Habs Two for 2012 with 3-1 Win over Lightning
by Kevin van Steendelaar on Jan 7, 2012 11:00 PM EST
in Habs Game Recaps
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PrintSometimes Ron MacLean comes up with some good ones, I gotta give him that. "Tonight protesters in Quebec got their Cunneysworth,"was how the HNIC anchored closed out coverage of the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 win over the Tampa bay Lightning.
As protesters camped out in anger against the uni-lingual Habs bench boss, Cunneyworth stuck to his game plan. It paid off.
With Brian Gionta returning to the lineup, Cunneyworth opted to scratch fourth-line center Petteri Nokelainen, the team's top face-off man, and went with three centers. It was certainly a bit of a head scratcher, but the remaining centers (Tomas Plekanec, Lars Eller and David Desharnais) went a combined 54 percent against their opponents.
Nothing unsual in the first goal of the night, the typical early first goal by the opposition at 3:24 of the first period. At first it ws credited to former Hab Dominic Moore, but the tip in was later given to Vincent Lecavalier. It would be the only blemish on the recored for Carey Price, who made 23 saves on the night.
The Canadiens took charge in the second period, with a pair of goals in the opening minutes. On an aggressive fore check, Mike Blunden, often under the microscope for the recent increase in TOI buried his first goal in a Habs uniform at 5:44. The Canadiens fourth liner was born in Toronto, but grew up uni-lingual in West Montreal. Given the events of earlier in the day, Cunneyworth must have felt some sort of redemption in the tying goal.
Blunden gave some praise to the new coaching approach being given by Cunneyworth, post game. "We're a little more upbeat on our fore check. We play four lines and we've been working really hard of late," he said.
A minute and 33 seconds later, Max Pacioretty shook the monkey off his back with his 12th goal of the season. The play was set up by a perfect clearing pass from P.K. Subban.
The game was a relatively whistle-free evening, with a combined three minor penalties called against each club. The Tampa power-play, dead last on the road, showed just that with Montreal's Lars Eller getting the best scoring chance on the their only power play.
It appeared that Eller kept his scoring magic from Wednesday night going in the second period, but the goal was called off immediately. Even Eller didn't try to sell the fact that his attempt to stop the puck in front of the Tampa net resulted in a kicking motion.
While Eller didn't register a goal on the night, he and his line-mates (Travis Moen, and Andrei Kostitsyn) were given the task of shutting down the Lightning's top line.
"We did the little things tonight that were important," Cunneyworth said. "Eller's line was against a pretty impressive trio, and they did a good job against that line. Lars is very reliable in his own end. We know Moen's battle and his respect and Kostitsyn is coming into his own on that line."
Erik Cole added a power-play goal with 17 seconds remaining in the game, to put another notch in the Canadiens and Cunneyworth's win record.
Cunneyworth also acknowledged the protest, saying he was unaware of it until just a couple days prior. "That's their prerogative, but I didn't give it much more time to it. My focus was on the game."
Price also commented on the protest, of which 200 people reportedly attended."I'm sorry that I'm not a francophone but you know I'm just here to try and do my job I'm not here to do anything else," the Canadiens netminder said. "Everybody's entitled to their opinions so I can't really say much about it. "We're all brought here by management and we're just trying to do our job."
Wearing a cage, after a shot ot the face in practice on Friday, Alexei Emelin continued to be a hitting machine, laying out the body seven times on the night, He should also get a non-hit credit, after Steve Downie found himself bouncing off the Russian Tank after an open-ice hit attempt. Emelin was with his head down, and in skating stride on the impact and didn't even budge.
The Canadiens are now at the midway point of the 2011-12 NHL regular season. Their record sits at 16-18-7, seven points back of eighth place. They continue their home stand Tuesday, with a homecoming visit from Jaroslav Halak and the St. Louis Blues.
Three Stars: 1. Max Pacioretty 2. Carey Price 3. Vincent Lecavalier
Advanced Stats: Shift Charts / Head to Head / Corsi & Fenwick
Reaction from the 0 for Eastern Canada gang at Raw Charge
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Eller’s is apparently the first line now. Which is sort of where Martin was going just before he got fired. DD’s line got plenty of minutes as well. Which didn’t lead to Pleks’ line being underutilized because Randy seems to have completely dropped the whole “roll four lines” approach, at least for a game. Less than 3 minutes for Darche and Blunden.
Interesting usage for Pleky, actually. Not one second of PK time, although there only was one occurence (but Gionta, Cole and DD had some). Some PP time. They’re getting a bit of a breather.
