Game 17 Recap: Habs Cough It Up To Sabres 3-2 (SO)

JM not changing his Spots for anyone. Has anyone noticed the trend here. We’re back to the 1 goal differentional again. We’re back to playing it safe. Gone are the games of going for the other team’s throat and trying to open up the lead. Gone are those games where we were outscoring our oppenents 4-1 or 5-2 etc. Now we’re back where we started with those shitty 2-1, 3-2 games and the wrong end of a 5-3 thumbing for good measure every once in a while.
JM tried it our way for 3 games and yes they did turn into wins but he wasn’t convinced. We went on a 5 day hiatus and then came back and overwhelmed Ottawa 2-1. Then came the Saturday in New York. The penalty fiasco over the "Incident de Blunden". With JM not moving a muscle to question the call on the ice that should have only been a 5-4 and not a 5-3 the tide of the game was turned. JM was served his wish card to go back and play it "his way". So reverting to his form we’ve played 6 games since the Canadiens 5 day break. We are 3 Wins 3 Losses – note 1 loss was a Shoot-out loss – so 1 pt. earned. So 7 of a possible 12 pts earned. We have scored a whopping 13 goals – slightly over 2 per game and allowed 15 or 2.5/game. So whatever the firing of Perry Pearn did it hasn’t helped the Power Play and it hasn’t changed the style of play that JM wants to coach. He is stubborn in the fact that he resists the opportunity to add a physical presence in Alexi Emelin to the defensive line-up. His presence will have the opponents playings heads up and a little slower as they approach the neutral zone and our blueline coming at him. He passes well and moves the puck easily and most importantly he can clear traffic from the front of the net. His counterpart Raf Diaz is continually making coverage mistakes in our end and is screening Price on shots from the slot or the point. He is easily muscled out of position or off the puck. But Martin won’t budge, he’d send him out there if his stick was broken. Lars Eller is playing very strongly coming off his strong playoff performance last year. But he can’t by a cup of coffee on the Power Play. Yet Mat Darche will get on avg. 5 mins./game out there and he’s a 4th liner. Rookies and young team members forever pay the price for mistakes with loss of TOI but veterans feel no such pain. A tried and true Martin formula.
I think that PG needs to make a statement here or he will end up being made ridicule by Martin. The point being of course EMELIN. Gautier worked very hard in the off-season to pry this past Mtl. draft choice away from the KHL to Montreal for this coming season. Basically the deal was to play for Montreal or return to Russia. Martin has foung little to like in Emelin since Day 1. Emelin did not show up in game shape for training camp and for that it was game over. Instead of PG interceding on his behalf he has let Martin call the shots. Martin has called for the most part to have Emelin drink Lattes from the pressbox with the odd on ice excursion. That plan is just not going to work. With Markov’s return just around the corner this is the time for PG to "Man-Up". He is going to need to impress upon Martin that Emelin is to play alongside Markov until such time that it is painfully clear from all angles that he is not up to standards of a starting defensemen for the Habs. But he must be given a fair and fruitful opportunity. Playing with Markoff will allow him the chance to learn with a) a seasoned pro and b) more importantly being able to communicate freely on and off the ice instantly. He will be able to receive on the job coaching from one of the best and this should allow him to ramp his game up to become an effective defensemen for the Canadiens. Failure to do so however will see this highly graded prospect return to Russia with nothing to show but contempt for this organization because of the mishandlings of 2 men.

“It’s only through change we learn to grow”.
Canadian Jet

playing just well enough to lose. His style is boring & the games are not fun to watch. Carey Price has very little margin for error, if he gives up three goals the Canadians are in trouble. How long before race horses like Gianta, Camalleri & Cole get tired of pulling a plow? Is Gomez really that lousy or does he just look bad in Martin’s system? Maybe Gauthier should trade them for more defencemen, that way Martin could put 5 D-men out every shift & be happy.

I’m going to do some research and pull up career shootout stats for the Habs players. I think we’re pretty terrible all around, although it looks like Palushaj has some skill there from the AHL.