Budaj Starts vs. Blackhawks Wednesday
by Kevin van Steendelaar on Dec 20, 2011 8:57 PM EST
in Opinions and other Habs links
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PrintCarey Price is a career 2-1-0 against the Chicago Blackhawks, with a GAA of 1.99 and a .954 SvPct. His lone loss was in October of 2009, a 3-2 decision, despite 33 saves on the night.
But with the Canadiens now sitting on a three game losing streak, none of which could be labelled on the goalie, coach Randy Cunneyworth has decided to shake things up.
So instead of matching up the team's best player against the best team in the Western Conference, the Habs bench boss will go with Peter Budaj on Wednesday night.
It might be a message to the rest of the team, who have performed sub-par since he took over from Jacques Martin on Saturday morning. It has to be that, or Cunneyworth didn't do his research. Budaj's career record against Chicago is 4-4-1 (2.99, .900). His last appearance at the United Center was a 4-0 loss last season while with the Colorado Avalanche.
"I have the utmost confidence in both our goaltenders, and we've got a big workload right now against good teams. We have to combine the goalies in our efforts.," Cunneyworth said after Tuesday's practice. "Peter's a real professional and he's very inspirational in his work ethic. I think today's the day he get things in order in his own mind. He'll be ready for the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow."
Cunneyworth also noted that the rest of the team will need to play a strong supporting roll for their goaltender, something not seen of late for Price. "He can't be at his own device. We gotta play in tandem with him and be there for him," Cunneyworth added. "I think the guys will rally around his play."
Full video of the coach's post-practice scrum, and other Habs links after the jump
TSN990's Conor McKenna hijack's Eric Engels blog and asks, "Protect the language, or protect the puck?"
Guy Carbonneau says French is a necessity for a Habs coach. Apparently the issue has reached Montreal's City Hall.
Chris Johnston with some potential coaches in Montreal.
Fred Poulin on the Habs unexpected hidden gem
Backstrom's Cup Ring Fetches $13K: I met Habs legend Ralph Backstrom, at an autograph signing, a couple years back. At the time he was sporting one of his Stanley Cup rings. I inquired as to which it was, and he kindly showed it to me and explained that it was a ring acknowledging the Canadiens four Cups wins from 1955 to 1959. Up until then there were no individual rings given to teams for a Cup victory.
That very same ring fetched $13,222 at a recent Leland's auction .
Another unique item was a personal letter from Jacques Plante to Marcel Roy, who was a representative with Molson's Brewery at the time. With some translation help from Robert Lefebvre, the letter, dated in 1970 notes that Plante was happy not to be in Montreal at the time, amidst the impatient fans. At the time Plante was with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The letter sold for just over $275, not a bad deal for the avid collector, while a Howie Morenz signed studio photo fetched over $3000.
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I don’t know if you guys are watching the Rangers-Flyers 24/7 series on HBO (great production, well worth it), but Tortorella quoted some stat about quantity of regular season starts a goalie typically gets on teams that eventually win the cup. I want to say that he said 62-65 starts is what they average.
Has to be a huge issue for a team like the Habs just on the outside looking in. Do you give your best player reasonable regular season rest and hope he has something left in the event you get in?
I Thought Martin Needed To Go..
But I Was Sure Cunneyworth would go with him. I never in a million years thought the Habs would fire Martin without having an up-grade immediately available. This is the Yankees of the N.H.L. ? Gauthier is next.
Nothing Is Fool proof if you have the right fools.
by GiantsCauseway on Dec 20, 2011 11:05 PM EST reply actions
There are no "Yankees" in the NHL
The league is set up so that every team has a chance to compete. It’s called “competitive balance” and it means that a team can’t just buy its way to the top and spend money to stay there. I’m not sure Montreal management has figured this out yet, and certainly the average fan has not, but this is not MLB, and thank God things don’t work that way in this league. The comparison to the Yankees is a weak one in the 21st century, perhaps 50 years ago.
I Was Referring..
To tradition, class, & professionalism.A history with many championships. The Yankees & Habs both have fan bases that exceed their geography.
