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The bar has been set

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So what really happened in the 2013 post-season for the Habs?

From Pacioretty, Plekanec and Price to Desharnais, Markov, Gorges and Ryder, the veterans on this team did not accomplish enough good things collectively in order to have a deep playoff run. Simple as that. No player bashing, no nailing to the cross. A lot of guys were hurt, or playing hurt and as much as they refuse to use that as an excuse, the fact is no team can sustain the losses and injuries that the Habs did to key players and hum along like nothing happened…except for the Senators. The Habs veterans were average-to-below average and that doesn’t get it done in playoff time.

Here’s what you really need to know:

  • Senators goaltending outplayed Habs goaltending, to the tune of a .950 save percentage for Ottawa versus .870 for Montreal.
  • Ottawa scored an average of four goals per game, while the Habs chimed in with less than half of that total, at 1.8.
  • The Senators scored 13 third period goals to the Canadiens’ grand total of zero.
  • The Canadiens centermen scored a grand total of zero goals.
  • The officials stymied the Habs at least once in a very costly way.

Game, series, and season…over.

What may come as a relief is that the Canadiens missing ingredients are painfully obvious and I think we can expect Marc Bergevin to remove some of the redundancies on the Habs current roster and fill the voids with what he, and the rest of us believe to be the missing pieces.

With the team set up with talented youth and a General Manager who seems to have a firm grasp on the realities of the league in 2013, there’s very little doubt that Marc Bergevin has a cogent plan to continue to remake his team. Even the most passive fan has been able to identify areas where the Habs need lots of help:

Size with toughness and scoring ability on the wings: The top nine forwards include the following names from the under-six foot clan: Plekanec, Desharnais, Gallagher, and Gionta. It’s hard to imagine the Habs charging in to 2013-14 with that many smaller bodies despite “how big they play”. 5’8” does not have the reach or power and dominance of 6’3”. To ignore this is to think yourself above the laws of physics, or that they don’t apply to the Habs. Dredge up any stat you like, but when everyone has long since come to the realization that small bodies wear out faster and more often than big bodies, the road map becomes clear. Even if the impact of physical dimensions of any given player is a point of debate, what the Canadiens do need both up front and on the back end is aggression and that typically that comes in larger packages. I’m not here to say that the Habs are criminally small and weak and fragile. While the Habs loss to the Senators is not specifically due solely to size, if you take a moment to scan the defense corps of the Habs division foes for next year, it isn’t a stretch to think that adding some beef and snarl up front is unreasonable. Of course, one-dimensional thugs need not apply, and Bergevin strongly hinted at this in his post-mortem press conference. Although we can be fairly sure that Michel Therrien would love to have one of those guys in his back pocket, it appears unlikely that Bergevin will waste a roster spot on a goon.

Universally respected as he rightfully is by his teammates, coaches, opponents, the media and fans, With Gionta’s contract going in to its final year, it’s not impossible that Bergevin could move the captain at some point once he has proven to be healthy and productive again. It would be an unpopular move to trade him but forward-thinking GMs do unpopular and bold things on the road to success. Fact is, they could use a right-handed, large body to compliment Pacioretty and Rene Bourque on the wings. Gionta may be an interesting acquisition to somebody out there who needs leadership, and scoring ability.

Clarity at Center: There’s a jigsaw puzzle down the middle. Tomas Plekanec is the Habs most complete forward, and until he can be adequately replaced on the fly, and not under an assumption or hope that Eller or Galchenyuk can replace him, there’s little sense in talking about trading him. That said, Plekanec is currently the Habs best centerman and would fetch the most return on the trade market. At 31 years old, he’s not getting any younger, and Bergevin appears to be in to moving “aging assets” before they’re worthless, but trading Plekanec now is premature, lest the Habs GM invoke the “unpopular, but bold” clause. Lars Eller was on the verge of breaking out in this shortened season. 2013-14 will be labeled as, and expected to be his full coming out party, but he is not yet ready to take on all of the duties currently held by Plekanec. We know Desharnais is both one dimensional, yet secure with his new deal, so the Habs will have to work around his, umm, shortcomings. Alex Galchenyuk remains the wild card. Drafted as the team’s future frachise #1 centerman, the 19-year-old spent nearly all of his rookie season on the wing, and with good reason. Though he led the team in +/-, that is the single most misleading stat in hockey. Rely on that number at your own peril. However, he cannot be counted on defensively just yet, especially when it comes to defensive zone faceoffs. Between his and Eller’s inability to take draws reliably, the Habs have much work to do, and until they get one, or both of them both up to speed, it makes Plekanec’s presence on the team a must.

