In this inaugural post game video hit, Kamal briefly discussed the game between the Thrashers and the Canadiens, including his plus and minus for the night.
Well it's a new year and a time to try new things. I got this awesome Cisco Flip Cam over the holidays and decided that I am now going to start adding video blogs to HabsAddict.com.
This is my first attempt at video and editing so it might be a little rough. Don't worry they will get better!
So, without further ado, here is my first one. Let me know what you think!
I'm not sure if you know or not, but I wanted Brian Gionta as captain of my favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens. I wrote a blog about it that even got recognized and a shout out from Habs Inside Out’s very own Mike Boone for crying out loud!
Yet after dropping another stink bomb of a game versus Tampa Bay, here’s what my genius pick for Habs captain observed: "Right now, we're a fragile team."
Buddy, right now I've got tougher Waterford crystal wine glasses than you lot. One goal-against during the Tampa Bay game and you crumpled like a trailer in a tornado.
Then yesterday afternoon Habs fans were treated to a Happy New Year courtesy of Les Boys. Not only did they win against the Florida Panthers, it was the manner in which they played that had me delighted, regardless of the outcome.
The boys played with passion, heart and hunger for the first time in a long time.
They looked a lot more like the team that had taken to the ice in October and November, and a lot less like the team that could barely bother to skate onto the ice for most of their recent road trip.
If only they were that passionate all the time, they might score more often!
OK enough with the funnies. Two games with two different results, so let’s talk some Habs hockey.
The Good
How can I not pick James Wisniewski here?
Even in the loss to the Bolts, Wizzer (as I like to call him) came to play. He spent the day in airports and cars trying to reach his new team, missed practice with them and actually had a valid excuse for phoning it in.
Instead he was one of their better players.
Wisniewski is a serious upgrade over most of the defense corps the Habs have been icing this year. He’s looking pretty solid defensively and has already made an impact offensively, scoring two goals and an assist during last night’s game against Florida.
This was a much needed deal to shore up the flailing back end by Pierre Gauthier.
In the short term, I think it will mean Yanick Weber heads back to Hamilton once Josh Gorges returns to duty. Personally I’d rather keep Weber and send Alexandre Picard down, but the Habs never listen to me about these things.
In the long term, I expect Montreal to try to keep Wisniewski at the end of this season, which will likely mean the end of Roman Hamrlik’s days in the bleu, blanc, rouge.
The Bad
There are a whole lot of choices to be had here but rather than go on and on I’m going to put down Jacques Martin’s system as my favorite target right now.
When the Habs take a lead, his defensive system tends to work better. Once they are down a couple of goals it becomes largely ineffective.
I really don’t understand the logic behind applying a trap system when down by three goals. What is it they’re trying to protect? Being embarrassed further?
It’s not working.
Martin’s system as it stands does not get adapted when the Habs are in trouble. Of course even though I wrote that, they came from behind last night to win against the Panthers.
It’s worth bearing in mind that two of last night’s three goals were scored on the power play, and all three were the result of some hard work by Wisniewski.
But unless Martin can get his forwards charging the net more often, parking themselves in the blue paint, and willing to take some punishment to score a few dirty goals, the Habs are going to continue to find it difficult to come from behind.
This team has offensive problems that are easily masked by a win, but get exposed pretty quickly when they’re behind the eight-ball. And Martin’s system is not helping correct that problem at all.
The Ugly
I don’t recognize this team.
Forget, if you can, their style of play and concentrate on their level of commitment and effort. It’s just not there. I haven’t really seen it since around mid-December and I’ve been griping about it ever since.
While workhorse Tomas Plekanec has had a bad game or two, other than him only Brian Gionta and Carey Price continue to bring their lunch pails to the rink every day. Pretty much everyone else on the team has been mailing it in during this road trip.
That just frosts me to no end.
Yes, I understand it’s the holidays, they don’t like being away from their families and the constant travel is hard on them but you know what? Suck it up.
This is neither unexpected nor new. This is status quo for the Canadiens this time of year. I do not consider it a valid excuse for some truly terrible on ice performances.
The Habs had two too many men on the ice penalties within a 45 second span during the game in Tampa Bay. I can’t remember seeing that before and I don’t ever care to see it again.
This is strong evidence of the total lack of focus, drive, desire and determination that got this team off to a great start at the beginning of the season.
The stupid penalties have gone into the realm of the ridiculous.
I now actually consider it a rousing success if the Habs aren’t giving up a late period goal or any five-on-three opportunities.
But when the team’s big accomplishment is to avoid being shut out, when Brian Gionta is dropping F-bombs, when Andrei Kostitsyn gets dropped to the third line and Travis Moen is on the top line, there are still some serious problems evident.
