While most Montreal Canadiens fans are ecstatic for the upcoming playoffs and are getting ready for a nice long run by their beloved Habs, there are some pretty glaring issues that should be addressed. I don't want to rain on anybody's parade here, but I'm trying to be as realistic as possible. Possession is bad, scoring chances are bad, system is consistently in question, and certain players are not being used appropriately.
Is it good that Montreal finished with 100 points? Absolutely. Is it good that Carey Price finished with a career best save percentage? No question about it. So why all the doubt? because there are certain things in the NHL that are unsustainable and Montreal's ability to win games the way they do, might be one of those.
Montreal is a bottom five possession team in the league with a mere Corsi for percentage of 47.2%. The only teams below the Canadiens are Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Buffalo. None of whom are playoff teams. Not even close. This is definitely not a good sign, and if it continues down this road, well, take a look at Toronto. A team who went from a comfortable playoff spot to kicked out in a matter of weeks. Montreal's possession numbers are about 5% better, which should be alarming. Can Montreal be a dominant possession team? yes. In fact, they recently had a 60% Corsi for against the Chicago Blackhawks, a western powerhouse and a serious Cup contender. Prior to that, they held an excellent 63.6% against Anaheim, who nearly won the President's Trophy. This should tell you that Montreal's real problem is consistency. They have far too many games where they simply don't try, or give up. That needs to end, and quickly.
A lot of people have been questioning Michel Therrien's system and placing a lot of blame on him in regards to Montreal's poor play, in particular their poor possession numbers. I can't say that it is all the coach. Therrien did not take a successful possession team and run them into the ground (like what Randy Carlyle is becoming notorious for). Montreal's possession numbers have stayed relatively consistent dating back to 2011-12 with Martin/Cunneyworth at the helm. So, Therrien haters can relax a little bit. What Therrien has tried to do is create a dump and chase team, who battles in the corners, and grinds out some not-always-pretty type of goals. This team is not built for that, and it is seriously hindering the players abilities on the ice.
Montreal has some very creative players, who can hold the zone, put pressure on, and create scoring chances when they use that talent. Subban has been on a tight leash all season and if Montreal wants to succeed, Therrien needs to let him loose and reign havoc from the blue line. Benching (arguably) your best defenseman, will not help this team win. Douglas Murray is not a top-six defenseman on this Canadiens team and it is hard to justify giving him so many important minutes against players who will blow his doors off. Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi are better options than Francis Boullion, and Douglas Murray and should be utilized to their strengths. All I'm saying is, Michel, sometimes you've got to risk it to get the biscuit.
On Twitter this morning, I saw a good friend of mine post a chart he made on scoring chance percentages for teams in the playoffs. What I saw was less than impressive.
Graph via @toddcordell
Clearly, Montreal is far behind in this category. Scoring chances are extremely important especially for a team who is currently having some serious struggles on the power play, and who has poor possession numbers. Having now gone eight games without a power play goal, Montreal is relying solely on their 5v5 scoring. Even if Montreal's power play starts to heat up again, their scoring chances at even strength still needs improving.
What is even more alarming in the previous graph is that Tampa Bay, Montreal's first round opponent, is sitting at 51%, and have defeated the Habs in three of four match ups this season. This will be one hell of a series however early on, advantage Tampa Bay.
Montreal is capable of winning games, and at times, can be a serious contender coming out of a wide open Eastern Conference. The frustrating part is that the Canadiens consistency will always be in question, no matter how well they are playing. This, above all, is their biggest problem contributing to all of the negative statistics looming over this club right now. If Montreal comes into these playoffs playing their highest level of hockey and proving they are a force to reckon with, I can certainly see them shocking a lot of opposing teams.
Thank you for the read, and feel free to leave a comment!
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With the injury depleted Montreal Canadiens pulling out a 3-2 shootout win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, they continue to inch closer to securing a playoff spot.
Montreal's win came without the services of Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges, Jaroslav Spacek, Brent Sopel, Hal Gil who was sick with the flu last night, Mathieu Darche, Max Pacioretty, Thomas Plekanec and Jeff Halpern.
Are you kidding me?
Not only did Montreal win but they played an excellent game against the Lightning in a potential first or second round matchup preview, depending on where these two teams finish.
Montreal has 85 points in the standings with eleven games left to play. If you figure that they need a minimum of 92 points to qualify for the post-season, they need seven more points in the standings, or about four wins.
