This was the first game of the season between these two long-time rivals, Philidelphia is a far more skilled team than they were when they hacked, slashed and punched their way to two Stanley Cups in the 1970s, but they are still the Broad Street Bullies.
The Roster: Jacques Martin decided a winning combination is one you stick with, the roster remained the same from the Boston game, AK46/Cammalleri/Plekanec retained their line, SK74/Gomez/D'Agostini took the 2nd line duties, Pacioretty/Moen/Metropolit formed the team's best checking line seen in a while, Laraque/Lapierre/Bergeron suited up to provide 4th-line energy.
Hamrlik/Spacek remain proving you should never mess with a good thing, O'Byrne/Mara and Gorges/Gill provided defensive pairings, Carey Price got another start in net for his brilliant work in the Bruins match.
The Opponent: The Flyers are a much more skilled team than the one Montreal sent packing in the 1970s, forwards like Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell and Daniel Briere provided a very solid, skilled front and a defence led by Chris Pronger, the dirtiest defencemen in the NHL but with Norris trophy skills means not only could the Flyers fight, they score as well. A very big team on average, the only weak link one might argue is the fragility of Daniel Briere, but he was healthy for tonight's match. Peter Laviolette had just taken over from recently fired Head Coach John Stevens, but his first game as the Flyers head coach did not go well, in an 8-2 shelling at home by the high-flying Washington Capitals, who fall upon any team with a defensive issue like jackals on a wounded animal. The only way they had to go was up, Brian Boucher, a French-Canadian goalie would get the start ahead of usual starter Ray Emery who allowed five goals in the Capitals game, possibly also chosen because French Canadian goalies love to turn up their game when playing in Montreal.
The First Period:
Not the most pulse-pounding period by a long shot, not even half the excitement of the Boston-Montreal game, both teams worked hard to limit the other from taking shots on their goalies. Shots were blocked, shooting lanes cut off, the Flyers kept Montreal from working in close to the goalie.
2:46 into the period, Georges Laraque would drop the gloves for a rather predictable fight with Flyers tough guy Riley Cote, Laraque would land a number of his lefts that have been known to be devasatating, but Cote managed to wrestle Laraque to the ground, neither came out seemingly any worse for wear but no more fights occured after this bout.
A mishandling of the puck at the Flyers blue-line led to a Daniel Briere breakaway, O'Byrne and Mara pumped their legs to try and catch Briere, but he's a very fast skater but the two big men were no match for his speed really. O'Byrne would be hanging on to Briere and would draw a whistle, but Briere as he was going down managed to lift the puck up over Price's left pad and glove hand to bring the score to 1-0 Flyers with 12:32 left in the period. Price wasn't that good, but he didn't let it get to him either noting his reactions later in the game.
Briere would get caught on a high-sticking minor about halfway through the period, but an aggressive Flyers penalty kill and a lack of good cycling in the offensive zone failed to produce any good chances.
Gill and Gorges kept to their role from the Boston game through the period, the personal guards of Carey Price who kept people out of his face and prevented any pucks from reaching his goal crease. I love seeing them play together, they form a good natural pair.
Ryan O'Byrne would be caught on a weak interference call which led to a Flyers power play, Montreal effectively killed it off and the period would end on a rather dull note offensively, four shots by Philidelphia, an ugly 1 by Montreal, shot blocking and defensive work on both ends would keep the shot count low, but Montreal had little energy and offensive pressure in the whole period, the Flyers had a 1-0 lead and the Montreal team that took Boston 5-1 was nowhere to be seen.
The Second Period:
Montreal came out with a lot more jump in their step, they knew they had the advantage in speed and the Flyers had not been so overly impressive that the Canadiens squad considered themselves in an unwinnable game with the Flyers on a thin 1-0 lead.
Carey Price's overly enthusiastic moves to clear the puck this game have led to some problems here and there, while he's probably one of the better goalies in the NHL for stickhandling, being overly aggressive with the goalie's paddle stick has caused him trouble. It would crop up this game as well, a clearing attempt by him off the glass would lead to a delay of game penalty, served by Matt D'Agostini. Montreal's PK unit would again go to work and kill it off with good efficency, Hal Gill is just a natural penalty killer and Gorges is a great partner for him.
At one point, in a tangled play around the net, Price would lose his stick, Gorges after going into a shot-block to help cover the net, would immediately hand his stick to Price until he could retrieve Price's stick for him and then they quickly switched the sticks, the two kids from B.C. are good friends and it's good to see Gorges dedication to his netminder and their teamwork, it's an encouraging sign.
After 6:20 in the match, a quick behind-the-net pass by Tomas Plekanec would find Andrei Kostitsyn in front of the net, he caught enough of the puck to lift it and put it past the Flyers goalie to tie the match, it is only Kostitsyn's 3rd of the season but based on his aggressive play lately, you can feel his offensive output will be ramping up soon, Montreal tied on their 3rd shot of the game, Roman Hamrlik got an assist as well.
Paul Mara had left the first period due to an upper-body injury, which saw Marc-Andre Bergeron shift back to defence in the 2nd paired with Ryan O'Byrne for the rest of the match, which saw Mike Cammalleri serve double shifts by playing on the 4th line, which he seemed to enjoy because it gave him his 16th goal of the season.
