Saturday 28 December 2019

Game 38: Canadiens 4, Lightning 5

First game back after the Western Canadian trip and the Christmas break.  Now it's the 'traditional' Florida swing for the Canadiens during the holidays.  Joel Armia is out with a wrist injury after a Nathan Beaulieu crosscheck in Winnipeg, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi returns to third-line centre duty after a stint in concussion protocol.  Nick Suzuki bumps up to second-line right wing.


It's a big one tonight, the continuation of a big road trip, to help define if we're a contender or pretender, a buyer or seller at the trade deadline.  The Canadiens have shone against strong adversaries, and coughed it up against the weaklings.  They've had an eight-game winless streak this season, and now are 7-3-0 in the midst of a tough road stretch.  They're kind of hard to figure.

The Lightning are wearing their black uniforms.  They look like dark masses out there, amorphous blobs, it's impossible to decypher which player is which, the numbers don't pop, they're darkish against a dark background.

I'll say it again: when you install me as your NHL Commissioner/Hockey Czar, I'll immediately decree that black unis are not permissible.  I'll generously allow the Bruins to keep their ugly black and yellow jobbies, but everyone else has to choose a colour.  The Kings go back to their glorious purple and yellow.  The Penguins return to their fetching powder blues.

And no cheating either.  No black, but also no anthracite, no dark grey, no gun-metal grey, no charcoal, no almost-black-with-a-couple-gold-accents-because-we're-the-Golden-Knights-but-our-owner-really-wanted-to-call-us-the-Black-Knights-and-couldn't-obtain-the-rights-in-between-playing-games-of-"shiny"-hockey-in-his-youth.  Pick a colour scheme.  Embrace it.  You go to the bar you can wear black then.

It's a good start for the Canadiens.  The Canadiens had two goals up on the board before the Lightning got a shot on net of their own, 13 minutes in, at which point they got a sarcastic cheer from the crowd, probably split evenly between Tampa and Montréal fans.

Except the Canadiens, who cannot let us have nice things, refuse to go into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead, and let Tampa score late in the first, at 19:01, and a big deal is made of Steven Stamkos assist as it brings him to 799 points in his career, and third in Lightning history behind Martin St-Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.  

Still Jekyll and Hyde-ing us, the Canadiens let Stamkos score in the second minute of the second period to let him get to an even 800 points, and then allowed a third goal on a weird bounce off Artturi Lehkonen after Carey Price bobbled a shot.

So, as Dave Randorf almost strangles himself by exclaiming, the team that was down 17-0 in shots in the first period is now up up 3-2.  And Gary Galley incisively opines: "Tampa have found their legs."  No, really?

Sure enough, Killorn adds another to make it 4-2 at the twelve minute mark, at which point Claude Julien calls a timeout and reams out the team.  Which seems to work, as Ben Chiarot immediately cashes in a rebound from Brendan Gallagher.

Like we said, hard to identify what this team is all about.  Montréal down 4-3 at the second period break.

And the wheel keeps on turning, with Anthony Cirelli cashing in a rebound less than a minute into the third.  5-3 Tampa.  We cannot have nice things.  Especially when Carey Price is a mere mortal.

À propos of nothing, I perused my first 2020 mock draft of the year today.  I haven't spun the lottery wheel yet...

Jordan Weal scores one late on a 6-on4 powerplay, with Carey Price pulled, but that's as close as we get, 5-4 is the final score.  A scrum after the final horn does nothing to change that.

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Tuesday 17 December 2019

Game 34: Canadiens 3, Canucks 1

The Canadiens now do the ritual Western Canadian road trip, a time of the season when they finally play at a reasonable hour.



The Canucks are wearing their cool thirty-third third jersey.  They should stick with this one, or their original uni, all the others really blow.  Get rid of that cartoon whale/product placement.


The Canucks opened the scoring on a powerplay, a wicked shot from Adam Gaudette.  Tomas Tatar again was the culprit in the offensive zone, tripping Jake Virtanen, but it's debatable how merited that penalty was.  Tomas had poke-checked away the puck from the clumsy Canuck, and when on his follow-through his stick ended up near his shinpads, the big galoot went down pretty easily.  Hmmf...

