"On his goalward mission , he seemed past distraction , outside pain , like a father trapped with his child under the wheels of a car finds a desperate strength to lift that dreadful weight . Such was his need .Ken Dryden from his book `The Game` – describing Maurice Richard."
Must it come to this ?
Must we endanger the life of a child in order to provoke some passion , a drive into Scott Gomez ?
I think not .
Sacrifice a panther , a coyote – a penguin ? Throw Chris Higgins under a car . Toss Shane Doan from atop the Chase Tower . Sidney Crosby ? He may be the only player on the planet that may just lift that car . Sit him down in front of a fireplace – keep him from cold , that `s how you kill a penguin .
Gomez cannot be motivated into anything aside from doing his best interpretation of a figure skater on crack . `Round and round he goes – where he stops noone knows .`Scott Gomez does not know .
Recently – in Canada , we have concocted a show that is pure Canadian . A show that has a viewership of many although none seem to admit to watching it . The show is titled Battle of the Blades . It `tis a reality competition pairing former NHL skaters with figure skaters . Think Dancin `with the stars on ice. On the show this season there were four former Montreal Canadiens competing . Patrice Brisebois , Georges Laraque , P.J . Stock and Valeri Bure . What this says about the Montreal Canadiens is `an entire different can of frozen worms.The problem is that the producers of the show picked the wrong Canadien .
How can Valeri Bure win the championship of this event with Scott Gomez
skating loops around opposing peanut – venders ? Georges Laraque was cut by his partner `s skate ! Ya think that Gomez `s tricky – dicky footwork would allow such a thing ? P. J . Stock – who was not a hockey player yet rather a boxer on skates , was able to get a gig while Gomez stayed in Montreal watching his teammates play night after night . In the words of Colonel Wirtz in the film `Apocolypse Now ` – ” The Horror ! The Horror ! ”
There are two players on the Habs that are not producing – period .Scott Gomez and Lars Eller . Both are very talented players . Eller is young and stupid in the big scheme of the hockey world. Gomez has no excuse . He is old and stupid or he is just not getting breaks . Doesn `t matter . Send the two down to Hamilton and bring up Max Pacioretty and Aaron Palushaj .
Inject some life into the Habs offense while giving Gomez the shock of his life and allowing Eller to gain some confidence which is so important at this time of his life. Palushaj deserves a first chance while Pacioretty deserves a second one as he leads the Bulldogs in scoring.
The Habs cannot win games on defence alone which is what they have been doing . Like an old car filled with rust – it will only get you so far. When the Habs win a game they give up under three goals to the opposition . When they lose a game they give up three goals or under to the opposition. Win or lose they score three goals or under the majority of the time. Give the kids a chance to inject life into the players on the Habs that are producing more than Eller and Gomez . Give Gomez and Eller a chance to miss their `pals `in Montreal.
In can only be a win – win situation for all four players involved .
Figuratively speaking of course .
Habs play the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow night at the Bell Center. 7 pm .Check out that dude in Edmonton – Geoffrey Chapman as he writes for a little thing he calls Oil on Whyte.
On my site -and all sites on fansided you will notice an excellent change . You will notice on top where it says about , Stanley Cups , Retired numbers etc…there is now a schedule tab . This gives all recent scores and upcoming games . It also gives links to purchase tickets ! How cool is that ? As they say in the retail business – check it out !