Saturday, July 2, 2011   This has been a weird off-season for
me. Usually, I spend the five or six months between Habs games
remembering the season past, reading hockey books and
calculating how the Canadiens can get better through the draft
and free agency.  This year, I immediately dismissed the season
past because it was a year marred by injury, which immediately
sets any team, no matter how stacked, in the underdog's kennel.
I've no appetite for hockey stories, so the books I'm reading
are about anything but: "The Help," "Unbroken." (MUST read, by
the way.) The only ice in them is in drinks. And the future,
shadowed by a Bruins Cup celebration, seems a bit unpalatable.
So, the draft came along on a weekend when I was on an out-of-
town trip. I had to check the highlights to see who the Habs
picked. Nathan Beaulieu seems a good risk at #17. His scouting
report pegs him as something of a bigger Breezer, which, when
padded by the right people, isn't a bad thing.  Free agency
happened on a day I had sitting a