Nothing Is Fool proof if you have the right fools.
by GiantsCauseway on Dec 21, 2011 8:34 AM EST up reply actions
Well with only 4 starts you knew it was sooner than later that Price was going to get a rest. I think he’ll be rested more often for the balance of the year to get himself down to a reasonable number of starts 65 – 70 range.
As for Martin’s firing and no bilingual successor immediately available. What can you expect from the #1 customer of Johnson & Johnson. Yes we buy more Bandaid solutions from them than anybody else. When you have no clear vision for the team mapped out farther than Thursday of this week what can you expect? This whole season from the moment the team was eliminated in last year’s playoffs up to today has been a sham. So many wasted opportunities and so much deception. The Canadiens were once the elite organization of the league. Now, they treat their players and fans with disrespect and turn their backs to the legions of fans world wide that support them. It is an utter disgrace that this has been allowed to happen. But when you have an organization that cares more for the bottom line than for the on ice product nothing less can be expected. There is no accountability here. No one is taking ownership for the mess that is called the 2011-12 edition of the Canadiens. No we just blindly go about our business and wait for the next incident to happen and then we will be forced to “re-act” once again. It is obvious that the upper management of the team has never heard of the term: “bold strike”. I mean would they know how to make one?
"It's only through change we learn to grow".
That's what you call a "bold" strike?
Bold would be choosing the best man available regardless of whether he’s bilingual or not. Smart, wise, prudent, careful… all those words might work to describe what you’re getting at, but if it’s bold you want, bold is what you’re getting.
Cunneyworth is, by all accounts, not a bad coach. Just for perspective, not that he cares, if Montreal had let him leave next off-season we would have had people asking why PG let another solid coach in our system follow the route taken by Muller and Boucher.
Also for perspective, Cunneyworth has the label “interm” because you can do that when someone has come up through your own system. If he is proving he knows how to handle the team and the city by the end of the season, you can take that label away. But in the meantime it allows you to look for other, potentially stronger, candidates without making a panic decision.
I come over to this site to escape the inane, baseless attacks on the team over at HIO and find this. With all due respect, a lot of what your saying here is just your own feverish mind at work.
‘No clear vision’… just because you don’t know what it is does not mean it does not exist. ‘Cares for bottom line more than on ice product’… what’s your proof? And I don’t mean they charge too much for the hot dogs – what’s the real proof that supports this specific accusation. ‘No accountability’… that’s a funny one given what has just happened to Martin and Pearn. Why the need for a ‘bold strike’… slow and steady (which was the path they were on) also wins the race.
I will agree wholeheartedly that firing Martin was stupid; firing him now was doubly stupid; and having no bilingual successor was more stupid piled on top of stupid. But from my perspective, that was actually a dramatic shift in PG behavior. I thought he had been calm and focused up till that move and was providing Martin with the sort of players/team that work well for him. I thought they had played better than their record and were holding their own until reinforcements arrived.
As for ‘bold strike’, that is what concerns me most right now. I greatly fear a big, bold and very bad move to try to get themselves out of what they perceive as a bad situation. I say give RC 20 games to get grounded, evaluate along the way and then decide what you do for the rest of the season that supports where your headed 2-3 seasons out. Would like to see them in the playoffs, but just as happy to see that they set themselves up nicely for next year and beyond.
by VVV on Dec 21, 2011 7:17 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
You make an important point re: PG’s behaviour. Quite frankly, I too find this remarkably off-character. What the hell happened, we will never know, but something did happened because the whole ordeal reeks of confusion and improvisation. And that’s pretty uncharacteristic of PG.
RC will now feel obligated to “try new things” because he is a “new coach” and PG obviously expect him to do so. Fine, except this whole “try new things” thingy has a chance of making things better if and only if Martin’s strategy and handling of the lineup were a problem. I don’t think they were, I think injuries are completely, totally to blame.
So now we have to stand around watching RC feel his way into a new strategy that may or may not work (again, I’m not blaming him, this is what’s expected of him) for the next 20 games.
That, folks, may very well be the season, especially if Gionta and Gomez don’t come back quickly.
I appreciate...
…that it’s all speculation. I’m approaching it no differently.
The only thing that’s really changed with respect to the Habs org this year is that there is a new ownership group. The front man in that group, Geoff Molson, has appointed himself President.