During a battle along the boards in the Canadiens zone, Georges Laraque would pop the puck loose, which would be collected by Lapierre and the second goal took shape. Mad Max took off with Cammalleri on his wing into the Flyers zone with the great speed that Lapierre has exhibited in the past when he creates scoring opportunities. A Flyers defencemen would drop to the ice to block Lapierre's path, but he dangled around to pass to Cammalleri, who would roof the puck and give Montreal a 2-1 lead with just less than 6 minutes remaining in the period. Laraque would get an assist on the play as well, his 100th for his NHL career.
The period would end with Montreal being outshot a total of 13-7 over two periods, a very low-shooting game, but both teams had been very quick to prevent shots against their goalies.
The Third Period:
Montreal was enjoying a 2-1 lead to start the period and would continue more offensive pressure to try and collect an insurance goal, but none would come easily.
A Chris Pronger penalty would create a new power play opportunity for Montreal after several ignored penalties by the Flyers, but Montreal would fail to convert on the chance at first and then a minute later, Montreal would be trapped with a Too Many Men penalty, which saw a minute of four-on-four, then a brief Flyers penalty. Both situations did not result in much offence, Montreal's penalty kill remained perfect.
A Matt Carle holding the stick penalty after an offensive jam in front of the Flyers net would result in a Montreal power play after a scramble nearly created a garbage goal for Montreal, but as the jam revealed, the net was already off it's moorings and the goal would not have counted.
This time, it would take Montreal a mere 25 seconds to collect their power play goal, a good cycle by Plekanec to Hamrlik, who fed Bergeron for a one-time shot that would bank off the left post into the net would give Montreal a 3-1 lead and insurance on their lead, it was Bergeron's 6th of the season and his 3rd on the power play.
Aggressive play by both sides continued, although Montreal's defence did seem a bit fatigued as they usually do by the end of the 3rd period, a late penalty by the generally heroic Josh Gorges gave the Flyers a 6-on-4 advantage, but strong work by the rest of the Montreal penalty killers and a few good saves by Carey Price would keep it a 3-1 game, a clearing attempt by Hal Gill would nearly see him get a EN goal, but no luck and the game ended 3-1.
Montreal would win with a mere 13 shots on net, three would go in, the Flyers had a total of 15 for the game and only two in the third period, thanks to strong shot blocking efforts by the Montreal defence and hard work to prevent any scoring chances. Carey Price would have a .933 save %, while Brian Boucher would have a .769%, talk about one night killing your numbers.
The Offence:
Hardly impressive in sustained pressure they weren't exactly a machine-gun offence in the first, or even the 2nd or 3rd periods, but they were accurate. Andrei Kostitsyn caught the puck while it was on it's side in front of the net to roof it in, Lapierre's set-up would give Cammalleri a perfect shot he didn't waste and Bergeron just fires off lasers when you give him an opportunity.
the Plekanec/AK46/Cammalleri line continues to be the best Montreal has, great speed and puck control that create quality chances in front of the net.
The Gomez/SK74/D'Agostini line seemed less effective, but Sergei's ankle seemed to be slowing him down a bit, slowing the overall tempo of the fast offensive line they are supposed to be and D'Agostini's trouble handling the puck at times makes for trouble. Gomez's terrible giveaway at the blue line at one point might have changed the game for the Flyers, but the great efforts of the defence covered the error and Gomez had a fair game aside from that part.
Metropolit/Moen/Pacioretty continue to be the team's best checking line all year long, they create some offensive chances and stifle two or three times as many by the other team each night, aggressive checking, faceoff wins by Metropolit and great effort make them a nice line to see on the ice, you know they won't chip in many goals, but you know they'll make sure goals don't happen against the team either.
Lapierre/Laraque/Bergeron-Cammalleri had a fair night, Laraque's good board play provided Lapierre to create one of his best offensive plays of the season since he set up D'Agostini's goal in the New York Rangers game in October, Bergeron was a good guy until he had to go back to playing D, Cammalleri's execution on Lapierre's chance was picture-perfect.
The Defence:
Toronto's supposedly got a great defence, right? Wrong, the best defence in Eastern Canada belongs to Montreal right now. Roman Hamrlik blocked ten shots tonight, and you probably complain when you bump your head. Jaroslav Spacek was his very able partner, Hamrlik would collect two assists on the night as well, earning First Star honours for his neverending work on defence.
Ryan O'Byrne and Paul Mara's giveaway and failure to stop Briere would lead to the Flyer's single goal, but O'Byrne would make up for it the rest of the game with solid play the rest of the night, checking effectively and giving good control along the boards in Montreal's end. Bergeron would fill in as able partner for him, he's shaking off most of the defensive troubles that plagued Montreal when he started off.
Hal Gill and Josh Gorges, Carey Price's doormen, bodyguards and clean-up crew. They keep his crease clean of opposing bodies or use their bodies to block shots, provide great PK work and do whatever is needed of them, including helping create a couple of offensive chances on the evening. Utility defensive defencemen who do what is required of them when asked, Price will have a great year in nets with this pair covering him.
Goaltending: Price allowed a preventable goal on Briere, it wasn't that high-speed and I've seen Price catch much better shots than that with his glove. The key though? He shut the door after that, Price too easily collapsed after a bad goal last season and would allow 2-3 more bad goals, this season he's been much better on recovery and remaining resolute in nets, preventing any further goals and helping his team pick up the win. Good game, he could have had a shutout, but he's a young goalie and he's learned a very important lesson, it's not about how the last goal happened, it's about making sure the next one doesn't happen.
