What the ... rule change?!?!?

I have been rereading "The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory" by D'Arcy Jenish, that my best friend Stig gave me one Christmas. It was put together from newspaper stories and some other 1st hand sources. Fantastic read. But I digress.

In the chapter about the 1955-1964 Seasons I read a bit about the effect of the 2 Minute Penalty being changed. Until 1956 a player had to remain in the penalty box for the FULL 2 minutes. That is what happens now for a 5 minute penalty. It was changed after the 1955-56 Season basically because the Canadiens were unstoppable.

The Canadiens were a force to recon with back then. They dominated the NHL. The players were so talented that their third and fourth lines could be a 1st line on other teams. Keep in mind there were only 6 teams in the NHL then. The Canadiens frequently scored multiple goals on one power play. One of the most famous incidents happened on November 5, 1955, Jean Béliveau scored three goals in 44 seconds, all on the same power play, resulting in a 4–2 victory over the Boston Bruins.

In the book it is put forth as a means of teh other teams to keep the Canadiens down. When other teams, like Detroit, dominated there was no talk of changing the rule but now that the canadiens are dominating it had to be changed. The Board of Governors, the owners of the other teams, outvoted the owner of the Canadiens and thus the rule was changed.

I am not one for conspiracy theories but it really looks like the change was done just to stop the Canadiens from dominating. Until then no one cared. Then it became important. Oh well. I am used to the rule as we know it now. My problem is with icing during a penalty. If a team is being penalized why the fuck are they allowed to ice the puck without play being sent back to their end?!?!?!?!?

Go Habs Go!

P.S. I LOVE this book. It was the best Christmas present anyone could have given me. If you are interested in the Canadiens it is a MUST read. Right up there with The Game by Ken Dryden. If you are interested nin the NHL and hockey it is a great read because it shows how the NHL started and has evolved.

Jean Beliveau

I wish I could say I remember watching Jean Beliveau play hockey. I definitely watched hockey then and cheered for Montreal. However, I was 6 when he retired and can't truthfully say I remember him as a player. :( I wish I could.

Jean Beliveau died last week. He is one of the VERY VERY few people I have heard others talk about and they had NOTHING bad to say about him. I remember him more as a retired representative of the Montreal Canadiens. He was pure class. According to those who knew him when he played the same was true. Players from all over the NHL were told that if they wanted to be the best for their team they would do well to emulate Beliveau.

I watched the opening ceremony of the game tonight. It started about 15 minutes ago. Montreal got it right. Their tribute was spot on. Having the chair he always sat in at the Bell Centre ...  I almost typed The Forum (and it will always be The Forum to me) ... draped with his number and The Habs colours was perfect. I cried. His wife was there, along with other family members. The crowd honoured him, and thereby them. I cried. The farewell was almost as classy as Jean Beliveau was and always will be.

I am not a big fan of televised funerals. I wish I could be in Montreal tomorrow to express my grief at the loss of Jean Beliveau. My gratitude at all he gave to his sport and his country. His family is in my thoughts, and he will ALWAYS be there.

Thank you for all you did on the ice and off. You will always be remembered.

Hockey Players of Yore.

I play Dynasty Hockey on FaceBook. It is one of my guilty pleasures. :) The game is damn frustrating bordering on stupid at times, how the hell can someone who is slated to beat the opponent 90% to their 10% lose, TWICE, and once be SHUTOUT is beyond me. It makes me realize why I stopped playing the game for a year plus. Mind you, the game does bring to the present day some of the players of the past. Players we may not hear about ... at all. Case in point, Earl Robinson.

Earl Robinson was available early on for me as a draft option. I knew, by his uniform, that he was a Montreal Maroon player. Which meant he was from the past. But I didn't know anything else about him. So I checked him out on Wikipedia. He also played for the Chicago BlackHawks and the Montreal Canadiens. While he wasn't the Wayne Gretzky of his day, he was a good player who also won a Stanley Cup.

Hockey Dynasty frustrates me and boggles my mind but I am appreciative of it for bringing players of the past to me. When I see someone I don't know, ok mainly Habs and Maroons, I look them up on Wikipedia and learn a bit of history. Hmmm ... that isn't completely true. I often see non Habs and Maroons who stir a memory or who I look up just to see who they were. For that, I thank Hockey Dynasty.

Is Gainey still making decisions?!?!?

Work has been keeping me pretty busy and doesn't look to slow down until after the holidays. I still follow hockey though and was pretty much left shaking my head wondering what the hell is going on with the Habs after reading a story on another blog.

Montreal traded Spacek to Carolina for Kaberle. Kaberle? Really?!?!? Kaberle, who was so invisible in Boston that they DIDN'T want him back. Kaberle who is paid $3.5 Million a year to under perform.

Does Pierre Gauthier really want Montreal to improve? I know people jokingly called him Bob Gainey Light but it looks like he really is.

While I wasn't a big fan of Spacek this is ridiculous.

P.K. Subban cheered for Bruins in playoff final.

