Montreal 4 Toronto 3 OT (Air Canada Centre)
“He won us the game tonight.”
Those were the words of Mike Cammalleri commenting on the 43 save performance by Carey Price. “Carey stood on his head,” said Cammalleri. “I just talked to him and said, `We’ve got to be better for you and we will.’ The truth is that we expect him to do that from time to time because that’s how good he is.”
Price certainly responded to his critics with a brilliant game while his team was outplayed and outshot by the Leafs in every period. Shots on goal were 46 to 27 for the Leafs.
The praise from his teammates continued, “He was unbelievable.” said Josh Gorges. “He held us in there when the game could have got out of hand.”
Gorges himself had a big game scoring the winner in overtime after having assisted on the tying goal.
Jacques Martin’s game plan was to employ an aggressive forechecking system. For the most part, it was something that the Canadiens were able to execute very well. However, it should be said that the Leafs defense, particularly Ian White and Francois Beauchemin, were awful.
It is at the other end of the ice that should cause some concern for the Canadiens. They spent far too much of the game hemmed in their own zone.
Andrei Markov and Jaroslav Spacek will be an effective power-play tandem at the blue line this season. The Canadiens scored two goals with a man advantage.
Hal Gill and Paul Mara were an odd defense pairing. Both are painfully slow which allowed the AHL-caliber Leaf forwards to cycle in the Habs zone.
Josh Gorges seemed well matched with his new defense partner, Ryan O’Byrne. O’Byrne and Gorges blocked a total of nine shots with O’Byrne also registering four hits. O’Byrne was very physical and made good decisions all night.
The Canadiens defense corps were doing a much better job of clearing the front of the net compared to last season.
As for the forwards, Tomas Plekanec played well with two assists. Mike Cammalleri also registered two assists. Brian Gionta had a power-play goal.
Pre-game chatter was all about how the Leafs would run the Canadiens out of the Air Canada Centre. But it was the Habs who outhit the Leafs by a wide margin 37-22.
Travis Moen displayed toughness with three hits and two fights. He also scored his first goal as a Canadien. Moen’s linemate Glen Metropolit also played well with the tying goal on the power-play. Metropolit seemed surprised that he got the call for power-play duty. So were we!
Brian Burke has designed the Leafs with “truculence” in mind. Perhaps that could explain Mike Komisarek’s game tonight. Maybe he was trying to declare that all loyalties had been severed with the Canadiens. Whatever the reason, Komisarek was in rare form. While his three hits are typical (and admirable) it was stick-work on his opponents that was disturbing and got him into penalty trouble. Two of the Canadiens goals were scored with Komisarek in the penalty box.
The Canadiens can celebrate a comeback road win, being able to play touch and an impressive performance by Carey Price. The win may be bittersweet, however, as Andrei Markov left the game with a skate-cut to his foot. Markov will be treated in a Toronto hospital and will not travel with the team to Buffalo.
Pre-game
expected lineup:
Gomez, Gionta, Pacioretty
Plekanec, Cammalleri, Andrei Kostitsyn
Lapierre, Latendresse, D’Agostini
Metropolit, Moen, Laraque
Markov, Spacek
O’Byrne, Mara
Gill, Gorges
scratches: Hamrlik, Stewart
Carey Price starts in goal for the Canadiens, Vesa Toskala for the Leafs
Rocket’s three stars:
1. Carey Price
2. Matt Stajan
3. Josh Gorges
(photo credit: Getty images)
It's tough not to get all lathered up for a game like this, but when it's the Leafs and Habs, it's almost automatic. On the other hand, it's game 1 of 82 and with this many new parts on the Habs (and Leafs for that matter), a large chunk of salt needs to be taken when taking apart the game.
Here's my take on the game…for whatever it's worth.
The good:
Cammalleri, Gionta and Gomez looked good, as did Plekanec and the entire 4th line. They all brought speed and creativity to the ice. Price looked very solid after what I thought was a shaky start and him fighting the puck. He settled in and essentially stole 2 points. For the past decade, no matter who was playing on this team, or who was coaching it, the Habs have relied on their goalies to steal too many games. 1 game doesn't indicate a trend, but a decade does. I pray that Cammalleri speaks on behalf of the team when he says they'll be better for Price. On defense, Gorges looked fantastic, Markov was Markov until he got hurt and Spacek looked like he will fit in nicely.
The bad:
Pacioretty, Kostitsyn, and the entire 3rd line apparently didn't get the memo that the season has started. Didn't really notice any of them.
The ugly:
Hal Gill and Paul Mara. Yeesh, they were scary out there. I know it's only game 1, and they've never played together before, but if they don't improve their quickness a great deal, they are going to put this team in trouble. I'm also troubled by the fact that the "offensively challenged" Leafs were able to rack up 47 shots. Martin said they wanted to play a puck possession game…what does that mean? I think everyone wants to play that kind of game, no? I don't think there's a coach out there that wants to spend the entire game playing defensive hockey, so that comment was meaningless to me. Martin has to find a way to get the defensemen to move the puck out of the zone faster, or find a way to get a kid like Weber in the lineup to speed things up on the back end.
For me though, I thought Komisarek's play was downright shameful. I'm ok with the hitting and the roughhousing after the whistle, but as you mentioned, the stick work was pathetic. I hope that Don Cherry was watching because normally he rips guys who wear shields for wielding their stick that way. Komisarek got Gomez in the kisser twice and Kostitsyn once, and was only called for it 1 time. His extra shots (the vast majority from behind) were also uncalled for. I hope it was just emotions getting the better of him. I think he's above that kind of play, but perhaps this is how he interprets 'truculence'.
All in all, I'll take the 2 points and hope that we see marked improvements in the backend asap. If Markov is out though, all bets are off.
Hey Rocket, great recap per usual & congrats on getting Season #101 off to a good start. Hoping we can "wake" the Bruins up tonight vs the Canes! Go Broounze! – KingKrej46
Its good to hear from you Krej! I hope that you had a good summer. Thanks for the compliments. I look forward to Nov 5th, the first game of the year between the Canadiens and the Bruins.
Excellent comments Kyle! I agree completely.
I wondered myself if one of the reporters would ask coach Martin about his 'puck possession' game after being outshot so badly.
As far as Komisarek I can't bring myself to hate him, not yet anyway. Komisarek led the Canadiens in hits and blocked shots on a nightly basis. He was also at the top of the league in both categories. Komisarek is not a dirty player despite what we witnessed in this game. As disturbing as it was to see his stick work used on his former teammates, for now, I'm willing to chalk it up to the emotion of the first game. If it continues, well that's another story.
Comments are closed.