Saturday, 4 January 2020

Game 41: Canadiens 2, Penguins 3 (OT)

The Canadiens take on the Penguins tonight in a good HNIC Saturday night game... relegated to the City broadcast, because our national broadcaster CBC is reserved for the Toronto Leafs of Toronto.


This is the 41st game, the midway point of the season.  Canadiens are 13th in the East, but a healthy 19 points up on last place Detroit.  Tanking won't work this season.  Les boys are on pace for an 84-point season though...

First game of the Ilya Kovalchuk era, except he hasn't sorted out his visa yet, so he won't play. 

(Francois Gagnon: Ilya Kovalchuk : le pari de la dernière chance)

Marco Scandella will play his first game for the bleu-blanc-rouge, wearing number 28. 


28 is the wrong number for Marco Scandella, that's the Pierre Larouche number.  Éric Desjardins, sure, I'd guessed you might bring him up, that Johnny-come-lately...


Kind of cool that Weise-y got his number 22 back though.  It went from him to Alzner to Vejdemo before he got it back.  I guess Lukas Vejdemo didn't insist too hard on keeping it, he has #42 now.

The Canadiens start off well and earn a powerplay early, but can't get much of a threat generated.  Ilya Kovalchuk, sitting in the pressbox watching this, must be itching to get on there and show them how it's done.

Artturi Lehkonen gets the first goal, and is starting to look more like the 20-ish goal-scorer we thought he was going to be, instead of the snakebitten frustrating enigma he's been for a couple of seasons.

The Penguins get one right back though and tie it up 1-1.  Canadiens are notorious this season for allowing goals a minute or two after they score one. 

The first period was marked by another ugly incident that is so routine in the NHL that it will be ignored by the powers-that-be, but should have landed Max Domi in the hockey slammer.  On a fairly innocuous play, Domi carried the puck and tried to deke around Marcus Pettersson of the Penguins, who made a fine defensive play and stripped him of the puck.  Subsequently, their skates touched and hips collided and both went down, but this was after the puck was gone, and not a result of an illegal or dirty play.

What does Max Domi do but get up and attack Marcus Pettersson, first crosschecking him then dropping his gloves and starting to punch him before the defenceman knew he was in a fight, let alone why.  Somehow, Max Domi only got an extra minor for crosschecking, and both got five minutes for fighting.  No instigator penalty, which was clearly called for, and no expulsion from the game.

This should be a textbook sequence to coach up new referees on how to award instigator penalties.  I mean, Max should be the poster boy for the instigator, with Chris Neil and Brad Marchand and Nazem Kadri.

Hockey is a great sport, but the NHL is a garbage league.

Change coming at a glacial pace.  This year, we've removed Nick Kypreos and Don Cherry from their pulpits.  Maybe 50 years from now, that type of play will be met with an appropriate response.  Meaning, jail time.

In any case, now is the time to trade Domi to Calgary for TJ Brodie and a first.  It can't be soon enough.

Brian Burke in the first intermission opines on the Canadiens, and says that a GM should/would like to see his team getting better fast or worse fast, but not treading water, as the Canadiens are, with Shea Weber and Carey Price in their thirties, and most of the kids we're waiting on a ways away.  Hmmm....

Is that Mike Bossy wearing #62?  Early in the second, Artturi strips the puck off Erik Johnson, stuffs it in past Murray, 2-1 Canadiens.

Again though the Penguins respond, a minute or two later, with a goal by Bryan Rust, and it's tied 2-2.

Try as they might the Canadiens can't get that killer goal, the one that makes a difference in the game.  Instead, we get a Scandella crossbar, Artturi with a chance at the hat trick and go-ahead goal...  "We came so close!..."

And in OT, Brandon Tanev, of all people, puts it away, and ends the game, despite a blatant interference on Carey Price in full view of the impotent officials.

A loser point against a conference opponent.  Straddling the growing gap between the dock and the boat.  A moral victory.

So it goes...

Penguins 3-2 (NHL Game recap, stats)

(Radio-Canada: Le Canadien s’enfonce avec une cinquième défaite d’affilée)


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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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Saturday, 23 November 2019

Game 23: Canadiens 5, Rangers 6



Okay guys, even if, as Claude Ruel used to say "Y'en aura pas d'facile", this is a chicken ready to be plucked, fried and consumed.  The Rangers are disheartened after a bad loss in Ottawa last night.  Easy two points here, just gotta pick 'em up...