Last night the third was one of the Habs' best periods of hockey I have seen in awhile. There was a lot of passion and hunger, and were it not for the heroic efforts of Florida’s netminder Tomas Vokoun the game would would have been over long before it got to overtime.
I hope the boys remember this particular lesson going into the game against Atlanta on Sunday. I hope they remember not only how great it is to win, but also what kind of effort it takes to accomplish that.
The road trip is over and whatever little patience I had for the incessant list of excuses is now gone.
They’re home now, in front of their most ardent fans, and it’s time to pull up the socks and get back to work.
Nap time is over.
But maybe that's just me. What do you think is going well and what needs work?
Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images North America
___ Tyg used to frequent the Old Forum during her early childhood when her father was a corporate season ticket holder. It was here she fell in love with Larry Robinson so her lifelong obsession with the Habs is entirely his fault.
With the Twitter airwaves buzzing from news of Maxim Lapierre being traded to the Anaheim Ducks yesterday evening, the slumping Montreal Canadiens were in Florida to take on the Panthers.
The game was the seventh and final match in a brutal end-of-year road trip for the Habs that had seen them drop all but one decision. After going 1-5 so far on the road trip, to say that the Canadiens needed the win would be the understatement of the year!
The game started off with good rhythm for both teams until the Canadiens got themselves into penalty trouble. Montreal again spent too much time in the penalty box, handing the Panthers three power plays in the first period alone and six on the night. But the 11th place Panthers weren't able to muster much with the man-advantage as the Canadiens' penalty killers went to work, successfully killing all six PKs.
After a sleeper of a first period, Florida opened the scoring 28 seconds into the second when Stephen Weiss was left alone in front to pot a Christopher Higgins rebound. Dmitry Kulikov followed that one up with the Panthers second of the game 2:13 into the second and all seemed lost for the Habs.
Their body language slumped and they looked like a defeated squad that was feeling sorry for themselves.
Fortunately for the Canadiens, new comer James Wizniewski breathed life into the depressed-looking Habs, when he fired a howitzer past Tomas Vokoun on the power play to make it a one-goal game.
The game brought the Canadiens back to life and they poured it on, outshooting the Panthers 21-10 in the second frame and tying the game less than two minutes later on another power play.
The teams were deadlocked heading into overtime with the Habs outshooting the Panthers 46-22, until Wizniewski picked up the rebound off of a Michael Cammalleri shot to seal the deal at 3:41 of the extra frame.
Final score: Habs 3 - Panthers 2
Habs' scorers: James Wisniewski (4,5), Brian Gionta (13)
Panthers' scorers: Stephen Weiss (11), Dmitry Kulikov (3)
Three stars: 1. James Wizniewski, 2. Tomas Vokoun, 3. Scott Gomez
Game Notes
1. The Canadiens looked tired.
The Habs played less than 24 hours prior to the game in Florida and their level of fatigue was through the roof from the start of the game. The Canadiens looked much like they did in the third period against Tampa the night before, for most of the first half of the game, which is to say not very good.
They were losing all of the 1-on-1 battles, weren't skating, going back to the bench with their heads down and, overall, just looked defeated.
Once the Panthers got on the board, that energy of defeat only amplified. Good thing they were able to score a couple of goals in the second period because that would have been a long back nine for the Habs!
2. The penalties have got to stop.
The Canadiens have given up 27 penalties over the last four games, or an average of seven penalty kills per game. Fortunately for the Canadiens, their 87.8% penalty kill continues to be at the top of the league. As such, the Habs only let in three goals on those 27 opportunities.
That being said, the Habs must find a way to cut down on the lazy penalties like hooking, tripping, interference and the like. These penalties point to players who are trying to take short cuts, that perhaps aren't skating or giving that little extra effort and who end up sticking their arm out or using their stick as a result.
With the Canadiens are averaging 14 penalty killing minutes over the last four games, it means that their offensive players are sitting on the bench that whole time. Players like Michael Cammalleri need to be playing in order to get a feel for the game and sitting for long stretches like that makes them less effective.
For a team that has trouble scoring that doesn't sound like a winning formula.
3. Yannick Weber played his best game in a Habs uniform.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Weber played his best game during the same match that Jacques Martin used him alongside Spacek, on his natural right wing. The move also puts Spacek back on the left side, a position he has played his entire career except for his one and a half seasons in Montreal.
While Weber also took a semi-regular shift with James Wizniewski, he was more often than not on the ice with Spacek and the result was excellent for the Habs. You could see that having a veteran presence to work with made a world of difference to Weber, who is usually paired with Alexandre Picard lately.
