Rocket:
A big shout-out to all my ‘friends’ at Quebec Hydro. They stopped playing with their nuts and got back on the little exercise wheels just before the puck drop tonight. I’m talking about the trained squirrels that apparently power the fragile electrical system we have here. Yes, regular power outages over the past two years have left us just a little sarcastic.
No shortage of offense for the Canadiens tonight. Was it the ghosts of past victories during the last 99 years? Or the inspiration of Roger Doucet singing the anthem? Perhaps the vintage sweaters? Maybe it was Coach “K” making another appearance behind the bench.
No. It was the 2008-09 Canadiens. The ones we were excited about at the start of the season. The talented offensive group that we have been waiting for. Tonight, in game #25 of the season, they arrived and almost played a full 60 minute game. Even more impressive when you consider that the Rangers are the best team in the East. Tom Renney is a great coach. And Henrik Lundqvist is one of the best goaltenders the Canadiens have faced.
Lots of positives to talk about but right now Matt D’ Agostini is the feel good story. Hard work, speed, winning battles for the puck and going to the front of the net. It’s a formula that’s working and it seems to be infectious. We also found out that he has a great wrist shot. D’Agostini had a goal, an assist and led the team with 6 shots. He also plays a defensive game and had 2 blocked shots.
Koivu, D’Agostini and Andrei Kostitsyn were dangerous all night. Andrei skated hard to the net and chipped it in as he was being dragged down.
Tom Kostopoulos had a terrific game. He seemed to be everywhere creating chances. Kosto with Tanguay and Plekanec have been a real pleasant surprise. Kostopoulos created turnovers which led to some give and go between Plekanec and Tanguay. Really nice to see.
Kovalev extended his goal-less streak, and had an assist and just one shot. But there are signs that the Lang, Kovalev, Higgins is starting to gel. All the lines did a good job attacking the Rangers blue-line with speed.
The 4th line played well too. I really liked Max Lapierre’s patience to pull the puck back before he fed Begin for the 2nd Canadiens goal. He also had his own goal. Steve Begin also had a goal, an assist and 5 shots. George Laraque made a nice play to keep the puck in on Begin’s goal and had two assists. Later GL did a good job protecting the puck on the boards.
The Canadiens limited the Rangers to only 20 shots. Mathieu Dandenault had 5 blocked shots. Andrei Markov had 2 assists. Markov made a terrific pass on Lang’s goal.
Carey Price was solid wearing his retro-looking pads and gloves. He didn’t have to be the best player on the ice tonight but made some great saves when he had to.
6 even strength goals means that the power play was shut out again tonight. I don’t think that Robert Lang is the solution on the point. He’s reluctant to shoot the puck.
Steve Begin took a bad penalty. Max Lapierre couldn’t cover Dawes who scored the second Ranger goal. Patrice Brisebois struggled in every zone. He fired his best backhand of the year at Price who had to make an alert save to end the 1st period.
Josh Gorges still seems in over his head. On the stats sheet, he was +4, but was beaten several times by Ranger forwards. He also reached out to try to block a Ranger point shot and deflected it into his own goal. Gorges plays much better when his minutes are limited and he doesn’t have to be part of the top defense pairing. And I was surprised that Gorges didn’t come to the aid of Koivu. Koivu and Gomez were jostling all the way down the ice into the Ranger end. When Gomez cross-checked Koivu to the ground, Gorges was right there but didn’t step in. Koivu got up and fought Gomez.
Which brings us to Georges Laraque. After his MIA routine against Atlanta, I was shocked to see him in the line-up. Laraque was invisible until the Begin goal and then played better. But why did Kostopoulos have to step up when Colton Orr hassled Price? Why did Laraque do nothing after his captain was forced to fight. And with no reaction on Georges part, Gomez took the liberty to cross-check Andrei Markov to the face near the end of the third period. It seems that teams have caught on that Laraque has a very narrow criteria to fill his dance card. So how exactly is he protecting the skilled players as promised?
As the game ended, Carbonneau smiled and flashed 3 fingers at Mike Komisarek. Yes, coach ‘K’ is 3-0.
