The
Canadiens (9-4-1) play host to the Jets (8-5-2) Tuesday night at the
Bell Centre. The game is set to start at 7:30 and can be seen on RDS and
Sportsnet East.
This is the first of two game between the Habs
and the Jets, and the only one in Montreal. Last year these teams split
their two meetings, with each team winning on the road. Carey Price recorded a 36-save shutout in Winnipeg to help power the Habs to a 3-0 victory in their win last season.
What to Watch
It took a pair of games for Jiri Sekac to displace Rene Bourque in
the team's line-up, so much so that Bourque has been reassigned to
Hamilton after clearing waivers on Monday. Sekac had a goal, an assist,
four shots, and the game's First Star on Saturday.
The Jets have been hot recently and Ondrej Pavelec has
been the driving force. Pavelec is 6-2-1 in his last nine starts,
allowing just 15 goals on 247 shots for a .939 save percentage.
Averaging just 1.87 goals per game, the Jets would probably like a bit
more offensive production. Bryan Little, Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler have done most of the heavy lifting for Winnipeg. Combined the trio has 16 of the team's 28 goals.
What's at Stake
The
Canadiens need to look over their shoulder as much as they need to look
ahead in the Eastern standings. The Bruins and Red Wings are within
striking distance behind the Canadiens, while the Lighting are two
points ahead.
Who's Out
Michael Bournival (shoulder) is out for at least the next two weeks but the Canadiens are otherwise healthy going in to Wednesday's game.
The Jets will likely be without winger Anthony Peluso (upper body) on Tuesday, he's been out of action since mid-October.
What Else
The
Jets come into Tuesday's action with points in their last eight games
(6-0-2), a streak that helped put them right into the Western conference
playoff conversation and ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks to occupy
third spot in the Central division. It's the first time the Jets have a
winning record after 15 games since the franchise relocated to Winnipeg.
The Question Mark
What are your thoughts on Rene Bourque's demotion, has he played his last game with the Habs or even his last in the NHL?
199 minutes and one second after Tom Pyatt last put the Montreal Canadiens on the board, Roman Hamrlik broke the Habs' streak of futility.
Predictably, it wasn't one of those beautiful tape-to-tape passes that makes the end of night honour roll. Instead, it was a dirty, ugly goal with players crashing the crease and whacking at the puck until it went it.
So what's wrong with that?
During the Habs' three game losing streak—they were also shutout in their previous three games—it was pretty clear that they needed either a lucky bounce or an ugly goal to get the party started.
Well, last night they got both.
At 12:56 of the first period, Roman Hamrlik took a one-time feed from James Wisniewski and blasted it on net. The shot was stopped by Thrashers' goalie Ondrej Pavelec, but the rebound bounced around in the crease.
The loose rebound drew both Thrashers and Habs players to the blue paint and, with Pavelec on his back, Michael Cammalleri's shot actually went off the post. Fortunately for Montreal Hamrlik swooped around and knocked the rebound in, slaking the Habs considerable goal-thirst.
Mathieu Darche was next in line for Montreal, taking the puck from behind the Thrashers net out front and putting it past Pavelec only 11 seconds later.
After that, the Habs were in cruise control but still needed brilliance from Carey Price to pull out the win.
Andrei Kostitsyn, who played one of his best games of the season, closed the game out with an empty netter with 1:20 to play.
Final score: Habs 3 - Thrashers 1
Habs scorers: Roman Hamrlik (5), Mathieu Darche (10), Andrei Kostitsyn (20)
Thrashers scorers: Nik Antropov (14)
Three stars: 1. Carey Price, 2. Mathieu Darche, 3. Roman Hamrlik
Controversial Moment
With the Canadiens leading by two at the 8:35 point of the third period, Eric Boulton skated past Hal Gill, clipping him near the eye with his stick. Wincing with pain, Gill lost his man who was able to pass the puck over to Nik Antropov. Antropov buried it past Price, killing his bid for a ninth shutout of the season.
While I am not a fan of blaming the refs, since I understand it is a very difficult job, that was clearly a blown call. Not only should that have been a four-minute penalty—Hal Gill was bleeding—but the goal should have been disallowed.
In the end, Montreal pulled out the win so that blown call didn't change the outcome of the game.
Game Notes
How did Kostitsyn not get a star?
Have you noticed how no one seems to be complaining about Kostitsyn anymore? This change happened the day Jacques Martin decided to pair him with Lars Eller in the bottom-six.
In my estimation, Kostitsyn is a top-six player however his performance since being placed in the bottom-six has not only been some of his best hockey, but his most consistent.
