Game 26: Blue Jackets vs. Habs

THIRD PERIOD:

- Habs and Jackets through 40 minutes:

- Habs start the 3rd with a far more aggressive forecheck. Produced a couple of decent scoring attempts.

- Desharnais and Weise are a two-man self-inflicted defensive wrecking crew. Just abysmal puck control at centre ice gives Columbus a clear-cut 2-0 break.

- The Habs line combinations can only be described with one word: preposterous. Have no idea what Therrien is doing back there, excepting perhaps pulling decision from a hat.

- Normally I'd just shrug off that Lars Eller was cross checked in the neck, and Alex Gulchenyuk high sticked in the face this period alone. However, given that Emelin was tossed for an interference, and Foligno not punished for an attempt to injure, I must stay this: Kevin Pollock and Kelly Sutherland are terrible at what they do.

- Jackets are being stealthy with their attacks, just laying back and then striking quickly. Habs seem to be attempting to generate goals via more complex passing plays. I like Columbus' strategy more, and would probably favour them to score the next (and perhaps winning) goal.

- Habs forwards, whatever combinations they're coming in, need to shoot the puck. Too many puck carriers are holding on for too long, looking for the perfect shooting position. Game will not be won that way. A dirty goal is just as good as a slick one.

- I think it's very safe to say, when it comes to handling the puck. Mike Condon is no Carey Price.

- Wow, Hartnell with a very foolish trip on Subban with 2 and a half left.

- Habs powerplay strikes, what a killer. Unbelievably, it's Weise feeding Pacioretty. Therrien's bizarre, illogical line juggle pays off, I guess. It's crazy how this happens again and again.

- Another terrible icing call that will give the Jackets one more shot at tying the game with a deep zone faceoff. Those have been awful tonight as well.

- Well, a win is a win, however uninspired, and however poorly officiated. A bad penalty by Hartnell, and Therrien somehow magically putting out a line combination that made next to no logical sense, scores the game winner. I'm done figuring out the coach because whatever he does, seems to work out.



SECOND PERIOD:

- Habs and Jackets through 20 minutes. You can see how Columbus chipped their way back into this game after a slow start to the period:

- That was a pretty poor powerplay for the Jackets, a big 5 minute advantage blown. That could be a key part of the final result story, if the Habs do win the game.

- Habs 2nd powerplay, at least puck control was established, but many sloppy passes and missed shot attempts. Seems like team powerplay in general is getting a little musty, if not slightly disinterested. No sense of urgency or intensity.

- So Therrien has now moved Pacioretty next to Desharnais, which makes all kinds of no sense whatsoever. I've said it before, line experimentations are fine, but only if they make a sliver of sense.

- Foligno with a dirty knee hit on Fleischmann, and Beaulieu comes in to fight. Bad idea, not only because Foligno can hold his own (and did), but the Habs can't afford to take even a sniff of a chance losing another defenceman. Beaulieu hit to the ice with a right to the jaw. Oy.

Clearly a knee from Foligno. pic.twitter.com/NGqx1B4caU

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 2, 2015

- So Emelin gets 5 and a game for a bodycheck interference, and Foligno, who clearly attempted to take out Fleischmann with his knee, gets no punishment. NHL officiating continues to struggle.

- Both teams with pretty uninspiring performances tonight, offence execution has been sloppy, at best. Horrendous, at worst. Both fully deserved zero points tonight. Too bad that can't happen.

- Another period, another black eye for NHL officiating. The referees tonight, Kevin Pollock and Kelly Sutherland, have combined more than 2,000 NHL games of experience. There is absolutely no excuse for their poor calls, and for not taking Foligno off the ice for the rest of the night. Hopefully the League will have some semblance of decency, and will handle this matter internally in disciplining these officials.

Oh yeah, the game itself. Another yawner - very little flow to this game, offences a real clunker, and Therrien being Therrien, mixing up his lines with strange player combinations, that included Pacioretty next to DD, which as noted previously, makes absolutely no sense.


