“Big Bird” Robinson is currently an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils, and is still under contract with them through this season. Though it’s obviously just speculation at this point, many Habs fans seem to be interested in the prospect of his return to their team. The interest should certainly be heightened by the Devils’ outstanding defensive play, which is chief among the reasons why they recently knocked out the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the conference finals.

In his illustrious 20-year career, Robinson won six Stanley Cups with the Habs and holds the NHL record for playing 20 consecutive seasons in the playoffs, 17 of them with the Habs.

Following his retirement after the 1992-93 season, Robinson was named assistant coach of the Devils. He has since won three Stanley Cups coaching for them. After his second cup win in 2000, and first as a head coach, he had this to say about the experience:

“Considering how long I played hockey and how many Cups I got to win as a defenseman with Montreal, it was my first Stanley Cup win as a head coach,” he said. “that is actually my greatest day in hockey.”

One thing is clear: the man loves to coach.

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It will surely take some time for the lungs of Habs fans to get used to such fresh air.

It was quite a lengthy and informative conference, something the Habs media aren’t used to from former GM, Pierre Gauthier’s tenure. The points from the presser that are especially important to note are as follows:

Bergevin, former Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM, lead the candidates for new GM from the start of the search and interviewing process.

In terms of what Molson saw in Bergevin, he was looking specifically for the communication skills that (without naming names) Pierre Gauthier didn’t possess.

The team’s priorities, as pointed out by Molson, are to improve the team short-term, and to re-establish a winning culture long-term.

Carey Price and PK Subban are Bergevin’s top priorities when it comes to the team itself. He doesn’t believe this team needs to blow things up, but to build upon what he believes is an already strong foundation.

Current head coach Randy Cunneyworth will be returning as assistant coach for now, but the decision to keep him around will ultimately be up to the team’s new head coach once he is appointed. Also, current assistant GM Larry Carriere will remain with the team, but it is not decided what his role will be going forward.

There is no specific time frame on naming a new head coach, and the team will be expanding their scouting in Quebec. Also, current head scout Trevor Timmins, who has done an excellent job finding diamonds in past drafts, will remain with the team and be beside Bergevin at the table this year in Pittsburgh.

Though the future can’t be told, this is an exciting time for Habs fans.. one that was much needed after one of the most disgraceful seasons the team has seen. But there are a few more pressers to come because, as Bergevin himself pointed out, he is just a piece of the puzzle.

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“I hope not too many children in the province of Quebec were watching that hockey game tonight,” Nordiques head coach Michel Bergeron said after the game. “It’s very disappointing, it’s disgusting.”

The Habs twenty-eight years ago (as they are now) were a team that relied heavily on speed and finesse. With the exception of Chris Nilan and (to a lesser extent) Mike McPhee, the Habs were not exactly equipped for a bench brawl. They held their own, though, and headlines following the game would praise the Habs for their suprising  strength and stamina. The two teams managed to finish the game without the 10 players who were ejected and, after the 252 penalty minutes were doled out, the Habs managed to make a heroic third-period comeback (from a 2-0 deficit) for the win.

It was the sixth game, and a series-winning one for the Habs as they would advance to the Prince of Wales Conference finals versus the New York Islanders. The Isles would go on to win that series and advance to the finals, where they’d eventually lose the cup to the Edmonton Oilers.

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Bouchard was a born and raised Montrealer. He served as captain of the Habs for eight years, and won four cups with them. The giant defender amassed 149 points in 785 games as a Hab, spending his entire 15-year career in Montreal.

To get an idea of how perfectly Butch embodied hard work and determination, you really only need to know one thing: He was already sixteen years old when he started skating (yes, one-six) and just four years later, he would be a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

You won’t find a better example of dedication.

“I was a determined, enthusiastic young fellow in those days,” he once said. “That’s what you need to make a success in life. You work hard, you’re enthusiastic and very disciplined at your game.”

A legend rests in peace.

In those days the playoff format was just a little different. It was still best of seven, but there were only four teams competing for the cup. There was the semi-finals and the finals, and that was it.

That year the Habs faced the Chicago Blackhawks in the semi-finals, and swept them in four games. The Bruins drew the Detroit Red Wings, and defeated them in five.

The final series of  ’46 must have been a fairly exhausting one, as three of the five games that were played between the Habs (lead by head coach Dick Irvin) and the B’s (lead by Dit Clapper) went into overtime. Fortunately, for Canadiens fans, the final game was played at the Montreal Forum, where the Habs won more convincingly by a score of 6-3 to lift Lord Stanley in front of them all.

Habs centre, Elmer Lach, who finished as the league-leader in playoff goals, and league-leader in assists (both regular season and playoffs), had a goal and two assists in that final game. Habs left winger, Toe Blake, scored the game winning goal, and also finished as the second-leading goal scorer in the regular season.

