There is no denying it, this was one weird game. The first 11 power plays went to Carolina then one was awarded to Montreal. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it until the day I die: NHL referees are the worst in any sport. I’ve talked in the past about the interference penalty and honestly when I heard the whistle as Kovalev was going to the net, I was thinking “Finally! Someone will call the interference on Tanguay”. But no. This wasn’t called. Tanguay closing his legs on Gleason was what the referee was calling. The fact that Gleason pushed Tanguay to the ground as he was simply going forward, at least two full seconds after the left the puck to Kovalev didn’t seem to matter all that much.
Don’t get me wrong. Tanguay, and most of the other penalties called against the Habs, were fully deserved. But the lack of rigidity on certain rules are killing me. It’s one thing to miss a call, not to see the action but in Tanguay’s case, he was right in the action and it should have been called. As much as the high stick on Lapierre with about 8 minutes to go in the third. But no, by then the refs forgot they even had whistles.
But back to the game it self and the players. All things considered, the Canadiens managed to pull off a good game and keep it close despite the many penalties called against them. 22 minutes in the first two periods should have killed any momentum but instead, they worked well trying to make things happen.
From the fifth minute to the tenth, the Tricolore had to play shorthanded and while they managed to kill the first two of Carolina’s powerplay, they failed on the third with Hamerlik drifting back towards his net instead of skating hard to check Staal who was left alone right next to the post and was the beneficiary of a perfect play from Sergei Samsonov. But for the following five minutes it was Montreal’s game as they controlled the puck and were able to create chances before the momentum was killed by, you guessed it, two consecutive penalties. On the second one, Stall scored from the exact same spot on a very similar goal when the puck deflected on his skate. After one period, the Habs were trailing by two.
In the second period, the referees were even more active as they called 6 penalties on the Habs players but even at that, Montreal was able to tie the game. Latendresse was awarded a penalty shot and made a great shot that took Cam Ward by surprise. A minute later, during another Habs penalty kill, Kovalev forced Cam Ward to freeze the puck and on the following faceoff, Lang won it cleanly and Kovalev immediately sent the puck to the net, top corner as Cam Ward was, again, surprised. Finally two of the slumping players scored. Now if Plek and Tanguay can follow.
But even with a penalty killing that was doing a good job, the Canadiens couldn’t keep it up during a 5 on 3 late in the second period when the Hurricanes scored the winning goal. Ryan O’Byrne was penalized seconds before that as Hamerlik was already in the box for an ugly boarding that only got him a minor. Hammer was also in the box for the second goal and as I already said, he played very softly on the opening goal. A bad game for the most consistent defensive pillar of the Habs the past year and a half.
But I want to leave you with some positive to keep from that game. Let’s talk again about faceoffs: Robert Lang won a couple of very important ones and Maxime Lapierre was gorgeous winning 12 of his 16. Plekanec won 50% of his but was very solid during his penalty killing time. Francis Bouillon also was solid playing nearly 9 minutes of PK. Also Jaroslav Halak was solid all game long even stealing a goal on a superb glove save in 3rd period.
Mike Komisarek could be back for next game and Carey Price could be back on the ice as early as tomorrow. This could boost up morale after a depressing loss.
And let’s be honest, the Habs will need all the help they can get as the Flyers are coming to town on Thursday.