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Will the Montreal Canadiens look for a new head coach this off-season?

Current interim head coach Dominique Ducharme may be the team’s next permanent man behind the bench

The Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Claude Julien on Feb. 24, after four years with the team. The Habs have missed the playoffs twice with Julien. Last season, the Canadiens were lucky enough to be the lowest-ranked club to qualify for the playoffs in a unique COVID-19 playoff format that saw 24 teams fight for the title.

Dominique Ducharme, who was already assistant coach, is taking the lead behind the bench for the rest of the season. However, it’s unsure if the Canadiens will look to bring in a new head coach for the upcoming seasons during the summer or if they will officially make Ducharme their new head coach.

This could depend on the team’s performances this season. After what looked like a solid start to this season, the team has been lacking consistency these past weeks, and losses have been more frequent than wins.

If Canadiens’ General Manager Marc Bergevin wants to sign a more experienced head coach this summer, there are some good candidates. However, we know that this Montreal market has always looked for bilingual coaches. In that category, options are very limited in terms of established coaches.

Gerard Gallant would be a familiar face to the Canadiens. He was an assistant coach with the team during the 2012‒13 season. He then coached the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights. He has experience with veterans and rookies.

Another candidate could be former Dallas Stars head coach and current St. Louis Blues Assistant Head Coach Jim Montgomery. While not as experienced as Gallant, Montgomery has a 67-49-10 record in the National Hockey League (NHL), and an impressive 125-57-26 record with the Denver Pioneers in college hockey.

No matter Bergevin’s decision, it will need to be for the long term, as this Canadiens team is packed with young players and a promising future.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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Stingers to watch next season

Concordia Stingers athletes to keep an eye on once varsity sports are back

While we haven’t been able to enjoy varsity sports in Quebec this year, we’re still hopeful for things to resume next fall. With that said, there are some Concordia Stingers athletes we should keep an eye on when sports are back.

Sami Jahan is probably the men’s basketball team’s most promising player. In his rookie season last year, he finished 10th in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec’s (RSEQ) points per game ranking with 13.4. Jahan showed that he can be a reliable player offensively every game, and fans should be excited to see him at work in his second campaign.

The women’s hockey team has everything they need to be a RSEQ championship team. Two players to watch for next year are second-season player Emmy Fecteau and third-season player Rosalie Bégin-Cyr.

Fecteau joined the team last year and immediately made an impact. She’s a talented offensive player who can score important goals late in a game. Fecteau finished eighth for points scored in her first season with the Stingers. For Bégin-Cyr, she concluded last season first for goals and points scored among all RSEQ players.

In football, Jeremy Murphy is someone you might want to look at when the next season starts. In his rookie season last year, Murphy scored four touchdowns in eight games, and finished fourth in receptions per game.

What’s sure is that all Stingers athletes will be ready to show us their best when things get back to some kind of normality.

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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Could the NHL follow the AHL and start their season in February?

Recent AHL news could indicate when the next NHL season will start

As we’re still waiting to know when the next National Hockey League (NHL) season will start, news from the American Hockey League (AHL), the NHL’s minors, may have given us a hint.

The AHL announced on Oct. 28 that it was pushing back its anticipated 2020–21 starting date to Feb. 5, 2021. With the AHL and NHL normally starting and finishing their seasons around the same dates, this may be indicative of when the next NHL season will start.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has repeated constantly since the end of the 2019–20 playoffs that the goal would be to play a full 82-game season, with playoffs following as usual. However, there hasn’t been any clear details so far about when or how this would happen, or even why the league has been insisting so much on playing a full season.

Considering that without COVID-19,, the NHL’s 2020–21 calendar would have started in early October, it’s hard to see the same number of games being played in four fewer months. Of course, that’s if the league doesn’t plan to declare its Stanley Cup champions in the fall once again, in hopes of finally returning to their regularly scheduled seasons.

Especially if played without fans, a shortened season might be considered by the league in order to not lose too much income, which is in part used to pay the players. As the NHL isn’t in danger of bankruptcy, the best thing would surely be to focus on the most reasonable and safest hockey calendar for all, in a way that doesn’t bring us to the same dilemma next fall, which is: are we going to play a full season in 2021–22?

