So Long

You see, when I said Habs in six, I meant Habs lose in six. Anybody should have known that. In any case, the Canadiens were simply outplayed, though not by much. One-goal games were crucial to this team in the first third of the year, when it seemed that they would never give themselves an insurance marker. As it turned out, the Canadiens finished ninth in the league in one-goal victories, with 23. Naturally, Carolina topped the list, with 28.

The numbers suggest, and the playoffs corroborate, that the Canadiens season was much more precarious than it should have been. Despite remaining basically fully healthy (though the temporary losses of Alex Kovalev and Andrei Markov, who each missed about fifteen games, was deeply felt), Montreal couldn't consistently win convincingly. Even when they went 8-0 toward the end of the season, they owed more to a soft schedule and lucky bounces than hard-fought victories.

Players who should have been key took a floater for the year, and will probably find themselves elsewhere come the fall. Mike Ribeiro never seemed to recover from losing his two amigos - Pierre Dagenais, to the AHL and Jose Theodore, to Colorado - and just didn't seem to give a shit night in and night out. Theodore played his way out of town, though six months too late. Niklas Sundstrom and Radek Bonk provided adequate defensive play and decent penalty killing but came nowhere near to earning their salaries. Jan Bulis did his best two-face impression, though Bob Gainey seemed to have it in for him. Sheldon Souray took the puck, and not the man, and that's all you need to know. And Richard Zednik played an entire season with the spectre of Kyle McLaren's elbow bearing down on him. His one, last move - bring the puck in along the boards, stick your arm out to keep away the defenceman - proved utterly useless.

Not that there weren't any pleasant surprises. Steve Begin carried the team early on in the season. Cristobal Huet shouldered the burden down the playoff stretch, though I wonder if he'll be able to bounce back from the inevitable six-goal shellacking that will come his way sooner or later. Mike Komisarek showed promise, if not discipline, on the blue line. Michael Ryder racked up 30 goals and Chris Higgins emerged as a gritty garbage goal-scorer, though the last three games of the playoffs proved that their success required the initial effort of Saku Koivu. Tomas Plekanec showed enormous growth and will make a great third-line centre next year. Alexander Perezhogin hung in despite his first coach, Claude Julien, banishing him to the press gallery and the fourth line. It would be nice, however, for him to hit more mesh and less post. Mathieu Dandenault showed up for all 82 games (Craig Rivet too) and played his heart out in the post-season. And Andrei Markov proved to be a core member of the team and an emerging elite defenceman. Finally, Yann Danis excelled with the team at the start of the year and had a decent run in Hamilton. He'll make a fine backup to Huet next fall.

So where do we go from here? Bob Gainey has a lot of room to move. The team has salary cap room and enough decent players to make some wise trades. Bulis and Sundstrom, unrestricted free agents, are toast, though Jan will succeed wherever he winds up next year. Aebischer will be excellent trade bait, especially in the new NHL where above average is about as good as it gets for goalies. Ribeiro and Zednik have earned a one-way ticket out of La Belle Province and Rade Bonk's salary is untenable, though he finally showed up at the end of the season.

The free agent market is a tight one this year. Along with Huet, Patrick Elias, Zdeno Chara and Wade Redden will interest a lot of teams, as will Jason Arnott. Gainey has enough players to move around to compete in any bidding war, but players tend to perform better before they sign long-term deals - not after. That said, any Montrealer must be salivating over the prospect of Redden or Chara patrolling the blue line, helping to shore up a slightly-better-than-average defensive corps. Gainey will have to make some sharp moves, though, to make sure that the Canadiens don't rely on the likes of Mike Ribeiro and Richard Zednik to bring the pain next season. The team is already deep at the number three and four lines, and has a good collection of prospects for next season. Throw in a strong centre who can bank 90+ points a year and the Habs will be right up there with the 'Canes come the fall.