Canadiens 0, Canucks 1 at the first intermission.

The Canadiens are buzzing around the Canucks' zone in the second, but it's reminiscent of the Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais years, when the top centres/lines were not really offensive threats, too small and not talented enough to be difference makers.  So like the Detroit game, we see a lot of shots from outside, attempted deflections, lots of heat but very little light.

I remember when I thought that Alex Galchenyuk and Sebastian Collberg and Tim Bozon were going to fix all that, give us a lethal powerplay.  Now I'm reduce to fantasizing about Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Cole Caulfield.

For now, we'll have to rely on an ice-cold Max Domi feeding a cement-handed Nick Cousins for our offence, which he does, a nifty little pass to tie up the game.

Halfway through the period, a strange sequence, where Carey Price makes a great save but gives up a big fat popup of a rebound, on which Tanner Pearson capitalizes.  Carey had no idea where the puck was, and it could have deflated the team, save for the fact that the play was reversed on an offside review, on which said reviews the Canadiens video coaches are killing it this year.  

All that remained was killing off another penalty for a slash by Nick Cousins on Josh Leivo, which had occasioned a delayed penalty call on the eventually disallowed goal, and Marc Denis posed the reasonable question, if the goal was annulled by the offside, shouldn't the slash be as well?  Since the whistle should have blown well before it happened?  Pierre LeBrun of TSN later explained that this is the rule, that penalties aren't expunged by a call that winds back the clock.

Ryan Poehling drew some praise from Pierre Houde for a sequence with Nate Thompson, good board work and puck protection by him, which led to a scoring chance in close.  It also led to the Canucks scrambling, and the next shift with Danault, Armia and Lehkonen playing keepaway with the puck, and Armia eventually potting the goal.  The Canucks challenged the goal because of goalie interference, and the refs, impenetrably, bought it and overturned the goal, even though Oscar Fantenberg clearly crosschecked Artturi into his own goalie.  
Up is down and black is white and impeaching Donald Trump is an attack on democracy and Artturi Lehkonen interfered with Jakob Markstrom on that disallowed goal.  We live in a post-truth world.

I switched over to TSN for the intermission, because Mario Tremblay on RDS, I'm sorry I can't.  Pierre LeBrun was as flabbergasted with the decision as literally everyone else on Earth is.

Canadiens 1, Canucks 1 after two periods.

But maybe the refs have some modesty.  They had to call two penalties against the Canucks, early in the third, couldn't very well let them go, and Tomas Tatar and Shea Weber cashed them in.

At this point we see lots of empty seats on our TV picture, that burgundy lower bowl upholstery they use at that barn, but many more are occupied by fans in bleu-blanc-rouge.  I texted and asked my friend in attendance at the rink how quiet it got, but he didn't reply, meaning he's drunk, obviously.  Drunk, and happy.

The Canucks mounted a furious comeback attempt, pulling their goalie with three minutes to go and setting up for long stretches in the Canadiens' end, but Carey stayed strong.

Canadiens 3, Canucks 1, goodnight my friends.

Les faits saillants de RDS:



For local colour, let's also see what John Shorthouse and John Garrett had to say about this game.

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Friday 13 December 2019

New Colisée in Trois-Rivières won't host Canadiens farm team



The long-rumoured establishment of an ECHL franchise in Trois-Rivières, which was supposed to act as the Canadiens', and more directly, the Laval Rocket's farm team, looks like it won't happen after all.  

This arena, which was built at great taxpayer expense, now seems destined to host les Patriotes de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, according to the reports by Steve Turcotte of Le Nouvelliste.  They play in the U Sports OUA East Division, and if this stumps you, well that's your first indication of the potential draw this team will have on fans.  In a 5 000-seat arena.  Mr. Turcotte suggests the long game might be to wait for a LHJMQ team, either through expansion or another franchise's move.

