It would have been interesting to hear from the fancy stats crowd if the Habs had lost in Columbus. Montreal dominated from beginning to end. They owned the puck. A new top line looked scary good. But before an ailing power play finally showed signs of life to spark yet another third period comeback there wouldn’t have been much to bitch about. Except what matters most.
So everybody’s happy, right?
So everybody’s happy, right?
THE GOOD
- Max Pacioretty. This is what leaders do. Bring back Pierre McGuire’s “Monster of the game”.
- Thomas Plekanec-Brendan Gallagher-Pacioretty. Wow. Combined for 18 shots on goal. Columbus as a team totalled 16 shots on Carey Price. In synch from shift #1. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
- Andrei Markov. Helped mount the comeback by doing what he does best – putting the puck on the tape of a teammates’ stick.
- Sergei Gonchar. For those of us who wondered whether a soon to be 41 year old defenseman can play an effective 20:00 a night we have our answer. Maybe he’ll break a sweat at playoff time.
- Alexei Emelin. Scared straight?
- Tom Gilbert. Solid.
- Power Play. Some kind of delicious irony that one of the worst power plays in the league – and certainly the most ridiculed – was responsible for Montreal’s sixth straight road win. The Habs trailed by two goals with just over eight and a half minutes to play before the three goal outburst in less than five minutes brought a dramatic end to its latest drought. The Canadiens head to Ottawa with a power play that has finally broken the 15% barrier. And it moved up from 27th to 24th.
- Michel Therrien. He not only worked on a new power play look but finally broke up the ineffective Markov-Subban pairing at the back end (see previous post). Gonchar and Markov looked much better. He shook up his lines. He finally put Pacioretty and Plekanec together. He threatened to scratch Emelin and got his attention. He won again. Did he take Highway 20 or Highway 40?
THE BAD
- P.K. Subban. Yes he tied the game with a bullet from the point (Are there actually Canadiens “fans” complaining that David Desharnais was in front as a screen?) but for the second time in three games Subban was far from Subban-good. On the first Columbus goal he failed to box out Sean Collins (perhaps because he didn’t know who Collins was) who was set up in front of Carey Price as Kevin Connaughton blasted his 7th goal of the season from just inside the blue line. Maybe the goal resulted in some lost swagger that wasn’t rediscovered until he tied the game with five and a half minutes to play. It was Subban’s bad penalty that led to Ryan Johansson’s power play goal which gave the Blue Jackets a seemingly safe 2-0 lead. At first glance, watching from a bar, it looked like a bogus call but there was a clear trip (or a mini slew foot) and once again P.K. got burned from the box.
THE UGLY
- Referee Frederic L’Ecuyer was way out of position when Brendan Gallagher’s tip in went in and then out of the Columbus net faster than you can say “Hee-Haw!”. L’Ecuyer compounded things by failing to signal whether the puck was in or not. So the Toronto War Room took control and couldn’t decide if the entire puck had crossed the goal line. I thought it was a goal but by the time you enhance a frozen frame – even in High Def – there is some blurring that takes place. You could see why they ruled no-goal. Sometimes you just gotta trust your eyes, right? Like my eyes keep telling me the 2014-15 Habs are really good.
