The breakouts, the break ins, the speed, the interceptions, the great passes, the great shots, the great saves, the whistles, the occasional shoving matches; these are the monotonous staples of your average hockey game.
It's when the emotion comes up a level, when the breakouts avoid big hits, the break ins become heavier, the speed ramps up, the interceptors are on high alert, the great passes stand out more because there's less space, the great shots meet greater saves and the shoving becomes punching that we get the hockey we're accustomed to loving. Playoff-type hockey.
It was playoff hockey at Madison Square Garden last night between two of the Eastern Conference's best teams. If not for Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist, it would've been a barn burner. But this game wasn't just about two world class goaltenders, even though it was eventually settled by a single goal.
From the minute Marc Staal took an extra swipe at a frozen puck in the first period, and Brendan Gallagher responded by
mugging his much bigger opponent in front of the net, you knew there was an emotional investment in this game that you don't see in your average regular season scuffle.
P.K. Subban and Chris Krieder exchanged hostilities. Brandon Prust and Tanner Glass had an elastic tilt, stretching the limits of a typical NHL fight. And Lars Eller punched his way to the penalty box as time extinguished the electricity of the first period.
As Price and Lundqvist tightened the screws on the goaltending battle, the teams warred over the neutral zone, neither willing to concede the quality that could break the game open in the second period.
Both teams exchanged powerplays in the second period, with the Canadiens drawing an extra one on Dominic Moore's holding Alex Galchenyuk near the end boards, but neither cracked the proverbial goose egg.
With the game at stake in the third, the tension mounted, and then a simple play by Dale Weise and Max Pacioretty burst the balloon in shocking fashion. It was a rare occasion that the Canadiens be given a free pass over the opposing blue line, and Pacioretty was given the time to let go of his patented, heavy wrist shot.
Lundqvist was deflated. The goaltender--who had made brilliant seem ordinary throughout the game--got caught distracted. Pacioretty used Ryan McDonagh as a decoy, and the long shot worked its way through Lundqvist, whose reaction was to posthumously squeeze his arm to his body, longing for the comfort of feeling the puck that had slipped by him.
The goal shocked the life out of the game. The Rangers were left scrambling for a chance at redemption with 4:17 remaining, but several successive game stoppages disrupted the rhythm, and the Canadiens forced their way out of a long defensive shift and an icing conundrum before inevitably closing out the game in New York's end. A couple of missed empty nets to officially make the outcome irredeemable for the Rangers didn't cost the Canadiens in the end.
The complexion of the game may have changed dramatically had official Steve Kozari called Weise's first period shot off Lundqvist's buried pad a goal in real time. Kozari waived it off, and a video review proved inconclusive. It was one of those rare instances that a call either way would've been irreversible.
Weise and the Canadiens shook off their misfortune and soldiered on to one of their most impressive wins of the year. They controlled play in all three periods, and Price came up with the goods--he also came up with the spectacular--when the team needed him to.
It was the 28th shutout of Price's career; the Canadiens fourth straight win, making them the hottest team in the league; two points cementing the best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference (65 points in 47 games), placing them a point behind the conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning with three games in hand.
It was a statement game...
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1) I always get a kick out of the player who tells us he doesn't read the papers, listen to the radio or watch the talking heads on television. That player faces the questions, and has to have a pretty keen sense of how his answers will shape the stories he supposedly ignores.
How many of the Canadiens do you think have been ignoring all the questions regarding the team relying too much on Carey Price?
Do you think Therrien ignored it on Tuesday?
After two games on their heels against Nashville and Dallas, they were prepared to invest in the effort required to out-play a formidable opponent in the Rangers.
Here's what Therrien told the press in New York last night:
"We were engaged in the game. We were pressing with and without the puck. By doing that you take a lot of time and space away from the other team. This is something we discussed before the game, that we've got to get back to the things we used to do, play a tight checking game."
2. I think Dale Weise had an impending sense of the criticism he'd face for another pointless night on the line he's currently on, especially after being blanked by Nashville and Dallas. He's worked his entire hockey career proving to people that he can do more than they assume of him. But if he doesn't produce, his place on that line falls subject to much harsher scrutiny than it already faces.
Weise kept the dogs at bay for one more night with his performance in New York. I thought his shot was in Lundqvist's net, just at the very initial point of contact with Lundqvist's pad. He took an assist on an unconventional goal, but he deserved the point.
Weise had several quality chances and set up a couple too.
3. Marc Bergevin intervened earlier this year to keep Bourque and Moen out of Sekac and Bournival's spots on this team.
Right now, Weise's use on the top line reads as a message from Therrien to Bergevin. It's a not-so-subtle lobby for a scoring winger.
Nothing in Therrien's history suggests he'll give a rookie like Jiri Sekac a crack there, even if it means a short-term influx of scoring. Hard to imagine Therrien seeing Sekac as a long-term solution in that role for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Same way--regardless of what his critics would have you believe--it's hard to imagine him seeing Weise as anything more than a message to his general manager.
The benefit to Weise is that he's proven consistently to be above a fourth line role.
3. Seems we've spent so much time talking about P.K. Subban's fallacies without sparing much time to commend him for his defensive enlightenment.
For three straight games, Subban's been a rock in his own zone, in all situations, and a terrifying offensive threat at key moments of the game. He played over 29 minutes against Nashville, over 28 against Dallas, and over 25 in New York. He played excellently.
4. Last night might have been the strongest night for Montreal's defense corps as a whole since their dominant performance over Vancouver in December.
Tom Gilbert and Alexei Emelin were on the right side of the puck all night, clearing bodies, making plays, and not giving up too many chances as they customarily do.
Sergei Gonchar and Nathan Beaulieu faced some really hard shifts in this game, and they battled, even when they got beat a couple of times. They competed, and they met adversity head on.
A word already spent on Subban, what can you say about the consistent brilliance of Markov? He's a fine wine.
5. The possession game was impressive from the Canadiens, no doubt. This was a necessary response to some ugly performances of late.
Here's what was most impressive:
The last three shifts of the hockey game. Those were desperate, determined, playoff-focused like shifts. Price faced a chance or two, but none of them goal-worthy. The Habs cleared the zone, and when they got hemmed in, they didn't panic, they just eliminated the middle of the ice.
Think of Brandon Prust's rush up the ice after getting caught on a very long shift. He burned his own candle out knowing it was his last shift of the game. It was like watching him push a car in neutral after it had run out of gas.
Think of the defensive effort from Pacioretty and Plekanec after the former missed a chance at relief with a miss on an empty net.
Those efforts build character and momentum.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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