Game #4Goals-Galore On A Saturday Night In Montreal

Details

Date: 15/10/2011
Opponent: Avalanche
Location: Montreal

Loss: 5-6 (SO)

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Varlamov (W)

Habs goalscorers: Pacioretty, Plekanec, Moen, Gionta, Desharnais
Opposition goalscorers: Kobasew, Jones (2), Stastny, Quincey (Hejduk - SO, Duchene - SO)

Play of the game

A line that I think could go somewhere hooked up for a very nice goal tonight. It was a goal that put us ahead after I was sure we were done for. The play started with a great stop by Kostitsyn on the boards and a quick pass to Patches. Max then could have shot, but instead sent a bullet pass to the side of the net. There, Desharnais deflected home with ease, up and over Varlomov; t was truly a thing of beauty.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - Game Puck
It could certainly be argued that Pacioretty is on the third line. I hope that no one tells him though, otherwise he may be in quite the mood. But wait, when your line is the 3rd line, but you are clearly the best line, again, does it really matter what RDS show you as one their chart? He was our best player tonight and his line was by far our best. His goal was fantastic, his pass on Desharnais' was superb. If he keeps playing like he has done over the past few games there won't be any reason for him to worry, for a long time, about not being one of our top-4 wingers.

Brian Gionta
I didn't think that Brian had one of his better games, but he did end up with a very impressive 3 points. The goal was a goalscorer's goal and his assist on Moen's goal was what we expect and need from the captain. It was his best game of the year, so let's hope he keeps it up. Let's also hope, for the club's sake, that Gomez follows his buddy's lead.

David Desharnais
David led the forwards in ice-time tonight with 23+ minutes, not bad for a 3rd line centre. I can't say this with certainty, but I am pretty sure that this is the first time in his career that that has happened. Well, he certainly didn't let down his coach with all of this playing time as he chipped in with a fantastic goal and managed to get hit in the back (while providing necessary traffic) on our first goal.

Defencemen

Yannick Weber
This was not an easy choice as I thought the D were pretty bad, all of them. Weber, however, did manage to end the game at +2. I also felt that he was our best offensive threat from the back tonight and that his shots were the most dangerous of our D-men.

Raphael Diaz
At the end of the day Diaz, by the stats, impressed me. He wasn't on for any goals-against (our only D to do that), picked up an assist (his first NHL point) and played for 22 minutes. I didn't like his penalty, but am starting to think that we may be on to something with this 'kid'.

Goaltender

Peter Budaj
The Avalanche could have won in regulation with better goaltending and so could have we. For the second straight game Price looked downright weak at times. Of the five goals I would say that 3 are ones we expect (and need) him to stop. He was also pretty bad, especially early, at handling the puck. Then there was the shoot-out which couldn't have gone much worse. He made little attempt to stop the first shot and the second was a nice play, but a shot that an elite goalie stops with regularity. The Price from last year took this week off, let's hope that he is back next week, because without him we aren't that good of a team, we are the type of team that loses more than it wins.

Comments

We had 43 shots on net and managed to score goals when we needed them, so that wasn't the problem. In fact, that was a welcome surprise as we got varied production as we seem to be gelling more and more offensively. The big problem was a 19-player problem - our defence. We take too many unnecessary chances, we don't get the puck out when we need to and often times there are multiple defensive-zone breakdowns on the same play. We hung Price out to dry and, unlike most of last year, he didn't bail us out. We can't always just rely on spectacular goaltending, though. We have to be better than that, we have to limit the amount of quality chances that go Price's way. With solid (not even great, just solid) defence we could have won this game 5-2. Instead, we let a quick, offensive-minded squad (at least tonight they were) take advantage of mistakes too many times.

At this point it all comes down to coaching as I believe that we have enough of the right pieces in place to be a good team. The coaches can start by working out the play in our end and, if they have any time left, can start seeing if they could get the players, if they don't mind, to take less penalties, or better yet, less stupid penalties. Then, if we can fit it in (and I know 3 games a week makes it hard to do all of this), maybe we could start working on a strategy for the power-play, who knows maybe one from the past 5 years could work?

Game #33Montreal Had Chances; Couldn't Find The Win

Details

Date: 19/12/2010
Opponent: Avalanche
Location: Colorado

Loss: 2-3

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Anderson (W)

Habs goalscorers: Cammalleri, Picard
Opposition goalscorers: Wilson, Porter, Galiardi

Play of the game

There was a 2-on-1 that I thought was going to be a goal for the Avs. Stastny and Dupuis played it perfectly and it was Dupuis who got the shot off. Price, however, made an incredible save to keep the game close.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome

Michael Cammalleri - Game Puck
His goal was great and he really kept it coming for the rest of the night. I liked how much he was shooting and how he was challenging what seemed to be a shaky goalie.

