Montreal Canadiens

Dan Paille's shot in overtime was deflected by a stick, and it fooled Corey Crawford. Unfortunately after Jonathan Toews' 2-0 goal was called off earlier in the game, that goal evened the series for the Bruins. Back in Boston, the Bruins are likely feeling mighty confident, even though they're -47 Fenwick and -64 Corsi through two games. Tuukka Rask has been the great equalizer. The Finnish goaltender has been absolutely remarkable in these playoffs, especially in the last two rounds. He even managed to not blow a 3-0 series lead. Hopefully his play doesn't hold out though, we don't need another 2011 where the NHL decides to not award the Stanley Cup this year. Follow @AndrewBerkshire Follow @HabsEOTP

MONTREAL – In only 23 games, Raphael Diaz made the most of the time available to him in 2012-13. If only he’d had more of it. Forget second-year slumps. When the Swiss blue-liner checked in for his post-lockout, post-Gauthier sophomore season a...

Watching P.K.Subban accept the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman on Saturday night was an absolute delight. Not only did he carry himself with grace and intelligence, but he looked darn smart in his outstanding mustard-coloured suit as well. For Subban, whose attitude and style have been over analyzed and found wanting by so many pundits around the league since his arrival in Montreal three years ago, his Norris win must be a bit of a vindication, even if he's too classy to say so.Now, in the aftermath of Subban's victory, Habs fans, who enjoyed the moment for about thirty seconds before finding something to worry about, are worrying. Specifically, they're worrying about how much GM Marc Bergevin will now have to pay to retain the Norris-calibre defenceman's services. Many are slamming Bergevin for failing to sign Subban long-term last summer. That, they say, would have avoided the Subban start-of-season holdout. And, it would have kept the cap hit for a long deal to a manageable level, since Subban had not yet proven he deserved a superstar's salary. Now, the concern is Norris-winner Subban will need extra millions to stick around and the team won't be able to afford a winning supporting cast.Habs fans, as usual, are probably getting worked up much earlier than they actually need to. No matter what happened last summer, P.K.Subban is going to get paid. If he had signed long-term, the dollar value of this year and next would have been much higher than it turned out to be. That would have been problematic for next year especially, with a dropping salary cap and big, long-term salaries already on the books.Also, Subban's agent, Don Meehan, is widely recognized as being one of the smartest guys in the business. There's little chance he would have been willing to accept a low-ball offer on behalf of his client, knowing the potential of the young player and the role he had already assumed for the Canadiens. Meehan, as well as any GM or fan out there, could see the composition of the Habs D-corps, the potential (or lack thereof) of replacing Subban from among the up-and-comers in Hamilton, the cap situation both this and next year, the comparable defenders who could be available through trade and the Habs' ability to make such a trade and the choices likely to hit the free agent market. He knew what Subban means to the Canadiens and would mean in the future, and he was hardly likely to sacrifice his commission on an overly cap-friendly hometown discount. So, even if Bergevin had come up with the five-year, five-million-per kind of contract fans were advocating, Meehan might have been fairly hesitant about committing his player to what could be a major bargain for the team.Now, when Meehan and Bergevin open negotiations on Subban's extension, the Habs will be talking about the young man's place on a roster that will be losing the big-money contracts of Brian Gionta and Andrei Markov. The salary cap will likely be on the rise from next year's post-lockout reduction. Subban will cost a lot to lock up long-term, but his Norris win should actually put minds at ease. Last season, nobody really knew whether Subban would be able to put all his special skills together to consistently dominate the game. Bergevin obviously had cap concerns for the coming season, but he also wanted to see Subban prove himself before he committed big money to the kid. That he got more out of Subban than he bargained for shouldn't be viewed as a mistake on his part, but as a happy surprise for the team. Now, when the Habs pay the man, they know they're paying a star what he's worth. Those earned contracts aren't the ones that hurt teams. Paying the likes of Scott Gomez superstar money is what prevents a team from becoming competitive.In his comments, both post-holdout and post-Norris win, Subban expressed himself with confidence, but was also very clear about his personal goal being the Stanley Cup, and being part of a winning team, rather than the star

Not that good? Not worth the big money that he’s going to get? Overrated? Not a true one defenseman? Not the Habs best player? Not the Habs leader on defense? The photo below has an irrefutable message for you, dumb ass.