The mayor and council are also trying to pitch the venue as an arts and culture destination, with Trois-Rivières having a good track record over the last few years as a Cirque du Soleil summer destination.

Which is all fine and good, but this is kind of a bummer for me.  The establishment of an ECHL team was in the long run, I thought, going to be another major asset for the Canadiens, a way to flex its financial might and gain an advantage over more penurious NHL franchises.  Having a wealth of players and prospects under team control in the immediate vicinity of Montréal was going to provide at least a marginal benefit in my opinion.  

Just seeing the way a few injuries on the Canadiens and the Rocket have plucked the latter's roster to the bone, and seeing it have to resort to putting players on PTOs in the lineup, is all the demonstration I need that the Canadiens need to shore up this area of their system.  If this was a one-time thing, you could shrug it off as bad luck, but going back to the Hamilton Bulldogs days, it seems that every season a 'promising' roster in the AHL is proven to be too threadbare, perennially in crisis in the event of a few sprains or callups.

I try not to get too upset over specific games, the wins and losses, even my beloved team missing the playoffs.  As long as there is progress, even the 'one step back' kind, when a Max Pacioretty is sent packing, or when we agonize and cross our fingers until the day of the Draft Lottery.

So when the Canadiens' affiliation with the ECHL Brampton Beast was discontinued a couple seasons back and not replaced with another ECHL team affiliation, but seeing instead the Canadiens placing/loaning surplus AHL'ers to various ECHL franchises, I took it in stride, believing a long-term solution was afoot.  I figured these last couple of years without a dedicated ECHL team were one of these 'one-step-back' moments, that would pay off in the long run.  So I'd grit my teeth at the fact that Michael McNiven is banished to one rival's ECHL team after another, with no control on coaching and minutes on our part.  These stumbles will pay off in the long run, I thought.

But now that this purported plan is not going to come to fruition, I'm going to grouse about this.  This situation cannot endure.  Either Geoff Molson enters the dance and sweetens the offer so that Trois-Rivières does an about-face, or the Canadiens next season have to sew up an American ECHL franchise's affiliation.  They need to stack it with Québec coaching and organizational talent to stock the pond further, give our prospects, even the longshots, the best environment possible to progress and maybe even succeed.

And long-term, they have to get an ECHL franchise set up nearby, possibly on the South Shore, and provide deep organizational support to the Canadiens and Rocket and its players.
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Tuesday 10 December 2019

Game 31: Canadiens 4, Penguins 1

The Canadiens made a quick hop to Pittsburgh tonight, a one-game road quickie before returning to Montréal for a game against the Senators tomorrow.  Quick trip, quick two points, no biggie.

The Canadiens won this one 4-1, although the score doesn't quite reflect a closely-contested game.


It seems like the ship is righted, is no longer foundering.  The Canadiens weren't on their horse and buzzing around the opponents' zone like earlier this season, but that may have been due to the Pittsburgh Tupperware defence, whereby they hermetically sealed off their blue line.  Mario Tremblay brought some insight in the first period break (for once), showing the Penguins all arrayed between the red line and their blue line, facing the onrushing Canadiens, skating backwards like five Rod Langways.  The Penguins are very aware they're missing Sidney.

And the Canadiens responded in kind, they'd collapse around their net, I saw a few defenders sprawled on the ice à la Hal Gill, the whole thing had a faint whiff of Jacques Martin.

Carey is out of his November funk, seemingly at the top of his game.  He's flashing the leather, he's skating around his net handling the puck and dishing it off, he's making things look easy.  He's worth every penny.

And how about that Shea Weber wraparound goal, à la Larry Robinson, 'à l'emporte pièce'?


I don't think I've ever seen that kind of mobility from the Man Mountain.  Maybe he's thinking that he has to take matters in his own hands these days, that the team is a little fragile, that Max Domi and Jonathan Drouin are MIA and the offence has to come from somewhere other than Gally's stick.

Okay, now let's dispose of those dirty, risible Senators tomorrow night, and get solidly back on our feet.

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