Meeting At The New Igloo: A Preview

A preview for Game 2. As before, we steer clear of lines and pairings and other news from Brossard and look to more important things for this match-up with the Penguins.


Key match-ups

Crosby and Plekanec
In May, Halak handed the penguins their walking papers, but it was Plekanec who handed Crosby his lunch. The Stanley Cup champ was hounded and humbled to a single goal and a minus contribution to his team. Though I'm sure we're all very worried that Letang is motivated by hate, it's Crosby's dislike of Plekanec that might be of most interest. Plekanec is ready for the season as always and is probably more than ready to replicate his form.


Fleury and Price
Two goalies who started young. One has won a Cup and so is held up as a standard for the other. Both had average numbers in 2009-10, both are looking to get above 0.900 in save percentage this year. Should be interesting to see who makes the important stops.


Letang and Subban
Two young offensive defencemen ready to accept new roles on their teams. I'm actually more interested to see if Letang's hatred can help him to defend a Subban rush.


Cooke and O'Byrne
Matt Cooke has a lot to answer for with Josh Gorges. When Matt Cooke injured Andrei Markov, it was a chance for Martin to humiliate Ryan O'Byrne by choosing to bench him in the playoffs. To start this season, O'Byrne has to suffer playing with Picard because Markov's injury lingers on, and when Markov returns will probably have lost his job to Picard. Man, he must want to pummel Cooke. Cooke, of course, doesn't know O'Byrne because the 6'5" Dman is usually hiding when the rough stuff that Cooke instigates gets under way.


Momentum

Backwards. Both teams have opened their seasons with losses. Both teams made their goalies look beatable. And both teams stars were on for important goals against. The Penguins were expected to storm and now might be downgraded to cruise through the East. The Habs didn't win when they could've, should've, would've.

On the bright side, there are no ties in the NHL anymore, so someone will get a win.


Penguins the Habs covet

Sydney Crosby
Makes things happen all on his own. He could probably even make a scorer out of a Pouliot with disinterested positioning.

Maxime Talbot
A French Canadian sure thing. He's like the Lapierre who doesn't take half seasons off. This Canadiens management would dearly love a player like Talbot.


Habs the Penguins covet

Mike Cammalleri
A winger.

Brian Gionta
A winger.

Andrei Kostitsyn
A winger.

Benoit Pouliot
A winger.

Tomas Plekanec
Can play wing.


Ready-made excuses

Michel Therrien's not in either city anymore, so honest indictments of goalies are unlikely after this one. More likely, one of these excuses for a loss:

If Montreal lose:
- Markov is injured
- Crosby plays for them
- French Canadian goalies always shut us out
- We played Thursday
- Our defensive strategy relies on a lot of luck, sorry

If Pittsburgh lose:
- We're tired from delivering season tickets all day
- We thought Paul Martin would mask all our defensive deficiencies
- Fleury is still young
- They forced us to play the puck to wingers


Impact of this result

Pittsburgh will make the playoffs this year, so this game is for positioning. The impact of a win or a loss is little really, since the President's trophy is meaningless and playoff winning will depend so much more on which wingers are added at the trade deadline than those playing tonight.

If Price loses again, I think there will be some kind of exorcism, as he will start to believe there's a cloud over him again and thereby resign to not moving his left arm all season. If the Habs win, all will be forgotten and euphoria will sweep the city until the next practice when lines are revealed.

On a serious note, Pouliot is on thin ice. As coaching decisions are made on a shift-by-shift basis in this city now, he must out-perform Eller tonight or start seriously considering community college.

Game #2-1NHL's No-Rest Policy Costs The Habs

Details

Date: 30/04/10
Opponent: Penguins
Location: Pittsburgh

Loss: 3-6

Habs Goalie: Halak (L), Price
Opposition Goalie: Fleury (W)

Habs goalscorers: Subban Cammalleri, Gionta
Opposition goalscorers: Gonchar, Staal, Letang, Adams, Goligoski, Guerin

