SECOND GUESSING
Even Toe Blake took heat
“If there’s anything wrong with hockey today,” the Canadiens coach was saying, “it’s that we’re breeding too many self- appointed coaches, too many critics. It seems to be getting worse every season. …
“I’ve never encountered so much second- guessing,” he continued. “That goes for the press, radio and television reporters as well as the fans. Nobody seems to want to talk about the good plays we make, the good games we win. All you hear and read about are our mistakes. It looks to me as if everybody wants to be a hockey coach these days.”
No, these are not the words of Habs bench boss Michel Therrien, even if he’s thinking them.
The sentences above were spoken 50 years ago this week by Canadiens coach Toe Blake during a radio call- in show, reported in a March 18, 1965 Montreal Gazette column by Vern DeGeer.
Still, it’s hilarious how in a halfcentury, some things have not changed in the Habs’ far- flung, fickle, fanatical and fatalistic fan base.
The Canadiens bandwagon was loaded up again Saturday night as it rumbled down to the Sunshine State for Monday- Tuesday back- to- backs against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, the Habs’ winning streak at one.
There remain problems to be solved, of course. The offensively economical Habs didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard on Long Island, needing short- handed and empty- net goals to beat the Islanders 3- 1 on the strength of another all- world, 35- save performance by goaltender Carey Price.
( Is this imminent award- winner a cool customer? Don’t miss the viral video of Price caught by an NBC camera with 5: 47 left in regulation, his team up 2- 0. Price skates to his bench during the game’s final TV timeout and sees a kid under a Habs cap trying to shoot a selfie with the goalie in the background, so he leans in tight and grins for the youngster’s photo of a lifetime. What a hoot.)
But after having lost five of their past six games, following a four- game winning streak, this victory against the terrific if gently slipping Islanders was a salve for the scarred soul of Canadiens fans.
Which will last until the next two- goal deficit — or should the Lightning close the Atlantic Division gap on Monday, the Habs two points up on Tampa with a game in hand heading into that tilt.
Price, meanwhile, continues to roll merrily along.
His victory Saturday was his 38th of the year, equalling his career high established in 201011. But his previous best came during his ridiculous 72- game season, and victories 35 through 38 came in four of his last five games. On Saturday, Price’s 38th came in his 56th game of 2014- 15.
With 12 games left in the schedule, the 27- year- old is four wins shy of equalling the franchise record of 42 by a goalie; it is shared by the late Jacques Plante, who won 42 while playing 70 games in both 1955- 56 and 196162, and Ken Dryden, who played 62 in 1975- 76.
Another positive on Saturday was the performance of Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk and P. A. Parenteau on a line, the three
All you hear and read about are our mistakes. It looks to me as if everybody wants to be a hockey coach these days.
TOE BLAKE
combining for the Canadiens’ first goal 58 seconds into the second period on a 3- on- 2.
Plekanec stealthily got himself to the corner of the Islanders net to convert a perfect pass from Galchenyuk, who had been sweetly dropped the puck by Parenteau. It was Plekanec’s 20th goal of the season, the seventh time in his eight full seasons in Montreal that he’s cashed 20 or more.
Strong, too, was the work of Lars Eller, who had the emptynetter with 25 seconds to play, an assist on Max Pacioretty’s shorthanded goal 3: 13 into the second period, six shots on net and was plus- 2.
So we’re down to a dozen games to play, the Canadiens virtually a breath from unleashing their sales and marketing departments for the 2015 playoff ticket campaign.
This is a momentous week in Habs history:
In 1916, the pre- NHL National Hockey Association Canadiens began their Stanley Cup Challenge against the Pacific Coast association’s Portland Rosebuds, rallying in five games to win its first of 24 championships;
Seventy years ago on March 18, Maurice Richard became the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season, chalked up in 50 games;
Sixty years ago on Monday, the city was reeling from the suspension just handed down by NHL president Clarence Campbell of the Rocket, which sparked the infamous Richard Riot the following night;
On March 19, 1986, Hall of Fame defenceman Larry Robinson became the fourth player in franchise history to reach 1,000 games, following Henri Rich- ard, Jean Béliveau and Claude Provost;
And the Molson Centre opened its doors on March 16, 1996.
Fifty years ago this week, meanwhile, coach Toe Blake was grousing about a suffocating media presence around his team.
( Toe would be spinning in his grave if he could see today’s reporting rabble that covers the team’s every twitch.)
“The toughest job for a coach today is handling the press after a game, particularly when you lose,” Blake grumbled, his club then parked in third place in the six- team NHL.
“You have to be a politician and a diplomat. Sometimes, you find almost as many writers and announcers jamming their way into our dressing room as players.
“And they’re all looking for an angle. That what they call it, an ‘ angle.’ I tell you, it’s wicked. We were in New York recently. After the game, there were 10 or 12 writers firing questions. Some of them I’d never seen before. …
“It’s even tougher at the Forum,” Blake continued. “And I have to answer in French or English, depending on who fires the questions. A coach can’t be too careful, even if he’s boiling mad. A misquote can cause trouble. And don’t think the players don’t read the papers, listen to TV and radio reports.
“Sometimes, I wish our players were deaf and weren’t allowed to read the sports pages.”
A month after Toe blew off a little steam, his Canadiens won their 13th Stanley Cup, the sixth of eight championships on his coaching watch.
“I wish fans would leave some of the coaching to me,” Blake said, wrapping up his radio rant. “That’s what I’m paid for.”
Whether Michel Therrien wears a bulletproof vest is unknown. But you somehow get the feeling that Toe and Twitter might not have been the best of friends.