Montreal 1 Toronto 3 (Air Canada Center)
MONTREAL, QC.– Canadiens fans descended on the ACC in significant numbers on Saturday night hoping to see Waffle-gate II. Instead they watched their team and head coach leave the building with egg on their faces after an embarrassing loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
What went wrong?
You will hear that the Canadiens were tired after playing the night before in Detroit. That’s possible after a 19-shot third period barrage in Detroit in an all-out effort to tie the game. But back-to-backs are not unusual in the NHL. The Canadiens needed only to motor coach across the border and take a short flight from Windsor to Toronto.
A playoff-type atmosphere on the stage of the Joe Louis Arena could have been emotionally exhausting to the players. Coaches can mitigate mental fatigue with preparation and motivating techniques. This, coupled with the players confidence in the game plan, should have had the Canadiens ready to take on a lesser opponent.
Yet somehow, after the first period of Saturday night’s game, the Canadiens found themselves down 2-0. Montreal managed only four shots on goal. This performance was against Toronto, a team who has trouble defending and is 29th in the league in scoring.
Some were quick to point the finger of blame at Alex Auld. The backup goaltender didn’t look particularly good on the two Leafs goals, but in my opinion, responsibility goes far beyond the crease.
Strangely though, that completely flies in the face of what we had been led to believe — that it is coach Jacques Martin’s defensive system which is responsible for the success of the team so far this season. This school of thought is trumpeted by some in the media who stand the most to lose if their remarks aren’t received favorably by the coach.
Martin is given equal credit for the Canadiens being the best defensive team in the league and for the success of their top-ranked penalty-killing unit. So shouldn’t this brilliant system and coaching be able to overcome a change in the goaltender, especially when facing the team who is third from the bottom in the NHL?
Perhaps there is another possibility. On Friday night, Red Wing’s coach Mike Babcock said that Carey Price is the best goalie in the NHL right now. Babcock is widely considered the best coach in the game today.
Could it be that multiple problems with the Canadiens, including a flawed system, are simply being covered up by outstanding goaltending?
Alexandre Picard and P.K. Subban were on the ice for Toronto’s two first period goals. Terrible defensive coverage by the pair resulted in the first goal, with horrid decision-making the culprit on the second.
I can hear the Martin-cheerleaders now, “That’s bad execution. How can it be the fault of the coach?” Picard and Subban deserve to bear a good portion of the responsibility. Both played poorly with Picard finishing the game with a minus-2 rating, and Subban at minus-3.
The thing is, this defensive pair has made similar mistakes all season, multiple times a game, only to be bailed out by number 31. It is Price who is making the defensemen in front of him look good, as well as the system, and the coach who designed it. He is also the best penalty-killer on the team.
If goaltenders were still allowed to cross the center line, you can bet that the Habs power-play wouldn’t be so mediocre. Yes, I’m exaggerating, but before you scoff too much, Price does have an 83 mph slap shot as measured at last year’s Canadiens skills competition.
It was Subban, who ended the hope of a comeback against the Leafs. In the dying minutes, he took a inordinate amount of time to windup for a shot from the point, allowing the defender to block his shot, create a turnover and set-up an empty-net goal.
It would appear that Subban has learned little from his three-game assignment to the press box. In the two matches since, he continues to play an individualistic game.
I don’t believe that Martin was wrong in sitting Subban but I do think that the coach failed to frame it so that it would be a positive learning experience. Martin claims that pitting Subban against Yannick Weber is by design. It is concerning that Martin is modelling this little experiment after the situation with Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak last season.
When speaking with Dave Stubbs from The Gazette, Martin said, “There’s nothing wrong when you’re not in the lineup. Last year was a very important year in Carey’s development. There was a process established that really helped him grow and made him a better player.
He added, “With our younger players, whether a Weber or Subban or Lars Eller, they’ll be better for it in the long run.”
The quote is very disturbing. Martin is describing an extremely destructive process with a winner and a loser. That’s not how an organization is supposed to develop its young assets.
While coach Martin is much more adept at getting the best from a player like Tom Pyatt or Mathieu Darche, they aren’t going to take the Canadiens very far. Jeff Halpern and Travis Moen are very effective in a third-line role but struggled when bumped up to the second line. The tossed-together line combinations kept the Habs looking disorganized the entire game.
Now that injuries are taking a toll, Martin will have to make better use of his young players like Eller, Weber and even a call-up like Max Pacioretty to play larger roles. If Martin doesn’t feel capable of handling the assignment then he can put Kirk Muller in charge of integrating younger players into the line-up and helping to build their confidence. Their contributions will be critical to helping the Canadiens remain near the top of the Conference for the second third of the season.
The Canadiens have a few days of practise before resuming action with two games at the Bell Centre, hosting Philadelphia on Wednesday and Boston the following night.
All Habs game stars
1. Michael Cammalleri
2. Tomas Plekanec
3. Andrei Kostitsyn
Roster notes
Dustin Boyd and David Desharnais were healthy scratches. Andrei Markov is out for the season with a knee injury and Scott Gomez has a mild groin strain.
(photo by Getty)