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Habs : The pillar

Source : canadiens.nhl.com



A physical presence. That’s what Michel Therrien was looking for when he called upon Jarred Tinordi at the end of the season. And, the Canadiens bench boss was not disappointed.

The 21-year-old defenseman had two stints with the Habs this past season. The first, which lasted six games, allowed him to become accustomed to the rigors of playing in the NHL and familiarize himself with the Canadiens’ system as well as his teammates. The second, which lasted the two final games of the regular season and the playoffs, provided him with a good taste of what his role would be with the team in the near future.

"I think that it was excellent for my development. I didn’t get the chance to play many games during the regular season. To head straight into the playoffs helps you understand what postseason hockey is all about," confessed Tinordi, who most notably led the London Knights to a berth in the Memorial Cup in 2012. "It gives you an idea of what it takes to win, and you want to train even harder during the offseason knowing that’s what it takes to go far."

A veritable steamroller during his second stint in Montreal, Tinordi dished out 23 hits in his last seven games, including a seven-hit effort during a game on April 25 in Winnipeg.

"I think that my style of play fulfills a need on this team. It’s important to work on my game and to head back to training camp in great shape," added the 6-foot-6 rearguard, who tips the scale at 215 pounds, a number that he is not yet satisfied with.

"I’ve got to put on weight without compromising my mobility. I’m a pretty mobile defenseman for my size and I don’t have to sacrifice that," continued Tinordi, who bears a striking resemblance to Hal Gill from a height standpoint, but possesses speed that is uncommon for a player his size.

Still slender, Tinordi knows full well, by his own admission, that he could add some 30 pounds to his frame during the next few years.

"I grew quickly. It’s tough for your body to keep up with the growth spurt. Your metabolism isn’t able to keep up. When my father started playing, he was skinnier and with time he put on some weight. It will take time and a lot of work, but we’ll see," confessed Tinordi, who hopes to arrive at training camp in September ten pounds heavier. "I won’t be getting any taller, that’s for sure!"

Habs : Lafleur expects big things from Habs next season

Source : Cjad.com



The Montreal Canadiens introduced the recipients of the Guy Lafleur Awards of Excellence and Merit for the 2012-13 season today. The awards are presented annually to hockey players at the amateur level who best combined hockey performances with academic excellence. Lafleur says it’s nice to see such successful young athletes.
 
“I think it’s just fantastic to see the kids who went through, who won the awards.  It doesn’t mean they’re going to go to succeed to realize your dream about playing in the NHL but at least a lot of these kids are doing well, businesswise. It’s great.”

Molson/Coors awards recipients of the Guy Lafleur Awards of Excellence a $6,000
scholarship over a 3-year period, and the beneficiary of the Guy Lafleur Awards of Merit earns a $1,000 scholarship.

One of Awards of Excellence went to Quebec City native Patrick Delisle-Houde. The 21-year old student was recruited out of the QMJHL where he played four seasons with the Rimouski Océanic (2008-2011) and the Moncton Wildcats (2011-2012) earning 169 points, including 66 goals, in 254 regular season games. In 2012-13, his first season as a Redmen, Patrick had a team-leading 31 points, eight of them goals, in 37 games overall.

 In class, Delisle-Houde maintained an 88% average as a physical education freshman, meriting the CIS Academic All-Canadian honours and qualified for the Principal’s Student athlete honour roll.
 He also volunteered his time visiting sick patients at the Rimouski Regional Hospital and made numerous school reading to kids.
 
“I think I worked hard on the ice to prove myself because when I started the season I was on the fourth line, and when I finished I was on the two first lines. I did pretty well on the ice, and off the ice in the gym, I showed the example, it doesn’t matter if i’m a rookie or not I do what I need ot do for me. And after  in the school I think I did really well. “

Lafleur spoke about the impressive turnaround the Canadiens made this season and also the less than impressive early exit from the playoffs.

