Written by Rick Stephens, AllHabs.net
With consecutive victories over Philadelphia and Boston, some are suggesting that the HMCS Canadien has been righted, and it’s smooth sailing ahead with skipper Jacques Martin safe for now. Perhaps the reverse is true. Its evident from the past two games that captain Brian Gionta is correct: there is a good deal of talent on the team. The lack of success for the first eight games was primarily confusion caused in no small part by coaching — an anchor holding back a good ship.
So how did the Habs double their point total in the last two games? Again there are two schools of thought: the Canadiens pulled in the same direction and won the games. Or, the opposition hasn’t played that well.
The players have bonded well around their veteran core — it’s not uncomon to hear about the chemistry in the dressing room. This proud bunch came together and found ways to win supporting each other.
Thursday’s game in Boston featured a dominant performance by Carey Price. But the Habs goaltender had help from numerous co-stars. The top four defenseman, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Yannick Weber and Jaroslav Spacek were outstanding, collectively receiving a plus-4 rating and blocking 12 shots.
The forwards pitched in too with Erik Cole and Mike Cammalleri each firing six shots on goal. Travis Moen led the Canadiens in hits with three, and added three blocked shots. Petteri Nokelainen contributed a solid 11:51 with just over three minutes in penalty-killing duty and an impressive 64 per cent at the faceoff dot. Add to that two goals by Tomas Plekanec (one in the Boston net) and you have a complete team victory.
It was much the same the night before against the Flyers — superb goaltending by Price with contributions from a large supporting cast. But were the Canadiens facing teams consistent with our expectations of the Flyers and Bruins?
After completely dominating the game for more than 19 minutes on Wednesday, Philadelphia handed a gift to the Habs. Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov admitted that it was the worst game he played in his career (until Thursday’s game against Winnipeg.) The Flyers defense wasn’t any help being as porous as the roof on Pierre Gauthier’s imaginary house.
The Big Bad Bruins, aren’t playing very big and certainly don’t look like defending Stanley Cup champions. Boston has a record of 3-6-0 which places them 29th in the league, only better than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Five of their losses have come in the TD Garden.
The Flyers played poorly on Wednesday, and the Bruins have been awful particularly at home. Poor opposition play combined with a Canadiens team who has looked less in disarray the past two games has been the reason for a two-game winning streak. Who knows what that means for the game tonight against Boston?
Suffice to say we can expect a similar intensity as the Thursday night contest. Both coaches are under the gun, and neither team is happy that they find themselves out of a playoff position after the first month of the season. We do know that we’re unlikely to see a Subban – Marchand rematch — coach Martin was not impressed with P.K. selfishly spending 11 minutes in the penalty box and sent a stern message to the young defenseman.
The Canadiens have only one win in six tries at home and will be looking to send their fans home happy — fans they won’t see again until the next home game against Edmonton on November 8. With tonight’s game being the last of the month, Montreal wants, at the very least, to stay within four points of eighth place — below that window and research shows that making the playoffs is very slim.
For line-up information for the Canadiens and Bruins see All Habs GameDay.