Three Stars:
1. Roman Hamrlik, 10 blocked shots, 2 assists, he directly set up the Bergeron insurance goal and was a solid man all night long, you can't help but love this solid defencemen who's playing some of his best hockey in years and earning every cent of his contract who so many (including myself at one point) said he was well overpaid for his role. I'm gladly eating my words on his renaissance season in this late point of his 1,186 game career.
2. Andrei Kostitsyn, handled a spinning puck to get his 3rd of the season while going to the front of the net ready for that Plekanec pass, his offensive outbursts were great all night long, you can just feel more is coming from the kid.
3. Maxim Lapierre, a good offensive outburst from him created the 2-1 lead, he's been too quiet this season and hasn't used his good stickhandling and speed the way he should be to create these chances that just aren't expected from this 4th-line centre. Hopefully like AK46, this is a confidence booster for him.
Thoughts:
Yes this was beating a team that had just lost 8-2 to Washington on Saturday, yes their new coach is less than five days on the job, but the Flyers are a bullying team that analysts said the small stature of Montreal wouldn't be able to handle and would get pushed around too much. Montreal took the Flyers on and used their speed to beat them after a lax 1st period and executed on strong scoring chances. Andrei Kostitsyn got a good goal and Lapierre set up Cammalleri's, these were two guys in AK and Lapierre that needed to do these kinds of things to fire them up more and get them more competitive. Price allowed a bad goal, but shut the door on everyone else and the defence was strong, especially in the third period when they limited the Flyers to a mere two shots. Gill and Gorges, again, I love what they do for Price, they do all that has to be done to guard Price and prevent him from being overwhelmed in nets or caught on goals he can't possibly stop.
Montreal is now at 30 points and is one point out of the top half of the Conference since Tampa has a game in hand over them. With Gionta returning later this month and Markov next the team simply needs to hold at .500 or just over it for now and with their newfound work ethic and better defensive work, it seems quite possible.
Washington-Tampa Bay:
Didn't see it, but is anyone really surprised that Ovechkin picks up two goals on his return to get him back within 1 goal of the League leader in Gaborik? Props to Eric Fehr for his 8th of the season, between Laich, Fleischmann, Stecekel and Fehr, the Capitals have some very good plugging forwards along with their elite scorers like Semin, Ovechkin and Backstrom. Tip of the hat to rookie netminder Semyon Varlamov as well for his 3rd career NHL shutout in 22 total NHL Games.
Ex-Habs Recognition:
Nothing notable from recent Habs Members on the night, same for the Junior Habs.
Showing posts with label Flyers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flyers. Show all posts
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Capitals/Blackhawks Report with Extras
While Montreal had a well-earned rest after back-to-back games, there was no rest for the Blackhawks, who were coming off a biting 4-1 loss to Nashville that was sealed in the last 2:03 of the game and the Capitals were set to face the Flyers, with new coach Jack Laviolette, but were without the services of suspended superstar Alex Ovechkin.
Capitals-Flyers
I missed the game, I was busy watching the Chicago-Pittsburgh game, but I have to say, the Capitals once again, missing the prescence of outstanding star player Alex Ovechkin found a way to exploit a disoriented Flyers squad, from what I managed to pick up later on...
1st Period:Tomas Fleischmann collected his 9th goal of the season off a Brendan Morrison centering pass 57 seconds into the game, Fleischmann despite missing training camp, pre-season and the team's first eleven games has taken off quite impressively thus far this season 1-o Capitals.
Mika Pyorola brought it even for the Flyers just over eleven minutes later and it was entirely possible a see-saw battle between these two teams would erupt, as they often have for the rival squads, 1-1 score.
Daniel Carcillo doomed his Flyers team however when he would sucker-punch Washington's Matt Bradley, collecting a cross-checking, instigator and five-minute fighting major adding up to 9 minutes of power-play time for Washington, with a Game misconduct attached.
Mike Richards would set up a 2-on-1 with Jeff Carter during the long Flyers penalty kill, but netminder Theodore stopped Carter's shot off of Richards feed, denying the Flyers a lead and any momentum from an extremely dangerous penalty kill unit that was renowned for shorthanded goals last season.
Washington would score 20 seconds apart after 4:36 of PP time had passed, another goal by Fleischmann than a quick wrist shot by Blue-line sniper Mike Green off of a Nicklas Backstrom feed gave the Capitals a 3-1 lead to end the first period, outshooting the Flyers 14-13 during the stretch.
2nd Period:
There was still 1:06 of PP time left for Washington to start the frame and they scored even faster than the first period with only 36 seconds to go, Brooks Laich tapped in his 10th of the season, thanks to the playmaking work of Mike Green and Backstrom, 4-1 Capitals.
The offensive pressure would relent, with Capitals call-up D-man Karl Alzner taking a penalty giving the Flyers their first power play of the match, but would result in nothing as Theodore kept the Flyers without a goal during the Washington penalty.
Alzner would jump out of the penalty box to take the puck for a quick pass to Chris Clark, Captain of the Capitals team, he would loose a wrister to deliver the 5th goal of the game for Washington, chasing Ray Emery from the net, after 5 goals on 17 shots.