Another top-four defenseman: This is a tricky one, but needs to be addressed. Andrei Markov’s play collapsed at even-strength in 2013; anyone with a pair of eyeballs could see this. He is no longer the team’s best defenseman, but is heavily relied upon nonetheless. He was very often caught behind the play after a bad pinch, and with ravaged knees, he no longer has the speed to recover, and once he gets back in to position, he is not physical enough to knock opposing forwards off the puck. Bergevin can get on his hands and knees and pray that Markov spends the summer strengthening his knee, and that Jarred Tinordi’s imminent arrival as a regular will be enough to save him from shopping for a pricey free agent, or trading assets to shore up the defense, but that’s a risky gamble. The blueline for next season is already crowded what with Subban, Gorges, Emelin (who may not be ready until November or later), Markov, Bouillon, and Diaz all but assured spots in the top seven (Weber and Drewiske won’t be back), which means that only one place remains for a kid like Tinordi. No upgrades have been made yet aside from the natural progression that young players demonstrate, and that’s no guarantee, either. For Habs fans who treat free agent frenzy like a free-for-all, this is sobering, disappointing news. If Bergevin decides to look outside the organization to make his defense better on the top two pairings, he’ll have a tough choice to make in terms of moving Markov or Gorges. Moving Bouillon is the easy call, but doesn’t create the hole needed to upgrade the top-four.

Iron in the bottom-six forwards: As a simple one-year band aid solution, Colby Armstrong won’t be back. Travis Moen disappointed many in 2013 on the heels of signing a four-year extension and may be moved as a result. But both players brought something to the table in terms of penalty killing and character. Bergevin will need to replace those traits, to the chagrin of the fancystat propeller heads.. Michel Therrien’s (and most fans, too) face turned unhealthy shades of greenish-purple when the Leafs and Sens (among others) took turns slapping the Habs silly in lopsided losses. In that respect it is the expectation of most fans that Bergevin fetch a player or two who can throw his fists. Therrien may be a changed man in front of the cameras and microphones, but I’d bet my last dime that he, too wishes he had at least one player with the ability to bust heads on a nightly basis. The rub is that players who can carry a regular shift (i.e. actually play hockey), yet acquit themselves well when the rough stuff starts don’t grow on trees, and Bergevin will need to decide how much this is truly a priority before investing time and energy in bringing in this sort of player.

The debate will rage all summer as to whether or not the real Canadiens were the team that streaked to a 26-9 record or the team that gave up 3.9 goals per game after clinching a playoff spot. That said, and whether it’s fair or not, expectations for the 2013-14 season are going to be sky-high for the Canadiens. Bergeron and friends will have no other mandate – both internally and externally from fans to build upon what was statistically speaking the best season from the bleu-blanc-rouge in 20 years. I hope you enjoyed drafting Galchenyuk at third overall last season because it will be the last time that they select that high based on merit for quite some time – at least that’s going to be the plan. Bergevin may not be able to make ALL of this changes required THIS summer, and no doubt this will piss off Habs fans who want it all right away. This year was like a honeymoon that ended with a nightmarish trip home. Fans will no longer be so willing to accept future first round exits if they are preceded by strong regular seasons, that much is plain and simple.