According to Michael Landsberg of TSN, P.K. Subban (Montreal Canadiens defenceman) told him he was cheering for the Bruins to win in the Stanley Cup finals. This has the panties of some Habs fans in a bunch. Here are a few comments taht were posted:

Buyout PK Subban right now. Put him on waivers. Trade him to Boston for a conditional 7th.

Cheering for the team that beat you? Last time someone did that was the French circa the summer of 1940.

PK should keep quiet about “rooting” for the bruins….they are our arch rivals going back decades….and an american team.

You don’t cheer for your rival. Period. End of Story.

*burns PK jersey after bruins comments*

What a bunch of immature wankers. These are the type of idiots that remind you FAN is in Fanatic.

I am a habs fan. I thought Boston deserved the win. They were clearly the better team. Vancouver was outplayed even when they won. If you can't acknowledge that you need to grow up.

Do these idiots think that every player on a hockey team is a fan of the team? I would imagine a lot of, maybe even most, players never play on their favourite team. When the team you are on is knocked out why not root for another one?

And then you have the idiots that pull the "Vancouver is Canada's Team" card. The team might be IN Canada but a vast majority of Boston's players were Canadian.

In theh end "fans" like them look classless and immature.

Gomez could go?!?!?

It is almost enough to make me find religion. Gomez, the amazing black hole of hockey statistics, could actually be traded because of the increase in the salary cap. Teams who have to make the minimum salary level can actually use his bloated contract to reach it. that would be sweet. :)

Why does the NHL look stupid at times?

It is no wonder the NHL looks like it has idiots doing the discipline when decisions like the latest punishment to Rome were handed out. Granted, I believe Rome DOES deserve a suspension for what happened. But, if what Rome did was heinous enough to result in a 4 game suspension why didn't Chara's hit on Pacioretty in the regular season? This kind of inconsistency in delivering punishment is what makes the NHL officials look bad and gives fodder to the conspiracy theorists.

Aaron Rome (Vancouver) hit Nathan Horton (Boston) middle of the ice, a la Scott Stevens, after the puck was no longer in play. Definitely an interference penalty and deserving of extra suspension time. Horton is concussed and out for at least the rest of the season. While the hit evolved from a hockey play that happened quickly it was a late hit and did result in a horrible injury.

Talking about the incident and punishment Mike Murphy pointed out that it was a late hit, the puck wasn't in play (textbook interference penalty), he thought the head was hit, and the severity of the injury were all taken into account.

Zdano Chara (Boston) hit Max Pacioretty (Montreal) along the boards and pushed him head first into a stanchion, after the puck was no longer in play. Pacioretty is concussed, has cracked vertebrae in his neck (ie broken neck) and who can say if/when he will play hockey again. Definitely an interference penalty and deserving of extra suspension time, although NONE was give.

In the Chara-Pacioretty incident they never talked to Pacioretty or even considered the severity of his injury. The decision was handed down before they even knew how bad he was hurt.

This is where the conspiracy theorists now have ammunition when claiming the Bruins get special treatment. Why wasn't Chara's hit not punishment worthy yet Rome's was?

It still amazes me to hear my Nephew-In-Law whine about a league conspiracy to prevent the Bruins from winning the cup. I have always been a Habs fan but never as rabid as this. A bad hit is a bad hit. A bad call is a bad call. If you ignore one while whinging about the other you are a hypocrite.

The NHL itself just confuses the hell out of people over whet is or isn't wrong when they continue to hand out inconsistent penalties. Hopefully this will change when Campbell is gone as Head of Discipline, but I doubt it will.

Mind you, as rabid as NHL fans can be it is a good thing they aren't as bad as the South Koreans.

$7.5 Million Dollar Mistake

Scott Gomez can play hockey, his past proves it. But that was the past. Why the hell Montreal acquired him from the New York Rangers is beyond me. The fact the Rangers were willing to get rid of him for so little should have been a warning sign.

Montreal got Gomez, Tom Pyatt, and Mike Busto. In exchange they gave up Christopher Higgins, Ryan McDonaugh, Pavel Valentenko, and the rights to Doug Janik. None of those four are with the Rangers now.

Christopher Higgins went to the Flames and is now with the Panthers. McDonaugh's rights are still owned by the Rangers. Pavel Valentenko never played with the Rangers. He is playing for Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. Doug Janik never played for the Rangers and is now playing for the Red Wings.

Basically, New York gave Gomez away. They knew he wasn't worth the price and wanted to free up cap space. They traded him for players who never even played for them. You would think the deal would have sent out huge warning signs to Montreal. Unfortunately, it didn't and they made the trade. Glenn Sather must have been surprised to find a rube to take Gomez off of his hands.

Gomez is still playing in Montreal and does produce. But he is NOT worth the $7.5 Million Dollar price tag. So far this season he has been extremely disappointing. The way he is playing he is on his way to a whopping 16 point season. That works out to about $500,000 a point. What a waste.

I thought the trade was a stupid idea when it happened and nothing has happened to change my mind. The Habs would have been better served by not wasting that cap space and using it to keep or pick up other players. Yet another of Gainey's mistakes.