Last night, AK46 continued on his same path of consistency, playing one of his best games of the season. Not only was he making things happen offensively, he continues to be solid defensively and throws his weigh around to good effect.
Kostitsyn finished the night with six body checks and was physically and mentally engage all game.
He currently leads all Canadiens with 131 hits and is third in scoring with 20 goals—behind Brian Gionta (26) and Tomas Plekanec (21). Not bad for a player that most were running out of town a few months ago.
Price is the Hart of this team
Yes, yes, the Canadiens played much better last night than they have in a week. Still, if it wasn't for Price's brilliance they would not have won the game. I know I sound like a broken record on this one, but night after night Price continues to show why there is no player in the league who is more valuable to his team.
And that's what the Hart trophy is all about.
The veterans finally showed up
Watching the game last night at the Black Lions pub with Gary Whittaker (Team 990) and Kyle Roussel (Cowhide and Rubber), we all noticed how active and awake the veterans looked.
Gary noted only a few shifts in how hungry Scott Gomez looked and how badly he seemed to want to score.
Well his fervor was contagious as line after line played with a determination not seen in these parts for weeks.
Every time I looked up, Cammalleri was around the net or in someone's face. Gomez too was involved in a little pushing and shoving. Hal Gill even got into the action with a bear hug on a Thrashers player during a post-whistle scrum.
From top to bottom, the vets looked angry last night and hungry for the two points. Unfortunately for the Habs, that is something that has been missing for too long on this team.
As I said in my look at the team's woes a few days ago, this losing streak has the ability to destroy the Habs. But, if they can get over and past it, the adversity might also bring the team together. And any newly-found cohesiveness can only make them a tighter group, helping to propel them to a strong post-season.
Now, one game does not a turnaround make, but it's a step in the right direction.
Standings and Next Game
The win not only snaps a three-game losing streak, but it gives the Habs two well needed points in the standings.
Montreal now moves into sole possession of sixth overall with 89 points and a 41-29-7 record. Ahead of the Habs are the suddenly resurgent Lightning, winners of two in a row, with 93 points. After Tampa are the Pens with 98 and the Bruins with 96.
Barring major collapses by those teams, it seems highly unlikely that Montreal can catch either before the end of the season.
Behind the Habs are the Rangers with 87 points, the Sabres with 84 points and the Hurricanes with 82 points, all with one game in hand.
Montreal is back at it tonight against the Hurricanes in Raleigh. The Canes absolutely need this win to stay alive in the playoff race. A Canadiens win would put one more nail in Carolina's playoff coffin.
Game time is 7:00 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)
Two days after their triumphant win over the dangerous L.A. Kings, the Montreal Canadiens were in Atlanta to take on the Thrashers.
Whereas a game against Atlanta used to be viewed as a "gimme", last night's game was anything but. The Thrashers had just wheeled off three straight victories including 5-0 and 5-1 wins over the Capitals and Red Wings, respectively, so they were not a team to be taken lightly.
Not to mention that, prior to last night's game, they boasted the second best power play in the league.
With players like Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Rich Peverley and Evander Kane in front of strong performances from goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, this was a team that was starting to make some noise.
I guess the Canadiens didn't get the memo, because aside from a stultifying first period that was about as exciting as the pin-drop quiet crowd at Phillips Arena, they just didn't show up.
The Habs played a good first period, but a lucky bounce with 18 seconds left to play in the frame allowed Rich Peverley to fire one past Alex Auld for a 1-0 lead.
Roman Hamrlik took an early penalty in the second period—the first of seven penalties the Habs would take on the night—and the Thrashers were able to grab the momentum and never let go. Atlanta proceeded to outshoot the Canadiens 23-4 in the second period and 47-25 on the night.
Needless to say, this was not Jacques Martin hockey, and the furrowed brow on the wise old coach's face during the third period was the closest indication you'll get that he was not a happy camper.
Atlanta goalie, Ondrej Pavelec, wasn't extremely busy but did have to make several difficult saves throughout the game to preserve his fourth shutout of the season.
Three stars: 1. Ondrej Pavelec, 2. Rich Peverley, Tobias Enstrom
Game Notes
1. Alex Auld did his part.
Auld, who was making only his second start of the season, didn't look a bit worse for wear. It's amazing how similar he looks to Carey Price in the net, too. He is a big goaltender and, like Price, his game is based on using excellent positioning and size to give the opposition very little to shoot at.
Despite his best efforts, however, he did let in a bit of a softie on the second goal and that seemed to give the Thrashers all the momentum they needed to steamroll the Canadiens. To his credit, the puck was deflected down past his glove at the last second, so it was very difficult to stop.