With seven more games against teams who are below them in the standings and nine of their remaining 11 against conference opponents, the Habs fate is truly in their own hands.
So despite being decimated by injuries and illness all season long the Canadiens continue to win against all odds, a testament to their surprising depth. The Habs have a bevy of young, talented forwards who are getting the job done and just when one player goes down another youngster steps up to fill the void.
While it's great to see the youth movement picking up the slack, Montreal absolutely needs more out of Michael Cammalleri and Scott Gomez.
Is Andrei Kostitsyn playing the best hockey of his career?
Well maybe "best" is not the right word but consistent certainly is.
The much maligned Kostitsyn was a player that most were sure would be moved leading up to this year's trade deadline, and fans were happy to see him shipped out of town for a dog and then to have that dog shot.
The problem with Kostitsyn has never been his skill but his motivation, or seeming lack thereof, in addition to his brutal inconsistency. When he is on his game, he is one of the most effective players in the Habs lineup and when he is off he is more like a ball and chain, dragging the Canadiens down.
Since being placed on a line with rookie Lars Eller, however, Kostitsyn seems to have found his ideal center and is playing his most consistent hockey in a long time.
Their playing styles complement each other perfectly as they bring out the best in each other.
A big part of the reason is because, playing mostly on the third line, the Habs seem like they are finally just letting Kostitsyn play. Whereas he has looked lost and like he was thinking too much while playing with Scott Gomez and/or Tomas Plekanec, right now he is just playing hockey and relying on instincts rather than over-thinking his game.
The result has been that Kostitsyn has 11 points (5G, 6A) over his last 11 games and the Canadiens are 8-3-0 over that span.
Without him and Eller leading the way—Eller has seven points (4G, 3A) over the same span—the Canadiens would be in dire straits right now.
Oh and in case you're counting, AK46 is second in team scoring with 40 points (18G, 22A) while averaging no more than 15:43 per game, is shooting the puck, using his size in the corners and looking a lot more like the 10-overall draft pick that he is.
Hopefully for Montreal, he can keep it up because the rest of the top-six veterans are just not getting it done.
The refs are to blame on the Vincent Lecavalier slash.
With nine seconds left in the first period and P.K. Subban and Lecavalier fighting for the puck, the latter took a two handed lumberjack chop to Subban sending him to the ice in considerable pain.
Subban had just slashed Lecavalier and got a two minute minor for the infraction but Lecavalier got five for slashing, a 10-minute misconduct and was tossed from the game.
Lecavalier's hack on Subban was a clear attempt to injure for which he will surely be suspended for one or two games. The problem is that the situation was entirely avoidable.
Watching the replay (below), you can see Subban and Lecavalier were battling for position in front of the net for a good 30 seconds before the slash. Pushing, cross checking, face washing and the like.
As the players became increasingly frustrated, each infraction became a little more severe. So why didn't the refs step in?
Had the refs sent both players to the box for roughing, which was clearly merited by both, at any point leading up to the slash there would have been no further incident. But because the refs let them go at each other, it got to the point where Lecavalier dealt with the situation himself, right or wrong, with a blatant attempt to injure.
And, once again, the problem of inconsistent refereeing rears its ugly head. This whole incident could have been avoided but the refs clearly dropped the ball.
The Habs are back at it tonight with another critical four-pointer, this time against the New York Rangers who are seven points behind Montreal in the standings.
With the race to the finish line in full effect this is sure to be another great match.
--- Kamal is a freelance Habs writer, Senior Writer/Editor-in-Chief of HabsAddict.com, Montreal Canadiens Blogger on Hockeybuzz.com and Habs writer on TheFranchise.ca. Kamal is also a weekly contributor to the Sunday Shinny on The Team 990 (AM 990) every Sunday from 8 - 9 AM. Listen live at http://www.team990.com/
(Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images North America)
You can tell that the playoffs are just around the corner because it seems that every game the Montreal Canadiens play lately is a four-point match.
Tonight is no different as the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning will be visiting the Bell Centre for the fourth and final regular season match between these two clubs.
Tampa took the first two games with Montreal taking the third in Tampa just over ten days ago.
Only four points separate these two teams in the standings.
Standings
Both teams have played 70 games and Montreal is sixth overall in the East with 83 points to the Lightning's fifth overall 87 points, also in 70 games.
