CRACKS OF DON
Montreal airwaves heat up with lack of accountability from Habs … Canucks fans protest the protest … Tough way for Devils to go out … McDavid still has shot at 100
On Wednesday morning, as the 70th anniversary of the last goal Bill Barilko ever scored was being remembered in Toronto, emotions were heating up a 51/2-hour drive down the 401.
Playoff fever, or a reasonable facsimile, had arrived early in Montreal.
It was setting off sparks on the airwaves.
“I've never come so close to swearing on the radio,” Tony Marinaro, who has his own show from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on TSN 690, told his listeners. “I've never come so close to losing my job.”
What had Marinaro fired up was a Zoom call the day before with the Canadiens, who had lost six of their last eight and were between games in Edmonton.
Still holding on to the North Division's last playoff spot because Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa are so bad, the Habs are long past looking like the contenders they did with their 7-1-2 start.
On this day, the media was trying to determine their level of concern.
Captain Shea Weber, the team's highest-paid player after Carey Price, was asked to assess his own performance of late.
“I don't think there's any need to, to be honest,” said the big defenceman, who has not scored in 18 games and has just one assist in his last nine — despite still possessing one of the NHL's hardest shots. “It's a team game, is it not?”
Moments later, with Jonathan Drouin taking questions, the Gazette's Herb Zurkowsky brought up the fact the $5.5 million-a-year winger had not scored in 25 games.
Drouin has two goals on the season.
“What's the problem?” Herb asked.
“There's another column on the right too,” replied the former third overall pick, referring to his 21 assists in 43 games, “if you want to look at it.”
There's another column to the right of that one, too, Marinaro pointed out. It shows Drouin has a team worst minus-7.
“He sounds satisfied with his season,” Marinaro exclaimed incredulously.
On a nosedive with the regular season nearing an end, the Habs have scored 18 goals in 10 games and at least two of their slumping stars are refusing to take responsibility.
“We'll be back,” Marinaro said before a commercial break. “After I throw up.”
Some lively back and forth with callers followed.
The passion was good to hear.
The last time one of the seven teams from Canada brought the Stanley Cup home was 1993.
Since then, the Detroit Red Wings have won it four times, the Chicago Blackhawks, New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins have won it three times, the Los Angeles Kings, Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning have won it twice.
This is embarrassing. There's no good reason for it.
And yet, nobody seems pissed off.
Check that. Montreal does.
Fans of the Habs, the last Canadian-based team to win the NHL's championship, the team that has won more Stanley Cups, 24, than any other.
And so does Marinaro, who's demanding accountability from the underachieving local team. Starting with its stars.
“I am passionate about my work and I do it with a lot of integrity,” Marinaro said when commended for his work by Cracks. “If you play well, I will give you props. If you do not, I will say you are not playing well.
“If you screw up badly I will take you to task. I don't care what your name is, what your status on the team is, or how much money you make.
“I consider myself a man of the people and I will never shortchange the listeners.”
As opposed to the Canadian NHL teams that are failing the customers.
Year after year after year.
STARTS AND STOPS
Okay, so Canucks fans aren't very happy with the direction their team is going either. Or GM Jim Benning. Or are they? A group of them chartered a plane and attached a banner that carried the message #FireBenning over Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon. But then, according to Thomas Drance of The Athletic, another group of fans “counter fundraised for charity to protest this protest.” So their message is #BenningIn? … Jeff (O-Dog) O'Neill's rant against the provincial government for shutting down golf courses the other day on TSN's Overdrive was epic. A former fifth overall pick who wouldn't speak to the media on the morning of a game when he was with the Leafs, O'Neill has become one of the most entertaining personalities in Canadian sports broadcasting …
BETWEEN PERIODS
How wild was that Pittsburgh-New
Jersey game on Tuesday? The Penguins jumped into a 6-0 lead then became the first team in NHL history, regular season and playoffs, to win after surrendering six goals in the third period. That's a tough 7-6 victory for the Penguins to celebrate, but an even harder game for the Devils to lose. The setback officially eliminated them from the playoffs in the East Division. It's the third straight season they've failed to qualify for the post-season tournament, and the eighth time in the last nine years … Guaranteed to make you feel a little older is this note: Spencer Knight, who made his debut by stopping 33 shots in the Florida Panthers 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, is the first goalie born in the 2000s to appear in an NHL game. The 13th overall pick of the 2019 draft turned 20 on Monday.
PARTING SHOTS
The Boston Bruins are more than just the most successful penalty killing team in the NHL. They're also the most dangerous. Heading into Wednesday's games, the Bruins had the league's best penalty killing efficiency at 86.3 per cent, while Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron had combined for six short-handed goals. That's more than every team in the league, as a whole, except for the Canadiens (8) and Rangers (7) … Don't dismiss the possibility of Connor McDavid hitting the 100-point plateau in this pandemic shortened, 56-game season. Before Wednesday's meeting with the Habs, he was 26 points shy of the mark with 12 games to go. As Jason Gregor at TSN 1260 pointed out, McDavid had 25 points in 12 games earlier this season and 23 in 12 games in 2019. Unfortunately, he has no games left against Ottawa, a team he torched for 21 points in nine games this year.