The Comforts of Home

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Regular season game #47

Tonight’s game against the Jets had two distinct flavors to it. The first 40 minutes saw the Jets’ larger forwards have their way in the Habs’ end, giving the defense fits. Another collapse looked imminent. As has become recent tradition, the Canadiens D seemed too willing to give up odd-man rushes and full-on breakaways. Indeed, it is a concern when callup Jarred Tinordi was the most effective player in the defensive zone.

With a 2-1 lead heading to the third, and with their playoff hopes on life support, the Jets got the news that they had to know was coming. Both the Rangers and Senators won, dashing their playoff hopes for good. Whether the Jets sagged, or the Habs showed some urgency, aided by some powerplays that allowed the Habs to at least temporarily fire up the scoring machine that had worked so well through 40 games, the game tilted heavily in the Habs favor.

With fourth place in the Eastern Conference now the lowest the Habs can finish, if I were Michel Therrien, I would take a pre-emptive wiz on the CBC’s Habs/Leafs parade and make Saturday’s regular season finale as unimportant as I possibly could. I would take the hype right out of the game. The Habs don’t need it. Regardless of the outcome, the Leafs will win the season series and take that advantage to the bank, and it only brings the possibility that some Habs regulars could get further banged up, or hurt altogether. After all, when a team boasts such hockey luminaries as Colton Orr, Frazer McLaren, and Mark Fraser, why allow these glorified goons one last opportunity to take cheap shots at the Habs more important players? They’ll likely play very sparingly, or not at all in the playoffs, so any “discipline” that may be doled out by Shanaban would be totally ineffective. In short, Price, Plekanec, Markov, Ryder, Gorges, Prust, Gionta and Bouillon all get to watch the game from the press box while Bulldogs fill the void.

Tonight’s game saw the Habs show more push-back and spark than they have in a couple of weeks. Good news indeed, but the best news – by far – is that Carey Price looked like Carey Price. He made several big stops when the Jets were up 1-0, and could have given the Habs the confidence they needed to forge ahead without the fear of a softy going in behind them. If Price has indeed reasserted himself and found his game once again, it can be nothing but bad news for whoever the Habs face in the first round. But before we get ahead of ourselves, the defensive coverage that the Habs have been displaying lately was not much better tonight. The Coaching staff still has more work to do, starting with giving some tired legs time to recuperate.

There’s one more game to go, but with any luck it will be but a mere formality.

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You Can Cry if you Want To

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Regular season game #46

If you’re a results-oriented fan, then this game was just another in the recent string of games in which the Canadiens walked away empty-handed. If you’re a glass half-full kind of person, then you’ll say that the Habs took a positive step forward by not being blown out for a change by showing some fight in not imploding when they fell behind 3-0. The only real tangible bit of good news tonight is that the Bruins lost, meaning the Canadiens still have an outside shot at actually winning the division.

But back to the Habs, and that pesky issue of falling behind 3-0 early in the game. Most blamed the refs, but the refs don’t kill penalties. Nor do the Habs for that matter. They need to stop this habit of playing themselves out of games so early. It’s killing them.

The fact is that the Devils were 1-7-6 against the Northeast division this season, and were playing their first game since being eliminated from playoff contention. That didn’t stop them from bottling up the Canadiens and holding them to just 21 shots in a game that the Habs really needed to win. The Canadiens now face a tough road if they want to clinch home ice advantage in the first round; they will need to reel off three out of a possible four points against a desperate Jets team, and the Maple Leafs, who have slapped the Canadiens silly for the most part.

For whatever reason the Canadiens are a heavy-legged bunch, save for  some young players, and on that note, it’s time for Coach Michel Therrien to consistently give Lars Eller more ice time over the sputtering David Desharnais, who has done next to nothing since signing his big contract. Tonight, both Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller had more ice time than Desharnais, and we can only hope that it’s a trend that continues long in to the future. Staying on the ice time beat, somebody needs to explain to me why Andrei Markov was the Habs top minute man tonight, topping even P.K. Subban? Anyone? No? Ok, moving on.