A win by the Lightning would give them a nice six-point buffer over Montreal while bringing them to within one point of the fourth overall Penguins. For Montreal, this game is an opportunity to close the gap on the Lightning and the Bruins—Boston also has 87 points.
Goaltending
There is no word yet on which goaltender will start for either team but you would have to think that Carey Price will get the call for Montreal. The Habs are playing again tomorrow in New York against the Rangers and coaches often like to play the backup in the second of back-to-back games, as teams tend to play tighter defensively in front of their backups.
Either way, with the Rangers tomorrow and the Wild on Sunday it is possible that Alex Auld could be in the net as soon as tonight.
For Tampa, despite winning their last game 6-2 against the Leafs, they have been in a free fall since the beginning of March—they are 2-4-2 over their last eight games.
As such, it is a bit of a mystery as to who will be getting the call for Tampa however with Dwayne Roloson getting six of the last eight starts he will likely get the nod.
Scoring and Special Teams
Tonight's contest is a pretty clear-cut matchup of offense versus defense. However given the Habs depleted lineup—Tomas Plekanec and Jeff Halpern joined the team clinic last game—Montreal will be missing some key parts of their defense-first game.
Tampa is a scoring machine averaging a sixth overall 2.9 goals per game and the sixth best power play in the league at 20.7 percent efficiency. On the defensive side of the puck Tampa has the 24th overall goals-against at 2.9 per game and a respectable 11th overall penalty kill at 83.3 percent efficiency.
Montreal's numbers are pretty much reversed with the 23rd overall goals-for at 2.6 per game, the seventh best PP at 19.7 percent, the eighth best goals-against at 2.5 per game and the seventh best PK at 83.9 percent efficiency.
The problem for Montreal is that Plekanec and Halpern are two of their best penalty killers. In addition, Plekanec has been playing the point on the first wave of the PP so his absence from the lineup is a massive loss for the Habs.
Roster Changes and Injuries
The Habs, who seem to lose another player to injury every game, will be playing without Brent Sopel (Day to day), Jaroslav Spacek (Injured reserve), Mathieu Darche (Injured reserve), Andrei Markov (Injured reserve), Josh Gorges (Injured reserve), Max Pacioretty (Injured reserve), Tomas Plekanec (Day to day) and Jeff Halpern (Day to day).
That makes eight regular players that are out of the lineup for Montreal.
Yowza!
Tampa too has their share of problems with Pavel Kubina serving a suspension and Randy Jones (Day to day), Ryan Malone (Injured reserve) and Steve Downie (Day to day) out with injuries.
It's pretty simple here: offense versus defense. Although with two of the Habs best defensive players out of the lineup all eyes will be on Dawes and Palushaj to see how they perform.
With no word yet on how Jacques Martin intends to compose his lines tonight, Palushaj in particular will be a player to watch as he could end up seeing time in the top-six.
Game time is at 7:30 PM.
--- Kamal is a freelance Habs writer, Senior Writer/Editor-in-Chief of HabsAddict.com, Montreal Canadiens Blogger on Hockeybuzz.com and Habs writer on TheFranchise.ca. Kamal is also a weekly contributor to the Sunday Shinny on The Team 990 (AM 990) every Sunday from 8 - 9 AM. Listen live at http://www.team990.com/
(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images North America)
The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, two teams who could very well end up facing off in the first round of the playoffs, clashed last night in Tampa.
Montreal came out with the decision on two goals by Max Pacioretty and a 43-save performance by Carey Price.
The game was an exciting one as both teams can skate like the wind and, as such, the match had a playoff-like pace to it. The high-tempo, high-intensity match was to be expected considering the rivalry between these two teams, and the fact that prior to last night only three points separated them in the standings.
Montreal once again got themselves into penalty trouble giving Tampa six power plays including an early third period 5-on-3. Fortunately, Price and the Habs' penalty kill shone allowing only one Tampa man-advantage goal.
The game was pretty even until Hal Gill opened the scoring—his second goal in two games—with a blast from the point that got past a screened Dwayne Roloson. David Desharnais kept the party going only 3:14 later on the power play, when he buried an Andrei Kostitsyn pass from the high slot.
Dominic Moore cut the lead in half on an early second-period PP before Pacioretty restored the two-goal margin off a Tomas Plekanec rebound. Pacioretty would get another early in the third to push the Habs' lead to three before Vincent Lecavalier made things interesting by scoring his 16th of the season with about six minutes to play in the game.
