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Brodeur Provides Deju Vu at the Bell Centre |
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It's not often you could say the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens played an exciting game against each other, and last night was no exception. There were points where you thought we might be getting there, like when Brendan Gallagher thought he had made the score 3-2, but after that, there was very little to convince this game would end dramatically.
The Canadiens and their fans wake up with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths, and a lot of emphasis has been put on that disallowed goal. The game was in jeopardy long before that point, as the Habs fell asleep for 8-10 minutes between the first and second periods.
Jaromir Jagr's game-tying goal after Pacioretty's snipe job to open the scoring--the one that pushed him to 7th, past Mark Messier on the all-time goals list at 695--was the product of a traffic jam in front of Price. The two that followed came on plays where no one did anything to alleviate the physical pressure the Devils put on Price. Down 3-1, the timing wasn't exactly ripe to take exception, not even when Dainius Zubrus crashed into Price a couple of minutes later.
The response was the furious pressure Montreal exerted on the Devils. Tomas Plekanec came blazing down the wing and fired a shot that smashed off the crossbar from 26 feet out. The puck flew down the opposite side as Henrique set Ryder up with the game's best opportunity, leaving Price to save the bacon.
Gallagher's misfortune came less than a minute later. The Canadiens should've seized the opportunity, regardless of the goal being disallowed, they carried play towards Brodeur's net and found themselves on the powerplay seconds after.
Brodeur locked it down from that point forward, but the missed opportunities on the powerplay took the wind out of Montreal's sails, and they only managed five shots on net in the third period.
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1) Toronto looks bad, no matter what, on the disallowed goal. It was called a goal on the ice, so there were two things to consider in the review.
a) Did Gallagher kick the puck?
b) Was there a distinct kicking motion?
The puck is swept in by Gallagher's foot as his body is rotating toward the net. He never makes a kicking motion, and never kicks the puck either. The officials in Toronto can't decide whether Gallagher knew the puck was there or not; that wasn't for them to decide. Given all of that, it probably should've stood as a goal.
On the other side of it, the natural sweeping motion of Gallagher's leg directed the puck into the net, and it never touched his stick. He makes an attempt to get a stick on it, which lends to the thought that he intentionally directed the puck to his stick with his skate, and it happened to slip by Brodeur.
2) The game Brodeur played after that disallowed goal was very different from the game he played in the first half. He didn't look comfortable at all in the first period; not on Pacioretty's goal, which was certainly forgivable, and not on some other chances the Canadiens generated before Rene Bourque shoveled a puck into him on the powerplay with the net yawning behind him.
The second that goal was disallowed, Brodeur had that all-too familiar smile on his face, the one that told of his confidence the game was going his way. He settled in, and not a second too soon as the Canadiens powerplay got a few very quality scoring chances.
3) Puck movement on the powerplay was good, and so was the player movement, but the team is just damned right now. They got Subban open for a couple of rips, they rotated Markov down to the backdoor, they opened up the high slot for shooting opportunities, but they just can't connect on a goal right now, and it's killing them.
They don't seem to have the answer. You can say shutting down Montreal's powerplay is as simple as taking away Subban's one-timer, but that shouldn't be the case on this team.
Markov, Pacioretty and Plekanec are all shooting options on the other side. Eller, if he gets the chance, is another. And even if Subban is covered, he can still score.
So what is the answer?
Whatever it is, it's not more of Bourque, Gionta and Bouillon...
4) Habs lost in regulation, and guess what, the Lightning won in regulation, Toronto beat Boston in regulation, and Ottawa extended their current hot-streak to 6-0-1 with a 3-0 whipping of the Minnesota Wild.
That puts the Lightning and Bruins up three points on the Habs. And the Habs are six points on the Leafs, and seven up on the Sens and Wings.
Thursday in Ottawa instantly becomes the Canadiens' most important game of the season. A loss in that one makes Saturday's game against Toronto their most important game of the season.
Wins in both games, and the Canadiens will keep pace, perhaps even surpass the Lightning and Bruins. Losses in both and the Atlantic Division becomes infinitely tighter.
See where I'm going with this?
35 games to go, all of them are crucial.
17 of those games will be against divisional rivals.
Another eight will feature premium competition, including a post-Olympic trip to play the Kings, Ducks, Coyotes and Sharks. Games against Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Colorado and Chicago are bound to be extremely challenging.
5) David Desharnais opting out of last night's game with the flu really hurt the Canadiens. With Ryan White on the IR, with Parros at 5:41, with seven defensemen dressed, the team skated through the game with 10 forwards.
The cap situation in Montreal is obviously tight. But can the Canadiens afford to not get a call up here on standby?
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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