Nicklas Backstrom would work off of a Jurcina slapshot rebound to bring it to 6-1 Capitals, spoiling any hopes of Flyers backup goalie Brian Boucher closing the door on a relentless Capitals offence.
Backstrom would set up Mike Green once more for his 2nd goal of the game off another one of his sharp wristers, Green has had a rather slow start goal-scoring wise, with only 5 goals in his first 28 games compared to the 31 he scored last season, he still leads all defencemen in points, up to 30 thanks to his 4-point night. The Flyers were outshot 25-21 over 2 periods, but the real story was the scoreboard on that count.
3rd Period: The Flyers would try to storm back offensively, with a 15-5 shot advantage for the period, but would produce a single goal by Scott Hartnell, whose own slashing penalty later on neutralized the slight dig into the Capitals lead by allowing for another Capitals goal.
Scott Hartnell would feed off a behind-the-net pass to beat Theodore in a late effort for some minor personal glory and something for the Flyers to take off the night as they shrunk the lead to 7-2 for the Capitals. Hartnell's glory would be short-lived as he would later be caught for a slashing penalty.
David Steckel, who finally produced his first goal of the season would restore the 6-goal lead on tne ensuing Power play, he would feed off a well-placed Mike Green pass to make the final score 8-2. The Flyers would end up with the shooting advantage of 36-30, but Theodore would make 34 stops, the Flyers two netminders a mere 22.
Strutting their stuff: Nicklas Backstrom would have a goal and 4 assists on the night, Mike Green would have 2 goals, 2 assists, the premiere playmaker Backstrom and star defencemen Green would both score their 25th assist of the season together on the Steckel goal. Tomas Fleischmann would have a 2 goal night, the team is 2-0 for Alex Ovechin's 2-game suspension in an offensive flurry that saw 14 goals over two games.
Blackhawks/Penguins
'Wow' would be the most accurate way of describing the match, The youngest team and most talent-laden team in the Western Conference engaged the most talented team in the Eastern Conference. Sidney Crosby was out of the match with a groin injury, but thanks to the Penguins glut of top centres, Jordan Staal took the 2nd line duties while Malkin took over the top line and neither and scarcely missed a beat, the Penguins depth down the middle has got to make you hate them at times.
Marian Hossa was facing his 2008 team, who he lost the Stanley Cup with in the 2008 Finals, lost it to them when he switched to the Red Wings for the 2009 Cup Finals and finally decided to stick with a team in the Chicago Blackhawks for the next 12 years in his massive new contract. The crowd was quite vocal in booing the high-scoring forward they felt had abandoned them and gone shopping for a Cup. Antti Niemi recieved the start in nets, the 26-year old is 5-1-1 this season, which begs the question of besides Christobal Huet's salary, why doesn't the Journeymen goalie start more often? Marc-Andre Fleury, a likely candidate for the Canadian Olympic Team took to goal crease for Pittsburgh, he's become quite the thief when it comes to scoring on him in the last two years after having a rough start following his 1st overall selection in the impossibly talent-laden 2003 Entry Draft.
The First Period: The only goal to be scored in this stretch would come from a 4-on-4 section of the game when after Pens D-Man Brooks Orpik was holding, then Duncan Keith was cited less than 30 seconds later for intereference. The period would spawn a disagreement that would last the match between Pens forward Matt Cooke and Hawks defencemen Duncan Keith, as Keith's blindside hit on Cooke that spawned the interference penalty came from Cooke running him in his own end, which did not draw a penalty but Keith felt a need to push back against the hard-checking forward.
Patrick Kane would steal the puck along the boards and take off with the blinding speed that has defined the young forward's career and his justification to be drafted first overall in 2007, he would bring it in the Penguins zone and hold it until he could feed it to teammate Brian Campbell, who would rip a shot off of Fleury that produced a big rebound, just in time for the slick reflexes of Hossa to catch the flying puck, bring it down to the ice and slip it by Fleury, 1-0 Blackhawks.
A tustle between Penguins grinder Mike Rupp and Hawks grinder Ben Eager would cost the Penguins, as Rupp was assessed a double-minor for roughing while Eager served a single, but no score on either side during the match thanks to impressive goaltending and strong defence. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook never seemed to come off the ice, keeping both the Malkin and Staal lines in check as often as they could. The Hawks would take an 11-9 shots advantage over the period.
The Second Period:
Scoreless, but not for lack of trying. The Penguins wanted to tie the game up and take the lead, but solid goaltending from Niemi and a very coordinated, mobile defence by Chicago kept the rebounds away from Niemi or blocked shots and disrupted the top Penguins lines.
Pittsburgh would outshoot the Blackhawks 17-6 over the period, but the Blackhawks few scoring chances required the sharp wits of goaltender Fleury, speed kills in the NHL and the Blackhawks are known for punishing any team that can't keep their forwards contained. The shots were now 26-17 Pittsburgh, but Chicago still held the lone marker. Duncan Keith would play over 20 minutes by the end of the period, his partner Brent Seabrook was less than thirty seconds short of putting in 20 minutes himself. This is all after playing the night before as well, these two young men should be Olympic starters, without question for Team Canada.
The Third Period:
The Blackhawks wanted to seal the deal and get an insurance goal but it never came, tight saves by Marc-Andre Fleury and good defensive work to keep the Blackhawks shooters from setting up in the offensive zone kept Chicago from cashing in on any rebounds or golden chances.
