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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Game
Season 2016-2017

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY GAME 25 Montreal 5 Los Angeles 4 (SO)

Mitch
Season 2016-2017The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Game
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Maybe the NHL should go to noon starts more often. Because in the midst of an ugly rash of 2-1 hockey games (not just the Habs) the Montreal-Los Angeles Sunday afternoon special was an unexpected treat. In the end, the Habs walked out of Los Angeles with their first win in the state of California in three years, while scoring five goals in a game for just the third time this season. It’s easy to say, as one forward did after the game, that pucks that weren’t going through finally found the back of the net. What’s obvious is that Montreal shooters-with Jonathan Quick on the mend-took advantage of an AHL calibre goaltender, something the Habs had done to them countless times a season ago as they waited for their top guy to recover. Or put it this way – in two games against Peter Budaj and the Kings this season Montreal has scored  9 goals (4.5 per game). Against the rest of the NHL they’ve scored 65 goals in 23 games, or 2.82 goals per game. Who was it who said they should just call the game “Goalie”?
THE GOOD

  • Alexander Radulov. Plain and simple he’s a hockey beast. Three point game plus a sick backhand shootout goal to help lead the way. He had a 5-6 point game in him if some of his teammates could finish better. It’s even more fun to watch him with the puck before he passes or shoots. The question we posed a month or so ago (Radulov is the best Habs right winger since -?) doesn’t seem nearly as premature now, does it?

  • Max Pacioretty. Here’s how we ended the assessment of Pacioretty’s performance in San Jose: Everybody knows how streaky he is. But five goals through 24 games, combined with some dead/dumb ass play, is beyond a slump. He’s finally been moved back to the top line. It’s difficult to believe he won’t take advantage of this. But it has to start in Los Angeles-against a subpar NHL goaltender. Right on cue he increased his season goal total by 40% and very nearly had a hat trick winner when he hit the goal post after beating Budaj from in close in overtime. He also had a chance to win it for the Habs in the shootout but inexplicably tried to stickhandle his way past his former teammate. Pacioretty’s season shooting percentage is finally into double digits (10.1%). His career mark is 11.1%. Is he on the top line to stay? Or might we hear more grumbling down the road in some form or another?

  • Power Play. Pacoretty’s second goal and Radulov’s were scored on the new look (again) power play with Kirk Muller insisting on a four forward configuration. Radulov is clearly the best playmaker on the team. It’s not even close. Makes perfect sense to me that if opposing teams have managed to shut down the biggest weapon on the power play by overplaying the cannon of a shot by #6 then that frees up Radulov to find another shooter. And if Michel Therrien is concerned about having a forward on the blue line (you know he is), perhaps Radulov’s mad rush to break up a Jeff Carter-Tyler Tiffoli two on one during an early Alec Martinez penalty allows him to breathe a little easier. And a second back end unit of regular defense mates Andrei Markov and Jeff Petry also makes perfect sense. On the other hand, for the second consecutive game, the game ended with the Habs on the power play, unable to win it.
  • David Desharnais. The only Habs centreman to threaten offensively. Helped set up Pacioretty on the power play while his smart shot along the ice early in the third led directly to the tying goal. Desharnais’s first multiple assist game of the season could not have come at a better time.
  • Andrew Shaw. Recipient of the Desharnais shot in the third when Budaj kicked the rebound right onto his stick. The feisty winger (does he get moved to C soon?) has 5 goals and 8 points in his last 11 games.
  • Paul Byron. Even without the shootout winner Byron had a strong game. His time-and production- on the top line has no doubt done wonders for his belief that he can play with-and against-anyone.
  • Arturi Lehkonen. No wonder Saku Koivu raved about him in the summer. The more you see, the more you like. Quick release surprises goalies and he usually gets it on the net. Flashing some California jam too.
  • Brian Flynn. I could hear the howls of derision from Tony Marinaro in Lasalle to Gino in RDP as Flynn lined up to start the shootout for Montreal.  He’s now 5 for 9 in his career (56%). The guy has scored 4 goals in 79 regular season games as a Hab. But sometimes the coach knows what you don’t.
  • Andrei Markov & Jeff Petry. Best defense pair for the Habs. It was a typical beauty of a cross ice pass from Markov to set up Pacioretty for the game’s opening goal two and a half minutes into the game. Less than a minute later, on a power play, Markov made another splendid pass – this one to Desharnais in the slot who, in typical Desharnais fashion, did not shoot, attempting instead to pass the puck to Brendan Gallagher who was tied up at the left side of the net. For his part – Petry forced Budaj into a strong glove save after he was set up perfectly by GUESS WHO (Radulov). During a second period power play Petry found himself alone down low and instead of thinking “This is Budaj. Shoot!” he attempted to set up Pacioretty, perhaps thinking about a hat trick for his captain.
  • Greg Pateryn. Terrific rink wide outlet pass to spring Desharnais down the left side ahead of the game tying goal by Shaw.

