Miller Steals Win for Sabres

Montreal 2 Buffalo 3 (HSBC Arena)

Rocket:

“Habs can’t hit the net.” “Carey plays better in white pads.” “The ice was bad.” “Habs looked disinterested again” “Waive Kovalev” “Don’t resign Komisarek”

Those aren’t my words…but comments of Habs ‘fans’. While I understand their passion and relate to their distaste for losing, I have to say Nonsense! None of the comments are accurate nor the reason that the Canadiens lost in Buffalo.

Do you recall the short Florida road trip? And the horrible performances by the Canadiens, particularly the Florida game? Tonight was the 5th consecutive road loss but a completely different effort by the Habs.

The Canadiens played a great first period where they dominated the Sabres 14-5. They were skating well. As Pierre McGuire said during the broadcast, they had “pop in their game.” The Sabres allowed 4 odd man rushes in the first period. Ryan Miller continued his superb play. Miller is 10-2 since January 1st.

In a familiar road pattern, the home team dictated the play in the 2nd period. Lindy Ruff noticed that the Canadiens were falling back and stacking the blueline. His team was creating too many turnovers. Ruff made adjustments telling his team to build speed in the neutral zone and dump the puck past the defenders. Carbonneau seems to have difficulty making in-game adjustments. The Canadiens were too passive in the second.

Saku Koivu and Matt D’Agostini were the best Canadiens tonight. Koivu showed determination as he stole the puck from Chris Butler and then drove to the net for his goal. Matt D’Agostini was very good in his own end all night. D’Agostini escaped with only a bloody nose as an eye-high Gorges’ shot went right off his visor. Chris Higgins had 5 shots.

The Max line with Lapierre, Pacioretty and Sergei Kostitsyn was very effective again. Sergei made a behind the back pass to set up Roman Hamrlik for his goal (for the second game in a row). Pacioretty played physical. Lapierre was very good at the faceoff dot.

Alex Kovalev had a decent first period. He was working hard and was especially strong along the boards. He drew a penalty. But that all changed once the Canadiens were behind. Kovalev wasn’t skating as well. He didn’t register a shot on goal. And he took two penalties, one with only 1:57 left in the game.

Georges Laraque didn’t play well probably providing an opportunity for Mathieu Dandenault against the Leafs. Laraque looked slow and only delivered 2 hits…one on a 40 year old Teppo Numminen.

Andrei Markov again had a terrific game at both ends of the ice. He lead the team with 6 shots. Roman Hamrlik has picked up his game scoring again tonight. Both he and Mike Komisarek had 3 shots on goal and 4 blocked shots each. In the third period, Komisarek tried a bounce pass off the back boards to Markov. The boards react differently than the Bell Centre and the puck came back out in front. Tim Connolly attacked with speed and the score was 3-1.

Ryan O’Byrne played well again including some time on the PK unit. His composure was evident when he was on the receiving end of a huge hit by super-pest Patrick Kaleta. O’Byrne picked himself up, tracked the puck and cleared it out of danger.

Josh Gorges and Francis Bouillon both struggled tonight. Whether a deflection or screen by Gorges, Price was clearly surprised by Jaroslav Spacek’s shot. Later Gorges would give the puck to Jochen Hecht. On a breakaway, Hecht was stopped on a great save by Price. Bouillon lost puck behind the net and Nathan Paetsch scored. Bouillon was a -2.

Carey Price will get some unfair criticism for tonight’s performance. While bothered on the first goal, it is a shot he should stop. Other than the first goal, Price was solid.

There are many positives to take out this road game. The Habs ran into a red-hot goaltender. With a few adjustments the Canadiens could have been in a position to win.

Pre-game:

Laraque will play, Dandenault scratched.

Brisebois, Latendresse, Tanguay, Lang out with injuries. Latendresse out 4-6 weeks.

Rocket’s 3 stars:

1. Ryan Miller
2. Tim Connolly
3. Saku Koivu

(photo credit: AP photo)