The Pittsburgh Penguins came close to solving Niemi several more times, but it took Fleury sitting on the bench with the sixth man with 1:32 left in the game for a goal to finally get by the Finnish netminder. A faceoff win by Malkin, a pick-up by Gonchar, a feed to Malkin who would rip off a slapshot from the point, the shot was blocked only to have the rebound float right to an open Jordan Staal, whose quick reflexes would put the puck past a sprawling Niemi to tie the game. Chicago would outshoot Pittsburgh 11-6 over the period, the Penguins would still lead with a 32-28 total shot advantage.
Duncan Keith would have played just about 30 minutes of game time to this point, after playing just over 26 minutes the night before, talk about earning your new contract!
Overtime: Chicago would lock down Pittsburgh in the extra frame, using their strong defensive corps to keep them contained until a breakout play by Kris Versteeg would end things.
Kris Versteeg, thanks to the lockdown efforts of the Chicago Defence would take the puck into the Penguins zone and feed a pass to Brian Campbell, who would shoot twice, his first effort blocked and then a weak second puck would hit Fleury, Versteeg would crash into the crease and push the puck into the goal, delivering the game-winning goal, ending the Penguins 6-0 Overtime winning streak, handing Pittsburgh their first overtime loss of the season at home.
Key Players:
Pittsburgh: Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin would be in place for many offensive chances and would set up the game-tying goal that allowed Pittsburgh to leave with an overtime point. Brooks Orpik, Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang and Mark Eaton would work very hard to contain a very quick Chicago offence.
Chicago: Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook would play a combined total of 59 minutes, 39 seconds over 62 minutes and 38 seconds of game time, a fantastic performance by two elite defencemen that seem at this point, destined to form a pairing on the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team. Marian Hossa would be the only Blackhawk to score on the Penguins during regulation time on a slick rebound goal and would continue to harry his old team all night long alongside linemates Joanathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. Patrick Kane would make the offensive zone moves that made the Hossa goal possible, while Versteeg's improving play of late made the OT winner possible, Brian Campbell would assist on both Blackhawks goals.
Thoughts: We could do a whole hell of a lot worse than to have a 7-game Stanley Cup Final occur between these incredible teams, as much as I may dislike them for their failures delivering them their drafting success, you can't argue with how well they play on the ice. This is a preview of the Stanley Cup Final, you heard it here first.
Granted of course, the Canadiens don't go on another 1993-esque Miracle Run with Carey Price channeling Plante, Dryden and Roy the whole time ;)
Ex-Habs Recognition:
- Bruin Steve Begin would drop Jamal Mayers in a fight during a losing battle for the Maple Leafs in a 7-2 drubbing by the Beantown boys.
- Maple Leaf Mike Komisarek would attempt to put out Zdeno Chara's right eye with a dangerous high-sticking that went unnoticed by a very oblivious ref, a four-minute double minor towards Toronto during that point in the game might have seen the score jump even further. Komisarek just isn't the same since he had his ass handed to him by Milan Lucic last season in Montreal.
- Ranger Chris Higgins would score his 3rd goal of the season off a Gaborik feed, which is pretty sad considering he registered 3 20+ goal seasons for his first three years with Montreal.
- Lightning member Alex Tanguay would assist on Rookie defencemen Victor Hedman's first NHL goal.
- Senator Alex Kovalev would assist on a Jesse Winchester goal with 46 seconds left in regulation time to bring the score up 2-3 against the Phoenix Coyotes, but the team failed to tie the game in the remaining time.
Junior Habs Recognition:
- Tougher night for the Hamilton Bulldogs, a 6-5 overtime loss to the Toronto Marlies (Baby Leafs), P.K. Subban would collect one assist in the game. as would Mathieu Carle, two of Montreal's better defensive prospects. Dimunitive centre David Desharnis would score a goal and assist, but given his 5'6" stature and Montreal's lack of size in the forward corps, he'll likely be a career AHLer or moved to another team in a trade deal rather than serve as a Canadien over the next several years.
- Swediesh Centre Andreas Engqvist, who was signed to a contract with Montreal after recieving a development camp invite over the summer and impressing the Habs scouting department is getting back to scoring, with 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 matches in the Swedish Elite League after several prolonged dry spells.
- Mac Bennett has scored goals in 2 consecutive games with his USHL Cedar Rapids Roughriders now, after a slow start when returning from participating in the World Junior A Championship with Team USA.
- Finnish centre Joonas Nattinen, a 6'2" member of the very impressive 2009 Draft class Montreal selected has 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 Finnish Junior League matches. He has served a lot of time in the higher Finnish Elite League this season with only 3 assists in 16 games this season, but he has his 9 points in his 7 Junior League games. At 18 and a 3rd-round pick, it would seem harsh to expect him to play at the highest level of hockey in his country at such a young age, he is a long-term prospect and would probably be better off playing in the Junior team he has been moved up and down to this season. Interesting note, he likes to pattern himself after one of the last great Habs to play for Montreal in the last decade, Saku Koivu.