(Francois Gagnon: Un autre petit match facile…)

Carey Price is starting, will be starting the rest of the way the whole season no doubt.  Keith Kincaid's relegated to puerile tweet duty.

The big news today was that Max Domi's pout about being shunted to the wing was rewarded by the Canadiens' head coach.  He's back at centre on the second line, and Nick Suzuki gets pushed to the right wing.

1st PERIOD:

 --Sure enough, Max Domi, who I was going to enjoin to put out, to turn it up a notch, well, he scores in the first couple of minutes, assisted by Nick Suzuki and lightweight (on the scoresheet) Artturi Lehkonen.

Canadiens 1, Rangers 0

--Gary Galley says, commenting on the absence of Tomas Tatar after a percussive bodycheck by Chris Kreider (him again...), "the Canadiens have more depth than ever".  Really Gary?  More depth than in the 70s with the stacked Junior de Montréal and Nova Scotia Voyageurs teams?  More depth than the 80s when guys like Sergio Momesso, Claude Lemieux, Stéphane Richer, Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane among others would arrive from the LHJMQ or the Sherbrooke Canadiens and step right into the lineup?

It really should be a requirement to have basic critical thinking and language skills to be allowed to hold a microphone on air.  The housecleaning at Sportsnet, while mostly being about their bottom line with the disastrous NHL broadcast rights contract they (and we the public) are stuck with, is not over, not by a longshot.  Nick Kypreos, Doug MacLean and Don Cherry, goodbye good riddance, but there's a lot of deadwood there still.

--I cracked wise about Artturi, right?  Well, he just scored too, on a decent line-rush snipe.  Not sure the Rangers goalie is long for this game?  Two goals he didn't look great on already, halfway through the first.

Canadiens 2, Rangers 0

--Tomas Tatar is back on the ice later in the 1st period, so no major damage after the Kreider hit I guess.

--Joel Armia and Nick Suzuki both tried a wrist shot on Alexandar Georgiev, when the latter was set and unscreened.  He plucked both muffins out of the air with his catcher, with ease.  We need guys who can rifle the puck.

--Max Domi racks up another goal, a nice screened shot, well-timed from the high slot.  Right at the end of the period too, with thirty seconds left.

Canadiens 3, Rangers 0

2nd PERIOD

--The Canadiens, buzzing around the Rangers zone as if they were on the powerplay, make it 4-0, on a big slap shot by Shea Weber.  Again, though screened, Georgiev didn't look great, letting a puck dribble through him.

Canadiens 4, Rangers 0

--The shutout is dead.  The Rangers get two quick goals back, on line rushes.  Maybe the Canadiens eased off a tad, thinking this one was in the bag?

Canadiens 4, Rangers 2

Gary Galley is already openly-cheering for the comeback.  Once a dirty Bruin, always a dirty Bruin.

--Brendan Lemieux, that turd, scores on the powerplay.  Gary Galley can hardly contain himself.

Canadiens 4, Rangers 3

--The Canadiens, not quite done shooting themselves in the foot, go on the penalty kill, and then Ben Chiarot accidentally clears the puck over the glass and they go 3-on-5.  They do manage to kill it off.

3rd PERIOD

--The sloppy game continues in the third.  Snipey Lehkonen put in another nice shot to put the Canadiens up by two goals and maybe settle this game down five minutes in, but no, the Rangers score another thirty seconds later, and then tie the game up on a shorthanded two-on-one rush.  Brendan Lemieux again.

Canadiens 5, Rangers 5

--And sure, why not, Jacob Trouba floats in a wrister from the blue line, and it gets through Carey Price, screened as he was by Kreider and Jeff Petry.

Time to think some dark thoughts...

Canadiens 5, Rangers 6

--I guess that's what life is like, when you cheer on a team with an erratic goalie?  6 goals on 32 shots against usually rock-solid Carey.  His counterpart, who we sniffed at earlier, has let in 5 on 40.  So far.  The way this is going, these teams could pump in another four or five, easy.

--Canadiens fail to convert on a powerplay, a too-many-men penalty against the Rangers.  4 minutes to go.

--Turns out, this one isn't "facile", even against the lowly Rangers.  Claude Ruel was a sage.

--Canadiens pull Carey with two minutes to go and a won faceoff in the offensive zone.  They get a few shots off, Georgiev smothers the puck for a whistle.  Timeout Canadiens, with slightly less than a minute to go.