For the second consecutive year, a lot of hype will surround a Subban brother at the NHL Draft. Jordan, the youngest of the three hockey-playing sons, is a defenseman like Canadiens blue-liner PK Subban, who was drafted 43rd overall in 2007. PK won the NHL's Norris Trophy on Saturday. So how does Jordan compare to his elder brother? P.K. Name Jordan Defense Position Defense OHL Junior League OHL Belleville Junior Team Belleville Right Shoots Right 2007 Draft Year 2013 6'0" DY Height 5'9" 200 lbs DY Weight 175 lbs 15 DY Goals 15 41 DY Assists 36 56 DY Points 51 +13 DY +/- +22 89 DY PIM 47 102 Central Scouting NA Rank 55 As can be seen, the two had very similar numbers in their draft years, although it must be noted that PK played on a high-flying team that scored 260 goals while Jordan's Bulls notched only 228 tallies. Jordan's team was, however, a better overall team that allowed significantly less goals. But on to the scouting report. Jordan Subban is a very much undersized offensive defenseman with tremendous skill that manifests itself in many forms. He has a great wrist shot and a solid slap shot, has good vision and is able to thread passes, and is a very good puck mover and stickhandler. He is a smart player, which is something he will have to capitalize on if he is to have success at the next level. His obvious deficiencies come in the defensive zone, where due to his size he can have trouble with taking the man, boxing guys out in front of the net, and other things smaller guys tend to have problems with. He sometimes makes questionable decisions in the defensive zone, although as a student of the game that is something I would expect him to improve on as he continues to grow as a hockey player. In terms of the size, it's interesting to look at some of the smallest defensemen in the NHL. At the bottom of the list, you have a guy like Francis Bouillon, who has managed to be a successful NHL defenseman despite significantly less talent than Jordan, and then you have promising to established guys like Torey Krug, Ryan Ellis, Tobias Enstrom, and Brian Campbell. While Subban is currently smaller than any of these guys, that doesn't mean he won't bulk up to an extent and be at around 185 lbs by the time he makes the NHL. That would make him a similar build to an Enstrom. Take a look first at what one site had to say about P.K. prior to his being drafted: Strengths: Subban is a phenomenal puckmover, rusher, and shooting threat from the backend with undeniable hands and skating ability. He is a confident player with the puck on his stick and is able to make highly skilled plays. He can be unstoppable at times on the powerplay with a heavy wrister and slap shot. Stunningly, as well as Subban can shoot the puck, he can dish it just as well with quick thinking, surveillance, and ability to hit open teammates most point men cannot. We do see signs of a physical edge as Subban is willing to aid teammates in need and engage opponents. Weaknesses: Although his name is PK, ironically one of his alleged areas needing improvement is his defensive acumen. DraftBuzz thinks concerns over this part of his game, while not terrifically strong, are overblown and not enough to drag down his value as a prospect. We see a marginal difference between PK Subban and player like Bobby Sanguinetti - a 21st overall draft selection in 2006 who also had plenty of offensive gifts but shortcomings defensively. He can become too risky at times leaving his own zone and navigating the neutral zone, relying on his skill rather than choosing safe plays. That is courtesy of NHL Draft Buzz. It's interesting to see the similarities between Jordan's game and his brother's. In the end, Jordan will never be the physical specimen that PK is, but that's not his game. At worst, he would likely end up as a powerplay specialist akin to Marc-Andre Bergeron

Good Morning Addicts!!!! So P.K. Subban won the Norris Trophy as the National Hockey League's best defenceman. Does this really surprise anyone? Certainly not yours truly. Sure, Subban is still trying to escape the shadow of his previous misgivings, but by and large, P.K. was the best rearguard in the league at both ends of the ice. His offensive prowess cannot be reproached, and his... Visit HabsAddict.com for more...

Sunday night was spent in Sudbury, where I worked 41 years ago as a young bartender, fresh out of a two-week bartender’s course in Toronto where I learned to mix more than a hundred different cocktails, about ten of which I would actually have to know and make on the job. The school placed me at the Holiday Inn, and when the bar manager introduced me to the beer dispensers and told me to pour a couple, I did, only I was sort of looking around as I did it and realized the glass was upside down. Sudbury is where I watched the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series. Sudbury is also where I got fired from my bartender’s job after a carload of Orillia friends came up to visit me, got a room, had a big party in which I joined in, and when the Italian hotel manager and the security guy knocked on the door, one of my friends answered it and shouted, “Holy #%^$, it’s the Mafia.” So I was fired for that bit of nonsense, got on at the Holiday Inn in Barrie for awhile, and eventually called my boss in Sudbury and he hired me back, which made me happy because I loved Sudbury and rarely compared it to the moon’s surface like so many do. Driving in last night, it took me a long time to get my bearings.  Stores are different. Some streets have different names now. I went to see my old Holiday Inn and it’s now called the Radisson, in the Rainbow Centre, which was called the City Centre. On a street now called something else but was once called Notre Dame. Why do things have to change? It’s only been 41 years. Why can’t they leave things alone? But the Sudbury Arena, home of the Wolves, is still there and looking good.

