ShareThisAnyone who has tracked this star-crossed centennial season shouldn't have been surprised by the latest turn of events for the Montreal Canadiens.
The team had by all appearances righted itself, just in time to prevent free falling out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Bob Gainey's decision to replace his pal Guy Carbonneau as head coach was paying dividends in the closing weeks of the regular season. After an uncomfortable period of adjustment, the Habs seemed to have taken on the boss's calm and absorbed some of his great hockey smarts.
Goaltender Carey Price, who looked completely shell-shocked a month before, had regained his serenity. Defenseman Mike Komisarek was slowly emerging from a season-long funk. Most important, the creation of a dynamic first line -- Alex Kovalev and Alex Tanguay flanking captain Saku Koivu -- suddenly had the Canadiens scoring goals in bunches.
They weren't just going to make the playoffs. Depending on the matchup, they might have the potential to do some damage. And with expectations having spiked and plummeted so many times, winning a round would probably be enough.
The uncertainty surrounding ownership, the stories of players hanging around with minor mobsters, the many contractual questions facing the franchise this summer, would at least temporarily evaporate given the excuse for one modest celebration this spring.
But no, it hasn't been that kind of year.
You can an argue that an injury -- to veteran center Robert Lang -- was what threw the Habs out of whack in the first place. And now it may well be that two more injuries -- to defensemen Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider -- have put a fork in them.
It was reported just before the opening faceoff Monday night against the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Center that Schneider is done for the season after injuring a shoulder against Toronto last Saturday. Markov, suffering from a leg injury incurred in the same game, will reportedly be out for three weeks -- by which time there is every chance this group will be jockeying for tee times.
(The Canadiens, operating with the traditional playoff -- or at least near-playoff -- secrecy, would not confirm or deny the RPS story. And the buzz around the arena after the game was Schneider was in fact going to be on the team flight to New York for Tuesday night's crucial game against the Rangers -- though Gainey did say unequivocally that neither Schneider nor Markov would play.)
There aren't many NHL teams that could afford the loss of two of their top-six defenseman at such a crucial juncture, but even that doesn't fully tell the tale.
Markov has been the Canadiens' best player, period, this season (aside from the nights when Kovalev deigns to bring his A game). Going into Monday, he was the team's leading scorer, as well as its rock during even the stormiest times.
Schneider's arrival in advance of the NHL trade deadline wasn't much remarked upon. But even at this late stage in his career, he played serious minutes on either the second or third defensive tandem, and all but single-handedly revived the Montreal power play.
Before Schneider, the Habs were scoring at a 15.9-percent clip. In the 21 games he played, that number nearly doubled, to 29.03. That's no coincidence.
They're both gone now, at least temporarily, with a final week featuring games against New York, Boston and Pittsburgh. If the Habs do find their way to the postseason, the pair could well be gone for the first round, forcing into their roles others who, Gainey freely acknowledges, simply aren't as good.
(Rookie defenseman Ryan O'Byrne, in particular, was exposed again and again Monday night, and took a couple of remarkably stupid penalties before being benched in the third period. But with what's left at his disposal, Gainey has little choice but to play him.)
Montreal took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission against a very relaxed-looking Ottawa team, but then coughed up two goals in the final 20 minutes to lose 3-2.
Making the playoffs is a bit less of a sure thing than it was 48 hour ago, but the real message of this messy, scrappy, unconvincing affair, was that the magic has once again worn off. The hints of the old Canadiens' swagger seen in recent games were nowhere in evidence.
Imagining this lineup beating Boston or New Jersey or Washington in a seven-game playoff series now requires a real leap of faith. Not just from the fans, but also from the players, who understand better than anyone what those empty stalls in the dressing room mean.
(Contact Stephen Brunt at sbrunt@globeandmail.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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