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Habs Win 4-Straight, Kostitsyn-Explained, Plekanec-A New Man |
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Last night’s win over the Islanders: Not terribly impressive. What is impressive? Winning four games straight without Andrei Markov. What? We shouldn’t make a big deal of it? Why not? Everyone was so bent on regurgitating the statistics with Markov out of the lineup. Everyone was quick to suggest the Canadiens had no chance of making the playoffs with him gone.
But you know what? This isn’t a team armed with the excuses we’ve heard for years in Montreal. This isn’t the team that lost every game after Markov went down late, last season.
Last year’s team, filled with players that had been in Montreal for a number of years, knew exactly what they were missing with Markov out of the lineup. It was a built-in excuse to give up on a campaign that was as fruitless as any in the history of the Montreal Canadiens. If you think that group of players wanted to play Boston in the first round, after making a mockery of Montreal’s Centennial ecstasy extravaganza…
We can all agree that losing Markov at any point is as disastrous as anything that could happen to this year’s team. But if they had to lose him, the first game of the year wasn’t the worst time, if only because his new teammates wouldn’t necessarily know the full value that he provides. Ok…a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean.
These Montreal Canadiens don’t need to rely on any single player. Not Andrei Markov. Not Carey Price. Not Jaroslav Halak. But they’re leaning heavily on a few guys in Roman Hamrlik and Jaroslav Spacek. In Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri, and Plekanec. And so far it’s working.
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A few topics for conversation:
Poor, poor, Andrei Kostitsyn. I feel bad for this guy. Everyone says the same thing about him, and they’re all wrong. It’s not a lack of effort, nor is it a deficiency in his work ethic. He’s simply lost in translation. Not that he isn’t responsible for the dilemma he faces on a daily basis with the Canadiens, but if Andrei doesn’t speak English, rest assured his French isn’t much better.
After spending the better part of four years in Montreal, you would think he’d take some initiative in order to be able to communicate with his teammates, and most importantly his coach. And this issue that plagues his performance so greatly is magnified under the lens of Jacques Martin’s system.
Structure and organization in all three zones, and Andrei Kostitsyn isn’t just lost in translation, but in transition. He is literally out of position on every play.
Coach Tortorella had this to say of a slumping Christopher Higgins, on Saturday: “If he doesn’t do the right thing away from the puck, goals are going to continue to be hard to come by,” The difference being that Higgins knows what he should be doing within the confines of the system his coach has created.
Andrei Kostitsyn is trying as hard as he can to integrate properly into his coach’s system, but he’s failing miserably to understand the intricacies of it. And with Markov out, with his brother on a self-destruction mission, with Kovalev in Ottawa, he truly has no one to make him feel comfortable. No one to make him feel like part of the group. No one he can casually joke with on the bench. No one.
Being a loner worked great for Alex Kovalev at times, but for the most part it turned what should’ve been a decorated career, into a pretty average one. Andrei Kostitsyn is on a similar path, and it seems for as many times as his brilliance will shine through, there will be double the trepidation as he continues to neglect his responsibility to integrate himself with his teammates.
And what can the Canadiens do, short of putting a translator on the ice with him?!?
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I’m happy to see the way Guillaume Latendresse works with Kyle Chipchura and Matt D’Agostini—two players who seem to have recaptured the chemistry that made them a strong duo in the AHL. But poor Gui can’t buy a goal when he gets a chance to play higher up in the lineup. His confidence isn’t where it should be, and it’s most apparent on plays where he has the opportunity to drive the net, but elects to go with the perimeter play. You can talk all you want about his strong shot, and him hitting the post on a good chance from the high slot, but if he dedicated himself to playing like Travis Moen does, he’d be twice as successful.
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A couple of weeks ago I said Tomas Plekanec was back to the form that saw him score 69 points, two seasons ago. I was wrong.
This is a brand new Tomas Plekanec. A Tomas Plekanec that doesn’t need Alex Kovalev, or Andrei Kostitsyn to finish his plays. A Tomas Plekanec that doesn’t rely on anyone to do the heavy lifting for him. He’s aggressive, he’s tenacious, he’s confident, and he’s playing some of the best hockey of his career so far.
The real test for Plekanec will be the Olympics. It will be an opportunity for him, in the middle of the season, to show that he can compete as well when the level of play kicks up a couple notches, like it does in the playoffs. If he can keep it up until February, and elevate for the Czechs at the Games, he’ll have reached a new pinnacle in his career.
Speaking of Czechs, Hamrlik and Spacek are burning the midnight oil. These guys are playing some solid hockey, and if their efforts can be sustained with Markov out of action, imagine where this team could be by the time he returns?
Walking into the room last night, I expected Roman Hamrlik to be happy, but tired. But the big galoot admitted he felt “completely energized,” elaborating by saying “the more I play, the better I feel.” Good…
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Halak? Price? Halak? Price? Halak? Price? Price?...no…Halak.
Ok, conventional wisdom would suggest that Halak gets the nod against the Pens, since it would seem that Jacques Martin has decided it’s “win and you’re in.” So if you understand what I’m saying, Price will start against the Penguins.
More to come on that, and many other topics…tomorrow…
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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