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2008-2009 NHL Season - Canadiens Watch

Game 67 Review: Koivu Leads Canadiens To 4-3 OT Win Over Oilers (Video Included)

March 19th 2009 02:48
Saku Koivu, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Koivu celebrating his second goal of the night
In the first game of the post-Carbonneau era, it took a fluke goal by captain Saku Koivu in the third period and a tipped shot in overtime for the Montreal Canadiens to defeat the Edmonton Oilers.


I missed most of the game since I had a midterm exam that day. I only managed to catch the last three minutes of regulation, and the overtime period (and the game's highlights later on).

From what I saw, the Canadiens were lucky to get the two points. They grabbed the lead halfway through the first period via Alex Tanguay, but then they had a dismal second period in which they were outshot 17-2 (at home, no less!). Luckily, one of their two shots went in to make the score 2-2 before Sam Gagner made it 3-2 at the end of the period. Koivu made it 3-3 with five minutes left to go, and the Habs were rewarded a powerplay in overtime when a Oiler voluntarily broke Markov's stick. The Canadiens then got the winning-goal with their first and only shot in overtime – a blast from the point by Schneider lightly deflected by Koivu.

The main difference between this game and all the previous ones coached by Carbo was that the fourth line was nowhere to be seen in the final minutes of the game. Gainey went with Koivu and Plekanec's line all the way, putting on Lapierre's (with Metropolit in Kostopoulos' place) line only to give a breather to the other two. He also didn't use Plekanec on the penalty-kill, opting for Lapierre/Higgins and Metropolit/Dandenault instead. I personally would prefer to see Plekanec on the ice when playing shorthanded especially at the end of the kill because a guy with his speed is perfect for grabbing shorthanded goals as he has shown throughout the season.


Other than that, the Canadiens' bench was a bit crowded that night with Bulldogs' coach Don Lever coming in to assist Gainey, Muller and Jarvis in the third period. Although Lever has made a spectacular with the Canadiens' prospects down in the farm, the language issue (he only speaks English which is inacceptable in Montreal's bilingual environment) makes him an outsider for the head coach job.

My 3 Stars (going by the scoresheet):
3. Alex Tanguay
2. Sheldon Souray
1. Saku Koivu


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 66 Review: Canadiens Survive Stars' Early Onslaught To Win 3-1 (Video Included)

March 16th 2009 03:27
Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens, Habs, Dallas Stars, Neale
Price stares at Neale

After two embarrassing defeats at the hands of teams sitting behind them in the standings, the Montreal Canadiens landed in Dallas with one foot out of the playoff picture. Their precarious position in standings didn't necessarily mean that they had to defeat the Stars, but a road victory could definitely alleviate the pressure before coming back home.

From the opening faceoff, it looked like the Canadiens would have another long night on the ice. Every single Canadiens shift was spent in their own end, trying to keep Dallas away from Carey Price's net. After ten minutes of play, Montreal already had four minor penalties (two in the first five minutes), meaning they had spent only five minutes at even-strength, and had conceded one goal on the Stars' second powerplay. Meanwhile, Dallas grinder Steve Ott was driving Montreal players crazy with relentless hits along the boards. What made it more infuriating was that he refused to drop the gloves because he suffered from a fractured hand. It's easy to run around hitting players when you don't have to answer for your actions. The Canadiens tried to get him back, but every time they hit him, it was always a white jersey who ended up on the ice. Finally, at the end of the period, youngster Gregory Stewart took matters into his own hands by hitting the Stars' pest in open ice and dropping him with some punches to the face.

Stewart's actions were admirable but the end result was that the Canadiens would start the second period short-handed by two men for at least five minutes after both Kovalev and Koivu picked penalties at the end of the first. Just to give you an idea of how bad the visitors were in those opening twenty minutes, Marty Turco saw rubber only three times in this period and could very well have brought his newspaper.

Surprisingly, the Canadiens survived both of the Stars' 5-on-3s thanks to some excellent work by Tomas Plekanec at the start of the second period. In what was probably his first “real” shift of the game, Andrei Kostitsyn equalized the mark at 1-1. Ten minutes later, Alex Kovalev gave the lead to Montreal at the end of a powerplay, and the Canadiens were now leading a game they had no business being in in the first place. Christopher Higgins made it 3-1 early in the third – a gift from Turco, and from then on the Canadiens could breathe a bit. Sure, they complicated the story by taking two more penalties in the final minutes of the game, but the penalty-kill did another terrific job and the Canadiens returned to Montreal with two more points in the bank.