 ‘I was expecting more in the playoffs, but they had a good year. They had so many injuries and Carey was not maybe playing at his best. A lot of players didn’t play at their best too. So it was tough, it was tough in the playoffs, but i’m very positive about the future.”

 

Habs : Canadiens have to get bigger

Source : montrealgazette.com

There’s an adage in sport that says you can learn more from losing than you can from winning.

And if there’s one thing the Canadiens should have learned from their first-round playoff loss to the Ottawa Senators it’s that they have to get bigger if they hope to succeed in the future.

For the better part of the past decade, the Canadiens have operated on the philosophy that speed and skill are the keys to success in the National Hockey League. They bought the suggestion that the post-lockout NHL signalled a new era in which good would triumph over evil, skill would trump goonery.

But all the Canadiens’ skill went for naught in the playoffs when the Senators wore the Canadiens down with a game that combined speed with a physical style. Injuries played a part in the outcome, but the bottom line was that the Senators were bigger and stronger.

Whenever the size issue comes up, Canadiens management counters with the speed and skill argument and then confuses toughness and strength.

In his post-mortem this week, general manager Marc Bergvin defended his team’s toughness and pointed to rookie Brendan Gallagher, the 5-foot-8 sparkplug who can usually be found creating havoc in front of the opposition net.

There is no denying that Gallagher is one tough customer. There’s also no denying that he gets knocked down a lot by bigger players. Bergevin noted that Gallagher continues to bounce back up, but that’s not enough. At some point, the Canadiens have to find players who can stand in front of the net and not get knocked down.

When the Canadiens went on a slide at the end of the regular season, Rene Bourque noted that Montreal was being outhit in every game. The Canadiens finished the season 20th in hits with nearly 600 fewer than the league-leading Toronto Maple Leafs.

Bergevin said he was looking for balance and that it wasn’t always easy to find players who combine speed, skill and size. He noted that every team is looking for those players.

The Canadiens had their best chance to remake the team in 2009 when Bob Gainey cleaned house. Instead of getting bigger, the Canadiens got smaller with the addition of 5-foot-7 Brian Gionta, 5-foot-9 Michael Cammalleri and 5-foot-11 Scott Gomez.

This time around, Bergevin doesn’t have the cap space for a major renovation and said he doesn’t believe free agency is the answer. The key, he said, is to build through the draft.

This is one area where the Canadiens have had some success in recent years. Eighteen of the players on the Canadiens’ roster at the end of the season were either drafted by the team or signed as undrafted free agents.

Trevor Timmins and his scouting staff have been able to identify speed, skill and character, but size is another matter. Defenceman Jarred Tinordi is 6-foot-6, the 6-foot-1 Alex Galchenyuk is going to be fine when he fills out, and we can only hope that 6-foot Louis Leblanc, the Canadiens’ first-round draft pick in 2009, does fill out.

But when you look down the list of Canadiens prospects there are too many guys like Danny Kristo, Sebastian Collberg, Charles Hudon and Gabriel Dumont who fall short of 6 feet.

With six picks in the first three rounds of next month’s draft, it might be a good idea for the Canadiens to shelve the philosophy of picking the best player available in favour of picking the best big player available.

Habs : Bergevin wants big, fast, young team

Source : Montrealgazette.com

The Canadiens are a small, fast, young team

And general manager Marc Bergevin said Monday it’s going to take some time to transform the Canadiens into a big, fast, young team — a team like the Ottawa Senators, who eliminated Montreal in the playoffs with a team that is bigger, faster and younger.

“You don’t change the makeup of a team overnight,” Bergevin said as he answered questions at his end-of-the-season news conference Monday in Brossard. “It takes a long time to change the makeup of a team. Obviously, there’s 29 other teams that want to be big, fast and strong, but that’s easier said than done. But I believe balance is very important. You can’t win with all big guys and you can’t win with all small guys.”

Bergevin stressed character as one of the key components in the Canadiens’ success.

“I don’t care how big you are, if you have no character you’re not going to succeed,” the GM said.

