Saturday April 13th, 2013
Game Recap: Habs burnt by goaltending and forgetting what brought them to the dance.
| MONTREAL CANADIENS 26-10-5 55 POINTS 2nd in the East |
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 23-13-5 51 POINTS 5th in the East |
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5 |
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | T |
| Canadiens | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 |
| Maple Leafs | 4 | 1 | 0 | – | 5 |
Top Scorers:
| CANADIENS | MAPLE LEAFS | ||
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Scoring Summary:
| G | Per | Time | Str | Team | Goal Scorer | Assist | Assist |
| 1 | 1 | 1:59 | PP | TOR | 42 T.BOZAK(12) | 21 J.VAN RIEMSDYK(13) | 81 P.KESSEL(27) |
| 2 | 1 | 8:08 | EV | TOR | 47 L.KOMAROV(3) | 23 R.O’BYRNE(4) | 11 J.MCCLEMENT(8) |
| 3 | 1 | 10:25 | EV | TOR | 11 J.MCCLEMENT(7) | 41 N.KULEMIN(15) | |
| 4 | 1 | 13:08 | EV | MTL | 44 D.DREWISKE(2) | 11 B.GALLAGHER(11) | 51 D.DESHARNAIS(15) |
| 5 | 1 | 17:06 | EV | TOR | 3 D.PHANEUF(8) | 43 N.KADRI(24) | 36 C.GUNNARSSON(13) |
| 6 | 2 | 4:42 | EV | TOR | 81 P.KESSEL(15) | 21 J.VAN RIEMSDYK(14) | 4 C.FRANSON(20) |
Shots on Goal:
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | T |
| Canadiens | 13 | 16 | 8 | – | 37 |
| Maple Leafs | 5 | 14 | 9 | – | 28 |
Goaltending:
| CANADIENS | MAPLE LEAFS | ||
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Record: 19-9-4 SA: 4 Sv%: .250 |
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Record: 16-5-5 SA : 37 Sv%: .973 |
Lineup Notes:
- Habs starting six: Tomas Plekanec, Brian Gionta, Brandon Prust, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Carey Price
- Scratched: Tomas Kaberle, Yannick Weber, Mike Blunden, Gabriel Dumont, Ryan White, Alexei Emelin
What you need to know:
Kramer: Yeah, and you’re an anti-Carite.
Jerry: I am not an anti-Carite!
Kramer: You’re a rabid anti-Carite!
(from Seinfeld – with liberties taken)
A blowout. On a night when most Canadiens fans were feeling the sting of a bitter loss, in some quarters of the city, there was celebration. Donning their No. 39 and No. 41 jerseys, these so-called Habs supporters lifted their glasses, danced in the streets and flocked to social media to rejoice.
The target of their venom had given up two soft goals.
In one sense, I suppose it’s predictable. There’s plenty of pent-up frustration for those who were on the wrong side of a goaltender debate and now find one hero languishing as a third-stringer. And it’s been a long wait for the often-reported comeback of their other idol. By the way, what channel is the Lausanne game on?
Well drink up my friends because the comet that streaked through the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night isn’t likely to come around again anytime soon.
However, there is something that is occurring with increased regularity and that is another notch in the loss column. Don’t look now but your Habs are just 7-6 in their last 13 games — not exactly peaking at the right time. And while much of the injury attention has been given to the loss of Rene Bourque and Raphael Diaz, the Canadiens are a much different team without rugged defenseman Alexei Emelin.
Throughout the season Emelin had been solid in his own zone, made good decision with the puck and was able to instill fear in the minds of opposing forwards who entered the Canadiens zone. Davis Drewiske picked up a meaningless goal in Saturday’s game, Nathan Beaulieu skated well in his 14:08 in ice-time but the player who could bring a consistent physical presence without crossing the line was missing. When Francis Bouillon tried to amp up his physical game, he took a costly penalty that set the game headed in the wrong direction for the Habs.
Which brings us to the game plan.
In addition to poor goaltending, did the result have something to do with coach Michel Therrien wanting to establish a physical tone? Right off the opening faceoff, there was a change (albeit a temporary one) to the Tomas Plekanec line.