Last night, Weber looked calm and poised with the puck—as did fellow youngster P.K. Subban who was paired with Hal Gill—and he made smart passes and took quality shots on net.
More importantly, Weber played excellent on the defensive side of the puck.
The same holds true for P.K. Subban who has been paired with Hal Gill the last few games. As much as Subban looked like a loose cannon over the last ten games or so, he has looked more in control on the ice the last two games. I think a lot of the credit for that goes to Hal Gill.
Weber and Subban are young players and the defensive positions has the biggest learning curves in hockey. As such, if either or both of these players are going to have success in the NHL they need be paired with a veteran. No offense to Alexandre Picard, but he simply does not have the experience or the skill level to help players like Subban or Weber.
Why it has taken the coaching staff—who has over 1000 games coached in the NHL—this long to figure it out, I'll never know.
4. This team is made up of a bunch of islands.
The Habs pulled one out of the fire yesterday thanks to a successful power play that was driven by new guy, James Wizniewski.
Until the Canadiens scored, however, they looked like a bunch of individuals or islands out on the ice. There was little to no cohesion, the players looked lost or disinterested and many of them looked like they were trying figure it out all by themselves.
Cammalleri, Tomas Plekanec, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta, Benoit Pouliot, Andrei Kostitsyn, Subban and even Maxim Lapierre before he was traded, are all players who looked isolated. They were dealing with their problems by themselves and not as a team.
Cammalleri looked frustrated at his lack of production, Subban was struggling since being benched by Martin, Gionta looked like he was being crushed by the teams lack of success, Pouliot looked like he was lost on the ice just waiting to be benched and so on.
So as much as everyone has talked about this team being united and one of the best rooms they've played in, they no longer look like they are playing for each other. In fact, most of the players look like they are trying to fix or ignore the problem all by themselves, and that is never a recipe for success on the ice.
While some of this can be attributed to the losing streak, it just looks like too many players are defeated even before the puck drops. That, to me, wreaks of a team or players who have quit on their coach. A room full of individuals rather than one cohesive unit that goes to battle for each other.
With the win last night the Canadiens prevented their first four-game losing streak of the season and perhaps turned the ship in the right direction. But the situation is tenuous and if they can't start stringing together more than two wins in a row, I fear that things could take a turn for the worse.
5. Wizniewski makes a big difference to this team.
What a difference one player can make to the complexion of a team.
Wizniewski, known for his offensive abilities, an excellent first pass and his pugnacious play on the ice, so far seems to be the fix that cures whatever is ailing the Montreal Canadiens.
The Wiz got the party going last night, firing a bullet of a shot past Vokoun on the power play, with traffic in front. The goal energized that Canadiens who looked ready to pack it in, and sent them on the road to victory.
One of the biggest effects he has is on the power play where he seems to settle the Canadiens down with his calm, patience from the back end. That coupled with his vision on the ice remind me a lot of Andrei Markov, who would calmly setup and execute the power play like an army general.
On the tying goal, Wizniewski calmly skated the puck into the offensive zone and circled at the blueline, allowing his teammates to get setup in the zone. This is something that has been missing from the Habs power play all season, as they have too often tried to take a shot or make a play immediately after crossing the blueline.
In addition, when Wizniewski shoots the puck he has his head up which allows him to properly read the play rather than shooting it into the defenders shin pads.
The ability to setup and to calmly see what is going on on the ice before making a pass, taking a shot or making any other decision, is a crucial ingredient to PP success.
Players like Subban and Weber have been rushing too much, shooting when there is no open lane or no traffic in front and making low percentage passes. Wizniewski is a breath of fresh air and his abilities take considerable pressure off of Subban, Weber, Roman Hamrlik and Jaroslav Spacek.
Wizniewski finished the night with three points (2G,1A), six shots on net, four blocked shots and 23:31 of ice time.
Perhaps some of what he's got will rub off on Subban and Weber!
Standings and Next Game
The win give the Canadiens a 21-16-2 record good for 44 points and eight place overall in the Eastern Conference standings. Ahead of the Canadiens are the usual suspects of Atlanta (46 points, two more games played), the Rangers (46 points, one game in hand), and the Boston Bruins (first in the Norhteast, 45 points, three games in hand).
The Hurricanes are sitting six points behind that Canadiens with three games in hand.
The Habs now, mercifully, travel back to the comfy climes in Montreal where they take on the Atlanta Thrashers in a 1:00 pm matinee on Sunday, before having three days off.
The game is a huge four-pointer against a team the Habs are in direct competition with for a playoff spot. As such, you'd hope they carry some momentum from their inspired comeback win over the Panthers into Sunday's game.
On a different note, I want to take this opportunity to once again wish you and yours a happy new year! All the best in 2011!
(Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images North America)
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