Boring--would be the appropriate adjective to describe the hockey game between the Canadiens and Flames at the Bell Centre last night, but Habs fans shouldn't complain about their team coming out on the right side of it.
Carey Price delivered his fourth shutout of the season--the 23rd of his career, allowing him to surpass Jose Theodore on the list of great Canadiens goaltenders with the most shutouts in franchise history.
Price, who's been the subject of ignorant analysis of late--taking heat for sub-par statistics during a streak of terrible defensive play for the team in front of him--has been rather remarkable in games in which his team fails to record more than two goals. With points in 10 of 23 games in that scenario (7 wins), he's easily justified coach Michel Therrien's suggestion that Price has given the team a chance to win every game he's played.
On this night, Price didn't have to be spectacular. For the first time in six games, the Canadiens allowed less than 34 shots against, and limited the scoring chances to practically nil.
In the second period, Douglas Murray, Josh Gorges, Brandon Prust and Brian Gionta worked their magic, splitting time on a near-full two minute 5-on-3 powerplay for the Flames, with Murray blocking two big shots. The Canadiens never looked back.
Lars Eller managed his first point in 15 games, dishing one to Brandon Prust, who neatly banked a puck off Rene Bourque, who found himself in the right place at the right time.
David Desharnais added an empty-netter with the Canadiens on the powerplay towards the end of the game, care of a Mike Cammalleri's most implicated moment of the game--a lazy hook on former linemate Tomas Plekanec.
In his first action with the Canadiens, Dale Weise got a pretty good shake next to Ryan White and Michael Bournival. All three members of the line played at least 11 and a half minutes in the game, supplying much-needed energy to the building. White, playing for the first time in three weeks after an upper-body injury, managed a career high six shots on goal. *******************
1) Numbers for Price on the season:
17-4-2 when his team scores three or more goals.
7-13-3 when his team scores two or less.
2) For a team that's had so much trouble scoring; a team that lacks depth up front; a team that was playing with three lines for the most part--even after they were admittedly exhausted when things started to really turn south through January--it sure makes a huge difference to be able to balance out the minutes the way Therrien did last night.
One can only hope Dale Weise's energy wasn't just the adrenaline of showing his stuff in his first game with a new team. One can only hope Ryan White can continue to bring that kind of jam to the team. Once can only hope these two stick with Bournival to provide the Canadiens what they haven't been able to rely on as often as they would like--depth.
Travis Moen's out right now with a lower-body injury, and there's no question he can continue to help the team. But the speed quotient on this new line for the Canadiens clearly made a difference, and I suspect if they can keep it up, it'll pay dividends for the players that are higher up in the lineup.
3) It was a painfully boring game, despite a first period that elapsed in just half an hour; a period with barely any stoppages in play. That said, either the Flames (red-hot, coming in having won five straight against some quality opponents) couldn't generate anything, or the Canadiens actually took away all their opportunities.
You'd have liked to have seen the Habs jump down Calgary's throat with the game largely in their control, and yet, they couldn't seem to manufacture the confidence to do it. That's life as a team struggling to find a semblance of consistency and good play.
Perhaps it'll come more naturally to the Canadiens to grab the bull by the horns against a Vancouver team that's lost five straight-- finding the net with even less frequency than Montreal over that terrible streak.
4) I was listening to Brian Wilde on TSN 690 yesterday and he said something very smart (he usually does). I'll paraphrase: He said the Habs got all they could for Diaz at the time they traded him.
He's right.
If the Canadiens had traded Diaz when he was on top of his game, instead of after he was a healthy scratch for two weeks, they'd have garnered some real value in the deal.
Even so, they took a player that fits into their roster, and they removed one that doesn't. It's certainly not a win, but it's not a loss either. In all reality, it's a deal that involved two fringe players for their respective teams; players that will welcome a fresh opportunity to prove they are more than that. Both Diaz (scored his first goal of the year last night, in Boston) and Weise were solid in their debuts.
5) I believe that if Michel Therrien allows Daniel Briere to play more games with Plekanec and Gionta--regardless of no production in the last two they've played together--he's going to like the results.
There's undeniable chemistry between these three players, and if they keep generating chances, some of them are going to go in.
I'm not sure we've seen a better combination for Plekanec this season, and that's saying something, because he's practically played with every winger on the team.