However with Roloson on the bench for the extra attacker, Montreal MVP Carey Price led the charge, shutting down the high-octane Lightning offense to secure the victory.
Final score: Habs 4 - Lightning 2
Habs scorers: Hal Gill (2), David Desharnais (8), Max Pacioretty (13, 14)
Lightning scorers: Dominic Moore (12), Vincent Lecavalier (16)
Three-stars: 1. Max Pacioretty, 2. Carey Price, 3. Scott Gomez
Game Notes
1. Price is gearing up for the playoffs.
Despite getting the second star of the game, Carey Price was once again the main reason for the Habs' win.
Earning his league leading 31st win of the season—tied with Detroit's Jimmy Howard—Price was in prime form, calmly turning aside shot after shot, swallowing up rebounds or purposefully directing them into the corners and continuing to show his All-Star form.
Price finished the night with 43 saves and has stopped 116 shots over the Habs three-game Southwest Division road trip—Atlanta, Florida and Tampa.
It's still amazing to see how far Price has come and how quickly he has done it. His rise to the top this season is the main reason for the Habs' success, especially considering the absence of Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges for the season.
2. Gill is rounding into playoff form.
As an integral piece of the Habs' leadership puzzle, Gill led the charge during the latter half of last season and the playoffs. He is the type of player who's game gets better as the season goes on and right now, with less than 20 games to play, this is his time to shine.
So while Gill has been a solid player all season long and has been a major catalyst in getting P.K. Subban's game on track, you can see that he is starting to elevate.
Last night, Gill continued to make excellent defensive plays, stripping the puck from the Lightning which set up the play leading to Pacioretty's second of the night.
In addition to Gill's defensive prowess and increased intensity on the ice, he has also, magically, scored two goals in his last two games. That might not sound so incredible until you consider that he only has 35 career goals and prior to the goal against the Panthers, had gone 100 games without scoring.
I guess he likes the sunshine of Florida!
3. AK46's point streak continues...
With a beautiful assist on David Desharnais' eighth goal of the season, Kostitsyn now has at least one point in six straight games—eight total points (3G, 5A) and a plus-2 rating.
On the Desharnais goal, Kostitsyn battled behind the net on the power play, using his physicality to dig the puck out and fire a pass out front to DD who went forehand to backhand to put it past a sprawling Roloson.
In addition to his power play prowess, the combination of AK46 with Lars Eller and Travis Moen continues to pay dividends for the Habs, with all three players bringing a certain level of size and grit to the table. With Moen digging the pucks out of the corners, Eller setting up the play and Kostitsyn finishing, the Canadiens look they have found an excellent third line.
Hopefully for Montreal they can keep it up, because this line is showing that they can provide some needed secondary scoring with size, something in short supply for the Habs.
4. Scott Gomez played a great game, but will it last?
Anyone who reads my articles on a regular basis knows that I am been one of the biggest critics of Gomez and his ineffective play this season. And for the most part, I think I've been pretty fair in assessing his horrible performances.
They say that as an offensive player, when things are not working out offensively you should make sure to take care of things defensively. Well, as Gomez's minus-15 rating attests, he hasn't been excelling in that department either this season.
All of that aside, I've got to give credit where credit is due: Scott Gomez played a hell of a game last night.
He was active in all three zones, made several excellent defensive plays and, almost more importantly, was getting things done on the offensive side of the puck.
Playing with one of the hottest Habs players in Pacioretty, Gomez set up several great plays with him and Brian Gionta, finishing the night with one assist, two shots on goal and a plus-one rating.
He was lacking in the faceoff circle, however, where he went 6-for-16 for an ugly 37.5 percent efficiency.
That being said, he was a real factor in the victory for the first time in recent memory and while it's only one game, Gomez played exactly the way he has to last night. If he can find some consistency and keep that level of play up, it will go a long way towards helping the Habs have playoff success.
Now if only the Habs could figure out what to do with the first line!
5. Pacioretty continues to roll
What can you say about Max Pacioretty, a rookie who seems to get better and more confident with every game he plays?
Scoring his 13th and 14th goals of the season last night, Pacioretty has five points (4G, 1A) and a plus-three rating over his last five games.
