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Sharks Devour Shaky Back-Up |
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When the Canadiens took on the Florida Panthers on February 17, the day after losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Claude Julien decided to give Carey Price a chance to rest. Until Antti Niemi allowed 3 goals on 9 shots that is. In the end, that night, Carey Price played 45 minutes. Yesterday, taking on a San Jose team which is still a forced to be reckoned with and against whom Price doesn't have great numbers, Julien thought it was time to throw Niemi back in the deep end. It was truly a sink or swim scenario for the back-up and unfortunately, he sunk big time (and let's be frank, he stunk the place up too).
The Canadiens came flying out of the gates last night but their goaltender did not. In a first period where the Sharks only had 5 shots, he allowed 2 purely abysmal goals and right there and then it became evident that the players just do not trust him anymore. Yesterday was his chance to bounce back and he failed miserably. With 14 games left on the Canadiens' schedule, the Habs just cannot afford to play Niemi anymore. Should Price handle all of the remaining games, he would have a 67 games season...That is a huge workload, especially for a goaltender who has had some knee issues. Carey Price is not Martin Brodeur and nor does he have the same system in front of him. Brodeur used to regularly play 70 games a season but his defensive corps was excelling in front of him and consequently, he just wasn't seeing as much action as Price is per game. For instance in 1999-2000, Brodeur played 72 games and faced 1797 shots, the following year, still competing in 72 games he saw 1762 shots. On the other hand, Price played in 72 games in 2010-2011 and had to face 2147 shots, in 2016 he was between the posts for 62 games and still received 1794 shots.
Taking this into account, it might very well be time to call up Charlie Lindgren. His numbers in the AHL are far from impressive this year; 10 wins-14 losses, 2.93 GAA and a .883 save percentage but, so far in the NHL he's got a 7-8 record with a 2.78 GAA and .914 save percentage. It's worth the risk. Whatever happens, it cannot be worst than what Niemi has done lately. The Minnesota native is under contract for 2 more seasons after this one and it's obvious that Niemi will not be offered another contract so might as well move forward right now and give him more NHL experience.
As for last night's game, there were definitely some positives in there. For a start, Lehkonen finally scored after failing to do so in the last 29 games and having been held off the score sheet for 15 games. Chances are, the youngster felt like heck of a big weight was lifted off from his shoulders. In his second game with the team, Jordan Weal had a 69% success rate at the face-off dot. He put 3 shots on net and played for over 16 minutes. As for Andrew Shaw, he found the back of the net for the 17th time in 49 games which makes me wonder what his total would be like had he not been injured so often this year. He's now 3 goals away from the 20 goal mark which is his career high and he currently also has 34 points which is just 5 short of his best total ever.
Team wise, the Habs took 39 shots on Martin Jones and even though they lost 5-2, they played better than the final score suggests. The 5th goal was scored in an empty net, the first 2 never should have went in (as previously mentioned) and Philip Danault tipped the 3rd goal behind his own goalie.
Now, the Tricolore has to look forward and not back, the players must get ready for tonight's tilt with the Anaheim Ducks. Thankfully, last night, the Penguins beat the Blue Jackets which meant that they remained in the 9th spot, still 2 points behind the Habs but with a game in hand. Saturday, while the Habs will be resting, the Pens and Jackets will once again be playing each other and for once, Habs fans should really be cheering for Crosby and co. As things stand, the Canadiens have a 66.5% chance of making the spring dance while the Jackets are at 51.5%. A win tonight would put the Habs ahead by 4 with the Jackets having 2 games in hand. To be honest, every match is now a must win one for the CH if they are to make the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have the same number of points as Montreal but with two games in hand while Pittsburgh is two points ahead with a game in hand.
Tonight's game starts at 22:00, don't be late Habs fans our team is playing for its life right now! I'm honestly hoping that Kotkaniemi is back in the line-up and that we'll finally see Price overtake Jacques Plante in the win column.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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