Where does Gomez go in the lineup? RC can’t use him as a 4th line center, can he?
Emelin’s brick wall routine against Malone was hilarious. Was Malone credited with a hit on it? :D
Pleks was in the box for the only PK, so that’s why he had no ice there.
I’m wondering if this 3 center thing was specifically used against TB because they suck at faceoffs anyway. Would RC dare to try that against Boston?
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by Andrew Berkshire on Jan 7, 2012 11:12 PM EST up reply actions
If we had had more penalties, I’m sure Darche and Blunden would have played more. I’d like to have seen them play more like 5-7 minutes of ES, though. They’re competent in their own way, and there’s no sense in burning out our top 9 too much.
I have to say, rolling 7D worked out very well. Lions in Winter pointed out that playing 4D 20+ minutes and rotating Gill, Kaberle and Campoli ensured that none of them were overworked and all were available if the need arose. There were very few defensive lapses tonight, and I don’t think any of them turned into scoring chances, but don’t quote me on that.
As for Gomez, with the way he’s been playing (puck possession beast, limited offensive roll), and the way the other three 3Cs have been playing, I think he should either be played as 4th C (he’s good defensively and good on faceoffs), or winging one of the other lines.
My guess is Gomez starts at 4C and eventually bumps Desharnais. Or getting hurt again.
As for Emelin: He is the pride of the beer bellied denizen of God’s green earth.
I think this is one area where Cunneyworth might be better than Martin. I can absolutely see him playing Gomez as 4C or a winger indefinitely, whereas Martin would have played him as 2C as soon as he was ready.
And yeah, like I said in the game thread, Emelin reminds me of those seemingly overweight, out of shape NFL linebackers. And yet those guys can run and run and run.
The goal, I think, is to carve out complementary roles that can be fulfilled by players on the roster and then making sure every player is put where he is the most effective from the club perspective.
Tonight, there is a fairly good chance Gomez would have ended up with Plekanec’s minutes. Having him back will make things very interesting.
Honestly, I’m not a Gomez hater so I don’t really care where he winds up, so long as he positively affects the team, and I don’t see anything but that happening.
I think that Gomez will end up on the LW, the way he is playing in the last couple of years, it seems to be his natural position.
I wonder what a line with Gomez, Eller, Gionta would look like. A strong playmaker in Gomez, Eller to bring size and a nose for the net, and Gionta to bring hard work and shiftyness.
The NHL highlights list the Malone-Emelin impact as Malone hitting Emelin, which I suppose is true in the “I hit a brick wall” sense.
Emelin was credited with 6 hits at game’s end. Shortly after, it was changed to 7.
I checked Malone’s count, shortly after the collision, and he had 2. He finished with the same.
Wonder if the scorer reversed it, provided Malone had another hit before the game ended.
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Jan 8, 2012 12:47 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
You know what the streak is doing.......
I don’t want to rain on the parade…I love the way the boys are skating the last 2 games. Somehow RC has found the missing “On” switch and has made it work. So here we are nightmare or dream time in January for what ever side of the proverbial coin you sit on. We are 2 rungs up the highwire pole with the goal of stepping out onto the wire by month’s end. That will be do or die time for us. Step off into the abyss or step up into the playoffs with a 6th seeding. Today we are 8 pts. back of the 7th placed Leafs. Their view of the landscape is fleeting ( just what the fuck got into Detroit in the 1st period tonite????). So can we sustain the streak in this remaining 6 at home of our 9 remaining for the month? I know…real early days. So far so good on RC and his approach but we have some big time opponets still to come this month that will tell if we are men or mice. This must be proving to be aanxious days for the “3 Wisemen” in the Ivory Tower so to speak. Win or lose…what is it to be….I bet this is tearing them up…win now stall the future or vice versa. Who wants to answer/decide that one?
"It's only through change we learn to grow".
You play to win, not for a draft pick. The fans in the stands deserve for the team to want to win it even when its past the time where its impossible to make the playoffs. Can the streak be sustained? Who knows, all I know is that I am seeing the team I thought I would see at the beginning of the season in the last five games or so. And to me that matters more than them making the playoffs this year.
I hate doing standing math at this point because it always leads to the inescapable conclusion: firing Martin has already killed the season and winning now is worse than wasting effort. Fun as winning is, I’m pretty convinced at this point that it’s perfectly counterproductive for the team long-term, as there is nothing to be gained by it except a worse draft pick. They have no realistic shot at the playoffs. From a purely rational standpoint, the better bet for the Habs is losing, and the more the better.
