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Canadiens vs. Blue Jackets – Top Six Minutes – You’re off the force, Bobrovsky

  • Everybody take a minute to breathe a sigh of relief. The Canadiens are 5-2, and have won four games in a row
  • Yes, four in a row. That’s something they only did twice during their 2nd place finish last year.
  • No, the Blue Jackets aren’t a particularly good team, and they were without their best player Marian Gaborik with the flu.
  • No, the win wasn’t all that decisive in the end.
  • The Canadiens didn’t dominate the possession battle as one would expect, and needed a late goal by Tomas Plekanec off a play that…well let’s just say that Sergei Bobrovsky misread it.
  • But let’s backup a bit. How good is P.K. Subban?
  • That pass to Rene Bourque to set up his breakaway and the game’s first goal wasn’t just great, it was perfection.
  • Tape-to-tape, fast, well-timed. It was the best pass one could ask for.
  • At one point early in the first period, after Subban had skating LITERAL circles around the Columbus 5-man unit, TSN analyst Dave Reid made a statement to the effect of “There’s no way that Subban can keep up this pace.”
  • Only seconds later, Subban started the passing play that set up Michael Bournival for his first NHL goal
  • We’ll come back to the youngster in a second, but is it too farfetched to suggest that Subban can do things that no defenseman in NHL history has been able to do? I’m not exactly an old man, but I don’t remember ever seeing a player skate and move like Subban is able to.
  • If P.K. Subban doesn’t make Team Canada, it will be a mistake that will be talked about for decades to come. Gretzky in Nagano ring a bell?? Try double.
  • But back to Bournival. When Marc Bergevin says he wants players to force him to make difficult choices, the former Memorial Cup winning captain listened. He deserved to unseat Gabriel Dumont on the team, and he has been exceptional on the fourth line.
  • That line, which included Ryan White and Travis Moen, had a few exceptional shifts blocking shots in the defensive zone, but they also controlled possession impressively at times, which they’ve managed to do just about every game so far.
  • This is getting a little long, and I have yet to talk about a couple of defensive breakdowns that led to the Columbus goals, but this isn’t a night for negatives.
  • This is a good team, and although it wasn’t a great second and third period, it would be unwise to draw too much from it.
  • Now let’s all get some rest and hope for good news on Max Pacioretty in the morning. (Update: He’s out for 3 weeks. Could be a lot worse)
  • After all, months down the line we’ll remember what his diagnosis was. We won’t remember a 4-3 unconvincing victory.

Three Stars:

3rd star: Dave Murray for this comment:

“More like PPG-Subban”

2nd star: Chiefs North for his explanation of Pacioretty being seen without crutches:

“Wolverine. Adamantium groin.”

1st star: Matt Drake for summing up how we were all feeling at the end of this one:


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