Habs : About last night...

 Source : Montrealgazette

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And with a bit more than 24 hours to recover – the Thursday game starts at 9:30 p.m. Montreal time – the Canadiens weill have to figure out how to play a 60-minute hockey game or they will go 0-for-Alberta.

And they may have to rebound without Josh Gorges. The veteran defenceman played one shift in the third period at the Saddledome. Gorges has some kind of knack, which means we could see Nathan Beaulieu on the CH blueline in Edmonton.

With all due respect to the 2011 first-round draft choice (Beaulieu was picked 17th overall), this is not a good situation. He would joining a defence corps that took its lumps in Calgary.
Andrei Markov played 27:23 against the Flames. How much will he have left one night later in Edmonton?

Raphael Diaz played almost 20 minutes and did not take a single shot toward Flames’ goaltender Joey MacDonald. If Diaz isn’t shooting, what the heck does he bring to the Canadiens’ lineup? Rugged physicality?

Aged Francis Bouillon had to play 21:34. Hey, we love Frankie and he’s a gamer. But against young, fast and aggressive forwards, such as the ones we saw in Calgary and more of the same in Edmonton, Bouillon just can’t keep up.

Jarred Tinordi looked bad on the second Calgary goal. But he’s a rookie, and there should have been more effective communication with Gorges on the play.

That leaves the reigning Norris Trophy winner, who spent the end of the game in the penalty box watching his teammates desperately scramble for a tying goal.

P.K. Subban is carrying the team from the back end. He’s capable, but I thought Subban was trying too hard against Calgary.

At least P.K. showed up for the game. That’s more than can be said for Rene Bourque. After two solid, hard-working efforts against the Leafs and Flyers, Bourque disappeared against his old team … and his MIA performance reduced the effectiveness of linemates Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta.

Michel Therrien dropped Bourque to the fourth line for a shift or two in the third period. The coach also flipped Brendan Gallagher and Daniel Brière in an effort to get the Lars Eller and David Desharnais lines going.

DD went 7-1 on faceoffs and about 1-77 in puck battles. He had more even-strength ice time than either Plekanec or Eller.

The ever-improving Great Dane was 8-4 on draws. And Eller continued his streak of scoring in every game the Canadiens have played this season. He’s on pace for 109 goals.

Alex Galchenyuk had five shots on goal – some from ridiculous angles. Max Pacioretty had four.
But until the late-game flurry, MacDonald was rarely troubled by white jerseys blocking his sight lines or crashing his crease. Wee Gallagher seems to be the only Canadiens forward who rushes in where too many of his teammates fear to tread. The physicality Bourque brought against Toronto and Philly was missed in Calgary. There are nights when you wish the Canadiens still had Erik Cole.

Ryan White had ZERO hits in the game … unless you want to count the check he laid on Travis Moen to create the turnover that led to Calgary’s first goal.

Brandon Prust played 10 largely ineffective minutes. I suspect Prust is hurt, because we’re not seeing the player who was a revelation last season.

It’s early, but we aren’t seeing the team that won its division and finished second in the Eastern Conference last season.

On L’Antichambre, Guy Carbonneau suggested the Canadiens were able to surprise teams during the truncated 2013 season. That isn’t happening this fall, and the Canadiens have been back on their heels early in the games against Toronto and Calgary.

Carey Price had no chance on the first two Flames’ goals, both of which were tap-ins to open sides of the net. He might have done better on Curtis Glencross’s power-play tip from close in.

Will Peter Budaj get the call to salvage some Alberta points on Thursday night?


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Habs : About last night …

Source :  Hockeyinsideout


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But you know what?

Caution is for pussies.
In the ALN section of HIO, we don’t do caution. We leap to conclusions with hops that an NBA All-Star would envy.

Seriously, it’s WAY too early for dramatic pronouncements.

Well, except for one: They have to get fighting out hockey.

No, this is not a cynical attempt to exploit the horrific George Parros injury for cheap politically-correct points. Parros was the victim of a freak accident. It’s just too bad his kids were at the game to see their father wheeled off the ice on a stretcher.

