Habs Beat The Blue Jackets 2-1, Strange Calls & Missed Calls, Props & Flops (Byron)

Byron

Habs Beat The Blue Jackets 2-1, Strange Calls & Missed Calls, Props & Flops

By Jennifer B Cutler

Dec 2, 2015 • 12:00 pm

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In what proved to be a hard fought game, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night. The Canadiens got on the scoreboard early when Paul Byron scored his first goal in 11 games. Byron charged to the net with an impressive burst of speed and was ready for Christian Thomas’ pass. Towards the end of the period though it looked like the Canadiens were going to let the game slip away as they let their opponent score a goal after the Canadiens centreman had won the defensive zone faceoff for the second game in a row. David Desharnais cleanly won the faceoff but P.K. Subban missed his assignment and Mike Condon got caught out of position and tangled with Andrei Markov. 30 seconds after the Columbus goal Alexei Emelin misjudged the play and hit Matt Calvert late, earning a 5 minute major and game misconduct. Fortunately, the Canadiens special teams were up to the task and successfully defended the major penalty. Columbus went on to play a tight road hockey game and tried to stifle the Canadiens. Michel Therrien finally decided to break up his lines in an effort to get some offence going and it proved to be the right move as the Canadiens and Max Pacioretty scored the winning goal on a powerplay, late in the third period.

Props & Flops:

Props:

Mike Condon - Condon allowed only one goal on 21 shots to backstop the Canadiens to the win. He looked confident and strong in the crease. His positioning for the most part was spot on, except on the Blue Jackets first and only goal in which he got slightly caught up with Andrei Markov and could not properly slide to the other side of the crease to stop Foligno. Otherwise Condon played a good game despite some miscues with the puck. What is encouraging is that Condon was not completely satisfied with his game and admitted the need to work on his puck-handling skills. Fortunately he has goaltender guru Stephane Waite to help him out with that…

Nathan Beaulieu - He was already playing a strong game in the 1st half of the game, contributing with an assist on the Paul Byron goal and playing sound hockey. Beaulieu is a bit of an old school player in that he has no problem dropping the gloves to stick up for a teammate. He believes in respect and that is commendable. The Foligno knee on knee to Fleischmann was dirty and even though he wasn’t injured, there is no room in the game for that. While I’m not a huge fan or advocate of fighting, I do give props to Beaulieu for defending Fleischmann. However, with Emelin already out of the game, it should not have been Beaulieu’s fight… A forward should have stepped up to challenge Foligno.

Flop:

NHL referees - Around the league it was not a good night for NHL referees. In this game alone there was no consistency. Alexei Emelin was deserving of a penalty for his late hit on Matt Calvert. The puck was nowhere near Calvert and it was clearly interference. You could argue that Emelin was anticipating that Calvert would receive the pass and planned on hitting him. However, that play never unfolded and Emelin clearly had time to adjust his course of action but did not. Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella asked the referees for a double minor penalty, instead they gave Emelin a 5 minute major and game misconduct. While it did look good for Calvert, he ended up getting the wind knocked out of him and stayed in the game. Nor did he go to the black room. You be the judge on the call:

Now I am all for getting late hits and close shots to the head out of the game. But there has to be consistency by the referees if they are going to call this a major and misconduct. Compare the play with this one from the Flyers/Senators game tonight:

The referees did not call a penalty on Gudas for what was clearly a hit to the head, the hit was not as late as Emelin’s and Zibanejad was injured on the play. Nor did the referees call Foligno for the knee on knee on Fleischmann that led to Beaulieu standing up for his teammate. There is no doubt in my mind that The Department of Player Safety and NHL referees both have a failing grade thus far in the 2015-2016 season in terms of consistency and the message that they are sending.

