Game 6: Flyers vs Habs

THIRD PERIOD:

- Habs and Flyers after 40 minutes of play. Habs CF dropping all the way down to 45.2%. 

- As we mentioned earlier, the Flyers defence is not fleet afoot. Surprised the Habs gameplan didn't take advantage of this by carrying the puck in more than their usual dump-and-chase strategy.

- As the period progresses, it appears more and more the Habs are attempting to play for at least a point. Taking few offensive chances, lots of icings, and defence is really playing positionally cautious.

- Flyers shot attempts first half of the period better than 4-to-1 ratio more than the Canadiens, which is all kinds of bad if you're Montreal. 

- Radulov, holy crap. What a blast. One time pass from Weber (irony!) to set up a cannon slap shot that Mason probably didn't even see. Habs powerplay connects, and Montreal leads 2-1 with 7 minutes left.

- Apparently, Gallagher deflected that Radulov shot in, which was all kinds of amazing.

- Carey Price time to shine. Flyers are seriously in tough. They'll need something like that Gallagher goal to salvage at least a point.

- We puzzled about it when the shift was made to start the 2nd period, but the Weber/Emelin combo has easily been the Habs best pairing tonight. 

- Habs really retreating hard to their own zone, shutting down Flyers ability to organize a half-decent shot attempts. Flyers are opening up now, Desharnais just missed a glorious chance in front of Mason.

- Carey Price as per usual, does the Carey Price thing, and tonight's big start, Radulov, puts it into the empty net. That's your difference as we anticipated. Any game up for grabs with Price in the net provides an inherent advantage. Habs keep the wins going. 

FIRST PERIOD:

- A little news was mentioned this morning about the Habs making some tweaks to their powerplay, in which they'll switch out Markov to add another forward, specifically Radulov. The Habs did this last year, using Plekanec, to mostly unsuccessful results. It really doesn't matter who the Habs send out there, if their powerplay doesn't have their forward pushing the slot, they'll continue to get mediocre results.

- Both defences aren't exactly Speedy Gonzalez, which means guys like Byron and Galchenyuk might get their share of chances tonight.

- Oooh, Habs first new look powerplay. Here we go.

- Let's not be too harsh here, but safe to say Radulov stumbled out of the new look powerplay gate.

- Anyway, unless and until the Habs modify their approach, they'll still be bottom third in the League with the man advantage. This means being more efficient gaining the zone, not being so emphatic with perimeter passing, and not obsessing over point shots from Shea Weber, who struggles with accuracy.

- Wayne Simmonds with a clear check from behind on Markov, sending Andre head first into the boards. Once again, this is the crap the NHL must eliminate, and whose officials refuse to penalize. Anyway, where's Andrew Shaw? We might seem him have more than a word with Simmonds before this night is over.

- One explanation is one of the refs, Chris Schlenker, is officiating his first NHL game. Having been in the system, I can tell you that minor league officiating does a very poor job preparing officials for making tough, but necessary calls - like checking from behind. Focus is far too much on game management (not making calls), and far too less on protecting the safety of its players.

- Kirk Muller was just interviewed at the bench by RDS, said he didn't like what he saw from the first powerplay (well, that's not a stretch), and that he's wanting "more shots". That sounds rather simplistic to me, but then again, it was just a 20 second interview.

- Ho-hum period of hockey, both team offences weren't very organized, speciality units were pretty bad, both Price and Mason faced virtually nothing of difficulty. Mostly a period of attrition by two teams that have enjoyed an early season of favourable puck luck. When teams like that face each other, the net result is usually bad and boring hockey.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Nobody would fault you for nodding off during that 1st period. Anyway, Habs had slight puck advantage, 5v5 CF was 56.6%

- Habs 3rd line, the Desharnais line, continues to be a pleasant early season surprise for the Canadiens. Perhaps, just perhaps, Desharnais is thriving more not having to deal with the assumed pressure of being a top-6 forward. He's shown good chemistry with Byron and Shaw.

- The 2nd period has been the Flyers period this season - 12 of the 19 goals they've scored has come during this frame.

- Blue line shakeup! Weber paired with ... Emelin? HRMMM.

- No idea what's happening with Habs defence, except that it appears that Beaulieu has possibly entered Michel Therrien's doghouse.

