MONTREAL, QC. — I made my way to the Montreal Canadiens practice facility once again this morning to see the last ten minutes of the Habs practice, and the one-hour scrimmage that followed.
I certainly was not the only one who had thought of this idea. As I pulled into the arena’s parking lot, I was greeted by a police officer who informed me that the parking lot was full, closed, and that I needed to park elsewhere. I ended up parking… To be honest, I don’t know where I parked, but it was a good walk away.
I didn’t see much of the practice for the little amount of time that was left, especially since I spent most of that time attempting to locate a strategic position to place myself, as fans had already formed a tight perimeter around the rink. During this time, I focused my attention on Curtis Sanford, who I had never had a chance to see play.
Sanford covers the bottom portion of the net very well but one giant knock on him would be that he falls to his knees much too quickly. He was often down before the puck had left the forward’s stick. Consequently, he was constantly getting beat to the top part of the net.
The scrimmage began a short while later. “Team A” in white was up against “Team C” wearing red. I guess Lars Eller is on “Team B” because he wasn’t on the ice. So again, three visits, and I have yet to see him play.
The red team started strong, David Desharnais came in off the wing and let go a wrister that squeaked through Curtis Sanford.
Olivier Fortier then seemed to score after Sanford was unable to cover the puck, but the goal was disallowed, as it seems that the referee had already blown the whistle.
Max Lapierre later ripped one at Sanford who left a juicy rebound in the middle of the slot. Tom Pyatt was skating by and pushed the puck into an empty net.
Although Sanford didn’t look like he was having his best day, he did make a couple of nice saves, notably on a penalty shot awarded to Yannick Weber.
The first period ended with Gabriel Dumont getting a good chance in the slot for the red team, but Carey Price who saw little action in the first period made a solid save.
Ian Schultz who I had wanted to keep my eye on was some solid. He looked like he was on a mission to hit everyone out there. He got a solid hit on P.K. Subban, and later on the same play, hit Ian White before being hit himself by Ryan O’Byrne. He then went and knocked Tomas Plekanec down, and then finished the play with a big bang in the opposite corner, unfortunately fans blocked my view and I didn’t see exactly what happened there.
The second period started with Benoit Pouliot starting to get himself noticed. He was positioning himself well on the ice, good locations, but never able to finish the play. He must have had about three scoring chances but he would either fan on the puck or miss the net.
Have you ever had a “brain freeze” from drinking slush or eating cold ice cream too quickly? Pouliot looks like he gets one right before he’s about to take all of his shots.
Later in the period, Plekanec found himself alone in front of goaltender Peter Delmas and put one five-hole on him reducing the lead to 2-1.
It was during the final minute after the white team had pulled goaltender Robert Mayer that Pouliot found himself alone in front of Delmas, when it looked like he hit the post on the play. The puck then came back to Ryan O’Byrne who ripped one off the post himself, but the puck somehow made it back to him, and he didn’t miss on his second chance. With only seconds left, we had a tie game and the second period would end this way.
Worthy of mentioning after two periods, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec were flying on the ice. For Pacioretty however, he seems to lack vision on the ice. Although his energy and speed were often high, I simply found he looked like a chicken with his head cut off skating all over the ice.
Mayer had a solid second period for the white team. He made a great glove save on a Mike Cammalleri breakaway, and followed it up with an equally solid save on Max Lapierre later in the period.
After a 2-2 game, they proceeded with a shootout to determine the winner. Andreas Engqvist and Cammalleri scored on the young Mayer while Plekanec was the only player to put one by Delmas.
The All Habs three stars of the game were:
- Tom Pyatt
- David Desharnais
- Tomas Plekanec
The final scrimmage is Monday morning at 11am.
On a final note, if you would like to have an idea of how far I was parked from the facility, here’s a picture taken from my car:
