Ann 2Game 25 Review: Canadiens Trounce Rangers 6-2 On Club's 99th Birthday (Highlights Video Included)
December 6th 2008 23:38
To celebrate the 99th anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens' foundation, the team received one of their Original Six rivals, the New York Rangers, at the Bell Centre on Thursday. For the occasion, the Canadiens players sported the team's 1914-15 jersey which has a CA in its center instead of the world famous CH. It's the same jersey in which the club captured its first Stanley Cup in 1916, and with the team' masterful performance on Thursday, some fans jokingly hoped that the Habs would wear the same jersey tonight against the New Jersey Devils.
So, how good were the Canadiens on Thursday? By the end of the first period, they led 3-0 with goals by Andrei Kostitsyn who scored for the second game in a row, Steve Begin, and Alex Tanguay who hadn't scored in a while. They also took no penalties in that period, and had allowed the Rangers only seven shots on goal while the Habs had fifteen on Lundqvist. The Rangers' goaltender had been virtually left alone by his defense to face a hungry Canadiens team who seemed to smell blood on that night.
The home side added to their lead early in the second when Maxim Lapierre made it 4-0 with his fourth of the season. But the Rangers weren't down and out just yet. Ten minutes after Lapierre's goal, the Blueshirts scored on a powerplay when Markus Naslund deflected Paul Mara's shot from the point. Five minutes later, Nigel Dawes added another, and suddenly memories of the Thrashers game on Tuesday resurfaced as the crowd became anxious. As if they wanted to reassure their fans, the Canadiens ended the period on a high with Saku Koivu's line buzzing in the offensive zone, giving a severe headache to the Rangers defensemen who couldn't seem to deal with the Habs' speed. Lundqvist had to be solid on that sequence stopping shots by Matt D'Agostini and Andrei Kostitsyn.
The Habs' dominance continued in the third with Robert Lang scoring the seventh goal of the match after a superb cross-ice exchange between Kovalev and Markov. Although the Russian winger still has no goals, the pass was his third assist and two games, and the sequence was vintage 2007-2008 Canadiens. After that, the Habs played textbook protection hockey, not giving many chances to the Rangers who seemed to have given up at that point. Finally, D'Agostini scored his second of the season in the last minute of play under the thunderous applause of the Bell Centre who finally saw their long lost club from last year.
For the second game in a row, the Canadiens scored more than three goals, getting five on Tuesday and six on Thursday which meant another day of free chicken wings at La Cage Aux Sports. All four lines scored in the game, and all goals were on 5-on-5 which is an encouraging sign for a team that has been struggling in that department. Although the powerplay was once again blanked, they got some decent chances, and Lang is proving himself to be effective on the right point (though it's a different story when he has to play defense in the same instance). D'Agostini is giving a nice problem to Carbonneau who now can't fit either Guillaume Latendresse or Sergei Kostitsyn in the line-up. Last but not least, it was the third win in a row for Mike Komisarek behind the bench. The defenseman was asked to stand with the coaches when Assistant Coach Doug Jarvis had to be on family leave. After the game, Carbonneau joked that he might have to ask Jarvis to stay in the pressbox for the next game, alluding to his almost maniacal tendency to shuffle the team's lines – he's now thinking about shuffling coaches.
After all of that though, everyone is still cautiously optimistic. The Canadiens usually fall down hard after a big game (see the Boston debacle after their shutout win against Ottawa, and Washington shutting them out after they defeated Detroit), so everything is still up in the air. The good news is they reduced the gap in the standings between them and the leaders, and are now closer to the top than ninth place.
My 3 Stars:
3. Andrei Markov
2. Maxim Lapierre
1. Matt D'Agostini
So, how good were the Canadiens on Thursday? By the end of the first period, they led 3-0 with goals by Andrei Kostitsyn who scored for the second game in a row, Steve Begin, and Alex Tanguay who hadn't scored in a while. They also took no penalties in that period, and had allowed the Rangers only seven shots on goal while the Habs had fifteen on Lundqvist. The Rangers' goaltender had been virtually left alone by his defense to face a hungry Canadiens team who seemed to smell blood on that night.
The home side added to their lead early in the second when Maxim Lapierre made it 4-0 with his fourth of the season. But the Rangers weren't down and out just yet. Ten minutes after Lapierre's goal, the Blueshirts scored on a powerplay when Markus Naslund deflected Paul Mara's shot from the point. Five minutes later, Nigel Dawes added another, and suddenly memories of the Thrashers game on Tuesday resurfaced as the crowd became anxious. As if they wanted to reassure their fans, the Canadiens ended the period on a high with Saku Koivu's line buzzing in the offensive zone, giving a severe headache to the Rangers defensemen who couldn't seem to deal with the Habs' speed. Lundqvist had to be solid on that sequence stopping shots by Matt D'Agostini and Andrei Kostitsyn.
The Habs' dominance continued in the third with Robert Lang scoring the seventh goal of the match after a superb cross-ice exchange between Kovalev and Markov. Although the Russian winger still has no goals, the pass was his third assist and two games, and the sequence was vintage 2007-2008 Canadiens. After that, the Habs played textbook protection hockey, not giving many chances to the Rangers who seemed to have given up at that point. Finally, D'Agostini scored his second of the season in the last minute of play under the thunderous applause of the Bell Centre who finally saw their long lost club from last year.
For the second game in a row, the Canadiens scored more than three goals, getting five on Tuesday and six on Thursday which meant another day of free chicken wings at La Cage Aux Sports. All four lines scored in the game, and all goals were on 5-on-5 which is an encouraging sign for a team that has been struggling in that department. Although the powerplay was once again blanked, they got some decent chances, and Lang is proving himself to be effective on the right point (though it's a different story when he has to play defense in the same instance). D'Agostini is giving a nice problem to Carbonneau who now can't fit either Guillaume Latendresse or Sergei Kostitsyn in the line-up. Last but not least, it was the third win in a row for Mike Komisarek behind the bench. The defenseman was asked to stand with the coaches when Assistant Coach Doug Jarvis had to be on family leave. After the game, Carbonneau joked that he might have to ask Jarvis to stay in the pressbox for the next game, alluding to his almost maniacal tendency to shuffle the team's lines – he's now thinking about shuffling coaches.
After all of that though, everyone is still cautiously optimistic. The Canadiens usually fall down hard after a big game (see the Boston debacle after their shutout win against Ottawa, and Washington shutting them out after they defeated Detroit), so everything is still up in the air. The good news is they reduced the gap in the standings between them and the leaders, and are now closer to the top than ninth place.
My 3 Stars:
3. Andrei Markov
2. Maxim Lapierre
1. Matt D'Agostini
| 53 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
