Tag-Archive for » Guy Carbonneau «

Frozen Vulcan: Senator Kovalev

Tuesday, July 07th, 2009 | Author:

Kovalev: A move that doesnt inspire much confidence in the GM

Question: right from the beginning of Sens training camp last season, what was the team’s glaring weakness as stated by those in the know?

Answer: a puck-moving defenceman.

Time and time we were told that the Senators could not get the offence going because as soon as the puck was played deep into their end, opponents pressured its nervous and granite-handed defencemen into turning it over. Without the ability to get the puck out of the zone the forwards were forced to retreat deeper and deeper in order to lend a hand, leaving them wide open to neutral zone turnovers. Even to this layman’s eyes, the lack of a sure-handed offensive defenceman was more than obvious.

Apparently, Senators GM Bryan Murray disagrees.

Murray’s answer to this dilemna is to sign an aging right-winger who’s being run out of town by his former coach and GM for lack of effort. This from a team in the midst of a saga involving a disgruntled superstar upset that his new coach expects an equal effort at both ends of the ice, game in and game out. Take a look at this quote and try and determine who the subject might be:

“The reason we took him off the line was, he wasn’t giving that line any forechecking,” (team’s) coach said. “I think (he) can skate a little quicker than he has been. He’s just got to give us a little bit more away from the puck, do a little bit more forechecking and play the body a little bit better.”

That was John Muckler on Alexei Kovalev in 1998. Now what about this one:

“We’re trying to get out of a situation that is not easy, and until we get 20 guys playing, it’ll be tough,” the coach told reporters before adding that he plans to speak to the player regarding his recent troubles.

That was Guy Carboneau commenting on Kovalev’s apparent lack of effort in February of this year. Finally:

“Nothing different (was asked) than from the rest of the team. You want to see consistency in effort, consistency in practice and to play a team game,” said (the coach). “All you have to do is look at the Stanley Cup final to see what can be accomplished when you play as a team.”

That last one was Cory Clouston commenting on the Heatley disgruntlement saga.

It baffles me that Murray would bring in a player with Kovalev’s reputation just as he tries to get rid of a player who would rather play elsewhere than for a coach who demands effort. And on the other side of the coin: what the hell is Kovalev thinking?

Of course I’m excited about the prospect of what Kovalev can bring, that brilliance that he clearly possesses on some nights, but what the Sens needed wasn’t another aloof offensive artist in the Spezza-Kovalev-Heatley mold, it was a puck-moving defenceman.

That need has yet to be met! If the season starts with the same defensive corps it ended with, Sens fans are in for another year of hurt. One can hope that the Heatley “sweepstakes” will yield such a prize, but if the scuttled  deal with Edmonton was any indication, Murray hasn’t identified that need as pressing, or the options available to him are paltry.

I don’t know, but for a guy who came to this team as a head coach, managed to oust the GM in order to replace him, and has now assumed many of the responsibilites of the outgoing president (whose reasons for leaving are still shrouded in mystery), I’d expect something a little more inspired than a two-year deal to for Alexei Kovalev.

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Frozen Vulcan: Montreal Media Strike Again

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | Author:

I generally don’t touch on hockey too much around these parts because the last thing we need is another hockey blog from a half-wit Canadian. I watch hockey and follow the Senators rather closely, but I am by no means an expert.

Having said that, I think most who are outside the Montreal media’s direct range will probably agree with me that Guy Carbonneau had no business getting fired. Sure they’ve struggled a bit over the past couple months, but they’re still in great shape to make the playoffs and actually make a run for the cup because they are well coached.

Guy has a 124-83 coaching record (I’ve taken overtime losses out of the equation because most coaches will gladly take a point out of most games). Show me a team that would thumb its nose at that record and I’ll eat Taco Bell for a week. Oh wait, that record is not good enough for bloated Montreal media-types that sell papers and advertising revenue based on a culture that skewers coaches and management in an unending blood sport.

