The Canadiens bounced back strongly from a no-show in Carolina. They controlled play and defended well – especially against the NHL’s best power play – but, for one of the rare times, couldn’t solve Tuukka Rask. And then, when Loui Eriksson scored a shorthanded breakaway goal in the third period, you could sense the Bruins knew they could beat the Habs for the first time since late in the 2013-14 season. It took just 42 seconds to drive the point home.
The Habs are in an offensive funk. So when Michel Terrien decided to put Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty together – with Sven Andrighetto playing the role of Brendan Gallagher – fans and media alike nodded in agreement. But as one-off flops go this one ranks up there with “Ishtar”.
A prevailing post game theme was Therrien’s inability to keep Galchenyuk away from Patrice Bergeron. But as we’ll see it’s mostly not true – an unfair criticism (imagine that).
The Canadiens have lost three straight games for the first time this season. Too many players – including complete trios – can’t score. The aura the Habs had built up to start the season has all but disappeared. Despite pleas to the contrary, opponents know Montreal is not the same team without Carey Price. Add the loss of Gallagher and it deprives the Habs of a good chunk of their identity and, this season anyway, invincibility.
But an 82 game season isn’t supposed to be easy.
THE GOOD
- Paul Byron. Great effort. But you know you’re in trouble when your best forward started the season on waivers.
- Tomas Plekanec and Lars Eller. Byron’s line mates also played well. In almost every sense this was a typical Plekanec performance. Except he can’t score, extending his goalless streak to 13 games. He had a great chance to give Montreal a two goal lead early in the third period from in close with nobody around only to be robbed by Rask.
- Alexei Emelin. Clearly the Bruins bring out the best in him. Even without Milan Lucic to torment.
- Penalty Kill. Habs had to stay out of the penalty box against the #1 power play in the league and they took just two penalties. They looked good in killing them off while allowing just two shots on goal.
- Andrei Markov. Smoothest looking of the Montreal defensemen.
- Mike Condon. Looked locked in until the Eriksson goal. But has now allowed three goals or more in eight of his last ten starts. And with the Canadiens vanishing offense that spells trouble.
- Michel Therrien. See below.
- Landon Ferraro. Game winning goal was his third in eight games as a member of the Bruins. His dad has been in the building for all three – in Toronto when Ray was working at ice level, at home in Vancouver, and now the Bell Centre. Amazingly cool.
THE BAD
- Power Play. Looked like last year. Probably cost them the game.
- David Desharnais. Difficult to snap out of a slump if you don’t shoot the puck. No shots on goal. No goals and no points in his last seven games. Won just 36% of his face offs.
- Tomas Fleischmann. Like his centerman he’s pointless in seven games.
- Dale Weise. Over the same seven game span Weise has one assist. His goalless drought has reached nine games. Worse yet is his lack of physical play. I thought the Bruins would bring that element back to his game. Maybe a trip to the 4th line will do it.
- Christian Thomas. He’s in no position to take bad penalties. Roughing up Torrey Krug in the neutral zone with a one goal lead after the little Boston defenseman rode him into the boards was just plain dumb.
- Nathan Beaulieu. Looked better for 40 minutes. Then something happened in the third period. But he had a lot of company.
- Referee Mike Leggo. Tripping call to Dennis Seidenberg six minutes into the third period when the veteran Bruin upended Weise who was on a breakaway. Maybe Leggo has never called a penalty shot.
- Alex Galchenyuk-Sven Andrighetto-Max Pacioretty. Not exactly what you’d call instant chemistry. Which perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Pacioretty’s post practice comments on Tuesday. “It all starts with the centre” said the Habs captain when asked about playing on a line with Galchenyuk. Maybe it was just me but his entire 45 second soliloquy sounded like he had his doubts. Their performance can be summed up when Boston put the game away on the Patrice Bergeron goal with just over 6:00 to play. Galchenyuk was beaten to the puck behind the Montreal net by a much hungrier Brad Marchand who fed Bergeron in front to make it 3-1. “We fell alseep” said Pacioretty following the game. “I’m glad we play tomorrow (Detroit)”.
THE UGLY
- Criticism of Michel Therrien. It’s one thing to blame Alex Semin’s short stint on Therrien (But really? Six goals a season ago. One goal in 15 games this season while playing with all the pace of a worm – and it’s Therrien’s fault? Nyet.) but to suggest the Galchenyuk line was bad because the coach didn’t keep the young centre away from Bergeron is not only wrong but inaccurate. The trio didn’t play well because, well, because it was their first game together and they didn’t play well. To suggest that Therrien had to keep Galchenyuk away from the league’s best defensive forward because he had the last change might be correct in theory but dismisses the fact that Galchenyuk is going to get a good dose of difficult centermen to play against. Might as well start with the best. But upon closer examination it seems pretty clear that Therrien (and Dan Lacroix) did as good a job as possible under the circumstances. Offensive players need to get into a rhythm. Consistently jumping on and off the ice depending on the match up does not lend itself to that goal. Especially when you’re dealing with a trio that was playing together for the first time. And this wasn’t the opening game of a playoff series. When Claude Julien started the game with the Bergeron line but yanked them after 16 seconds made his intentions clear. For the first three Galchenyuk shifts (at :56, 3:15 & 6:10) Julien got Bergeron on the ice. Therrien adjusted. With Bergeron’s next shift – at 8:43 – Galchenyuk remained on the bench. But he moment the shift ended (during a Montreal power play at 9:31) Galchenyuk was back on (at 9:32). From that point on Therrien managed to keep Galchenyuk away from the NHL’s Selke Trophy winner for all but four 5 on 5 shifts. It just didn’t seem that way because the Habs top line was victimized on Bergeron’s insurance goal. While the Habs trio might have nodded off in the the third period, their coach was wide awake.