The "Go to Hell you Leprachaun" Note:
Apparently the League is talking about changing the names of notable player trophies to that of NHL greats and away from the historic names like the Art Ross, Hart, Calder and Norris trophies. This has the stink of Gary Bettman all over it, he's thinking of new ways to corrupt the game to sell it to a bunch of Southern US markets who only actually get out of their seats during a game when a fight breaks out. Phoenix can't even fill the arena out unless tickets are 25$ each, most of the Southern US market has to to give out free food and beer coupons with their tickets to get people to come to the games.
The talk about changing the names to honour the players is stupid. The players are honoured with personal trophies when they win a coveted trophy like the Art Ross, or have their names forever inscribed on the Conn Smythe Playoff Trophy when it is collected. The people whose names are on the trophies have the trophies named after them because they helped found the game, grow the game and decided to institute the trophies to recognize the greatness of the athletes they fostered that founded the greatest sport in history.
The greatest players are inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, do they really need more honours than they already recieve? If the league needs to correct anything, it's to change names of the Divisions to something a little more interesting than "Northeast, Southeast, Northwest" and so on.
Here's an easy way to do it if you want to make this about recognizing the past greats in the NHL.
Atlantic Divison - Lemieux Division.
Northeast Division - Beliveau Division
Southeast Division - Orr Division
Northwest Division - Gretzky Division
Pacific Division - Hull Division
Central Division - Howe Division
Eastern Conference - Wales Conference, as in the Prince of Wales Trophy which is awarded to the winner of the Eastern Conference Final in the Playoffs.
Western Conference - Campbell Conference, as in the Clarence S. Campbell Trophy which like the Prince of Wales Trophy, is awarded to the Western Conference Finals winner in playoffs.
Sounds a hell of a lot better for sure.
Capitals-Flyers
I missed the game, I was busy watching the Chicago-Pittsburgh game, but I have to say, the Capitals once again, missing the prescence of outstanding star player Alex Ovechkin found a way to exploit a disoriented Flyers squad, from what I managed to pick up later on...
1st Period:Tomas Fleischmann collected his 9th goal of the season off a Brendan Morrison centering pass 57 seconds into the game, Fleischmann despite missing training camp, pre-season and the team's first eleven games has taken off quite impressively thus far this season 1-o Capitals.
Mika Pyorola brought it even for the Flyers just over eleven minutes later and it was entirely possible a see-saw battle between these two teams would erupt, as they often have for the rival squads, 1-1 score.
Daniel Carcillo doomed his Flyers team however when he would sucker-punch Washington's Matt Bradley, collecting a cross-checking, instigator and five-minute fighting major adding up to 9 minutes of power-play time for Washington, with a Game misconduct attached.
Mike Richards would set up a 2-on-1 with Jeff Carter during the long Flyers penalty kill, but netminder Theodore stopped Carter's shot off of Richards feed, denying the Flyers a lead and any momentum from an extremely dangerous penalty kill unit that was renowned for shorthanded goals last season.
Washington would score 20 seconds apart after 4:36 of PP time had passed, another goal by Fleischmann than a quick wrist shot by Blue-line sniper Mike Green off of a Nicklas Backstrom feed gave the Capitals a 3-1 lead to end the first period, outshooting the Flyers 14-13 during the stretch.
2nd Period:
There was still 1:06 of PP time left for Washington to start the frame and they scored even faster than the first period with only 36 seconds to go, Brooks Laich tapped in his 10th of the season, thanks to the playmaking work of Mike Green and Backstrom, 4-1 Capitals.
The offensive pressure would relent, with Capitals call-up D-man Karl Alzner taking a penalty giving the Flyers their first power play of the match, but would result in nothing as Theodore kept the Flyers without a goal during the Washington penalty.
Alzner would jump out of the penalty box to take the puck for a quick pass to Chris Clark, Captain of the Capitals team, he would loose a wrister to deliver the 5th goal of the game for Washington, chasing Ray Emery from the net, after 5 goals on 17 shots.
Nicklas Backstrom would work off of a Jurcina slapshot rebound to bring it to 6-1 Capitals, spoiling any hopes of Flyers backup goalie Brian Boucher closing the door on a relentless Capitals offence.
Backstrom would set up Mike Green once more for his 2nd goal of the game off another one of his sharp wristers, Green has had a rather slow start goal-scoring wise, with only 5 goals in his first 28 games compared to the 31 he scored last season, he still leads all defencemen in points, up to 30 thanks to his 4-point night. The Flyers were outshot 25-21 over 2 periods, but the real story was the scoreboard on that count.
3rd Period: The Flyers would try to storm back offensively, with a 15-5 shot advantage for the period, but would produce a single goal by Scott Hartnell, whose own slashing penalty later on neutralized the slight dig into the Capitals lead by allowing for another Capitals goal.
Scott Hartnell would feed off a behind-the-net pass to beat Theodore in a late effort for some minor personal glory and something for the Flyers to take off the night as they shrunk the lead to 7-2 for the Capitals. Hartnell's glory would be short-lived as he would later be caught for a slashing penalty.
David Steckel, who finally produced his first goal of the season would restore the 6-goal lead on tne ensuing Power play, he would feed off a well-placed Mike Green pass to make the final score 8-2. The Flyers would end up with the shooting advantage of 36-30, but Theodore would make 34 stops, the Flyers two netminders a mere 22.
