplishments. The games have been a lot more entertaining than they were at any point last season. There’s only a hand full of games this season that the Canadiens didn’t put up a good effort, when it was the norm last year. If we take a look at some of the numbers, the Habs have 11 more points than they did last year. This season, they are in a real battle for a playoff spot, while they had no chance last season. A surprising statistic has been the goals for, where they have scored 27 more goals versus last season, which represents to 0.65 goal/game. The fact that they have allowed only three goals less than at the midway point last season, it shows how important that one goal can make in a game. The Canadiens have surpassed my expectations and I’m surprised that it looks like they will be part of the playoff race for the remainder of the season.
      5. Prospects – Congratulations to Finland on winning the gold medal at the 2019 World Junior Championships in Vancouver. I’m sure that Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Joel Armia, Artturi Lehkonen, and Antti Niemi will tease their teammates about the victory until next year’s tournament. The Canadiens has seven of their prospects playing in the tournament and they should be happy with how they performed during the tournament. Ryan Poehling (USA)was named best forward of the tournament, while Alexander Romanov (RUS) was named the best defenceman. Good job by Trevor Timmins in stocking the organization’s pipeline with some talented prospects. The development of these prospects, which has been a struggle for the organization, will be critical over the next couple of years.

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