Much like in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you never know which version of the Montreal Canadiens will turn up to the rink. They can face a team that they should easily beat on paper (like the AHL version of the Devils’ on Monday) and still show up with a despicable performance that sees them lose oh so precious points. In the same week, they can be taking on an equally challenged side talent wise (like the Red Wings on Tuesday), and look like a well-oiled war machine out there, they are as surprising as a jack-in-the-box…You know they’ll come out but when is anyone’s guess.
That was painfully obvious last night, while Sidney Crosby and his cronies rolled into town dead set on capturing two important points, the Canadiens just wasn’t there at the start of the game. To be fair, for once, much of this disaster of a first period is on Carey Price. In the NHL, a team, no matter how talented it is, should not be able to score 3 goals on 4 shots in a single period. It took the Pens 8 minutes and 51 seconds to forge themselves a 3-0 lead and by that stage, it looked highly unlikely that the Habs would manage to turn the table on them. At the end of the first 20, the Canadiens had woken up having registered 12 shots on goal to the Pens’ 4 but the important stat is that none of those shots went in. As for the 3 goals surrendered by Price, he could have stopped 2 of those, especially the one that trickled slowly through his five-hole. That being said, the Tricolore also “enjoyed” a couple of power plays on which they once again failed to convert…that’s about the one thing that has been the same since the start of the season.
The Canadiens played better in the second, even though they found themselves in a 4-0 hole at the 6th minute before Brendan Gallagher finally gave some hope to the home fans by putting one past Matt Murray. The Penguins’ goalie might have had a rough go of it early in the season but he was in fine form last night. He faced a total of 37 shots from the Canadiens…arguably some of these weren’t all that threatening but he did stop both Max Domi and Paul Byron on breakaway chances. Had those two shots been goals, who knows what could have happened.
As for the third period, there wasn’t very much to report aside from the fact that Claude Julien decided to pull his goaltender for an extra-attacker with 4 minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t produce the desired result but rather the predictable one and the Penguins won the game 5-1. This loss, coupled with the Hurricanes win and the Blue Jackets’ lost means that right now, the playoffs race in the Eastern Conference is tighter than ever:
The Jackets are trailing the Canadiens by 2 points but with 2 games in hand while the Pens have the same number of points but with a game in hand. Columbus will play Winnipeg tonight and here’s to hoping that the Jets obliterate John Tortorella’s side…The Ohio team has yet to win a game since the trade deadline, perhaps too many new players complicated the task for Dubois and co.
As for the positives from this week, well, the Montreal faithful can console themselves with the fact that both Andrew Shaw and Joel Armia scored their first career hat-trick. It’s also worth noting that Brendan Gallagher now has 29 goals to his name, only 2 short of his career best 31 from last season. With 16 games to play, chances are that he’ll beat that this year. As for Carey Price, he now has 313 wins just one behind the immortal Jacques Plante and if things go according to plan, he should tie and overtake him this week.
In theory, the Canadiens should be more than able to beat the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday and the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. The operative word here being should… As for Thursday’s game against the Sharks, it probably will be somewhat more challenging…unless the invincible Habs come out to play on that night. To show you that things aren’t that bad though, here’s a look at what Nick Suzuki got up to today:
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»