Bad news started earlier in the day for the Montreal Canadiens when we received updates from the infirmary. Saku Koivu will miss at least two weeks and then be re-evaluated. Chris Higgins will miss another five weeks. Carey Price wasn’t simply out with a cold, he also injured himself in practice last Wednesday and won’t skate for another four days at least. Add Mathieu Dandenault whose arm is broken in three places and will miss another month and a half, if not more and Georges Laraque who is day-to-day with another groin injury. Oh and we can’t forget about Mike Komisarek who has been injured for some time already and said he will try to be back in the lineup for Tuesday. Sincerely, I hope he will not push himself to come back early, we can’t afford to lose him for another month if he isn’t ready to come back in the lineup.
But if you thought the bad news stopped there, you are wrong my friends. Our Habs followed with a slap in the face when they learned that even when they work hard and create chances, they really, really can’t convert. Even against Simeon Varlamov playing his first NHL game, the Red, White and Blue couldn’t find a way to score. Well, that’s not entirely true. Patrice Brisebois managed to shoot one through the rookie but it just wasn’t enough. Tanguay, Kovalev, Maxwell, D’Agostini, Latendresse, Plekanec, Kostitsyn and many others had chances to hurt the Washington Capitals but missed.
Oh and the power play is as brutal as you can imagine. After leading for the past two years, Montreal’s powerplay fell down to earth and is now next to last in the NHL. Tonight they went 0 for 8 and are now 2 in their last 36 attempts. And the problems this time around are simple: the players who should produce are in a slump and those who aren’t in a slump are injured.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad game for the Habs, they actually played a good game if a bit uneven. But they are letting way too many opportunities slip away and it’s costing them. If their powerplay was at least working around the 20% mark it would have been at least another goal per game in their last two loses.
Patrice Brisebois played another good game, maybe his best this year. On his goal, you could see the confidence in his shot, something we haven’t seen from too many forwards lately. And late in the game, he stopped Ovechkin one-on-one on a play I was sure to see Alex deke him like Spezza used to do to Souray. On the other hand, Ryan O’Byrne was brutal tonight and Hamerlik wasn’t much better. O’Byrne made two huge mistakes but twice Halak made spectacular saves to bail out his young teammate. If Komisarek is back Tuesday, expect him to get some press box time. Yes, he has more potential than Brisebois but he has had troubles all season and things aren’t getting better for the young man.
Guillaume Latendresse, another who saw most of the last two weeks from the rafters, finally answered the call, at least better than the last game. He created some scoring opportunities and his setup on Plekanec shot was very nice. I like how he protects the puck when he had control of it.
But the real star of the Habs tonight was without a doubt Jaroslav Halak. He deserved a lot better than the loss the stat sheet will remember. He was spectacular many times and I can’t fault him for the result. If it wasn’t for him, the game would have been over by the second period.
But now it’s time for some players to step up. Kovalev, Tanguay and Andrei Kostitsyn will have to carry the load and fill the shoes of the Captain. Having scoring chances is not enough anymore. They need to score. They need to fill the net. They need to make the powerplay work. Most of all, they have to make sure the team gets the W when their goaltender gives them such a good chance to win.