Habs March Over Manhattan: Habs 3 - NYR 1

What to make of last night's showing in New York City? How do you define the Rangers' performance? Listless? Lifeless? Worrisome?

Yeah, I kinda like that last one. If that's the best Tortorella can get out of his guys in what was a huge game in Manhattan, you have to wonder what kind of commitment he's going to get down the stretch. Maybe the real huge game for the Rangers is their next one against the sagging Bruins. Maybe the seventh place Habs were already mentally out of reach.

Maybe the hint we can take is that we can start to take this Canadiens' team seriously. You've got to like it when a team catches fire just before the playoffs. You like it even more when they do so early enough to avoid the exhausting grind that leads to a last gasp playoff berth. This is a very good mix.

The Habs' play of late doesn't remind us of two years ago when they won the conference and had us seeing a deep run, and it's certainly not the win-or-die plight they've managed to find themselves in year after year. The Habs are looking poised to enter the playoff picture with what we can call managed expectations.

The fact that they're in the conversation at all is quite amazing. A team is going to lose its 200-man games to injury and Montreal has certainly not strayed from that rule this year, but it's the quality of players affected by ailment that makes their position all the more enjoyable. The fact that they are probably going to win over half their games is a stunning reversal of fortune. Long story short, the Habs have no business being where they are. But they are.

We're seeing that they may actually be a thoroughly well coached team, lead by a young understated goaltender who has slowly pulled the spotlight away from the one we all wanted to hand the podium to. We're seeing that the small moves made by Pierre/Bob may have actually yielded essential dividends. Pouliot, Moore, both were strong last night in this crucial game. Both worked hard, nose to the grind, no cheating.

Montreal walked into MSG last night and threw a Jacques Martin sleeper-hold over the Rangers. It made for the dullest hockey you'll ever watch and was an agonizing experience for my ADD riddled existence, but it worked. Two points in regulation in an ugly road win against a conference rival breathing down your neck with 10 games to go in the season. Who's going to moan and groan about that. Right now, it doesn't need to be pretty.

Say what you will about Scott Gomez. He's a very good hockey player. Does he deserve his 8 million? This could be the answer: full points to him for getting ready to bag 60 points despite having lost Gionta for an important part of the season. Full points to him for proving to be the perfect match for Benoit Pouliot who may have been playing his entire career when he arrived to Montreal. Kudos for proving to be a fantastic puck-carrying centreman who'll get you to the offensive end rather effortlessly and get the puck to the right guy just as quickly once he's there. Kudos for not making any noise whatsoever in a room that has been replete with bullshit and drama over the last couple of years. Bravo to Gomez for restoring a sense of quiet honour to the room. It may not amount to 8 million dollars worth of production on the ice, but I'll take Scott Gomez and his inflated salary over 5 million dollars worth of noise and ego. Factor in a few dollars for that kind of personality. That's money well spent.

Same goes for Gionta. Does it ever.

"This one's Optimistic", Thom Yorke would say. Why the hell not. Maybe it's the smell of spring which reminds me of the brisk walks to the Forum on playoff nights when I was a kid. Maybe it's because I actually really like this group and want them to do well. Maybe I believe in the possibilities.

The Habs could have thrown themselves right back into the quest for sustenance had the Rangers taken the points from them last night. It wasn't even close. And it renewed a sense of mounting optimism, dare we call it that.

Bratislava is Getting Giddy: Habs 3 - Bruins 2 (shootout)

It's not as impossible as Kovalchuk turning down 110, .. what?

Quite surprising that we'll be inserting a plan the parade tag to this post. But last night's win got us thinking about another kind of parade. La fête, eastern Europe style.

Vibe with me people.

Isn't Jaro Halak's performance starting to feel like Jose Théodore's back in his Hart winning 2002 season? Remember when he started really getting his game together at the 50-game mark and brought home one 45-stop win after another? That year, the race for the Hart trophy was a close one, with Jarome Iginla's Flames missing the playoffs and probably depriving their star of well deserved MVP status in the process. This year, it's really no contest. Ovechkin with that newly minted C on his chest is helping the Capitals runaway with the Conference. Unless Ryan Miller takes the Sabres there or bags another 5 or 6 shutouts by year's end, Ovie will claim the Hart.

But Jaro is doing a fabulous job. Last night, with the Bruins outshooting the Habs by a wide margin for 2 periods, skating them to sleep and looking very much like a team that was ready to break out of a historical funk (didn't we tell you guys about Michael Ryder?), Jaro kept the Habs within striking distance with some inspiring goaltending. He's officially in the zone, as the acrobatic blocker and toe saves would suggest. Gomez had a bit of spark in him in the third and so did Metro and Markov, but make no mistake: Jaro won this game pretty much all by himself. And he's writing an increasingly interesting subplot.

Something has happened to the Habs' ability to keep the opposing team to an acceptable number of shots. And we're not just talking plain shots, we're talking decent scoring chances. With a defence corps and a depleted lineup at the forward position clearly scrambling for some kind of structure on the ice, Jaro remains square to the puck, unfazed, totally together.

What does Gainey do? Does he trade his MVP with a team clearly still in the playoff hunt? Does he stick to his Carey is my big horse of a thoroughbred stallion, look how well he chews hay I love how he gallops logic? Two years ago, he handed mission control to Price with Huet's UFA status looming large. Well we're back at Mission Control and Gainey's got a small problem. He's been praising Price for years.

I was speaking to someone not too long ago who was discussing the concept of potential. She used lawyers as a good example of the trouble that arises when one remains stuck on the promise of potential. Society has been branding lawyers as an elite group, monetarily speaking, well capable of reaching important financial heights. And so people keep on selling lawyers their potential rather than what they actually have. The result is that lawyers live more over their means than any other category of workers. And they are hurt by it in the process.

If you import this logic, there is no doubt the Canadiens' prestige drives them to think in similar terms, that in Montreal, we need to do well, we are capable of far more because of who we are and what our franchise stands for. Everything this organization has done with regards to Price speaks of a team desperate to see something in the goalie and in itself. And lost in that projection of mystique is the blunt reality of things: on its face, there is nothing mystical about the Montreal Canadiens in 2009-2010. It's an average hockey team blessed with a very passionate fan base, and it has been a very average team for a very long time.

This franchise has been almost fraudulent for 3 years now. Selling us anything that can be made in Small Medium and Large with the 100 Years logo on it, while giving us mediocrity to feed on in the now. Selling the past while shortchanging us in the present. Why can't the Montreal Canadiens just call it the way it is?

Carey Price is not a thoroughbred. He's a young goalie with a ton of upside who's just adjusting to a life in the spotlight while playing hockey in the league's most capricious and voracious market.

How much is riding on Carey from an organizational credibility perspective? Picked 5th overall, way higher than anyone had predicted. Given the number one status way before anyone thought he could handle it. Constantly re-endoresed by management despite so many flat performances. And it makes sense, no argument there. Stand behind him. Believe in him. Get him to where he needs to go. But Montreal has to stop throwing the rest of the team under the bus in a grand sacrifice for Carey's anointment to something nobody can be sure about.

You keep on trading away your "backup" to keep the "Carey is our future" banner flying high, and you're just guilty of wanting too much, too soon. You're paying Scott Gomez 8 million a season now so better make the most of it now and get the best team on the ice now. Selling promise over reality and over-stretching a team in goal, a crucial position, just perpetuates this need to see something now that's just not ready to be there.

What they have now gives them a chance for today, and maybe tomorrow if the team dare look beyond next season and what that could mean about their self-assessed Price chart. How much better does this team, those other 20 players, get in the future if they ride a hot streak with Jaro and do something in the playoffs? Why has it been about how much experience you need to give Carey no matter how much it deflates the rest of the team? There must be room for this logic: a more confident team will only alleviate the pressure on Price in the future. The way the team has orchestrated things so far is making it up to the young goalie to lift the entire weight of the franchise. How much easier would it be if they had it going in the other direction.

And this speaks so much to how Jaro has been treated by this organization. Did Jacques Martin fly over to Jaro's house this summer to have a quality chat with his young goalie? Has Jaro ever played a game following a loss in his THREE YEARS in Montreal (can you believe that???)?

Would you want to commit to this team if you were Jaroslav Halak? So at least make it interesting, Gainey. See what you've got before he goes, because you're not going to resign him and by all accounts he's in a much better position to deliver something special this year than your young stallion. Make it interesting. Keep him, give your team a fighting chance, give the goalie what he's earned. He's your number one, he's done what it takes to get there. Maybe the best way to assess his true worth is by keeping him and risk losing him. If he does well, really well, you may not need to buy into the Price perspective. You may see yourself suddenly detaching from it. If he does well, really well, then at least you'll be in a better position than anyone to apologize and make it up to him. Take him for one of those celebrated walks around Old Montreal.