Habs Dominant in Losses Thus Far...
The Montreal Canadiens lost to the Buffalo Sabres the right way last night.
They
dominated Buffalo in each period, outshooting them 41-23, yet were simply in tough against a Ryan Miller who was in peak form.
With 14, 16 and 11 shots in consecutive periods, the Canadiens were certainly not allowing the Sabres new lineup to get the best of them, yet in what has been the only consistent trend of the new year for the Habs, they faded at the most inopportune moment of the game to allow the Sabres to take advantage, evening the score at 1 following a Travis Moen/Cody McCormick fight.
Though the Leopold goal was a blow to Montreal's efforts, they kept up the pressure.
Sadly, the Habs once again experienced a lapse as Josh Gorges would ice the puck with just under 6 seconds to play in the 2nd period.
While normally 6 seconds is not a prime window to gain the lead, the Sabres used a fabulously constructed faceoff play to set up Tomas Vanek, who - all by himself in front of Carey Price - picked the top right corner to give Buffalo the 2-1 lead with only 2 seconds to play.
Typical of the Canadiens, though their strong play continued, they could not best the opposition's netminder.
Ryan Miller was a rock in making 39 saves for the Sabres and, as Vanek put it, "Ryan stole the two points for us."
While that may have been true, the reality was that it was the Canadiens inability to take advantage of their many opportunities coupled with their penchant for making untimely errors which cost them their first win of the year at home, leaving Carey Price still in search of his 100th career win.
The silver lining in the Canadiens third loss in regulation on the year was that they did not give up in their pursuit of the 2 points.
Those efforts by the Habs to stay in the game are mostly due to the impressive and exciting play of Max Pacioretty. Entering the game in 16th place for shots on goal, Pacioretty once again dominated, firing a game high 9 shots on Ryan Miller. Those 9 shots pushed Max into 2nd place in the NHL with 27 shots, second only to league leading goal scorer James Neal.
With the kind of sustained effort Pacioretty is providing night after night, he has been able to continuously spark his teammates efforts to stay in the game.
Fortunately, while it seems like Pacioretty has been the lone spark thus far, with the return of Michael Cammalleri on the horizon and a return from Spacek not far behind, reinforcements should help get the Habs over the hump.
In dominating opponents, the Habs are playing the right kind of hockey. They just need a little bit of luck to go their way.
With a date in Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Habs are going to need another immense effort if they plan on negating their string of losses. Cammalleri's possible return undoubtedly will aid in those efforts, but Pacioretty will need more than just the return of #13 to get Montreal past the Penguins.
To be fair, the Canadiens are playing the right way, just to the wrong results.
For their sake, the hope is that it won't affect them mentally before they're able to break out of this mini slump.
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