I will discuss and dissect different aspects of Montreal Canadiens games - as I see them.I also post occasional articles discussing different things surrounding the Habs as opposed to game analysis - including the popular "HABS-TOWN" feature. My opinions and comments are my own (unless otherwise noted). You can agree or disagree - feel free. Love me, hate me - these are my opinions.
The Canadiens dominated the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa last night is the likely the story you read this morning. A quick glance at the score (6-2 Montreal) would agree with the assessment, but had you watched the game the story line unfolded slightly differently.
Early on, the game was a tale of two goalies, Carey Price at one end and Craig Anderson the other. Ottawa out shot Montreal 13-5 in the first period, yet trailed 2-1 going into the intermission. By the time Anderson was pulled 2:03 into the second he'd allowed 4 goals on 7 shots and the damage was done.
The Canadiens had a much better effort in period 2 as they peppered the Ottawa netminders with 16 shots, however Ottawa matched that effort sending 16 the way of Carey Price as well.
The Canadiens certainly did not dominate the Senators from my vantage point. What they did do is put in a solid effort (particularly in the second and third periods). Much as they did to start against Chicago. The bounces this time were with them so they staked a big lead.
The difference between this game and the one in Chicago is that the Canadiens didn't crumple. There weren't many passengers last night. Perhaps they would have played the same way if Craig Anderson hadn't been so ghastly, perhaps not. We'll see what happens when they take on another team on a skid in Tampa Bay on Thursday.
*****apologies for the abbreviated nature of this entry. I am rather ill with a case of Penumonia. I hope you enjoyed my short entry anyhow******
Where have I been?
I've been sick. Seriously. I've had my notes from HABS/HAWKS and HABS/JETS staring at me for days. I just haven't been able to sit at a computer long enough to type much up.
In short, The Habs deserved a better fate in Chicago. Like in Boston before a couple of errors proved fatal. PK Subban paid the price being a healthy scratch the next night. Deservedly so. While he wasn't the only one making errors, 2 games in a row costly errors by him led to goals. Chris Campoli is likely to be next.
Campoli has at times looked very good, but it seems the bad with him far outweighs the good. Almost like Patrice Brisebois reincarnated. Although, not quite as good a first passer as the Breezer, nor are his mistakes as frequent.
I've been fighting a pretty bad flu the last couple days - and with a scheduled vacation coming up this weekend, I've been resting. Please rest assured however, that "The Breakdown" will not breakdown in my absence - I have lined up an overly qualified excellent fill-in to recap the games while I am incommunicado.
I'll leave the official announcement on the interim replacement for a few days yet, and look forward to having something new up tomorrow.
I also noticed that over the last few days, "The Breakdown" has surpassed 1000 article reads. I am humbled and grateful for the overwhelming support readers have given this blog. I look forward to your comments, and am glad to have all of you aboard!
I've been away from the sports radio machine of TSN 990 the last few days, but continue to hear excellent things about "The Kaufman Show" (late Monday Nights) "The Midnight Snack" (late Thurs Nights) and Conor Mckenna's fill-in work for Mitch Melnick on "Melnick in the afternoon".
Enjoy holiday time. Enjoy your families...and hopefully enjoy the Habs games.
The second game into the Randy Cunneyworth era of the Montreal Canadiens. Anyone else notice how much better the 4th line is playing since they're playing more minutes?
Michael Blunden played 11:43 seconds in the loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday night. While he was a -1, he and his line-mates had great nights. They were working hard, digging in corners, hard on fore-checks, there were the Canadiens best line during the game.
PK Subban while trying to avoid being hit tried to send a fancy pass
away with 17:18 to go in the second. His pass missed it's mark being
picked up by Andrew Ference who broke a 1-1 tie.
With 5:37 to go in the 3rd, Travis Moen tried to be fancy on a chip out at the Blue line and gave the puck away to Boston's Marchand who scored to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead.
The Canadiens worked hard all night. They looked like a motivated bunch. They lost to a better team. The game had
a pretty plodding pace, with both teams trapping. The Bruins took
advantage of costly mistakes to win the hockey game.
I hate commenting on this, but it's a story that won't go away. I will comment here in a short post, and this is all I will say on the matter.
Should the Coach of the Montreal Canadiens be able to speak French? Yes. Should the Canadiens limit themselves to only hiring a French Quebecois Coach? No. When searching for a Head Coach, The Montreal Canadiens should hire the best available candidate. If the best candidate happens to be a French Quebecois - great! If not - it should be understood that the new hire will make an effort to learn French.
