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This Week in Habs Nation - January 13 |
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This was a rather busy week for the Canadiens with 4 games on the calendar but somehow, they only really played in one of them. They were completely dominated by the Wild on Monday and lost 1-0 when Jeff Petry took it upon himself to not only set up Minnesota with a beautiful turnover but also to hinder Price as he was trying to make the save on what would be the game winning goal. It wasn't all that prettier in Detroit on Tuesday but a great performance by Niemi and a redemptive game-winning goal by Jeff Petry allowed them to steal 2 undeserved points from the Red Wings' hands with a 3-2 win. The season low came against Saint-Louis though. They lost by a score of 4-1, won only 34% of the face-off, scored a fluky power play goal which meant they were 1/6 on the PP and they even gave a shorthanded goal for good mesure. After those 3 games, Julien decided that he had to do something and opted to shake up his line as follows:
Drouin - Danault - Gallagher
Lehkonen - Domi - Armia
Tatar - Kotkaniemi - Byron
Agostino - Chaput - Deslauriers
Hudon - Peca
Mete - Weber
Reilly - Petry
Kulak - Benn
Alzner
Price
Niemi
And as for Captain Kirk, he's feeling the pressure of having the league's worst power play with a miserable 12.5% success rate and decided to make some changes prior to the game against Colorado. The PP units lined-up like this:
1st: Agostino-Byron-Armia up front and Weber and Drouin at the back.
2nd: Gallagher-Domi-Tatar as the forwards and Kotkaniemi and Petry in the back spots.
This mix and match exercise failed to bring any result on Saturday night as the Canadiens were 0/3 with the man advantage. I must admit it is quite a shot to see Agostino, a 4th liner, on the top power play unit but I guess it goes a long way to show how desperate the Habs are on the power play.
Fortunately, Julien's remix of the lines did seem to shake up the team and they managed to put 3 goals past Simeon Varlamov on Saturday night. The score opener came in the 3rd period when Brett Kulak beat him with a shot from the blue line on the penalty kill, scoring his first ever goal at the Bell Centre:
A couple of minutes later, Jonathan Drouin aimed a perfect feed to Jesperi Kotkaniemi who unleashed a laser shot to the top left corner of the net while Varlamov was moving with. It was heck of a pretty sight and it definitely showed why everyone wants to see the youngster shoot more. Feast your eyes on this:
Kotkaniemi might have struggled and made a few turnovers lately, but the kid can certainly play! Finally, with less than 2 minutes to go, Jordie Benn sealed the deal with an empty net goal. Carey Price got another 3-0 shutout, he played well but needed a little help from his friends a couple of times (both Weber and Lehkonen prevented goals being scored). Speaking of Lehkonen, he got a brilliant scoring chance on the penalty killing but only managed to hit the post...finishing sure is an issue for the Finn...As for Max Domi he's not scored a goal since December 9th and I'm starting to think his tinted visor is an hinderance more than anything else.
In the end, after a week in which the team was actually painful to watch more often than not, the Sainte-Flanelle is sitting pretty back in playoff position as the first wild card in the East. The Islanders and Sabres are not far behind however and they both have games in hand on the Canadiens. The bye week cannot come fast enough so we do not have to worry about this.
Before the Canadiens can kick-back and relax though, there's another 4 game week to get though as they'll face the Bruins on Monday (they've won 7 of their last 10 games and are ahead by 3 points in the standings with a game in hand), the Panthers on Tuesday (4-4-2 in their last 10 games and they seem to be steadily heading out of playoffs contention yet again), the Blue Jackets on Friday (The've got 55 points but one has to wonder if the current situation with (Sideshow)Bob will take away from their focus). The star goalie has been suspended by the team for not respecting its values. It's all very mysterious and one has to ask if there might have been issues with teammates there). Finally, the Flyers will be in Montreal Saturday. Unsurprisingly, they've been having goaltender issues this season (much like in every season really) and are 1-7-2 in their last 10 games. They've now decided to give Carter Hart some experience so the fans in Montreal might get to see the man who (they hope) will be the answer to their long lasting goalie woes.
Finally, we received good news this week, not only will Carey Price not be heading to the All-Star Game but no player will be representing the Canadiens. In my book, that's great, who needs their star players to get injured in a meaningless display of skills and 3 on 3 mini tournament?
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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