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Wednesday, December 8, 1999
Habs find heart amid injury plague
MONTREAL (CP) -- It took a thumping from the lowly Nashville Predators to jolt the Montreal Canadiens out of their self-pity.The 6-1 loss on Nov. 18 in Nashville prompted the Canadiens to stop worrying about the horrendous rash of injuries that had hit them and start concentrating on staying competitive in the NHL, defenceman Eric Weinrich said Wednesday.
"Everyone was so embarrassed, I guess there was sense of pride that came out so that we wouldn't let that happen again," Weinrich said.
"It was a team thing -- 20 guys wanting to go out and give 100 per cent."
Since then, the team that had been blasted daily in the local media has earned praise for the hard work and energy they've shown under circumstances that might have crushed them.
The angry calls for the heads of general manager Rejean Houle and head coach Alain Vigneault for putting together an artless, uninspired club -- a shadow of the great Montreal teams of the past -- turned first to sympathy, then to respect.
As recently as last weekend, 10 regulars were out of the lineup with injuries -- including star defenceman Vladimir Malakhov, captain and first-line centre Saku Koivu and sniper Brian Savage, all out with long-term injuries.
They started the season without Malakhov, defenceman Patrice Brisebois and left-winger Benoit Brunet and then saw a harrowing succession of veterans go down -- Turner Stevenson, Igor Ulanov, Trevor Linden, Scott Lachance. . .
After the Nashville game, the Canadiens were 5-13-1-1 and at the bottom of Eastern Conference standings. Then, something changed and they went on a four-game winning run.
"At the start of the year, we were too focused on who was missing instead of on who was in the dressing room," said acting captain Shayne Corson. "You can't control injuries.
"We talked about playing hard, playing the system and coming together as a team."
The Canadiens lost three games last week -- all by a 3-2 score -- but were lauded for holding league powers Dallas and Philadelphia to one-goal victories.
They came back from a two-goal deficit to tie Calgary on Tuesday night.
"We lost a couple of games at home and people still came up and said: 'That was a great game. Keep it up," said Weinrich. "To hear that from people here, who have come to expect perfection every night, was a tribute to the hard work the guys have put in."
It's an old coach's cliche that injuries are simply an opportunity for a young player to get more ice time and show what he can do, and in Montreal's case, that's exactly what happened.
Sergei Zholtok, a near-anonymous reserve centre, suddenly became a leader. The gifted but underachieving Dainius Zubrus began to score goals. Their line with speedy Oleg Petrov became the team's most dangerous offensive threat.
Martin Rucinsky, one of the few healthy veterans, went on a scoring tear. Defenceman Karl Dykhuis, acquired to fill in for injuries, played the best hockey of his career.
Rookies Francis Bouillon and Arron Asham showed they belong and backup goaltender Jose Theodore started winning games.
"You never know what guys will gel together," said Weinrich. "They put the three Russians together and, yeah, it was luck, but now it'll be hard to break that up.
"Oleg's energy has inspired that whole line. On our trip out west, every time he was on the ice it gave the whole team a shot in the arm."
The line -- dubbed the Red Line -- is actually multi-ethnic. Petrov is Russian, Zubrus is Lithuanian and Zholtok is Latvian.
The Canadiens are under-manned, but they have not quit on their coach.
"I come from the States, where people don't understand what a big deal hockey is in Montreal," added Weinrich, who's from Virginia. "It's like playing for a (football) team like the Dallas Cowboys.
"You're in the spotlight every day. It's probably the toughest coaching job in the NHL, but Alain's been solid as a rock as far as keeping guys together."
This week, Brunet and Brisebois returned. Ulanov should be back on the weekend. By February, they may have all but Savage healthy.
By then, some of their surprise performers may be tough to bump from the line-up.
"Right now, I'm sure the coaches would consider that a nice problem to have," said Weinrich.
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