THE BAD

  • Penalties. A couple of more real bad ones. Late in the first period, seemingly in control of a 1-0 lead, Max Pacioretty decides to kick the skates out from under Anze Kopitar. There is no other way to classify this than stupid, especially with just 34 seconds to go before the teams leave the ice. Naturally the Kings scored early in the second period-and didn’t stop until the period ended. Pacioretty’s brain dead play changed the entire complexion of the game. To make matters worse, on his first shift after the penalty his line was dominated by the Kings 4th line as LA took the lead. Later on (the hits just keep on coming), Pacioretty was leading a rush but decided to pass the puck backwards which resulted in an immediate turnover. And Alex Galchenyuk took a slashing penalty. It took just 12 seconds for the Kings to score again to make it 3-2.
  • PK Unit. It’s not like it used to be. Victimized twice by the NHL’s 28th best power play. Success rate has dropped to barely above 80% or 21st in the NHL. With the league’s best goaltender.
  • Carey Price. Difficult to blame him for the first three goals but he just didn’t look “in charge’ the way he normally does. And plenty of shooters beat him on a breakaway but very few make it look as easy as Trevor Lewis did late in the second period to give LA a 4-3 lead. Price allowed four goals in a period for the first time in nearly two years (Jan 2015 vs Tampa Bay). But to his credit he bounced back to make a couple of big saves in the third period and won his first shootout of the season, even as he allowed goals on perfectly placed shots by Jeff Carter (high stick) and Kopitar (high glove).
  • Shea Weber. First time he’s made it into this column. It’s the kind of game against the kind of opponent that would normally bring out the best in Weber, but you barely noticed him, until overtime. The Drew Doughty power play goal was a perfect shot that Doughty fired but only after he waited for Tanner Pearson to set up a screen in front of Price. Instead of trying to move Pearson, Weber was off to the side, alone. He has logged a lot of ice time already this season. His 29:20 brought his season average to just under 26:00. Only six players have been on the ice more often – Dustin Byfuglien (27:52), Ryan Suter, Erik Karlsson, Doughty (27:03), Buffalo’s Rasmus Ristolainen and Duncan Keith. Weber was due for an off-day. (If you’re wondering-P.K. Subban is 11th at 24:54.)

THE UGLY

  • Alex Galchenyuk. Hardly a memorable performance in his 300th NHL game – the first member of the draft class of  2012 to reach that figure. He struggled mightily, as he did in Anaheim. But remember – this is his first full season as an NHL centre. He’s hardly alone in being schooled by Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kessler and Anze Kopitar. One day, not that far down the road, it will be Galchenyuk doing the schooling on some hot shot young dude. Worse than his out-of-kilter performance was the injury he sustained in the third period when Kopitar delivered a knee on knee hit (accidental or not). We’ll know more in a few hours but if Galchenyuk is out for any length of time the Habs easily become the worst team in the NHL down the middle.

  • Tomas Plekanec. One thing the Habs could always count on when Plekanec wasn’t scoring was his ability to lead the way on one of the top penalty killing units in the NHL. But as mentioned earlier that unit sucks right now. Only one forward-the always dangerous Paul Byron-has spent more time on the ice killing penalties than Plekanec. What we are witnessing is, I believe, unprecedented for a Canadiens team in my lifetime: A complete breakdown in all facets of the game of one of the NHL’s better two way forwards for the last decade. Whether Galchenyuk’s injury is serious or not, the Habs were already facing difficult decisions at centre. Do they move Andrew Shaw to the middle, where he takes a lot of face offs anyway? Does Radulov-a winger who plays like a centre-actually get to play games there? It’s a lot easier right now for Montreal to find a winger. Plekanec has already lost his power play time to Desharnais. If he can’t help kill penalties, where does that leave him? It’s too bad Charles Hudon got injured. He would at least force the Habs to think about using his offensive creativity to better advantage. If you’re wondering about St. John’s, winger Sven Andrighetto had a good weekend to take over the Ice Caps scoring lead with 20 points in 18 games. Winger Nikita Scherback leads the team in goals with 9. But centre Michael McCarron is stuck on 3 goals in 20 games. Unless somebody can find a magic cure for Plekanec in a hurry, the next step might be to just sit him out for a few games. It can’t hurt him at this point. He has dropped to 290th in points this season. And he’s averaging a full minute more ice time per game (17:10 – 16:10) than Galchenyuk.