Crazy week in Habs land as the team played 4 times and scored 17 goals, that is an average of over 4 goals per game. Pretty darn good for a team of which most people said they would have a dreadful time trying to score this season. As Smillie put it in no uncertain terms last night, the
Domi trade is a success and the players thrives in pressure heavy Montreal. While I agree with his article, I would also add that Domi is like Gallagher, he's a spark plug or a nice reliable set of booster cable which energizes not only his own line but the whole team. Something tells me that Gallagher must really appreciate what he brings.
This was on display in the first game this week against the Islanders as Jonathan Drouin put in one of his best performance of the season with a goal, an assist and 6 shots on target. More importantly though, he was in a "never give up mode" when he fell on his knees, he kept going when he was sat on the ice, he showed us he could still stickhandle from there and find Domi with a nice feed. Domi's arrival has allowed Drouin to be Drouin. He plays on the wing and doesn't have to worry as much about the defensive elements of the game which truly weren't coming naturally to him. Of course, there are still some consistency issues with Drouin, there will be highs and lows, who doesn't have them? But that fact is that so far this season, he's got 13 points in 17 games for an average of 0.76 point per game. If he keeps up this pace, he's looking at a 63 points season which would beat his personal best by 10 points.
The second game in as many days in New York saw the Canadiens take on the Rangers. Price was getting the start in this one rather than against the Islanders as he had a better record against the Blue shirts. Another newcomer was big in this game, Tomas Tatar came to play and buried the first goal of the game 23 seconds after the initial puck drop. After the first, the team were tied at 1 and Tatar scored again in the 2nd to give the lead back to the Habs. A lead that was doubled less than two minutes later when Max Domi found the back of the net. Unfortunately, from then on, there was somewhat of a collapse by the Habs and the Rangers buried 4 unanswered goals. In the end, Carey Price gave 5 goals on 32 shots for a save percentage of .844 and the Canadiens left the big apple with 2 points instead of 4.
Thursday saw the Habs welcome the Sabres at the Bell Centre and Claude Julien had decided that Price would be back in the net for this one. This was nothing short of a crazy game, in the first period alone, 6 goals were scored but thankfully, every time Buffalo scored a goal, the Tricolore was able to tie things up, coming back from behind 3 times in the first frame. They did it again in the second period before taking the lead through a Deslauriers goal late in the second. The lead was hoever short lived and the Sabres caught-up early in the 3rd before scoring the game winning goal in overtime. There were a few worrying points in that game; for the second match in a row, the Habs took a too many men bench minor in the dying minutes of the 3rd frame; Carey Price gave 6 goals on 31 shot for a poor .806 save percentage and the defence looked rather messy. In his post game comments, Price did his mea culpa saying that he wasn't stopping as many shots as he once did and that he didn't know why aside from the fact that it's a mental problem. Claude Julien was aware of the issues with his star goalie and at the next morning skate, he confirmed that Niemi would mind the net for the Canadiens on Saturday night. It was still nice to see Price lead the post warm-up stretches in Brossard on Friday morning though, at a time when he needs his teammates, he was surrounded by them in what looked like a show of unity.
While the practice was in full swing in Brossard, the Hsbs announced that they would be putting Tomas Plekanec's name on unconditional waivers at noon on Saturday in order to buy out his contract and that Marc Bergevin would be speaking to the media shortly. Bergevin showed up with Plekanec and the two men addressed the press and answered its multiple question. The General Manager started by saying that he had brought back Plekanec on July first as an insurance policy since he wasn't sure of his club's status at centre. He has traded for Domi and wanted him to play centre but the disastrous Drouin experiment from last season was still fresh to his mind at the time, Kotkaniemi would only be 18 this season and he wasn't sure if he would be good enough to stick around, Danault is still not a veteran and has got plenty of learning left to do and he hadn't even signed Matthew Peca then. As we've all seen since the start of the season, the Habs centre line is doing just fine much to everyone's surprise. Danault found instant chemistry with Gallagher and Tatar, Domi looks like a natural at centre and has jumped started Drouin, Kotmaniemi is improving by the minute and increasing in confidence as he goes while Peca is doing an honest job. This made Bergevin realize that Plekanec was now surplus to requirement and he felt he needed to give "Pleky" a heads-up before waiving him and that a press conference was the right thing to do.
