Game #12 Montreal Outlasts Late-Night Sen Storm

Details

Date: 4/11/2011
Opponent: Senators
Location: Montreal

Win: 2-1

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

Habs goalscorers: Cole, Kostitsyn
Opposition goalscorers: Smith

Play of the game

Not quite Gorges' come-from-nowhere sprawling takeout of Jason Spezza on a breakaway, but it was close. I'll go with the hard work of Mike Cammalleri behind the net to create a beauty chance on Anderson. He battles for the rebound against the boards and a bouncing puck squirts out, eluding Cole only to have Cammalleri pick it up again and throw it to Desharnais in the slot. As Cammalleri skates hard at the net, Desharnais gives him a great feed that gets sent right to a streaking Cole's tape on the far side of the net, and all that hard work is rewarded with a beautiful and energizing goal for the Habs.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Lars Eller - Game Puck
Eller did it all tonight, and was channeling the brilliance of the less-visible Plekanec tonight. He played very well in both ends tonight, doing a lot of the right things in the right places at the right times, and doing them often. He and Kostitsyn seem to be developing quite the 2-way pairing, and we wonder if Moen will ever be able to keep up...

Mike Cammalleri
Cammalleri worked hard tonight and was a big reason his line looked like the most dangerous one. He had good net presence, great vision and led the team with 5 shots. In short, giving us exactly what we need from him.

Erik Cole
Not that Desharnais had a bad game, but Cole was more in the thick of things more often and to greater effect. Cole's a very well-rounded player, with good hands, speed and a big enough frame to be able to mix it up with most of them. I think his net-charging and crease-battling techniques are setting a good example for a lot of our young forwards.

Defencemen

Hall Gill
Gill was a force tonight. Despite being deked so easily by Spezza on that one play, Gill had a very solid physical and defensive presence, making the Sens pay hard for time in front of the net and getting in the way of a lot of plays.

Jaroslav Spacek
It's becoming quite apparent to me that this is indeed a man who's been playing on his wrong side for the last couple of years. I saw him making a lot of smart plays with the puck in his own end through the first two periods and have noticed that he seems a lot more comfortable and better with the puck so far this season. I like it.

Goaltender

Carey Price
Price certainly had his moments tonight. The pair of saves he made on the Sens' power play in the second period were spectacular, and he kept the score even for the first half of the game while the forwards took their time finding their respective touches. Really noticed him playing the puck quickly and efficiently on many a Sens dump-in, including a spectacular clear during the first penalty kill. Weathered the storm that was the third period with aplomb. Gold star.

Comments

My father and I were on the phone with each other during the first period, and remarking at how this season's Habs look like an almost completely different team as compared to last year's squad. How this team is always looking to play the puck forward, how they follow their shots to the net, and how they consistently have men battling in front and screening the goalie. Even how they don't collapse into their own zone with a 1- or 2-goal lead.

Obviously, that was before the third period. We came out flat in our own zone and were scored on short-handed, and things didn't improve much from there. Outshot 15-4, we looked like the Habs of yesteryear at times; turtling into a defensive shell that sometimes does the the trick and often—like tonight—really doesn't. The penalty we took late in the third was an almost inevitable consequence of allowing too much offensive pressure, but we managed to step up for the last minute and a half of 6-on-4 play with a degree of skill that seemed missing most of the period. It was almost as if we were better on the penalty kill than at even-strength, which wasn't encouraging.

That aside, I liked what I saw for the first two periods: aggressive offense, hard work, and good transition hockey. So I found myself wondering this when my father mentioned it—just where will Gomez fit in the lines, now? We have 3 good centres who I like pretty well right now, and 5 wingers... Given the way Kostitsyn and Eller are playing together I'd like to see what happens if we move Gomez to the wing rather than Eller. Let us know what you think.

Lion of October The Real Player of the Month

It's not Carey Price's fault that the Molson Cup system is flawed, but it is. One has to retain the Molson Cup as a goalie, rather than win it, because the points work that way.

A forward has to win the accolade, and a defenceman would have to raise heaven and earth to get the nod.

The last 12 years in Montreal saw ten goalies get the annual prize, only interrupted by Koivu in 05-06 and Kovalev in 07-08. The last defenceman to win in Montreal: Larry Robinson, 1981.

This isn't unique to the Habs. Such luminaries as Martin Gerber, Ottawa, Vesa Toskala, Toronto and Alex Auld, Vancouver have won the Molson Cup; they're in the net for 60 minutes and are making 90% of saves in most wins, they are top of mind for star selectors.