--The Domi line, which has been hot tonight, gets the last shift, wins the faceoff.  Brendan Lemieux takes a shot at the empty net, trying to finish the hat trick, misses.  Icing.  Please please please make him pay...

--No dice.  Petry shot stopped by Georgiev.  27 seconds left.

--The boys are going to be skating at practice tomorrow.  Or Monday, most probably, Sunday is usually their CBA-mandated scheduled day off.  Claude Julien must love that.

The Rangers close it out, 6-5 final.  The tattered scattered remnants of HIO will hang Marc Bergevin in effigy.  I might brandish a desultory pitchfork in the background.


(Eric Engels: Canadiens’ defensive issues the root of ‘unacceptable’ loss to Rangers)
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Saturday, 12 October 2019

Game 5: Canadiens 6, Blues 3


Tweaked lineup tonight against the Blues, with Brett Kulak rejoining the action and landing with Jeff Petry on the second pairing, Ben Chiarot dropping down to the third, and Mike Reilly back in the pressbox with Cale Fleury.  (Let's send the kid to Laval for a few games, instead of sitting games.)

Also, Paul Byron vaults to the second line with Max Domi, while Nick Suzuki takes his place on the fourth line.  Claude Julien, knowing a good thing when he sees it, leaves the Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Armia line alone.


The Sportsnet stooges start the game by mentioning it's the 67th anniversary of Hockey Night in Canada, or more precisely, 'La Soirée du Hockey' on Radio-Canada, with NHL hockey shown for the first time on TV, described on-air by the venerable René Lecavalier.

The Canadiens open the scoring with Tomas Tatar getting the goal off the draw, and it's all kinds of malarkey that Phillip Danault, who won the faceoff, and Brendan Gallagher, who shoveled the puck to the front of the net and to Tomas, don't get credited with assists on the goal, at least initially.  I expect this to be corrected, it makes no sense, that two players who happen to be in my hockey pool get stiffed like that.

After another early-season coverage breakdown in the Canadiens' zone allowed Brayden Schenn to waltz into the slot on a rush and wire a wrist shot past Carey Price to tie the game, Jonathan Drouin scored right back on a similar kind of play, taking a long lead pass from Ben Chiarot and lasering the puck past Binnington off the post and in.  It kind of took the sting out of the Schenn goal, just as Gary Galley was nattering on about late-period goals being the bane of the Canadiens so far in October.

Good start to the season from Jonathan, and really, that's the kind of play we should expect from him, the level of intensity and production, from a third-overall draft pick who's the highest-paid forward on the team.  A point a game from him all season long would be very welcome.

The see-saw battle continued to the end of the second period, with Vince Dunn notching an easy goal for the Blues on the powerplay, strolling in unmolested to receive a pass and wrist it into the open net, answered by Phillip Danault, on a great hustle play from Gally.

Some of the negative nellies in the media who've been pointing out the confusion in the defensive zone, all the shots against, and good scoring chances allowed, they're kind of getting to me, because I had a feeling of dread rather than optimism as the third period started, but I shouldn't have worried.  Artturi Lehkonen gave the Canadiens the lead with a wraparound, followed shortly thereafter by a Brendan Gallagher goal, on an assist by a furious Max Domi.  The latter closed out the game with a diving swat at a puck to score the empty-net insurance goal, a play on which Jonathan Drouin earned an assist.

After the game, Jonathan was awarded the player-of-the-game sword by captain Shea Weber, which I guess replaces the sweaty Game of Thrones cape the unlucky recipient had to put on last year.  I admit I'm getting old, but the first thing that leaped to mind was the hope that the thing is quite dull, because how much would it suck for someone to get maimed because of highjinks?

[EDIT: Further reading: Strong start to season has Canadiens’ Drouin brimming with confidence ]

And the Brett Kulak-Jeff Petry duo just works.  As much as on paper, in theory, according to hockey wisdom, it made sense to put Ben Chiarot, a New Age no-nonsense tough physical defensive defenceman, with offensive-minded Jeff Petry, it just didn't quite get airborne, they were still searching for that elusive chemistry.  There was much tangential talk in the media this week about systems, about breakouts, with Ben talking about how the Canadiens want to pass/rush the puck up the middle quickly, while in Winnipeg they were playing more of an old-school puck control slower-pace system.  He said how his first instinct is still to look to pass the puck across to his defence partner, or up the boards, where with the Jets his winger would be waiting.  Now on the Canadiens, he said it takes him a second longer to remember to look up the middle and find his outlet there.

