Game #52 Washington Capitalizes on Lazy Habs Performance

Details

Date: 04/02/2012
Opponent: Capitals
Location: Montreal

Loss: 0-3

Habs Goalie: Budaj (L)
Opposition Goalie: Vokoun (W)

Habs goalscorers: None
Opposition goalscorers: Wideman, Hendricks, Semin (PS)

Play of the game

Concentrating hard, Josh Gorges uses a Jedi mind trick to convince Alexander Ovechkin that he is actually wearing a Washington jersey. At the end of a long shift, a tired Ovie succumbs to Gorges' will and passes him the puck rather then finding some creative way to score after falling on his arse or something. It was that kind of game.

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
A hard night to choose a game puck. Plekanec is really focusing on his back-end play this season and this has been contributing to his offensive drop-off. I really liked his play in our end and some of the great breakout passes he makes. His rush at the net off a great Subban exit pass in the last 30 seconds reminded me of what a competitor he is and how hard he works every shift, even if it doesn't necessarily show on any given scoresheet. One wonders why he wasn't matched more consistently against Ovie.

Erik Cole
One of those nights where you're stretching to fill the dome. Once again, the Cole/Desharnais/Pacioretty line provided the grand majority of our offense. I love the way this line starts periods with huge intensity, and Cole uses his size and speed to create a lot of the chances they get. Bourque can start taking notes.

David Desharnais
Could just as easily have been Pacioretty, but I liked Desharnais a little more. He's a fun player to watch and he goes hard to the net. He's got good speed and great sense, and I hope we can continue to watch him develop over the coming years.

Defencemen

PK Subban
One of Subban's major assignments was to stay on Ovechkin and not let him have a big night. The two were in each others' faces all game, and in my opinion PK definitely looked like the winner in terms of having a greater impact on the game. He seemed like one of the only Habs actually fully awake and into this contest.

Alexei Emelin
I love this player. He brings so much to the back end and really has great hockey sense. His -2 is a little unfortunate, as 1 was the Wideman goal and the other he was actually putting a body onto Laich, who was getting his stick on a rebound right in front of Budaj (while Kaberle disappeared behind the net). Made a lot of great neutral zone plays and took some well-considered shots while posting another 4 hits.

Goaltender

Peter Budaj
Again, a more than satisfactory performance from our backup in just his 3rd appearance in 17 games. The Wideman goal was a bit of a freak occurrence, and the skaters really hung him out to dry by leaving Hendricks all alone. And it doesn't matter who you are, Semin is going to score on a lot of his penalty shots. Of course, I wasn't too impressed with him drawing a penalty shot by throwing his stick at the puck, but at least he came up with the save on Brouwer.

Comments

What a sleeper. Some parts felt a bit like a soccer game, with prolonged bouts in the neutral zone that featured few scoring chances. I would have predicted that circumstances like that favour us, but instead we looked flat and lazy at times: Kaberle being out of position to allow Semin's breakaway and disappearing behind the net on the Hendricks goal, Bourque's lack of physical engagement and being a step or 3 back from Hendricks, Kostitsyn seeming to forget that offense can happen outside a power play...

You have to give the Caps credit for collapsing responsibly around their net and Vokoun for directing the rebounds very well. We never really established any kind of offensive presence despite outshooting Washington, especially through the 2nd period. Instead, Washington shut us out through the 10th consecutive period in our own building, and we frankly looked a little lazy and lackluster.

Some interesting moments, even if they weren't great. I can't remember ever seeing a goalie actually throw his stick at a puck before. The crowd was erupting into cheers every time Gomez laid his stick on the puck—tomorrow marks one year since he last scored a goal (against the Rangers). He looked more than a little embarrassed, I actually felt a little bad for him.

Game #11Vokoun and Luck Stop Habs Short

Details

Date: 30/10/2010
Opponent: Panthers
Location: Montreal

Loss: 1-3

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

Habs goalscorers: Darche
Opposition goalscorers: Frolik, Booth, Matthias

Play of the game

There was a series of saves that kept this game at 1-1 which I thought was going to be a real turning point in the game. The play started when Markov pinched, but got caught in Florida's zone. David Booth, who played very well all game long, was then away with the puck. The Panther beat Subban in a leg race and got a shot on net that was stopped. The puck, however, came back to him and he got another chance, but Carey slid across to make his biggest save of the night.

Dome hockey team

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

Andrei Kostitsyn - Game Puck
This wasn't a dominant performance, but when I looked at my dome he was the player that rose up for me. He skated very well tonight and was shooting and hitting throughout. Nothing to show for on the scoresheet, but a better effort than last night, more in line with last week.