FIRST PERIOD:

- Oh man, what a pretty, pretty play ... Christian Thomas a beautiful pass to Paul Byron, who tips the puck past Bobrovsky, who had little chance. Habs outlet speed too much for the slower footed Jackets defence to react. 1-0.

- Habs struggle setting up properly on their first powerplay, Jackets PK good job with puck pressure. Ice seems to be a little rough, puck bouncing quite a bit.

- Galchenyuk line with plenty of speed and energy in this period, they and the 4th line the best so far for the Habs.

- Galchenyuk continuing to work magic with the puck - he's on the cusp of a big-time breakout season. We may be witnessing it this year.

- Pretty mute attack by Columbus so far, they're not winning centre ice, which is limiting possession and any threatening zone entries. Habs defence, it would appear, are well prepared tonight.

- Sometimes the best move is to not do anything at all. Emelin takes the puck from the line, with no traffic in front of Bobrovsky, takes a 50 foot wrister that probably wasn't any faster than 30 mph. Net effect, Bobrovsky with routine save, Columbus with easy, clean and fast break out of their zone.

- Subban's attempt to clear the zone hits the referees skate, and a shot on Condon is misplayed by the Habs goaltender, with Foligno wrapping the puck into the open side.

- Emelin loses his brain somewhere on the ice, and proceeding to blindside hit Nick Foligno  with the puck nowhere near. Emelin give 5 and a game. Could it be 5 minutes and 6 games? Please???

- Well, that's pretty lame. Habs started strong, but Columbus started to work their way back into the game, with Foligno tying the game, and Emelin being stupid old Emelin again. In any case, the Habs need to return to being more aggressive with their forecheck, as the Blue Jackets defence is suspect at best. It seemed to be working early, but for whatever reason, the Canadiens moved away from that strategy as the period progressed.



GAMEDAY PREVIEW: CONDIBEAR OR BUST!!

Well, by now you've heard the delightful news that Carey Price will be out of the lineup until at least mid-January (that Winter Classic is really shaping up, isn't it?), and that Marc Bergevin says he's standing pat with what he's got - which means, six weeks of backup Dustin Tokarski, and starter Mike Condon ... aka ... Condibear!

In tribute of Condibear being the Habs number-one goaltender for the next couple of months, I found this adorable cartoon bear on the interwebs to represent Condi. It's cute!!

Tonight, the Habs get the opportunity to host, for the first time this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets, as you might recall, got off to an atrocious start this season, losing their first 8 games before finally eeking out an OT win over the actual worst team in the NHL this season, the Colorado Avalanche. Columbus' awful start cost Todd Richards his head coaching job, and the one-man-insanity-show better known as John Tortorella was brought in.

Since the Richards firing, the Jackets, even with a loose cannon line Tortorella in charge, have managed to find stability. From that 0-8 start, the Jackets have gone 10-7, which is quite respectable. Whether or not they'll have time enough to recover a bid for a post-season spot remains to be seen, but they are, at least, demonstrating competitiveness.

Even with those wins, it's still been an up-and-down journey for Columbus. They've beaten some pretty good competition, posting wins against teams like the L.A. Kings, St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators on some nights, but then losing games (quite badly) to not-very-good teams like the Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators. They are a team that's been difficult to figure out.

The big achilles heel for Columbus has mainly been defensive. The Jackets have the 26th ranked team defence, surrendering on average, nearly 30 shots per game. Compounding the issue has been lackluster performances by former Vezina trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, who's struggled to put up a .908 SV%, which amongst NHL starters, ranks pretty close to the bottom of the League.

