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Price and the Third Line Lead Habs over Hurricanes |
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You're not going to get perfection on the first day back from an extended holiday, and the Canadiens proved that in taking care of the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night.
Yes, it's true there were some defensive lapses that forced Carey Price to come up with some excellent saves through all three periods of the game. And yes, that's become a pattern all too often this season, but over 82 games, you work towards perfection and you probably don't expect to achieve it by game 36.
The Canadiens out-shot the Hurricanes 10-8 in an opening frame that featured sparse rhythm and even less cohesion on either side of the puck. Both teams traded chances, but neither could muster the polish required to capitalize, and you could hardly call the Canadiens the better of the two despite their advantage on the shot meter.
The Habs were out-shot 8-5 in the second, but they were clearly the better team, managing two beautiful goals by Jiri Sekac and Lars Eller before the end of it.
In the third, Carolina took the first nine shots on Price before the Canadiens even attempted to start playing in the offensive zone. They gave up a powerplay goal, but they were able to run down the clock and seal the game on Max Pacioretty's empty netter.
Despite being out-shot 29-19 on the night, it rarely seemed as though the game was out of the Canadiens' control. You expected them to beat the Hurricanes, and they delivered.
It was far from perfect.
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1) If you can see it, and I can see it, then I'm sure Marc Bergevin is more than aware of the issue he has with this defense corps.
Michel Therrien and J.J. Daigneault have at least made an adjustment that is helping the team, promoting Nathan Beaulieu to play with Sergei Gonchar.
As steady as Gonchar is, he's rarely first on the puck in the defensive zone, and having Alexei Emelin as his passenger was an unmitigated disaster given the ice-time allotted.
Beaulieu's speed makes up for Gonchar's lack of mobility. There were times last night that this pair got hemmed in, and that'll happen plenty over time, but they're surviving those shifts and thriving on the rest of them.
As for Emelin and Tom Gilbert, they've got to find some measure of stability in third pairing minutes. Consistency seems to be an issue for both players, and it's hard to imagine Mike Weaver or Bryan Allen providing any kind of facelift for the blue line.
Gilbert had a lethargic start to last night's game, and Emelin couldn't compensate. As the game wore on, Emelin started to move his feet and get more involved by skating the puck out of his own end, and that was a stark improvement. But the issue is, you just don't know what you're going to get from either of these players shift by shift.
I'm sure Canadiens fans would love Bergevin to pull the trigger on bringing another scoring forward in, but his best course of action between now and the trade deadline is to find an upgrade on his blue line.
2) You can't underestimate the value of Jiri Sekac's professional experience. Three years split between the KHL and the Czech League have provided him with the necessary wherewithal to rebound from bad performances.
Before this little break in the schedule, Sekac had a bad game on Long Island. I can't think of another bad one he's played this year, but there's no doubt he was off for that one.
Coming out of the break, he had his legs going better than any other Canadiens forward in last night's game, and after a hustle play led to a tripping penalty, he didn't hang his head in shame; he came out of the box and scored a magnificent goal off a tremendous individual effort.
Sekac is a 22-year old rookie, but he's starting to look more polished with every performance. He's responsible in all three zones. He can make things happen from any line he's placed on. And his energy is infectious; it's contagious.
3) At a certain point, P.A. Parenteau's going to have to find another gear. He was brought to Montreal to score goals, and he's been put in a position to deliver.
No goals in Parenteau's last 12 games should be unacceptable to him. It doesn't really matter how anyone else feels about it.
Granted, Parenteau's managed four assists in his last six games, and it's not as though he isn't helping at all, but he's averaging 20 shifts/game (2nd and 3rd line minutes), and he can do more.
Parenteau's played some inspired games, and he's come up big in the shootout too, but he's disappeared for a too many long stretches, hiding on the perimeter while the team rides winning streaks.
4) It's hard to overlook Dale Weise's importance to the team. He's been consistent in providing energy, and his contribution to the offense has been a bonus.
Impossible to fathom that Weise started this season as a healthy scratch for much of the first couple of weeks of the season, especially after those playoffs.
5) Last night was a very, very rare night for Brendan Gallagher. He was off his game, and he just couldn't seem to find any level of comfort out there. No doubt, he'll bounce back.
Alex Galchenyuk wasn't much better.
I was rereading Ken Dryden's The Game over the holiday, and he paints a very elaborate picture of Scotty Bowman's coaching tactics. The part that caught my attention was about marginalizing and alienating talented third and fourth line players like Rejean Houle, Mario Tremblay and Pierre Larouche (who was a first or second line talent on any team, but not one on the great Canadiens of the 70s). Dryden describes Bowman's tactic as keeping these players on the edge so that when the stars didn't shine, he could up their ice-time, rely on them, and make them feel like they were playing their way out of the doghouse.
I wouldn't dare compare Michel Therrien to Bowman, but his tactics are certainly old school. He's found ways to keep players like Sekac, Eller and Weise guessing as to what their roles will be on any given night--at times, to the detriment of the team. I don't think he's necessarily had to do this to get the best out of them when he needs them most, but like many other curious parts of Therrien's coaching arsenal, it's hard to argue with success.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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