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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Rafael Nadal wins 20th Grand Slam title, ties for most in ATP history

The race for the most Grand Slam titles has never been so tight

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, known collectively as the Big 3, have dominated the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for years. Despite all the great names in men’s tennis history, the Big 3 lead for the most ever Grand Slam titles won.

By winning his 13th Roland-Garros title on Oct. 11, a record in professional tennis, Nadal has joined Federer at the top of the list, tied with 20 Grand Slam titles each.

With all members of the Big 3 at different stages of their careers, it’s still unclear who’s going to finish with most triumphs. While both Federer and Nadal lead with 20, Djokovic’s not so far behind with 17.

At 33 years old, Djokovic is the youngest of the group. He’s arguably the only one who’s been able to compete against Federer and Nadal in every match, even beating them on many occasions, including in Grand Slam finals. Most of Djokovic’s impressive ATP records wouldn’t even be discussed today if it weren’t for his victories against Nadal and Federer along the way. As he’s just three Grand Slam titles away from tying them at 20, we can only imagine what may happen if he’s still playing after the other two retire.

Nadal, 34, may or may not finish his career with the most Grand Slam titles among the three, but what’s sure is that he has good chances of passing Federer if he stays healthy. Recognized as the best player ever on clay, Nadal could perhaps add a 21st major with a 14th Roland-Garros next year, as he’s won 100 of his 102 matches there.

It’s likely that Nadal will start reducing the number of tournaments he plays in a season. Federer has been doing so for a few years now, skipping almost all clay-court tournaments in order to better prepare for grass court tournaments and the annual U.S. Open on hard court in late summer. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Nadal start skipping the grass part of the season, and just focus on important clay and hard court tournaments.

Even though Federer said he will come back in 2021 despite currently recovering from a second knee surgery this year, it’s hard to know how the 39-year-old will perform in what could easily be his farewell season. In an optimistic scenario, Federer could add to his list of major titles by winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon, which he’s won six and eight times respectively. Federer won both tournaments in 2017, and his 20th Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2018 when he defended his title. Those seem to be his favourite majors, as his last Grand Slam other than those two was in 2009.

All members of the Big 3 have a case to finish on top for the most Grand Slam titles. They’re all at different stages of their careers, and all seem to dominate a different playing surface. Only time will tell where they end up.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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The Los Angeles Lakers win it again

The Lakers win their 17th title in franchise history

On Oct. 11, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th National Basketball Association (NBA) championship, tying the Boston Celtics for the most in the league’s history.

The Lakers defeated the Miami Heat 106-93 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals and raised the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time since 2010. Lakers superstar LeBron James, appearing in his 10th NBA Finals, received the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award for the fourth time in his career.

This title meant a lot for the Lakers, during a year beset by hardship. The year started with the tragic death of sport legend Kobe Bryant, who played his whole career in the Lakers uniform and won five NBA championships with them, and continued with the appearance of COVID-19 in America, forcing the league to postpone play.

Yet, it didn’t stop the Lakers from performing when the NBA resumed action. The league proceeded with a bubble format, cancelling the remaining regular season games and going directly into the playoffs. The Lakers won each of their first three rounds in five games, clinching their spot in the finals in just 15 games.

Despite great opposition from the Heat, superstars James and Anthony Davis simply dominated the court in every game, averaging 29.8 and 25.0 points respectively.

In today’s NBA, it’s almost a necessity to have one or two superstar players on your team in order to win championships. Yet, it feels like having James in your team automatically makes you a top contender every year because of his exceptional talent. The way James has led the Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and now the Lakers, is unique.

He’s not doing the work alone, that’s for sure, but considering he has played in eight consecutive NBA Finals before this year’s; four with the Heat and then four with the Cavaliers, and is now at 10 finals and four titles, James’ consistent leadership and talent cannot be ignored.

Without a doubt, the Lakers will surely be a threat once again next season if James and Davis play the way they did these playoffs.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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A first in four years for the Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2016

The world of sports has been shaken by COVID-19. Major League Baseball (MLB), 2020–21 was shortened to a 60-game season, which forced the league to modify its postseason format.

Compared to what would normally be 10 teams in normal seasons, this year’s MLB postseason allows 16 teams to compete for the title. With a 32-28 record, the Toronto Blue Jays took the eighth and last spot in the American League and qualified for the wild-card series round.

