Moves like Jagr

Unrestricted free agent to be Matt Carle played a solid defensive game in Montreal, but on the scoresheet he could be mistaken for Jaromir Jagr (circa '96) with a +2 and 3 assists on the night.

Where is Mike Cammalleri? I saw someone that kinda looked like him in the Canadiens uniform last night, but he wasn't scoring any goals - even on a three minute 5 on 3 so it couldn't be him, could it?

I was half tempted to re-post a write-up I wrote on a Habs/Flyers game from a couple of weeks back as even though the score was different, the script was the same.

The Flyers were starting their backup goalie, without two of their best players, on the road, and yet for much of the first period, the Canadiens were stuck in their own end.  The Habs started out attacking on the first 3 or 4 shifts, but wouldn't get anywhere near Sergei Bobrovsky again until a prolonged 5 on 3. The Habs had a myriad of chances on the 5 on 3, but couldn't score.

The Power Play addition of Tomas Kaberle still seems to be a work in progress. It looks MUCH better than it did before his arrival, but a 1/9 performance is pretty disastrous. Kaberle, though, picked up his 4th assist in 3 games.

Mathieu Darche played his 3rd strong game in a row for Montreal. He was a -2 on the night, but did a good job on the PK, and was able to open space in front of Bobrovsky for scoring chances.

Sergei Bobrovsky pushed his career record against Montreal to 4-1, stopping 28/31 including a Tomas Plekanec breakaway, and when the Canadiens had a 2-man advantage.

Jaromir Jagr only picked up an assist on the night (his 2nd point against Montreal in 2 meetings this season) but he looked dangerous all night. On the Power Play especially, he was setting up plays and getting passes through traffic that most players don't attempt.



13:34 into the 2nd period. Louie Leblanc will savor that for awhile. His first NHL goal. Mike Blunden and PK Subban were credited with assists, but much of the grunt work was done by Yannik Weber. All players (aside from Subban) who played under 6 minutes last night. Weber held the puck in at the wall before kicking it to Subban. Subban let go a shot that Blunden guided to Leblanc who stuffed it into a gaping cage before the crowd exploded. I wish the coach would explain to me however, why after the scoring the goal, Leblanc would see only 1 shift of 49 seconds in the final 26:26 of the hockey game. Does that make sense to anyone? He just scored his first NHL goal, he's pumped, the crowd is pumped, let's bench him.



Alexei Emelin again did not look strong on the right side. Why put him in a position to fail? Seems like the coach likes picking on rookies, or "young players" as he likes to call them. Emelin is learning a new language, a new city, new rink dimensions, a new system, and the coach wants him to play out of position and succeed - or not play. Help the kid out coach, put Kaberle on his off-side.

Erik Cole was again the Canadiens best forward. Showing grit and Hustle every shift. He scored his team leading 12th goal of the season. His linemates (Desharnais and Pacioretty) weren't too shabby either. TSN Analyst Ray Ferraro called the Desharnais-Cole-Pacioretty line "dominant" and "Montreal's best since they've been put together".  Why don't the get power-play time as a unit? Lars Eller saw 10 seconds of PP action. Why not reward the kid? Bound to be better than the "top line". Plekanec has 1 goal in his last 10 and Mike Cammalleri is looking for his first PP goal of the season.