At the same time this is taking place, the team is struggling. It’s not a disaster, but with every ensuing game, there is a growing sense of elusiveness in regards to the post-season.
If PG’s decision seems out of character, is it possible – I’m only raising the possibility - that Molson is taking a more hands-on role with the team and that what currently seems unusual is really a reflection of the only thing that has really changed, namely new ownership.
Molson certainly gives the impression he intends to be more involved in the team than his predecessors, both Boivin and Gillett.
It is entirely possible Molson fully expected to make a coaching change during the offseason, assuming the season continued to trudge along as it has been, but was looking to give someone he considered highly competent – Cunneyworth – a chance to prove himself and hopefully overcome the language issue.
I think it’s fairly clear it’s probably a non-starter. It is probably worth noting that neither Molson nor Gauthier made any real mention of the language consideration when Cunneyworth was appointed, other than the careful use of the term interim, reacting only some time after the fact and when things were starting to boil over.
It arguably smacks of trial balloon.
I’m not suggesting I know the truth. Nobody does. Maybe I’m just a firm believer that successful business enterprises generally underpin their madness with method.
Whatever the case, it is somewhat disconcerting that Cunneyworth is effectively hamstrung in his role to the extent the players have to believe he won’t be the head coach next season.
Like a second-term US President two years into his or her mandate.
Agree completely in principle that successful organizations ‘underpin their madness with method’. Would just suggest a slight ammendment, ‘underpin their apparent madness with method’.
I like what you are saying about the potential faith they have in RC as a guy that might be able to make an impression. Probably also banking (again, total speculation) that if he successfully puts some sound building blocks into place and shows a genuine interest/progress in learning french that he might be able to survive this. But I don’t know the Quebec environment at all and this may be unrealistic.
The other real danger is if he does a good job but they can’t keep him because he can’t become bilingual enough, they will have highlighted him to the rest of the league and we lose him next year when the new coach comes in.
I honestly don’t know when he’d be able to learn French with the demands of a NHL coaching schedule. By requiring an unilingual coach to learn a second language while coaching the team would put us at a severe disadvantage, much moreso than just selecting from only the bilingual candidates, IMO.
Puck Worlds: Chasing Pucks from here to Turku.
For Twitter Updates on Puck Worlds, follow @puckworlds. For updates plus additional witty banter from yours truly, follow @saskhab.
To your point, I don’t sincerely believe RC would be able to develop a strong enough grasp of the French language to allow him to become an effective communicator, certainly not given his personal time constraints. I’m thinking more along the lines of him demonstrating his willingness to invest the effort.
For many, it probably would not be enough. And I understand that. The notion of him returning in his current role next season does really look like a non-starter.
Which, as noted, stands to be a potentially disappointing outcome.
Part of the price we pay to be hardcore fans of one of the most beloved and enduring pro sports franchises in the world.
We have people in our organization that have similarly hectic/demanding jobs and have done wonders with crash courses offered in Quebec.
Not saying it will be easy – but if learning enough french to get by was the only thing between me and becoming (a non-interim) head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, I think I would give it a pretty good run.
There are only 30 of those jobs around. I’m pretty sure a large proportion of candidates would give it a pretty good run. Add to that the considerable resources of the habs as an organization and the fact that they can without any difficulties tell the public “well, he won’t start taking crash course before the summer, of course” and you see how this whole thing could be a non-issue if the ownership group actually got its head out of their rear-end.
As I have written over at Lions in Winter: people have been coming to this place and learned french for centuries. Most, if not all, did so without having a tenth of the resources available to the Habs.
This is not about politics, it’s about workforce training.
Interesting view for sure. Larger companies are continually running field trials to test new products, services, and markets. They gain customer feedback, generate media interest and monitor competitor reaction. Final product releases can be modified based on those trials. RC may simply be a field trial.
Tough situation for RC.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Dec 21, 2011 5:57 PM EST up reply actions
Yes but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he was fully briefed on the plan prior to it being implemented (if it is indeed a trial). He may well be OK with the whole thing and willing to take the heat just for the incredible opportunity it presents. I don’t see RC losing however this turns out.
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