A Winning Habit - A Montreal Canadiens blog

Jan 21, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Montreal Canadiens head coach Randy Cunneyworth talks to right wing Erik Cole (72) during their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE

To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I had to write a title such as the one above. Feels awesome though!

Getting back to business, your 11th place Montreal Canadiens face the 15th place Carolina Hurricanes tonight at the Bell Centre. What’s at stake? Closing that 7 point gap between the Habs and the Leafs. Interesting all the teams above them have either lost or are on losing streaks: Toronto (3 straight), Washington and Winnipeg both lost their last game. They remain 3 points behind Winnipeg with a game in hand, and 6 points behind Washington who has 1 game on hand.

On the positive side for the Canadiens, the record in the last ten games is 6-3-1 and the powerplay has scored in consecutive games. Tonight would be a good opportunity to gain some ground in the standings.

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Feb 11, 2012; Toronto, ON, Canada; Montreal Canadiens center Lars Eller (81) celebrates his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE

Tonight, the Canadiens enduring a long, albeit touching, tribute to longtime Leafs captain Mats Sundin. I never really was a big Sundin fan, despite his great stats. I never felt he was a game-changer and I never felt that he would be so revered if he didn’t play in Toronto. That being said, Sundin paved the way for a lot of European players and was great in international play.

I feared for the first ten minutes of this game at the ACC. I assumed that the energy boost would benefit the Leafs while watching the ceremony would slow the Habs down. The first period proved this hypothesis right, except both teams seemed to be affected by the ceremony. Lots of stoppages, icing and nothing in terms of scoring. The Canadiens killed off the only penalty of the period. Both sides had some good looks at the net, but Reimer and Price made the saves.

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Feb 7 2012; Winnipeg, MB, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs celebrate a goal by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel (81) against the Winnipeg Jets during the first period at the MTS Centre. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck- US PRESSWIRE

It is not quite the final lap yet but certainly not an opportune moment for a pit stop either.  Your Montreal Canadiens go into Saturday’s tussle with the 8th ranked Toronto Maple Leafs riding a 3 game winning streak and it is imperative to keep a good thing going.  A win not only breeds more confidence to a delicate yet surging team, it also narrows  the spread between these teams to 7.  Catastrophically, a loss increases the differential to an unbridgeable 11 points.  Critical victory in regulation, you say?  Indeed!

The Toronto squad regularly seems to be the more pumped when these two teams square off.  Montreal must manage to reverse the trend and demonstrate just how genuine they are when they express that they have not given up and that they believe in the group that exists within the dressing room.  The hosting Leafs have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 but have dropped each of the last two by one goal against the Jets and the Flyers.

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Feb 9, 2012; Uniondale, NY, USA; Montreal Canadiens center Scott Gomez (11) celebrates scoring with teammates during the third period against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Canadiens won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

My new pen-name should be Nostradamus.  I predicted both a road win in Long Island and a goal by Scott Gomez in that same game.  2 for 2!!  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  Wait a second…if you read my previous entry, you would know that i also projected that Montreal would occupy 11th place by the time that all of the games of the night had come to an end.  You thought that 2 for 2 was pretty solid? How does 3 for 3 sound?! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

Well, enough of singing my own praises. I suspect that i should instead be directing the props to the Montreal Canadiens which beat a surging New York Islanders team and put together a three-game winning streak in the process!  How many of us are now questioning whether we threw in the towel a touch early with 27 games remaining on the Habs` calendar?  On Saturday after a loss to the Caps, Montreal placed dead last in the East.  Things are looking up indeed.  There might just be some merit in revisiting the question of buying vs. selling at the trade deadline now that Montreal is a mere 9 points out of playoff contention.

While many will say that this night belonged to Max Pacioretty who completed a hat-trick at the final buzzer, my viewpoint is that in the absence of Carey Price ‘ s heroics, Max-Pacs goals (3 on 10 shots…giving him 22 on the season…WOW) would not have been nearly enough to secure this victory.  Carey stopped 31 of 33 attempts against him, many of them legitimate scoring opportunities and in several cases shots that appeared to be certain goals. He was especially strong early in the 2nd period when the Habs were killing off a penalty to David Desharnais.  The Isle ‘ s power play was extremely threatening and Price stonewalled Moulson, Tavares, Nielsen (twice), and Bailey all in the same sequence.  This was goaltending at its best folks and demonstrated just how critical #31 is to the success of the team that he backstops.  A couple of plays later, the very same goaltender displayed superhuman lateral movement in denying Niederreiter.  Awesome!

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Feb 9, 2012; Uniondale, NY, USA; Montreal Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty (67) after scoring during the second period against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

In quite the nail biter, the Canadiens hung on to win 4-2 against the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. There’s some confusion as to whether the 4th goal should have counted, as it seemed to have been scored either exactly as time expired in the third or right after. As of now, according to TSN, it stands as 4-2.

The Canadiens opened the scoring on their first shot of the game at 1:23 into the period courtesy of Max Pacioretty‘s 20th of the season, from Erik Cole. They would extend the lead to 2-0 in the second, on a blistering Max Pacioretty one-timer from David Desharnais. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Scott Gomez scored on a big rebound from Nabakov‘s initial save on Raphael Diaz. That’s right, Scott Gomez is no longer scoreless. He looked absolutely relieved and ecstatic as the players on the ice jumped him for the celebration. That goal, making it 3-0 at the 9:50 mark of the 3rd period seemed to be the nail in coffin. Price, with 3 minutes left in the 3rd, seemed to be on his way to his 3rd shutout of the season.