The momentum of the game really shifted once the Canadiens killed the Stars' double 5-on-3. You cannot have a 5-on-3, let alone two, and not score once. That is what killed Dallas. The separation of Kovalev and Kostitsyn brought some dividends to the table as both players scored in the same game. When paired with Kovalev, Kostitsyn had something like three or six points in 19 games while he had 29 points in 29 games when paired with anyone else. Everyone following the Habs knew that those two couldn't stay together anymore, it's shocking that Carbonneau waited this long to separate them. As for Kovalev, well, he was Kovalev. He took one selfish penalty at the end of the first period but then came back with the winning goal – that is what the Artist is all about. You take the good with the bad and hope the good outweighs the bad in the big picture.

My 3 Stars:
3. Steve Ott
2. Tomas Plekanec
1. Carey Price

It's probably the first time I picked players who didn't show up on the scoresheet but it's those three players that made the game what it was in my opinion. Steve Ott was annoying and effective, Tomas Plekanec had a near-perfect game, and Carey Price stopped the puck from going in.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 65 Review: Thrashers Shutout Canadiens 2-0 In Penalty Fest (Video Included)

March 12th 2009 03:25
Mathieu Schneider, Montreal Canadiens, Habs, Atlanta Thrashers
Schneider got beat by his old team
Just two days after getting slaughtered by the Sabres, the Montreal Canadiens didn't fare any better in Atlanta where the eternal cellar-dwellers blanked a sliding Montreal team that finds itself tied for eighth place in the conference.

For the second consecutive game, the Habs' powerplay went flat and the choice to put Glen Metropolit on the Canadiens' only 5-on-3 of the game when they were trailing 1-0 is probably the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to Guy Carbonneau's decision-making. Apart from that 5-on-3, Alex Kovalev and Alex Tanguay both canceled their team's powerplay with a penalty of their own (twice in the case of Kovalev).

The second period is really where the Canadiens showed how much they have a schizophrenic personality in my opinion. A team reputed for its speed and lack of toughness suddenly found the edge to beat up one of the most promising defensemen of the league in Zach Bogosian. Granted, Bogosian didn't have to drop the gloves, but the fight itself didn't bring anything new to the game. In the end, Rich Peverley grabbed the empty-netter to make it 2-0, and the Habs went on to Dallas with their tails between their legs.

Similarly to the trip out West where no one thought they could do any worse than the game in Calgary which they lost 6-2 (they ended up getting pasted 7-2 by the Oilers two days later), no one thought the Canadiens could be any worse than they were in Buffalo, and here are with a 2-0 loss against the freakin' Thrashers, a team far, FAR away from making the playoffs.

There's nothing to add. The Canadiens simply suck right now. If it wasn't for Price who seems to have found his back, the score could have been much worse. That's how badly they played that night. Next up is Dallas, a team currently struggling in the Western Conference. We'll see how it goes.

My 3 Stars:
3. Carey Price
2. Ilya Kovalchuk
1. Kari Lehtonen


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 64 Review: Sabres Humiliate Canadiens 5-1 On Trade Deadline Day (Video Included)

March 11th 2009 04:41
Paul Gaustad, Buffalo Sabres
Gaustad flattens Kovalev
In this year's unusually quiet deadline day, Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey stood pat, making no moves either way. His team responded with one of their most pitiful performance to date despite a terrific start.

In the first ten minutes of the game, the Canadiens were simply too much to handle for the Sabres who took their first penalty just 35 seconds into the game. Unfortunately, Montreal couldn't take advantage of three powerplay opportunities. At the other end, the Sabres scored the only goal of the period on the powerplay with two minutes left to play


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


GM Bob Gainey Fires Guy Carbonneau, Steps Behind Bench

March 10th 2009 05:22
Guy Carbonneau, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Foreshadowing at the Dallas game?
Since the All-Star game the city of Montreal slowly started to turn on head coach and popular “Glorieux” Guy Carbonneau. With the Canadiens losing points left and right all the while performing like a pee-wee team, the coach's strategies were second-guessed and over-analyzed; some even thought that he didn't have a strategy at all.

