Montreal 1 Boston 3 (Bell Centre)
Rocket:
Early on, there was a playoff atmosphere in the Bell Centre. Both teams were cautious, physical and tight checking. The Canadiens got the first goal..for the first time in six games. It was a power-play goal from Robert Lang made possible by an Andrei Kostitsyn setting the perfect screen right in front of Tim Thomas. It was also a nice read by Andrei Markov to set up Lang.
Boston tied the game with only 0.6 seconds left in the period when a Komisarek clearing pass was intercepted by Dennis Wideman. Komo should have just turned with the puck , taken it behind the net and run out clock.
In a first intermission interview, Claude Julien noted that the Canadiens were playing very defensive employing a 1-4 system without any stretch passes to challenge his defense. In the second, Julien made adjustments, Carbonneau didn’t.
All season the Canadiens’ Achilles heel has been defensive zone coverage. Weak positional play by the Candiens was evident in the 2nd period. The Habs spent too much time running around in their own zone chasing Bruins.
Turnovers would hurt again with a Latendresse giveaway up the middle leading to the winning goal for the Bruins.
The Canadiens power-play was too tentative even when they had a 5 on 3 advantage. The Habs are not confident in their PP scheme and it showed.
Boston is 24-0-2 when leading after two periods. An uninspired second period meant that the Canadiens didn’t have much chance in the third. Julien set his team in lockdown mode and the game was over.
A good game today from: Plekanec, Andrei Kostitsyn, Koivu, Pacioretty, Sergei Kostitsyn, Kostopoulos, Price, Markov, O’Byrne, Bouillon and Komisarek. The problem is that the Canadiens did not play like a team. The ridiculous line combinations must go!
Just a few words on Ryan O’Byrne: He had his second solid game since being recalled from Hamilton. O’Byrne was a physical presence all game and was responsible defensively. O’Byrne contributes as much in a game as Brisebois does all season.
My disgust is for a segment of Canadiens fans who sat on the edge of their seats waiting to boo O’Byrne at his first stumble. (This extreme treatment is exactly the opposite of the tolerance shown to Patrice Brisebois when he is on the ice.) This type of behaviour towards O’Byrne is unwarranted, ignorant and perhaps even bigoted. It does nothing to support this team.
Guillaume Latendresse left late in the game with a shoulder injury. The news is much worse for Robert Lang who suffered a severed tendon.
The game within a game:
Guy Carbonneau made a decision to insert Sergei Kostitsyn, Ryan O’Byrne and Alex Henry into the line-up today. All good decisions.
Choosing to humiliate Alex Kovalev on national TV was not a good decision. Whatever message Carbonneau wanted to send could have been done elsewhere. In addition, the phrase ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’ comes to mind. At the time, the Canadiens were only down one goal to the Boston Bruins. Sitting your most talented offensive player for the third period doesn’t make much sense. Replacing Kovalev with Kostopoulos in the final minute with the goalie pulled makes no sense at all.
As there are consequences for the players, so should there be for coaches. So far, Carbonneau has received a free pass from his friends in the media.
Carbonneau’s job is to find a way to motivate each player. Kovalev is a veteran and wants to win. He realizes that Carbo’s line combination gimmicks are at best a smokescreen. Kovalev knows that his coach is not putting the team in its best position to win.
Guy Carbonneau didn’t stop there. After the game, Carbo was asked whether Kovalev’s play has declined since the return of Saku Koivu. He could have diffused the situation. Instead, he inflamed it. Carbonneau said “I hope that’s not the truth or we’re in trouble because I’m not taking the C off Saku – that’s the bottom line. If anyone needs a letter to perform on the ice, I have trouble with that. That’s not professional at all.”
Carbonneau did two things with his statement. He divided the dressing room refusing to deny that there is a rift between Kovalev and Koivu. Carbo ensured that his attack dog buddies in the media will make the next few days very uncomfortable for Alex Kovalev.
A colleague commented to me that he is glad that Guy Carbonneau is not the coach of his favorite team. When I inquired why, he said that he has never seen Carbo defend one of his non-francophone players in the media.
