Ann 2Game 73 Review: Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev Line Has 11-Point Night As Canadiens Crush Thrashers 6-3
April 1st 2009 05:40
Tanguay scoring his first under the watchful eyes of his linemates
If there is one thing that infuriated fans (and probably players too) during Guy Carbonneau's days as head coach, it was probably his constant line-juggling after defeats or when there came the need to re-integrate an previously-injured player. A popular website even had a feature called Carbonotron which came up with random lines every couple of days or so. Fans spent hours on message boards and forums posting their line combos along with justifications for every pairing. Yet through all the speculation and endless arguments, no one thought about putting the Canadiens' big guns – Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev – on the same line. Although it was established early on in the season that Tanguay would stay on Koivu's side, putting Kovalev with Koivu has always been considered a big no-no except in case of extreme emergency. Popular belief is that you can't put two players who always want the puck on the same line. Looking for a spark to light up his team, Gainey did exactly that, combining a excellent playmaker with an intense center and a natural, almost magical goalscorer.
Against the Atlanta Thrashers last Tuesday, the UFA line (as nicknamed by fans) took matters into their own hands, accounting for five of the Canadiens' six goals including three with a man-advantage.
Alex Tanguay got things started in the first period with an highlight-reel goal. The number 13 later scored his second halfway through the second period during a 5-on-3 powerplay. At the end of the day, Tanguay was the solution to the Koivu-Kovalev situation. His set-up abilities (he had three assists to go with his his two goals) were perfect for Koivu and Kovalev who always try to get in the best position to get a good shot on goal.
The other Alex scored two goals on the powerplay, both on botched defensive assignments by the Thrashers. He was dangerously kneed to the ice late in the game, and that was a big mistake. The hit made him angry, and opponents shouldn't want Kovalev to be angry. As the game still went on after the hit, he stood up, received a pass and fired a missile that hit the crossbar, missing Kari Lehtonen's head by inches. Under chants of “Kovy! Kovy! Kovy!,” he fired another heavy shot straight at the keeper who stayed on his knees for a moment, painfully absorbing the force of the impact. Lehtonen probably wondered what he had done to deserve all of this. The Russian winger ended the game with three points as he also had an assist on Tanguay's first goal while Saku Koivu completed the trio by scoring his team's sixth goal in the first minute of the third period, adding to his assists on both Kovalev's first goal and Tanguay's second.
Since it's been awhile that the Habs had seen one of their line so easily dominate the game, the defense's work barely got a mention in the press. Although the Canadiens were still outshot, the 25 shots allowed was a huge improvement over the usual 30 shot bombardments of the past few weeks. Andrei Markov was great during his entire 24:01 of ice-time with only a couple of miscues and his three assists were overshadowed by the dazzling peformance of the TKK line.
My 3 Stars:
3. Saku Koivu
2. Alex Kovalev
1. Alex Tanguay
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