Despite letting in three goals Auld held the fort for his team, but they were simply unable to mount any offensive thrust. Auld stopped 44 of 47 shots thrown his way for an excellent .936 save percent so don't look to fit him with the goat horns.
2. The PP continues to slide and the PK continues to work.
The Habs had three power plays on the night, including two in the first period, but were yet again unable to mount any pressure. In fact most of the time they had trouble even gaining the offensive zone. I still think that the Habs took Yannick Weber out of the lineup too soon because he is a player who can effectively play the position of PP quarterback.
If they do bring him back into the lineup tonight against the Sabres, I hope they put him on the right side, on not on the left like his first two games, because that is where he excels.
It's probably a good idea not to take a lot of penalties when you're facing the second best PP in the league, no matter how good your PK is. Someone forget to tell this to the Canadiens who gave the opposition seven man-advantages.
Fortunately for the Habs, their penalty kill continues to be near the top of the league, improving to 90 percent efficiency, as they killed off six of seven penalties.
The problem, however, is that whether you kill off the penalties or not, spending so much time in the box makes it difficult to create any momentum. Not to mention that your offensive players are not on the ice and not involved in the game. Add to that the fact that the Habs lost 34 of 55 faceoffs and it meant that they were often without the puck. And, well, it's kind of hard to score when you don't have the puck.
3. Uh oh, where did Gomez go?
To be fair, no one on the Canadiens, except for Auld, stood out in any way. But Gomez in particular looked like the lost puppy of a few games ago again.
This is utterly disappointing since he had started to take a few baby steps forward over the last few games, and you would have hoped that he would continue to move in the right direction.
Hopefully this was only a temporary setback for Gomez and he will start doing good things again on the ice as early as tonight, against Buffalo. I'm willing to wipe the slate clean and forget about last night's game. Let's just hope the players are too.
4. Josh Gorges and Hal Gill had a rough night.
The Thrashers are a team not dissimilar to the Flyers in that they are big and strong and can attack with speed. While the Habs have a lot of experience on the back end, aside from P.K. Subban and maybe Gorges, they are not the most fleet-footed group.
The Thrashers took advantage of the Canadiens slow defense and attacked Gorges and Gill with speed all game. These two, in particular, seemed to have a lot of difficulty dealing with it. Gill is a notoriously slow skater to start with and we have to remember that Gorges took a therapy day the day before the game, so he was likely not 100 percent.
But, again, this comes down to size and the Canadiens as a team seem to have much more difficulty playing against skilled teams that also have size.
With 19:37 and 19:32 of ice time for Gorges and Gill respectively, they were both minus-2 for the night. This duo is counted on to be defensively reliable for the Habs, so they will need a better effort out of them tonight against the Sabres.
5. The Thrashers looked like they got to Subban.
Subban started to get rattled by the constant physical abuse he was taking from the big, aggressive, crease-crashing Thrashers forwards. He was clearly targeted by the Thrashers from the start of the game and you could see they by the second period they were starting to get under his skin.
His frustration reared its ugly head when he took a tripping penalty on Eric Boulton at 14:48 of the second period. It was a late hit by Subban and it looked like a sign of frustration.
After that penalty, Subban started to make bad plays and get himself out of position. He was running around trying to make hits and stop players who were already covered instead of staying in position. Fortunately, he seemed to calm himself down a bit before getting into a fight with Atlanta's Zach Bogosian.
It wasn't really much of a fight. Bogosian was the first one to drop the gloves but then just held on to Subban so neither player could throw many punches.
If Subban is going to become an elite defenseman in this league he is going to have to learn how to keep himself a little more even keeled. The Habs are better served with Subban on the ice than in the penalty box, something that the young gun is sure to learn soon enough.
I think Dave Stubbs from the Montreal Gazette, put it best when he said on Twitter:
Word clearly seems to be out in NHL: test #Habs Subban at every turn, in every way
It sure does, and Subban better get ready because without Andrei Markov out of the lineup, Subban is the No.1 target for the opposition.
Standings and Next Game
The loss drops the Habs' record to 14-8-1. The Boston Bruins, 3-1 losers to the Florida Panthers, failed to make up any ground the Habs. With 29 points in the standings, the Habs have a three point cushion on the Bruins who still have two games in hand.
The Canadiens are back home today to take on the Buffalo Sabres who are coming off a 3-1 win against the Leafs, in goaltender Ryan Miller's return from injury.
The Canadiens have only lost back-to-back games once this season and seem to do an excellent job of rebounding from a bad performance. With two games in 48 hours, it will be interesting to see if the Habs are able to keep that trend going.
Carey Price will get the start for the Canadiens with the puck dropping around 7:05 pm.
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images North America)
