Guillaume Latendresse said before the game against Carolina that he was watching D’Agostini from the press box and would try to adapt his game to some things he saw from the rookie. In Carolina, he blocked a shot and went for a breakaway which resulted in a penalty shot goal. Most of you will remember D’Ags doing this play a week ago. Against the Flyers, he went hard at the net and scored. Again… very similar to what D’agostini did last week. But the most important thing for me was to see Guillaume screening Antero Niittymaki on a powerplay which forced Niittymaki to change his position and allowed to Sergei Kostitsyn score.
See Gui? It wasn’t that hard to understand right?
The powerplay seemed to finally get to work tonight with some good passing, good patience and 2 goals in 6 opportunities. I liked Sergei back on the point but I’m not sold on Gorges there. Obviously Andrei Kostitsyn wasn’t an option most of the night as he was injured but I’d rather see someone else than Josh on the powerplay.
But back to the game from the beginning, the Canadiens started strongly against an opponent that was red hot. D’Agostini scored on a breakaway with a great pass from Lapierre to open the score at the 6th minute mark playing 4 on 4. Then midway in the first period Sergei doubled the lead with the powerplay goal we discussed earlier. And then another four minutes later Steve Begin deflected a pass from Tom Kostopoulos to make it 3-0. It looked like it would be too easy for the Habs but Aaron Asham scored in a net pretty much empty when Halak failed to move as the puck was going from the corner to the front of the net. I miss Carey Price.
But that wasn’t enough to stop Les Glorieux. Steve Begin showed great vision when he made a great pass to Alex Kovalev who finally managed to score on a scoring opportunity. Maybe the drought really is over for the talented Russian. As a side note, this was his 900th point in the NHL.
One would think that with a 4-1 game, the Flyers would take control of the third period and the Habs would, again, play on their heels. Thankfully we didn’t get any of that old song. The Habs actually outshot Philadelphia 12-9. The visitors got some spark back from a lucky goal when Bouillon accidentally deflected a shot with his hand in his own net but that was the last reason to celebrate for the Flyers fans. Guillaume Latendresse finished the game strong when he took a rebound from Lang shot, after he made the great feed himself, to put the final nail in the Flyers coffin.
A solid game, a good effort from everyone on the ice and one of the best game I’ve seen from these guys all year. Even with Andrei Kostitsyn out for most of the night, on top of all other injuries, they looked like a team that that can be dominant. Komisarek didn’t disappoint in his first game back playing more than 20 minutes with 3 hits, 6 blocked shots and even an assist. D’Agostini also playing a very strong game as he could have scored three goals, getting robbed once and hitting the post once too.
And tonight, I saw meaning for the number two all night. Two great plays by Begin that lead to goals. Two good plays from Latendresse that lead to goals. Two games in a row with a goal for Kovalev and Latendresse. Two powerplay goals. The Habs were two for two on the penalty killing…
Now let’s hope for an encore on Saturday!