Each week, the NHL on TSN panel voices its opinions on the hot topics of the day in the Wednesday Night Hockey Quiz.
As a follow-up, TSN.ca offers you the opportunity to chime in on all the big issues with our insiders. Read up on all the questions and answers, and put in your own two cents on our popular Your Call feature.
Question No. 1: Is Perry Pearn simply a sacrificial lamb for the Montreal Canadiens?
Bob McKenzie: Yes. This smacks of a general manager trying to buy himself some time to try and light a fire under the team. I don't want this misinterpreted as an endorsement of the general manager or for that matter of the head coach cause I haven't really liked the way Jacques Martin has used Erik Cole in the early going. This team as it is currently constructed with the players on the ice, even with the injuries, should be a lot better than they are. So I'm going to put some of it on the players and say they need to be better than they've been.
Marc Crawford: I would say it's a little bit of a condemnation of the Habs' defence, so in that case it's a little bit of a combination of the management. Perry Pearn was the sacrificial lamb. What they are doing is getting the maximum benefit of making sure that the players have to play better tonight. You look at what ails them, I think they've overestimated the defensive corps, some of the younger defencemen haven't lived up to injuries so far and they're reeling from injuries so it's a combination of a lot of things.
Aaron Ward: Sacrificial lamb. You can cover up the hole in a donut with icing, but the donut hole is still there. For this team, they deserve a fair share of responsibility for this from top to bottom. Management, whose job it is to get help when you lose Spacek, when you lose Markov and Hamrlik, is gone. Get these guys some help. Coaches, 29th on the power play. I played against these guys and I hated playing against them, because they made you run around on the power play. They are abysmal. Players, this is a team playing reactionary. They have too much talent and they just aren't playing with any swagger that's notable for being the Montreal Canadiens.
Question No. 2: Which Montreal player has to improve his performance most for the Canadiens to turn around their fortunes? A) Erik Cole B) Brian Gionta C) Carey Price D) P.K. Subban
Ward: Cole. He has 18 million reasons to improve his performance. I've seen the guy at his best and it's when he utilizes his speed, the rest of his game just kind of falls into place. His greatest asset is his speed. From experience, it's difficult when you're coming into a locker room to try and put your stamp on this team when the entire team is struggling to begin with.
McKenzie: Price, only because goaltending is such a vital position. When other things are not going well for you, the one guy that can really pick it up by its bootstraps would be Carey Price. He can shut the door.
Crawford: Subban. He is falling into the trap that many young players do - he's trying to do too much. And when you try to do too much sometimes it has the opposite effect. He's actually for all the right reasons, trying to get on the highlight reel every night, but you have to make sure you have quick shifts, you have to make sure you get your shot away quickly, you have to get pucks deep. It's all simple things that young defencemen have to do right now to get their team going again.
Question No. 3: What should Edmonton's Hall-RNH-Eberle line be nicknamed? Some options: The lottery line, H2E, 106 line, the three Nooges, Kids in the Hall, the Oil Patch Kids, the Eberle Brothers, or the Baby Oil Line.
McKenzie: The Lottery Line. Two of the three guys were number one overall picks and it's got a nice ring to it.
Ward: Kids in the Hall. A truly Canadian show for a truly Canadian line. Sidebar, there's a possible veteran on the team who could play the role of the chicken lady.
Crawford: The Baby Oil Line. Most of these guys eat Fruit Loops for their pre-game meal and most of them don't even know who the Beatles are.
