Habs top standings, on different teams
Desharnais, Weber both enjoying Swiss A League
It was just a heartbeat in a hockey game, but there they were, opponents headed into the corner, looking at each other. And trying not to laugh. Fribourg-Gottéron centreman David Desharnais was chasing the puck, right into the office of Geneva-Servette defenceman Yannick Weber.
When these locked-out skaters aren’t facing each other in the Swiss A League, they’re teammates on the Canadiens.
Fellow cellar-dwellers in the NHL’s Eastern Conference last April, Weber and Desharnais are today on clubs virtually tied atop the Swiss standings.
“Playing Davey was a bit strange,” Weber said with a laugh late Thursday night from the Swiss ski-resort town of Arosa.
“There were a couple of situations when we both went into the corner, I hit him and then we kinda laughed about it, having to fight a teammate to get the puck.
“It’s a little bit less physical here than in the NHL, but it was weird. You have to take it seriously be- cause, at the end of the day, you want to win the battles in the corner. But we laughed about it afterward.”
No hard feelings, obviously, even after Fribourg beat Geneva that night, then bused 90 minutes north- east to play host to Weber’s club 24 hours later to complete the sweep.
The next day, Weber took Desharnais another half-hour up the road to Bern to give his Habs teammate — then just a few days into his Swiss experience — a tour of the historic town and entertain him over dinner at his family’s home.
Weber is enjoying a strong season in his native Switzerland, one of the first NHL players to have temporarily pulled the plug on North America to play some quality lockout hockey in Europe.
Through 27 games, having arrived three matches into the season, the 24-year-old has four goals and 13 assists with a team-high 94 shots on goal. He’s rated minus-3 with 28 penalty minutes, playing in front of average home crowds of 6,923 shoehorned into Les Vernets arena.
(Weber says he’s been shortchanged two assists, which he’ll likely be credited with after his team requests two scoring changes.)
Weber is playing big minutes and getting plenty of power-play time, hence his impressive shot total. He had one game last month with nine shots, another this month of eight, and a seven-shot and two six-shot efforts.
“It’s not common to get nine shots, but sometimes you have games where you have a lot of opportunity to shoot,” he said. “If I have the opportunity, I will.”
Weber was on a plane to Switzerland before the lockout was a week old, realizing it was in his best interests to play during a work stoppage. He had practised during the summer in Bern, then was signed in mid-September by Geneva.
The defenceman had missed the Canadiens’ final seven games of 2011-12 with a knee injury, which also kept him off Switzerland’s roster for the world championship.
Weber played just 60 games for the Habs last season, missing four in February with injury and as a numbers-game healthy scratch for 11 more.
But it wasn’t long after the Canadiens’ early exit that Weber was back in the gym on a stronger joint.
“Once I hit the ice, the knee was no problem and it’s not been an issue since,” he said. “I thought the lockout might be a few weeks, a couple months at the most. I never imagined I’d be here at Christmastime.
“Last year was tough for Montreal and myself. I wanted to make sure I got some hockey in me in case the (NHL) season started in November. I’d come to Switzerland, get in shape, get in the rhythm of a championship and once the (NHL) season started, for sure I’d be ready to go.
“I’ve not regretted it. I felt it was the right move for me, to be in a competitive environment, not just practising. I get to see my family more, so that’s positive, too. I feel like if the season starts soon, I should be ready to go because already I’ve had a lot of games and hard practices.”
Weber returned to Montreal in July and September for short visits and had brief talks with new Habs GM Marc Bergevin and coach Michel Therrien, the defenceman’s $850,000 contract for this season in suspended animation.
“I’ll be excited to work with them,” he said, “and I hope it’s soon.”
Roughly two dozen NHLers have settled for now in Switzerland, Weber and Desharnais joined by Canadiens defenceman Raphael Diaz, a product of the EV Zug system who’s playing excellently for his old team.
Diaz has seven goals and 20 assists in his 26 games with 61 shots, a dozen penalty minutes and a plus-21 rating that’s tied for best in the league.
“It’s been good that a lot of NHL players came over,” said Weber, predicting there will be more depending both on the lockout’s duration and each team’s import quotas.
Habs forward Max Pacioretty, who played five games with Ambri-Piotta before returning home to rehab a minor elbow injury, says it’s very likely he’ll return to his Swiss team post-holidays should the lockout drag on.
“Every team has one or two high-quality NHL guys, which increases the level for sure,” Weber said.
“It’s good for the league and fans and for us, too, playing night after night against guys like Jason Spezza and Patrick Kane (and Henrik Zetterberg, Tyler Seguin, John Tavares, etc.).
For now, during a short break in the Swiss season, Weber and Diaz are both members of their national team that’s taking part in a four-nation tournament in Arosa with Belarus, Norway and Slovakia. Diaz will join HC Davos for this month’s storied Spengler Cup tourney, though Weber will sit that one out.
A member of Switzerland’s 2006-07-08 world junior championship teams — he also represented his country in the 2009 Worlds and 2010 Olympics — Weber will watch what he can of that captivating tournament that spans the holidays, one that’s drawing even more attention given the NHL’s absence.
“I have not regretted it. I felt it was the right move for me.”
YANNICK WEBER
“I remember playing in Vancouver in 2006, what a huge deal that was,” he said. “Playing in Canada gets you hooked on the world juniors at Christmastime.”
Weber follows the NHL labour situation by email and conference calls, saying: “It’s important for each player to be involved. This is our job and our future.”
It’s odd calling his Montreal cell number to reach him in Switzerland, though for that he speaks kindly of the package he has with Bell, a Canadiens partner.
And it’s by phone and text with his Switzerland-transplanted Habs teammates that he discusses the pulse-free NHL.
If he could wager, you ask, will we see hockey on this side of the pond this season?
“I’m really bad at betting so I won’t make any predictions,” Weber said, laughing. “But I’m still optimistic. I stay positive. I feel like we’re close and we can’t afford to miss a whole year.
“It would be nice for people around Christmastime to have good news for once. It would be nice for everyone to hear that we found a solution.”