To this point, I’ve been only mildly concerned about their recent slide. While the optics of the last six games are horrid, it is this game that truly has me concerned. After two days of practice, the Habs said all the right things and presented a united front that they were going to be a refocused and tighter group. If tonight’s effort was what they were talking about, then they can feel free to go back to the drawing board any time now.

During this slide, I’ve encouraged fans to remain patient and let the Coaching staff pull the team out of their first real slide of the year, and I’ll continue to do so. With that being said, I’ll no longer hold it against the fan who wants to hit the panic button, for they have been given no reason not to.

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Ugly, but Effective

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Regular season game #44

Well I’m glad that’s over. The losing streak that is.

While beating Tampa Bay is hardly reason to doll up Ste-Catherine street for a Cup parade, or even declare that all is well, the two points were paramount. Though it’s been less than a week since their last win, the Canadiens badly needed to remember what it feels like to win a game at this point of the season.

Credit is spread far and wide tonight, starting with Carey Price’s goalposts, which sent no less than four resonating “PINGS!” throughout the Bell Center. For his part, Carey Price had a number of huge saves, several of the game saving variety. He looked like himself, not a moment too soon. Galchenyuk scored a goal for the fifth consecutive game, and Gallagher picked up an assist on the play. Still it is rather odd that Galchenyuk’s ice time was the lowest on the team given his recent productivity; this defies logic, as does David Desharnais’ 5:44 of powerplay time. As a side note, it was a pleasant surprise to see the game begin with Pacioretty alongside Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta. David Desharnais has had more than enough time to reestablish chemistry with the big winger. Tonight, however, the biggest pat on the back goes to the aforementioned Brian Gionta, who has been feeling heat recently. It was his ability to finish that finally put the stop to a gushing wound. For someone who is either criticized for his size, his production and his “leadership qualities”, Gionta once again showed how to answer all three of those criticisms.

Not all has been set right, however, as the defensive side of the game still plays to the tune of Yakety Sax, and special teams have been especially bad, winning goal notwithstanding. There is still a lot of work to do, and a lot of question marks surrounding the defense. Markov looks horrendous, and Bouillon, bless his heart, cannot hack top-four minutes. Diaz is reported to be a possibility for Saturday night, but he’s no Hal Gill. If and when the defensive game gets tightened up, the Habs will be alright. Until then, fans will be bambi-legged, even if the team will sleep very soundly tonight. Won’t you? After all, a fourth consecutive loss with the smoking Capitals coming to town on Saturday wouldn’t leave you feeling cozy, would it?

Before we sign off, let’s remember that this was the team’s fourth game in six nights, and they have had very little practice time recently. For a team that needs structure in order to thrive, this cannot be overlooked. The tight schedule is punishing the Habs, but they still sit in first place in the Northeast division.

No harm, no foul….right?

Follow me on twitter: @kyleroussel

Flightless Birds, Flightless Habs

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Regular season game #43

Tick tock tick tock.

That sound you hear is the clock winding down on the regular season that has seen the Canadiens go from a well balanced, disciplined and resilient team to an impotent, wayward and fragile bunch. What gives? Is this more than just a simple slump?. Recently the Canadiens have been out of games in the first period, so perhaps some questions from Habs Nation are justified.

It was another all around rough night for everyone, including Norris trophy contender P.K. Subban, who looked out of sorts and eventually found himself tossed from the game in the third period. Conversely, two bright spots were Lars Eller, who had a pair of assists, and Alex Galchenyuk, who eased the pain of yet another beat down with a beauty goal from in-close on Fleury. While the vets look to keep the pace up, these two youngsters have turned on the jets.