Strutting their stuff: Nicklas Backstrom would have a goal and 4 assists on the night, Mike Green would have 2 goals, 2 assists, the premiere playmaker Backstrom and star defencemen Green would both score their 25th assist of the season together on the Steckel goal. Tomas Fleischmann would have a 2 goal night, the team is 2-0 for Alex Ovechin's 2-game suspension in an offensive flurry that saw 14 goals over two games.
Blackhawks/Penguins
'Wow' would be the most accurate way of describing the match, The youngest team and most talent-laden team in the Western Conference engaged the most talented team in the Eastern Conference. Sidney Crosby was out of the match with a groin injury, but thanks to the Penguins glut of top centres, Jordan Staal took the 2nd line duties while Malkin took over the top line and neither and scarcely missed a beat, the Penguins depth down the middle has got to make you hate them at times.
Marian Hossa was facing his 2008 team, who he lost the Stanley Cup with in the 2008 Finals, lost it to them when he switched to the Red Wings for the 2009 Cup Finals and finally decided to stick with a team in the Chicago Blackhawks for the next 12 years in his massive new contract. The crowd was quite vocal in booing the high-scoring forward they felt had abandoned them and gone shopping for a Cup. Antti Niemi recieved the start in nets, the 26-year old is 5-1-1 this season, which begs the question of besides Christobal Huet's salary, why doesn't the Journeymen goalie start more often? Marc-Andre Fleury, a likely candidate for the Canadian Olympic Team took to goal crease for Pittsburgh, he's become quite the thief when it comes to scoring on him in the last two years after having a rough start following his 1st overall selection in the impossibly talent-laden 2003 Entry Draft.
The First Period: The only goal to be scored in this stretch would come from a 4-on-4 section of the game when after Pens D-Man Brooks Orpik was holding, then Duncan Keith was cited less than 30 seconds later for intereference. The period would spawn a disagreement that would last the match between Pens forward Matt Cooke and Hawks defencemen Duncan Keith, as Keith's blindside hit on Cooke that spawned the interference penalty came from Cooke running him in his own end, which did not draw a penalty but Keith felt a need to push back against the hard-checking forward.
Patrick Kane would steal the puck along the boards and take off with the blinding speed that has defined the young forward's career and his justification to be drafted first overall in 2007, he would bring it in the Penguins zone and hold it until he could feed it to teammate Brian Campbell, who would rip a shot off of Fleury that produced a big rebound, just in time for the slick reflexes of Hossa to catch the flying puck, bring it down to the ice and slip it by Fleury, 1-0 Blackhawks.
A tustle between Penguins grinder Mike Rupp and Hawks grinder Ben Eager would cost the Penguins, as Rupp was assessed a double-minor for roughing while Eager served a single, but no score on either side during the match thanks to impressive goaltending and strong defence. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook never seemed to come off the ice, keeping both the Malkin and Staal lines in check as often as they could. The Hawks would take an 11-9 shots advantage over the period.
The Second Period:
Scoreless, but not for lack of trying. The Penguins wanted to tie the game up and take the lead, but solid goaltending from Niemi and a very coordinated, mobile defence by Chicago kept the rebounds away from Niemi or blocked shots and disrupted the top Penguins lines.
Pittsburgh would outshoot the Blackhawks 17-6 over the period, but the Blackhawks few scoring chances required the sharp wits of goaltender Fleury, speed kills in the NHL and the Blackhawks are known for punishing any team that can't keep their forwards contained. The shots were now 26-17 Pittsburgh, but Chicago still held the lone marker. Duncan Keith would play over 20 minutes by the end of the period, his partner Brent Seabrook was less than thirty seconds short of putting in 20 minutes himself. This is all after playing the night before as well, these two young men should be Olympic starters, without question for Team Canada.
The Third Period:
The Blackhawks wanted to seal the deal and get an insurance goal but it never came, tight saves by Marc-Andre Fleury and good defensive work to keep the Blackhawks shooters from setting up in the offensive zone kept Chicago from cashing in on any rebounds or golden chances.
The Pittsburgh Penguins came close to solving Niemi several more times, but it took Fleury sitting on the bench with the sixth man with 1:32 left in the game for a goal to finally get by the Finnish netminder. A faceoff win by Malkin, a pick-up by Gonchar, a feed to Malkin who would rip off a slapshot from the point, the shot was blocked only to have the rebound float right to an open Jordan Staal, whose quick reflexes would put the puck past a sprawling Niemi to tie the game. Chicago would outshoot Pittsburgh 11-6 over the period, the Penguins would still lead with a 32-28 total shot advantage.
Duncan Keith would have played just about 30 minutes of game time to this point, after playing just over 26 minutes the night before, talk about earning your new contract!
Overtime: Chicago would lock down Pittsburgh in the extra frame, using their strong defensive corps to keep them contained until a breakout play by Kris Versteeg would end things.
Kris Versteeg, thanks to the lockdown efforts of the Chicago Defence would take the puck into the Penguins zone and feed a pass to Brian Campbell, who would shoot twice, his first effort blocked and then a weak second puck would hit Fleury, Versteeg would crash into the crease and push the puck into the goal, delivering the game-winning goal, ending the Penguins 6-0 Overtime winning streak, handing Pittsburgh their first overtime loss of the season at home.
Key Players:
Pittsburgh: Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin would be in place for many offensive chances and would set up the game-tying goal that allowed Pittsburgh to leave with an overtime point. Brooks Orpik, Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang and Mark Eaton would work very hard to contain a very quick Chicago offence.