I don't have a mission to change the Molson Cup. The fans seem to like it (all 200 that vote each game). Rather, I think it only fair that when a player misses out for the recognition he probably deserved over a given month, that he be recognized somewhere.

So, there you have it: Lion of the Month.


With all due respect to Carey Price, who did earn his three star selections, a 4-4-2 record with a 0.900 save percentage and a 2.59 GAA doesn't flatter the team. It leads me to think that perhaps someone was better.

The other candidates: Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec


Pacioretty

Pacioretty jumps out as a choice because we've taken note of his play on this site. 3 times he was named player of the game by us (without significant disagreement) and 5 times he made the dome. A case could have been made for more domes, which is not necessarily the case for Carey Price (who had 7).

His success was recorded in more than our own observations. Max led the team in almost every offensive category in October. He is tied for first in goals (4) and points (9) with Pleks for a start. He's second on the team in total goals created since the start and is first if you pro-rate by minutes played. he's also by far and away the leader at creating goals at even strength.

And for all those who believe that shots drive the whole game, it's worth noting that max is leading the team with shots on net and scoring chances, and is second in overall attempts on net.

In short, he's been "the" offensive catalyst for the team most nights.


Plekanec
Plekanec has quietly crept up the rankings in most of the statistics as well. He currently sits tied for the lead in points and goals as mentioned and leads the team in goals created. Though he was slow off the mark (or a bit unlucky) to start, he now leads the team in goals created on the PP and is showing he might get used to controlling the point of the PP given enough chance to settle in.

Of course we know that in addition to leading the PP, he also takes tough checking assignments and plays a lot of PK. This might not be a plus for him at this point, however.

Pleks has scored more important goals than anyone also. 2 gamewinners of 4 and last game's empty netter saved some blushes that looked to be around the corner.


Price

My low down on Price is that he has had 3 excellent games, 1 very good game, 3 average games and 3 below average ones. This averages out to above average in games, and that's why he led in star points, of course.

However, 10 starts in 11 games gave him much more ice time to get these nods than anyone else, and if this use level continues, pretty much regardless of results, he'll win the Molson Cup.

Because I keep some deeper stats, I know that Price has allowed a goal by the time the other team has had a mere 3.7 scoring chances on average. Knowing how the team in front of him has trouble coming back (not recently), allowing a goal on the first or second scoring chance on net on 6 of 10 occasions counts as a minus for me.


Lion of October: Max Pacioretty

A close race, but on balance, I'd have to rate Pacioretty as the player of October. This is entirely on the merit of his play on the ice and his production of offense for the team. It's entirely reasonable that people want to focus on the recent wins, but Pacioretty as the strongest player in all the losses represented October's positives better than anyone else.

Remarkable to think then that he is also coming back from a broken neck and concussion. Remarkable also that he carried his streaky form from January and February of last season, when such an injury could have easily seen him revert to Max 1.0.

Why All The Winning?

A week off and we content generators must occupy our minds with something.

The trend I am responding to is the one where everyone has a go at deciding why the Canadiens, so bad a week ago, suddenly veered to victory 3 times in a row to restore the hopes and dreams of millions.

Yesterday, I read a few accounts in which the authors’ insight was that Habs won more games because they didn’t lose. Wait that’s unfair, they actually did go a step further than that – that the team won because they scored more goals than the other team.

Today, Sean Gordon “drills down” on the Habs winning streak. In looking in all the familiar places a few hundred yards off shore, he claimed to turn up sand, not oil. As for drilling deeper, it seems he’d rather assume it’d only turn up sea water. Outside the metaphor, he decided to call it luck or law of averages or whatever you like, after he’d checked the shots, blocked shots and PP numbers.

It’s a fair point and one that I see more and more people subscribing to. Basically, as Sean puts it:

The margin between winning and losing for a team like the Habs (or the Bruins, Sabres, Leafs and even Capitals and Penguins) has become unimaginably narrow.

His explanation that small things make the difference ultimately.

Both theories, Sean's and that of those who distill to the only cold hard facts there are imply that the Canadiens fate is at least in some part out of their own control. The notion that what will happen will happen due to so many factors, it hardly bears thinking about.

What this leads me to is the question: "Is the exercise of playing 100 games with all of us watching really just an elaborate exercise in coin flipping?" Provided the coins (teams) are relatively balanced (sorry Florida most years), are the outcomes really just hinged on whether someone’s skate happens to deflect a puck an inch inside or outside the post?

My feeling is that it is not. I may well be deluding myself.

