By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Two days after a frustrating loss to the New York Rangers, the Canes return to the ice to face the Montreal Canadiens. The last time these two teams met, just over a month ago in Montreal, the Canes blew a late lead and lost to the Habs in a shootout. The confidence in the home locker room is a little higher than it was at that point, though, and the Canes will look to avoid a second loss to their playoff rivals.
When these two teams last met, the Canes were without the services of both Cam Ward and Eric Staal; both are back tonight, as is Niclas Wallin, who returns after missing eight games with "concussion-like" symptoms. With the exception of Joe Corvo, who is out for an extended period, the Canes' blue line is the healthiest it's been in quite a while, and they'll look to take advantage of a banged-up Habs team that's going through a stretch similar to the one the Canes went through in late October and early November. Marc-Andre Bergeron, who scored the last two goals when the Habs played in Atlanta on Monday, injured himself on the winning goal and, if he does play, will be playing through what looked like a painful injury. Combine that with injuries to Roman Hamrlik and Brian Gionta, neither of whom are locks to play tonight, and the Habs are scrambling to field a full roster.
Will the Canes give the home fans an early Christmas present? We're about to find out...
:24 1st: And just like that the Canes are killing a penalty. Aaron Ward flew into Max Pacioretty with a forearm, earning himself a boarding penalty and earning the officials some hearty boos. Good to see the crowd in mid-game form.
1:29 1st: Habs lead 1-0; Markov 3 (Plekanec, Bergeron) (pp) The Canes are in a 1-0 hole for the first time in a few games. Tomas Plekanec found Andrei Markov unchecked in the far faceoff circle and rifled a pass across the ice to Markov, who had all day to line up a shot and fire it past Cam Ward to give his team the first goal of the game.
3:42 1st: Habs lead 2-0; A. Kostitsyn 11 (Cammalleri, Plekanec) Not the greatest start for the home team, to say the least. A defenseman completely lost Andrei Kostitsyn at the bottom of the far circle, and Michael Cammalleri took full advantage, passing the puck behind Ward and giving Kostitsyn an open net to shoot at. This isn't what anyone in the building wanted to see, to say the least.
4:09 1st: And it was about 3-0 Habs after Scott Gomez was stoned on about three point-blank chances by Cam Ward. This is officially a nightmare start for the Canes.
6:01 1st: If the Canes want to get back into the game, the officials are doing their part to help out. Scott Gomez was caught cross-checking off a faceoff and mouthed off a bit too much to referee Greg Kimmerly, who nailed Gomez with an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, gift-wrapping the Canes a four-minute power play.
7:21 1st: Canes pull to 2-1; Sutter 8 (Gleason, Carson) (pp) And the first power play bites the Habs. A game of catch at the blue line between Tim Gleason and Brett Carson leads to a laser slap shot from Gleason, and Brandon Sutter collects the rebound and deposits it into the net after a couple of whacks to pull the Canes to within one and cause everyone in the building to breathe a little easier.
9:32 1st: Habs back to a 2-goal lead, lead 3-1; S. Kostitsyn 1 (Plekanec, Gomez) Cam Ward's night is done. Paul Maurice pulled Ward after he let in a soft goal to Sergei Kostitsyn seconds after the second Gomez penalty expired. Ward stopped most of the shot, off a 2-on-1 deep in the Canes' zone, but enough of it got through that the puck wiggled through his legs and into the net.
11:40 1st: Ward smashed his stick into a million pieces in the hallway going back to the locker room, but after a quick shower he reappeared on the Canes' bench. Of the three goals, none of them was entirely his fault, and the third was the only one he was even partially at fault on. The Canes' power play looks fantastic, but their defensive-zone play is alarming, to be kind.
17:08 1st: Habs lead 4-1; Metropolit 9 (Gomez, Gorges) (pp) Well then. This is quickly approaching epic-meltdown territory. The Habs are 2-2 on the power play, and lead by 3 as Glen Metropolit, of all people, handcuffed Manny Legace with a perfectly placed shot that bounced off the bottom of Legace's glove and into the net. It just keeps getting better.
