Canadiens Still Noticeably Deficient

Les Miserables. Boo, blanc et rouge.

We could probably come up with a few more jabs at the pitiful Montreal Canadiens if we gave it some thought. Frankly, we haven’t given Les Habs much thought since they started giving away players not long after defeating the Kings in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals.

It’s as if they’ve slipped off he edge of the earth, following the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NBA’s Boston Celtics into an abyss populated by former sports dynasties.

Last week’s firing of coach Alain Vigneault and general manager Rejean Houle brought the Canadiens back to our attention. We noticed, for instance, that starting the week the Canadiens were dead last among the NHL’s 30 teams with a meager 14 points in 23 games.

Pierre Boivin, Canadien team president, replaced Vigneault and Houle with Michel Therrien and Andre Savard and named former Hab great Guy Carbonneau an assistant coach.

That’s certainly a start. But those three face the same basic problem: The Canadiens are no darn good. Boivin couldn’t fire his players, so he canned his coach and general manager.

But no coach is going to win with a lineup that includes one all-star winger (Martin Rucinsky), one fading all-star center (Trevor Linden), one injured all-star center (Saku Koivu) and a bunch of third- and fourth-line players.

Boivin put it this way in announcing the firings: “We were in an unacceptable state with respect to wins and losses.” Jack Todd, a Montreal columnist, translated that to mean, “We [stink] and somebody had to take the fall.” Montreal went out and clobbered the Atlanta Thrashers at Atlanta, but returned home to drop their seventh in a row at the Molson Centre. The last time the Habs lost seven in a row at home was between Dec. 16 and Jan. 18--in the 1939-40 season.

“Mistakes, mistakes. We keep making mistakes,” Rucinsky told Red Fisher, the legendary beat writer for the Montreal Gazette.

The Montreal fans had barely stubbed out their cigarettes before the Buffalo Sabres scored 10 seconds into the game en route to a 5-3 victory that dropped the Habs to 6-15-2.

How has it come to this? The Canadiens have given away players in a string of poor trades that dates to their head-scratching breakup of the ’93 Stanley Cup championship team.

Carbonneau was among the first to go. He was traded to the St. Louis Blues for Jim Montgomery on Aug. 19, 1994. Carbonneau went on to help the Dallas Stars win the Cup in 1999. Montgomery went on to play five games for the Canadiens and only 13 more in the NHL before finding his niche in the minor leagues.

And there was more.

Montreal sent defenseman Eric Desjardins, left wing John LeClair and forward Gilbert Dionne to the Philadelphia Flyers for Mark Recchi and a draft pick on Feb. 9, 1995. The Canadiens then traded Recchi back to the Flyers for Dainius Zubrus and two picks on March 10, 1999. Desjardins, LeClair and Recchi are three of the Flyers’ best players. Zubrus is OK.

And who could forget the deal that sent future Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy and forward Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche for Rucinsky, winger Andrei Kovalenko and goalie Jocelyn Thibault on Dec. 6, 1995? Roy and Keane helped Colorado win the ’96 Stanley Cup. Kovalenko proved to be a head case and was soon traded. Thibault and defensemen Brad Brown and Dave Manson then were sent to the Chicago Blackhawks for goalie Jeff Hackett, defenseman Eric Weinrich and somebody named Alain Nasreddine in a Nov. 16, 1998 trade.

Draft picks?

The Canadiens have had little success drafting and developing youngsters. Their best first-round pick since winning the 1993 Cup has been Koivu (21st overall in 1993). Their best second-round pick has been goalie Jose Theodore (44th overall in 1994). Both were selected by former general manager Serge Savard, who also drafted Desjardins, LeClair, Roy, Shayne Corson, Stephane Richer and Lyle Odelein.

The bottom line is that it’s time for a do-over in Montreal. The Canadiens made some changes last week, but must soon begin a major reconstruction of their storied franchise if they ever hope to catch the Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild.

SPEAKING OF FORMER HABS

Scotty Bowman, who coached the Canadiens to five Cup titles in the 1970s, reached the 2,000-game milestone behind the bench Friday in the Detroit Red Wings’ victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Predictably, he said it was no big deal. He had the puck in his pocket, but later gave it to his son, Bob. Perhaps Bowman, 67, made no fuss over the feat because he expects to coach another 500 games. Or maybe another 1,000.

Who knows?

“Scotty’s going to leave coaching kicking and screaming,” Detroit’s Larry Murphy said.

What is almost certain is that no one will challenge Bowman’s record, mainly because coaches don’t last anymore. Of the 10 new coaches for the 1997-98 season, only Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff, the San Jose Sharks’ Darryl Sutter and the Washington Capitals’ Ron Wilson are still on the job.

LIGHTING THE LAMP

Paul Kariya has an excellent idea for increasing scoring, which was slightly on the rise last season and has continued this season. The Duck captain would like to see the league move the nets back a few feet and expand the neutral zone.

At present, the nets are 13 feet from the end boards. The league moved them out several feet a few years ago hoping it would boost scoring dramatically. It did not.

“You build speed through the neutral zone,” Kariya said. “You’re shrinking an area that’s small to begin with.”

Kariya certainly doesn’t buy the argument that more space behind the nets gives creative offensive players more room to maneuver. More space means defensemen have a better angle to stop the puck-carrier, according to Kariya.

“Even Wayne Gretzky said before he retired that he had less time with the puck behind the net,” Kariya said.

NURSING A PANTHER BACK TO HEALTH

Serge Payer, a rookie center with the Florida Panthers, isn’t the best player in the league. But he has one of the more interesting stories to tell.

Payer was diagnosed in 1997 with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a central nervous system disorder. He lost 50 pounds and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Recovery took 10 months. He then caught mononucleosis before the start of training camp in 1999 and spent last season in the minors.

In front of several friends and family, Payer scored his first NHL goal Nov. 18 against the Ottawa Senators at Ottawa. Turns out his father missed the goal because he was in the restroom.

KICK SAVES

Several members of the Sabre organization, including forward Maxim Afinogenov, spent a restless night in HSBC Arena after a snowstorm blanketed Western New York last week. The Sabres also took in several downtown workers who were trapped by the storm and couldn’t get home. . . .

Forbes.com, the Web site for Forbes magazine, ranked the New York Rangers as the NHL’s most valuable franchise at $263 million. Guess the Rangers’ failure to advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs the last three seasons wasn’t taken into consideration. The Kings were valued 11th at $160 million, the Ducks 22nd at $116 million. . . .

The Rangers’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Islanders last week attracted a sellout crowd of 16,297 to the Nassau Coliseum, but that wasn’t the most remarkable aspect of the 172nd meeting between the rivals. The victory enabled the Rangers to narrow the Islanders’ lead in the series to 78-77-17. . . .

Jeff Beukeboom, who has been retired for two years, said last week he is still feeling the effects of a concussion suffered when Matt Johnson sucker-punched him in the back of the head. “I’ve tried everything under the sun,” Beukeboom said of his search for an end to the headaches and nausea. “I feel a little better, but not great. I just went to see a guy and he said that after a few treatments, I’ll feel a lot better. So you cross your fingers and hope.”