Teams wouldn’t bother to hire scouts, coaches and all the rest of the entourage if it were thus. Surely if we can admit that teams can be off the pace at the bottom end of things (Florida’s decade) then we must have room for the idea that some teams at the top are off the pace set by some of the others. How?

Personnel. By this I mean players as well as scouts and coaches.

Fitness. This may be leveling out, but I don’t think its level yet, amazing as that is to digest.

Tactics. It’s clear as day that some teams operate with different tactical priorities to others. I’d think that many tactics fluctuate in efficiency in this relative way.

Execution. Some players are innately more efficient at executing plays than others (personnel), but I think that some plays can be learned. Execution of plays is what people must be trying to influence with practice (or is that just for internet traffic?)

I think all these matter. I think all these can be conrolled in some way by the team and its organization. I think this is part of each game, albeit the part we don't see.


So if that's true, what has changed with these parameters in a week?

We’re kind of stuck on the personnel front, though Engqvist for Nokelainen did some good. Fitness isn’t something that can change overnight. Tactics and execution can be changed (Olivier pointed out the change in the way three forwards are attacking now vs. then). But it’s hard to see what really changed over a week.

One thing's for sure, trying to answer this question is not simple at all, and definitely produces answers that are hard to justify. It’s easy to see why people assume it’ll be a futile drilling exercise.


But maybe this is because we’re just asking the wrong question. Or maybe trying to answer the question by looking at the wrong data set.

After all, I don’t really need an answer that proves to me the Habs have some chance of winning after a loss. I’ve watched enough to know the odds aren’t nil.

Maybe when we ask what has made the Habs win this week, our fixation is not with the week, but rather what the week might tell us about our true concerns. As a group of fans that is hoping there are people in the Canadiens organization taking some actions to get a step ahead of rivals, aren’t we looking beyond October, November, 2011 anyway?

The ultimate question then, as it probably always should be until that future June night: “Is this team good enough to win the championship?”. And perhaps: “Does this stretch of 11 games tell us anything in that regard?”.

I can only answer for myself, but I’d say yes.

The good signs are there. The team is not allowing themselves to be wildly outshot or outchanced and mostly they are doing this by limiting good chances against. The team and its individual parts seem to be learning as they go.

But there are troubling signs too, not forgotten after a week. The team is rigid in its approach to offense. And without flexibility, they have had trouble when either teams figure that out or just get a big enough lead. The team’s strategy of choice for defending a lead seems to put them more at the mercy of luck than the teams who are defending their leads against the Habs (by that I mean puck concession is dangerously prone to bad bounces).

History will show that these flags aren’t really new. For years this has been the run-down on the Habs. Maybe that’s why my assessment hasn’t actually changed much since September. But this team doesn’t look in many ways to have changed very substantially from teams of Octobers past. Reasonable then to think that without adequate change in approach, change in results might not be drastic.

In a round-about way, I think I’ve argued that I think Sean Gordon (and even the they won because they won crew) was correct. I think those assessments were pretty dead on – for this team. The team is good enough to beat anyone on a given night, but flawed enough to lose as well.

But I’d disagree that this is the way for every team, so that all fans should just resign itself to this epic series of coin tosses. I’d disagree that none of the coins can be weighted. A team like Washington has rigged the game enough in my opinion to make their bets better than 50-50. Quite some margin better.

Take this opinion as you like, but I’d suggest to you that it’d be good news if it were proven fact. Because I tell you what Habs fans, if it’s all just averages, it don’t look good for this team which nabbed 24 Cups in 75 or so opportunities.

Price First Star

Carey Price was named the first star of the week, beating out Nikolai Khabibulin and Jaromir Jagr.

Please note the press release clearly contains a typo. It reads October 31st, 2011 when it should state 2001. Silly to think an editor missed this, Jagr would be 39 in 2011 and Nikolai would nearly be 39 too. They'd both be on Tobalev's hockey pool team...


Diaz to share accolade


Carey will surely acknowledge his whole team in discussing the honour, but special thought to Raphael Diaz with whom he switched positions for a few minutes in the game before last.


Plekanec can stuff it



Plekanec, on the other hand may receive special extra mention as the faceoff "specialist" who seemed to be on Khabibulin's side in this race for late October honours.


Did the people who make these choices watch these games, by the way? Silly question, of course they didn't.

If they had, I would ask them if they'd ever had such hilarious highlights in a first star's video montage before...

