It was that weekend in sports known as “Not Super Bowl Weekend.”
Not only did we not have any single compelling event, the Canadiens didn’t play Saturday. Since I’d rather open a vein than watch the Leafs, the NHL might as well have shut down until Sunday afternoon.
If February was August, these would be the dog days. The NHL and NBA slogging through seasons that are 20 games too long, nothing on the horizon except the Super Bowl and the glorified shinny exhibition known as the 4 Nations Cup.
From my customary post in front of the television, I surfed the wide world of sports. Some Premier League and La Liga, a little women’s college basketball, some NBA, a bit of men’s college ball, women’s gymnastics and freestyle skiing.
At one point, I was so bored I watched 10 minutes of Pebble Beach, using up one-third of my annual golf-watching quota with the Masters still a couple of months away.
By late Sunday afternoon, I was ready for some Habs. Maybe I should have stuck with golf and Rory McIlroy. What has to be the streakiest team I have ever seen built a two-goal lead on the somewhat lowly Anaheim Ducks and blew it. It may have been the season’s most dispiriting loss.
“We can’t be losing these games and falling back in the standings,” captain Nick Suzuki said. No kidding. There are excuses: the Jansen Harkins hit on Joel Armia should have been a five-minute major, the cross-check on Juraj Slafkovsky should have been called, the schedule, the fatigue, all of it.
But when Christian Dvorak is your best player, you have a problem. The Canadiens are now six points behind the Red Wings and Blue Jackets in the last playoff spot, defenceman Kaiden Guhle is probably done for the season and they’re facing two back-to-backs before the Four Nations break.
The fat lady isn’t on stage yet — but she’s warming up in the wings.
Free Marie! The PWHL has a Marie-Philip Poulin problem. She’s too strong.
In the second period of the Montreal Victoire’s 2-1 victory over the New York Sirens Sunday, Poulin delivered an open-ice hit on Jade Downie-Landry that sent her flying and left her writhing on the ice for several minutes.
It also led to a lengthy delay while the officials tried to decide whether Poulin would get five minutes, two minutes or no penalty at all. The broadcast crew called it a hit from behind but it wasn’t — Poulin caught Downie-Landry from the side and she didn’t go for the head.
In the end, the call was made on the basis of the result, not the hit. Poulin got a five-minute major because the hit was too hard, not because it was dirty.
The league has to figure this out. I understand the PWHL wants hitting and they want to protect the players, which the NHL refuses to do. But you can’t dole out penalties based on the force of the hit and you can’t stop the game for 10 minutes after every big hit while you figure out what to do.
In the end, the Victoire killed the penalty and Poulin’s two beautiful goals stood up for the win — but the PWHL has to solve this before the playoffs.
This just in from the Big Baby Chronicles: No, this isn’t about the White House. It’s about big man-baby J.T. Miller, who managed to force a trade from the Canucks back to the Rangers. Lousy for the fans, lousy for Miller’s former teammates.
Hard to believe that with Miller and Elias Pettersson, the Canucks had not one but two 100-point players and they had to trade one because they couldn’t get along. That’s pathetic. I’m not absolving Pettersson of blame, but Miller is older and more experienced. The onus was on him to end the nonsense and he failed.
Lies, rumours &&&& vicious innuendo: So Nick Suzuki is not a part of Team Canada for the Four Nations Nonsense Cup but Brad Marchand is. Oh, joy. …
I may need a diagram to understand the call-ups the Canadiens have made during what is now a five-game losing streak. How do you call up Owen Beck twice and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard once and keep playing Michael Pezzetta, who got all of six minutes of ice time against the Ducks? …
And one final note: The Laval Rockets kept their streak going with a come-from behind win over the Hartford Wolf Pack Saturday, their second in less than 24 hours. As the Rocket mounted a charge from a 3-0 deficit, the player who caught my eye was Florian “the Deputy” Xhekaj, long before he scored his second winner in as many games.
Heroes: Marie-Philip Poulin, Ann-Renée Desbiens, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Joel Armia, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Éliot Grondin, Maia Schwinghammer, Marielle Thompson, Laurent Dubreuil, Kori Cheverie, Pascal Vincent &&&& last but not least, Florian Xhekaj.
Zeros: Justin Tucker, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Jansen Harkins, Nico Harrison, Jimmy Butler, Jim Ratcliffe, Kim Mulkey, Luis Rubiales, Tom Brady, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson last &&&& but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.