Some sports clichés are simply vapid gobbledygook that mean nothing at all: “It is what it is.”
Others are on point. “You’re never as good as you look when you’re winning, or as bad as you look when you’re losing.” That one has been around as long as I’ve been watching sports — but that doesn’t make it untrue.
There is no clearer illustration of the way that old adage applies than this yo-yo Canadiens season.
It may be emotionally taxing for the fans, but for the club’s brain trust (still the best, in my view, since Sam Pollock occupied the corner office at the old Forum) this Jekyll-and-Hyde edition of the Canadiens poses real quandaries as the league approaches the trade deadline four weeks away.
Is this team the Dr. Jekyll that put up a league-best 13-3-1 record between Dec. 17 and Jan. 21 — or the miserable Mr. Hyde version that reared its ugly head Jan. 23 in a 4-2 loss at Detroit and has since seen the club lose six times in seven games, with its sole win over the bottom-feeding San Jose Sharks? Or is it (the logical choice) somewhere in between?
Following this double-trouble Super Bowl weekend faceoff against the Devils and Lightning, the Canadiens have only six games between the Four Nations break and the trade deadline, which falls in the midst of the western swing to Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.
The weekend games against New Jersey and Tampa will thus weigh heavily on any decisions Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes have to make. The Canadiens never figured to be buyers in any significant way, because you would have to go through life with rose-coloured glasses to believe this club was a serious Stanley Cup contender.
Are they as bad as they looked during this 1-6 stretch? Wednesday night’s game against the Kings is a case in point. Look at the 6-3 final score and you assume the Habs must have been awful — but they weren’t.
The Kings came out hard in the first two minutes and created a half-dozen quality chances before going up 1-0, but the Canadiens battled back and kept battling. Rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made save after save to keep them in it and they went into the third period down 2-1.
Even a Brandt Clarke goal 15 seconds into the period didn’t seal it. The Canadiens came back with one from Alexandre Carrier, gave up another on a blistering shot by Kevin Fiala, recovered from that on a Logan Mailloux goal before another Fiala goal sealed it.
As they have in virtually every game, a core of veteran players helped lead the way. As some of the youngsters have appeared to tire, the “old” guys have propped up the side: Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, Jake Evans, Josh Anderson, David Savard, the unfairly maligned Mike Matheson and Christian Dvorak, who has been a key contributor through his best stretch as a Canadien.
Evans, Dvorak, Armia and Savard are on expiring contracts, Matheson has a single year remaining with a bargain $4.875 million cap hit for a mobile, big-minutes defenceman, Anderson two seasons at $5.5 million against the cap at Gallagher for two seasons at $6.5 million.
As Pat Hickey points out, the cap is due to rise to $95.5 million next year, then $104 million and $113.5 million. Hughes is an adroit GM, so if there are any among the UFAs he wants to retain, he should be able to find a way. Or he may elect to trade a David Savard and re-sign him during the off-season for his leadership, grit and heavy play.
Both Armia and Anderson have benefited from the man behind the bench. It took a stint in Laval for Armia to find his game with the help of Martin St. Louis, while Anderson remade himself as a hustling, penalty-killing, physical dynamo who can fight or score. Gallagher is having his best season in years.
Of the UFAs, Evans has to rank as the most likely to be retained. He’s another Phillip Danault, valuable in so many ways. On the other hand, except for those burdened with heavy contracts, their play of late makes all the Canadiens veterans valuable trade commodities.
By now, we’ve seen enough of how Hughes operates to know how he will approach this. He won’t lock himself into anything prematurely. He will be achingly thorough. He’ll never make a deal just for the sake of making a deal. He’ll listen to any proposal but he won’t make a trade unless, in his view, it works for the Canadiens in every possible way. He’ll put a premium on brains and character.
If Hughes makes a move, it will be something no one anticipated — like Justin Barron for Alexandre Carrier. Perversely, if the Canadiens lose both ends of the weekend doubleheader, it helps free Hughes to make whatever deals he wants to make without worrying about the standings.
Whatever unfolds between now and March 7, the future is promising. The organization is stacked with picks, prospects and young talent. And coming next fall, we have the arrival of the designated superstar:
Ivan Demidov.