Mathieu Darche
Mat only played 7:57, but made the most of it by being noticed on pretty much every shift. His goal was created purely by hard work and that was very nice to see. I may have played him a little bit more that he was played tonight as he, in my mind, would have been better suited on G+G's line than Moen in this one.

Scott Gomez
Scott led what was a pretty invisible line tonight. Moen was nowhere to be found and all I ever saw Gionta doing was missing glorious chances (poor guy). The one bright spot, though, was Scott who I felt played with speed and determination. 9-5 on face-offs and a team-high 6 shots are good numbers for the centre who, I feel , is about to really get going.

Defencemen

Andrei Markov
Smooth skating, patience with the puck and a vision like no others were all on display for the first time this year from Markov. He was good tonight, but not quite his great self yet. That all said I thought that he was our best defender, especially in the offensive zone. In all he had quite a few chances and good passes. He took a whopping 10 shots of which 5 made it to the net.

PK Subban
PK played very well all game, but I felt wasn't that key on the PP. With Souray, Streit, Schneider and Bergeron we always had a big shot that could one-time and pick a spot with consistency. Subban runs a PP more like Markov so I am not too sure that they should be on together. In fact I think that the two players could be better used if they were paired with Spacek (Markov) and Hamrlik (Subban) on a permanent (ES and PP) basis. PK is a great addition offensively, but I feel that his shot isn't that effective (it is rarely on net) and we waste too much PP time to set it up.

Goaltender

Carey Price
It was an average game from Carey which included a few very good saves. The goals were all difficult and one shouldn't expect them to be stopped, the D should never let it come to that. His puck-handling was at a season's worst tonight (which says a lot) as he was lucky to escape with no major blemishes on any of his give-aways. It would be nice if he showed a little urgency after a give-away rather than casually skating back to the net as we saw on numerous occasions tonight.

Comments

Vokoun was great in this one as we had 41 shots, many of which were of decent quality. Luck, as well, was on Florida's side as loose pucks never seemed to find their way into the net. A game like this comes along once in a while and I think there isn't much you can do about it. It happens, we could have won, maybe we should have won, but let's move on. One thing that I would have changed tonight, though, is that I would have had Markov on the 5-on-3. Subban has had 10 games to run the PP and we have very few goals to show for it (are any really thanks to him?). That type of situation is Markov's bread and butter and I feel that he would have given us a much better chance at scoring than did PK. If the excuse is that Martin wanted to ease Markov into his role I don't buy it. If a guy can play 23+ minutes then surely 1.5 of those could be spared for the 2-man advantage. It was a bad coaching mistake and hopefully we have learned that lesson and will move on.

Draft Week Montreal Canadiens' Woeful Draft Record A Complete Myth

Imagine you're sat at home on a cold winter's evening in Montreal chatting on the phone with your friend down in Barbados. You sit and listen patiently through all the grumblings about the weather (rain on Monday, too hot on Thursday) before signing off until next time.

That's what it must be like for fans in some NHL cities to read year after year about the Montreal Canadiens organization's horrible record when it comes to draft day.

Yes, it's all relative. And Montrealers live in a dream world where the draft should be a time for your GM to take his 4 first round picks (stockpiled from eager, yet unready, expansion GMs) and bring home a superstar by the year.

But really, we've all had time to adjust – 16 years if not more – and the idea that 3 NHLers is a good draft should start to sink in, I think. On the eve of this year's annual amateur amalgamation, I thought it was time to set things straight for fans of the bleu, blanc, rouge – to show just how good our managers have been over the last decades.

My system for this analysis was simple (possibly simplistic) – I looked at every player who played an NHL game or more this year and I looked at where that player came from. Here's what I found:

1) Montreal has drafted the highest number of 2008-09 NHLers

Team	Drafted players	GP	Avg GP	Pts	Avg Pts
Montreal	41	2096	51.1	841	20.5
Buffalo	39	2158	55.3	759	19.5
Colorado/Quebec	36	1638	45.5	579	16.1
San Jose	35	1444	53.5	553	20.5
New Jersey	34	1868	54.9	848	24.9

Montreal had 41 players from all rounds to Buffalo's 39 for first in absolute numbers of players. What's more the Canadiens were second in GP with 2096 vs. Buffalo's 2158 and second in points scored by those players with 841, only trailing New Jersey's 848 by 7 points.

