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 were back to their old tricks yesterday as they took on the Panthers in Florida. The game started with good pace but the Habs once again fell into bad habits:
Good rhythm to game? Check. Nice early scoring chance? Check. Good jump from your players? Check. Useless early-game penalty that has the potential to destroy any accumulated momentum? Check.
Fortunately for Habs fans, instead of losing momentum off the early penalty they came roaring right back, intent on reversing that trend. Less than three minutes after the penalty had expired Hal Gill, yes Hal Gill, fired his first of the season and 34th of his career past a screened Tomas Vokoun.
The goal was Gill's first in 100 games, dating back to December 31, 2009.
Andrei Kostitsyn kept his hot streak going when he took a short pass from Travis Moen and rifled it past Vokoun from 30 feet out with no screen. That was enough for Panthers' coach Peter DeBoer, who pulled Vokoun in favour of Scott Clemmensen after giving up two goals on three shots.
Sadly for Florida, their fate didn't change with a new keeper in the net, as the Canadiens added two more before the end of the game to bury the depleted Panthers 4-0.
While he wasn't tested often, Carey Price was the uncontested star of the game, coming up with several excellent saves, especially in the third and on a late second period power play. At that point, it was 3-0 Montreal and a goal by the Panthers could have let them back into a game that they far too often looked content to lose.
Price earned a 30th win—second in the league—for the first time in his career.
He also earned his second overall seventh shutout of the season—11th of his career—and is making a strong case for both Hart and Vezina Trophy consideration.
Final score: Habs 4 - Panthers 0
Habs scorers: Hal Gill (1), Andrei Kostitsyn (16), David Desharnais (7), Lars Eller (5)
Panthers scorers: None
Three stars: 1. Carey Price, 2. Andrei Kostitsyn, 3. James Wizniewski
Game Notes
1. Well Hello Mr. Kostitsyn, it's nice to see you again!
With a goal and an assist last night, Andrei Kostitsyn has quietly become one of the hottest players in the Canadiens' lineup.
Kostitsyn now has seven points (3G, 4A) and a plus-3 rating over his last five games. The interesting thing about his resurgence is that it has all taken place since he was placed on a line with Lars Eller and Travis Moen.
I've previously discussed how Eller is a much better center than winger and how the Habs would never get the best out of him as a winger. So switching him to center with Kostitsyn was a logical move.
At least to me it was.
Almost more importantly, the trend of players suddenly performing when they are no longer playing with Scott Gomez, continues.
If you're not into reading it, I'll spare you the suspense: every winger has a better points per game (PPG) average when playing with Tomas Plekanec versus playing with Gomez, with the exception of Benoit Pouliot.
As for Kostitsyn, well, the timing of his revival could not be more important to the Habs as they enter the home stretch and are in desperate need of secondary scoring. But we've seen this movie before and we know how it ends.
Arpon Basu pointed out on Twitter last night that while Kostitsyn lacks consistency from game to game, he is consistent from season to season averaging 0.55, 0.56 and 0.56—so far this season—PPG over the last three seasons.
So while Kostitsyn's production is great, I caution fans not to get down on him if it drops off again. I mean this is his sixth year in the league and if we don't know his trends by now, we never will.
2. The Habs did what they had to do.
Despite only managing six shots in the first period, Montreal was the better team and didn't have much trouble handing the lowly Panthers.
To Florida's credit, their lineup reads more like an AHL roster than an NHL team so you can't really expect too much more from them. That being said, the Habs need to beat teams like the Panthers and far too often are unable to.
As a team that often plays up or down to the talent level of their opponents, the Habs avoided the trap of taking the opposition lightly and outplayed the Panthers, kept their shots mostly to the outside, cleared rebounds and screening player and, overall, made short work of the Florida.
Good on them because that is exactly what they were supposed to do!
3. Bench management
Since acquiring Paul Mara and Brent Sopel, Coach Martin has been doing some shuffling and tinkering with his player's ice time. And, at first glance, that might make a lot of sense since many of them, like Roman Hamrlik and P.K. Subban, have been playing a boat load of minutes lately.
