Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien deserves most of the credit for last night’s win over the New Jersey Devils. After his team offered up a very poor first thirty minutes of play (as though they were the ones celebrating Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner the previous night), Therrien resorted back to his old tricks of line-shuffling in order to whip his players. Down 2-0 until nearly the end of the second period, the Habs put on a sloppy display while facing a team with an inferior overall record. Granted, Cory Schneider had his say in performing a few miraculous saves to keep the Devils in the game, but Therrien knew something eventually had to give.
He moved Alex Galchenyuk to the right of Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty, and Brian Flynn would center Lars Eller and Sven Andrighetto. Being the gambler that he is, Therrien took a chance on dismantling two trios that were clicking for the past few games, while keeping certain duos intact to nevertheless ensure that the entire chemistry was not tampered with. As his track record has gone to show, these roll of the dice types of calls often pay dividends, and both Andrighetto and Galchenyuk would spark the Habs’ comeback shootout win with two beautiful goals.
As mentioned in previous blogs, Andrighetto should keep playing on the right of Eller and Galchenyuk, especially since the latter has been revived in the last three games by posting three goals. Andrighetto has two goals in his last two outings, and Devante Smith-Pelly was doing well for himself by tripling his season totals in a single game last Wednesday.
By that logic, and based on what we saw last night, shouldn’t Therrien opt to keep his new lines intact? I personally do not believe so, because Galchenyuk needs to be playing at center and Smith-Pelly can clearly provide some offense when given a suitable opportunity. Shuffling his lines yesterday had nothing to do with a lack of chemistry or team spirit, but was instead a tactic to wake up his troops.
Tonight, the Habs will host the Devils at the Bell Centre, and no lineup changes are expected. Should the Bleu Blanc et Rouge secure a fifth consecutive victory tonight, it would be their best string of wins since their 9-0 start earlier this year. Doing so without Carey Price in net and without Brendan Gallagher, who are arguably the two biggest leaders on this team, will go to show that this club is well-prepared in the face of adversity and boasts enough depth that they would not need to worry about any of these types of challenges or obstacles to overcome.
It’s clear that their eyes are on the prize this year, with Marc Bergevin supposedly aggressively working the phones to add one to two more key elements in order to make a push for a Stanley Cup victory within the next two years. Perhaps it is time for him to consider bringing in an experienced, veteran goaltender who can backup Price come springtime. Condon continues to do an excellent job, granted, but might not have the mileage in him to go the distance.
After all, let’s face it: I’m not exactly sure Bud Holloway is necessarily the answer to the Gallagher, Semin and Mitchell injuries. He looked slow and slightly out of place, and I expected him to perform better in his NHL debut. In other news, Price is apparently set to be out of the lineup for a month. You’ll recall that in my last blog, I mentioned that he will be out for the foreseeable future and should be placed on the injured reserve, regardless of the reports that were stating with certainty that he would only miss a week.
Whether the time period is accurate or not, he should not be rushed back into the lineup. It’s not like the Habs do not look the same without him to backstop the opposition.
Check back in tomorrow for my recap of the month of November in English and in French.