interesting article from sportsnet.ca...

[les_glorieux]

Best is yet to come

By Steve Milton

The Habs are 4-2 so far, but they have yet to show their top form.

To the naked eye -- and even to the clothed one -- the Montreal Canadiens are a better team than the Toronto Maple Leafs. But from their two, classic, head-to-head Saturday night games this nascent season, the Leafs have extracted three points, the Canadiens two.

Yes, the Leafs have the best player on the two teams, but Mats Sundin has played only three minutes so far. And yes, the Leafs' centres are certainly bigger, and Eric Lindros is off to a quick start.

And yes, Bryan McCabe is probably a better rearguard than the Canadiens' best defenceman, who is Andrei Markov right now, and probably Sheldon Souray as time advances. But on the whole, the Montreal defence is stronger, and better at moving the puck. And their four lines have more speed and more offensive jam than the Leafs' quartet.

And, Montreal was predicted to be better in goal.

Predicted is the operative word here. (And 'operative' itself is a word the Leafs hope won't be used in medical connection with their goaltender this year.)

Plain and simple, Jose Theodore has not been as good as the Canadiens thought, hoped, and needed him to be. Particularly against the Leafs. Ed Belfour, who caught one hell of a tailwind last week, outplayed him Saturday night before a Bell Centre audience which had anticipated the opposite. He was wildly out of position, botching a dump-in on the first Montreal goal, but was as Eagle-eyed as it gets after that. Theodore did not make the big saves needed for big rivalry games.

Goalie coach Rollie Melanson has been working with him on his technique, but this is probably a question of rust and adjustment. He did play 17 games in the Swedish league during the lockout, but that number of games wasn't much of a sharpening tool. And the new rules have created a different offensive flow to the game, one which Theodore seems to be having a little trouble acclimatizing himself to. Corralling rebounds, and pouncing on those little bouncers around the crease are imperative in the new game, because defencemen can no longer lasso their men in front of the net. This will be a particularly important chore against larger teams like the Leafs and Boston, who visit here tomorrow night.

Theodore's save percentage has dropped to .877, and even in a league where a number of incumbent goalies are at .900 or under, that's not strong enough. There are 24 NHL goalies (who've played three or more games), who have a better save percentage.

But it's early yet, and we have to assume that Theodore will come around. He's had too many spectacular years not to. Until the goaltending evens out -- backup Yann Danis got a shutout in his first career NHL start -- it's hard to judge exactly how good the Canadiens are.

They can be very, very good, as long as Alex Kovalev continues to dominate most shifts. It surprised the hockey world that Bob Gainey was able to re-sign the Russian sniper, but he was absolutely essential to this club scoring enough goals to compete in the more wide-open game.

Richard Zednik is part of that parcel too, but has played only five minutes this year. He's expected to return from injury this week, but skated by himself this morning.

Like many teams' rearguards the Canadiens defencemen seem confused about what they can and cannot do in front of the net, and Theodore's inconsistency has added to the indecisiveness. And if there is one thing that the first fortnight of the season has taught us, it is that defensive hesitation, at any spot on the ice, is akin to suicide. Forwards have more room and more time to plan their moves and are eating hestitating defencemen for lunch. And dinner.

"You have to get used to the rules, and the sooner the better," said Souray, the Habs' top defenceman two years ago, but struggling a bit in the early going. "For us, the key is to keep it simple.'

Which is the same thing head coach Claude Julien says about his power play, which has connected on only 13.1 per cent of its chances, 22nd in the league. That's a reflection of the overall scoring prowess, or lack thereof, as the Habs have scored but 17 times in six games, worst in the competitive Northeast.

Julien uncharacteristically yelled at his team during this morning's around-the-crease drills, designed to encourage the defencemen to mark their men more closely and for the forwards to battle more for position. Although his club is 4-2 (both losses at home), he doesn't like what he's seeing in that area.

"It's important that we get the message across to these guys," Julien said. "There's a price to pay to get goals and that means standing in front of the net not beside it. When goalies see the puck in this league, they stop it."

Julien isn't satisfied with his No. 2 line which, when last the NHL played, was effectively his No. 1 line. Michael Ryder and Mike Ribeiro were the club's two best forwards in 2004, but aren't getting enough scoring chances and Pierre Dagenais has been replaced on their wing by hustling rookie Tomas Plekanec.

"That line hasn't been doing what we know they can do," Julien said. "Putting Plekanec there may give them a little bit of a spark. We've gotta find ways to get these guys going."

There's no reason to panic in Montreal, and no one here is pushing the red button but Julien has never been one to let potential problems go unchecked. And right now, around both creases, he's got a potential problem.

Steve Milton writes for the Hamilton Spectator and contributes regularly to Sportsnet.ca.

[shortcat1]

Interesting Hamilton thinking. Seeing good things about Toronto but yet, as the home town of the Bulldogs, Montreal's farm team, putting a heavy focus on the potential of the Canadiens.

I have to agree with most of what he says. It's interesting that he sees Souray as being a better defenseman that Markov. I'd have to disagree with that.

It's also interesting that he says Montreal's potential is much greater than the Leafs' but he also says that this potential is fragile. I have to agree with that too. They're not yet the whole of what they could be. I hope, in fact, that the sum of their parts will become more than their whole (I think that's how the saying goes) - that is that they ALL play WELL but also that they ALL play well TOGETHER.

:hlogo::ghg::hlogo:

[BTH]

A nice article but nothing new.

[~moeman]

Milton has almost always delivered an honest and balanced opinion of the Habs.

This is a well reasoned article. Not much to disagree with. I'd add that the Habs future is much, much brighter than the leaf. It would have been nice to hear his thoughts on the farm boys now with the big team. Weird that he works (or sells his work) to such a biased leafarazzi network like SNazi.