His 14 goals place him in fifth overall on the Habs, scoring at a 0.388 goal per game pace. In case you’re wondering, that would put him on pace for 31.88 goals over an 82 game season. In addition, if he had played all 65 games this season, Pacioretty would be leading the Habs in goals with 25.
As if that wasn't enough, Pacioretty's second-period power-play marker was his team- leading seventh of the season. And he has done all of this while largely playing with the Habs least effective center in Gomez.
I still maintain that while Pacioretty is playing well now, he is on course for a major playoffs breakout and could easily be one of the Habs most important players this spring.
Whatever happens in the playoffs, right now Pacioretty is certainly one of the Habs best players not named Carey Price.
Standings and Next Game
After going through a rough stretch through the middle of February, the Habs seem to have turned the corner, winning four in a row and five of their last six.
Montreal now has 79 points in the standings with a 36-23-7 record, sixth overall in the East. In addition, their road record is finally starting to look respectable at 16-15-1.
Montreal is now only one point behind the Capitals (80 points) for fifth overall, although the Caps have one game in hand. After the Caps it is the Pittsburgh Penguins with 84 points in the standings, the Lightning with 81 points—in third overall due to their first place standing in the Southwest Division—and the Bruins with 84 points.
Pittsburgh has played one more game than Montreal while the Lightning and Boston Bruins each hold one game in hand.
The Habs are starting to put a nice buffer between them and the teams behind them in the standings, as they hold a seven-point lead over the seventh place New York Rangers (72 points) who have played one more game than Montreal.
After the Rangers, things get pretty tight with the Carolina Hurricanes at 71 points, the Buffalo Sabres at 70 points with two games in hand and the Toronto Maple Leafs with 67 points.
Montreal now travels home for a much anticipated match against the Bruins on Tuesday night before heading back out on the road against the St. Louis Blues and the Penguins, on Thursday and Saturday.
(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images North America)
The Montreal Canadiens will have their home opening game tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning and there are plenty of storylines to pay attention to.
Tampa traditionally represents a formidable challenge for the Canadiens, largely due to the presence of French-Canadian superstars Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. These guys just love to play against, and beat the Habs. Year after year whether their team is good or bad, they always make life difficult for the Canadiens.
Tonight, however, there are a ton of addition angles to this game, not least of which is the fact that this will be the Canadiens' home opener.
The Return of Roman Hamrlik and Guy Boucher
The Canadiens are coming home with a one-and-one split on the road—buoyed by an outstanding effort by goaltender Carey Price—and you know that they want to provide their rabid fans with the first home win of the season.
In addition, Brian Gionta will be playing his first home game as captain of the Montreal Canadiens and he is sure to want to keep that crowd smiling.
The Habs will be getting reinforcements on the back end tonight in the form of Roman Hamrlik. His presence is sure to help stabilize a so far questionable—at times—defensive corp.
On a similar note, very unofficial word from the Team 990's Tony Marinaro says that star defenseman, Andrei Markov, could make a return to the lineup as early at Saturday's match up against the Ottawa Senators.
But I digress.
With all of the drama surrounding tonight's game, the storyline of the night has to be Tampa's coach Guy Boucher, coaching his first game against the Montreal Canadiens.
For those who have been hiding under a rock all summer, Guy Boucher previously coached the Canadiens' AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs, to within a game of the Calder Cup finals.
Moreover, there was a lot of angst from the Canadiens' fan base the Habs failed to make Boucher part of their Montreal coaching staff and instead opted to let him go to the Lightning.
As my colleague Eric Engels pointed out, Boucher knows large swathes of this team from his days in Hamilton and he's sure to do everything in his power to down his former organization.
Carey Price
The other storyline that I feel will be most prominent, is the play of Carey Price.
He started the season with a loss in Toronto on a solid goaltending performance, in a situation where his teammates simply could not score enough goals in front of him.
Price followed up that performance with a stupendous 36 save effort two nights later in Pittsburgh, to steal two points from a hungry Pens team.
After the game, Coach Martin, in front of all of the other players in the dressing room, said that the victory belonged to Price, and he gave him the game puck to applause from his teammates.
The move is a smart one by a veteran coach who knows that Price is a player who's confidence is fragile and needs a little stroking.
So how will Price respond? That, to me, is the big question and it will be interesting to find out.
My gut tells me that he'll play well and the Habs will pull out a win.
Tune in tonight to find out.
So what are the storylines that you will be watching for and who do you think will win?
