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In Hainsinght: Must Lose Game Wasn’t a Must Watch |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
As the season comes to a close, the teams that won’t make the playoffs realize that they’ve got nothing left to play for and as a result, the entertainment level suffers. I’m not saying the Canadiens and the Flyers were trying to lose the game last night, but neither team has got a realistic chance to qualify for the playoffs (the Canadiens were mathematically eliminated with the loss) and without that motivation, the level of play can sometimes suffer.
In all my years of watching hockey, I’ve never heard a commentator say: “I feel like there’s nothing happening, nothing to describe” as Pierre Houde said last night on RDS. To which his analyst Marc Denis replied: “Don’t worry, I’ve got nothing to analyze either”, that conversation was a perfect reflection of the game. In the 3rd period, there was a sequence of nearly 10 minutes of play without any stoppage and it really looked like both teams were going through the motions. The score stayed tied at 1-1 until deep in the 3rd when Morgan Frost scored the game-winning goal and Owen Tippet got the insurance market in an empty net thanks to a Mike Matheson brain cramp. Hard to blame him considering his consistently high level of play and the fact that most people were put to sleep by that boring game.
On the bright side of things though, Cayden Primeau played a solid game stopping 24 of the 26 shots he received and he wasn’t at fault on the 2 goals conceded. His positioning was spot-on and he didn’t look out of place in the big league. That’s probably not enough for the Canadiens to know where they stand with him and I expect will see him get another game before the end of the season even though he was reassigned to the Rocket after the match. Failing that, he’ll have plenty to prove come training camp if he wants to secure a spot on the roster. Starting next season, he’ll have to go through waivers to be sent down to Laval and the Canadiens could therefore lose him for nothing.
Last night was also Sean Farrell’s NHL debut and although the plan was initially to play him alongside Belzile and Pezzetta on the 4th line, Kirby Dach’s injury meant that he landed on the 2nd line with Jonathan Drouin and Denis Gurianov. Like the rest of the game, Farrell’s night was pretty uneventful but that’s not always a bad thing. For a guy just out of the NCAA who hadn’t even had a chance to practice with his new teammates, he didn’t look lost out there although he was quickly reminded that NHL play is much more physical than NCAA play. Prior to the game, Martin St-Louis was asked twice why Farrell was rushed into the line-up and he simply answered that the question should have been asked to Kent Hughes. Clearly, the coach felt like his debut could have waited a bit. Post game, Jeff Gorton said the Habs wanted to see him play as much as possible before the end of the season since there were only 8 games left (7 now) and that allowing him to play in Philadelphia meant his family could see his first game.
Aside from that, the only thing that jumped at me was the fact that Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans are really starting to have good chemistry and that might be something to build on for next season. With any luck, other lines will click as well, and injuries won’t be as frequent, and they’ll be able to keep that going. Speaking of Gallagher, he got the Canadiens’ first goal of the game, his third in the last three games and watching him and Evans play, it’s easy to understand why they wanted to come back to play in this lost cause. The way they are playing will give them confidence and allow them to go home for the off season in a positive frame of mind.
We’ll see tomorrow what the line-up will look like, if Kirby Dach will be ready to return to action and if Harvey-Pinard will be able to play since he had to momentarily leave the game after blocking a shot with his foot. He did come back into the game afterwards, but that doesn’t mean much these days. He now has 13 goals in 31 games and is in prime position to earn a roster spot next season. On Thursday night, the Canadiens will be back in action at the Bell Centre against the Panthers who can still mathematically qualify for the playoffs and should be pretty eager to win the game.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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