Montreal 3 Calgary 4 (Pengrowth Saddledome)
There’s never a good reason to celebrate a loss, but Jacques Martin must be quietly pleased about the way his team played tonight. There’s still work to do (they were outshot 16-to-6 in the second period), but the Canadiens are starting to show signs of their potential.
The Habs’ top three lines all played very well. They outshot the opposition for the first time this season. Canadiens forwards even dominated in the faceoff circle with the exception of Maxim Lapierre at 45 per cent.
Tomas Plekanec continues to outwork his opponents on every shift. He scored the Canadiens third goal on a great individual effort. His linemate, Andrei Kostitsyn had his best game of the season. Kostitsyn was dangerous with his speed and shot. He also led the team with four hits. Max Pacioretty had three blocked shots.
Prior to the game, a prominent Montreal sports radio personality was so fearful of the Calgary defense (and the size of the Canadiens first line) that he bizarrely recommended putting Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri and Scott Gomez on three separate lines. Despite the advice, the first line remained intact and were flying all night. Cammalleri set up Gomez for a goal from a one-timer after stealing the puck from Jerome Iginla along the boards. Gionta had six shots on goal.
Incidentally, the Calgary defense pairing of Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr were each minus three.
Guillaume Latendresse finally broke out of his funk with a goal on three shots. Travis Moen now has three points in three games with an assist tonight.
The Canadiens’ fourth line didn’t play much and didn’t play well. Greg Stewart continues to struggle and doesn’t look like he belongs at the NHL level. Georges Laraque was minus three for his eight minutes on the ice. Kyle Chipchura had a rare fight but was also minus three. Its probably too soon to evaluate Chipchura’s performance given that it was his first game back after shoulder surgery.
While adding Marc-Andre Bergeron as insurance earlier in the day, Bob Gainey must have been pleased with the play of his defense. Yannick Weber and Paul Mara were the Canadiens best defense pairing. Mara had two assists while Weber played with confidence.
Hal Gill looked much better tonight. Gill made up for his lack of footspeed with smart defensive play. Gill has been the target of the francophone media for his play in the first two games. One wonders what they would have to say about the play of Francois Beauchemin if he was wearing bleu, blanc et rouge. Beauchemin has been dreadful in his first two games with Toronto.
It was a quiet night with only one minor penalty being called in the entire game. The Canadiens didn’t have a power-play opportunity.
Jaroslav Halak made some good saves but did not have his strongest game. Halak gave up four goals on 28 shots for a .857 save percentage. He was down early and slow to react at times.
After the game the Canadiens headed for Vancouver where they play the Canucks on Wednesday night.
Pre-game
expected lineup:
Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri
Plekanec, Pacioretty, Andrei Kostitsyn
Lapierre, Latendresse, Moen
Chipchura, Stewart, Laraque
Hamrlik, Spacek
Gill, Gorges
Weber, Mara
Jaroslav Halak starts in goal for the Canadiens, Miikka Kiprusoff for the Flames
scratches: D’Agostini, Markov (ankle, 4 months), Metropolit (ribs, day-to-day), O’Byrne (knee, 8 weeks)
Rocket’s three stars
1. Eric Nystrom
2. Tomas Plekanec
3. Adam Pardy
(photo credit: AP)
A bang-on assessment, as usual. From what I saw, the good was the overall team play. I was surprised to see the Canadiens play such a good game. I'd say they deserved to win the game, but they didn't deserve to win either of their 1st 2 games, so things are once again evening out.
Plekanec was superb, AK46 seemed to be interested (although he has nothing to show for his efforts) and the 1st line had spark and was a threat pretty much every time they were on the ice. The defense looked pretty good, although there's always going to be Gill's speed, or lack of it. He needs to have a smooth skating partner with him or his weaknesses are too great to mitigate. I also thought the 3rd line played well. Moen is proving to be one of the best free agent signings through 3 games. His salary of $1.5M is looking like a bargain at this point.
The bad: Halak. When you're a backup goalie with designs on being a #1 somewhere in the league, every time you get a start is pretty much an audition. Backups can't afford to lose games in which your team plays the better game. I know deflections are hard to stop, but he has to find a way.
The ugly: The 4th line. Yikes. Stewart gets beat up, then has 2 giveaways on 1 shift leading to the Flames 2nd goal. I'm looking for him to sit tonight, to be replaced by D'Agostini. Chipchura looked behind, but after surgery, in his 1st start and someone not blessed with great speed on his best day, I suppose this isn't a surprise. Time is certainly running out on Chipchura to establish himself in the league.
Overall, a good effort by the team, except for the 2nd period where they mostly slept.
As for the prominent radio personality who suggested splitting up the "wee three" on 3 separate lines, he had convinced himself that that was a good idea before he floated it by anyone. He was quickly met with quizzical reactions by listeners and experts alike. In true radio personality fashion, he stuck to his opinion and went down with his ship. That's not a good strategy to follow. Calgary's blueline is not infallible. In fact, the way they're playing right now, if not for Bouwmeester, they'd be up there (or down there) with the Leafs for lousiest defense corps.
Let's hope for the same effort, but different result tonight.
I'm afraid that a visit by the Canadiens might be the tonic that Roberto Luongo needs to get back on track. He'll be on tv back home, and he'll be looking to put on a good show for his family & friends, as well as get his team their 1st win.
Thanks Kyle. Your comment was a very thorough assessment.
Gill's lack of footspeed is always going to be a problem but I did see evidence tonight of him playing smart to mitigate that disadvantage. I like Gill and Mara playing apart. Playing together, their skating issues are multiplied.
Mara and Weber looked great together. Josh Gorges looked like he missed Ryan O'Byrne. Without O'Byrne to back him up, Gorges was floundering a bit in this game.
Travis Moen is looking to be the steal of free agency if he can keep up his level of play.
I like Kyle Chipchura but injuries have really been a factor in limiting his development. Were it not for the waiver exemption issue, I think we would see Ben Maxwell in his place.
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