How much their defence has struggled is surprising, given they have two high profile blue liners in Jack Johnson and Ryan Murray. The weakest links reside with the Jackets' third line defence, comprised of journeyman Andrew Bodnarchuk and Justin Falk, who are, as NHL-calibre players, marginal talents (at best). That's a big issue for the Jackets because it forces their top two lines into playing exhaustive minutes each game, and exposes them to a heap of trouble against line-matching opponents, especially when Columbus is the visiting team, as they are tonight.

Once again, the Habs are facing an opponent that, even with all the injuries, they ought handle. There won't be many changes with tonight's lineup as compared to Saturday night, except that Emelin is expected to draw in, with Greg Pateryn, who struggled on the weekend, thought to be a healthy scratch.

Puck drops at 7:40 EST at the Bell Centre. Bobrovsky vs. Condon.

Game Sixty-One: Habs vs. Blue Jackets

THIRD PERIOD:

- Prust now with de la Rose and Eller. Spend every single second of their shift pinned in their zone. Jackets continue to dominate possession.

- DSP had better be really good in front of the opponent's goal because he hasn't been particularly effective in front of his own.

- Timely and opportunistic scoring. Prust with a totally harmless shot that's wonderfully redeflected by de le Rose, for his very first NHL goal. Dagger has finally been applied. 

- Yeesh, Plekqnec-Galchenyuk-DSP with an awful shift, doing excellent headless chicken impersonations, and the Jackets narrow the lead to two. DSP looking particularly lost. I know it's early days on a new team, but that was really pretty bad.

- Pretty weak sauce tripping call on Calvert, Habs head to the PP. Will we see DSP?

- Even weaker than that penalty is the Habs powerplay, unable to generate simple controlled possession in the Jackets zone, because everybody is focused on chipping and dumping. Which is why the Habs unit is in the League's 20th percentile.

- Powerplay number two arrives almost immediately. DSP now? I thought Therrien was all up on experimentations tonight.

- Improvement. Instead of being awful, 2nd powerplay was just bad.

- de la Rose, his second career NHL goal, empty net. 

- Solid enough win tonight, not entirely happy with how the team sat on the lead even after just 20 minutes. Oh well, it's a win, as the Habs take another step towards solidifying a top tier finish in the Conference. Grats to Carey Price for winning his 10th straight road game, this extending his franchise record.

SECOND PERIOD:

- Habs with 70% possession in the first, which equates to a near season high for a single period.

- Smith-Pelly with some nice work on the PK. He's not fast but he's sneaky because he seems to have good hockey sense. Play anticipation is strong. 

- Prust basically tossed to the ice like a rag doll carrying he puck into the Jackets zone. Wonder if he's playing through an injury to that bumm shoulder. 

- Instead of going for the knockout punch, Habs in full coast mode this period. Columbus not really offering any pushback, they're just taking what's being given, which Is plenty of open ice. 

- Eller now winging de la Rose and Weise, which is a pretty good sign Lars hath returned to Therrien's doghouse.

- I sesnse not only are the Habs attempting a two period lead sit, but Therrien is doing more line experimentations. They're just begging to fritter away this lead.

- DSP now with Plekanec and Galchenyuk. Goes offside off a rush.

- Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Gallagher would make a killer line right about now. Each is playing in top form.

- Habs sat on it, but get away without surrendering anything on the scoreboard. Outshoot 2-to-1, this team really should have the game totally in the bank, but seem more focused on line experimentation than actually winning. Oh well.

FIRST PERIOD:

- So Malhotra bumps Thomas out of the lineup, because .. well .. who knows why? In other news, the Blue Jackets just let the Leafs off the hook for the next 7 years, because .. who knows?

- P.K. Subban with a blast, unstoppable. Did you know he's probably going to set a career high this year for points in a season? OH ... but he's having an "off year" if you listen to the mouthpieces. Anyway, Habs right off to a 1-0 lead.

- Yeah, yeah. Malhotra won the draw that led to the Subban goal. Whatever. No way he should be in any starting lineup, ever, again.