Speaking of which, Pleky did look shaken...He was never overly talkative but he did answer they journalists questions and the important points can be summarized this way:
-He always wanted to retire a Habs so it would be surprising to see him in the NHL wearing another jersey;
-He planned to go home to Czech Republic to play a couple more years and probably hang up his skates then (It has since been reported that 10 european teams have manifested their interest - I believe he's likely to play for Kladno his local team along with the ageless Jaromir Jagr);
-He hoped to be remembered as a player who always gave his all for his team and gave priority to the team's interests over his own.
Saturday night's game therefore turned into a "Farewell Pleky and Welcome back Max" themed affair. The Habs got the Pacioretty part of the night over in a hurry, showing the hommage right at the start of the game and I must admit that I was somewhat surprised at the tamed welcome the former captain received from the crowd. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Bergevin said the captain had repeatedly asked for a trade but Pacioretty still denies this to this day. I was at the Bell Centre when both Koivu returned as a member of the Ducks and Subban as a member of the Predators and the ovation on those two nights were pure madness and so emotional. There was nothing of that last night for Pacioretty. We'll never know who's telling the truth between him and Bergevin but a cannot help but find that Habs fans can be cruel. When a player walks out of town for more money, he gets abused on social media and booed at the Bell Centre with fans claiming he has no loyalty but there, you have Paciorretty who lived and breath blue, white and red for ten years, who nearly died for this team, who came back so fast from multiple injuries earning himself the Wolverine nickname and fans give him a lukewarm reception. For one last time, let's take a moment to remember how Max made us feel all those years back:
A bit later in the first, Tomas Plekanec who was in Max Bergevin's box was introduced to the crowd and received a better ovation than it had reserved to the former captain. But again, there were a few in the crowd who weren't clapping and some online who kept writing how this retirement was the best moment of his career. It's hard to find a player who's been more loyal to the organisation than Tomas Plekanec, he's given it all for the team and filled whichever role was asked from him even if he was somewhat ill equipped for it and still, people cannot give him the respect he deserved. I think fans should think twice about demanding loyalty from players, this goes both ways...
Now, on to the game! It was clear from the first seconds that Max Pacioretty had come back to the Bell Centre to win and had put some money on the board as they say. "Pacio" registered 5 shots in the first period alone which was one more than the whole of the Canadiens team. It's not an overstatement to say that the Habs looked asleep in the first frame. They were dominated 15-4 shots wise and as the buzzer rang to mark the end of the frame, the Golden Knights had a 2-0 lead.
I would have loved to be in the locker-room in between the first 2 periods to see what Julien said to his players because they came out roaring at the start of the second. Charles Hudon buried a nice feed from Kotkaniemi 6 minutes in and Andrew Shaw got the second goal on a second effort. Then, before long, Kotkaniemi scored his 3rd goal of the season (his 9th point - first amongst those drafted this year - although Brady Tkatchuk has missed a lot of games) to put the Habs in the lead for the first time of the game but that only lasted for about 5 minutes before Alex Tuch brought everyone back to square 1.
The Golden Knights came out strong in the 3rd and scored three minutes in, regaining the lead. Midway through the third though, Shaw scored his second of the game bringing the score to 4-4. While Pacioretty really seemed to be everywhere on the ice, it's the man the Habs received in return of their former captain that scored the game-winning goal, Tomas Tatar made it 5-4 Montreal and the Habs got another 2 points to end the week.
It's hard to argue that this team is not entertaining because it most certainly is but one has to wonder if it will be able to keep scoring at it's current pace because if both Niemi and Price have save percentages in the .800s they will not have any other choice. Many would once have said that the Habs weren't build to play that style of run and gun attack but we've got to admit that so far, this year, it works. Domi, Gallagher, Tatar and Drouin are scoring and as long as they are firing on all cylinders, this may may just be able to bail Price out while he works out his issues.
It's now time for a western trip, Edmonton on Tuesday, Calgary on Thursday and Vancouver on Saturday....be ready for late nights Eastern Canadian fans!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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