Pre-game:
99th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens
Centennial Plaza unveiled today with statues of Beliveau, Lafleur, Morenz and Richard
Roget Doucet via video sings the anthems (complete with his own version of O’ Canada)
Latendresse, Sergei Kostitsyn and Ryan O’Byrne are healthy scratches.
Komisarek will be behind the bench again.
Rocket’s 3 stars:
1. Matt D’Agostini
2. Tom Kostopoulos
3. Maxim Lapierre
(photo credit:
Hey man. Good review. But…
Naslund deflected the puck, not Gorges.
As for Laraque, I decided to give him a night off in my review but honestly, I remember him saying he’d protect our best players and he’d make sure guys like Lapierre and Begin can do their job without fear of repercussions.
Funny cause our best player and Lapierre had to fight tonight. Not only that, Gomez fought Koivu, hit Markov in the face and the very next shift Laraque is on the ice, Gomez comes towards him with the puck. Does he hit him? Does he drop the gloves? Nope. He pick up the puck and dekes him! I am not kdding you.
I think it’s high time someone reminds him of the reason he was hired.
Hell, you know what, we don’t need his towering carcass. The Habs are getting more fight this year than last even if you don’t count Laraque’s fight. Carbo said all year long last year he wanted team toughness and I think it’s too well implanted. Guy will stand up for themselves and for their teammates. They don’t need Laraque.
Hey Guys,
Good game reviews as usual.
As much as I agree that Big Georges has been a disappointment thus far, I’m not sure I agree that Laraque had to get retribution against Gomez.
Guys, he’s a skilled player who isn’t known for fighting. What did you want Laraque to do, beat the stuffing out of Gomez??!! It would have been ugly and would have been frowned upon by the players. Anyway, Gomez would have dropped a load in his pants before dropping his gloves.
Even if Laraque fights Orr, how does that discourage Gomez.
Rocket, as you mentioned, I think Gorges should have jumped in to fight Gomez, but it didn’t happen for some reason or another.
Personally, I believe Laraque places too much emphasis on the “code” used by enforcers. He always refers to it when he discusses his role as an enforcer.
As I’ve mentioned in a few of my prospect articles, D’Agostini is a quicker, more defensively responsible and better skating version of Michael Ryder. I can see him potting 30-40 goals in the future. What a wrist shot (though Lunquist seemed to gave up on the shot a bit) and nice pass to AK-46…..the kid has big time potential.
The D’Agostini call up reminds me of the Sergei Kostitsyn call-up from last year. He’s added an offensive spark to the lineup and if he can continue with his great play, he’ll be told by Carbo to find an apartment.
Lappy is playing great hockey the last 3-4 games and looks more comfortable handling the puck.
When Gomez skated towards Big Georges, after both the Koivu and Markov incidents, I expected him to at least give a big hit, a mean face a say something along the lines of “don’t you ***** do that **** again!” lound enough to cover Pierre Houde. Two out of three would have been acceptable as long as the hit was included. I know he can’t fight Gomez but at least scare him.
As for Gorges, the camera didn’t show the beginning of the incident on CH Express (and they didn’t show the replay) but I saw him trying to get involved as the fight was starting but a white shirt was getting in the way. And you don’t want to be the third man anyway.
I have no clue what happened 10 seconds before though.
BB, I noticed the same thing with Laraque ignoring Gomez on the shift following his fight with Koivu. It was surreal! I didn’t expect Georges to drop the gloves with Gomez, Habster. But we know how these work. Georges gets in Gomez’s face, pushes him around a bit, a Ranger teammate steps in, and Georges pounds that guy senseless. Message sent. I guarantee you if that happened, Gomez doesn’t cross-check Markov in the face later in the period.
In any event, Laraque isnt doing the job that was promised..protecting the star players and being too strict about the code as you mention.
I remain disappointed that Josh Gorges didnt take on Gomez. He had an opportunity to do that while Koivu was on the ice and before Josh got tangled up with another Ranger. No third man as Koivu was on the ice after the crosscheck.
Your comments about D’Agostini are dead on Habster. Dags is similar to Higgins in many ways but maybe even quicker. And I also like the way Lapierre has been playing the past few games. He just needs to improve a little on his defensive coverage.
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