Television program likes “110%” and newspapers like “Le Journal de Montréal” would be out of business if they weren’t second-guessing Canadiens management every single day in the paper. I swear that if the Canadiens beat the Red Wings 4-2 in a Stanley Cup Final series, these buffoons would ask for the coach’s head on platter because the series was not wrapped up in five games. Such a result would be an affront to “Les Glorieux”, the mythical pre-cursor to the modern-day Canadiens reality, where the Montreal Canadiens had a monopoly on players originating from Quebec. Hint: it hasn’t been that way since the ’70′s and will never return. Today I guarantee you these parasites are cooking up the newest excuses to get rid of the replacement coach, Canadiens GM Bob Gainey. It’s a never-ending cycle in that city.

I don’t feel too bad for Carbonneau, though. If he chooses he’ll simply become the latest former Montreal Canadiens head coach to have success elsewhere, in the line of Scotty Bowman, Jacques Lemaire, Alain Vigneault and Claude Julien.

People asked me why I switched allegiances from the Habs to the Sens in the mid-90′s. Although there were plenty of factors, one of them was the unhealthy relationship that exists between the team, their fans and especially the media. Sure we have our issues in Ottawa with some media (*cough* Bruce Garrioch *cough*), but nothing even comes close to the toxic Montreal environment.

Note: I love the city of Montreal and its people, and Les Habitants still occupy a place in my heart, but I call it like I see it.

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Great Quote

Wednesday, November 01st, 2006 | Author:

I decided that tonight I’ll be watching the Sens-Habs game on RDS, since I can’t really stand Dean “Oh MY HEAVENS!!” Brown. So they have a pre-game show where they sit down with Guy Carbonneau, the Habs head coach, and the interviewer asks him:

- “Any changes to the lineup tonight, Guy?”.

- With a wry smile he answers: “I’ve put Aaron Downey in the game tonight, since you never know with Neil and McGrattan.”

Nice! Let’s get it on!

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The Pimple, Week 5

Sunday, October 15th, 2006 | Author:

This will be a quick zip through my sporting thoughts of the week, considering I haven’t found the time to find a dark corner and write.

Baseball Playoffs:


- Is it normal for me to dislike an athlete as much as I dislike Alex Rodriguez? Is there something wrong with me for wishing him such distress? I may need to seek help, because when I emerged from the woods on Monday and discovered that the Yankees had been bounced by the Tigers, and that A-Rod had been relegated to 8th in the batting order due to his playoff ineptitude, I felt a surge of unbridled joy that is unnatural. Anyone know a shrink I can speak to?

- It seemed as though everyone just rolled over their opponents in the Division Series. The only result I lamented was the Dodgers losing to the Mets.

- Anyone catch that one game in Minnesota where both teams were wearing their 3rd jerseys? For anyone who isn’t yet aware, I’m something of a traditionalist when it comes to sports uniforms. I thought having both teams wear their 3rd jerseys looked
awful. Something was definitely “off”, especially considering Oakland and Minnesota have some of the nicer jerseys out there. Forest green with grey bottoms, coupled with navy blue and white bottoms – yikes. Contrast those unis to the ones worn by the Tigers and Yankees on Saturday, and you’ll know exactly where I’m coming from.

- In a way, I’m sad the Yankees kept the faith with Joe Torre. In which way is that? It would have made George Steinbrenner and the Evil Empire even more loathable. By keeping Torre, the man who has led his team to the playoffs for the past 10 seasons, George seems almost (egads!) sane.

- Some of those Tigers throw hard. 103 mph? Goodness. Even if the gun is generous by a few mph, that’s still insanity.

NHL:

- Can’t say I’m surprised at the Sens slow start, but it’s the fashion in which they are doing it that disheartens. There seems to be zero emotion out on the ice (except for flashes during last night’s game in Montréal).

- Martin Havlat and Marian Hossa have 11 goals between them. Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza have two. Yes, it’s a cheap shot. No, I will not relent.

- Am I the only one who gets a really good feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I see Guy Carbonneau behind the Habs bench? It just LOOKS right.

- 3 natural hat-tricks in one night. That’s the great thing about sports – you never know when you’ll see something that’s never been done.

