|
Canadiens Drop 5th In A Row, But Youth Trying To Sell Hope... |
|
|
|
|
|
The Canadiens are doing their part to get themselves into a better draft position, and its heartbreaking to watch right now.
The Habs, as I suspected, had no interest in the Colorado game that they ended up losing 2-0 on Valentines Day. Then followed that up the next day with a better effort, but same result against the NHL worst Arizona Coyotes by a score of 5-2 in what might as well be the end of the season for the Canadiens.
The Habs then had a day off before a match up with NHL best Vegas Golden Knights in the City of Sin. With it came surprise starter A Niemi and some questions with that but they were quickly made moot as Niemi ended up being pulled after allowing 3 goals on 6 shots in the first period before being replaced by C Price. SPOILER ALERT: Habs lost their 4th in a row, and 7th of their last 9 games.
The Canadiens came out flat despite Hudon’s ultra slick early goal at 4:32 of the first period as they were trailing 3-1 by 9:51.
Scherbak had a response though at 11:47 with a great deke around Vegas G, MA Fleury. Galchenyuk made a pretty solid lob pass to Scherbak in stride to give him a pretty good path to the net where he stepped around a committed Fleury before calmly bringing the puck around the goalie, below the red line, and back to the front of the net for a beauty of a goal.
Scherbak came to play for sure.
Actually despite the score it seemed like a better effort just both teams minds are in different universes right now. One team is first in the league as an expansion franchise in Las Vegas and are loving life and the other has dealt with basically every kind of adversity you could have in and NHL season and the city and fanbase is melting down a bit.
They were never going to win this game.
But with the destination of non playoffs set, its good to discuss the positive in that Scherbak’s playing as though the season matters and same with Galchenyuk. Drouin had a beauty of a PP goal tonight as well as he walked in off the wall near the point and hammered a shot through Fleury’s glove hand half way through the third on the PP. The goal made the game 6-3 at that point, was Drouin’s 9th on the year, and it should definitely be a shot he uses more often.
The Canadiens and Golden Knights both finished the game with 33 shots and went 1-2 on the PP. Habs actually had edge in Face Offs winning 33 and losing 28, but there are some players who are invested and there are some players who are disappointed, frustrated, and anxious about the trade deadline.
It simply isn’t a good atmosphere for a professional hockey team. It’s not where some of the vets thought they would be I’m sure. I empathize with the difficulty and frustrations that players must be feeling by their current situation. It’s difficult for fans to watch as well especially the ones who are deeply invested in the franchise. It can't be easy to hear all the trade talk after everything that happened so far
I think the Vegas Twitter runners have been pretty hilarious this year despite some who would suggest otherwise. I think the intention of the account is to be fun, joking, and hockey loving and they do that. Anyways…
With the loss the Canadiens fell to within 1 point of 3rd last with Edmonton and Vancouver who each have 50 points to Montreal’s 51. The race to the bottom is on… Draft yada yada yada… Dahlin, Svechnikov, Zadina…. Tavares blah blah…. Not today.
St Louis has been rumored to be actively shopping for scoring… Check out my archived blogs and you will see how perfect trade partners the Habs and Blues would make.
The Habs finish off this road trip Tuesday night in Philadelphia with puck drop at 7 pm EST.
And remember, not all trades have been that bad…
Go Habs Go.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»