The Habs won the Prince of Whales Trophy (regular season champions), Toe Blake won the Lady Byng (excellence and sportsmanship), and Bill Durnan lead the league in shut-outs, with four, and won his third Vezina Trophy in a row (a record shared with former-Hab, George Hainsworth).

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Ouch. It’s a rough thing, being inducted into the goalie gaff hall of fame.

The tilt last night between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning was supposed to be all about Steven Stamkos, and his ongoing race to 60 goals; it certainly wasn’t expected to be an entertaining game from the Habs side of things. But between Peter Budaj‘s slick highlight-reel feed to Vinny Lecavalier of the Bolts, the entire defensive core fearlessly jumping into the rush, and beauty goals from Erik Cole and Max Pacioretty, it was a fairly stimulating effort from the basement-dwelling Habs.

Despite the beautiful puck-handling display, Budaj played fairly well, as he has all year, and while sitting third-last in the entire league, the Habs can simply poke fun at these things and move on. If the they were in contention, and this game meant anything at all, Budaj would be taking quite the lashing from fans and media alike.

The offence that was displayed by the Habs’ defence was surprising. They were were joining in, deep in the offensive zone, and it was especially nice to see newcomer-turned-resident-freight-train, Alexei Emelin chip in a goal while doing just that (before joining the Habs, Emelin had 27 points in 52 games in his last season with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL). It was a satisfying night for Habs fans, offensively anyway, and was a night that saw Erik Cole, Max Pacioretty, and David Desharnais all reach the 60-point mark.

It’s never a good thing when the most stand-out play on your highlight reel is a major mistake, but it’s probably safe to say that Budaj will have an easier time living this down than he thinks. His team won, they shut down Stamkos, and all this while already having their golf bags packed.

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This season, the 6′ 2″, 205 pound forward is having a career year in goals, with 32, and is eighteenth in the league in that category. Ten of those goals came on the power-play, and this is on a Habs team with the third-worst power-play percentage in the league.

One could argue that so far, in terms of point production, Michael Ryder to the Dallas Stars (62 points in 80 games) was the best free-agent signing this year (Greg Wyshynski actually speculated, back in July, on who would be a better signing of the two). This is fair to say, but the real genius of the Cole signing is not in how well he has produced personally, which he has, but in how desperately this team needed him, and how perfectly he has complemented them.

Cole’s inclusion on this team has single-handedly helped author two sensational stories that have silver-lined an appalling Habs season: Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais. The phenomenal resurgence of Pacioretty (30 goals following a broken vertebra), and the unlikely emergence of Desharnais (29th in the NHL in assists) can both largely be attributed to Cole being on their line for the better part of the year. His electrifying acceleration, his size, and his veteran calmness are just a few of the things that have complimented both of these players in ways that no one – including themselves – would have expected . . . Pacioretty has even said in a few occasions that he is trying to model his game after Cole.

Then there is his strength and toughness . . .

In the feisty Northeast Division, which includes their top rivals in the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens have been the weakest link physically for years; they get trampled on. It’s been a long time since Habs fans have had the pleasure of watching a player like Cole, who not only has the guts to crash the net, but often finishes on the chances he gets there. As a forward, he leads the team in hits by far, with 183, which has also been lacking in Montreal. He’s a goal-scorer with grittiness that really upgrades this team in the physicality department; the Bruins do not push him around.

“It’s a player who fills a need on this team,” Gauthier told TSN back in July, after announcing the singing of Cole. An understatement if there ever was one, and he was very right this time, as the Habs have just simply not posessed a player of Cole’s qualities in far too long. Cole is 33, and is here for three more years at $4.5 million, but he is worth every penny. It’s too bad that the Habs won’t get to take advantage of Cole’s extensive playoff experience (which includes a cup win with Carolina in ’06), because it would be great to see him possibly elevate his game even further. But there is always next year and fortunately, after this organizational-facelift of an off-season, he will still be here.

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Carey Price suffered an injury last week, and he has been experiencing “concussion-like” symptoms since. It has been confirmed today by the Habs team doctor that he indeed has a concussion, and will sit for the remainder of the year.

Despite this staggeringly disappointing year for the Habs, Price has put up passable if not considerable numbers. If you consider the poor overall performance of the defence in front of him, his 2.43 goals-against average, and .916 save percentage are hardly something to scoff at.  Price  has the seventh-most overall shots against him and, other than Cam Ward, has the most short-handed shots against him.

Even if the Habs could get any worse for wear, Budaj should do fine for these last few games. He has played well and has looked pretty sound this year, all things considered, and it will do him some good to start for the always-exciting Leafs match up in the last game of the year.

It is expected that either Nathan Lawson or Robert Mayer, of the Habs AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs, will get the call-up shortly. Though they likely won’t play, it is always progressive for a minor leaguer to come up and at least watch the big boys for a while.