So why not rest them in time for the playoffs? Makes sense to me.
To a man, the Canadiens defensive squad had the following ice time last night:
Hamrlik 22:24 (1:09 on the PP), Subban 18:53 (1:09 on the PP), Wizniewski 20:41 (0:51 on the PP), Sopel 18:47, Alexandre Picard 17:57, Hal Gill 20:31.
I understand the desire to rest players but shouldn't the desire to win and ice your best lineup trump the former?
With Yannick Weber and Paul Mara both available for duty why was Picard, who is clearly behind them on the depth chart, in the lineup? No offense to Picard, but having either Mara or Weber in the lineup makes the Habs a better team.
In addition, why did The Wiz play over 20 minutes but only 51 seconds on the PP? Isn't he the hired gun who is supposed to keep the PP rolling? And if you're trying to rest Hamrlik, as the coach said publicly this week, then why play him for 1:09 on the PP instead of the Wiz?
On the topic of strange lineup changes, why was Tom Pyatt in the lineup instead of Ryan White?
White has done nothing but show he belongs in the handful of games he's played and he makes the third line, with Desharnais and Pouliot, a much better line.
Without White mucking it up in the corners and the front of the net, you could see that the third line was much less effective last night.
Pyatt, like Picard, is an acceptable player but the Habs are a better team without these players in the lineup. So to have them randomly inserted in the roster in place of two players who undoubtedly bring more to the table makes no sense at all.
It's almost like the coach is trying to be fair or some other such insanity. You'd figure if he's going to sub any players it would be for an opportunity to rest some of the veterans.
I guess I'll never fully understand the Jacques Martin way.
4. David Desharnais is a legit NHL player
We have yet to see what he can do in the playoffs where games are much tighter, play is more physical and every inch of ice is that much more hotly contested. That being said, so far in this NHL season Desharnais is showing that he is a legitimate NHL player.
For some reason, Jacques Martin and co. have been reducing his ice time a lot over the last few games. But despite this reduction, Desharnais is still putting points on the board with 10 (4G, 6A) and a plus-4 rating over his last 11 games.
This despite playing 5:01, 8:53, 10:46, 13:50 and 10:24 over his last five games.
In addition, having played 26 games this season, Desharnais has 15 points (7G, 8A) and a plus-1 rating. This translates into a 0.577 PPG total which would equal 47 points over 82 games, all while averaging no more than 12:17 per game.
I still think that the real solution for this team's lineup is to play Gomez on the third or even better, fourth line with a couple of muckers and promote Desharnais to the second line with Max Pacioretty and Brian Gionta or Benoit Pouliot.
The result would likely be more production from the second line and with the third line seemingly in place, the Canadiens would suddenly have three capable scoring lines.
Sounds pretty good to me!
5. What is the plan for the Habs top line?
Since uniting AK46 with Eller and Moen, Jacques Martin has had Jeff Halpern on the top line with Tomas Plekanec and Michael Cammalleri. And while they seem to be playing decently together, Jeff Halpern is not a top-line player.
Halpern, the Canadiens best faceoff man this season with a 56.77 percent success rate, is now playing on the wing, a position that does not allow him to use this unique skill of his.
Moreover, while he has 23 points (10G, 13A) this season, Halpern is not a goal-scorer, especially not a first line scorer. As a result, the Plekanec-Cammalleri duo are once again in the position where they are flanked by a player who is not up to snuff.
Now that the trade deadline has passed, there are no reinforcements coming from anywhere and as such, this is the lineup that will skate into the playoff. So does that mean that Jeff Halpern is now going to be a first line winger?
Whereas Cammalleri has looked more comfortable since returning from injury, over the last two games, and especially last night, it looks like the frustration is starting to creep back into him play.
Cammy is the Habs best and highest paid sniper and it is looking more and more like he is not a fan of the way Jacques Martin runs the ship. While nothing will happen in the short term, this is an issue that is bound to come to a head at some point in the future.