Props:

Max Pacioretty - The Captain said that the team had to step and he led by example scoring the winning goal on a late powerplay. Pacioretty also had 4 shots on net, 1 blocked shot and 2 takeaways. Pacioretty and Plekanec were not in sync anymore without Gallagher on their right side and so Therrien elected to reunite him with Desharnais and Weise. It worked against Columbus and we’ll see if this line continues into the next game against the Washington Capitals.

Michel Therrien - It was Therrien’s 700th NHL game as a head coach and so props to Therrien on this big accomplishment. Last night he earned his 356th career win and few would have guessed that he would have lasted this long in his second stint with the Canadiens. Therrien has adapted to the NHL and its players as well as evolved as a coach. It took him 26 games to pull out his trusty old blender in an attempt to get some offence going last night against Columbus and he did it at the opportune time. If Therrien is able to keep up this up, he should receive serious Jack Adams consideration at the end of the season.

Flops

NHL protocol - After Foligno knocked out Beaulieu in their tilt, the Canadiens should have taken extra precaution to have him go through the concussion testing immediately. Therrien said it didn’t make a difference if Beaulieu sat in the penalty box for 5 minutes or if he sat in the black room. Perhaps Therrien didn’t want to lose one of his penalty killers as someone else that was on the ice would have had to take Beaulieu’s place in the box The NHL made a big deal about their new spotter system at NHL games. It should have been their responsibility to make sure that Beaulieu was okay. During Therrien’s conference we learnt that Beaulieu did go through the protocol during the 2nd intermission and was deemed fine to play. He went on to say that Beaulieu played “... a hell of a 3rd period…. Habs fans breathed a collective sigh of relief as the team cannot really afford another injury to a player. Even better news, Beaulieu is at practice today and appears fine. I do not want to question the integrity of the Canadiens medical staff. However, if the NHL is serious about doing everything it can to protect its players, what are the spotters for if they don’t question these types of incidents?

I also wonder if a teammate would speak up if they felt a player on the bench needed extra attention or if there is a code of sorts. It seems that most of the Canadiens felt that Beaulieu was fine right away. Perhaps at ice level they had a different perspective…

Neither Here Nor There:

P.K. Subban backed up his words and played for the most part an excellent game against Columbus. Yes he blew his coverage on the Blue Jackets goal. However he recovered from his error and played a team high 29:46 minutes, playing extra minutes due to Emelin’s ejection and Beaulieu’s major penalty. Subban stepped up as well on special teams, leading on the power play and penalty kill.

Andrei Markov played 24:25 minutes last night and got caught up with Condon on the Foligno goal. While he had 4 blocked shots, he also had 3 giveaways. Markov started off the season absolutely flying but he play has tailed off as of late. Would it be so wrong to consider playing Beaulieu with Subban, at least on the occasional shift? Or instead of playing Markov so long on the power play, let Petry or Beaulieu get some additional time in? It also gives the Canadiens a little less predictability when Markov is not always with Subban,...

By the end of the night, the Canadiens Trios looked like:

Pacioretty-Desharnais-Weise Eller-Galchenyuk-Andrighetto Fleischmann-Plekanec-Byron Smith-Pelly-Flynn-Thomas

The Galchenyuk line was the only one that was creating opportunities on a consistent basis throughout the game and so Therrien kept the line intact. The familiarity and past success of Pacioretty and Desharnais made it easy for Therrien to reunite them and Weise has played with that duo before. While Byron did score the opening goal, it was off a great feed by Thomas. Fleischmann and Plekanec need a shooter if they are going to play together and Thomas would have been a better fit there in my opinion. That way Smith-Pelly could have gone back to his natural right side and with Byron on the left of Flynn. The question will be how Therrien decides to use his lines Thursday night against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals...

Finally, it is the one year anniversary of Le Gros Bill, Jean Beliveau's death. The man who was larger than life and a hero to many, on and off the ice. Please take a moment to remember the Canadiens greatest captain and also read this wonderful piece by Dave Stubbs and his interview with Mme Elise Beliveau:

Cheers & Follow Along!

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