Guy Carbonneau continues to throw his players under the bus: Ryder, Higgins, Koivu, Price, O’Byrne and Kovalev to mention a few. Carbo ensures that any negative attention remains focused on his players and not on himself.
As far as Alex Kovalev, if he was only playing at half speed for the past week, does anyone think the situation will improve after Carbonneau’s actions? I have a feeling that this is about to get worse before it gets better.
1912-13 CAC sweaters:
You are welcome to join All Habs on Twitter during every Canadiens game to share comments with other Habs fans.
Today, one follower commented that the barber pole jerseys were so ugly that they were awesome! Strangely, I understood exactly what he meant.
The striped socks were too much, but I have a feeling that the 1912-13 sweaters will be the biggest seller of the retro jerseys.
Pre-game:
Gorges, Tanguay, Dandenault, Laraque out with injuries. Ryan O’Byrne, Sergei Kostitsyn and Alex Henry will play. Patrice Brisebois and Steve Begin are scratched.
Rocket’s 3 stars:
1. Dennis Wideman
2. Tomas Plekanec
2. Andrei Kostitsyn
3. Zdeno Chara
(photo credit: AP photo)
Hey rocket. Let me first tell you that I didn’t see the whole game. I don’t know if it’s the painkillers or the Habs but I fell asleep early in the third period. In an afternoon game. Ouch.
First off, from what I’ve seen, O’Byrne had a solid game. He looked a lot mroe confident since coming back from Hamilton than when he was sent down. I think the time there was good for him.
Kovalev is a tricky situation. I understand why Carbo needs to send a message because he isn’t elevating his game when needed. On Saturday’s game, it was Koivu, Lang, Andrei K and Higgins who saved the game. Kovalev was still MIA. Although, there are a LOT better choices than putting Kosto as the 6th man on the ice.
As for Carbo, I’m getting a bit tired of some of his decisions. Line juggling is getting weird at this stage of the season. I have no problem seeing Breezer on the ice as I think you are as hard on him as you accuse others to be on O’Byrne but I hope Ryan will be back because he had a good game despite the penalty in first period.
By the way, I have a problem with that call. Not the call itself, because it was an interference and a stupid pointless moment to do it, but it is not called with enough consistency. If this was always a call, I’d have no problem with it. Since I often see this done and not called, depending on the ref, I have a big problem with it.
Is it just me or taking the A out of Higgins might have been one of Carbo’s best decisions? Chris is playing his best hockey of the season, save one game in Ottawa. Maybe he was getting himself under too much pressure. I always felt like Komi was a more logical choice for wearing the A anyway.
But I’ll take you out on the comment about protecting only French players. That’s total bullshit. It looks that way because we don’t have many French skilled players. Carbo has a tendency to defend players like him, hard working 3rd and 4th line players. But since Tanguay is the only one that speeks French and is considered a star player, we get the feeling it’s a language problem. It’s not. He defended Kostopoulos, Halak (and you complained about it often) Plekanec, Komisarek and others in the same mold. I remember once Tanguay complaining about his lack of ice time especially late in a game and Carbo answering pretty much that if he worked as hard as the Lapierre line he’d get his ice time late in 3rd when leading by one. (okay it wasn’t even close to those words but the message was the same)
So maybe that’s the real problem. Carbo is a solid coach for a hard working team but not as much for a skilled team. He did a solid job last year when everybody worked hard since they knew they needed to work hard. This year, everybody told them they were a skilled team and players seem to react differently. But look at the players who thrived this year. The Lapierre line, Markov (who despite being awfully talented works hard pretty much every night) Lang, Koivu… All players who don’t rely simply on skills but work hard. Pleky being a weird exception of a guy who works hard and yet struggles.
Hell, you look like you are harder on French players than non french players too. We talked about it in the past. The O’Byrne/Brisebois situation, the Higgins/Latendresse situation… and I’ll even go as far as say that in your game review tonight it looked like that too. You call out Latendresse as the reason for the second goal (although Bouillon had a broken stick and Plek missed his coverage of Thornton) but look back at the last goal of the game on Habs TV. Andrei Kostitsyn made an ugly, lazy play with Price out of the net. With 6 players on the ice, trying this type of play is completely stupid. Why have 6 players on the ice and still try to deke 2 players instead of passing? If he has two players on him, there must be open players somewhere else…
I think that’s the type of play that makes Carbo prefer hard working 3rd liners than skilled players…
Hey BB! Some good comments…rather long, but good. =)
Let me respond one by one. I’ll try to be brief…but I’ll probably get carried away!