Standings and Next Game
The streaking Canadiens, winners of three straight games, now have 77 points in the standings with a 35-23-1 record. More importantly, their road record has finally reached the .500 mark at 15-15-1 (no longer the worst among playoff teams).
In addition to their three-game win streak, Montreal is 3-1 in their past four and 5-3-2 in their last ten.
Despite Montreal's success, the teams ahead of them all won last night meaning that Montreal kept pace rather than inching closer.
Ahead of the Canadiens are the Capitals with 80 points, the Pens with 81, the Lightning with 81 and one game in hand and the Bruins with 83 points and a game in hand.
Behind them, the Habs are starting to pull away from the usual suspects with the Canes in seventh with 71 points, the Rangers with 70 in eighth and one more game played and the Sabres in ninth with 68 and two games in hand.
The Habs will now jet to Tampa to take on the Lightning on Saturday night in a critical four-point match. A win by the Canadiens would put them only two points behind Tampa in the standings and allow them to keep a good buffer on the teams behind them.
--- 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 getting two not very well earned points in the standings, the Montreal Canadiens are in sunny Florida to take on the Panthers tonight.
The Habs were 3-1 winners against the Thrashers on Tuesday despite being outshot 41-23. Carey Price picked up his 29th win of the season in an outstanding effort, allowing his team to secure the victory despite their poor play.
Florida is on the other end of that scale, coming off a 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes in a game where they outshot the opposition 42-22.
The Habs will be looking to move up in the standings while the Panthers, who are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, will look to turn a bad stretch around.
Tonight will be the fourth and final game between these two teams, in which the Habs have won two out of three meetings so far.
Standings
The Canadiens have 75 points in the standings, a 34-23-7 record, are three points behind the Capitals, five ahead of the Rangers—who have played one more game than Montreal—and six ahead of the Hurricanes. A Habs win coupled with a Capitals loss to the Blues tonight would put Montreal only one point behind Washington for fifth overall.
The Panthers, on the other hand, have lost two straight games and are 4-9-2 in their last 15. They have 59 points in the standings and are 10 points behind the eighth overall Hurricanes.
Needless to say, a win tonight would go a long way towards keeping their faint playoff hopes alive.
Goaltending
Look for Carey Price to get his 57th start of the season for the Habs while trying to secure a career-high 30th win of the season.
The goaltending picture is a little murkier for the Panthers who have seen perennial starter Tomas Vokoun lose eight out of his last 11 starts. As such, there is a chance that backup Scott Clemmensen will get the call.
Scoring and Special Teams
The Habs Achilles Heel continues to be their offense where have only been able to manage a 23rd overall 2.6 goals per game. That being said, Montreal is a respectable 10th overall in goals-against with 2.5 per game, has the eighth best power play at 19.4 percent and the eighth best penalty kill at 83.6 percent.
Florida too has an anemic offense averaging a 26th overall 2.5 goals per game in addition to their 29th best 13.6 percent power play. Couple that with the Habs strong PK and the Panthers shouldn't be scoring on too many man-advantages tonight.
The Panthers are much more respectable in the goals-against department with a 13th overall 2.7 per game to go along with their outstanding 3rd overall PP, at 85.6 percent.
Roster Changes and Injuries
Neither team is short of injured players with the Habs still missing Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges, Mathieu Darche and Jaroslav Spacek. The good news on the injury front for Montreal is that Spacek's knee injury is not that bad and with minor surgery to "clean it up", he should be out for four to six weeks.
This means that he could be back for the start of the playoffs which would be a welcome boon for Montreal.
With is no word yet on lineup changes there is a chance that Yannick Weber could be back one the ice after being a healthy scratch in favour of Paul Mara. However given Jacques Martin's habit of keeping winning lineups intact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Weber sitting for another game.
The Panthers continue to be without the services of Byron Bitz, Rostislav Olesz, Jack Skille, Shawn Matthias, Ryan Carter and Evgeny Dadonov, all on the injury reserve.
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)
Habs Inside/Out - Waiting for the Bruins