In the case of Randy Cunneyworth this is made very difficult by the fact that he is being thrown to the wolves mid-season. The organization has made it clear that Randy Cunneyworth is an "Interim Coach". That tag alone basically says he needs to focus on winning. So please, settle down and let him do that.
Randy Cunneyworth is not my number one choice to Coach this team. However, he comes with excellent credentials. He has won a Calder Cup. He has won an American Hockey League Coach of the year award. He's been a Head Coach in the AHL for 9 seasons (8 with Buffalo, 1 with Montreal). He's been an assistant Coach in the NHL for parts of 3 seasons. That is an excellent resume. If I was running an organization - like the Canadiens - a resume like that of Randy Cunneyworth is one I would seriously look at.
When it comes to the X's and O's of hockey, Randy Cunneyworth is a disciple of Jacques Martin. He will Coach the same system - or one very close to it. Where Randy and Jacques differ however is in their communication to players during games and their utilization of players during the game.
Randy Cunneyworth does not have the same experience coaching at the NHL level as Jacques Martin, but he deserves his shot. He has earned a chance to be an NHL Coach. He is NOT another Mario Tremblay coming in totally green.
Give him a chance to coach - he can - and should start taking French lessons in the off-season.
It was a whirlwind day in Montreal. Jacques Martin was relieved of his coaching duties. New Habs Head Coach Randy Cunnyworth was introduced. The Coach was immediately asked when he will learn French. Hab fans panicked, a game was played, and the Canadiens blew it in the 3rd period. Plus que ca change...
Kelly Hrudey and PJ Stock had differing takes on the CBC broadcast. Hrudey referred to Jacques Martin as a "terrific teacher", "so stoic" and yet felt that sometimes a coach needs to show emotion. PJ Stock felt the firing of Jacques Martin was a "General Manager trying desperately to protect his job". New Head Coach Randy Cunneyworth said the Habs "lost a good man" in outgoing Coach Jacques Martin and that he took over the reigns of the team with "mixed emotions".
The Bell Centre seemed to have a renewed energy to start the game. It was much louder than at any point this season for the opening faceoff. The Canadiens had jump in their step to open the game, particularly Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec. At 3:42 of the first they gained the zone with PK Subban who would miss the net high blocker side. The good energy however wouldn't last long.
At 4:50 Alexei Emelin would be called for tripping on an excellent defensive slide play. The Canadiens would kill of the Penalty but would be held in their own half of the rink until 11:26 of the first when Andrei Kostitsyn would manage their first shot on Devils goalie Martin Brodeur. Two Minutes later Max Pacioretty would fan on a one-time pass from Tomas Plekanec as part of a 3 on 2 rush.
Peter Sykora would open the scoring of the game at 7:05 after some excellent work by Adam Henrique to screen Carey Price.
With Erik Cole off for interference, Peteri Nokaleinen would get a short-handed breakaway, but his backhander sailed wide of the net. 3 seconds after exiting the box, Erik Cole would be called for Checking to the head. The play reminds me much of the Ryan Malone/Chris Campoli play in the pre-season and I will be surprised if there will be any supplementary discipline. (Although Kevin Weekes on the CBC broadcast felt there might). Carey Price would stand stall to keep the Canadiens trailing by one heading to the intermission.
One minute into the second period, New Jersey's Fayne would be called for interference, and The Canadiens would get their first power play of the day. Excellent Motion could be seen to start the man advantage for Montreal leading directly to Anton Volchenkov's cross checking penalty.
Montreal's PK Subban would score on the ensuing 5 on 3, with Tomas Kaberle picking up his 5th point in 4 games for Montreal. Erik Cole worked hard in front of Brodeur allowing the Subban rifle to get through traffic. The Power Play of course would continue as a 5 on 4. Yanick Weber would do some good work keeping pucks in at the blue line, but the Habs would fail to twice capitalize.
At 5:05 of the second, New Jersey would regain their one goal lead as Patrick Elias would score his 12th of the season. The line of Elias, Sykora and Zubrus would prove to be a thorn in the Canadiens side for much of the night. Twenty seconds after the Elias goal Sykora and Zajac would both be robbed by Carey price.
Mike Blunden would take on Erik Cole's duties from the first goal to screen Brodeur while Hal Gill would do some great work on the boards setting up Chris Campoli's first goal as a Hab at 6:33.
The Canadiens would prove to be in control for much of the second period. Lars Eller would notch his 3rd of the season at 8:57 off a good counter-attack. This Time Mathieu Darche would be screening Brodeur. Darche had his 4th solid game in a row for Montreal, en route to almost 20 minutes of ice time.