NFL:

- Here’s the problem when I don’t blog regularly: people beat me to the punch. A few weeks ago, I scribbled down “everybody so eager to annoint McNair King of Baltimore…not so fast”. What does McNair do next? Two weeks of near futility, and now everyone is on the “bash McNair” bandwagon. That’ll teach me to be consistent.

- I was pondering the continued mediocrity of the Houston Texans, and couldn’t help comparing them to the Senators early years. The Senators had 4 terrible seasons to begin their franchise history, while finding a glimmer of hope in season 5 (31 wins, made playoffs). The Texans have had a similarly time in their first 4 seasons. Although I don’t see them matching Ottawa’s 5th season playoffs appearence, I do see that glimmer of hope for them. The major factor in the Sens turnaround was bringing in a competent Head Coach for the first time, Jacques Martin. This mirrors the Texans acquisition of Gary Kubiak to replace Dom Capers. We’ve immediately witnessed a turnaround if not in their record, then in the play of perennial underachiever David Carr. I predict this season to be a springboard for the Texans which will lead them to be the dominant team in Texas in the next few years.

– Speaking of Texas football, how ’bout dem Cowboys!? You know, the T.O. Fiasco is exactly what any team deserves for signing him. It is only made sweeter by the fact that it’s happening to Jerry Jones and his ego. The sports landscape is filled with these characters who have been so successful in every endeavour that they believe they can do anything, including bringing miscreants to heel. We are witnessing the third and probably final installment of the T.O. Homewreckin’ Show. Savour it while you can.

- Admittedly, A-Rod and T.O. are not the same type of characters. Strangely, though, their failures bring about the same type of joy within me. Again, I need to see someone about this.

- With Paul Maguire’s departure from the NFL commentator’s booth, we have a new King of “I’m gonna tell you what…” His name: Steve Tasker. He is virtually unable to begin a sentence without telling me he’s gonna tell me what. Steve, it’s not a real sentence, and although I don’t expect Nobel Laureates to analyze football games for me, I do expect a certain command of the English language. “I’m gonna tell you what…” grates on me like no other verbal crutch.

- Bruce Mr. Turk brought up an interesting point while watching one of the games a few weeks ago. The colour commentator (I forget which one) kept telling us something to the effect that “teams who come into this stadium will try and simulate crowd noise in practice all week”. Bruce Mr. Turk’s response? “We know already! Jeez, can’t they talk to us like we’ve watched a few NFL games in our lifetime?”. Bruce Mr. Turk was, as usual, bang on with is observation. I’m sick of being spoken to as if I was the lowest common denominator, as if I was flipping over to football during a commercial break for Desperate Housewives. These guys are supposed to be NFL experts, yet they talk to us like we’re either 12 years old or have never watched a game before.

- My Dolphins have replaced Daunte with some guy who used to play for the Detroit Lions. He must have been good, because the Lions are 0-5 without him.

Soccer:

- I am slowly getting very excited with the addition of Toronto FC to Major League Soccer. They have now signed their first player in franchise history, Canadian National Team member and Toronto native
Jim Brennan. The National Soccer Stadium (recently renamed BMO Field) is quickly making its imprint on the Toronto cityscape, and the rumour out there is that by 2010 we might have 3 MLS teams in Canada (Montreal and Vancouver are apparently working overtime to get this done). Could we be on the verge of a new soccer revival in Canada? One can only hope.

- Manchester United are atop the league in England, against all odds considering what Chelsea FC is paying in player salary. What’s wrong with the “Special One”? Also, Everton are looking good so far this season. I might have to get up next Saturday and watch some matches!

- Beckham to MLS? This is a constant wive’s tale that surfaces every once in a while concerning Mr. Posh. Grant Wahl, however, makes a logical case that the timing is perfect for Beckham to make the jump right now. I’m on the fence concerning the arrival of Beckham to North America. On the one hand it would be great PR for the league. On the other hand, the league has been steadily growing at an organic rate since its inception. Introducing this foreign species to the MLS ecosystem might signal its extinction, à la NASL.

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