Montreal 1 Pittsburgh 6 (Mellon Arena)
About five weeks ago the Montreal Canadiens played an exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was the first game of the pre-season that resembled a NHL-calibre game. The Canadiens dressed 14 regulars.
The Canadiens were down early and needed three goals in the third period to come from behind and beat the defending Stanley Cup champions 4-3. The turnaround started started when the line of Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri skated together for the first time. This line along with Andrei Markov were dangerous every time they were on the ice. Gionta finished the night with two goals and an assist.
Tonight, the Penguins got an early lead. But tonight, there was no Andrei Markov. The big line did not score. There would be no comeback. In fact, only rarely did the Canadiens look like a team who could compete with the Penguins.
Against one of the better teams in the league, all of the Canadiens faults were exposed. You know the ones. The ones that the Habs, as a team, had worked on and improved. Despite some saying that the recent winning streak was due to goaltending, it was quite obvious that wasn’t true. The bubble of Jaroslav Halak as a savior was burst.
When the Habs didn’t play well as a team tonight, Halak wasn’t able to do anything to turn the tide. That’s not to say that Halak played poorly. The faults reside with the usual suspects: defensive turnovers, inability to clear the zone, giving up too many shots, not competing along the boards, dumb penalties, and ineffective special teams.
These were two fast-skating, non-hitting teams. The Habs had eight hits total in the game with only one by a defenseman.
Every player on the Canadiens was at least a minus one tonight. Gomez must have wondered why he dragged his flu-ridden body out of bed to be part of this game.
There wasn’t much to be positive about tonight. The Habs kept it close for a period and created some good chances to score in the first period. But Marc-Andre Fleury was better.
The second line of Tomas Plekanec, Andre Kostitsyn and Max Lapierre looked good. Plekanec had a goal to bring his point total to 11 in 12 games.
But it was Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin who would tally 10 points and dominate the game.
The Canadiens play another top team on Friday night in Chicago. While Blackhawks are far less talented in goal, the Habs can expect a much more physical game.
Pre-game
expected lineup:
Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri
Plekanec, Lapierre, Andrei Kostitsyn
Metropolit, Moen, Pacioretty
Chipchura, D’Agostini, Latendresse
Hamrlik, Spacek
Gill, Gorges
Bergeron, Mara
Jaroslav Halak starts in goal for the Canadiens; Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins.
scratches: Laraque, Stewart, Markov (ankle), O’Byrne (knee)
Rocket’s three stars
1. Sidney Crosby
2. Bill Guerin
3. Chris Kunitz
(photo credit: AP)
As predictable as last night's outcome was, it was still depressing to watch.
There was not one single positive thing to take out of the game, except hopefully waking some Habs fans out of the delusion that this is a contending team, because they're clearly not.
As mentioned in Rocket's review, the turnovers, the miscues and shots against were the culprits in this one. Again, our slow, plodding, clumsy defense was out to lunch. How on earth does Sidney Crosby get left alone with Halak not once, not twice, but THREE times? He's not any good is he? Oh wait, he is. He's very good.
The other problem for the Canadiens that will continue to show is that when they are on the road, they lose the advantage of having the last change. This is crucial for the Canadiens because the top line is pretty much all eggs in one basket. Shut down the Gomez/Gionta/Cammalleri line, and you'll win the game easily. With the edge of having last change, you can get the matchups you want…this is where it's important for Kostitsyn to wake up and start chipping in some offense.
Tomorrow we play the Hawks in Chicago…right now there's no reason to believe that the result will be much different. Toews may not play, which is a big break for the Habs, but otherwise they had better hope for a subpar performance from either Niemi or Huet.
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