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Slow and Steady Wins the Race

February 17, 2019, 10:28 PM ET [496 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
On a night where the Canadiens desperately needed to get the two points, Claude Julien decided to gamble. As per usual, he didn't want to put Price in net for the second game of a back to back so he gave the net to Antti Niemi. What could go wrong? About a month ago, in Sunrise, Niemi have made 52 saves in a 5-1 win over the Panthers. Surely he could do it again? Turns out he couldn't and it didn't take very long to find that out. In 13 minutes 57 seconds, Niemi faced 9 shots and 3 got by him. To be fair, the first one was a power play goal thanks to a high sticking penalty to Max Domi but Niemi should have and could have saved the second one, he basically failed to catch a floating puck high up...the very definition of a bad goal. After Max Domi got the Canadiens on the board, he went to the bench to high five his teammates and then pointed to Niemi as if to say, I've got you Nemo, this isn't over but less than a minute later, the back-up gave a 3rd goal and Julien had seen enough.

Carey Price stepped in and took part in a 3rd game in 4 days, some will say this is a huge strain to put on your star net minder but the fact is that the Habs did have a rather light schedule since the All-Star Game and if you can't call upon your best goaltender when you're desperate for the 2 points, when can you? Less than 3 minutes after Price came in, Gallagher, the perpetual spark plug, scored an unassisted goal to bring back the Habs within 1. The score would remain the same until the end of the first.





A little over 5 minutes into the second frame, Max Domi scored his second goal of the game to bring everyone back to square one and it seemed like the Canadiens might just have it in them to win this one...However, it became less likely when Danault was sent to the sin bin and a few minutes after him Jonathan Drouin for slashing. This was an insanely bad penalty to take on Drouin's part, he was manhandled deep in the Panthers zone and thought that there should have been a call against the Panthers, seeing that there wasn't he chose to retaliate and of course, that was called. To me, this was a complete lack of discipline and character. I'm aware that Drouin has got some defensive issues and I can deal with that (although, much like the coach, I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the turnovers) but what I cannot accept is dumb penalties at the most inconvenient time. The Panthers didn't score during the resulting penalties but the Habs lost all rhythm and concentration before Mete gave the puck away to a very dangerous Barkov who scored an absolutely filthy goal on Price on the breakaway. The Panthers didn't really have anything to worry about from that point on. They did have a goal taken away after a coach's challenge for offside but it was only a temporary relief as they scored their proper fifth goal before putting another one in an empty net. It goes to show that the huge effort push when Price came in relief to Niemi was good but you can't hope to win if you're not in the game from the start; slow and steady wins the race as they say.





It should be noted that during the last half of the game, the Canadiens had a pathetic 5 shots. How can you expect to win when the game is tied and you only shoot 5 more times on goal? Price did what he could, making some spectacular saves but he was quite frankly left to his own devices just like he was in Tampa last night. To be fair though, this was truly Aleksander Barkov's night, he scored 3 goals and added an assist while taking 7 shots on goal. The Panthers captain was just everywhere.

Aside from the penalty he took early on, Domi had a pretty good game, I find it hard to understand how a Habs fan cannot like Tie's son. Yes, he does take some questionable penalties but his passion, skills and dedication more than make up for it. Tonight, Domi passed the 50 points mark and is just one point shy of the best total of his career. Tatar was also amongst those who came to play registering 2 assists. As for Drouin, I've already mentioned his penalty but I'll add that he finished the game with a -3, 2 giveaways and a 33% face-off win percentage. The Canadiens have now lost their last 4 games (yeah the one against Toronto was in OT but it's still a loss) and at the worst possible time.

The Tricolore will make its way back to Montreal and host the Blue Jackets Tuesday and the Flyers Thursday before making their way to Toronto for a Saturday night duel with the Leafs. This is not going to be an easy week and the Habs are now in the second wild card spot a single point in front of Don Cherry's favourite jerks, the Canes. Thankfully, Buffalo and Philly are much further away but finishing 9th won't do the Sainte-Flanelle any good.

Here's to hoping that something happens before Tuesday to put this team back on track.
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