The next game is on Wednesday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Bourque, who was traded from the Calgary Flames to Montreal last January for an infamously-yanked-from-mid-game Michael Cammalleri, has just 5 goals and 3 assists in his first 35 games as a Hab. Being that he is directly replacing a goal-scorer, we are naturally safe to assume that Bourque is expected to put up points whether luck is on his side or not. But is there more than just bad luck to why he isn’t performing well for his new club right off the bat? Is he used to playing more minutes? Is his role being marginalized in contrast to the importance that he may have had with the Flames, or is it just hard to suddenly get thrown into a team that is undergoing one of its worst campaigns in its history?

This season Bourque is averaging almost 18 minutes of ice time per game, and last year with the Flames, where he put up 50 points in 80 games, he was averaging almost exactly the same amount. His shifts per game are also almost identical to the amount he was given as a Flame last year. He is averaging only one less shift per game (22.3) than Eric Cole (23.5), Max Pacioretty (23.1), and David Desharnais (23.3), who together make up the Habs top production line. In terms of opportunity there is hardly an absence of it here for Bourque. He may not presently have the luxury of line-mates akin to Jarome Iginla, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he is being given the chance to make things happen, and play the role he was given. The role is presumed to be, and was put forward as, “getting into the dirty areas and winning puck battles, making room for his teammates and utilizing his size.”

Speaking of his role, Bourque is actually occupying a spot on the second power-play unit despite his decidedly underwhelming work ethic. He is currently a staggering minus-20, the worst on the team, and has taken a lot more penalties than he has drawn. Randy Cunneyworth doesn’t seem to be using him as sparingly as you would expect given that Bourque hasn’t really upped his game since the interim head coach had this to say about him thirteen games ago: “He has the potential to do much more and we’ve got to push him to get better results. He knows and is working harder, but he’ll have to get it into a higher gear. He seems like a tough player who is not playing tough. With his style and reputation he should be making the space near the net but he’s got to play his game.”

When you look at the type of player that he is, and the role he seems to fit, it seems that former Habs GM, Pierre Gauthier‘s real plan couldn’t have been to directly replace Cammalleri with Bourque. You would hope that the plan was more along the lines of, “lets bring in a solid third-line guy with size and offence, and then grab the Cammalleri replacement (Parise) in the off-season.” Hope is the operative word there. Bourque is under contract for four more season at $3.33 million, which is something that Habs fans will always repine over unless he greatly exceeds expectations.

However, we can’t be so quick to judge this players worth. Bourque is simply not as bad as what he’s shown in Montreal, and that is pretty well non-arguable. So far, all of his shortcomings are based on a pretty small sample of time has a Hab, and even less time as part of a Habs team with any dignity. Andrew Berkshire makes this and other good points on Bourque in the left winger portion of his Habs third-quarter review.

With a full season to come, barring an unlikely summer trade, Rene Bourque will have the opportunity to quickly remedy the tribulations that can sometimes come with being a new member of the Montreal Canadiens. In his case the second impression is going to be considerably more important that the first.

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Bob Gainey, who was serving as a special adviser to Gauthier, has also stepped aside, which was a mutual decision between Molson and himself. This marks the end of both Gainey, and Gauthier’s nine-year relationship in hockey operations with the organization. Larry Carriere, who has been assistant coach to Randy Cunneyworth since his interim appointment, as well as assistant GM for two seasons, will remain only as the latter for now, and will no longer be behind the bench. Except for Serge Savard, who will be directly assisting Molson in the search for a new GM, it looks as though a clean slate in management is to be the eventual plan. As for interim coach Cunneyworth, Molson said that it will be totally up to the new GM who the coach will be for next season.

What’s next?

During his conference, Molson was quick to say that the list of candidates for GM will “remain confidential,” but that the search begins as we speak. Molson told TSN after the conference, “The process starts today. We’re an open book today. I’m assuming a lot of people will be calling.”

Several media outlets all have the same basic list of top candidates, and they mostly seem to agree on the frontrunners for the job. There are a few guys, like Jacques Martin (fired as head coach in mid-December), Patrick Roy, and NBC analyst Pierre McGuire, who some think are sleepers, but they are all highly unlikely.

The frontrunners are as follows:

Julien Brisebois – Current assistant GM with the Tampa Bay Lighting, and has been running AHL teams (including the Habs farm team Hamilton Bulldogs in their Calder cup winning season) for almost five years with great success.

François Giguère – Former Colorado Avalanche GM.

Claude Loiselle – Former assistant GM for Tampa Bay, former Anaheim Ducks scout, and current assistant GM for the Maple Leafs.

Marc Bergevin – Former pro scout for the Chicago Blackhawks, where he helped build their championship team in 2010, and is currently their assistant GM.

These are the top candidates, but only if we are assuming that Geoff Molson will only hire a bilingual GM. The list of options would likely grow considerably if Molson chooses not to discriminate in that respect.

The hunt is on, and time will tell what this team is destined for in 2012-13, but one thing is for certain: Habs fans are excited again.