The 100 Habs Goalies Braincramp!

Like the ol' Gumper here, I went stretching for something way out of reach!

I'm a dumbass fool for it, too!

I just spent the better part of day researching a story that didn't exactly exist.

You see, I read tons of stuff each day, and it is quite impossible to commit everything to memory. I happened upon a story of the Canadiens newest goalie aquisition, Michael Leighton, a week ago. I didn't read the whole article, as I was searching for some other piece of information.

I just cut and pasted the link somewhere then forgot all about. I figured I may or may not get around to it - possibly only if Leighton played a game.

In glancing quickly through the piece, I believed I'd read that Leighton was the 98th goalie in Canadiens history. Only days later did this little factoid make an impression onto my brain.

"Hey", I thought to myself, "If the Canadiens goaltending scenario works out in such and such a way, prospect Carey Price might well become the Habs 100th goalie to appear in a game in the teams 100th year anniversary in 2009."

My mind juggled the "what if's" of the idea and came to the conclusion of "what a cool idea for a post!"

While the Price reality might not have played out in such a way, I was going for it regardless.

As the ideas for the post accumulated, I decided I'd somehow string off all these goalies from the last hundred years and make the post a complete type of thing. With a notebook handy, I furiously began jotting down names of all those I could remember and came up with 39. I think I missed only 5 names between 1970 and the present. I was on a roll.

I heard a little voice inside my head telling me something was amiss but forged on anyway. I'm kinda conditioned to ignore that shit!

I got online late last night and started searching through the era's for those names gone astray.

One particular goalie site gave me everything I needed chronologically back to 1917, the Canadiens first season in the new, at the time, NHL.

I thought I had everyone I was looking for!

When I counted them up, I only had 70 goalies. Oops!

"Oh yeah!", I thought, "forgot about the NHA years from 1909 to 1917."

Now I know my Habs history pretty darn good - good enough to know that Georges Vezina, the man who gave his name to the trophy, played virtually every game from 1910 to 1926.

My fears were confirmed, Vezina has missed but a handful in which 5 others nameless goalie became Habs in the 8 years of NHA play. One was a forward named Ernie Dubeau, who played all of two minutes in goal in 1913-14, while Vezina was likely being patched up.

Counting Dubeau, I had 75 in all!

"Perhabs the total includes goalies such as Leighton who've dressed but never appeared in a game", was my next thought.

"Nah! Can't be 23 of them, can there be?"

I enlisted the online help from my buddy Shawn who found me all the NHA stats I needed.

Meanwhile I chased down the Leighton article to doublecheck the 98 goalie fact. I found where I pasted 3 Leighton related links, none of them being the story I was quoting from. A little while later, I had it.

Much to my dismay, there it was on the page, that Leighton was in fact only (if he plays) the 74th goalie in Canadiens history.

"Ouch!" - There goes that story!

I'm not exactly sure what type of braincramp I had to make me think there could even have been 100 goalies in 100 years.

Did I feel stupid?

Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

My only consolation was that I found 1 more goalie everyone seems to have forgotten about - Ernie Dubeau!

Being a stubborn one, I'm still going to post that darn 100 goalie thing, even if there's just 75!

Later today, if I'm not feeling too stupid!

Net Losses

James Mirtle has a great post this morning (nothing new with that!) debating the unwarranted criticism that Habs GM Bob Gainey has taken in the press for not going out and getting a starting goalie to replace the injured Cristobal Huet down the stretch. In a piece titled "Crease Conumdrum", Mirtle difuses what has been said by many in the media of late on the decision.

I wonder if James has heard any of the Montreal sports talk radio shows, where gainey has been shellacked worse than an outhouse toilet seat!

Admittedly, the move, or lack of one by Gainey, left many people scratching their heads.
Among them, is Mirtle cohort, of sorts, at the Globe And Mail, Stephen Brunt, who mused:

"This year, with his team struggling at the trade deadline, with a clear problem to solve and with two obvious alternatives available on the rental market, Curtis Joseph and Eddie Belfour, Gainey chose to pass. He didn't speak on deadline day — he has said almost nothing publicly since his daughter's tragic death at sea in December — so any suggestions as to his thought process are pure speculation. But since he had an obvious short-term problem to solve, and his best goaltending assets (injured Huet and first-round pick Carey Price) were both long-term propositions, he must have simply balked at the price."

Now admire Brunt, who wrote the awesome "Searching For Bobby Orr", but this this little rant on Gainey has annoyed and irritated me since I first came across it days ago. The same thoughts and musings, the same misrepresentation of facts, were seen and heard in other parts before Brunt latched onto them - namely TSN, a fine example of things Hab-itually misinformed.

On one hand, what he writes is factually incorrect, as Ed Belfour was not made available by the Florida Panthers. Not at a respectable price to anyone interested, in any regard.


Jaroslav Halak -Habs best shot until Huet returns.

















On the other hand, has Curtis Joseph, who it was said could be had for a song, played any better than David Aebischer?

(In my book, my daughter's Pee Wee team backup goaltender has showed more poise than Aebischer, but that's an old rant!)

In another matter, why does Brunt bring up the tragic death of Gainey daughter, in a National paper no less, and then question his mental capacity?

Talk about harsh!

I'll call it what it is - a total lack of professional tact, scruples and respect towards a man who has given his entire adult life to the game of hockey.

It's inconceivable that a writer of Brunt's stature would sink so godamn low! What is he, a blogger now?

The good James Mirtle, while hardly tip-toeing around the Habs most glaring woes, rationalizes Gainey's position with the usual Mirtle clarity. He adds:

"Now, if you're Gainey, and your team is suddenly on the upswing after a long fall down the standings — one that continued unabated regardless of who was in goal — do you make a move to shore up your goaltending?"

Mirtle goes on to make very valid points in defense of Gainey's perceived non-actions at the trade deadline.

My own comments in his post gave birth, in a sense, to mine here.

In any Habs fans wildest dreams, this is far from a Cup year by any means. You cannot plan on or gamble assets on being a long shot Cup contender, even in light of what the Oilers and Flames accomplished the last two playoffs.

Gainey is taking a relative beating, but he did well to sit still. Adding a first round pick and a young defenseman for Craig Rivet fits the plan perfectly.

Mirtle mentions that the youth on the team that has been playing well of late, and I believe that Gainey has resided with letting this present group take it upon themselves to make the playoffs.

The patient Gainey's motto might well be that Rome was not built it a day. Hence, the Stanley Cup will not be won off the backs of goaltenders pushing 40.

Much of the criticism aimed at Gainey's stance stems from the published trade deadline musings of Brian Burke. If you recall, the Anaheim GM was a little perturbed that he didn't get his mits on Rivet, and mentioned that he called Gainey to take him to task on it.

Most people seem to have forgotten that Burke spoke loud and clear before the deadline ended in saying he would surrender no youth or draft picks for the short term.

So just what did Burke have to whine about anyway?

Much of where the Canadiens went afoul after a surprising first 40 games had little to do with Gainey's game plan. A series of blindsided events derailed what was already an imperfect team.

The tension and pressure became a combustable to the team concept. Questions arose, the number one goalie went down, are here they sit.

Never mind the temporary distractions that have been added to the stew - tossing the blueprint at this point in time is ill advised in respect to those setbacks.

I see a young nucleus of a team with a bright future.

Gainey is on the ball. So is Mirtle.

Unfortunately, Brunt was way off course. Rightly, I paid him on online visit and let him have it good.

Mirtle won't thank me!