You know, I’m not here to defend Kovalev. He hasn’t had the season he did last year, but he is still 3rd in scoring and leads the team in shots. I just don’t think that Kovy (and others) have been put in a situation where they can be successful. Does anyone agree that this team is underachieving? And that is the fault of the coach.
As far as Carbo protecting only French players, your anger is misdirected. I didn’t make the comment. I was only reporting that it is what the situation appears to be to someone outside of Montreal. Re-read, I think you will see that. Maybe it was the pain pills! =)
From a hockey sense, there is no comparison between a Ryan O’Byrne and a Patrice Brisebois. Brise makes more mistakes in one game than O’Byrne has all year. It’s not even close. I think that O’Byrne just needs a mentor like Hamrlik. He also needs the coach to believe in him and leave him out there when he makes a mistake (like what happens to Brisebois). Larry Robinson would be the perfect defensive coach for Ryan O’Byrne because Larry experienced many of the same things. Patrice just needs to retire. The game has passed him by a long time ago. Whatever positive legacy Brise had, it is being spoiled by throwing him out there when he continues to look foolish.
Now for the whole me being to hard on the francophone players. This really gets tiresome. Honestly, are they that fragile? Again please read the review. Giveaways in your own end(especially up the middle) are always dangerous. Komisarek and Latendresse were both guilty of that yesterday. In fact, I made more mention of Komo’s mistake than Lats. It has nothing to do with the background of the player.
Andrei Kostitsyn’s play at the end of the game had nothing to do with the loss so I didn’t include it. The Canadiens weren’t going to score to tie it up. Carbonneau had already given up the game with his choice of players. The players knew it. You could see it in the way they skated. Talk about a lack of respect and leadership…their coach showed none.
I do think that you make an excellent point about Carbonneau relating better to grinding type players. It is almost that he still has an axe to grind from his playing days. Maybe he feels that he didn’t get enough icetime or power play shifts so thats why he favors his less skilled players.
But as Pierre McGuire says, if Max Lapierre is getting 1st line center minutes, this team is not going to win many games.
It seems that Carbonneau goes out of his way to undercut the confidence of certain players. I mentioned some of the players he has had a personality conflict with: Kovalev, Price, Higgins, Koivu, Ryder, Kostitsyn…
Are we to trade all of these players because Carbonneau’s massive ego isn’t compatible with skilled players? Do you think that the Canadiens will win with a lineup full of players like Lapierre, Kostopoulos, Begin, Huet, Brisebois?
Not a chance!
One more point BB, I am surprised that you write that removing the ‘A’ from Higgins is making him play better and that this is a good decision by Carbonneau. Carbo said yesterday that the letter should not impact the way a player performs. So Kovy not having the C is irrelevant and Higgins not having the A is a good decision?? You can’t have it both ways.
As I said, I can’t argue with adding the A to Komisarek. However, removing the A from a player after he returns from injury is just bush league. Again, the coach is showing a lack of respect to a very valuable player. I just don’t remember ever seeing another coach do that before.
We can have it both ways as far as letters on a shirt. No, a player should never EVER underplay because he is pissed of having the C removed from his shirt. I totally with Carbo (although he could have phrased it better).
And yes, Higgins could put more pressure on himself because of wearing that letter. Didn’t you think he played with more edge now that he is “just” another player? Didn’t you think he looked more focused? It’s hard to describe but I do think he may have a burden less to carry.
Speaking of which, I will not comment on how good or bad a decision it is from Carbo to remove the A from Higgins on a respect standpoint. After all, we’re talking about taking it from one guy and giving it to his best buddy. Hell, for all I know, it could have been Higgins call. In any case, I don’t think Komi would have accepted it if he felt it would be detrimental to his friend.
And yes, you are right, you did mention Komi mistake a bit more. By the time I was deep in my answer, I kind of forgot the beginning of your article. lol.
