Canadiens: Taxi for Being Too Mouthy

Trading a playoff performer for talking too much sure wasn't Pierre Gauthier's best move in Montreal.

Who doesn't remember the Montreal Canadiens' magical run to the Eastern Conference final in the 2009-2010 playoffs? The team fought tooth and nail to scrape into the Spring dance, and once there, it wrecked havoc.

It was the Halak Spring, the goaltender muzzled Alexander Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals before frustrating Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins. While the goaltender was standing on his head in net, one particular player was scoring often down on one knee. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n42ofcvmnb4[/embed]

The forward was part of Bob Gainey's instant overhaul for the centennial. After letting established players such as Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev and many more walk away at the end of their contract, the GM turned to free agency to acquire Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri. This followed from the Ryan McDonaugh trade to the New York Rangers to bring Scott Gomez to Montreal. 

Gainey's new incarnation of the Canadiens barely made it to the playoffs finishing the season as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with only 88 points, tied with the Philadelphia Flyers who finished seventh thanks to the tie-breaker. While Halak was the main factor in the Habs' incredible run, making save after save, Cammalleri had 19 points in 19 games that Spring, including 13 goals. 

Those 19 points were still quite far away from the Canadiens record, big Frank Mahovlich had 27 points in 1970-1971. 19 points was good enough to tie Newsy Lalonde, Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Smith, Jacques Lemaire (twice), Mats Naslund, Ryan Walter and Chris Chelios. Quite good company to keep and one of the reasons why the diminutive forward fast became a fan-favorite. 

His regular season production wasn't quite as good though, scoring 50 points in 65 games in his first year and 47 points in 67 games in the second one. The Canadiens struck out early in the 2010-2011 playoffs, losing to the champions to be, the Boston Bruins, in the first round in seven games. That truly was a Toronto Maple Leafs worthy post-season. Cammalleri did put up 10 points on the board in that series.

The following season, everything was going wrong for the Canadiens. There were injuries, coach dismissals, more losses than anyone expected and 37 games in, the forward had enough. Cammalleri, speaking to journalists in Brossard the day after yet another loss (5-3 against the New Jersey Devils), was quoted as saying:

I can't accept that we will display a losing attitude as we're doing this year. We prepare for our games like losers. We play like losers. So it's no wonder why we lose.

Inaccurately quoted or not, Cammalleri had just bought himself a ticket out of town. When he was traded, he had 22 points in 38 games and had just built a new house in Montreal, hoping to stay in town for some time. 

The next day, during a game against the Bruins, Cammalleri saw very little ice time in the first 40 minutes and then disappeared. As fans, play-by-play announcers and analysts wondered where he was, news got out that he had been traded to the Calgary Flames, the team he was playing with prior to signing with Montreal as a free agent.

Between the second and third period Cammalleri was put into a cab and told to go back to the hotel. In the end, Pierre Gauthier traded him alongside goaltending prospect Kari Ramo and a fifth-round pick at the June 2012 draft. 

Coming back to Montreal were undrafted forward Rene Bourque (not to be confused with Raymond, even though yes some people did confuse them), Patrick Holland and a second-round pick at the 2013 draft. 

In 249 games in Calgary, Bourque had produced 164 points and he had only 16 points in 38 games before the trade. Meanwhile in his two and a half seasons in Montreal, Cammalleri played 170 games and scored 119 points. Bourque had a 0.65 point-per-game average in Alberta while Cammalleri's stood at 0.70 in Montreal. 

On paper, the players looked comparable but it certainly didn't feel like it for Canadiens' fans.

Bourque, who struggled with injuries, would never score more than 16 points in 63 games in his second year. Three points above his first year total, but those 13 points were obtained in 27 games. After two points in 13 NHL games to start the 2014-2015 season, and a four game stint in the AHL, Bourque was promptly traded to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Bryan Allen. The blueliner went on to play five games with the Canadiens and 35 with their AHL affiliate before calling time on his career. 

As for Patrick Holland, he spent his whole NHL career in Montreal, but the problem was, it only lasted five unproductive games. As for the second-round pick in the 2013 draft, it became Zachary Fucale a Laval, Que.-born goaltender who many hoped would one day be Carey Price's backup, but it never came to be. 

As for Cammalleri, he finished his contract in Calgary before moving on with the New Jersey Devils and finished his career with 906 games to his name, splitting his last season between the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. He would never get a chance to regain his playoffs scoring though, as his teams failed to qualify for the last eight years of his career. 

Meanwhile, Kari Rammo would only play three seasons with the Flames before returning to the AHL for a handful of games and going back home to play in Europe. Calgary used the fifth-round pick at the 2012 draft to select defenseman Ryan Culkin who never made it to the NHL. 

Neither team made out like bandits on that deal, but still, Cammalleri was the best player in the deal and Montreal's decision to ship him out after his comments was both precipitated and misguided. While he might not have gone about it the right way, it shouldn't be seen as a bad thing that a hockey player wants to win games.