Montreal 3 Boston 2 OT (Bell Centre)
MONTREAL, QC.– It looked bleak. Patrice Bergeron and some dreadful play by the Canadiens defense had given the Bruins a 2-0 lead with the teams headed to the dressing room for the second intermission. Boston had a record of 16-0-0 when leading after two periods and the Habs were 0-15-1 when trailing.
In an apparent effort to support their porous defense, Montreal was playing a style that hadn’t led to many scoring opportunities, only three in the first 40 minutes. Referees Auger and Pollock had given only one power-play to the Canadiens at that point. Meanwhile, Bruins goalie Tim Thomas seemed poised to notch his league-leading sixth shutout.
But a funny thing happened in the third period, none of the above mattered.
When a Montreal goal was disallowed in the third period, the sometimes fickle Bell Centre fans chanted encouragement to their team. The Canadiens had 18 shots on goal with ten being good quality scoring chances in the estimation of the coaching staff. Thomas looked rather ordinary allowing a soft goal trickle in from the stick of Scott Gomez.
Brian Gionta deflected a James Wisniewski point shot in the last minute of play to tie the contest. It was then Max Pacioretty who rose to the occasion who fired one past Thomas with a quick wrister for the overtime game-winner. Pacioretty had been the best Canadiens player leading the team with six shots and five hits in addition to his two-point night.
“That’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in a hockey game,” said Pacioretty. “That’s probably the biggest goal of my life.”
The performance by Pacioretty certainly puts a punctuation point to silence the legion of critics who argued for him remaining with the Bulldogs for the entire season. A lonely few joined yours truly advocating for his call-up. Pacioretty has rejuvenated the duo of Gomez and Gionta giving the Canadiens two legitimate scoring lines.
The win gave the Habs 49 points to tie the Bruins and a second extra-time win in their important five-game stretch against conference rivals.
While the victory was exciting for Canadiens fans and a confidence boost for the team, it really didn’t have to play out that way.
Alexandre Picard finished the game with a team-worst minus-2 rating. Picard’s poor play was directly responsible for the two Bruins goals in this game. His awful decision-making, repeated turnovers and soft play make him, by far, the Canadiens worst defenseman this season.
Yet, for some irrational reason, the love affair continues between Number 45 and the head coach.
In his last seven games, Picard has a minus-9 rating yet he continues to get the call ahead of the Canadiens two young defenseman, Yannick Weber and P.K. Subban. Since December 1, Picard has played 15 games, the most of the trio, and is a minus-7. Picard offers none of the upside of the other two players and is the least physical of any of the Habs defenseman.
In that same time period, Subban has struggled at minus-7 over 13 games but has recently picked up his game and will be required in the lineup to eat up major ice-time minutes with the absence of Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges for the rest of the season.
Weber has been solid in each of the 11 games that he has played since December 1 and is easily the best of group with a minus-2 rating. Weber should be in the lineup every night and can be effective on the first power-play unit when paired with James Wisniewski.
It continues to be perplexing that the Montreal coaching staff refuses to ice the players who give the Canadiens the best chance to win. You will recall that earlier in the season, coach Martin preferred to have Picard in the line-up over Ryan O’Byrne. Many Canadiens pundits now lament the lack of a punishing defenseman while O’Byrne plays on the top pairing in Colorado and leads the team in hits, plus/minus and blocked shots per game.
The Canadiens will meet the Rangers in New York on Tuesday and return to the Bell Centre to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.
Plus/Minus
▲ Carey Price continued his dominance over the Bruins and now sports a 12-2-2 lifetime record. Price made several big saves to keep the Canadiens in the game and game-saving stops at the end of regulation and in overtime.
▲ James Wisniewski continues to be the catalyst that provides an offensive spark. Wisniewski took the point shot that deflected off Gionta for the tying goal. He also had an assist taken away on the disallowed goal earlier in the period.
▲ P.K. Subban had one of his better games in more than a month logging 26:27 and picking up an assist. Subban still looks less than confident on the power-play reluctant to take a shot, and when he does, taking too long to launch it.
► Mike Cammalleri played only 7:23 when he was forced to leave the game. Coach Martin announced that his absence was not due to an injury but an illness instead.
▼ Tom Pyatt contributed over two minutes in penalty-killing duty but offered little else. Yet Pyatt continues to enjoy the coach’s favor while Lars Eller sits in the press box.
▼ Tim Thomas was not tested in the first two periods of the game, and allowed a softie to open the door to a Canadiens comeback. Thomas’ characteristic sprint from the crease after an overtime loss is always a treat for Habs fans.
All Habs game stars
1. Max Pacioretty
2. Carey Price
3. Brian Gionta
Roster notes
Lars Eller and Yannick Weber were healthy scratches. Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges are out for the season with a knee injuries.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Graham Hughes)
Yesterday’s game was certainly a trial in patience for Habs fans. It was great to finally see them make something out of nothing when it looked like another certain loss. Habs fans everywhere should thank Chara for playing so far beneath his usual level. Minus-3 looks good on him.
I’m also glad that Pacioretty had filled the gap on the 2nd line. I was afraid that Martin would suck the life out of him if he didn’t pay immediate dividends, but so far so good.
I’m not so sure what to do with Eller at this point. He’s spinning his wheels now, and as much as he would benefit from better linemates, he’s not going to get them, barring injury. I hate seeing young players waste away in the press box, and I don’t think giving him Pyatt’s ice time is worth much. He’s also probably too good for Hamilton, but what do you do with this kid?
Although the Habs have picked up 7 of the last 8 available points, I’m not sure that I’m ready to say that they’re out of the woods. They are playing with fire considering the way the coach prepares and guides the team. The injuries are mounting, and they still can’t play 60 minutes.
This group is as enigmatic as ever!
Martin’s roster decisions, player development and line combinations have been mind-numbing. As said in this article, Picard was constantly called upon to play in front of O’Bryne, Subban and Weber. That led to the trade of a now top-4 D-man in Colorado in return of a prospect (what a trade!). Eller who probably should have been sent down to Hamilton got to play in front of Boyd who had 11 goals in 10 games in Hamilton. The style and play of Eller reminded me of Ben Maxwell although Maxwell had not been given as much an opportunity as Maxwell. Unfortunately, Eller can well turn into another Maxwell. Pouilot is constantly in the dog-house despite playing better than some of his mates.
Player development: Instead of developing them the Habs traded them away. Rightly or wrongly, they traded 5 of their draft picks for almost nothing: Chipchura, D’Agostini, Latendresse, Sergi Kostitsyn, O’Bryne, and Lapierre. The most mind-bloggling was the trading O’Bryne because the team does not have a single big defenseman on the team and down in Hamilton (unless you count Alex Henry).
Line Combinations: How many coaches require 30+ games to decide on his line combinations? Experimenting was the word Martin used. Playing Moen on the scoring lines for 30+ plus games was simply brutal. Moen had 3 goals thus far, one of which was a shorthanded goal, so he actually netted a maximum of 2 goals while playing major minutes on the scoring lines. Brutal!
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