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Game 51: Canadiens vs Capitals AKA Slipping Further Down |
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Remember the last game against the Caps? It was on November 15th and the Canadiens managed to pull out a 5-2 wins against all odds but they lost both Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron in the process. At that point the Canadiens were 2nd in the Atlantic division and we were wondering how long they could keep this up...Turns out not very long. Since then, they've had two 8 games losing streak and they've seen Brendan Gallagher join Drouin and Byron on the injured list.
The Canadiens didn't play badly initially last night. In fact, they took the lead just before the 2 minute mark in the first. It was on a beautiful play as well as Jeff Petry joined the attack, slipped in behind the defence and slid the puck right Under Braden Holtby off a Tatar feed. the lead held until Washington scored a power play goal while Domi was in the box for a slashing infraction. In his defence, it wasn't a silly penalty to take, a player was breaking away going towards Price at full speed and Domi tried to put him off... All it did was delay the inevitable, a tie game after 1 period.
A tie game after one isn't bad right? Right, but the fact is that you have to maintain the same level of effort if you want to win the game at the final buzzer. As has often been the case this season though, the Habs couldn't manage to play a full game. The second frame was sloppy to say the least and as a result, the Caps added 2 more goals while shooting 15 times on Carey Price. To make things worst, their first goal of the period was tapped in by Jeff Petry, like Washington needs help to score...
There was a glimmer of hope in the 3rd when Dale Weise got the Habs back within one with his first goal of the season in his 500th career NHL game. The rest of the game belonged to the Capitals however and they sealed the deal with an empty netter with less than 30 seconds to go.
Julien's post game comments were quite interesting in a way. He more or less said that the coaches have a game plan but that the players are just not executing it. Having seen all of his post game conference, it's quite rare that he just hangs his players out to dry so clearly, the bench boss is getting properly fed up now. There was no talk of bad bounces, injuries or referees, it was all about the players not doing what they are asked to do. In all fairness, given the fact that Weber had possibly his worst game of the season, that Domi took his fair share of bad decisions and that once more they took plenty of shots but not from dangerous areas, it's easy to see why the coach would have had enough. Whether he likes it or not, Julien might very well be blamed for his team's inability to make the playoffs once more... You would think that eventually the buck would stop at Marc Bergevin but for some reason, he seems to have more lives than a cat.
To make things worse, both Domi and Lehkonen missed the practice this morning thanks to the flu, Scandella was receiving yet more treatment and Carey Price was doing off-ice work. Let's hope this off-ice training has nothing to do with that moment last night when he seemed to tweak his knee...remember? He tried to shake it off a few times afterwards. I can't believe that they wouldn't have pulled him if something had been wrong but at the same time, that's how knee injuries work, you get hurt but you don't feel the full effect until the next day. On the bright side though, these were the lines:
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Kovalchuk - Suzuki - Armia
Drouin - Kotkaniemi - Cousins
Poehling - Thompson - Weise/Weal
And yes, both Gallagher and Drouin were wearing regular jerseys and not no contact ones so they must be getting nearer to a return. That being said, it remains to be seen if Domi and Lehky will be ready to go on Thursday against Buffalo and if they are, who knows what the lines will be...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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