Montreal Canadiens fans will finally get to bid farewell to Andrei Markov, years after he left over a contractual dispute. The team will honour the man who was the anchor of its blueline for 16 seasons before Wednesday night's game against the Winnipeg Jets.
After the Lane Hutson bobblehead night on Tuesday, there will be another special night at the Bell Centre on Tuesday as the Montreal Canadiens take on the Winnipeg Jets; the organization will celebrate the career of defenseman Andrei Markov.
The 46-year-old spent 16 seasons in the NHL, all with the Habs, playing 990 games. The fact that he was 10 games short of the 1,000-game milestone is deplorable, especially since he had some good hockey left in him when he left the NHL because of a contractual dispute with then-GM Marc Bergevin. In a way, Wednesday night’s tribute will go some way toward making up for that.
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Ahead of the tribute night, Markov sat down with Research Ground for an interesting interview with Sergey Demidov. Many topics were discussed, but what stands out to me is the veteran blueliner’s assessment of the Canadiens’ young players.
Of star in the star-in-the-making defenseman, Lane Hutson, he says:
He likes to control the puck and skates very well. He’s not tall, but he compensates for it with his movement and the way he sees the ice. One area he can improve, just like me at his age, is shooting more. He prefers making plays. He’s an interesting player, and I hope he keeps developing.-
Interestingly, in the last few games, we’ve seen Hutson take more shots; clearly, Markov wasn’t the only one to identify it as an area of his game needing improvement. He’s also spot on about compensating for his small size, but that’s not surprising given the fact that Markov himself learned to compensate for his loss of mobility in the later years of his career (following a couple of serious knee injuries), with his high hockey IQ.
As for Ivan Demidov, he refuses to compare him to Alexei Kovalev, saying that very few players have that kind of talent, and that players from different generations shouldn’t be compared, because everything changes in the sport.
The highlight of the interview, however, is an interesting anecdote with Habs alums Bob Gainey. The defenseman recalls being down on himself one long weekend in Montreal and wanting to train despite being told to rest. He argued with the staff to try to find a way to train, and the former Hab arrived and asked him what was wrong. Once Markov explained his predicament, arguably the best defensive forward of all time wrote down his address and invited him over to his lake house in Peterborough for the weekend.
There, they cooked, drank some beer and wine, and shared career stories. Gainey didn’t have to do that, but that’s just the man he is. It’s incredible to think that at one stage, Marc Bergevin tried to put some distance between his team and the legends that had preceded his players. They’ve got a wealth of experience and an understanding of what playing for the Canadiens means; it’s a resource the Habs should never have turned away from. Thankfully, that phase is now over as the new management group welcomed the alums back with open arms.
As for getting his number retired, Markov is under no illusion because the organization has already retired so many numbers, and he says Wednesday night’s celebration will do just fine for him. It will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to the event, especially since the fans never had the chance to say goodbye to the General properly.
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