Chicago: Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook would play a combined total of 59 minutes, 39 seconds over 62 minutes and 38 seconds of game time, a fantastic performance by two elite defencemen that seem at this point, destined to form a pairing on the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team. Marian Hossa would be the only Blackhawk to score on the Penguins during regulation time on a slick rebound goal and would continue to harry his old team all night long alongside linemates Joanathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. Patrick Kane would make the offensive zone moves that made the Hossa goal possible, while Versteeg's improving play of late made the OT winner possible, Brian Campbell would assist on both Blackhawks goals.
Thoughts: We could do a whole hell of a lot worse than to have a 7-game Stanley Cup Final occur between these incredible teams, as much as I may dislike them for their failures delivering them their drafting success, you can't argue with how well they play on the ice. This is a preview of the Stanley Cup Final, you heard it here first.
Granted of course, the Canadiens don't go on another 1993-esque Miracle Run with Carey Price channeling Plante, Dryden and Roy the whole time ;)
Ex-Habs Recognition:
- Bruin Steve Begin would drop Jamal Mayers in a fight during a losing battle for the Maple Leafs in a 7-2 drubbing by the Beantown boys.
- Maple Leaf Mike Komisarek would attempt to put out Zdeno Chara's right eye with a dangerous high-sticking that went unnoticed by a very oblivious ref, a four-minute double minor towards Toronto during that point in the game might have seen the score jump even further. Komisarek just isn't the same since he had his ass handed to him by Milan Lucic last season in Montreal.
- Ranger Chris Higgins would score his 3rd goal of the season off a Gaborik feed, which is pretty sad considering he registered 3 20+ goal seasons for his first three years with Montreal.
- Lightning member Alex Tanguay would assist on Rookie defencemen Victor Hedman's first NHL goal.
- Senator Alex Kovalev would assist on a Jesse Winchester goal with 46 seconds left in regulation time to bring the score up 2-3 against the Phoenix Coyotes, but the team failed to tie the game in the remaining time.
Junior Habs Recognition:
- Tougher night for the Hamilton Bulldogs, a 6-5 overtime loss to the Toronto Marlies (Baby Leafs), P.K. Subban would collect one assist in the game. as would Mathieu Carle, two of Montreal's better defensive prospects. Dimunitive centre David Desharnis would score a goal and assist, but given his 5'6" stature and Montreal's lack of size in the forward corps, he'll likely be a career AHLer or moved to another team in a trade deal rather than serve as a Canadien over the next several years.
- Swediesh Centre Andreas Engqvist, who was signed to a contract with Montreal after recieving a development camp invite over the summer and impressing the Habs scouting department is getting back to scoring, with 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 matches in the Swedish Elite League after several prolonged dry spells.
- Mac Bennett has scored goals in 2 consecutive games with his USHL Cedar Rapids Roughriders now, after a slow start when returning from participating in the World Junior A Championship with Team USA.
- Finnish centre Joonas Nattinen, a 6'2" member of the very impressive 2009 Draft class Montreal selected has 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 4 Finnish Junior League matches. He has served a lot of time in the higher Finnish Elite League this season with only 3 assists in 16 games this season, but he has his 9 points in his 7 Junior League games. At 18 and a 3rd-round pick, it would seem harsh to expect him to play at the highest level of hockey in his country at such a young age, he is a long-term prospect and would probably be better off playing in the Junior team he has been moved up and down to this season. Interesting note, he likes to pattern himself after one of the last great Habs to play for Montreal in the last decade, Saku Koivu.
The "Go to Hell you Leprachaun" Note:
Apparently the League is talking about changing the names of notable player trophies to that of NHL greats and away from the historic names like the Art Ross, Hart, Calder and Norris trophies. This has the stink of Gary Bettman all over it, he's thinking of new ways to corrupt the game to sell it to a bunch of Southern US markets who only actually get out of their seats during a game when a fight breaks out. Phoenix can't even fill the arena out unless tickets are 25$ each, most of the Southern US market has to to give out free food and beer coupons with their tickets to get people to come to the games.
The talk about changing the names to honour the players is stupid. The players are honoured with personal trophies when they win a coveted trophy like the Art Ross, or have their names forever inscribed on the Conn Smythe Playoff Trophy when it is collected. The people whose names are on the trophies have the trophies named after them because they helped found the game, grow the game and decided to institute the trophies to recognize the greatness of the athletes they fostered that founded the greatest sport in history.
The greatest players are inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, do they really need more honours than they already recieve? If the league needs to correct anything, it's to change names of the Divisions to something a little more interesting than "Northeast, Southeast, Northwest" and so on.
Here's an easy way to do it if you want to make this about recognizing the past greats in the NHL.
Atlantic Divison - Lemieux Division.
Northeast Division - Beliveau Division
Southeast Division - Orr Division
Northwest Division - Gretzky Division
Pacific Division - Hull Division
Central Division - Howe Division
Eastern Conference - Wales Conference, as in the Prince of Wales Trophy which is awarded to the winner of the Eastern Conference Final in the Playoffs.
Western Conference - Campbell Conference, as in the Clarence S. Campbell Trophy which like the Prince of Wales Trophy, is awarded to the Western Conference Finals winner in playoffs.
Sounds a hell of a lot better for sure.
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