Game Forty-Three: Habs vs. Senators

THIRD PERIOD:

- Yeah I know, faceoff specialist yadda yadda, abut there's no way you'll convince me that Malhaltra benefits this team and its fourth line than say, a ChristianThomas. Beyond taking draws, he's mostly a dearth.

- Therrien's line juggling, including moving Galchenyuk to the wing, Desharnais back to centre, ain't working. And I mean by "ain't working" as NOT AT ALL.

- At this point I do believe Therrien is wearing a blindfold and is generating lines by touching random players on the shoulder. That's all he's got to offer, I guess.

- Nine minutes left. This is the point where the Sens start to implode, right?

- Parenteau won't let the Sens collapse. Takes a very, very stupid high sticking penalty. That's basically his contribution tonight.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Pacioretty goes in hard, falls, appears to take a hard bump into the post with his knee.

- Karlsson. Top corner. Habs, especially Malhaltra and Parenteau, get caught sleeping. Gilbert also way out of position. Lots of muck up to be shared. 3-1. Methinks this is headed towards blowout territory.

- Therrien drawing names out of a hat to construct his 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines. Galchenyuk has been moved to the wing. Why? I guess because this is his idea of good coaching. 

- Habs on their second powerplay, still waiting for Beaulieu to finally score his first. He's come so close so many times.

- Forget that. Markov muffs it up and the line and is forced to trip. Probably shouldn't double shift him so quickly. That was a tired legs penalty.

- Parenteau really has fallen off the face of the earth, hasn't he? Not being helped by being subjected to poor line combinations by Therrien.

- Remember how good the Habs powerplay looked about 23 hours ago? Man, that seems like a distant memory now.

- Well, I guess that wasn't quite as bad a period as the first, but it still wasn't very good. Habs outshooting Sens 2-to-1, but a lot of that came as a result of some poor penalties taken by Ottawa forwards. Still don't see a whole lot of hope that the Habs will (again) salvage something out of nothing in the third period.

FIRST PERIOD:

- Well, that feels familiar. Another terrible start for the Habs. Hoffman a point shot, not overly difficult, Tokarski kicks in straight out to a streaking and un spotted Zibanejed, and it's 1-0.

- Yup. Bad Habs showing up tonight. Five minutes in, shots are 7-0 Sens. Looks like the Habs are going to take a hammering courtesy the back to back starts.

- If current trends continue, Sens will outshoot the Habs 66-18 tonight. 

-:When Emelin is your first food scoring chance 14 minutes into the game that tonight probably isn't going to be your night.

- Complete neutral zone muckup between Cowen and Ceci gifts Pacioretty a gift break, a wrister that Anderson probably should have gotten a piece of. Tie game. Sens mess up big time.

- I was all like, wow, Emelin played well last night! Thinking all like, maybe Emelin isn't all bad and stuff, Ya know?? Okay. Nevermind. Total stumble and bumble routine in front of Tokarski, Pageau eventually finding the open net. Emelin hurts the team again, costing them another goal. Again. 2-1.

- I was joking earlier when I said the Sens were on pace to get 66 shots tonight. Now I'm not so sure ....

- Well that really was a terrible period of hockey, with the Sens registering 20 shots. That the Habs are only one goal down represents a minor miracle. 

GAMEDAY GAME PREVIEW:


Oh, Radek Bonk. We miss you. That hair. That pretty boy face. Those expectations of greatness from being drafted number one overall. You really were and are the Ottawa Senators  - so full of expectations, invariably leading to so much disappointment. 

Anywho ... it's a good day, isn't it? Last night the Habs played one of their better games this season, edging out the Jackets on the scoreboard 3-2, but on the ice, more or less completely dominating their opponent. The Plekanec/Pacioretty/Gallagher line was a mind boggling +58 in shot attempts. Even Alexei Emelin wasn't (totally) terrible. 

Can this team keep it up? Can their woeful powerplay continue to produce the same way it was zapping up the red light in the 3rd period last night? Granted, this was Columbus, but they aren't really as bad as their record suggests, what with all their injuries sustained this season.

And tonight, the Habs will take on a similar opponent in Ottawa. The Senators are floating somewhere near the lesser parts of the eastern standards, although unlike the Blue Jackets, they can't use injuries as an excuse. The Jackets have lost 266 man games so far this year, Ottawa just over 100.

Anywho, here's the Sens' lines tonight:

Line 1: MacArthur-Turris-Chiasson Line 2: Hoffman-Zibanejad-Ryan Line 3: Michalek-Pageau-Stone Line 4: Condra-Legwand-Lazar Methot/Karlsson
Cowen/Ceci
Wiercioch/Gryba

Anderson.

So what's up with the Sens? Not a lot that's good. They're home after a four game road trip where they picked up just one win, Ottawa bears some distinct similarities to the Habs - they're not much of a possession team, ranked along with the Habs in the bottom third in the League, they're about the same as far as offensive output is concerned - where there are clear difference is defensively - the Habs have given up more than a half goal less per game than has Ottawa. Fundamentally, the game tonight will be decided by how good the Sens defense hold up, versus how poorly the Habs blue line plays.

One other factor - starting goaltending. Ottawa is expected to start their number one, Craig Anderson, while Dustin Tokarski will probably start for Montreal (even more likely considering the hard bump Carey Price took last night in the first period against Columbus).

Puck drops at 7:40, EST.

Game Thirty-Four: Sens vs. Habs

THIRD PERIOD:

- Math is pretty simple for a tired team like Ottawa. They'll need to score reasonably early in the period, otherwise, the hill will only get steeper as play drags on.

- Habs being very conservative, defensively. Basically folding up their tent and hoping the storm never arrives.

- Sens have a pretty atrocious transition game, basically firing darts in the dark, feeding the line and hoping a point shot makes its way through.