“You look at a guy like Brendan Gallagher — one of the smallest guys in the league, but character off the charts. So we’ll need a balance. And that’s my job moving forward to bring balance to our club.”

The Canadiens made great strides this season, going from last in the 15-team Eastern Conference to second. Bergevin said he wasn’t surprised by the finish — “I thought we’d be in the pack” — but said the task next season will be a difficult one.

“There were five teams that made the playoffs last season that didn’t make it this season,” he noted. “New Jersey reached the final last season and didn’t make the playoffs this season. Does that mean

New Jersey is a bad team? No.”

Bergevin said the most important factor in a team’s success is depth and he defended his relative lack of activity at the trading deadline by saying: “You got to bring depth through your draft, through your young prospects coming through.”

Bergevin, who has six picks in the first three rounds of next month’s entry draft, said his philosophy is to select the best player, but added one option was to take size into consideration.

“It’s easier said than done because everyone is looking for those players, but we’ll look at it for sure,” Bergevin said.

Bergevin acted as a morale booster when asked about goaltender Carey Price and centre David Desharnais, two players who could have had better seasons.

“Can Carey be better? He’ll be the first one to admit he can be better and he said he will be better,” Bergevin said. “I have faith in him that he will be better. He had some good stretches and he had some so-so stretches. And that’s part of being a young goaltender and we’re going to move forward with him and I’m 100 per cent behind him.”

On Saturday, Price suggested the pressure that comes with playing in Montreal might be getting to him. He said he missed being anonymous and added he has stopped going to the grocery store. The goaltender described himself as a “Hobbit in a hole.”

Bergevin said he has talked with Price and is willing to do whatever he can to help the goaltender, even if it means doing Price’s groceries.

Bergevin said Price talked to the media after the team lost, after he got hurt and after “he didn’t feel he performed up to his potential.”

The GM added: “The first step is that he faced the music, which to me that showed character.”
Bergevin also noted that goalies mature later than other players and their mistakes are more noticeable.

“If a forward plays a bad game, it often goes unnoticed unless you really pay attention,” Bergevin said. “If a defenceman makes a mistake, it becomes a scoring chance, and if a goalie makes a mistake it’s a goal.”

Bergevin concluded his remarks on the goaltender by saying: “I have 150 per cent faith in Carey Price.”

As for Desharnais, his production tailed off after he signed a four-year, $14-million contract extension. Bergevin, who wanted to lock up Desharnais before he became eligible for arbitration this summer, said the centre knows he can play better.

“He’s still a young player and I expect him to rebound,” the GM said.

Bergevin said his overall game plan remains the same.

“I’m standing pat,” he said. “I made it clear from Day 1: I want to make this team good for years to come, not just for one year.”

But there will be some changes.

Defenceman Tomas Kaberle and his $4.25-million cap hit will disappear, although Bergevin said he will explore trading the Czech veteran before exercising his second amnesty buyout.

There will probably be a spot on the top two lines as unrestricted free agent Michael Ryder looks elsewhere for the first long-term deal of his career.

And Bergevin hedged on whether he would start work on a long-term deal for P.K. Subban, who left Monday to join Team Canada at the world championship.

Jarred Tinordi will start next season in Montreal, particularly since Alexei Emelin will miss the start of the season as he recuperates from knee surgery that has yet to be performed.

Nathan Beaulieu, Greg Pateryn, Gabriel Dumont, Michael Bournival, Sebastien Collberg and Danny Kristo are among the prospects who will get a good look at training camp.

And then there’s Louis Leblanc, the Canadiens’ first-round draft pick in 2009. Bergevin admitted that Leblanc — with 10 goals, eight assists and a minus-18 rating in 62 American Hockey League games — took a step back this season.

But Bergevin said he talked to Leblanc last week and that he’s still part of the Canadiens’ future.

“He knows he has to be better and he knows it’s a big summer for him,” Bergevin said. “It’s going to be up to him. But he’s a good young player that we hope one day will play here.”