Thursday March 21st, 2013

Game Recap: Bad boys Subban and Desharnais reform to help Habs dump Isles.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS 13-14-3 29 POINTS 10th in the East	MONTREAL CANADIENS 20-5-5 45 POINTS 2nd in the East
2	5

Top Scorers:

ISLANDERS		CANADIENS
	Lubomir Visnovsky 1G John Tavares 1G 5SOG Matt Moulson 2A 6SOG Brad Boyes 1A		P.K. Subban 2G +2 5SOG Brendan Gallagher 1G +2 Brian Gionta 1G Michael Ryder 1G 5SOG Max Pacioretty 2A David Desharnais 2A Andrei Markov 1A 5BS

Scoring Summary:

Shots on Goal:

Goaltending:

ISLANDERS		CANADIENS
Kevin Poulin LOSS	Record: 0-2-0 SA: 29 Sv%: .828	Carey Price WIN	Record: 16-4-4 SA : 27 Sv%: .926

Lineup Notes:

• Habs starting six: Tomas Plekanec, Michael Ryder, Brian Gionta, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov, Carey Price
• Scratched: Tomas Kaberle
• Islanders Matt Carkner (groin) and Michael Grabner (shoulder) returned to the lineup.

What you need to know:

• Despite Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin giving up a softie in each of the first two periods, it was a tight game for the first two periods. A goal by the Canadiens in the first minute of the third and then two more at the halfway point of the period broke the game wide open. And 18 giveaways by the Isles helped!
• Prior to the game, Michel Therrien was still talking about P.K. Subban‘s overtime penalty against Buffalo.  So when Subban was responsible for a second period too-many-men penalty, the young defenseman found himself nailed to the bench receiving some firm guidance by assistant coach J.J. Diagneault.  For the final 30 minutes, Subban proved that the lesson was learned scoring two goals.
• Subban wasn’t the only player feeling the wrath of the coaching staff in the second period. David Desharnais temporarily lost his ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. He returned to a regular shift in the third tallying two assists.
• Brendan Gallagher is a catalyst for the Canadiens and since being promoted to the top line, he’s a target for the opposition. Tonight he played through some rough treatment by Matt Carkner and was in on two Habs goals.
• Habs defensive coverage and communication were a train wreck at times allowing the Islanders to keep it close.
• Daigneault has been asked to help out with the sinking ship known as the Canadiens penalty-kill. The boat was still leaky on Thursday night but Carey Price was the difference prompting praise from his head coach (see the post-game comments below.)
• Despite being overlooked for the power-play, Lars Eller was the Habs center receiving the most ice-time at 18:41. For a time in the second period, Eller was joined by Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher.
• Andrei Markov played a strong game with almost 27 minutes in ice-time, a power-play assist on the opening goal and five blocked shots.
• Given that it was road game, Jarred Tinordi played only 11:41. No surprise there. Again Tinordi was poised and solid, showing off his positional play, skating skills and long reach.

Injury/Roster Report:

• No new Habs injuries.

NHL 3 Stars:
	Brendan Gallagher  P.K. Subban  Brian Gionta

Coach Michel Therrien:

• “The power-play was good for us. Like we always say, your best penalty-killer is your goalie and Carey made some great saves.”
• “We tried to send some messages in the second period because I didn’t like the chemistry. They responded really well in the third.”
• When Therrien was asked to identify which part of Subban’s game upset the coaches, Michel would only say “That’s internal.”
• “The message that we told the guys when we were going out for the third period was let’s make sure that we’re focusing and let’s make sure that the execution is going to be there.”
• “What I liked was our execution in the third period with the puck and without the puck.”

P.K. Subban:

• “We were happy to get the fourth goal, it was big for us and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game and then we got the fifth one and that was the end of it. I thought we played well, but we definitely have to give our goaltender Pricey credit for shutting the door.”

Islanders coach Jack Capuano:

• “You have to be able to win in the trenches. If you don’t win those battles, you don’t have a chance to win the game. Teams that out-will their opponent will win time and time again.”

Islanders captain Mark Streit:

• “We gave up pretty easy goals. Every once in a while we get our own luck as well, but there’s not much of an excuse. It’s simply not acceptable.”

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