Even if their last World Series championship dates back to 1993, the Blue Jays have given their fans many great memories during their recent postseason appearances. From Jose Bautista’s bat flip in 2015 to being one series away from playing in the World Series in 2016, the MLB’s only Canadian team always seems to find a way to stand out.

Despite having given sports leagues many organizational and scheduling problems, the pandemic seems to have been oddly helpful for Canadian teams. In hockey, six Canadian teams qualified for this year’s National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs, including the Montreal Canadiens, who were ranked 24th out of 31 teams in the NHL when the season was stopped in March.

The Habs were the 24th and last team to enter this year’s unique NHL playoff format, despite their 31-31-9 record. For the Blue Jays, the situation was pretty similar, as they took advantage of a reduced schedule to win just enough games to punch their ticket into the postseason.

Final thoughts:

Win or not, the postseason is always a great opportunity for players to gain experience and learn. COVID-19 has no doubt been a worldwide problem, but every positive moment and vibe created must be embraced, and the Blue Jays making the postseason is definitely one of them.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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Blaming a team loss on one individual isn’t fair

Toronto Raptors Pascal Siakam faced criticism following his team’s playoff elimination

The dream of back-to-back championships for the Toronto Raptors was shattered when they were eliminated from the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs during the Eastern Conference semifinals.

After sweeping their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors lost a heartbreaking Game 7 to the Boston Celtics by a score of 92-87, and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Following the elimination, Raptors player Pascal Siakam was at the centre of discussion and criticism. United States media and Celtics reporters were hard on him, with Siakam even being asked how it feels to be responsible for his team’s loss.

Siakam’s field goal percentage (FG%) this postseason decreased by 7.4 per cent compared to last year’s playoffs where he finished with 47 FG%. He also averaged fewer points per game despite averaging more playing time.

However, he isn’t the only Raptor whose statistics dropped. Team star Kyle Lowry also saw a decrease in his FG%, while Marc Gasol couldn’t match his playing time, points per game or FG% from 2018–19.

Basketball requires passing plays, communication, and a good defensive game to support the offence. It’s fair to mention that a player missed important or even easy shots in key moments. Yet, those failed opportunities are part of a whole.

Siakam isn’t responsible for the Raptors in its entirety, just like Montreal Canadiens superstar Carey Price isn’t necessarily the only reason for a loss.

It would be unfair to blame Siakam’s missed shots, and act like all other Raptors errors didn’t affect the outcome of the game. The point is simple: it’s unfair to say that one person is responsible for all, no matter which sport.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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The good and bad of the Jake Allen trade

Having two good goalies is a key to any NHL team’s success

Excluding Carey Price, nine goalies have started at least one game for the Montreal Canadiens since the start of the 2013-14 National Hockey League (NHL) season.

Finding a reliable second goalie at a reasonable price has been a problem for the Habs since Peter Budaj was Price’s substitute from 2011 to 2014. The team’s general manager (GM) Marc Bergevin made a significant move on Sept. 2, 2020 in order to solve that problem. The GM acquired veteran Jake Allen from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a third-round and a seventh-round draft pick. Allen will play the last of a four-year contract next season with the Habs, and will have a $4.35 million cap hit.

The good:

Allen lost his starting position during the 2018-19 season when young goaltender Jordan Binnington made a solid impression on the Blues during the Stanley Cup playoffs, helping the team win its first championship in franchise history.

Allen probably lost value because of Binnington’s dominance in goal, which can explain how the Habs managed to get him for two draft picks. However, it doesn’t mean he lost talent. In fact, Allen finished this season second in the NHL for goals against average (GAA) with 2.15, and fourth for save percentage with .927, both career bests in the league.

A problem these past few seasons was that Price was over-used by playing too many games, including back-to-back games in 48-hour spans. With Allen, not only will the Canadiens have two trusted goalies they can send against any team, but Price will be able to rest more. It’s easy to imagine that Price will also feel a weight off his shoulders now that he’s not the team’s only hope between the pipes.

The bad:

With that salary, Allen will need to perform, especially since he’ll not play as much as he could elsewhere in a bigger role. Not every team has the chance to have two goaltenders who can act as starters. Teams who do, however, usually don’t have a superstar like Price.

