1) Maybe the fact that Montreal stumbled into first in the NHL with a loss last night makes it acceptable to look at the bigger picture, rather than agonize over a single game in which they were fully dominated by an opponent they've struggled mightily against since the beginning of the season.
Nah...The Canadiens stumbled hard against a team that has their number, or you can buy into Michel Therrien's excuse; that hockey cliche about the first game back from a long road trip in a different time zone...
Perhaps the next two games against Tampa will be more indicative of how these teams stack up against one another.
As for this one, the Lightning had a 75-38 shot attempt advantage, and that 1-0 win in overtime was an ironclad case for why Carey Price is going to add the Hart Memorial Trophy to the Vezina he's already wrapped up for this year.
2) We focus so much on shot attempts these days that we tend to ignore pass attempts. The Canadiens couldn't connect a pass last night, and they spent too much of their time in the game not even trying to.
Therrien's system is all about getting the puck out of the zone as quickly as possible. Efficiency doesn't exactly factor in. But, the inefficiency in the neutral zone is going to kill a team that prides itself on counterattacking.
The Canadiens tossed pucks away in the neutral zone, all night long.
Give Tampa some credit on this. Their backcheck was phenomenal, allowing their defenders to stand up at their own blueline. Their pursuit of the puck in both zones was extremely efficient.
3) Here's P.A. Parenteau's agent, Allan Walsh, shooting from the hip on Twitter after last night's game: "Montreal is goal starved and PA Parenteau with 196 pts over the previous 4 NHL seasons is a healthy scratch."
Hockey fans worry that this type of thing might be more detrimental to the player in question than it is helpful.
Let me ask you all something: What are the Canadiens going to do about it, scratch Parenteau?
Walsh sat on his hands and zipped his lips when his 22-year-old client, who chose Montreal over 11 other teams was scratched for seven straight games at the beginning of the season. He kept it shut while Sekac bounced out of the lineup before eventually being traded for a less talented player. In his weekly segment with Mitch Melnick on TSN690, Walsh said that he and Sekac never, ever asked for a trade out of Montreal and that none of this would stand in the way of him doing business with the Canadiens.
But this is different.
Walsh's job is to prop up his client no matter what. And yes, he seems to be on an island when it comes to speaking publicly about a tough situation one of his clients is in, but that's how he conducts his business.
Walsh is obviously less concerned with making friends in management than he is with defending his players.
Parenteau had a job with the Canadiens until he suffered a concussion. He returned too early from the injury, and after finally putting it behind him, he was scratched.
Therrien gave him a shot after the deadline--some 10 minutes on the team's fourth line in a laugher against San Jose--and then scratched him for every game since.
Montreal has scored six goals in their last five games. Parenteau may be having a rough season, but he's not going to turn it around from press row. And the Canadiens aren't going to find some magical solution to their scoring woes without him.
Parenteau was brought to Montreal to contribute scoring. His agent spoke up, not only to try and get him that opportunity, but also to give him the confidence to run with it.
4) A lot of people had it out for Tom Gilbert after Tyler Johnson danced through him, eventually banking the puck off his skate for the game-winning goal.
Gilbert and Jeff Petry had a very strong performance in the game. It was a skillful play that opened up the chance Johnson created, and the bank shot was purely bad luck.
5) Brian Wilde of CTV Montreal mentioned on Twitter yesterday that it makes the most sense to go with size up the middle, especially after David Desharnais showed what he could do on the wing earlier this year.
Aside from Therrien's system, the biggest limitation to improving the team's possession game is how they're composed up the middle.
Wilde suggests Galchenyuk, Plekanec, Eller and De La Rose give Montreal the best combination. I agree wholeheartedly.
The last time the Canadiens went through this kind of scoring drought over a stretch of games, some drastic changes were made. Could some major changes be on the way this time around?