Montreal Canadiens: Enemy’s Insight – Talking Game and Talking Trade
There have been a lot of emotions around the Montreal Canadiens after what happened last weekend, but that may not be the end of it.
Anger, frustration, sadness, confusion. Fans of the Montreal Canadiens have felt one of these emotions more than usual this season. Now that the fate of the season those kinds for the most part, the only thing to follow are the storylines.
For example, the Habs have been playing some decent hockey lately. This is completely taking the positive from a negative situation, but unlike games earlier in the season, Montreal are giving themselves opportunities to win. And that’s against the good teams. Unfortunately, it comes and goes on a nightly basis, however, their performances against Nashville, Tampa Bay, and Washington should be applauded.
In particular, when looking at the Predators game, they ran into a wall of a goaltender in Pekka Rinne. Additionally, luck hasn’t been on their side. I know you probably don’t want to hear this but, the Habs got their chances, they just couldn’t drive any home.
If you need any indication of how empty the luck meter has been, a handful of the top point getters on the team are shooting below 10%. This includes Max Pacioretty (8.1%), Alex Galchenyuk (8.5%), and Jonathan Drouin (6.9%). The same thing goes for Artturi Lehkonen and Charles Hudon who have struggled to find bounces go their way this year shooting at 5.3% and 5.0% respectively.
Obviously, that isn’t the only storyline around the Habs. The Trade Deadline will continue to be a point of interest for the fans until 3:30 PM on February 26th (sometimes trades come in late).
As far as the fans go, those are things that mean the most. However, those belonging to other fanbases have their own questions on what’s been going on – cough cough Editor in Leaf cough cough. This week’s Enemy’s Insight focuses on that.
1) What’s up with Gallagher’s comments on Subban Saturday night after the game?
Yeah that’s definitely the talk of Habs social media right now. Here’s my take on it. Montreal just played a pretty strong game against a team primed to win the Stanley Cup this season. Every chance they had was turned away by Rinne save for Brendan Gallagher getting his 20th and Jonathan Drouin tying it up in the final minutes of the game. Overtime was pretty eventful, to say the least, but they couldn’t get the extra point in the shootout.
Gallagher has been one of the more animated players on the team when it comes to losing. He hates it. Especially when you consider how many L’s have come the Habs’ way this season. So I think he was already going into that media scrum rattled enough to speak his mind more and then he gets asked three questions on P.K. Subban who he had intense on-ice battles ; it.
To what he said specifically, that’s his opinion I guess, and he can choose to answer questions the way he wants to, we can’t fault him for that. However, one thing Gallagher repeated was, “I don’t know why we’re talking about him,” and that I’ll have to disagree with.
He knows why. The Nashville Predators vs. the Montreal Canadiens will always warrant those kind of questions just because of the scope of the trade. It will never not be talked about, and, it will always be a story.
The loss was probably harder on him and the rest of the team because with all the Subban talk even before the game; you could get the sense that was a win they wanted. Even Claude Julien chimed in a little with his, “You know they have other guys,” comment when asked about Subban on Friday.
Also, if I’m not mistaken, I can remember a few times seeing Leafs players frustrated with having to constantly answer questions about Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner despite how well they played in a period. Sure it’s a completely different situation, but it’s not fun having to answer questions about others all the time.
2) With what happened with Montoya & Rishaug last week, was it customary for Habs goalies to speak to the media pre-game?
Not really. You generally see Carey Price speak after games and sometimes at practice. Granted Price doesn’t say too much anymore after his rocky relationship with the media, but he’s out there when he needs to be. However, Price, Al Montoya, or Charlie Lindgren when he was up weren’t in pre-game talks.
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I think when it comes to the Montoya situation in Edmonton – by the way, keep getting those starts and bring that fourth-round pick to Montreal – it just comes down to how different players get ready and a team policy. In this case it seems like more of a personal thing which is fine.
If anyone has watched any behind the scenes NHL special, you may be a glimpse of some of the pre-game traditions players go through. Speaking to reporters before games may not be a part of Montoya’s warm up and Ryan Rishaug didn’t do himself any favours by calling him out on Twitter. Now, this happens:
"The score was tough, but it was a battle." Montoya discusses his first start for the #Oilers as he turned aside 27 of the 31 shots he faced pic.twitter.com/pYbd2oW5Ei
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 2, 2018
3) Is it realistic that Max Pacioretty actually gets traded? Who is the most likely Hab to get dealt?
It is for sure, it just depends on what Marc Bergevin can get for him. There’s no question that he’s being shopped and that teams are calling to figure out what it will wake, but there’s a lot of competition out there. Evander Kane, Rick Nash, and Mike Hoffman are other names teams could look into.
Buffalo, New York, and Ottawa have their prices set high for their players, and Montreal is no different. To get Pacioretty, it’ll take a two high draft picks, a prospect, and a roster player, and there’s no way that trade takes place if the Habs aren’t getting a young centre in return.
Considering the team captain has another year on his deal, he may look like the more attractive addition apart from Kane and Nash who are UFAs come July 1st. However, the extra year also gives Bergevin a chance to wait until his demands are met which he has every right to do. The Habs can’t afford to sell Pacioretty ten cents on the dollar or worse, get fleeced.
The other name floating around is Tomas Plekanec who has the biggest chance of getting dealt in two weeks. He’s been a long-going soldier for Montreal, but they’d be making a mistake if he wasn’t converted into a pick or two. Apparently, Pittsburgh and San Jose are in the fold, so it’ll be interesting to see where Plekanec ends up.
As for others on the team, you can never be sure. Pacioretty and Plekanec are the most talked about names when it comes to transactions, but Bergevin has a knack of surprising us.
How would you answer the questions? Let us know down in the comments.