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Habs Shoot Themselves, as the Panthers Steal a Win |
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What a frustrating thing to see the Canadiens dominate the way they did last night only to come up with a loss. What's even more frustrating is that I had to listen to an hour of Tony Marinaro ranting and raving about how Guy Carbonneau doesn't know what he's doing, all because of one insightful comment made by...Alex Kovalev? I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that Kovalev would call out his coach publicly like that, or the fact that Carbo knew he was right, as you could tell by the frustrated tone in his reaction to Kovalev's comments.
Does it mean Montreal has a lousy coach?? NO! Mario Tremblay when he was coaching the Habs was an awful coach. Michel Therrien, who left many with the impression he'd never secure another position in the NHL again after his journey in Montreal, was a bad coach! Guy Carbonneau isn't Michel Therrien, and he certainly isn't Mario Tremblay...and frankly I might be the only one, but I'm entirely sick of hearing the majority of fans and media criticize him.
Do we have a bad team? NO! Montreal was electric last night. They played, by far, their best game of the season. Yes they definitely should've had 4 or 5 goals on the night. And this brings me to my point. Good coaches, good team, good goaltending...and too many costly errors. Errors they cannot afford to make, in a conference that goes down to the last game of the season. Errors like taking a penalty on a 2-2 situation with the player isolated towards the boards; Richard Zednik of all people (who was clearly Florida’s best player despite two bonehead penalties, the nature of which epitomized why he’s no longer a Canadien)...Komisarek should've let him go; it's not like the guy can pass or anything! Errors like not calling a timeout after that happened. Errors like not calling a timeout with a tired Koivu line out there with 6 minutes left to play in a one-goal game after an icing call (I know I was yelling at the TV, when Fla won the draw and got a quick shot on net). Errors like Higgins having arguably the best snap shot on the team, and electing to deke in the shootout.
This team needs to find itself. It needs a group therapy session. Get in a room and talk it out! Alex Kovalev may have well been right about what he said, but he crossed the line saying it to the media instead of his coach. I can't fault him for being frustrated, as everyone on the team should've been...but the facts still remain that Guy Carbonneau is the coach, and if you want to win, you need veteran players to support his initiatives as opposed to undermining him in the press!
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Can this team score? YES! They may not have done it last night, but you know as well as I do that with the opportunities they are generating it's a matter of time before they start burying pucks. They need to get rolling, and they certainly cannot afford to wait! There are only so many more games you can play like last night without it costing you the season!
Are the Habs missing a scoring punch? YES! Tomas Plekanec is an excellent player, but as my good friend pointed out to me last night, he has the ability to be the best third line centre in the game. The Canadiens in the meantime need to go out and get themselves a scoring second line centreman. He could be a first line centreman...whatever you want to call him, but he better be a scoring centreman. A prolific one too!
This Grabovski experiment is hardly going to work for the Canadiens. I'm not saying the kid doesn't have potential to be a great NHL player one day, but it ain't today. Send him to Hamilton, or trade him! Either way, his ice time can be given to others that will do more with it.
Bring Maxim Lapierre up. There isn't a person in Montreal who doesn't think this guy can bring twice the energy that Kostopoulos has to our lineup. No offense to Tom, but he isn't getting his job done. Take the politics out of this room, and put a winning team on the ice!
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Here's another issue:
If you get goaltending like you did against Carolina, Pittsburgh, and to an extent Florida last night, how do you end up with one win and two losses???????????? This is an indication that there is a serious problem with this team. If you cannot run with the momentum of good goaltending how do you expect to win on nights where it's not there? The Canadiens cannot (nor can any team in the league) afford to blow games where their goaltending is top notch. It's completely deflating, it's completely frustrating, and it's completely pathetic!
This team has the goods to turn it around. They were 2 minutes away from playing the most responsible, complete game, since the beginning of last season. Indiscipline is embarrassing at this point. The penalty kill, which has been put to the test far too often, is failing. The PowerPlay, which isn't put to the test enough, is turning cold. If you watch 82 games of Canadiens hockey a year, you're qualified enough to agree the Habs have one of the fastest teams in the league. How do you not draw more penalties with the type of speed they have? You would almost have to conceive of some Oliver Stone type of conspiracy to explain this phenomenon. What do the Habs need to do to get the calls?
I'm not one to complain about refereeing, and I rarely blame the refs for the result of a game. Why on earth do we see plays, like the one Bryan Allen pulled in the first period against Saku Koivu, go uncalled?? Could it be any clearer that he tried to hit Koivu in the head at the blueline with both of his hands moving up towards Saku's face? This didn't lose Montreal the game, but it didn't win it for them either! With all the controversy surrounding headshots that should be an automatic call! Excuse me for lashing out about it, but it's a little sickening! Kudos to Saku for not retaliating; as he had ample reason to be frustrated on a shift where Allen nailed him earlier. Allen also found a way to smash Kostopoulos about 10 feet away from the puck...why didn't anyone step up and feed this guy his lunch? Was I the only one thinking about that? Who cares if he got up right away and gave Jokinen a punishing hit. I didn't wanna see him fighting Noah Welch...I wanted him to bash Allen's head in!
This team needs to band together. None of this crap with players calling out other players in the media or players calling out the coach. What a bunch of tripe! What Kovalev said wasn’t intended to be a shot at Carbonneau, but it’s obvious to anyone listening that he shouldn’t have said it. Mike Komisarek took full responsibility for the loss last night…everyone in the lockerroom should’ve come to his defense. This is what teams do! You live as a team, and you die as one as well! One guy gets in trouble; all of you are in trouble. One guy thrives; you all thrive. Pull it together, and prove that you have the ability to reach your potential, not individually, but as a team!
The game against Florida is over, and hopefully behind. Lessons learned, and hopefully applied. No time to wallow in self-pity, Ottawa awaits, and Buffalo is right around the corner.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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