19:00 1st: A bit of derisive cheering when the PA announcer made the one-minute-to-go announcement. It's gonna be that type of night, I'm afraid.
End 1st: Amazingly, the Canes outshot the Habs 13-11 in the first period, which makes sense given the quality of chances they had, especially on the power play. The defensive play, though, has been atrocious. Nothing else needs to be said.
1:35 2nd: You think there's some frustration on the part of the Canes? Andrew Alberts made sure to finish his check on Benoit Pouliot at the side of the net, driving Pouliot into the far goalpost and forcing a faceoff.
6:13 2nd: To no one's surprise, Paul Maurice has completely retooled his forward lines to start the period. (It isn't doing much to help.) Now playing; Dwyer-Staal-Jokinen, Samsonov-Cullen-Kostopoulos, Whitney-Sutter-Ruutu, Yelle-Brind'Amour-Walker.
8:30 2nd: Staal with a breakaway from the blue line in after two Habs defenders ran into each other in their own zone...and Jaroslav Halak makes the save. More disturbingly, Staal pouts his way off the ice at the end of a shift instead of trying to make another play. It can be argued that he's trying too hard, but at some point he has to put the mental aspect in the garbage can and just play hockey.
11:53 2nd: Not only did the Canes squander a two-man advantage, they blew their one-man advantage when they were caught with to many men on the ice. It's always something tonight, isn't it?
18:03 2nd: Habs lead 5-1; Metropolit 10 (Gomez, Spacek) The Habs' second-ranked power play is sure showing its mettle tonight. They've scored on three of their four man advantages, and Glen Metropolit has two of the goals. (A sure sign of the coming apocalypse.) A point pass from Scott Gomez to Metropolit at the bottom of the circle connected perfectly, and Metropolit made a nice move through traffic to backhand the puck past Legace and into the net.
End 2nd: I'm not sure how this can be, but the Canes have 32 shots so far tonight, outshooting the Habs 19-10 in the period. Unsurprisingly, that means the Habs have 5 goals on 21 shots. Ouch.
4:20 3rd: The Canes have somehow held the Habs without a shot through four-plus minutes, while pouring five on Jaroslav Halak so far. They aren't going down without a fight, but it sure would have been nice to see this an hour ago.
8:44 3rd: A great shorthanded shift for Dwyer and Cullen, and Cullen came within a couple inches of hitting the top shelf behind Halak. At least the entire game wash't as horrendous as that first period.
11:00 3rd: A few seconds after Brandon Sutter nearly tips the puck home deep in the Habs' zone, he gets mixed up with Hal Gill between the benches and nearly comes to blows. The Canes are outshooting the Habs 14-0 in the period, and that is not a typo.
14:30 3rd: Jussi Jokinen hits the post while trying to hit an open net. That right there sums up the game.
End 3rd: You're reading that correctly: the Canes outshot the Habs 47-25, including 15-4 in the third period, but only potted one measly goal. That's an incredible indictment of this team's failures in the defensive zone tonight.
Postgame: The Canes' locker room was understandably subdued, but there was an undercurrent of anger that's been missing in the past few losses. Eric Staal especially seemed quite upset at how things went and how the team needs to do a better job of simply doing the things they know they need to do. There's no time left for mulligans like tonight, not with the Canes sitting ten points adrift of any other NHL team in the standings. Paul Maurice said it best: there are no other roster moves that can be made. They're going to have to pull out of this somehow, because it's on the players if they don't.
Click for locker room audio from Eric Staal, Brandon Sutter and Manny Legace. Maurice's press conference is attached.
Like the Canes, we're taking two days off here at PD. We'll be back Saturday, as the Canes welcome the Philadelphia Flyers and former coach Peter Laviolette to the RBC Center for the first time this season. On behalf of our staff of one, have a great holiday and we'll see you Saturday night.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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