- Well, there goes that lead. Dubinsky with a shot that I think (I hope?) deflects off Gilbert, and past Price. Otherwise, Carey just let in an easy one. Tie game.

- Having trouble keeping up here. Markov reestablishes the lead, after McElhinney goes wandering off behind his net. The Jackets netminding tonight appears to be a bit ... uh ... suspect. 2-1.

- Pretty certain to say word on the Habs bench right now is "shoot everything at McElhinney." Can't really argue with that.

- Pacioretty with his 30th. Jackets defence looked horribly disorganized leaving virtually every Habs forwards, including Max, completely unchecked. This one has the whiff of a blowout. We'll see.

- Like what I've seen from Smith-Pelly - good positioning around the net, he's generated a couple of decent scoring chances. Don't know how much of a defensive liability he'll be over the long run, but so far, so good.

- Pretty much a Habs period in most respects, Habs looked a little soft on the PK, giving the Jackets a bit too much lane passing freedom. But the slow, disorganized defensive play and questionable goaltending mean the Canadiens should be a pretty good position to wrap up two more points tonight.





GAMEDAY GAME PREVIEW:What else needs to be said, other than this is yet another of those games against lesser teams which the Habs can ill-afford to give away, assuming one of their main objectives is to finish as high as possible in the Eastern Conference standings.

Tonight, the Habs will be icing a nearly totally healthy roster, including the debut of newly acquired Devante Smith-Pelly. He'll start, we're guessing, on the Habs third line next to, we guess, Brandon Prust and Lars Eller? Michel Therrien said he won't be announcing the starting lines until the last possible minute.

The Blue Jackets, meanwhile, continue their process of playing out the schedule, now losers of three straight games, including an inglorious loss at the hands of the Sabers on Tuesday night (we know how it feels). I don't expect the Jackets' game plan to be much different tonight than it's been previously. They'll come out physical, try to slow down the Habs, and hope they can find a way of somehow beating the best active goaltender on the planet.

Which is to say, it'll be a longshot for the home team.

Habs should win this relatively easily.

Now that I've totally cursed them - puck drops at 7:10 EST.


GAMEDAY NEWS 'N' NOTES:

- Mr. Smith-Pelly has arrived in town. He's even on the practice ice! There's a picture of him above in uniform, courtesy TSN's John Lu.
- Here's a nice little piece about Habs prospect Tim Bozon, who met a 13 year old meningitis survivor (and HUGE Canadiens fan) in Regina, Saskatchewan yesterday. Tim, as many of you are aware, survived a meningitis attack last year in Saskatoon (and spent weeks in a hospital that's not much more than a stone's throw from my house). (CBC.ca)
- Here's a questionable article clearly written by someone who has little idea what's happening with the Canadiens, about a supposed trade offer of 2013 1st round draft pick Mike McCarron to Arizona in return for defenseman Zbynek Michalek. (NBC Sports)
- Not Habs related, but still hilarious. Somebody actually wrote this. Click, and be prepared to have your mind blown away by the inanity of it all. (Sportsnet Edmonton)

More in a bit.

Game Fifty-Nine: Blue Jackets vs Habs

THIRD PERIOD:

- Beaulieu has been excellent, both ends of the ice tonight. Arguably his best game of the season.

- Habs not displaying any killer instinct. Feeling is sinking that the tying Columbus goal is inevitable.

- 3rd line doing a good job grinding out the play. That's invaluable when you're trying to hold on to a razor thin lead.

- Since de le Rose was shuffled out of the 4th line in favor of Malhotra, that line's forechecking effectiveness has basically dried up completely. They can't string a single pass together, either.

- Referees have been giving Columbus open season hits on Habs tonight, Calvert with a blind hit on Thomas, who has to take measures into his own hands. Another poor night for officiating.

- Just over five minutes left, Habs in full huddle mode. They're playing not to lose tonight, which is just asking to lose. Going to be a struggle to reach the finish line.