If there were no fighting in the NHL, Parros wouldn’t have been in the opening-night lineup. Neither would his dancing partner, the Leafs’ Colton Orr. That’s two more spots for skill players on the respective rosters.

Fighting in pro sports is pointless and stupid. It’s an automatic ejection in tough, physical sports such as football, soccer and basketball.

You say it keeps players honest and protects the smaller skill guys?

Right.

So Parros wins a close decision in his first fight with Orr. Travis Moen pounds out a solid decision over Mark Fraser, and Jarred Tinordi punches out Carter Ashton.

Did it change the momentum of the game?

Did it give David Desharnais more room to roam on the ice?

Then there’s the entertainment argument.

“Does anyone go to the bathroom during a fight?” the Don Cherry constituency asks.
How about we introduce a new crowd-pleasing element: The First Star of every game is fondled by a stripper at centre ice.

No one would go to the bathroom.

Alright, enough ranting from the Ol’ Blogger, who is infrequently sought out for advice by Brendan Shanahan.

The Canadiens won a couple fights and lost the game. The home team was second best in most of the puck battles against a Leafs lineup that includes not one player less than 6 feet tall.

The Canadiens have eight players under that bar. And the aforementioned DD, Brian Gionta and Daniel Brière had very quiet nights against Toronto.

In the postgame show on TSN 690, the lads were asking why 6’2″ Lars Eller – two goals and an assist, six SoG, two hits and 50 per cent on draws – played 16:20 while DD – zero points, one SoG, no hits and 6-4 in the faceoff circle – played 18:24.

The even-strength minutes were fairly even for the two centres, but Desharnais added 3:19 on the power play to 1:29 for Eller.

Alex Galchenyuk had two assists and was plus-2 in 13:23 – less ice time than Gionta, Rene Bourque (who actually played well), Brière and Max Pacioretty.

On a team with three second lines, the EGG (Eller-Galchenyuk-Gallagher) aggregation was the home team’s best – by a lot.

Perhaps DD, the captain and Brière will fare better against teams less physical than the Leafs.
Unfortunately for the Canadiens, the Atlantic Division includes – in addition to Toronto – the Bruins,
Senators, Sabres and two Florida teams that aren’t exactly shrinking violets.

Positive note: the Canadiens fourth line – with and without Parros – played well. Moen was particularly energetic.

Maybe DD and the boys can fatten up against Detroit.

Yeah, right.

The radio guys also were wondering why a Norris Trophy defenceman played 44 seconds on the Canadiens penalty-kill while Raphael Diaz played 6:20.

I didn’t like Diaz during the pre-season, and my dissatisfaction carried over into the opener.

Yes, the guy is good on the PP. His patience and slick passing created a goal. But Diaz has no physical game, and Michel Therrien is pairing him with Andrei Markov, who sorely needs the kind of hard-hitting partner that Alexei Emelin was before he wrecked his knee last season.

Markov is still a force on the PP and occasionally zips off a nifty outlet pass. But the veteran Dman was caught flat-footed at the Toronto blueline on a Canadiens’ power play, and Tyler Bozak wheeled away to score the goal that turned the game in Toronto’s favour.

If Carey Price stops Bozak on the second-period breakaway, it’s 2-2 and who knows? But Price didn’t have much chance on the other goals, and I thought he made some big stops.

James Reimer faced 37 shots, but there wasn’t much in the way of sustained Canadiens pressure. And the Leafs, winning puck battles all over the ice, had more clear-cut scoring chances.

Heading into the season, I thought the Canadiens had issues on the back end.

P.K. is incomparable, of course, and was excellent against his hometown team. Josh Gorges was steady and ended the night at plus-1. Jarred Tinordi played a shade under 15 minutes, blocked two shots and did not look out of place.

But Markov, Diaz and a game-but-slow-and-undersized Francis Bouillon …

Emelin is sorely missed. I’m not counting on much from Davis Drewiske or Douglas Murray (who seems to get hurt climbing out of bed in the morning).

There’s help in the system – Nathan Beaulieu is up for the time being, Darren Dietz and Magnus Nygren looked promising in pre-season – but it doesn’t do to rush defence prospects unless they’re high first-round blue chippers.

Philadelphia is at the Bell Centre on Saturday.

There could be fighting.

•  •  •

Guest Comment from savethepuck:

Yeah I’m a glass half full guy, but maybe I saw the game differently than some, and it makes me sleep better at night and doesn’t make me get so worked up over a regular season loss. It’s an 82 game season and there will be games when breaks go the other way. I’m not even going to bother arguing with those who are blaming Price, I’m starting to realize it’s a waste of time, like beating your head against a wall. It was a crazy hockey game, seemed like both teams were playing run and gun and giving up a lot of glorious scoring opportunities at both ends. Habs went down 1-0 on a 5 on 3 PP but the Habs fought back and tied it up ( on an incredible patient hockey play by some Diaz guy that most here hate ). The kid line then tied it up and things were looking good. Leafs tied it on a great shot by Phaneuf and then went ahead on a short handed goal by Bozak. That goal rolled off Markov’s stick at the blueline, and Carey may of cheated a bit thinking Bozak was going to deke to the forehand before he went high blocker, but I’m not going start blaming anyone because it’s pointless. The backbreaker was the 4th goal, which was one of the luckiest bounces you will see pop back on the stick of Mason Raymond. This was one out of 82 games that either team could of won, if the Habs are well below 500 after 20 games, I’ll start to worry a little.


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Awful night for Carey Price as Leafs rout Canadiens in Toronto

Source : Montrealgazette.com

The Toronto Maple Leafs scored on four of their first five shots on goal and defeated the Canadiens 5-1 Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. Goaltender was clearly the difference in a game that illustrated why the Canadiens should be wary of a first-round playoff matchup against the Leafs. James Reimer made 36 saves as the Leafs beat the Canadiens for the third time in four meetings. Carey Price and Peter Budaj gave up five goals on the first nine shots they faced although neither received much in the way of defensive help.

Still No. 1: Despite the loss, the Canadiens maintained first place in the Northeast Division, which means that if the season ended now, the Canadiens wouldn’t have to worry about the Leafs. Instead, they would be heading to New York to play the Islanders. Montreal maintained its one-point lead over Boston in the division when the Bruins dropped a 4-2 decision to the lowly Carolina Hurricanes.

Price isn’t right: Price was pulled at 10:25 of the first period after giving up three goals on four shots. The Leafs opened the scoring on a power-play goal by Tyler Bozak at 1:54, made it 2-0 on a goal by Leo Komarov at 8:08 and sent Price to the bench with a goal by Jay McClement at 10:25. It was the earliest Price has been yanked in his NHL career.

Budaj not much better: We might have had the ingredients for a goaltender controversy, but backup Budaj gave up a goal to Dion Phaneuf on the first shot he faced at 17:06 and Phil Kessel scored at 4:32 of the second period to give the Leafs five goals on nine shots.

Drewiske delivers: The only Canadien to beat Reimer was newcomer Davis Drewiske. The defenceman scored on a shot from the high slot at 13:08 of the first period to cut the Toronto lead to 3-1.

Specialty items: The Canadiens’ string of seven games without giving up a power-play goal ended when Bozak scored in the first period. The Leafs were 1-for-5 with the extra man. The Canadiens’ power play, which ranked fourth in the NHL going into the game, was 0-for-4 and managed only three shots on net.

He said it: When asked to characterize the Montreal-Toronto rivalry this season, Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said: “Lopsided scores.” He was almost right. The Leafs have won by 6-0, 2-1 and 5-1 margins. The Canadiens were 5-2 winners here on Feb. 27. The teams meet here to close out the regular season on April 27.

What’s next: The Canadiens play four games in six nights beginning Monday when the Philadelphia Flyers visit the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., TSN-Habs, RDS, TSN 690 Radio). The Canadiens travel to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and wrap up the week with their final two regular-season home games, against Tampa Bay on Wednesday and the Washington Capitals on Saturday.