Maybe it’s time to step back, reassess, play Budaj a lot, and let Blunden and Nokia have their ice. But is this something the team brass is willing to do? What about the fans?
While the long term goal is a winning team, short term goals are always immediate profits. And this is why they won’t throw the season away.
by fsaintjacques on Jan 8, 2012 4:18 PM EST up reply actions
Short term profits like what? They’re not going to get playoff money and they’re not likely to fail to sell out.
by MathMan on Jan 8, 2012 5:08 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions
If I thought Molson and/or Gauthier shared your assessment I would be on board. As things stand my attitude is every win the Habs get from now until the end of the season makes a disastrous panic move less likely.
Even with selling the UFAs I don’t see the Habs as finishing bottom-5 unless they don’t get relatively healthy or start dealing players under control for future seasons.
To me that would send the wrong message all around. You want your players to play with confidence, you want you want to win games. This is especially true if you become a seller at the deadline. Can you move a guy like Gill if the team’s PK is horrible? Or Kaberle if he is -23 and can’t get the PP going because you have guys like Noki and Blunden on it?
Besides there is no way a coach would like Cunneyworth would allow it. Playing to lose is what losers do and you don’t get to the NHL without being a winner. Saying that every win is counter productive is beyond asinine. You play to win.
by Silvertip on Jan 8, 2012 5:45 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions
Every win makes the draft pick worse and does little to improve the chances of making the playoffs. Unless you think they can string 8 in a row or suchlike. If you take yourself out of the player’s perspective for a second and look at the club’s long-term success coldly and unemotionally then every win has negative value to the club at this point, unless the improbable occurs and they do claw their way into the playoffs.
I’m not a proponent of tanking as a team building strategy, but sometimes shit happens in hockey and this season the Habs have gotten nothing but. At some point it starts making more sense to fold and look to next year.
The players can’t think that way nor would you want them to, but as an organization I hope the Habs are realistic about where they stand and what their chances are. Then again they foolishly fired Martin and trashed the season, so that’s not encouraging; the worst thing that could happen is for the Habs to mortgage the future in a futile attempt to salvage a lost season.
by MathMan on Jan 8, 2012 6:37 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions
To be honest, I think they could string together a big streak still. I legitimately believe this team is capable of that once some bodies get back.
But in no way should they be after any rental players.
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55 points in 41 games to do it. Less than that if the threshold is less than 94, of course. I figure Toronto has a good chance of falling out, and possibly Pittsburgh whose injury situation is now officially more ridiculous than the Habs’. Figure Washington is a threat to make it though, despite being horribly coached, and Winnipeg as well. Buffalo, Tampa, Carolina and the Islanders figure to be non-factors.
It’s vaguely doable, but they have to be a top-5 club the rest of the way. And they have the horses, but they need luck, and they need Randy to not screw it up. More coaching like last game’s and less like the Winnipeg game.
Basically, if they don’t start being an elite club right now, they have no shot. They need four points out of every set of three games from here on out.
Say they do go on a 7 game winning streak sometime in there, then it is down to 41 in 34 games, or 6 points for every 5 games for the rest, or Martin’s favoured 98/99 point pace.
They can’t have another losing streak, that’s for sure. But they need another winning streak like the one they had in October, and they simply need to be a solid playoff team for the remainder of the schedule with no obvious hiccups.
I get the feeling that Randy does have some accumen back there, but he wanted to break some routine to make some point, which REALLY put the team in a tough spot playoffs wise.
It’s tough to do, but if they don’t try I know I’ll be checking out permanently, not just taking a break while covering the WJCs.
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the Draft?
is terribly over-rated … unless you’re getting top 5 pick, history shows there’s not much difference between what you find at #6 or #16 or #26 in the 1st round. It’s a crapshoot. And drafting a guy in 2012 who might join the big club in 2015? I don’t think that’s what management is going to try to sell the fans, esp. given the number of “misses” they’ve had over the years. If anything, more likely to trade the young, unproven assets that aren’t NHL ready for a top-shelf player that’s ready to contribute now if they think it makes Habs better this year and next.
The bottom-5 of the standings looks to be pretty crowded, especially now that EDM and ANA are clear sellers.
Also, even on an off-year prospect-wise, they still have Leblanc scratching at the door. Procurment is not this team’s problem. (hint: it’s injuries)
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