- Habs powerhouse line tonight has been their 4th line. Which is all you need to know about how good (or terrible) this game has been.

- Excellent hustle by Radulov to win the puck behind the Flyers net, feed the line to Weber for a one timer that changes directions, and beats a blind Mason. Habs puck luck continues to dazzle this season.

- Not sure what Radulov ate for breakfast, but he's been a monster this period. Flyers would be best to just step out of the way.

- Habs 2nd powerplay, again Radulov at the point, but Galchenyuk is yanked for Desharnais. Uhh ... kay?

- Flyers tie it up, Voracek deflectng a Giroux point shot, Habs Petry and Markov not doing a very good job defending the slot.

- At this point, I think Muller is just tossing out different player combinations with the man advantage - trying to find something of a spark. That's fine early in the season, the best time to experiment. Still, this team has to do better gaining the zone. Fundamentally, that's where the dysfunction originates from.

- A slightly less awful period of hockey, but still, full sympathies to anyone who paid to see this game live. Both teams struggling to generate anything resembling momentum - passing has been poor, translation game has been disorganized, and zone entries ... mainly dump and chase affairs. This game is pretty much up for grabs - probably favouring the Canadiens with Price in net, but that aside, whomever wins tonight, it won't be a stellar 2 points. 

GAMEDAY GAME PREVIEW:

Alright, first let's get the lineups taken care of. Here's the Flyers:

Schenn/Giroux/Simmonds
Konecny/Couturier/Voracek
Cousins/Bellamare/Read
VandeVelde/Gordon/Lyubimov

MacDonald/Gostisbehere
Provorov/Manning
Schultz/Streit

Steve Mason

And the Habbies, same as the lineup Saturday night against the Bruins:

Pacioretty/Galchenyuk/Gallagher
Lehkonen/Plekanec/Radulov
Byron/Desharnais/Shaw
Danault/Mitchell/Flynn

Markov/Weber
Beaulieu/Petry
Pateryn/Emelin

Carey Price

Alright, bad news. No Dale Weise! In case you hadn't seen or heard, Weise is in the middle of serving a three game suspension for this:



Oh, Dale. We love ya, but you never were the sharpest tool in the hockey shed. Anyway, since Dale isn't playing, it freed up time for him to give interviews, including one to Montreal reporter Amanda Stein, when he was quoted saying this:

An interesting perspective, but nothing we didn't already suspect. In a season that was full of Habs management pointing fingers at everyone else but themselves, you know - all part of the "no excuses" culture, it follows that the likes of Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien would ostracize Subban to shade their own failings.

Anyway, tonight's game. The Flyers are coming off a win Saturday night against Carolina, which broke a 3 game losing streak for Philadelphia, who've struggled early out of the gate. But then, just look at that lineup. Sure, the Flyers have an excellent first line, a midling 2nd line, and studs like Gostisbehere on their blue line, but after that, things really go down a steep hill. The Flyers are putting up early numbers that indicate wins will be tough to find this season - ranked 24th in EV Corsi, a passive offence with a 26th ranked S/GP, and a weak PK, something the organization has been struggling with for the past few years, still ranked near the bottom of the League in effectiveness. If there is one saving grace for the Flyers it's been their PDO, 5th ranked at 103.1, largely because of the Flyers' ridiculous shooting percentage early in the season - 13.9% - by far the best in the NHL. If it wasn't for the Flyers knack for finding the net, they could easily be 0-5, instead of 2-2-1.

One interesting stat to take note of - the defensive zone starts. The Flyers have been excellent here - just 25% of their faceoffs have been in their zone this season - likely in part because Philadelphia likes to play an aggressive forecheck, in part because their defence does a pretty decent job initiating transition.

Over in Habsland, it's full steam ahead, with the Canadiens now the only NHL team that hasn't suffered a regulation loss. As we mentioned yesterday, the underlying numbers so far indicate the Habs have enjoyed the benefit of significant puck luck, in combination with very good goaltending. It's not a matter of if, but when, the Habs luck will regress to the norm. Likely sooner rather than later. Whether the Canadiens can still muster up victories without the bounces is a looming question.

Puck drops tonight at 7:40 EST.