Scott Gomez
Scott was the best player on what was a competitive line tonight. He was quick with the puck, had a few chances of his own and did well to organize the troops on the PP.

Jeff Halpern
Jeff won 5 of his 7 draws tonight, in particular two right at the end. If he can be that guy that can win key draws, then he may see some more Dome time.

Defencemen

Roman Hamrlik
The youngsters are having a hard time in their end these days so it is nice that Hammer has been so steady. In 24 minutes he managed to stay out of any real trouble as he was on for 1 Habs goal and none of theirs.

Jaroslav Spacek
There were a couplke of mistakes, but I really couldn't justify having anyone else in here as I felt their mistakes were greater. I also did like the work that Spacek was doing on the PP.

Goaltender

Carey Price
I didn't like the second goal and a couple of his passes, but aside from that he did play pretty well. I certainly felt that he was the better of the two goalies tonight and that he probably deserved a better fate.

Comments

If this is one loss and that's all then I'll be OK with it as I felt that we didn't play that badly. I will, however, be upset if it is back to this type of hockey for the Habs; the the type of hockey that we have played since the lockout. Maybe not so in style, but more in the way that the results go. These are the type of games that can be won, but are also the type of games that were being won a few weeks ago. I am not that interested in going back to losing 3, winning 3, being in every game, but having a hard time to score or being better on paper, but having off-nights. I think that the next 6 games, on the road, are very important. That is when we'll find out if we are a good team that occasionally loses or a decent team that got hot for a bit.

O'B-ournival Big D Traded For Q Prospect

A mere week ago I asked if it was the end for Ryan O'Byrne. And with the amount of times I'm willing to but heads with certain adamant commenters, you must surely all be wondering if you are reading Pierre Gauthier's blog.

Well, that was all just luck and hard-headedness. However, today O'Byrne was indeed at the end of his Canadiens career as he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche (Quebec's other team) for a prospect from the QMJHL.


The positive

There's little to be positive about in O'Byrne's loss. He was a decent defender who was never given a proper chance. But as they didn't just outright lose him, this trade does offer a lot of positive.

The player they received in return, Michel Bournival of the Shawinigan Cataractes, is a proper prospect. He is only 18, he plays in the Quebec league and he is adept enough at scoring to have been taken in the first three rounds of the latest NHL draft. Being as he is from the home province, that bumps him to second round value for the Habs who may be getting a bit worried about their hometown content for future seasons as Mathieu Carle sputters, Olivier Fortier slips, Gabriel Dumont is still small and Maxim Lapierre shows last year's regular season was not a one-time thing. Bournival isn't the future saviour of the Canadiens. The scouting report dug up by Mike Boone says:

"He hasn't been on the radar a whole lot but everybody has the same opinion of him, he's just an excellent hockey player," veteran scout Kevin Prendergast said. "He's not great at anything, but he's good at everything. I think we'll probably want to have a look and see if he's versatile. Can he play the wings as (well) as playing centre too? We think the centre situation is going to be taken, but he's got the kind of hockey sense and the grit that we think he has a chance to maybe be part of the camp."

Not great at anything is never something you want to read, yet it may be the scout's manner, as he also reveals him as an excellent hockey player.

It's almost always the case with prospects anyway that what came before only gives a trend, an idea. Some big-time scorers flop and some small-time scorers soar. You never know. I'd say that at least at this point he is scoring, because if you can't do that in the QMJHL, then where can you? Mentions of work ethic and dedication are encouraging and sometimes mean as much as the scout's read on skating at the end of the day.

Overall, it's a let's see approach. O'Byrne was in the let's not see situation, so we get a prospect for a player whose ticket was already punched. A positive.


The negative

Well, I liked O'Byrne and he wasn't tried or given chance to thrive. It may be seen as another indictment, but then again, maybe the team thought it needed to make place for others it was developing (just don't ever mention Alex Henry, please, please).

The immediate negative is significant, however. If there is an injury or two, then the call-ups are less capable than O'Byrne. Picard has proven he can manage the load for now, which is great. Beyond him, questions arise. I mention Henry. He's not an option in my book. Weber is great going forward, but if he could play D, he'd be on the big team already. Matt Carle? St Denis? Maybe they'll be fine, but I'd expect them to take time that O'Byrne has already taken to learn.

