credit : AP photo
I’m sorry for this review as it will be incomplete. Why? Because of the organization I hate the most: RDS! I was working late tonight and got home around 10:30. I decided to watch the game on Canadiens Express, a nice innovation if badly mishandled. In the past, I was used to get ready to watch the game, unspoiled by the score, ready to watch a whole 60 minutes of hockey. Too often, I opened my television at the time the show was supposed to start only to hear the end of Sports 30 and the animators say “And we remind you of the 3-1 loss of the
And moments I got. Moments where Guillaume Latendresse looked like he finally had a meaning. And then not much else. I’ll give him some slack for now, he only played 11 minutes after missing two weeks of action. There was also moments where the Habs looked like they were competing. Moment of Saku Koivu who didn’t finish the game due to an injury. This, more than the game, is scaring me. A lost to an underachieving team like
But again, I’m not too scared about this. But the prospect of losing Saku Koivu will fill my nightmares for tonight. This year the captain wasn’t just another player, he was the most consistent player, the one the team could always rely on to give 110%. Hell, tonight he was injured and left in second period but still tried to come back and when he did, he was the best player on the ice. He also was the only player to defend Halak when he was hit but I’ll come back to that later. Even injured, Saku was doing everything he could to win. It gave me flashbacks of Tiger Woods playing the U.S. Open with a broken leg. Determination. Please Bob sign him back.
Patrice Brisebois had his moments too, offensively at least. He wasn’t as brutal as he was for the past two weeks or so, not that it’s saying much. I like the fact that Carbo used him on the powerplay. If you’re going to use a player like him, might as well use his strengths.
Halak had moments, both good and bad but sadly enough, we’ll remember the bad moments. The first goal he allowed had no business going in, he was slightly bad on the second goal and quite frankly, I am not pointing the finger at him on the last one. I’m pointing it at the state of mind the Canadiens are in.
For quite some time now the powerplay has been down and the Canadiens hear it on a daily basis. They want to score and they take chances. For instance, on St-Louis breakaway goal, Patrice Brisebois tries to keep the puck in the offensive zone and Andrei Markov stays at the blue line hoping the play would work. If any of those two players go the safe route and take a few steps back to make sure they keep possession of the puck even if it leaves the zone, St-Louis wouldn’t even had a chance.
LEt’s give some credit to Tampa Bay though. They were coming off 9 consecutive loss and worked to win. Kolzig reminded everyone he used to be a solid goalie and as usual in Montreal, guys like Lecavalier and St-Louis delivered.
Before I go, one last thing I want to talk about and it’s the team reaction when the goaltender, Price or Halak, get hit. I understand nobody wants to put the team in bad position by giving the opposite team a powerplay but at one point, I’d like someone to just send a message. A fight is fine, but a good old knockout punch without warning would do wonders. Of course the player may get suspended for a game or two and may even be fined but I’m sure the players could afford to take the hit since the fines are usually ridiculous anyway. But at some point a message has to be sent to the rest of the league. We have two very good goaltenders and we intend to protect them even if the referees don’t.