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Five consecutive wins and a bone to pick, by Andrew Saadalla |
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In a potential first-round playoff matchup that pitted the Montreal Canadiens against the New York Rangers who, despite their 84 points, sit in the fourth position in the Metropolitan Division, the Habs brought their A-game to Madison Square Garden.
In defeating Alain Vigneault’s troops by a dominant score of 4-1, the Canadiens won their fifth consecutive game for the first time since an eight-game winning streak in October. Prior to Saturday night’s Original Six matchup, they won four games by a single goal and three contests required overtime. Now, it appears that they have turned the corner and finally put uninspiring months of January and February behind them ahead of the last 16 games of the 2016-2017 regular season schedule.
The best part for Habs fans? They defeated the Rangers without the help of Alexander Radulov, who is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury, as well as Michael McCarron whose recent performances did little to convince anyone he belongs in the NHL. Head coach Claude Julien opted to insert trade deadline day acquisitions Steve Ott and Andreas Martinsen in the lineup, and both immediately made their impact felt.
A few notes:
- In what is surely the most pleasant surprise, 6' 3” Martinsen demonstrated that he had quite a set of wheels on him. He blew past a Rangers’ defender while pushing him away, and subsequently set Ott up for a scoring chance that was thwarted by Henrik Lundqvist’s glove. Ott nevertheless finished the evening with an assist.
- Both Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk notched two assists, and kudos to the captain for stripping Ryan McDonagh of the puck and sending it over to Phillip Danault…
- Artturi Lehkonen got the proverbial monkey off of his back and sniped home a beauty on Danault’s cross-ice pass. It would be his first goal in 17 games, and only his second in 19.
- Jordie “Jo” Benn scored his first goal in the Canadiens uniform. Steadily, he has solidified the defensive corps and continues to compliment Nathan Beaulieu’s more offensive-oriented style on the third pairing. Expect to see Benn’s ice-time continue to rise, as he played 18:45 of virtually mistake-free hockey.
- The Habs fired 35 shots on net while keeping the Rangers at 27 and dished out 35 hits to their opponents’ 22.
- They won a whopping 62% of their faceoffs.
- They played a highly-disciplined game, with Brendan Gallagher (who has regained his long-lost confidence) being penalized in the dying minutes of the game for- you guessed it- goaltender interference.
A bone to pick
Speaking of which, I’d like to ask a question that tends to get ignored.
When on earth are Carey Price’s teammates going to start standing up for him?
Even Al Montoya was run over twice in his last outing against the New Jersey Devils, and not a single player came to their defense. Is this a trend that will continue in the playoffs, should the team make it? If opponents are aware that it’s open season on crashing the Habs’ goalies, don’t expect Price to last very long this Spring. He has been or played injured in his last two postseason runs, and he admitted so himself after being ousted in the second round of the 2015 playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Enough is enough, and somebody- anybody- needs to step up and show players taking liberties that that kind of garbage will simply not be tolerated. It’s time to send a message, because if the Habs hope to make any kind of significant noise come April, they’ll evidently need to rely on their best player to be in his finest form.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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