Tonight, Brett Kulak and Jeff Petry were engaged, working well with each other, skating freely.  Each finished +2 and garnered an assist, while Ben Chiarot formed a physical third pairing with Christian Folin, which isn't a bad idea when facing a big team like the Blues.

And Victor Mete looks like he's gunning for that first goal.  He's putting pucks on the net, jumping up on the play on line rushes, he came close (sigh...) again tonight.  I have to believe it'll come.  Soon.  Like, this season or something.

So a big 6-3 win that should calm the waters a little, until the next tempest in the fandom.
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Thursday, 10 October 2019

Game 4: Canadiens 2, Red Wings 4

The Canadiens, playing a second game in two nights, and having flown back from Buffalo in the wee hours, lacked a bit of pep, of spring in their stride, of cohesion, and fell to the rebuilding Wings 4-2.


Vidéo RDS en français ici.


Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said his team wasn't sharp, but didn't want to say it was due to fatigue.

The boys on l'Antichambre said that luck, which had been on the Canadiens' side for the first three games, caught up with them tonight.

Same with Pierre Houde and Marc Denis in their post-game analysis, their thesis was that the Canadiens were playing with fire again tonight, and this time got burned.

Anthony Mantha continued his hot streak, scoring a beautiful goal on a great shot, and hitting a crossbar on another.  He's also very noticeable in other ways, something which maybe wasn't the case in seasons past.  We saw him tonight jostle with Ben Chiarot, and he wasn't the meek scorer being pushed around, he rather was the cocky big forward not taking any guff from anyone.  He seems to be that late-bloomer who took a while to grow into his large frame, the gangly Great Dane puppy who took an extra long while to become a dog.

Joel Armia, who I criticized in camp and in the first game of the season as a player who was invisible even with his being the biggest forward on the team, seems to have had things click overnight, and scored his third goal in two games, another beauty, and had other opportunities.  And it's not just bouncing pucks that skitter by him and he can't cash in, à la Artturi Lehkonen.  He's actually engaged, skating with the puck with authority, and taking it to the net, weaving around to find an angle.  Great stuff.

Jonathan Drouin had another quiet point, his fourth in four games, and we can almost expect more, like he'll have a big night one of these days.  If he can skate and work hard, and chip in offensively like this on his 'off' nights, we'll be en voiture.

And the honeymoon with Nick Suzuki seems to be over already.  As many said during his strong camp, let's see if he can keep up to the pace of the regular season against full NHL squads, and right now it's not conclusive.  Expect him to be sent down to Laval any day now, and expect a fourth line with Michael Chaput and Ken Agostino Riley Barber and Phil Varone coming soon to a rink near you.

ADDENDUM: Opening ceremony here and here.
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Saturday, 5 October 2019

Game 2: Canadiens 6, Leafs 5 (SO)

The Canadiens took another game all the way to the shootout, after Thursday's loss against the Hurricanes, but this time, they came out with a 6-5 win.




When the Leafs tied the game then jumped out to a 4-1 lead, I reflected that this was the expected result, the Leafs being built to win now, while the Canadiens in my opinion need to onboard more talent for a couple seasons or so.  A team with Victor Mete on its first pairing on defence and with Phillip Danault as its first-line centre, no matter how valiantly they play above their station, isn't ready to compete with another turning in a lineup with John Tavares and Auston Matthews 1-2 at centre.  Or is that 1A-1B?

So yeah, I'd admitted defeat, was more concerned about how to keep the game respectable at this point, more concerned with how this would affect my fantasy team.  And I was okay with that, I'm not one of the simpletons who claim that the Canadiens MUST make the playoffs this season.  I'm going to be satisfied with a season where the team skates and plays hard, with intensity and drive, a team that shows spirit and courage, that supports each other and develops.  Give me a season where KK takes another step forward, where Nick Suzuki and Ryan Poehling become productive, promising members of the team, where we can see just around the corner Cole Caufield and Alex Romanov, and I'll be happy.

So while I was cheering for a moral victory, the Canadiens had other ideas.  They don't quit as easy as I do.

What a comeback, what a game.  Four unanswered goals by the Canadiens to respond to the Leafs' four, giving them a 5-4 lead, until Auston Matthews (him again) tied it on the powerplay with 90 seconds to go.  An exciting end-to-end overtime didn't decide it, although both teams came close, especially Max Domi, with a shot that hit Michael Hutchison in the mask before striking the crossbar flush. 