With the New York Rangers firing Tom Renney and the Pittsburgh Penguins firing Michel Therrien, everybody was in some way glad that Gainey had decided to stick with his man. Montreal has seen its fair share of coach get fired an then find success with another team. Claude Julien is the perfect example. The trade deadline came and went yet the team's performance didn't improve one bit while both the Rangers and Penguins, who were sliding out of a playoff picture, started picking up steam to the point where they're now breathing down the Canadiens' neck


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 63 Review: Halak, Canadiens Hold Off Sharks To Win 3-2 (Video Included)

March 8th 2009 05:54
Jaroslav Halak, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Halak making a save
Practically everyone in Montreal were expecting a loss against the (then) NHL-leading San Jose Sharks. It turns out all they needed was an excellent first period and another terrific job by Jaroslav Halak to prove the skeptics wrong.

Indeed, the Montreal Canadiens scored three unanswered goals in the first period alone to gain a slightly comfortable lead on their opponent. In a period where the home team took no penalties, Montreal opened the score with a powerplay goal by Andrei Markov just 40 seconds after Christian Ehrhoff was sent to the box for hooking. Two minutes later, Josh Gorges made it 2-0 against his former team by smartly following the play and finishing Matt D'Agostini's work behind the net. Finally, Saku Koivu scored Montreal's third and final goal after receiving Markov's trademark cross-ice pass. Despite the lead, there was no way the Habs could let their guard down against a team that peppered Halak with 14 shots in the first period


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 62 Review: Canadiens' Special Teams Shine In 4-3 OT Win Over Flyers (Video Included)

March 5th 2009 05:58
Mathieu Schneider, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Schneider celebrating his OT winner

Try putting yourself in the shoes of the Canadiens' newest acquisition, Glen Metropolit, who had one of the most surreal days on Friday. He woke up as a Philadephia Flyer ready to face one of their Eastern Conference rival, the Montreal Canadiens who were sitting four points behind the Flyers that morning. He had practice with his teammates in the morning and all that jazz. Then later in the afternoon, the center found out he had been claimed by the Montreal Canadiens. A couple of hours later, he was stepping inside the visitors' locker-room to meet his new teammates. Finally, at 7:10 p.m. his line completed by Alex Kovalev (for the opening faceoff only) and Gregory Stewart were the first on the ice against his old teammates.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Canadiens Trade Steve Bégin To Stars, Claim Glen Metropolit Off Waivers

March 3rd 2009 06:17
After acquiring Mathieu Schneider two weeks ago, Bob Gainey continued tweaking his team by trading grinder and fan-favorite Steve Bégin to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Doug Janik. Then, the next day, he announced the acquisition of the Philadelphia Flyers' centre Glen Metropolit who was sent down by the Flyers in order to free some cap space for the return of Daniel Brière and his heavy contract.

Steve Bégin, Montreal Canadiens, Habs, Dallas Stars
Hard work and tenacity were Bégin's top qualities
A selfless warrior that put the team before his individual goals, Bégin was appreciated for his heart and the intensity he brought on every shift. One of the most memorable event showing his dedication occurred in last year's playoffs where, after losing some teeth after crashing into the boards, the number 22 took some painkillers and got right back to the game. However, like several players on the Canadiens' roster he was supposed to turn UFA at the end of the season. His injuries and age catching up to him, he's been progressively replaced by youngster Gregory Stewart who brings speed, balls, and attitude for $1 million less than the Québécois grinder. After being an healthy scratch during the team's road trip and recent games, both parties came to the conclusion that it would be better for him to get some playing time somewhere else if he wants to have a contract at the end of the summer. There is no doubt that the fans will miss him, but they sure as hell won't miss his penalties that came at the worst possible times: in 2006-2007, it was his penalty against the Toronto Maple Leafs that ruined the Habs' chance of making the playoffs; one year later, his penalty in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, swung the momentum the other way as the Philadelphia Flyers won the game 6-4 after being down 3-1 and knocked the Canadiens out. Hopefully, he will find his place in Dallas


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 61 Review: Halak Shuts The Door As Canadiens Defeat Canucks 3-0 (Video Included)

March 2nd 2009 03:20
Jaroslav Halak, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Halak stops Henrik Sedin on a breakaway

Move over, Carey Price. The Montreal Canadiens have a new number one goaltender – underrated Jaroslav Halak. Once again on Tuesday, the Slovak netminder kept his team in the game with big saves, and desperate move off his goal line by Patrice Brisebois in the final minutes of the game ensured his first shutout of the season.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 60 Review: Kovalev's Return Sparks Canadiens To 5-3 Victory Over Senators

February 27th 2009 04:29
Alex Kovalev, Montreal Canadiens, Habs, Kovy
The King is back

L'Artiste. The Magician. The Enigma. AK27. Kovy. Or simply Alex. No matter what you wanna call Alex Kovalev, one thing's for sure, this man is the undisputed king of the Bell Centre.