Many backup goaltenders can win from 10 to 20 games per season and start from 15 to 30 games. Allen could easily exceed these numbers, but likely won’t get that chance in the 2020-21 season with Price in the starting role.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Canadiens will re-sign him, considering that both Allen and Price are aging veterans looking for ice-time. If not, it’ll be interesting to see why the team traded for a single season of Allen, and didn’t try a similar trade in the past two or three years instead.

It’s yet to be seen whether or not Allen will solve the Habs goalie problems.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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Colour Commentary: Tennis is back

The U.S. Open was played without fans in Flushing Meadows, New York

The 2020 tennis season started with the new ATP Cup tournament, as well as the Australian Open, the first of the four annual Grand Slams in tennis.

On Aug. 20, after five months of postponed and cancelled tournaments, tennis was finally back on for the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Both Associations suspended their calendar’s tournaments until August due to the high risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The first tournament since the shutdown, the Western & Southern Open, normally held in Cincinnati, was played without fans in the U.S. Open site in New York.

Despite 2019 champions Rafael Nadal and Bianca Andreescu’s notable absences, the tournament provided a bit of a return to normalcy for the sport, and offered many surprises and great moments.

Speaking of surprises, the road to an 18th Grand Slam title was more than open for world number one Novak Djokovic. Without Nadal and Roger Federer, Djokovic was favoured to win the title right away, as no player apart from these three has won a Grand Slam since Stan Wawrinka did in 2016.

However, Djokovic got disqualified from his Round of 16 match for hitting a line judge with a ball. That meant a new Grand Slam champion other than the Big Three was going to be crowned, four years after Wawrinka. This year, it was Dominic Thiem’s turn to shine, as he lifted his first career major title on the men’s side.

Canadian players Denis Shapovalov, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Vasek Pospisil all finished with career-best results at the U.S. Open. Milos Raonic, the fourth and last Canadian of the tournament, was eliminated by Pospisil in the second round.

In the WTA, the tournament was being played without Ashleigh Barty and Simona Halep, world number one and two respectively, as well as four other members of the top 10 — not surprising that we’ve had so many great firsts.

For the first time in WTA history, three mothers reached quarterfinals at the same Grand Slam for the first time, with Serena Williams, Tsvetana Pironkova and Victoria Azarenka all in action. For Pironkova, it was her first tournament since 2017, as she took a break from tennis to give birth to her first child. Pironkova just started back training at the beginning of the year.

Final thoughts:

For the first tournament in a while, despite the nearly half-year hiatus, the U.S. Open surprised me with its organization and preparation. It made it through the two weeks of the competition without COVID-19 problems, and showed the tennis world that it’s possible to have sports despite not playing them in the same conditions as before.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion @the.beta.lab

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Colour Commentary: The importance of asset management

The past couple of weeks included a big stretch of games for the Montreal Canadiens.

They played a back-to-back against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, then went to Carolina to play the Hurricanes on New Year’s Eve, and back home for another game against Tampa on Thursday night.

They needed to win at least two of those games to remain comfortably in the playoff chase. Well, they went 0/4. That is what we, in the sports world, call “not good.”

With a multitude of players out of the lineup due to injuries and fans calling for change, the Canadiens General Manager, Marc Bergevin, went out and made two notable acquisitions.

First, he traded a fourth-round pick for NDG-native Marco Scandella, a left-handed defenceman — something the Canadiens lack. Bergevin also signed an aging Ilya Kovalchuk to a one year, US $700,000 contract.

Will these moves save the Canadiens’ season and catapult them into the playoffs? Probably not. But what Bergevin is doing is flexing his asset management skills — something a lot of Canadiens fans fail to see.

Scandella is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, meaning come the trade deadline, teams will be lining up to give up an asset for him for their playoff chase. This is what, in the business, is called a “rental player.”

Kovalchuk, who turns 37 in April, is an interesting one. He signed a contract two summers ago with the LA Kings, figuring he wanted to play with a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Well, the Kings are anything but that, so in December they mutually decided to part ways.

According to many hockey analysts, Kovalchuk is still very motivated and wants to play. Bergevin said himself in a press conference that this move may work, or it may not, but it’s totally up to the player.