- Habs huge defensive breakdown, Chaisson misses a completely empty net. Game should be tied.

- Habs doing their best to not salt this game away. I guess they're wanting to keep their fans on the edge of their seats?

- Nothing more satisfying than seeing someone named Gryba going to a penalty box.

- This team would probably be sitting at 24 -25 wins with a properly functioning powerplay. That I have little doubt.

- Man, the Sens are just a disorganized mess tonight. Too many men with four minutes left, trailing by one lousy goal to an underachieving opponent. Long year ahead in Ottawa. Long, long year.

- Subban and Markov have not been on the same coordinates at the line tonight. It's hurt this team's scoring chances.

- Plekanec with a simple wrap shot, Lehner ... who knows? Insurance goal, Habs should be able to cruise to the finish now.

- Sens just throwing in the towel. Galchenyuk finishes a nice little three way passing play, Ottawa defense not even bothering to skate back to cover their zone. 4-1.

- As we speculated earlier, tired Sens team only had one shot in the third - to score early, or forget about it. Habs had the legs with the extra rest, and Ottawa could do nothing to compete. A relatively easy win, although given the circumstances, it should have been a whole lot more comfortable of a victory for the Canadiens. 

SECOND PERIOD:

- Habs Corsi rating halfway through the first was 83%. End of period, it fell to 50%. Yuuuuuup.

- Emelin is just so sloppy, has such a low hockey IQ. The day Bergevin is able to unload his services on someone else will be a major step forward for this franchise's championship hopes.

- Second period mirroring the first, Habs dominated up until the 8 minute mark before switching into sleep mode. We're approaching same time mark of second period right now.

- Oh baby, what a beautiful goal, Patches, Galchenyuk and Gallagher finishes very pretty goal, assisted by clunky Sens line change. 2-1.

- Safe to say the Habs are extending their strong play beyond what we saw in the first frame. Actually, 5-on-5, Habs have looked very strong tonight (yeah yeah Sens are tired, but still, Montreal playing a much more coherent goal than we're used to seeing).

- Sekac with Plekanec does nothing for me. Wonder how long Therrien is going to stick with this combo. Then again, we thought he wouldn't play Weise on the top 6 for more than a week, and here we are, more than a month later.

- Deaharnais having big troubles figuring out how to play the wing. He's just not working out anywhere. So like Emelin, Bergevin really needs to think hard about this team's long-term competitive prospects if he isn't wiling or able to move him somewhere else.

- Sens have no business even having a sniff at a win, but if not for Price, this game really ought be tied.

- Habs mailed in last seven minutes of the period, which is really disheartening and unimpressive. Third period coming up and this game is still up for grabs. Sigh.

FIRST PERIOD:

- As we didn't remotely expect but aren't entirely surprised, Pacioretty will play tonight. The guy is incredible.

- Welp, Bornival is a scratch. Sigh. And Sekac won't play alongside Eller, because why would you want to keep doing something that works?

- Habs storm out of the gate against an already visibly tired Sens team. Karlsson with a tired hold goes to the box.

- Um, okay. Andrighetto falls with Habs well set up in the powerplay, a routine 65 foot flip shot by Condra on Price who completely muffs it up and Sens take a 1-0 lead. Quite possibly the weakest goal ever surrendered in Price's NHL career.

- Energy kind of just totally left the building after that goal. Game turns on a dime.

- Lehner trying to make Price feel better about his first goal. Prust from almost behind the red line. Tie game.

- Habs are kind of overwhelming right now - constantly on the attack, Sens in survival mode right now. Eller looking extra fast tonight.

- Sens righting the ship, pressing the zone and now drawing a powerplay. Momentum, she's a fickle lady.

- So Habs dominated first half of the first, Ottawa the later. One thing, though. Habs have no excuse not to be dominating most of this game.

- This game should have been tagged and bagged for the Habs. Getting the sinking feeling this team is going to have to scrap for all their might to get points tonight. 

Oh Ottawa. Why do we not like you so? We've little reason to feel this way. It's not as though you're a perennially winning franchise. It's not as though you've repeatedly dashed our championship dreams on an almost annual basis. It's not as though we even give two figs about your mediocre city that has virtually nothing to brag about.

And yet, we just don't like you. Maybe it's because of all of your dirty players and dirty hits over the years, like this:

Or maybe it's because of your inability to lose with class:

The lack of class certainly seems to be systemic. On this rare occasion, we'll let Michel Therrien take the microphone:

Better yet, let's let Brandon Prust sum it up:

Ah, who cares. You know what? The Senators aren't a very good hockey team. 11th overall in the Conference, 17th rated offense, 16th rated defense, 12th rated powerplay and penalty kill, their top scoring players is a defenseman, yadda yadda.

So tonight, the Sens will finish a back-to-back set in Montreal, coming off a pretty resounding win last night against the Ducks, whom themselves were playing their 2nd game in two days. I think the League is going to need to take a serious look at scheduling teams two games two days in a row. Teams playing the 2nd game have put up a dreadful winning record this season. Which means, of course, that the Sens ought to be ripe for the picking tonight.

Habs have a couple of things going their way tonight. First, Lars Eller will make his return to the lineup, hopefully reuniting him next to Jiri Sekac. Also, probably to nobody's surprise, Max Pacioretty, who took a brutal (and sadly unpunished) hit on Thursday night at the hand of career thug Clayton Stoner, may actually start tonight. Max Pacioretty, is without a doubt, OUR HONEY BADGER.

Carey Price will start tonight, with Joey McDonald as backup! Welcome back to the NHL Joey! Enjoy the extended view from the players bench!

Robin Lehner will start for Ottawa because ... the Sens are too scared to start Craig Anderson? I'll bet you that's why.

Puck drops 7:15 EST.