The other drawback may be that 6'5" Dmen are hotter commodities than small forwards who work hard and are good at everything, but great at nothing. Comparing this to raw ores, Gauthier may have just traded the rarer ore for some nickel. We know the Canadiens have been poor to atrocious at developing players. Their reluctance to put extra work into O'Byrne because he could have become a rarity is unfortunate. If the Canadiens ever had the Islanders era Chara, you know he'd have been benched and shipped out for Andre Roy or something.


Overall, I can be happy with the trade. I had reconciled that O'Byrne may have ceased to exist as a Hab at least a week ago, if not earlier. As such, the chance to add to the larder from his trade is good. The fact that player could become a decent player, an interviewee and a media-attention deflector is of some serious value to in this town.

Game #6: Habs Fall Short in Home-Opener

Details

Date: 15/10/09
Opponent: Avalanche
Location: Montreal

Loss: 2-3

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Anderson (W)

Habs goalscorers: Hamrlik, Plekanec
Opposition goalscorers: Hejduk, Cumiskey, O'Reilly

Play of the game

The Habs needed to get their PP going and, I felt, needed to get a lead in this one early. They did both those things 10 minutes into the game and it was all of a sudden looking good for us. The play started with some good work by Kostitsyn in the corner. He got the puck out to Pleks who then made a glorious pass to Hammer. Coming in from the point Hammer was now in prime shooting position with a lot of net to shoot at; he made no mistake as he potted his second of the year.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome



Forwards

Tomas Plekanec - Game Puck
I am very happy with the way that Pleks played last night as, for once, he stepped out of the 1st line's shadow and was our best offensive player. This type of contribution is what we need to be a competitive club this year. He scored a goal, got an assist and was one of only 2 players with a positive rating.

Andrei Kostitsyn
This was a big bounce back game for Andrei. He was very involved all night and managed to pick up 2 assists. He, like Plekanec, ended the game with a positive rating which, to me, is reassuring after his defensive awareness was called into question last week against Edmonton.

Scott Gomez
Scott gets in here almost by default as he is the winner of the 'best of the rest' sweepstakes. I think that he created the most chances, other than the two players above, and was the best on his line again. I liked at the beginning how he wasn't on a line with Gionta and Cammalleri (just Gionta), but that, again, was short lived. This effort, combined with the solid play of the second line, should win us more than we lose this year.

Defencemen

Josh Gorges
I noticed Josh quite a bit today, but was also pretty happy with the minutes he played in which I didn't notice him. All in all our D was alright in this one, but there were some moments that left me shaking my head. Luckily for us, however, Josh did what we asked as he played like a true #2. I think that in an ideal world 20 minutes may be too much for him, but for now I say we get as much out of him as we can.

Roman Hamrlik
I can't say enough about Roman in this one; he, again played the role of top defender as well as anyone could really expect. He contributed offensively (1 goal) which is really quite useful when you are down a player like Markov and when your big point-man (Spacek) is fanning on all of his one-timers. At 25 minutes I wouldn't say he was over-used (he was great while on), but we must be very careful not to burn him out this year.

Goaltender

Carey Price
Carey played a solid enough game tonight that he probably should have got the win. He was a little weak on some (if not all) of the goals, but I can live with a couple of mistakes a night. I was very happy with his rebound control (except on the goals) and thought that he controlled his end of the ice quite well. I would still like to see Halak get a start soon, but am happy that Carey rebounded (for our sake and his) after 2 very questionable performances.

Comments

I am a bit indifferent after this game. It was exciting to see a home game, at last, and I thought the players put on a pretty good show. For one reason or another, however, we didn't get the job done. It seems to be a trend this year that we aren't getting the results for some reason. In Edmonton, Calgary and now tonight the effort has been there, but we have 0 points to show for it - it's too bad. Last night I thought to myself that we have the talent and, for the most part, have the grit and work-ethic down, but what we may be lacking, which is understandable, is the chemistry. I can't say that I am surprised about that, but can only hope, if we want to make the playoffs, that people start gelling more in the very near future.

Game #56Halak The Reason Habs Didn't Get Blown Out

The Canadiens Game in Review

Date: Friday February 13th, 2009
Opponent: Colorado Avalanche
Venue: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO

Team Stripes

Final Score: 4 - 2 Win

Habs starting goalie: Jaroslav Halak (W)
Opposition starting goalie: Peter Budaj (L)

Habs goalscorers: Francis Bouillon, Patrice Brisebois, Andrei Kostitsyn, Tom Kostopoulos
Opposition goalscorers: Jordan Leopold, Tyler Arnason

Play of the game
The play you're straining to see on the press catwalk monitor...

