Habs News: Rivalry Matchups, Byron Taking Responsibility, Moving Niemi, Kotkaniemi at Skills
by Chris G, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens collected six of the possible eight points in the standings this week. On Monday night, Jeff Petry scored the overtime winner as the Habs beat the Bruins by a score of 3-2 in Boston. The following night, Montreal beat another division rival as they won against Florida by a score of 5-1. On Friday night, the Canadiens beat the Blue Jackets by a score of 4-1, before Philadelphia snapped Montreal’s four game win streak with a 5-2 win.
On Sunday, 12,000 fans in Montreal braved the snow storm to go watch the team’s skill competitions at the Bell Centre. Paul Byron (fastest skater), Tomas Tatar (accuracy), Shea Weber (hardest shot), and Joel Armia (long distance accuracy) won the individual events.
It will be a quiet week for the Canadiens as they play just once this week. The Arizona Coyotes visit the Bell Centre before the Habs head to the All-Star break and then their bye week.
My top-5 Canadiens takes of the week
Division Rivalries
Monday night’s game against the Bruins was a typical rivalry matchup between these two teams. It was a back-and-forth game that was settled in overtime featuring good goaltending and a fight between Nicolas Deslauriers and Kevan Miller. These are all elements that have made the Habs-Bruins rivalry, a classic in hockey for all these years.
The only chance for fans to see these two teams tangle again this season is if they meet in the playoffs. They are done for the remainder of the regular season.
With a 32nd team joining the NHL, the league should take the opportunity to review the schedule format. If they maintain the current format, Montreal would face Seattle two times in a season, therefore two games against division or conference teams would need to be removed.
My suggestion would be that teams play more games against teams in their division and conference and a rotation can be implemented for teams in the other conference, similar to what is in place currently in the NFL.
Byron Suspension
Paul Byron was suspended three games by the Department of Players Safety for his skates coming off the ice to deliver a hit on MacKenzie Weegar during Tuesday night’s game against the Florida Panthers.
I think the suspension was deserved and three games is a fair amount. I was expecting two games but I have no issue with a third game being added.
I do have an issue with the fans that were at the Bell Centre for that game. The fans were booing very loudly that Byron was assessed a minor penalty on that play. I can certainly understand that they didn’t see the hit closely as it happened live, but the fans were were showing displeasure even after it was shown on the scoreboard in slow motion.
If an opponent made the same hit to a Canadiens player, fans would be asking for a suspension.
Byron and Julien’s response
After his suspension was announced, Byron posted a public apology to Weegar on his Twitter account. He added, “Despite the lack of intention, I have to accept responsibility for my hit and realize the result of the hit was to the head and caused injury.” I don’t think that anyone including Weegar thought that the hit was intentional but it’s nice to see a player owning up to his actions. It’s not something that we see often in the NHL.
— Paul Byron (@jpbyron89) January 16, 2019
In his next media scrum, Claude Julien also agreed with the league’s decision. When is the last time that we have seen such class by an organization following a suspension?
I’m pleased that we didn’t hear the typical “no comment” or “it was too harsh” responses by Byron and Julien.
Niemi’s Two Starts
In last week’s Take 5, I wrote that I was expecting Antti Niemi to play on Friday night against Columbus and Carey Price to get the other three starts. The coaching staff had a different plan.
If you didn’t watch the game and just looked at the score, you would think that Montreal dominated in the 5-1 victory against Florida on Tuesday night. But the fact is that Niemi was the reason his team won as he made 52 saves, one shy from tying Price’s and Wayne Thomas’ franchise record. The Panthers had more scoring chances than the Habs in that game.
On Saturday, Niemi allowed four goals on 23 shots, but I wouldn’t pin the loss to him. The team in front of him stopped playing for the final two periods.
Earlier in the season, I wrote that Niemi wasn’t giving his team a chance to win when he was in goal. The last couple of games he has, just like a backup goalie is supposed to. With Niemi becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, it might be a good idea for Marc Bergevin to try move him before the deadline and get anything he can in return.
Bowman praises Kotkaniemi
In an interview with NHL.com, Scotty Bowman gave some high praise to 18-year-old Jesperi Kotkaniemi. “I saw Jean Béliveau with Victoriaville juniors at age 16. No one compares to Jean but Kotkaniemi, at 18, has a lot of Jean’s characteristics in his game. When he’s about 22, he’ll be a No. 1 centre for Montreal.”
Bowman wasn’t implying that Kotkaniemi would score 507 goals in his career. He’s impressed by his poise at a young age, along with his puck sense, vision of the ice and his joy of the game.
Le kid a du talent.
The kid's got skills.#GoHabsGo @taikinajalka @RONAinc pic.twitter.com/2XWGoGYneA
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 20, 2019
Kotkaniemi is a very talented player and highly skilled. Check out his shootout goal during Sunday’s skill competition. He’s exceeded my expectations and I think he will become a dominant player in a few years after he gains some more experience and gains muscle mass.
He has a great personality and is someone that you attach yourself too. He loves to play hockey, and he’s always smiling.
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