This mini losing skid has been so surreal in the way that the Canadiens have completely imploded on defense, and on a compete level that you get the sense that there’s some sick joke at play from the hockey gods; teams that have played as well as the Habs have all year don’t suddenly forget who to play hockey. Unless you prefer to panic, or denigrate the team’s work to this point, then it’s important to note that the Habs success through 38 games was not a fluke nor an accident. They won games by being great at even strength, and not relying on goaltending to keep their even-strength dominance afloat. That they’ve given up 22 goals since losing Emelin is certainly a concern but I believe his loss is felt more in the domino effect of having to create new pairings, and ask more of older bodies more than the loss of the player himself. Let’s not forget that Emelin was struggling mightily on his own before tearing his ACL. So while the Habs are better with his physicality on the roster than without him, to suggest that this three-game slide is solely due to his absence is ludicrous.

If you’re glass half-full (and there’s no reason not to be), then chalk this up to a team that is going through what every team does at some point during the season. This team needs a break, and then it needs to get some quality practice time in, and in between it needs a players-only meeting to clear the air. While this is not a disaster yet, it hasn’t stopped Habs nation from plunging in to full-blown panic mode before the losing streak has really even heated up. Given the embarrassing the results of the last three games, giving in to panic might feel justified, but things won’t be allowed to fester for much longer. With a game tomorrow night against the saggy Lightning, the down time and the practice will have to wait at least another day.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Follow me on twitter: @kyleroussel

They’re Dead, Jim

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Regular season game #40

Whatever you do, don’t let this game get the better of you. Yes, it’s fun to watch the Habs run roughshod and totally dominate an opponent, but let’s be honest: the Sabres have quit. They had no will to compete tonight and once the Habs took a 2-0 lead, the game was over. The Habs outshot the Sabres 42-15, just to give you an idea of where the action was in this game; I’m not even sure if the zamboni passed in the Habs end of the rink. The Sabres were wildly undisciplined, granting the Habs eight powerplays. Some teams don’t get eight powerplays in three games, so it’s safe to say that the Sabres were more intent on making this a street fight rather than forcing the Habs to wait one more night to punch their playoff ticket.

But we’re not going to penalize the Habs for the unwillingness or inability of an opponent to compete, so on with the accolades for the night, yes? You could blindly pick any member of the team and find something nice to say about their game tonight. The usual suspects like Subban, Plekanec, Gallagher, Pacioretty and Ryder all made substantial contributions to the score sheet, but let’s reserve a measure of praise for Francis Bouillon, who stood up for Brendan Gallagher by taking on Sabres agitator Steve Ott after the latter delivered a high hit to the Habs rookie. By the book it was a clean hit, and I’ve never been ok with a player having to fight after delivering a by-the-book hit, but Steve Ott was looking for trouble all night, and it’s a comfort that Francis Bouillon took on the job of dispensing some justice. In my opinion, he earned his recent one-year extension on that scrap alone.

Tonight’s win finally clinched the playoff spot that we knew the Habs would secure back in late February, but now that they’re in, we can concentrate on winning the division and starting the playoffs with home ice advantage – a virtual necessity to winning the big prize. The win was also important because it showed once again that the Canadiens are a very resilient team that does not take to losing lightly, and with the playoffs around the corner, avoiding prolonged losing skids might come in pretty handy as you might imagine. Tonights two points also vaults the Habs past the Bruins once again and in to the Northeast division lead. With just eight games remaining, it will go down to the wire to see who takes the division crown.

The Leafs on deck Saturday night, we’ll get a potential first round matchup preview, although the two teams will meet each other for the final time at the end of the regular season. Rest assured that both teams know the potential to bump in to each other in the post-season and will be looking to get in to each other’s heads.

Follow me on twitter: @kyleroussel

Everything Happened

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Regular season game #33

I’m not going to lie to you: I don’t know where to start. When you look up the definition of a roller coaster game, whatever is currently in the hockey dictionary is going to be supplanted by this game. The Habs blew a 2-0 lead, then came back from a pair of third period two goal deficits, finally tying the game with just seconds to go in regulation.

To paraphrase Stefon: “This game had everything”.

Fans of both the Habs and Bruins experienced the full gamut of emotions that hockey has to deliver; everything from despair to exhilaration.