Game #112 In A Row Against Boston; Fabulous

Details

Date: 29/10/2011
Opponent: Bruins
Location: Montreal

Win: 4-2

Habs Goalie: Price (W)
Opposition Goalie: Rask (L), Thomas

Habs goalscorers: Gionta, Eller, Desharnais, Plekanec
Opposition goalscorers: Lucic, Seguin

Play of the game

I didn't like where this one was going at the end of the third. There had been missed opportunities for the Habs and late pressure from the Bruins. So, when Pleks intercepted a pass in his own zone and carried it out I got out of my seat. With speed and patience he made it all the way down the ice and put it into the open cage to seal the deal.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Andrei Kostitsyn
Always involved, always looking dangerous in this one. He and Eller created quite the dynamic duo tonight and seemed to have the B's number. Between them they could have had two or three more goals, easily. Andrei's best play was a set-up for Eller which came right after one of the nicest dekes we'll see all season. Rask's save is the only thing that will keep Kostitsyn out of the season's top highlights.

Lars Eller - Game Puck
Just consider this; Eller is still the game puck recipient despite the missed open net, the cough-up on goal one and a penalty. So, if you didn't watch you can just imagine how good he was the rest of the time. To be fair, though, this was not his best game of the year, but he was the top Hab tonight. His goal was certainly the highlight of what was a very strong game, mostly in the offensive zone.

Tomas Plekanec
Pleks had a good week and capped it off with a very strong game tonight. He deliverred from the point on the PP in the first and picked up his second point with the empty-netter at the end. He was not only used more than any other forward, but was used more than any other Hab. A good Tomas Plekanec often means a good Habs team and good special teams; tonight couldn't have been a better example of that.

Defencemen

PK Subban
One of the things I like best about PK is how he doesn't get intimidated, he just doesn't seem to care about what the Bruins are saying and doing. That is a quality that is invaluable to this team. Boston think that if they cheat more than anyone and are dirtier than anyone they will get their way. Unfortunately, I suppose it worked for them once, but if more people act like Subban out there you can be certain that lightning won't strike twice. PK led the D tonight and played a good solid game, in every way possible.

Jaroslav Spacek
Spacek isn't the reason that we are winning, but you can't deny that he is one of the reasons. We are steadier with him in the line-up, especially when he plays as he has done this week. With Jaro in the line-up we are 4-2, without him we are 0-5. It helps having experience on the ice and on the bench and I am sure that his return this week has been a positive for the team. Tonight he led the team with 7 blocked shots and was our second best defender out there. I am happy for him after this week and am glad that he is getting a bit of recognition.

Goaltender

Carey Price
Price was great tonight and stopped a Bruin team that threw a lot of good stuff at him. There were again a few posts, but let's not forget that those don't count. He made some great saves and gave his team the type of performance that will win them many games. Carey has been better this week as the wins against Boston could have easily been losses without good goaltending.

Comments

The Canadiens avoided taking minor penalties until the third period, while the Bruins couldn't avoid being themselves tonight. That opened the door for Montreal to play a good, solid 5-on-5 game and not worry about killing penalties for quite a while. Scoring on a power-play of our own in the first was a bonus as it was only our 5th goal of the year with extra man (we added our 6th later in the game). A disciplined team who can score on the PP and who get good goaltending will do well in this league; if the Habs can accomplish those three things the playoffs will almost be a certainty. The second period, other than the goal against, was one of the best periods of the year, a period in which we dominated play and didn't really allow the Bruins to get anything of their own going. We played a pretty conservative 2-goal lead type third period and it almost didn't work. It was good defensive play and good (and at times, lucky) goaltending that ended up being the difference in that period. Boston's late goal could have had more of an implication had it not been for the smart play of the unit (led by Pleks) on the ice at the end.

82 games in 6 months, about 3 games a week till April and for some reason we get the next 6 days off. I hope that the Habs get the most that they can out of those days whether it is rest, easy workouts or intense practice. The schedule will certainly pick up as of next Friday and we must be ready. We showed this week that we won't be bowing out anytime soon and reminded people what we are capable of. With 71 games to go, however, there is certainly a lot of work to do. It has been an interesting first month, a month with downs and an up. 10 points, however, isn't horrible, but won't be enough in the end. Which are the real Habs? Tune in in a week's time to find out.