Game Thirty-Three: Habs vs. Flyers

UPDATE: BLOGGER IS TERRIBLE. Apparently their servers are messed up, and posted images aren't showing up, period. Hopefully they'll get things figured out soon, so you can see the above chart in all of its glory. At the very least, here's a link to the original graphic. 

See this chart above via @Le_Matheux? Click on it. Look at it. LOOK AT IT. That's team defense Fenwick from the start of the season (left) to last night (right). If you're above the 0, you're fine. Below, you're not fine. Way below, you basically are terrible at your position. But the trend, across the board, as you might note, ain't good. This chart ... this chart, is part of the explanation why this team ain't headed nowhere but Losertown.

A thousand beers, is what I feel like drinking after viewing charts like this.

HAPPY FRIDAY EDITION

HAPPY ... ah ... screw it.

Memo to Marc Bergevin: Before offering these extension contracts, maybe ... just maybe ... pause and reconsider?

More on the Habs soon-to-be-extensive losing streak later.

 



Philadelphia 2, Montreal 1:

Third Period:

- Habs need to score a dirty, dirty goal. Something, anything to break the drought. Put it on goal, crash the crease, just ... anything.

- Good news, Habs get a clear-cut two on one. Bad news, it's Gionta and Plekanec.

- I guess it could have been worse - it could have been Stone Hands Moen.

- Habs have demonstrated little urgency - I can't understand the utter lack of energy. Yeah, it's been a busy stretch, but this is just the 3rd game in 6 days. 

- Unlike Tuesday night, Briere has been given plenty of shifts tonight, I'm guessing Therrien was hoping he'd receive an inspired performance. Instead, it's been a resounding thud. 

- Speaking of thuds tonight, the Habs 4th line - it's back to doing nothing. The purpose of inserting Parros was what, exactly?

- Hmmm, when I said get a dirty goal, I should have mentioned not using your hand, Brian. Anyways, Habs can't get a break. Hockey gods revenge continues.

- Galchenyuk with less than a minute left, saves the Habs the humiliation of being shut out twice in a row. Too little, too late.

- Habs were playing with fire, getting outworked and out puck possessed during their winning streak, and now the reality is setting in that they had a week of very good fortune. But now, the truth is exposed - they were beaten handily by a sub .500 team - the Canadiens really didn't muster a single strong scoring chance, save the Galchenyuk goal, the whole night. Emelin a terrible outing. Murray and Diaz not far behind. Putting Parros in the lineup, period - there are no excuses left. 

This is a team heading south in an accelerating manner, with little reason to believe things will turn around anytime soon.

Second Period:

- Decent first shift for the Eller line to start the second. Habs with a little more energy ..certainly more than they demonstrated the first 20 minutes.

- High hit sends P.K. to the box, his victim, Voracek, went down as though he'd been shot.

- Voracek out there first shift PP. Because, of course.

- Stone Hands Moen.

- Giroux. Habs with decent keystone cops impersonation. Eller line slow to retreat on transition, Murray with a phantom check on nobody takes him off somewhere else, Diaz way out of position, Price hung out to dry. Some pretty terrible hockey right there.

- Last 9 goals in Habs game has been scored by the other team. I see little reason to believe that won't soon be 10.

- Emelin. Sigh. Not convinced this guy didn't make a full recovery before returning. He's only hurting his team, not to mention his reputation as a competent NHL defenseman.

- The Desharnais/Briere "experiment" might end after one game.

- Emelin gives Downie what sure looked like a targeted headshot with his elbow. I foresee a possible suspension ahead.

- And he gets 5 minutes and a game misconduct.

- Another nothing period for the Habs. That's six in a row extending back to the 3rd period of he Sabres game. I'll be surprised if they aren't shutout tonight, shocked if they somehow win. 

First Period: 

- I think it's officially official. The Habs powerplay is in a pretty deep funk. Too much focus on the perfect setup, when what is needed is something down and dirty.

- Both teams' offenses looking very tentative, not exactly brimming with confidence. They're both coming off dreadful losses where their clocks were cleaned. I'm guessing that's it.

- Briere given warm applause by the fans during TV timeout. Not sure how much of that applause was affectionate and how much was relief that Briere is no longer the anchor on the Flyers payroll that he used to be.

- 9 combined shots on goal through 14 minutes. 