And bout Breezer vs O’Byrne, they both make mistake. No, Breezer isn’t making as many mistakes in a game as O’Byrne makes in a year. Foir a period of time before the “I scored” incident, Ryan was directly responsible of at least one goal per game for 8 games in a row yet Carbo was still using him as much (around 15 minutes). And the game right after his “own goal” Carbo STARTED him against Detroit. You can claim all you want that Guy is the anti-Christ and that O’Byrne is buried or whatever but I think the problem for O’Byrne was between his ears. And some time in Hamilton seemed to have been the perfect solution as his play look at lot more confident that he has been all year, even before his problems.
I agree that Lapierre is getting a bit too much ice time.
Personality problems with Kovalev, Ryder and maybe the Kostitsyn are probably right. But I haven’t seen a problem with Price (who he plays more than I would) Koivu or Higgins. Actually he was talking highly about Higgins after Saturday’s game…
What you describe BB is the type of play I usually see from Higgins. He really is a good two-way player. To be honest, I haven’t noticed a change.
Ryan O’Byrne played well against Detroit and Washington too. Following ‘the incident’, O’Byrne was in the press box for 8 straight home games. It only fuelled fans who focus on his mistakes. Carbo should have showed confidence in O’B and played him at home. If necessary, Carbonneau could have put an end to the nonsense much like Gainey did 2 or 3 years ago when fans were harassing Brisebois.
Carbonneau has never been a fan of Price and did everything he could to undercut his confidence last season. Do you remember Carbo’s comment at the beginning of the season that Price would be a #1 goalie for some organization leading to speculation that Price would be traded or sent to Hamilton? Gainey overruled Carbonneau and Price stayed. Early in 2008, after Huet returned from injury and played about a dozen games straight, Price was given a start and told win or be demoted to Hamilton. He played well but the Habs lost and Price was sent down. How about the playoffs where Carbo dumped all over Price? Or more recently Carbonneau publicly created a controversy about Price playing in the All-Star game. (This would be much easier to explain with video, a tele-strator, and refreshments!)
Kovalev is pointless. A 220 pound waste of time, space, and money. His I.Q. is somewhere south of his uniform number. What is more, he has been that way for the VAST majority of his time in the NHL.
Kovalev dogging it through the regular season for the team that pays for his jet fuel, then turning it on in a meaningless vanity game? No, not our Alexei, he would never do something like that.
O’Byrne is pretty pointless as well, although not from lack of effort. He just isn’t an NHL defenseman, or at least no more so than someone like Alex Henry. Nothing in his history suggests that he should be a regular in the league.
As much as I despised Brisebois in the past when he was earning $3 million a year or whatever, I think he is delivering more than you could hope for at 1/4 of that amount.
About the beginning of last year, Carbo explained that he was thinking like a GM and not as a coach at that time. My guess is that Gainey told him to focus on his job and let him do the GM work.
As for the All-Star game, I do agree that Price shouldn’t have played the All-Star game if he wasn’t able to play in the two previous games. I agree with that decision and that has nothing to do with Price confidence.
Carbo may not be the best coach, he may not take the best decisions to instill confidence in a player but I’ll never believe he “did everything he could to undercut his confidence last season” (direct quote from you). Man you trully believe he’s Lucifer!
As for O’Byrne, as I said at that time, he was doing a lot of mistakes before his big error and was started against Detroit (where he was responsible for the only Wings goal) and in Washington (where, from memory, he was responsible for two). Then he was in the stands for 5 games and came back for 3 games in a row (the first two at home) before being back in the stands and then in Hamilton.
And as I said, I think his Hamilton stint worked for the better. Maybe Carbo could have handled it better but O’Byrne wasn’t playing well BEFORE all that happened. Even at the beginning of the season I wasn’t impressed by his play. Last season was fine but nothing more. NOW he looks like a real NHL defencemen.
And Rob, Kovalev is a huge gamble and when he’s on his game, he’s something special. When he’s not he can be a liability.
But I do agree with you about Breezer. His biggest problem is that at one point, Rejean Houle thought he was a number 1 D-man. He wasn’t and he’s still paying for that today. As a guy paid close to the minimum, he’s doing a decent enough job that I don’t mind him.
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