I can promise you the coaches didn't draw it up that way, but the product of that was one of the most exciting hockey games of the year, as Montreal bested Pittsburgh 6-5 in a shootout. Peter Budaj and Marc-Andre Fleury struggled infinitely throughout the game, but Budaj came up huge in the shootout, stopping James Neal, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, while David Desharnais took care of business with a beautiful goal on Fleury to seal the deal.
The game featured several defensive breakdowns that led to wild momentum swings, and some costly penalties from both sides led to goals. P.K. Subban took a couple of those penalties and lost the trust of his coach when he got caught late on a powerplay shift and coughed up a puck that led to a Brandon Sutter breakaway goal to put the Penguins up 4-3. Luckily for Subban, the Canadiens stormed right back down the ice, and Alexei Emelin evened the score on the remaining 20 seconds of the powerplay.
The Penguins put their powerplay to work shortly after, making it 5-4, before Tanner Glass charged Emelin in the neutral zone to deliver what would've been a severe headshot. At the last second, Emelin put his gloves up to defend himself, and Glass' follow through on the high hit knocked Emelin's gloves into his own face. Glass was ejected from the game, and the Canadiens scored a huge goal on the powerplay to tie things up at five.
Daniel Briere scored two clutch goals for the Canadiens, and after his first one, Subban, Markov, Desharnais and Pacioretty connected on what might have been the nicest goal of the Canadiens' season.
With that, the Habs return to Montreal to face the Toronto Maple Leafs who dropped 5-4 in overtime to the New York Islanders last night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost 3-2 in regulation to the Nashville Predators, and the Ottawa Senators were pounded 6-1 by the visiting Red Wings.
Montreal is currently two points up on the Lightning, having played two more games than Tampa has. They stand alone in second place in the Atlantic division, six points back of a Bruins team that holds three games in hand. The Leafs are two points back having played the same amount of games as Montreal has. Detroit is five back with a game in hand. And Ottawa is now 10 points behind Montreal with a game in hand. **************
1) Michel Therrien can blame Subban for such a terrible defensive lapse, but he's certainly not blaming himself. In the third period, with the game tied at three, Subban's on for a decently long shift when he draws a slashing penalty on Malkin. They go on the powerplay for a solid minute and get a whistle in the zone. Therrien had a chance to rest his best players right then and there with a timeout, but opted not to take one. But he wanted Subban to stay on the ice. Subban had a couple of chances to get back on the bench but kept pressing the envelope.
Subban was fully at fault for forcing the play and giving the puck up. His effort on the backcheck was nil. These are valid reasons for Therrien to staple Subban to the bench.
To staple Subban to the bench in overtime, against the best shootout team in the NHL, is hard to understand.
No shifts for Alex Galchenyuk at 4-on-4, hard to understand.
No shifts for Daniel Briere at 4-on-4, who was excellent in this game, hard to understand.
2) I don't care if it's a Canadiens player, or a player from any other team, I thought the decision to give Glass a five minute major was the right one. He was headhunting, his headhunting still led to a headshot, even if it was Emelin's glove instead of Glass' shoulder that did the final damage--as far as I'm concerned, Emelin defending himself only minimized the damage. If Glass had followed through unimpeded, this would likely be suspension-worthy. He still followed through, otherwise Emelin's glove/stick wouldn't have connected with his own face.
3) David Desharnais--this guy is playing fantastic hockey.
One assist in his first 19 games. Desharnais now has 33 points in his last 39 games, and he scores in the shootout, practically at will.
4) The struggle of Lars Eller's career is happening right now. The coach did a couple of things to try to boost his confidence, like putting him in the shootout, as he had gone 3 for 3 coming into the game. Shame he couldn't put the puck in, but Fleury made an awesome save there.
Eller also got a shift in overtime, and he was instrumental in screening Fleury on Emelin's game-tying goal.
5) Obviously, the hope is that Carey Price is feeling good enough to go on Saturday. Here's the thing: The Habs won't practice today. And a morning skate isn't likely to be enough to green-light him for Saturday's game. But, if he did play, it probably wouldn't be Therrien's most questionable decision in recent memory.