- Raffl. Emelin with a horribly weak attempts to shoot the puck around the boards after Habs won the faceoff, Plekanec abandoned his check in front of the net. 1-0.

- So Bergevin signs Desharnais to a generous extension, Desharnais' career goes into the tank. Signs Emelin to an extension, has looked terrible since the ink dried. 

- Desharnais and Briere on the same line ain't working.

- 4 shots for the Habs in the period. Looked ... uninspired. Flat as a pancake, a team playing with very little mojo. Regardless of how weak their opposition will be the next week, the Habs are showing every sign of a team that's entering a sustained period of losing.

Gameday Game Preview:

Alright, it's bounceback time. Nowhere to go up. This is gonna happen. Piece of cake. Right back on the winning track. I mean, we're taking on the Flyers, who last night took a pounding at the hands of one of the best teams in the Western Conference, the Chicago Black Hawks, and were blown out the arena by 5 goals. How awful does Philly have to be to lose to an opposing team by 5 goals, RIGHT?

Yeah, yeah I'm being all smarmy here in light of the Habs' 6 goal drubbing the other night, but seriously, the Flyers aren't a very good hockey team. They had a disastrous start to the season, which resulted in their coach getting ash canned, recovered enough to entertain thoughts of actually being competitive for a playoff spot, and have since gone right back into an abyss. Entering tonight's game, it's three straight losses and counting for Philly, the result over that period being outscored 17-7.

Why so terrible? Well for the first time in an awfully long time, Philadelphia has a NHL team that can't score. 4th worst rated League offense to be exact. A mediocre powerplay. The Flyers are 23rd rated possession team, 17th rated Corsi, and just 11 wins to show even with luck on their side, a PDO rating over 100 (101.2).

It's not as though this team doesn't have talent. Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds have been predictably productive. 36 points scored between the two. The problem has been the other direction - combined, Simmonds and Giroux are -19. Then there's Scott Hartnell. Remember him? It was just two seasons ago that Hartnell was an elite League goal scorer - 37 in 2012, aided by an excellent 16% shooting percentage. This year, he's on pace for 17, and that shot percentage has dropped through the hole, now just 7.8%.

Goaltending. It's a franchise curse in Philadelphia, who've searched high and low for an established starter since the days of Ron Hextall. That's 25 years ago, by the way. This season the Flyers sunk their chips with the very tall (6'9") but perennially mediocre Ray Emery, who had one decent season as a first stringer with the Ottawa Senators, and that was way back in 2006-07. Since then he's made a name for himself for poisonous off-ice behavior, and obsessive on-ice headhunting tactics that included a debacle in November, when he mugged the Caps' Braden Holtby. It was egregious, goonish and totally idiotic. It was Philadelphia Flyers hockey at its finest.

So the Flyers are seemingly just the medicine that might cure the hurtin' Habs. A few changes have been made for tonight's game - the biggest one is the reuniting of the EGG line to help give the offense (hopefully) something of a spark.

On the backend, don't expect Michel Therrien to fool around with mix-and-match combinations. Tuesday night, Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin were matched up, with disastrous results. Yeah, I appreciate the "physicality" that Emelin brings to the table, but defensively, he's been kind of a mess this year - benefiting greatly playing along side Josh Gorges. It almost makes me wonder if the Habs defense might benefit if Emelin were demoted to the 3rd line, promoting Raphael Diaz to play next to Gorges.

And because it's Philly, the Habs will dress George Parros tonight, which means Ryan White is likely to be a healthy scratch.

Puck drops at 6:10 EST.

Gameday Notes:

Okay, just a few odds and ends.

- The EGG line is to be reunited, starting tonight. Let's see if that kickstarts each of the three - they've all been struggling of late (Gallagher in particular).

- Daniel Briere, he who had a nightmare outing Tuesday night against the Kinds, will play alongside Desharnais and Pacioretty.

- Doug Murray will start, Frankie Bouillon (who actually wasn't too bad against Los Angeles) will sit.

- George Parros will start. Le sigh.

- Carey Price will start - and hope to rebound.

- Former Habs goalie and one-time Hart Trophy winner Jose Theodore, who's been an unsigned free agent this season, has given up hopes of getting back into the game, and today joined TVA as a hockey analyst.

Game preview in a little bit.