If the move works, Kovalchuk will likely get dealt again at the trade deadline should the Canadiens still be out of the playoff picture at that point. If not, they terminate his contract and everyone goes on with their lives.

Trading Kovalchuk at the deadline, should he pick up his play, would literally be Bergevin creating something out of nothing, when it comes to assets.

A lot of people are calling for Bergevin’s head saying that this was a desperate move. I think it was an incredibly savvy move on his part.

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Colour Commentary: What’s going on with Mason Rudolph and Myles Garrett

During week 11’s Thursday Night Football game, an ugly incident happened in the dying moments of the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns.

Mason Rudolph was hit by Myles Garrett after he threw a pass. Rudolph was pissed and went after Garrett, tugging on his face mask. Garrett responded by removing Rudolph’s helmet and hitting him in the head with it. If you haven’t seen the video by now, take a look at it. It’s pretty frightening.

Garrett was subsequently suspended indefinitely by the NFL. He appealed the suspension but it was quickly upheld.

In an investigation of the incident, Garrett insisted that Rudolph called him a racial slur which sparked the entire thing in the first place. This claim came about a week after the initial helmet-swinging brawl.

The NFL responded by saying that they found “no such evidence” that supported Garrett’s claim.

I’m going to say this before I give my opinion on the whole situation: I am very well aware that I, a white male, am about to give an opinion on something race-related.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s think critically about this for a second before calling Rudolph a racist.

The NFL mic’s up every quarterback in the league during games to acquire audio for NFL Films purposes. So if Rudolph did in fact utter a racial slur at Garrett, they would be able to track down that audio right away. Garrett said “I know what I heard,” so if he is telling the truth, this is a major problem not only for Rudolph, but the NFL as well; it would seem like they were trying to cover it up

The second part that raises my suspicion of this story is the fact that Garrett came out with this accusation about a week after the incident. What was the thought process here? In my experience as a Jew, if I was faced with any type of anti-semetic comment, I wouldn’t wait a week before telling the world what happened. The second a microphone was placed in front of my face, it would be the first thing that left my mouth.

No one can say for sure what was said between Rudolph and Garrett. Maybe Rudolph did say something. Maybe Garrett is lying. Or maybe Garrett misheard Rudolph.

I won’t come out and call Garrett a liar, but let’s pump the breaks on calling Rudolph a racist for something we aren’t 100 per cent sure he said.

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Colour Commentary: Why do fans put so much stock into prospects?

If you’ve been reading my columns, I think I have made it pretty clear that I am a Montreal Canadiens fan. Like most fans, I love trade rumours – they create fun discussions and make imaginations run wild.

Amid the New Jersey Devils’ horrendous start to the NHL season, Taylor Hall’s name has started to surface in trade rumours. The 28-year-old winger will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year and will presumably not be resigning in New Jersey.

I think it is objectively fair to say the Canadiens have one of the top five best prospect pools in the NHL. Ryan Poehling, Nick Suzuki, Alexander Romanov; the list goes on and on.

Here’s where the two connect: the idea of Taylor Hall being traded to the Habs has caught fire in the Habs-Twitter world. Naturally, when the idea of Suzuki, a first round pick, and another player was thrown around as a hypothetical trade, fans were split in saying either yes or no to that idea.

I understand that Suzuki and the others are exciting prospects. In Suzuki’s case, he has the potential to be a top six centre in the NHL. The operative word in that sentence is potential. If he were to reach that ceiling, it would be amazing. On the other hand, he can very well fall flat and become a 40-point-player.

Hall doesn’t have the potential to be an elite scorer. The former Hart Trophy winner has already proven to be one while playing for two pitiful teams. He is an instant game-changer that is worth taking a one year gamble on.

The fact is, a marquee free agent has never signed with the Canadiens. There are too many factors working against the organization. They need to be creative in how they acquire elite talent.

Potential is nice. But it is just that: potential. Nothing more.

Some fans, and this is not exclusive to Canadiens fans, fall into a trap of overvaluing potential and would not give it up for a tangible asset.

You may have noticed that I excluded Cole Caufield from the list above. That’s where I draw the line. Caufield is considered by many analysts as a “can’t miss” prospect. Other than him, when it comes to acquiring elite talent, potential should not be the determining factor on a possible trade that pushes the needle of a team from being a bubble playoff team to an instant contender.

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