Play of the game

The play of the game all started with a nice little move by Malkin at our blue-line. That moved made Gionta's potential hip-check into an obvious trip and, with the diving police still in Washington, it meant a PP was coming the Pens' way. On that Power-Play we had the chance to impose our dominant PK, but, instead, I felt that one play would end up, for the worse, being the turning point of the game. It came when Pyatt's stick broke and he stayed there, useless, trying to kill. A team that is so good at 5-on-3 PK should be ready for this (it happens all the time), but, alas we weren't. I would make it a team policy that that player races to the bench either to sub or get a stick. The remaining 3 players would then play it as though it were a 5-on-3 for the 5-10 seconds that that player was gone. Instead, the Habs tried to play on for quite some time and stayed in their 5-on-4 configuration, despite being down two men. Pittsburgh exploited this and, at that point, took control of the game and of the series.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Scott Gomez
I am not a fan of the 2 penalties that Scott took, but was impressed with his 2 assists; the one on Cammalleri's goal in particular. While he wasn't taking penalties Gomez actually had a decent game in both ends, especially in the offensive zone. He has been better on the PK, but his 7 shots on net shows that he realizes that their goalie is as weak, if not weaker than Washington's.

Brian Gionta
I was waiting most of the last series for Gionta to step up and be a dominant player, but it never really came, not in long stints at least. Tonight, however, I saw signs that this may be more his type of series. Washington seemed to be a faster and more explosive team, whereas Pittsburgh is a bit grittier, a bit more North American. Whether that suits the Habs better is yet to be seen, but it at least seems like Gio likes it more. Like Scott he got into penalty trouble, but, also like his buddy, picked up 2 points.

Michael Cammalleri
It would seem that Mike's line (save him) missed the plane from Washington. That line, for the most part was only visible because of the missed chances and blunders. Mike's best moments actually came when he was on with other linemates, especially when he scored his goal; courtesy of Scott Gomez. His line will have to be better, but being worried that they won't seems like a childish reaction (Martin).

Defencemen

PK Subban- Game Puck
This kid is the real deal and he may have to be even more than that if Markov is gone for any length of time. Tonight he was very impressive as it seemed that every time he carried the puck up something good would come of it. He scored his first NHL goal early and that really set the tone. He seemed like the only player who didn't think that beating Washington had earned us a night off as he was playing with emotion, speed and grit. It may hurt Hamilton if we keep him up, but right now (Markov or not) can we afford not to?

Roman Hamrlik
I wouldn't go as far as saying that Hamrlik played an amazing game, but I will say that he played his best game of the playoffs. In my opinion he was certainly our second best D-Man and, who knows, that may have a lot to do with his new partners (O'Byrne, Subban). I thought that he was effective when he went up on the rush and was happy to see that he was only on for one goal against (the least of any Hab D-Man, other than Markov).

Goaltender

Carey Price
Poor old Jaro. He couldn't see much and when he could see the shots he looked like he was out of gas. Pulling him was the right move though, not because it was giving him a rest, but mostly because at that point him not in nets was our only chance to win. Price may have only faced 3 shots, but, believe it or not, that is the first game this year in which he has not let up at least a goal. I can't say he was spectacular as his dome-spot was secured after goal #5 anyway.

Comments

We started well, but then two incidents in the first threw us off and may have very negative implications as we move forward. First, Pyatt's stickless play on the PK may have taught the Pens that our killing isn't super-human after all. And, even worse, Markov going down could be the loss that we have feared, the loss that crippled us in last year's playoffs and this year's first half. The hit wasn't dirty, but when it comes from Matt Cooke you have to wonder if it was necessary. Hitting a team's best players at every opportunity clearly has its upsides, but you could see that the Habs, although presented with many chances, would not play that game. Maybe it is because we haven't had a player as dirty as Cooke in eons that I am forgetting what it is like, but, injury to Markov or not, I see no point for players like him in the league. From that point on the Habs looked lost - lost on the PK without him, lost on the PP without him and, of course, lost at ES without him. PK, who may not fully comprehend Marky's importance, seemed the least phased and may be the one player that can fill his skates the best. He did well tonight, but can he play to that level in every game?

The rest of the game seemed very odd to me. Kostitsyn was being punished for having some off moments. Even when we needed a goal Pyatt (who at his best offensively offers nothing to write home about) was being favoured. Pouliot, who has looked like our worst forward this playoffs even doubled Andrei in ice-time. All the line switches were weird to me as now is not the time to change something that is going so well. And, the oddest thing, was the spreading around of ice-time as though the players needed rest. I have news for you, Martin, if the players are tired now what are we going to do about playing 3 more games in the next 6 days? Never, ever, give up on a game, because you never know, this may have been our best chance at a win in the whole series.