Montreal 0 Buffalo 2 (Bell Centre)
MONTREAL, QC.– Much of the press following Sunday’s game in Minnesota focused on individual accomplishments: P.K. Subban’s hat-trick; Ryan White’s first NHL goal and “Gordie Howe” hat-trick; and Benoit Pouliot out of his season-long funk for a period plus one minute to tally three points.
Outstanding personal performances were a nice byproduct of the victory but the real benefit of the Canadiens cruising to an 8-1 shellacking of the Minnesota Wild was to erase from the minds of players and fans, the pitiful effort against the New York Rangers. In that game Carey Price did all he could but was abandoned by his teammates. Montreal was out-skated, outworked, out-muscled & out-coached in the first period — and it was over.
Tuesday night’s game against Buffalo triggered flashbacks from Madison Square Garden. The Sabres skated circles around the Habs beating them to loose pucks and winning battles. How do the Canadiens — a team built on speed — get out-skated at home?
Carey Price was the only player in red who showed up to play. And he was spectacular. It is truly bizarre that the Canadiens skaters could watch their goaltender stand on his head, and not get fired up.
Montreal looked slow, tired and disinterested for most of the game. Disinterested? Win and the Habs had a chance to take over the division lead — wasn’t that motivation enough?
While Buffalo’s Ryan Miller registered a shutout, it might as well been Sienna Miller in the Sabres goal. Unable or unwilling to go to the net, it was a rather tame collection of 31 shots from Canadiens shooters, mostly from the perimeter. Montreal was a no greater threat with the man advantage — the power-play looked disorganized and anemic.
“We started the game well enough but we didn’t go to the net enough to create chances,” coach Jacques Martin said. “We gave [Miller] an easy night.”
A sustained fore-check was non-existent as Habs did polite fly-bys and scampered back to their own zone. Had no one, players or coaches, learned the value of the type of puck pressure game played in Minnesota?
“We gave up a goal and we took too many penalties because we weren’t getting pucks in deep and spent too much time in our zone,” said Martin.
A lack discipline has been a problem all season — the Canadiens have taken the second-most number of minor penalties in the NHL. Does anyone believe that Montreal would continue to be league leaders in that category if Jacques Lemaire, Mike Babcock or Joel Quenneville was behind the Habs bench?
Some will sugar-coat the loss by saying that Buffalo was a hungry team fighting for their playoff lives. New Jersey Devils were also a very desperate team and had won seven of their last ten games going into tonight’s game against the Bruins. Boston dispatched the Devils 4-1.
The Canadiens now have to regroup to get ready for the biggest game of the year on Thursday night at the TD Garden to face the Bruins. They will return home to Montreal to face the Capitals on Saturday for one of their three remaining games at the Bell Centre.
Plus/Minus
▼ It may have been one of the worst games Mike Cammalleri played in a Canadiens uniform. He coasted much of the game and his shots lacked their customary zip. Cammalleri is also hurting the play of linemates Andrei Kostitsyn and Lars Eller. Removing Travis Moen from the Eller – Kostitsyn tandem is yet another example of coach Martin dismantling a line at its peak.
▼ After being the toast of Montreal for his hat trick on Sunday, P.K. Subban hit a rough patch tonight. He had a penalty in the first period and his mistake forced Hal Gill into taking another. Nathan Gerbe stole the puck from Subban and scored the empty-netter to seal the victory for the Sabres.
▼ David Desharnais was on the ice for both Buffalo goals and finished the game a team-worst minus-2.
▼ Coach Martin’s attachment to Alexandre Picard is perplexing. Picard was caught out of position, made bad reads and was a dreadful choice for power-play duty. What Picard was doing on the ice in the final two minutes with the Habs trailing by a goal is anyone’s guess?
All Habs game stars
1. Carey Price
2. Carey Price
3. Carey Price
Roster notes
Yannick Weber was a healthy scratch. Tomas Plekanec, Jeff Halpern, Brent Sopel, Max Pacioretty, Mathieu Darche and Jaroslav Spacek were out with injuries. Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges are out for the season with a knee injuries.