The season begins...

It's perhaps not surprising that the Montreal faithful have been more than a little concerned about the performance of their hometown hockey team. Montreal fans are among the hardest to please, and with no other major league sports team in the city (RIP dear Expos), all the attention gets focused on Kovalev, Koivu, Carbonneau et al.

The consensus view among Montrealers is that this team is not playing as well as they should. On paper, the Canadiens should be dominating, say the naysayers, but the consistency of the team has been sorely lacking in the first half.

To be sure, the Canadiens have underachieved on many nights this season (I can personally recall that dreadful performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning a few weeks ago). The issue does not seem to be the talent on this team, but rather the work ethic, effort and confidence of the players.

You have to wonder how many times the team can call a players' meeting, how many times Guy Carbonneau can give a full-throated discourse, how many times the coach can put players in the press box before it just stops having an effect.

All of that said, the Canadiens are ahead of their pace last year. Most of the players, with the notable exception of Tomas Plekanec, are individually playing well.

What it ultimately means is that we don't know yet whether this Canadiens team will go far in the playoffs in this Centennial season. Last year they should have been able to get to the conference final, but only got as far as the conference semi-final before falling to the Philadelphia Flyers.

We should have a good idea by February as to whether we can start planning a parade down Ste-Catherine Street.

Will the real Montreal Canadiens please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?

Two games, two different Habs teams from opposite ends of the spectrum...

I think it's time for the Habs to ask a professional to help them improve their "mental game". Olympic athletes work with sports psychologists who help them increase their mental resilience... why shouldn't the Habs follow suit? Especially since Carbo seems to be at his wits' end...!