With the Habs having played just one night earlier in Pittsburgh, many wondered how much gas the Habs would have in the tank. The answer is plenty, though Therrien may want to check that  Markov and Emelin aren’t having their gas cut with water. Markov is still a key cog for this team,and did score the game-tying goal, but it’s clear that his mobility has been affected by knee surgeries galore.

It isn’t often that we see Carey Price get pulled, but when Budaj came out to start the third period it was less an indictment of his play as it was a message to the team to get the lead out and to try and change the momentum. Message received, and Budaj was spectacular in Price’s stead, shootout included, as he did not surrender a single goal.

Other laurels go out to P.K. Subban, who played over a half hour of hockey, had a goal and an assist and was a +3 . Brendan Gallagher was also a difference maker, as he scored the goal that gave the Habs renewed life, was in Rask’s kitchen on the game-tying goal, and scored the shootout winner. He continues to make a name for himself, and his buzz saw style has inserted him in to the conversation for rookie of the year. Plekanec quietly had three assists and continues to be the glue that holds the team’s top six together. Captain Brian Gionta also had a pair of assists to go with his three shots on goal. Michael Ryder, who hit nothing but post in Pittsburgh last night had fortune in his favour last night, scoring two more goals. He now has 13 points in 13 games since rejoining the Habs (Erik Cole is stuck on two goals, and is a minus 9 in 13 games with Dallas, and he continues to make Marc Bergevin look like a genius.

You’ve got to wonder what Therrien told his team during the second intermission, but once again it worked. He also had the good sense to not put the struggling David Desharnais out for the last minute powerplay. Desharnais, plucky chap that he is, is useless on the powerplay on the road.

All in all, it was a badly needed win, and goes to show that winning ugly trumps losing while playing well.

And yes, the Habs can run with the big dogs.

Follow me on twitter: @kyleroussel

File and Forget

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Regular season game #19

If this one didn’t have a familiar tone to it, you have probably successfully repressed the last 15 years of Habs hockey from your memory (what’s your secret?). Over the last decade and a half, the Habs did a lot of their winning by letting their goaltending do more than its fair share of work, and hanging around long enough to pot a couple of opportunistic goals. Tonight, it was the depleted Sens that clung to life thanks to some terrific work from Ben Bishop and his goal posts.

Let’s also not forget that the Senators were 8-1-2 at home going in to the game, so it’s not like the Habs had a guaranteed win in the bag just because the Sens are missing some key pieces to their puzzle; they’re rolling right along without Karlsson, Spezza and Anderson.

The Habs dominated the game from the beginning and there’s really not much use in dwelling on the obvious. Bishop stole two points for his team by being better than his counterpart in regulation, in overtime, and in the shootout. Maybe we could have expected the Sens to sag and give up the ghost after Markov evened the score with just 3.8 seconds left in the second period, but that just didn’t happen.

We’ve seen this before. Whether it was Jeff Hackett, Jose Theodore, Cristobal Huet or Carey Price, the Habs had become so weak that the only way for them to win any games at all was to look like a facsimile of the Sens tonight.

So that’s it. Nothing more to say. The Habs played well, and did all of the things you’d want a team to do except score goals. They remained disciplined throughout, won more faceoffs than they lost, and limited turnovers. Sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way, and tonight was an example of just that. On to the rotten Leafs on Wednesday in Toronto, where it would be ideal for the Habs to start improving their in-division record and exacting a little bit of revenge.

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Running With Scissors

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Regular season game #17

As the proud father of a boisterous two-year old who just got her first pair of safety scissors, I now understand what other parents feel when they see their children darting around with sharp metal objects. For the most part, it turns out ok, but it only takes one slip to cause real damage. Sound familiar?

The Habs had the Islanders on the ropes early, building a 2-0 first period lead and outshooting them eleventy billion to two. Slowly but surely, the old undisciplined Habs returned and the Isles made them pay. As the third period began with the Habs clinging to a precarious 3-2 lead, there was the distinct feeling that Carey Price was going to have to perform miracles if the Habs were going to walk away with two points. Unfortunately the one piece of Price’s game that is still missing is the nerve to refuse any more goals despite how porous the defense may be in front of him. It’s the one thing that prevents him from being truly great, though there’s not a lot he could have done about the overtime winner.

