Montreal 3 New York Rangers 4 SO (Bell Centre)
posted by Rocket
AllHabs.blogspot.com
What side do you choose in the glass half full/empty view of tonight’s game? The optimists would express that the Canadiens did not give up and came back to tie the game three times. The pessimists would wonder why the Canadiens were behind in the first place.
After the game, Bob Gainey tried to straddle the two points of view. Gainey was “happy to come from behind” and have the “chance to take two points.” But the head coach wondered why the Canadiens “trailed throughout the game.” He felt that his team “should have been able to move play toward the opposition’s net in an important game at home.”
Gainey is right on both counts, of course. The team has made progress over the past four games. But the nervous Canadiens fans are impatient for a turnaround and ready to irrationally lash out at anyone: Gainey, Price, Kovalev …
The truth is that Gainey’s Habs are playing harder and are mentally stronger than the previous version. This was the Canadiens best game under Gainey.
The Habs were prepared to play. In the first period, the Canadiens skated well and showed good energy. The Habs also had a strong second period and were even with the Rangers in shots and goals after two periods.
Gainey stayed with his top three lines in the third period, something unheard of during the Carbonneau regime. They also did not fade when down and came back to tie the game three times.
The root of most problems for the Canadiens continues to stem from the DEFENSE!
The advance billing for Mathieu Schneider as a high reward/high risk player is turning out to be very accurate. Schneider is capable of helping the power-play but can also be a liability in his own zone. Gainey wisely moved Schneider to the third defensive pairing but in a game where the Canadiens were trailing Schneider played more than he normally should.
Schneider’s miscommunication with Josh Gorges was responsible for the Rangers third goal.
Gorges has been a Cinderella story this season. But since the All-Star break, Gorges has been playing like Cinderella. Gorges struggled again tonight at minus 2.
I was shocked to see Patrice Brisebois in the line-up tonight. After reaching his 1000th game milestone, and not looking good doing it, I expected that Brisebois would be relegated to the press box for the final 13 games of the season. It’s unfortunate that he was on the ice delivering another brutal effort.
Brisebois was directly responsible for the Rangers 1st goal making two mistakes in his zone. Brisebois led defenseman in giveaways with 3 (a generous count that could have been much higher). In the last minute of overtime, Brisebois was single handedly responsible for killing a scoring chance by Kovalev and then setting up a Ranger opportunity.
In the most telling statistic, the Canadiens had 22 giveaways to only 12 for the Rangers.
Special teams were average tonight. Penalty killers were perfect on four Ranger opportunities.
The Canadiens scored one power-play goal on six opportunities. The goal featured great teamwork: Koivu won an important faceoff; Schneider kept the puck in; Markov made an incredible pass; and Kovalev scored on one timer.
Overall, they had trouble coping with aggressive penalty-killing by the Rangers. Habs struggled to set up in the Ranger zone and in getting shots to the net from the point.
Line combinations didn’t seem to generate the kind of offensive pressure that Gainey desired.
The best line for the Canadiens was Tomas Plekanec with Max Pacioretty and Matt D’Agostini. They hit, forechecked, created turnovers and had scoring chances.
Saku Koivu, Andrei Kostitsyn and Guillaume Latendresse were ineffective tonight. After his lengthy layoff, Latendresse looked slow and out-of-sync This line seemed to lead the team in offsides. One wonders if Latendresse’s re-introduction to the line-up would have been more successful on the third or fourth line.
Alex Kovalev and Max Lapierre both scored in this game. Lapierre was also very good on faceoffs. But Kovalev and Lapierre were also guilty of the most dangerous giveaways in their own zone. Chris Higgins didn’t seem to have any chemistry with his linemates.
The line of Metropolis, Kostopoulos and Stewart played sparingly. Metropolis delivered the best hit on Sean Avery.
Andrei Markov was the game’s first star and deservedly so. Markov had a goal and two assists.
Carey Price continued his strong play. He made several spectacular saves throughout the game but especially in the third period to take his team to overtime. The Ranger’s first and third goals resulted from defensive errors. The second goal handcuffed Price as it deflected off Plekanec’s stick. Through four periods of play Henrik Lundqvist did not play as well as Price. Neither goalie made a save in the shootout.
