The Montreal Canadiens spent the better part of their summer retooling the coaching staff and roster following a second place finish in the Northeast Division, 8th place in the Eastern Conference, and getting swept by the Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs.
Now, nine games into the 2009-10 season, the question is: where exactly are the new-look Canadiens after all of the changes?
The answer from new head coach Jacques Martin is, "a work in progress."
"It takes a while, not only from the players standpoint, but from that of a coach," Martin told me this morning at the Bell Centre. "It takes me a while as a coach to really appreciate what a player brings to the table. And as for the team, I think we have progressed, but it will take some time."
Martin's club---with seven players on the roster who did not play for Montreal a year ago---has won two in a row after a five-game losing streak had the Canadiens off to a dismal 2-5-0 start. And Martin is beginning to see some positive signs in his club's all-around game.
"I have been happy as far as how we got better with our fore-checking, spending more time in the offensive zone, versus the first couple of weeks in the season," Martin told me. "We've also been better with limiting the scoring chances for the opposition."
Montreal has surrendered only two goals in their past two games---a 2-1 shootout victory over the Thrashers and a 5-1 win against the Islanders. One of the key reasons for this is that Jaroslav Halak has replaced a shaky Carey Price in goal, stopping 43 of 45 shots in those two starts.
Martin indicated this morning that Halak---sporting a 1.88 goals against average and .921 save percentage in four appearance sthis season---will make a third consecutive start between the pipes this evening against the Rangers.
As for Price, the 22 year-old supposed stud goalie of the present and future?
"I think Carey is OK, he's fine," stated Martin. "He's a young goaltender who can take this time to work on his game."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Martin was similarly lukewarm about the play of center Scott Gomez, the first of the big names acquired by the Canadiens this summer. Gomez, who will play against the Rangers tonight for the first time since the June 30 trade that sent him to Montreal for Christopher Higgins, among others, scored his second goal of the season on Thursday against the Islanders. So far, he is 2-3-5 in nine games, skating with fellow newcomers Brian Gionta (4-0-4) and Michael Cammalleri (2-5-7).
"We count on Scott o play hard every night," noted Martin. "He's given us some good minutes, in particular against Atlanta (on Tuesday). His emotion and passion were the best they've been all year in Atlanta. He has to recapture that."
You can expect Gomez to play a strong game tonight against his former club. Gomez has always been a big-game player, and while in New York he had some clutch performances against his first club, the Devils.
"This is a business, and I've been in the league long enough to know that it is," Gomez said about the trade following this morning's skate. "Last year was an off year, but it's in the past. I have nothing but great things to say about the New York Rangers organization."
Gomez was his usual wise-cracking self this morning in his chat with New York media. Whether it was telling stories about his difficulties taking French speaking lessons, the obsessive nature of the Montreal media and fan base, his new Mini-Cooper car, or the recently fabricated story that he punched out Sergei Kostitsyn during training camp, Gomez ripped off one one-liner after another.
Of the bogus Kostitsyn story, Gomez said, "I guess that was my first welcome to Montreal. Yeah, that was my initiation, and welcome to Montreal moment."
As far as what's taking place on the ice, another newcomer, defenseman Paul Mara, said, "It's coming along, especially the last two games. You know they live and breathe hockey here, and they're knowledgable fans who know hockey, so that raises our level of play. You come to the rink every day wanting to play better for them."
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On a side note, this week's Rangers Radio talk show, which I co-host with Steven Gelbs, is available to listen to at NewYorkRangers.com. Click on this link to listen. Former Rangers forward Adam Graves is our special gues this week.
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