“Brandon Prust is in the starting lineup where Rene Bourque usually is and that says a little bit about the truculence that they may want in their lineup.” — HNIC’s Jim Hughson
A short time later, Bouillon roughed up Matt Frattin behind the Canadiens net and then was penalized for some overzealous stick-work on Nazem Kadri. What message had the players been given in the pre-game chat? The Maple Leafs scored 18 seconds later (on a goal Price had no chance to stop) and the Habs found themselves in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position trailing early in the game.
For Toronto, they couldn’t have drawn it up any better.
“We wanted to set the tone. They kind of embarrassed us in our own building last time we played them.” — Maple Leafs’ forward Tyler Bozak
You will recall the game on February 27th where the Canadiens waltzed into the ACC and played their game. Montreal used their speed to dominate the Leafs winning the game 5-2. And yes, No. 31 was in goal for the win. Of note, Emelin scored his first goal of the season on that night.
Not this time.
It’s clear that the Leafs can hit; they dished out 47 in Saturday’s game. And they can fight, leading the league with 40 fighting majors. But they are slow and have questionable goaltending, two things that the Canadiens failed to exploit in the humbling loss. For the record, Peter Budaj wasn’t particularly good last night either and most every shot was an adventure for his counterpart James Reimer.
A side note: Ryan O’Byrne, Toronto’s trade-deadline acquisition, had an assist, was plus-2 in 19:15 of ice-time, had three blocked shots and led his team with seven hits. But the folks out celebrating Price’s bad game will correctly point out that O’Byrne had an own goal almost five years ago. What they probably don’t remember is so did the current Canadiens GM in the 2000 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The lunatic fringe can continue to slag the asset that other franchises would kill to have. But the rest of us should remember that Montreal will meet the Leafs one more time on the last day of the regular season and perhaps in the playoffs. They would be wise to do what they do best and not try to match Toronto blow-for-blow.
Plus
- In such a one-sided game it’s tough to find any standouts for the losing team but Brendan Gallagher who was a target all night long acquitted himself well not backing down from any challengers and did all of the heavy-lifting for the Canadiens lone goal.
Minus
- Whether the fault of new equipment or not, Carey Price acknowledged that he game up two bad goals and must be better.
- Michel Therrien now has ample evidence from three losses that the Canadiens cannot beat the Leafs when they get dragged into a slugfest. Speed and discipline are essential.
- Against an undisciplined opponent, the Habs power-play has to be much better than 0-for-4.
Injury/Roster Report:
- Brandon Prust was in some obvious discomfort after being checked heavily into the boards but returned to the game.
| NHL Three Stars | |
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| Post-game Chatter |
Coach Michel Therrien:
- “[Price] is a good kid. He cares. He’s had a good season. He’s got character. He’s gonna bounce back. I have no doubt.”
- “There’s lots of times our goalie was fantastic for us this year and we were fair in front of him. We still found a way to win.”
- Is there a Habs – Leafs rivalry? “I don’t think so. You build a rivalry in the playoffs. We haven’t played those guys for a long time in the playoffs. I can’t say it’s a huge rivalry because the last time was 1979. That’s a long time.”
Carey Price:
- “Obviously there was two [goals] there that I wanted back. It’s not a very pleasant feeling when you know that you let your teammates down. I think that’s the hardest thing.”
Brian Gionta:
- “Carey’s given us a chance to win every night. It’s not Carey’s fault. We have to do a better job of protecting him. He’s a proud guy and has won us a lot of games. By no means was this his fault.”
Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle:
- “He’s a world-class goaltender, you don’t get many of those evenings from him. … The next team that plays him, I’m sure, we’ll see a different Carey Price”
Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri:
- “He’s one of the best goalies in the league. He’s stood on his head all year for that team”
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Well summarized. I think that last night’s biggest failing belonged to the coaching staff. Carey’s new pad aided softies aside, the 6-0 loss should’ve ensured the team’s better preparedness.
Now that Brian Burke’s 15 minutes of fame are over, I’d like to see the word ‘truculence’ fade into obscurity the way he has.
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