This June 30th, the annual NHL Draft will be held at the Prudential Centre, home of the New Jersey Devils. Like the rest of the NHL season, this event has been shortened into a 1 day affair to deal with the compressed schedule the league had this season. Since many of our readers are not too familiar with the finer details of the event, I thought I would help provide an introduction to it. Every year, approximately two hundred and ten North American and European amateurs and professionals have their NHL playing rights claimed by one of the 30 teams in the league. This number adjusts a little year to year as teams are awarded additional compensatory picks, or are required to forfeit them for wrongdoings of some sort by team management. There are 7 rounds in the current model of the draft, with each team being given one pick in each round. Where a team gets to select their draft pick is determined by their finish in the regular season and can also be influenced by their playoff results. The Stanley Cup Winner will pick last in each round, the runner-up will pick 29th, the losers in the Conference Finals will pick at 27th and 28th overall, the remaining rankings to be determined by how the remaining teams finished in the regular season. As you may know, the first overall pick in the draft each year is determined by a lottery among the non-playoff teams. While in past seasons only the five lowest-ranking teams were permitted an opportunity to draw for the first overall pick, the latest changes to the lottery have opened it up to all non-playoff teams. In previous years, a team finishing outside of the bottom five would move up four spots, which resulted in the 2011 Draft Lottery being won by New Jersey resulted in them moving from 8th to 4th. However, the odds are still rather stacked to the lowest-place finishes as the odds for the latest NHL Draft Lottery were as follows: 1 - Florida - 25.0%2 - Colorado - 18.8%3 - Tampa Bay - 14.2%4 - Nashville - 10.7%5 - Carolina - 8.1%6 - Calgary - 6.2% 7 - Edmonton - 4.7%8 - Buffalo - 3.6%9 - New Jersey - 2.7%10 - Dallas - 2.1%11 - Philadelphia - 1.5%12 - Phoenix - 1.1%13 - Winnipeg - 0.8%14 - Columbus - 0.5% The Colorado Avalanche were the winners of the 2013 NHL Draft Lottery As you can see, there was a 76.8% chance a bottom-5 team would win the lottery and hold the 1st overall pick in the draft. Going by these odds, you could hold this Lottery 199 times and Columbus could still not gain an improvement in their position. This does create a balance against good teams struggling in a year suddenly winning a draft lottery to make their franchise much better but does create another issue. Right now, it is still a very rewarding process for teams to finish extremely poorly and be rewarded with a potential franchise player. However that is a whole other issue to properly discuss. Naturally, the 1st round of the Draft generates the majority of the attention as this is typically where superstars are found. This does not mean that the whole 1st round offers star talent though, there can be huge drops in talent after every few picks especially in leaner draft years. Even in the area of the high picks, there are significant drops. Look no further than the draft year of 2004. Alexander Ovechkin went 1st overall, Evgeni Malkin went 2nd and then Cam Barker, Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler went 3rd, 4th and 5th. So it is important to keep in mind that a Top 10 pick, or even a Top 3 pick may not bring in a franchise player. Cam Barker is at best a replacement-level defencemen, Ladd and Wheeler are good players, but not what you would term stars. This is however the area of the draft that produces a litany of elite talents. Just between 2001 and 2006, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jason Spezza, Rick Nash, Eric Staal, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Nicklas Backstrom, Phil Kessel and Claude Giroux were taken with Top-5 draft picks. *For the purposes of evaulation, a time period of

MONTREAL – The Habs have had their ups and downs in past years, but through it all one factor has always remained the same. It’s hard to argue that Canadiens fans haven’t been riding the equivalent of a hockey rollercoaster over the past four ...

P.K. Subban didn't need to win the Norris Trophy last night to cement his status as one of the NHL's elite players, he's been doing that with his play for three years already, but it was a nice feather in the cap to reward him for all the work he's put in to make himself stand out from the crowd. But Subban is more than just a great player, he's more important in Montreal than that, because he signals the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. The destruction of the Montreal Canadiens by Ronald Corey, Serge Savard, and Rejean Houle in the 90's decimated the club to the point where as a young kid, it was very hard to keep a vested interest in the Habs. Every year the Canadiens were badly outplayed and badly outshot, relying on great goaltending and lucky goalscoring, then blaming a young Finnish captain for a cup drought he wasn't responsible for. Subban's arrival on the team full time in the 2010-11 season was the end of this era. Coupled with Max Pacioretty breaking out, Subban and the Canadiens all of a sudden began to outplay opponents when just the year before they were the ones being outplayed. And even better than that, the Habs had a star to call their own. Make no mistake, Carey Price has earned the star label for himself for past accomplishments, and he's made saves that have made me jump out of my seat, but he hasn't been able to cement himself as among the best of the best as yet. At least not consistently. Subban though, makes you feel it in your gut, in your heart, in your head. He dominates every facet of the game, controls the pace, and makes plays others don't dare dream of. Subban is the first player on the Montreal Canadiens since Patrick Roy that's so good, other fanbases despise him. How good is Subban? Well you already know the fancy stats, but let's look how he compares to former Habs greats. Subban is already 29th in Habs history in goals from defensemen, 33rd in assists, 30th in points, 11th in powerplay goals. This is after just two and a half seasons, and compared to 104 years of history. If Subban were to repeat his performance from this year in 2013-14, he could rank as high as 15th in team history in goals scored from defensemen, after just three and a half seasons! Of defensemen to play 200 or more games for the Habs, P.K. Subban scores the 8th most goals per game in team history, just behind Larry Robinson. For points, it's even more dramatic, as Subban sits 5th in team history in points per game behind just Chelios, Lapointe, Robinson, and teammate Andrei Markov. Subban brings you out of your seat the way people wanted Kovalev to, he's not just a superstar, he's our superstar. Follow @AndrewBerkshire Follow @HabsEOTP