Game 2: Montreal 1 Buffalo 3 (Bell Centre)

Written by Rick Stephens, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — After the first period of Tuesday night’s game, one of the radio personalities tweeted that it was the best period that he had witnessed by the Montreal Canadiens during the Jacques Martin reign. That’s high praise.

I’ve been to the Bell Centre many times but I’ve never noticed a table of judges — but based on the superlatives offered by our mainstream media friend, I’m sure that the panel must have all lifted their 6.0 cards after 20 minutes. How many points in the standings is that worth?

I’m so silly. The traditionalist in me keeps thinking that scoring goals is the ultimate “goal” in hockey, and by my count, the Sabres and Canadiens were even after the first period — neither team had lit the red light. But the domination by the Habs on the shot clock, 14-to-3 in the first period, and 41-to-23 overall had to be indicative of something, no?

Ah yes, Ryan Miller in the Buffalo goal.

The most popular phrase after the game to describe Miller’s performance was “he stood on his head.” But when you are on the radio having just landed coverage of the Canadiens games, you have to ramp up the rhetoric. “It was the best goaltending performance in the building since ’96,” said one of the post-game hosts.

I hate to be a contrarian but without much effort I can think of more than a handful of better games by a goaltender in the Bell Centre — last season! With some thought and research…

But, let me try to understand.

What I’m hearing is that this is the best Canadiens team we have had in years, who were just bested, on this night, by a goaltender who played better than anyone else had, in decades! And of course the inference is that this superb team won’t be playing against No. 30 in a Sabres uniform every night. So, cue the Stanley Cup parade.

Somehow this logic starts to break down when one remembers that a certain James Reimer shut out the Habs in the first game of the season, but every theory has exceptions, right? Besides, it was becoming clear to me that I had missed something first time through. So I decided to watch the game again to admire what I’m told was one of the best games of Miller’s career, and the most awesome period of hockey played by a Canadiens team since 2009.

Well, I’m sad to report that my PVR didn’t record that game. Oh sure, I was able to watch the Sabres and Canadiens again, but even on second viewing, I didn’t see the same game that others did.

So here’s my observations.

Ryan Miller played well. A game for the ages? No, not even close. Less than 10 of the 41 shots by the Canadiens came from dangerous scoring areas.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the IceTracker plot of even strength shots on goal by the Canadiens from NHL.com:

Montreal was effective when using their speed to breach the Sabres zone and when pressuring Buffalo puck carriers. The Sabres committed eight turnovers in the first period alone, four by defenseman Tyler Myers. The Canadiens also established a cycle game often winning puck battles on the boards — Lars Eller and Andrei Kostitsyn were two of the best at shedding Buffalo defenders and emerging with possession.

The next natural step should have been quick tape-to-tape passes to create an odd-man situation that the Canadiens could convert into a scoring chance. It didn’t happen. More often than not, a Habs forward was left facing three Buffalo defenders (including the goaltender) leaving Miller to make the easy save.

When the Canadiens created a mismatch, it resulted in their only goal of the game. Kostitsyn strongly carried the puck into the Buffalo zone and knocked down Christian Ehrhoff eliminating him from the play. Max Pacioretty picked up the puck and made a quick pinpoint pass to Raphael Diaz who found himself all alone in front of Miller.

The Man of Steel looked rather ordinary going down and getting beaten by the patience of a NHL rookie.

With just under 13 minutes to play in the second period in the last few seconds of a Montreal power-play, the Canadiens created another situation where they out-manned the opposition. Only Buffalo defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani was back defending two Montreal forwards. Lars Eller got the puck to Tomas Plekanec who found himself all alone with a wide open cage.

With Miller on his belly, Plekanec flipped the puck into the midsection of the sprawling goaltender. Miller is one of the league’s best, but even on the rare occasions when Montreal created a quality opportunity, they made the Buffalo goaltender look good.

Thirty minutes into the game, the Canadiens had a 18-4 advantage in shots but not many dangerous scoring chances. A one-goal lead wouldn’t be enough particularly with the Habs sporting a shaky penalty-kill unit and a propensity for taking far too many minors coming into this game.

But to their credit, Montreal stayed out of the box, and killed off the one short-handed situation they faced. Where special teams would hurt, was with the power-play where the Canadiens went 0-for-5 in the game. Had they been able to convert at the 20 per cent rate they achieved last season, the game would have headed to overtime.

Create an odd-man situation, and more often than not your team will be rewarded. That’s exactly how the Sabres scored their two goals in the second period.

First it was Mathieu Darche with a half-hearted effort waving his stick in the direction of Drew Stafford. The Sabres forward got a shot to the front of the net with Diaz and Hal Gill deciding to both take Tyler Ennis. The botched coverage left Jordan Leopold all alone for Buffalo’s first goal.

The winning goal was a result of a handful of errors by the Canadiens leaving the Sabres most lethal scorer, Thomas Vanek, all alone. David Desharnais lost the draw, Pacioretty and Kostitsyn both went after the same point man, and P.K. Subban lined up deep in the corner effectively eliminating himself from the play. I find it hard to fault Josh Gorges who caused the icing — with a group of tired teammates, he was simply trying to kill the clock, and his chip-shot got away on him.

With all of the confusion, one wonders why coach Jacques Martin didn’t have the foresight to call a timeout and map out the coverage? It was a crucial time of the game with the teams tied and only 5.9 seconds remaining in the second period. It was particularly important knowing that Desharnais is only winning 30 per cent of his faceoffs at even strength.

The Canadiens did a number of things well in this game — using their speed, maintaining puck possession and winning battles — but that’s not enough at the NHL-level. The individual players on the Plekanec and Desharnais lines played very well but they have to be more effective as trios. In addition, more is needed from the Gomez and Engqvist units.

The defense were better but are still working out the kinks — the pairs are not yet comfortable with each other. The Canadiens still need a lot of work in the defensive zone — coverage and breakouts remain problem areas. Passing is dreadful.

Coaching has to be mentioned too — failing to call a timeout to prepare the players just prior to the eventual winning goal was fatal. It’s also clear that the forward lines and defensive pairs could use much more time together to create chemistry. Perhaps training camp could have been used for that and the constant line-shuffling is not helping.

With the Canadiens still winless at the Bell Centre this season, they head off to Pittsburgh where they will face the Penguins on Thursday night.

All Habs game stars
1. Max Pacioretty
2. Tomas Plekanec
3. Raphael Diaz