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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 59 Review: Gonchar, Penguins Break Canadiens' Resolve With 5-4 Victory (Video Included)

February 23rd 2009 04:22
Sergei Gonchar, Pittsburgh Penguins
Gonchar being congratulated for his game-winning goal
Just 24 hours after a great, but heart-breaking effort in Washington, the Montreal Canadiens looked once again like a disorganized squad that confused effort with focus/concentration. Sure they played hard, hitting their opponents, skating as if there was no tomorrow, but there was no coherence to it all. For the majority of the game, the Canadiens looked like a bunch of headless chickens let loose to die of exhaustion.

Despite the Canadiens' disjunctive play, the game was pretty even. The Habs came back three times from behind, erasing 1-0, 2-1, and 4-2 deficits to tie the game. After a great performance in Washington, Tomas Plekanec played what is, arguably, his best game of the season with two goals and one assist. His line, completed by Andrei Kostitsyn and Max Pacioretty, gave fits to the Penguins defense all game long, accumulating seven points for the night. At the other end of the spectrum, Saku Koivu and his linemates probably had their worst game of the season as they were on the ice for three of the home side's five goals. They seemed to have a lot of trouble backchecking, and Koivu, who is probably the most dedicated skater on the team (I said dedicated not fastest) looked unusually slow to help out his defensemen


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Posted By: Ann 2 - Category: 2008-2009 NHL Season
   


Game 58 Review: Canadiens' Powerplay Rises From The Ashes But Capitals Win 4-3 In Shootout

February 22nd 2009 01:51
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
Down and out, Ovechkin still manages to score
In the beginning of the week, GM Bob Gainey dropped three bombshells on the Montreal Canadiens. First, he acquired defenseman Mathieu Schneider to help on the powerplay. Secondly, he ordered Alex Kovalev to stay home while team concluded its road trip with stops in Washington and Pittsburgh. Finally, Sergei Kostitsyn was sent to the minors while grinder Gregory Stewart was called up.

However, it was the omission of Kovalev in the team's near-future plans that rattled the players. Gainey was essentially telling them that you can have all the talent in the world but if you play like crap, you get sent home


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Game 57 Review: Canadiens Back To Square One After 4-2 Defeat Against Canucks

February 21st 2009 05:18
The Montreal Canadiens' desperate win last Friday was only a cloud of smoke to hide the fatal flaws of this struggling team. Indeed, two nights later, Jaroslav Halak was unable to stand on his head for a consecutive game, and the Canadiens' mistakes were made glaringly obvious to even the most casual observer.

First, the Canadiens were simply awful defensively. Not only were the Canucks simply allowed to waltz in their visitors' zone without so much of a shove, but the Habs kept giving them presents with every attacking rush. Indeed, the visitors seemed to have completely forgotten that if there's too many players going deep, there's the risk of an odd-man rush at the other end. On Sunday, it felt like every single attack from the Canadiens turned into a counterattack for the Canucks with an extra-man. If it wasn't for Halak, the home side could have been leading 3-0 only ten minutes into the game. Thanks to some great work by the netminder, both teams retreated to their locker-room with a score of 2-1 Canucks at the first intermission


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Game 56 Review: Canadiens Ride On Halak's 46-Save Effort To Defeat Avalanche 4-2 (Video Included)

February 19th 2009 00:30
Jaroslav Halak, Montreal Canadiens, Habs
When the Canadiens' defense started bleeding goals right and left about a month ago while the offense went flat, Guy Carbonneau stated that he needed his netminders to steal a game or two to right the ship. That moment finally came last Friday as Jaroslav Halak stole the spotlight, blocking 46 out of 48 shots to lead his team to victory.

Both teams were evenly matched in the first period. Perhaps they were simply studying each other. In any case, Montreal opened the scoring late in the first period with a goal by defenseman Francis Bouillon. One minute later, Patrice Brisebois added to Montreal's lead with a powerplay goal. It was the first time in what seems like forever that the Canadiens had scored the first goal of a game let alone ending the first period with a 2-0 advantage


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