By CoachK, AllHabs.Net
SAINT-LAZARE, QC. — With the trade deadline in everyone’s rear view mirror, tonight’s tilt with the Florida Panthers should be a statement game for the Montreal Canadiens. Granted, Coach Jacques Martin’s offensively talented players are being held back by his defensive strategies, but this game is one where he should throw his usual protect-the-house mentality and let his offensive players dictate the pace.
Florida is in full rebuild, have traded away defensemen Bryan McCabe, Bryan Allan and Dennis Wideman. In all these trades, the Cats received forwards in return, such as Sergei Samsonov, Nikolas Bergfors and Patrick Rissmiller to name a few. And while it looks like Florida GM Dale Tallon is trying to give the Panthers the same look and feel as his former team, the Chicago Blackhawks, it’s evident his defense will be the Panthers’ Achilles heel until the end of the season.
So what is Montreal to do in order to achieve success? Simple. They need to use their speed and talent up front to maintain puck possession in the offensive zone. Their success will come by pressuring the Florida defense, forcing them to make mistakes in their own zone and capitalizing on those errors. Although Coach Martin’s “system” stresses the same philosophy, in pressuring the Panthers, these mistakes will be made over 100 feet closer to Panthers’ netminder Tomas Vokoun, thus give the Habs a distinct advantage.
The other certainty is that with the offensive-minded strategy, the players on the Canadiens should be fresher, thus minimizing the mental mistakes made in the latter stages of the second and third periods. These fatigue-drive mental mistakes often result in Too Many Men on the Ice penalties or odd-man rushes against.
All this to say I hope that Coach Martin, who boasts over 20 years of coaching experience, recognizes this distinct opportunity for success and make the necessary changes to tonight’s game plan to achieve success.
(Photo by: Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)
If the Habs have taught us anything over the years, and notably under Jacques Martin, its that wins are often much more difficult than they ought to be.
Whether they build up a lead that slowly evaporates, resulting in a white-knuckle, tight finish 1-goal victory or if they decide to coast in the overtime and rely on the shootout, the Canadiens always seem (and I stress “seem” until I look in to it closer) to make life difficult on themselves through defense-first strategies, lazy penalties, and lackluster effort against non-playoff teams.
I hope tonight is a sign of change, but I won’t hold my breath.
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