The Canadiens can still control their own fate with the next five games against teams below them in the standings. The Flyers, Hurricanes, Panthers, and Sabres have all been inconsistent so the Canadiens have an opportunity to solidify their playoff standing with two wins to end the week.
Pre-game
Starting lineup: Higgins, Kovalev, Lapierre, Komisarek, Markov
Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist started in goal.
O’Byrne and Dandenault were scratched from the line-up. Tanguay was ill with the flu. Laraque, Bouillon, and Lang were out with injuries.
Lines:
Plekanec-D’Agostini-Pacioretty
Koivu-Andrei Kostitsyn-Latendresse
Lapierre-Higgins-Kovalev
Metropolit-Stewart-Kostopoulos
Rocket’s 3 stars:
1. Andrei Markov
2. Ryan Callahan
3. Maxim Lapierre
(photo credit: AP)
Gainey is skating on thin ice, of all the boneheaded decisions he has made as G.M. of the Habs, the Carbo firing is the one that may be the final straw. Jack Todd wrote a scathing article in the Gazette recently detailing some of the head scratchers that Gainey has pulled. The knives are out, and if the Habs miss the playoffs or bow out early, I doubt that he will be back next season. Timmins should be fired regardless of whether Gainey stays or not. He has made some horrendous decisions with the team’s high draft picks.
Are you kidding me? If the Habs get knocked out of the playoffs, Gainey is out? Man, the Habs making the playoffs would be nothing short of a miracle itself. One more would make Bob a candidate for canonization. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not counting them out, but if they manage to hang on, don’t you forget who threw them the rope. Maybe you didn’t see the slippery slope to oblivion the rest of us were watching them slide down. Cutting the Carbs is not a cure-all when you figure in the beating the boyz were taking and I’m not just talking on the ice. You have to consider that just about ninty percent way into a season might be a little late start coaching a team you seriously expect to be a contender. If they make it through, more power to ’em, but if they don’t, what the heck else did you seriously expect? The damage was done long before Bob stepped up. It takes time to regroup and regain, and so quite possibly it may end up being a try a-Gain-ey situation, but at least next season will be a Carb-free one.
Habs miss the playoffs, Gainey is gone. This is YEAR 6 of his “5 Year Plan”, and the lineup is clogged up with highly paid underacheivers in their late 30s, which was pretty much the situation when he arrived in 2003. The team under Gainey has never gotten past the second playoff round, and missed the post season as often as not. Rejean Houle did more with half the budget and twice as many long term player injuries to contend with.
No arguement there, but working with what we got. You take a team that is down and out already with Julien. Throw in Carbs to beat them down some more and expect to see the Cup? Why were the ol boyz underacheiving, and you know there are far from washed out so it is not the age factor. And where were the new faces because Carbs seemed just a little too comfortable sidelining them. Bob did and does continue to bring up new talent (such as Fortier now) but its up to the coach to get them all out there, old and new, in top form. Can Bob make these boyz a contender at this late hour, probably not. Just remember, they were not in the running under Carbs. They need to win every last remaining game just to tie last years points at this stage, and in Carbs defense (partly), last years points were an embarassment all in their own right. Habs, not a contender before Carbs was canned, not a contender after. No real shocker. Let them regroup and recoop and
The team was in 5th place in the Eastern Conference when Carbonneau was fired. They had won 4 of their previous 6 games. Gainey signing Olivier Fortier to a contract is a long way from “bringing him in”. Fortier is at least 3 years away from regular NHL duty if he makes it at all.
More young players played more games under Carbonneau than any other coach I can recall in recent Canadien’s history. Plekanec, Latendresse, Lapierre, S. Kostitsyn, A. Kostitsyn, Price, Halak, O’Byrne, Chipchura, Gorges, D’Agostini, Pacioretty, have all played long stretches of regular duty under Carbo. I don’t know if it was at his coach’s request, but Gainey brought in guys like Lang, Laraque, Schneider, Brisebois, etc., who have all seen better days.
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