Poor Len Canayen: Bring back the Russians!

Poor Len Canayen here. On September 28th, I posed the question: is it time, yet, for Habs fans to panic? I answered my own question with the word "no". But that was then, before the NHL season got underway. This is now, after the first three games played (sort of) by the bleu-blanc-et-rouge.

The record so far:
Thursday - Montréal Canadiens 3 - Buffalo Sabres 2 - shootout victory.
Saturday - Washington Capitals 6 - le Canadien, errr, 1 - débâcle.
Sunday - New York Rangers 2 - Habs 0 - shutout loss.

Thursday night's win did not inspire confidence. The Habs had to come from behind twice to tie the game late in the third period. The three-on-three overtime produced no excellent chances on either side, and it was just a beauty goal -- his first as a Canadien - by Jonathan Drouin that did the trick. Carey Price deserved his first "W", having faced 45 shots thanks to a lazy and inept defence.

Saturday night's game was indeed a debacle. The Caps' Alex Ovechkin (the Great Eight) scored four (4) goals, two of them in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the first period. With another goal having been potted between Ovie's first two, that left the Habs in a 3-0 hole with the game not yet three minutes old. It just got worse after that.

Last night les Glorieux played well enough to win, I thought, or at least get a point, but they didn't. The puck got behind Rangers' goalie Hendrik Lundqvist twice in the first period, but both goals were disallowed after review, and rightly so, it must be said. That seemed to discourage our lads, who just went through the motions in the second and third frames. The Rangers scored on a bad bounce off Shea Weber's skate and an egregious giveaway by Jeff Petry, and that was all she wrote.

So... In nine periods of regulation time (plus a five-minute overtime), the Habs have scored but three -- count 'em, three -- goals. That's an average of just under one (1) per game. Even with Carey Price in top form, you don't win a lot of games by scoring just one goal. It's worth noting that two of the three goals were scored while short-handed! What does that tell you?

What the team needs is a couple of players who can be counted on to put the puck in the opposition's net! Only one forward line -- the third line centred by Tomas Plekanec -- played hard. Plekanec and Paul Byron are dangerous on the PK. Captain Max Pacioretty tired hard as did wee Brendan Gallagher. (I love that kid.) Drouin has talent, but is not going to turn things around single-handedly.

On the debit side, Alex Galchenyuk still hasn't learned to play in his own zone. He was -5 against Washington. We've seen Charles Hudon and Jakob De La Rose before, last year. IMHO the only reason they were kept with the Big Team after the pre-season is that we didn't have anyone else!

As for the defence, the less said the better. IMHO (again) the only top-notch defenceman wearing the CH is Shea Weber, and you can't expect him to play 25 or more minutes every night. Jordy Benn and Karl Alzner have not lived up to expectations. Jeff Petry doesn't seem to realize the season has started. Just as I predicted, Andrei Markov and Alex Emelin are already sorely missed. The only bright light is rookie Victor Mete, but he's young (19) and not yet fully grown. I don't know if he'll be able to stand the gaff for another 79 games.

In my (still) humble opinion, it's not too early to lay the blame for this year's terrible start at the feet of Habs' GM Marc Bergevin. The loss of Emelin couldn't be helped -- stupid expansion draft! -- but we could still have had Markov and Alex Radulov if he (Bergevin) had only softened his "I'm the boss" attitude and opened up the purse-strings a little.

Radulov got a sweet deal from Dallas, so there's no getting him back, but if I were M Bergevin, I'd be on the phone to Kazan [That's in Russia. Ed.] to tell Markov all is forgiven and please come home quick. And who knows? It's just possible that Emelin won't be happy in Nashville (with his old friend P.K. Subban!) and would welcome a trade back to the Mecca of hockey. It's happened before (Hello, Mark Streit!) so it could happen again!

Further reading (added 10/10/17): "Les premiers matchs du CH sèment déjà l'inquiétude": Michel Lamarche dans La Presse.