I think I'll get my wish.  This will be an exciting team to watch this season.
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Friday, 4 October 2019

Game 1: Canadiens 3, Hurricanes 4 (SO)

The Canadiens played a game at breakneck speed against the equally swift Carolina Hurricanes, and had to settle for an overtime loss of 4-3, in the shootout portion.


Some disjointed thoughts occurred to me as the game unfolded and I corresponded with brave-hearted like-minded supporters of the Good Guys.



1)  Jonathan Drouin will at least start the season as the point man, the quarterback of the first-wave of the powerplay.  I'm going to be a broken record and repeat myself from last season, but Jo has to figure out how to just make a quick simple pass, not a highlight-reel wizardy pass on every play.  Keep the puck moving, and don't get your pocket picked at the blue line.  Don't try to pull a rabbit out of your hat every time you touch the puck.

Like on the Kotkaniemi goal, just skate hard and take the puck in the opponents' zone and then take it to the net.

2)  Why isn't it a penalty when a dumbass like Nino Niedereiter sits his dumb ass on the puck, behind his own net, as if he lost the ability to roll off or get up on his feet?  With a stupid stupid look on his face, completely gobsmacked by events, "Heavens to Betsy, what on Earth is going on, I must persist on lying down here for a spell..." Isn't that delay of game?  Shouldn't this be something the dumb dumb GM committee deals with, instead of futzing with faceoffs and the hand pass?

Keep the play moving, keep the puck moving.  Don't let an overmatched player lie down on the puck and freeze it.  Don't let a scrambling team kill the play and reset.  Give the attacking team the advantage.

You fall down and the puck is under you?  It's your frigging job, your responsibility to get off it, or your team gets two minutes for delay of game.  There.  How hard is that?

This crap doesn't fly in rugby, you can't bury the ball, lie on it and kill it like that.  That's an automatic penalty.

3)  It's a small sample size, but this game is the first time it truly sank in that the NHL game is different, that it is changed.  It's fast, blindingly fast, relentlessly so.  Finishing checks is going the way of the dodo.  Grinding in the corners used to be about thumping, now it's about clashing sticks and actually battling for the puck, not just crosschecking and wrestling with your opponent, not just trying to wear him down for the third period.  Now you skate your opponents into the ground.

The buzz at TSN 1040 Vancouver is that their opening game in Edmonton was lost due to a bad pass by Brandon Sutter at a critical juncture in the third, a flub/brain cramp by Brandon Sutter who tried to weakly bank the puck ahead to a teammate, but it was easily intercepted and it ended up on Connor McDavid's stick going the other way, and in the net.  And the radio jocks who watched the game both agreed that Brandon Sutter, who said in camp he did a lot of Pilates and core work over the summer to recover from groin injuries, looked gassed in the third period, and that's a big part of the reason he turned over the puck, his legs were burnt at the end of a shift and he was fried.

With all the speed though, while a lot of the strategic or functional 'toughness' and goonery that was endemic is being extirpated, sadly the artistry of a Gilbert Perreault or Alex Kovalev is also phased out.  Players have half a second when receiving a pass to make a decision and move it along, before two opponents converge on them.  Tic-tac-toe goals will still exist, and I hope that efforts will continue to reduce the importance of goalie gear in the equation so that snipers can still see some net, so that a Mike Bossy or Reggie Leach can still thrive, but we'll not see a Guy Lafleur in full flight ever again.

And the sport, to my eyes, risks becoming almost impenetrable, like fencing or Kendo, with the subtlest of moves having huge outcomes, and I being made aware that someone did well or won only because of the crowd cheering or the refs indicating.  The fact that a true slapshot from the point is becoming more and more rare, because defencemen simply don't have the time to unleash one, is not really a positive development in my book.

4)  I had the occasion during the game to form the opinion that Joel Armia wasn't really contributing, was a little slow, a little late on the play, a little invisible.

Until the overtime, when he had a couple of sequences where he took the puck to the net with strength, with drive, against an opponent draped all over him.  And I appreciated this effort, how close he came to getting our team the win, but it makes me pine for that quality, the codeword hockey men throw around, the fabled consistency.  He needs to 'be more consistent'.  As in, excellent all game long, every game, not just for a spectacular burst or two last night in OT.

(Faits saillants RDS)
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