Therrien’s challenge tonight was in recognizing the struggles of his top defensive duo of Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin, who have been showing signs of slowing down for a few games now. Where containment was once Markov’s strength, he has lost the mobility that allowed him to keep elusive forwards under wraps. Emelin may bring the boom, but his effectiveness hinges on Markov managing the puck in all three zones well. When that doesn’t happen, Emelin is average. The time for Subban to take the reigns as the team’s time on ice leader is right around the corner as Markov is suffering badly at even strength.

This game was the closest we’ve seen to last year’s abominable bunch. A quick lead followed by a series of lame icings in an attempt to kill the clock…a strategy that failed last year on numerous occasions, and failed again tonight. Far be it for us to complain about a team that has earned 11 of a possible 12 points in the last four games, but the Habs have no excuse for not extending their win streak to 6 games. Once the game became tied, many Habs swallowed hard, with a sense of foreboding after having witnessed this many times. And then when Max Pacioretty blew his chance at a hat trick by firing the puck in to a prone Nabokov with an open net, you had to know that would come back to bite the Habs in the rear end, and it did.

With the tables about to turn on the Habs in terms of proportion to home and road games, this was a point that may be sorely missed. Seven of the Habs next 10 games are on the road, and while their 4-1-1 record says that this isn’t necessarily a death sentence, their last two games leave much to be desired.

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Solid Gold

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Regular season game #16

Hollywood has become notorious for taking safe, bankable scripts and turning them in to quarter million dollar tent pole movies that give birth to at least two sequels. Most movies following this formula are forgettable, but once in a while, a script comes along that turns things on its ear and makes us notice. Enter tonight’s game.

After a first period that saw most of the arena lulled to sleep, including the game participants, the Habs fell behind 1-0 thanks to some lazy work from Erik Cole. Nobody except for Carey Price had a better seat in the house as Stralman slid his own rebound past the prone netminder.  But in a strange twist of fate that has its roots in a 100-foot knuckleball that occured 24 hours earlier in Montreal, Habs sniper Max Pacioretty finally had one of his shots find the back of the net in the final moments of the second period. That was quickly followed up with a Galchenyuk goal to start the third period, and the rest was history.

We keep telling ourselves that the Habs have not really been tested yet; that they  only deserve partial credit due to a soft schedule and that teams have failed to show up to play. But at some point, especially after a night like tonight where the Habs played their second game in two nights (and third in four nights), we have no choice but to tip our caps. The Canadiens, for the third consecutive game won the faceoff battle, were disciplined and were rock solid in the third period, just a couple of weeks after being as sturdy as Bambi on ice in blowing games to the Senators, Bruins and Sabres.

What’s particularly fascinating to see is that the team is getting meaningful contributions from everyone in the lineup; Prust’s big assist, Diaz’ empty netter, Gorges looking like Markov on Pacioretty’s goal…the list goes on and on. We’ve also got to give coach Therrien lots of credit. Every decision he had made has turned to gold so far; from benching Eller (who has been terrific ever since), to going with Diaz in the final minute over a horse like Subban, it’s all coming up roses. This bodes very well for team chemistry and cementing a team identity. Not bad for a season that is only one-third complete!

Before we get too excited, it is still certainly possible for the entire house of cards to come falling down. The Habs are one Markov, Price or Plekanec injury away from potential ruin, and Therrien’s decisions could start to come up as snake eyes instead of panning out.

With the Islanders up next, it would not be unreasonable to think of this team as a 12 game winner well before they hit the 20 game mark. Nobody in their wildest dreams had that in mind as the lockout ended. Let’s enjoy the ride while it lasts, for however long it lasts.

Follow me on twitter: @kyleroussel

 


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