With the second winding down, Adam Larssen would make a quick transition pass to Dave Clarkson who would beat Carey Price with a great shot (while holding off Hal Gill) for his 11th of the season.
The third period would be a snoozer. The Canadiens would do nothing of note except hang back in their own end while the Devils attacked. The home crowd was reigning boos all over the Canadiens.
The Habs would have a brutal Power Play at 4:14 where they would manage
no chances or shots. They would be booed much the rest of the way.
Pierre Gauthier talked about "inconsistency" being a primary reason behind Jacques Martin being dismissed - however the 3rd period flatness has been consistent for awhile. After such a strong 2nd period, the 3rd period proved the Habs continue to be "consistently inconsistent".
The Habs now head out on their annual Christmas road trip, and one can hope Randy Cunneyworth will instill his style - and it gets results - over the trip, or the GM's head may be the next to roll.
Jacques Martin has been fired by the Montreal Canadiens.
This morning, there must be a chorus of anger around the city of Montreal as many fans loved the coach and his "entertaining style" of play. The Coach was known for often offering up excellent quips in post game scrums, never repeating the same quotes twice. He always made excellent decisions that were never criticized. All the veterans were playing well, the young players were developing, the team was winning. No wait, those are qualities of a coach who keeps his job.
June 1, 2009 Jacques Martin - then the General Manager of the Florida Panthers was hired to become the Coach of the Montreal Canadiens. In slightly more than 2 seasons led the Canadiens to 96-75-25 (.554 winning %). Under Martin, the Canadiens made the playoffs twice - getting to the Eastern Conference finals in 2010 and taking the eventual Stanley Cup champions to a game 7 overtime in 2011. So, where did it all go wrong?
A little over two weeks ago, I wrote an article titled "Troubling Sings" after a miserable performance in Anaheim. The Canadiens came back and looked good in San Jose the next day, in my opinion saving their coach his job. They also looked terrible in Philadelphia and worse at home against Columbus. Three terrible performances in a short time span.
There have been very questionable decisions this season. Erik Cole - a prized free agent acquisition - was playing 8 minutes a game to start the season including no minutes on the power play. Fourth Line fringe NHLer Mathieu Darche was instead seeing the PP ice time.When Coach Martin was asked about it in a post-game media scrum by TSN 990's Jessica Rusnak, his response was that if one did their "research" they would see that Erik Cole had scored only 3 power play goals last season and that Mathieu Darche was doing a good job in front of the net. In the few weeks since, Perry Pearn (the Assistant Coach who ran the power play) was fired, Erik Cole was given Power Play time, and now leads the team in PP goals scored.
Louie Leblanc scored his first NHl goal the other night, the crowd exploded, and Louie was rewarded with 1 more shift of 49 seconds, even though there was 26+ minutes left in the game.
Mike Cammalleri has been visibly moping for weeks, he hasn't been scoring, and yet he has stayed on the Power Play and the top line.
The team, described by most other teams as one of the quickest in the league doesn't use their speed unless they have the puck.
To me, Jacques Martin actually did a good job here. The team this season has lost 150+ man-games to injury to key players, and yet they have held their heads above water. The fact remains the Jacques Martin "Passive resistance" style of play didn't suit this team.
Randy Cunneyworth has been named the new interim head coach, through seasons end. I find this interesting. To me, it signals that General Manager Pierre Gauthier is also on thin ice.
Randy Cunneyworth could be an excellent choice, and he could very well be the next permanent head coach of the team (providing he learns some work-able French), but the interim tag is important. It protects the organization if they fire the GM in that a the new GM could bring in his guy. It protects them if the team does well enough to keep Mr.Gauthier employed, but chooses not to keep Mr.Cunneyworth as head coach - for any reason.
I have a list in my head as to whom I think the next head coach of the Canadiens will be if Pierre Gauthier is the General Manager, and who it could be if he isn't. However, at this time I think it's prudent to, like the Canadiens, give Randy Cunneyworth his fair shake.
This will be Randy Cunneyworth's first NHL head coaching job. He spent two full seasons as an Assistant Coach for the Atlanta Thrashers. He coached the Canadiens' AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs last season to a 44-27-9 record, and he spent 8 seasons as head coach of AHL Rochester Americans (306-267-67).
Randy Cunneyworth also played 866 NHL regular season games and 45 Playoff games. He served as Captain of the Ottawa Senators for three seasons.
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.