- Therrien would be unwise to play the 4th line from this point forward. They've had a few defensive difficulties tonight.

- Two minutes left, Columbus really turning up the heat now. Hang on.

- Hoo boy. Markov shoots the puck over the glass. Habs couldn't find the dagger this period, and now Columbus with a golden chance.

- Therrein sends out Malhotra. Oy.

- Plekanec to the rescue. Habs hold on, and we all breath a sigh of relief that this team finally beats a lesser light. 

SECOND PERIOD:

- Can't imagine where this team would be without Markov this season. No where near first place, that's for sure.

- Nightly lazy tripping penalty by Eller. That rolling sound you heard was Therrien's eyeballs.

- Habs using a couple of horseshoes on their PK from Eller's penalty. Columbus having a very strong period so far, showing the Habs how a transition is supposed to work. Score should be tied, but at this trend, it should be soon enough anyway.

- Sekac with hard work and speed off the wing earns a powerplay. It's still baffling how this guy was a healthy scratch for two games and then saddled on the 4th line. How could would this team be if it managed its assets properly?

- Habs have basically stopped trying to posses the puck this period, in other news, their offense has ground to a near complete halt. #TherrienHockey

- Habs looked so confident in the first period. I'm assuming the coach didn't like that, and told his troops to focus on long bomb passes and puck dumps. Habs doing everything possible to fritter this game away. Still one long period left - I'm not particularly confident they won't do exactly the same thing as Thursday night. 

FIRST PERIOD:

- Brendan Gallagher just drew a tripping penalty. I thought I'd never see this day arrive.

- Habs great looking powerplay, Pacioretty with an awesome one timer off a great Markov pass. Columbus overplaying Subban on the other side, Montreal takes advantage.1-0.

- Looks like the Habs have their shooting shoes on tonight. Pretty aggressive start to this game. Lots of angry guys were in the dressing room after that loss to Florida. Might be taking a lot of frustration out tonight.

- McElhinney really fighting the puck, some significant rebounds given up via point shots. Net crashing might produce more offense. We'll see.

- Columbus really struggling to adjust to Habs rushes. Key is that the Habs are avoiding the dump, which really leverages their speed. Here's hoping the coach doesn't tell the troops to play #TherrienHockey.

- Officials Ghislain Hebert and Tom Kowal really giving Columbus every possible benefit of a doubt this period - looks of hacks and illegal hits not being called.

- Pacioretty. 29th of the season. Almost identical to his first goal - brilliant pass by Beaulieu for a one timer. Nobody seems to be covering him. 2-0.

- Man, what's the deal with this team? Up by two, Habs surrender a sloppy goal while in complete control of the game. Just inexcusable.

- Kind of the same old story for the Canadiens of late. Outplaying their opponent, but giving up preventable goals while laregly in control of the game. Net result - another night, another opponent still competing for victory when they ought be way down on the scoreboard.   

GAMEDAY GOO:

Well, we're playing another lesser light tonight, aren't we? Seems like we can't buy a win against teams the Habs should be owning in their sleep. Next up, it's the Blue Jackets of Columbus. Surely, we'll win this one. Right?

Ah, who knows? The Jackets have been playing some pretty decent hockey this month, winning 3 of their past 4, and 5 of their past 7, which included wins over the (suddenly struggling) Islanders, and a 7-1 thumping of the St. Louis Blues. So this probably won't be a gimme, unlike the games against Buffalo, Edmonton, Senators, and Coyotes. What's that? We lost all of those? Great.

Lineup tonight will almost certainly be the same. Alex Galchenyuk is out again because of the flu. So that means one more night of Manny Malhotra centering the 4th line. Jiri Sekac, who played a wonderful game Thursday night versus the Panthers, will start on the 2nd line next to Thomas Plekanec.

Otherwise, Habs need to really win these games if they want a top Eastern Conference playoff seed, because the March schedule won't be very friendly.

Puck drops at 7:15 EST.