Good call coach. For all the bad press we gave to Guy Carbonneau on this very website, I want to balance it out and say that his decision to give this game to Jaroslav Halak was, in hindsight, a very solid one. As solid as his goaltender was tonight. He was good, even spectacular at times, blocking many hard shots and at least three breakaways. Simply put, tonight he fully deserved the win, the shutout and the first star. Tonight he outplayed Roberto Luongo and just raised his value when he’ll be traded next summer.
And as usual, Saku Koivu was a strong leader on the ice. He worked hard, played with heart, wouldn’t let anyone push him over, won a stunning 77% of his faceoffs and was gorgeous to watch in penalty kill. His play during the 3 on 5 was directly responsible for the first goal of the night scored by Plekanec, oddly enough at even strength. He blocked a pass, gave a second effort to clear the puck while diving and a third effort to create enough obstruction to trip the defensemen but made it look like a total accident. A true veteran move.
Plekanec was coming out of the penalty box at the same time and received the puck right then and there. He only had to beat Luongo all alone as Kovalev came back on the ice making this an even strength goal. But really, that was a shorthanded effort. Plecky was also solid on faceoffs.
Actually that was two places where the Canadiens as a team were impressive. The whole team was unbeatable in the faceoff circle. Outside of Maxime Lapierre, who won 4 of 9 faceoffs, every other player won more than 50% of their missions giving the team a combined 63%. And as for the penalty killing unit, Lapierre, Higgins, Plekanec, Kostopoulos, Markov, Komisarek, Hamerlik and everybody else playing shorthanded, especially during the full two minutes two man disadvantage, did well and allowed Halak to do his job and shut down the Vancouver Canucks.
Not everything was perfect though. Despite scoring on the powerplay again tonight, this unit was less than convincing getting only one goal in more than 14 minutes of man advantage. Alex Kovalev played a very ordinary game not getting a single shot and losing the puck a couple of times trying to do too much again.
I love Patrice Brisebois. I don’t think he’s that good but I also don’t think he deserve all the crap he got over the years. He’s a good 6th or 7th defensemen, a veteran presence who doesn’t get nervous under pressure as he shown in the last playoffs. But tonight, he was brutal. Many turnovers and one in particular where he tried to clear his zone through the middle of the ice and ended up giving a good scoring opportunity to the Canucks. He did save a goal by correcting his own mistake and I applaud him for not giving up on that play but tonight he was not the defensemen he was in the past couple of games.
On a more personal note, this was my second time at the Bell Centre this year. My first game was actually also my first review for All Habs. Does anybody remember which game it was? Back in November against the Ottawa Senators, game the Habs won 4-0. Now, I don’t know if my presence makes our goalies work better but if it helps the team win, I’ll sacrifice myself and go see every game from now on.
Also, I proved, again, that I know my hockey. Recently I asked Bob Gainey to do some things for me. Talk to his players, make a trade and/or fire his coach. By the way, thanks Bob. If you ever need a new assistant… But also, during the second intermission, I expressed my fear of things to come in third period. I predicted the Habs would get outshot by 11-3 in third period and while I was off, it ended up 13-4 in favour of Vancouver. This is just bad coaching. The whole team was getting back too much and too fast. The coaching staff has to realize they can’t hope to win game letting the opposing team get that many opportunities. And if you control the puck in the offensive zone, you aren’t giving up chances.
All in all this is another victory that the team need. This time they can thank their red hot goaltender who kept them in the game. Now let’s see if he can repeat against the Flyers Friday night.