Our nicest goal, and perhaps timeliest, was Andrei Kostitsyn's; the game-winner. Andrei hadn't been having a very good game and in fact was one of our worst players over the skid. So, it was nice to see him score as I was beginning to wonder if he remembered how. Dandenault hit a wide open Kostitsyn just outside of Colorado's zone with a very nice pass. In alone Andrei picked up the speed and made it look easy as he pushed the puck past Budaj. So excited to see a breakaway at this stage of the game I changed the channel on my remote as I flailed my arms. Needless to say when I came back it was jubilation and the replays were very sweet indeed.

Game puck
Trophies are for the end of the year, play well in the game, you get a lovely puck...

Jaroslav Halak
What a performance! Jaro wasn't just the guy who happened to be in net when we broke our skid, he is the reason we broke it. He faced 48 shots and only let in two. It was the type of performance you need to win tough games and it was purely magical to watch. Halak defended his net so well and brought tons of confidence to his teammates and the fans alike. He was so solid in his placements and movements that many of his 46 saves looked easy - something I have not seen from a Habs goalie this calendar year.


Dome hockey team
We're going into the last minute with these 6 (and they're attached to the ice, so they're not coming off)...

Forwards

Saku Koivu
Another very solid performance from the captain. Tonight, however, he can also point to the scoresheet as evidence for those fans that find it hard to remember how a game went 2 days later. He assisted on 2 goals and was quite active in the offensive zone with his new linemates - Kostopoulos and Kovalev. 15-11 in the face-off circle is right back where we need him to be.

Tom Kostopoulos
Tom fit in well tonight along side Saku and Kovy. He was actually the one who had the most scoring chances of the lot. He fought all night long and was rewarded with his 6th of the season - an empty-netter, backwards, from his own end. He also led the team in shots with 4.

Maxim Lapierre
I hadn't seen the Max we have all grown to love much over the past few weeks. I was beginning to wonder when the gritty forward would come back and give us another memorable performance - tonight was that game. He was a pest all over the ice and even managed to get quite a few scoring chances, in all he co-led with 4 shots. He was also a very impressive 11-5 in the face-off department.

Defencemen

Francis Bouillon
2 goals, 2 games, not bad. Tonight I saw Bou do what he used to do, at least at his best times, and that is pinch. He wasn't afraid to join the rush and he was another one who was rewarded for his efforts with a goal. In reality he is our third best hope when it comes to rushing defencemen so we really need to see this on a more regular basis. Defensively he was solid tonight, he led the team with 3 hits including a very good one on that horrible Darcy Tucker.

Andrei Markov
Marky played a very sound game tonight and actually made Komisarek look like his former self. There was nothing fancy in his play, but I felt he never put his team in trouble. Any situations that did arise while he was on were quickly cleaned up by Halak which is something Markov hasn't been allowing the goalies to do lately. Tonight I saw trust from our top defenceman towards our goalie and it allowed for a better game. Markov didn't have to leave his position as often to take matters into his own hands.

Goaltender

Jaroslav Halak
Now that is the type of performance I am talking about. Halak was the only reason we weren't blown out in this one and I think because of it has earned much more work. That was the first goaltending steal I have seen since the Fall, a long time to wait for a win of that sort. In my eyes he has won the #1 spot for now. Price can no longer be considered our outright starter as I don't think we can afford too many more experiments. I would stay with Jaro for now and see what he can do. This trip still has time to become a good trip and there is still time in the season for it to be a truly great one.



Eye-Openers
In this new section we are going to try and shed some light on certain plays or events that would otherwise go unnoticed

Smiles are all around tonight. Carbo had one, the players had them and, like me, I am sure that most fans have them. It is funny though because I didn't think we played that much better than we have been playing as of late. We scored 4, but one was an empty-netter, so in essence we scored one more than usual. Our goaltending was beyond solid, but still we yielded 2 goals. Defensively I didn't see any improvement on last game at all. So, the only difference here, the difference between smiles and frowns, is Halak. We all go to bed tonight thinking we played a great game (never could the opposition play badly or well, it is either us bad or us good...right?), because after all we won. Well, I wouldn't be so fast to jump to that conclusion. I actually thought we played a very poor game aside from that one key element. Granted a goalie is part of your team and by him playing well it certainly implies it is a good game for the team, but the other 18 guys should really have a look in the mirror. We let up 48 shots and for the last 40 minutes of the game (aside from Andrei's breakaway) looked totally disorganized - we were outshot 36-9 during that time. I hope then that we can be grateful for the 2 points, but at the same time realize that we have accomplished nothing in terms of getting better (apart from knowing which goalie to play) and there is still a ton of work to do.

Overall Comments

For the second time in team history the Habs were playing a game on Friday the 13th. It is hard to believe that in 100 years that had only happened once before, but I guess it is for the best. Anyway, I felt that tonight was a fitting night to break our bad luck, I mean could we really be any unluckier? I think we are a pretty superstitious group of fans in Montreal, but I bet there was no one amongst us who wasn't willing to take their chances on the 13th of all days. Right from the start I liked what I was seeing from Halak. There were saves on slap-shots, saves on breakaways and saves on just about everything else. It gave the team a certain amount of confidence and early on it showed. For the first time in 5 weeks we scored the first 2 goals of the game and things couldn't be better. Then the second period started and we got nervous. The players started to get the feeling that they couldn't do it, they didn't know how. How Guy? How do we play 40 minutes more and hold onto this lead? Colordao obviously knew what was up as they got all over us for the remainder of the game. Halak, thankfully, was the only player who did know what to do as he did what he had done in the first period and that was make the key stops. He allowed us to get 2 points, but also allowed us to relive the feeling of victory, to see what it is like to take a lead and keep it. Tonight's game will hopefully be the start of something good, but if not I hope that it is at least an end of something bad. We have a good team and we have 28 games to play, time enough to get back to the top, to where we belong.

If This Works...

Altitude TV is set to make TV history (???) by televising the second period of the Canadiens Avalanche game tonight in black and white. I'm not sure how history is being made – but I don't really care. If the Habs second period is their best in three weeks, then we should all petition RDS for B&W broadcasts nightly. Don't worry Joel, you hair will look just as wonderful in two-tone.



Black and white Canadiens
I haven't personally watched a Habs game in black and white in a while. I used to have a portable B&W TV that I would use back in the 1990s from time to time, the Habs played in a shade of grey back then for me.

In terms of mainstream, black and white TVs only started to become outnumbered by their colour counterparts some time in the early 1970s. Colour TV was being innovated from the 1920s and made widely available in the late 1960s.

TVs only became widely available in Canada (black and white or colour) in the early 1950s. The first broadcast from the CBC was on September 6, 1952 from its Montreal, Quebec station CBFT – a bilingual, spoken broadcast in English and French. The first HNIC on television would soon follow:

Although the early TV experiments were centered around Maple Leaf Gardens, the first NHL game to be televised on CBC was actually a game in Montreal on Oct. 11, 1952, three weeks before Toronto's debut on Nov. 1.

When you consider all that – 1952 to 1972 – one could see why the Habs and their fans should be excited to see some black and white coverage; over that 20 year span:

– The Canadiens won 11 Stanley Cups in the time span
– In the 14 years where HNIC wasn't available in any format but black and white, the Habs took 8 of 14 Cups
– Prior to the age of B&W TV the Habs had only won 6 Cups in 43 years
– Since that era, the Habs have 7 Cups in 36 contested seasons (5 of those came when many people still had at least one black and white set...)


We needed an omen. Long live black and white. Thanks Altitude.


[If I'd have known Altitude were doing this, I'd have understood why Carey Price was practicing his imitation of a 1950s goaltender – it would have saved a lot of fretting...]

Questions Of TankingHow Naive Is Howard Berger?

In searching for something, anything to write about the Preds, I came across this piece by Howard Berger instead.

In the piece, Berger (whom Leafs fans "revere") argues that:

...the concept of “tanking” has no merit. It’s an illusion; a cop-out for those who either don’t understand – or cannot deal with – the reality of professional sport.

Perhaps he is so adamant, because for all their years of futility, the Leafs have been as inept at tanking a season as they have been at winning a season. Their never quite good enough, never quite bad enough see-saw ride has seen them miss out on top draft picks and top awards for decades.


But don't tell the Colorado Avalanche that tanking never happens. Don't tell the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both franchises in their history have used tanking to great effect – to languish behind the Leafs and average teams for a while and then completely vault over them into contention without making stops in the middle ground.

Other than organizational tanking, how else can you explain this team (Quebec) losing to this team (Hartford)?

This team (Pittsburgh) tanked its way to 16 victories over 80 games! They squeaked by fellow tankers NJ to nab Mario Lemieux in the 1984 draft. Someone has to lose the season, but by trading their best defenceman when it looked to be getting too tight, Pittsburgh made sure they lost.

I realise that these examples show how managers and coaches can conspire to lose a season by playing a ton of rookies and trading good players for picks; however, the players can play a part too. After all, once the pressure is off from management (as it surely would be in a regime primed for losing), then some players stop trying as hard as they would have if they were pushed. Perhaps it's unconscious, but it happens.

Still don't believe in tanking. Ask Sweden how they got the plum semi-final at the Olympics. Ask Pittsburgh how they avoided the Bruins and got the Sens in the first round of the playoffs last year.