Montreal 2 Vancouver 4 (GM Place)

Rocket:

The Montreal Canadiens have always been known as one of the best break-out teams in hockey. I also remember them be called ‘the fastest skating team’ or ‘the best passing team’ in the league.

Who are the Montreal Canadiens in 2009? There is far too much talent on this team for them to look so confused night after night.

Since January 20th, the Canadiens have lost 10 games and won 3. As far as the wins, we remember just how fortunate they were to get a win against the Kings. It’s also safe to say that the Habs didn’t play well enough to win against the Avalanche. The truth is that the Canadiens have one solid effort in 13 games over the past month.

So what happened?

Let’s look at it another way. There are times this season that line pairings played well together. Lapierre and Kostopoulos (with Latendresse) played a simple yet very effective game. The Kostitsyn brothers (with Lang) were the team’s top line for a few weeks. D’Agostini was on fire with Koivu. Koivu has definite chemistry with Higgins. Kovalev played his best games of the year with Pacioretty.

So why aren’t the combinations together today? They all have one thing in common: they were dismantled before they started playing poorly. Does that make any sense?

Tonight we watched Kovalev with Kostopoulos and Sergei Kostitsyn with Laraque. Remember the line of Gorges, Dandenault and D’Agostini from a few games ago? Putting together players with such differing styles only leads to confusion and ineffectiveness. Why should we expect any better?

I don’t have much to write about tonight’s game. The positive moments came from good individual play. The rest of the time the team looked bewildered.

I actually thought that Jaroslav Halak played better tonight than in Colorado. But as I have been saying for some time, goaltending is not a problem area for this team.

Matt D’Agostini, Tom Kostopoulos and Saku Koivu were the best players for the Canadiens tonight.

I have no idea what Ryan O’Byrne did to deserve two games in the press box. O’Byrne and Roman Hamrlik formed the Canadiens strongest defense pairing for several games prior to his banishment. O’Byrne has certainly played well enough to be in the line-up, and to withhold him from a game in his home province raises questions.

I’m interested to read how my good friend, Big Brother, will spin Patrice Brisebois’ performance tonight. Every time Brise makes a bad decision to pinch, it seems to end up in the Canadiens net. It happened again tonight making it hard to understand why Brise was in the line-up and equally difficult to put a positive face on his game. As my grandmother said “It’s hard to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

I’m afraid that the Canadiens will continue to look like a team in disarray until the coaching staff gets serious about addressing major issues…or until Bob Gainey finds someone who will.

Pre-game:

Starting line-up: Lapierre, D’Agostini, Pacioretty, Gorges, Bouillon
Jaroslav Halak will start in goal. Roberto Luongo for the Canucks.

Chipchura will play. O’Byrne and Begin scratched. Plekanec serving the 2nd game of his two game suspension.

Latendresse, Tanguay, Lang out with injuries.

Rocket’s 3 stars:

1. Henrik Sedin
2. Daniel Sedin
3. Ryan Kesler

(photo credit: AP)