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Canadiens vs Jets Recap: Habs Get a Gift-Wrapped Ticket Home

Thursday April 25th, 2013

Game Recap: With the Jets having nothing to play for, they handed the Canadiens home-ice for a playoff round.

MONTREAL CANADIENS
28-14-5
61 POINTS
4th in the East
WINNIPEG JETS
24-21-3
51 POINTS
9th in the East
 

4

2

 FINAL 1 2 3 OT T
 Canadiens 0 1 3 4
 Jets 1 1 0 2

Top Scorers:

 CANADIENS JETS
  • Lars Eller 2A
  • P.K. Subban 2A
  • Max Pacioretty 1G
  • Brendan Gallagher 1G
  • Rene Bourque 1G
  • David Desharnais
  • Blake Wheeler 1G 
  • James Wright 1G

Scoring Summary:

G Per Time Str Team Goal Scorer Assist Assist
1 1 9:10 EV WPG 17 J.WRIGHT(2) 22 C.THORBURN(2)
2 2 9:54 EV MTL 17 R.BOURQUE(7) 27 A.GALCHENYUK(17) 81 L.ELLER(19)
3 2 14:43 EV WPG 26 B.WHEELER(19) 18 B.LITTLE(25) 33 D.BYFUGLIEN(20)
4 3 2:07 EV MTL 11 B.GALLAGHER(14) 81 L.ELLER(20) 42 J.TINORDI(2)
5 3 7:57 PP MTL 51 D.DESHARNAIS(10) 76 P.SUBBAN(26) 79 A.MARKOV(19)
6 3 10:50 EV MTL 67 M.PACIORETTY(15) 76 P.SUBBAN(27)


Shots on Goal
:


 FINAL 1 2 3 OT T
 Canadiens 8 11 11 30
 Jets 5 9 11 25

Goaltending:

CANADIENS JETS

Carey Price
WIN

Record: 21-13-4
SA: 25
Sv%: .920

Ondrej Pavelec
LOSS

Record: 21-20-3
SA : 30
Sv%: .867

Lineup Notes:

What you need to know:

The Canadiens have clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs with a come from behind win over the Winnipeg Jets.

That will be the headline from Thursday night’s game and perhaps we shouldn’t probe too much deeper. You know, the “all’s well that ends well” thing. Yet that doesn’t come close to telling the real story.

(Photo by Marianne Helm/Getty Images)

There’s no joy in raining on anyone’s parade. Toast the three goals in the third period, celebrate the Habs win and rejoice that Saturday’s game will not be a showdown for home-ice advantage with the Leafs. But before we get too carried away about the rebirth of the Canadiens, it would be wise to consider the turning point of the game.

That moment did not occur on the ice, at least not on the MTS Centre ice surface.  With Winnipeg enjoying a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes, they learned that their season was over given overtime wins by Ottawa and the New York Rangers.  It didn’t take long, just 2:07 into the third period, to confirm that the heads of the Jets were elsewhere — goaltender Ondrej Pavelec bobbled a Brendan Gallagher shot with the puck dribbling into the net.

A gift for sure but Winnipeg was not finished with their generosity handing the Canadiens a 5-on-3 power-play. The Habs cashed in for the winning goal.

It wasn’t looking so rosy early on in this game. The Canadiens problems in their own zone were again evident with the defense being unable to cope with the aggressive play of the Jets forwards. Under stress:

And let’s be clear, the Habs are not complacent. They worked hard, but not smart and in a very individualistic way.  Their performance was directly opposite to the ‘team concept’ approach so often referenced by Michel Therrien.

A win yes, but it would seem that the Canadiens have yet to exorcise their demons.

Two bright spots that deserve attention were the play of Jarred Tinordi and Carey Price.

Tinordi entered the game with a huge burden to stabilize the shaky penalty-kill and to bring back a physical presence to the defense. The Canadiens were perfect on two occasions when shorthanded with Tinordi playing a solid 1:40. The only caveat here is that the Jets are 29th in the league on the power-play. As for physical play, Tinordi delivered seven of Montreal’s 16 hits.

Carey Price had a superb game keeping his team close particularly in the first two periods with  the Habs giving up high-quality scoring chances.

In addition to trying to remedy the flaws for the playoffs, coach Therrien has an interesting decision to make. Does he play his A-lineup on Saturday night in Toronto with a hope to winning the Northeast?  Or does he choose to rest some key players so they will be fresh when the playoffs begin?

When asked Therrien replied, “We still have a shot to finish in second place [in the conference.]”

Injury/Roster Report:


 NHL Three Stars
  1.  David Desharnais
  2.  Blake Wheeler
  3.  Brendan Gallagher

 Post-game Chatter

Coach Michel Therrien:

(Photo by Travis Golby/NHLI via Getty Images)

P.K. Subban:

Brian Gionta:

Jets forward Blake Wheeler:

Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec:


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