These numbers are even more impressive when you consider Detroit only had 27 players drafted by them playing an NHL contest this year and some teams like Carolina, Vancouver and Minnesota (though on only 9 drafts) were at 19, 19 and 18 respectively.


2) Montreal second rounders and beyond outclass rivals picks by a long way

The media (and fans) in Montreal like to lambaste the general manager and the team for being pitiful on draft day, and some media bring up the same old chestnuts to discuss every single year. The story of first round draft picks gone missing (a tale from almost every team, by the way) is used to imply that Montreal isn't performing optimally on draft day.

Maybe so. But beyond that first round, no one team has really performed better. Everyone is really propagating a myth.

Non-first round picks

Team	Drafted players	GP	Avg GP	Pts	Avg Pts
Montreal	32	1653	51.6	662	20.7
Buffalo	27	1420	52.6	514	19.0
Colorado/Quebec	26	1131	43.5	366	14.1
New York Rangers	26	1143	44.0	457	17.6
Detroit	25	1196	47.8	702	28.1

Montreal's management managed to select 32 players (more than an entire roster-worth) to play in the 2008-09 season. The next closest rivals were all in the twenties. Montreal also led in games played by non-first round picks and only trailed Detroit (courtesy Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen and Lidstrom) in points scored by those players.


3) Montreal isn't that bad in the first round either

Considering the furor, you'd think Montreal were the absolute worst at picking an NHLer from the first round. never mind their success in other rounds.

In actual fact, the Habs sit tied at 15th with Toronto and Carolina with 9 first round picks skating in the league today.

The leaders (believe it or not) are Phoenix/Winnipeg with 14 NHLers (a lot of good that has done them) followed by New Jersey, the Isles and Washington at 13 apiece.

When you consider the Habs have only had the benefit of 4 top 10 picks in the past 20 years (and made all but Terry Ryan stick), then it's not such a bad record.
Take top 10 picks away and the Canadiens are 11th best (tied with Toronto, San Jose and LA with 6 picks playing).

Non-top 10 picks overall, and the Habs once again lead. 38 players vs. 37 for Buffalo, 34 for Colorado/Quebec and 31 for NJ (the rest under 30).


4) The Habs have been consistent over time

Of the 41 Canadiens draft picks who suited up this year, 21 were drafted before the millennium and 20 were drafted 2000 or later.

Though not first when looking from 2000 on, the Canadiens do still boast the third highest harvest of NHL able draftees since the last expansion. Their 20 puts them in a draw with Edmonton and Buffalo and just behind Columbus and Pittsburgh. Vancouver (Hi Burkie!) and Carolina continue to plumb the depths with 8 and 11, respectively.


5) The Habs have been most successful at the defensive end of the ice

As to be expected given their recent (and long-time) strategy of picking defenders, the Canadiens have been at their most excellent when not picking forwards in the draft.

When it comes to goalies the Canadiens are right near the apex. 5 of the goalies they selected over the past 15 years played this season. All five, including Price, Vokoun, Halak, Garon and Theodore were at times the starter of their respective teams. Only Colorado/Quebec, also with 5 (Thomas, Fernandez, Budaj, Johnson and Denis) can surpass them.

On D the Canadiens draft picks also stood out with a whopping 14 playing at least one NHL game this season. Most were regulars with only Matt Carkner, Ryan O'Byrne, Patrice Brisebois and Yannick Weber playing on the margins. The one team to outdo the Canadiens was the Buffalo Sabres who drafted 3 sets of NHL defense line-ups with 17 draftees in all. Standouts from the Sabres draft classes included Dennis Wideman, Brian Campbell and Keith Ballard. No Markov, though.


So, it seems Montreal is quite good at drafting after all.

If Montreal has not succeeded it is not for an abject failure in the scouting system, but perhaps a distaste for risk. After all, when you can go into rounds 2 to 9 of a draft and say - "we'll come out with 3 players who'll be suiting up in the next 5 years if we go with sound strategy" - who would go with less?

The problem is, as Jack Todd rightly pointed out this morning in the Charlottetown Guardian:

Sooner or later, you have to hit a few gems like Carter, Getzlaf and Parise if you want to go from also-ran to the top of the heap. The Detroit Red Wings, everyone’s model of the perfectly run franchise, drafted Henrik Zetterberg with the 210th pick of the 1999 draft, Pavel Datsyuk with the 171st pick in 1998 and Nik Lidstrom 53rd in 1989 — that’s how you build a great team.

So blame it on cautiousness, bad luck or getting outworked in free agency. Our woes don't come from a failure at the draft...