Game #10 Habs Extend Championship Hangover For Bruins

Details

Date: 27/10/2011
Opponent: Bruins
Location: Boston

Win: 2-1

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

Habs goalscorers: Cole, Plekanec
Opposition goalscorers: (Bergeron)

Play of the game

After what was meant to be an inspirational move by young Subban, the Canadiens end up shorthanded to end the second. This is the territory they have been losing games from. Sure enough a bad bounce and a Bruin receives the gift straight on the tape. As if from nowhere, in slide Rafael Diaz like a centreback in the six yard box to block the puck and save the tie. He's on for a lot of good saves thanks to his tendency to pinch, but this was the first and best of his own, I'd say.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Erik Cole
Let's all thanks Jessica Rusnak, shall we? She inadvertently changed the course of the season. The chivalrous Erik Cole, since coming from nowhere to protect the honour of the young reporter was a week ago on his way to booking another trade home to Carolina. Since that time, he has been a fixture in the dome and has been creating chances nearly non-stop. I thought his goal was good, but yet again he had better chances (homemade ones) that were the product of better skill.

Tomas Plekanec
He should be the best player on the team, and in this game he was. The own goal was never his fault. The gamewinner was all his fault. Besides those two scoresheet items he played an all around game with the proficiency we took for granted but haven't really been seeing until this point of this season.

Mike Cammalleri
Who am I to take Mike Cammalleri out of the dome. He didn't score, but he was dangerous again as he paired well with Erik Cole. That breakaway would have been a goal against 9 out of 10 goalies in this league, and his empty scorecard didn't reflect his dangerous presence.

Defencemen

Josh Gorges
Back in camp I was simply amazed at the way Gorges came into the year. He seemed not to have lost an inch in his game. It's taken a few regular pace games for him to get here, but I could see that coming back this evening. Gorges contributed to the game winning goal with his 6th assist of the season already. It was a simple enough play, but if you didn't know better you'd have seen #79 as the originator of a pass like that. He was the workhorse tonight too and the minutes leader at ES by minutes.

Jaroslav Spacek
Spacek is slowly usurping Hal Gill's role as he shows the other 22 year-old Dman of the future the ropes. He took another important shot (last night too) and ended up kick starting the comeback. Most impressive to me was the sheer amount of shot blocking he did. He was sharp at being in lanes in this one, something that seemed to frustrate the B's and he ended with a scorer's 6 in that column.

Goaltender

Carey Price - Game Puck
It's not easy to stop every shot the Bruins send at the net (but one, thanks Diaz). I thought he was especially superb late in the game when the Bruins were resorting to any tactic to get that tying goal. Carey stayed calm, eyed the pucks and importantly didn't cough a big rebound to a big scorer like Thomas did. A couple of breakaway saves again, and the team can again think about winning thanks to Carey's leadership.

Comments

Probably should have been watching the Winnipeg game (9-8!?!), but watching this team figure out how to win is fun in itself.

I didn't write that piece on comebacks so the guys could prove me wrong, but that's twice now that the team has done what I said they couldn't. Twice in three games. What else do you guys want me to write about? Gauthier could never trade for Crosby and Malkin? The Leafs are a sure-fire bet for the playoffs? Gomez was a terrible pick in the pool for me? (Oh, wait).

Anyway, the fact that these two wins have been comebacks mean so much more in my opinion. This win, against a goalie that was clearly hot and a good team (champions, remember?) who needed a win as much as the Canadiens was the better and more meaningful of the two.

It's to the team now to go for the high straight with a win in Montreal as the boos rain down on Zdeno. It won't be easy, especially as we witness the tactics the Bruins are willing to employ in the later stages of this one. However, the fans who were robbed of a key player by a vicious maneuver and were forced to watch the smirking brutes at parties all summer deserve as much. And wouldn't it be sweet if the talk about the first coach being fired this season could switch for a few minutes to Claude Julien.

The Best Outcome Possible: A Handshake

A game that people are drooling over for many of the wrong reasons. Not because of the chance to score more goals than the team that edged the Habs in OT of game #7 last April, but as some sort of revenge.

After the Chara hit on Pacioretty last season, two things happened rather quickly: Chara apologized and Pacioretty accepted.

In my experience forgiveness is a powerful thing, and even watching others demonstrate forgiveness has power beyond so many other aspects of life.

In my best case scenario, I look forward to seeing Chara go out of his way to find Max Pacioretty this evening and offer his hand and that apology reiterated. he did after all break his neck. I want Don Cherry to squirm as he prattles on about never showing weakness by apologizing or accepting them from your arch-rivals.

Of course, after the handshake I hope Pacioretty finds a great time to turn on the jets and beat Chara around the outside and end that play the way it should have ended the first time -- with another goal. And with a win that leads to a 3-month spiral for the Bruins. Then a series of trades that hobbles them for long enough to stop the nightmares of that horrible June night happening again.