But alas, the Canadiens have the uncanny ability to make everything more difficult than it needs to be. Matt Moulson scored a goal, which in my eyes seemed to be a high stick, at 17:19, making it 3-1. Only about a minute later, Mark Streit blasted one in past Price, cutting the deficit to 1 goal.

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February 7, 2012; Philadelphia, PA USA; New York Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov (20) celebrates a win with teammates New York Islanders defenseman Steve Staios (24) and right wing P.A. Parenteau (15) at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Islanders defeated the Flyers 1-0, winning the shootout, 2-0. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

Let’s just imagine for a second that Montreal’s visit to the decrepit Nassau Coliseum is successful and that they defeat the New York Islanders in regulation time…what then???  Such an outcome might just catapult the Habs into 11th place in the East representing a significant improvement over their 15th place ranking last Saturday.  Why am i even thinking along these lines?  I was confident that i had accepted that there would be no spot reserved in the post-season for my beloved Habs.  I reckon that i have not found closure just yet…maybe, just maybe we can get by with a little help from our friends…probably most of you have stopped reading by now discrediting me as a lunatic?!

Montreal has lost many valuable points over the past couple of seasons in routinely failing to show up for games against the underwhelming Isles.  Perhaps the prognosis for tonight is more promising now that the New York team ranks above them in the standings.  The Islanders sit in 11th place only one point ahead of 13th ranked Montreal but they enjoy two games in hand over Le Tricolore.  The teams have squared off twice so far this season with each team having won in their home game.

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Feb 07, 2012; Montreal, QC, CAN; Montreal Canadiens celebrate their win against Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Center. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-US PRESSWIRE

I am not entirely surprised that our beloved Habs beat the Penguins tonight.  What does raise my eyebrows, though, is that they did so in a shootout.  Prior to this evening`s engagement, Montreal was 1-7 in the shootout…well, i guess you can say that they were due…Kudos to the team for pulling off a victory over a very talented Pittsburgh roster.  I am sure that i come across as the most incompetent blogger.  The Habs lose and I support them beyond reason.  Then I give up on the Habs and they start to win.  It has been that kind of season folks…one that is certainly hard to make much sense of.  Maybe that is precisely why i love sports as much as i do.

In two days, the Montreal Canadiens have risen out of the ashes like a Phoenix from the depths of 15th place to the dizzying heights of 13th spot in the Eastern Conference.  Do i have illusions of a complete resurgence leading to playoff contention?  Probably not.  Do i believe that the team owes it to the fans to demonstrate pride and passion the rest of the way?  Definitely!  Do i believe that they will?  I am unqualified to answer that one…regardless, Nos Glorieux are 10 points behind 8th placed Ottawa which has played two games more than our team…

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January 20, 2012; Pittsburgh,PA, USA: Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) shoots the puck before the game against the Montreal Canadiens at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

Is it Game 4 already?  That is crazy!  Tonight will mark the last time that these teams will square off against one another in the 2011-2012 season.  Pittsburgh has been victorious in each of the three previous matchups.The games between these two squads are usually of the entertaining variety and i do look forward to watching this one.  Pittsburgh has been victorious in each of the three previous matchups.

Both organizations are riding a modest one-game winning streak but Pittsburgh has been hot of late winning  8 of its last 10 contests. Montreal is 4-4-2 in the same span.  It was nice to see a bit of a surge in the Habs play against the Jets on Sunday after their deplorable performance  against the Washington Capitals the day before that.  Here is to hoping that the team can bring some passion and energy to tonight’s engagement.

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Feb 05, 2012; Montreal, QC, CAN; Montreal Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty (67) celebrates his goal against Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec (31) with teammates during the first period at the Bell Center. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-US PRESSWIRE

So the Canadiens played significantly better today. They worked, they hustled and they went for second and third chances.

Pacioretty scored the all important first goal off some great work by Weber and Palushaj (his first point in the NHL). He fished out the puck and banked it in from the side of the net for his 19th of the season. Emelin made it 2-0 on a short-handed goal with his 2nd of the season. The assists went to Plekanec and Darche. Finally, Plekanec would make it 3-0 in the second with his 11th of the season from Kaberle and Subban on the powerplay.

This goal was special. After almost 7 minutes, where the goal was presumably being reviewed, there was no announcement as to who actually scored. On the myriad of replays that RDS showed, there was much discussion about whether Gomez got his stick on the puck before it bounced off Pavelec. If he did, he would have scored on his 1 year anniversary since his last goal. Yes, you read that right. His last goal was on February 5th 2011. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be and Plekanec got credit for the goal. Some fans actually booed this decision and I honestly felt terrible for Gomez. This is probably the one instance where I would have supported a decision to just award him the goal, whether it was conclusive or not.

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While it was obvious that the team was struggling, I must confess to being absolutely shocked when i looked at the standings on Saturday night, again on Sunday morning just to make sure, and found that the Habs are sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. It hit me.  It hit me hard.  I found my love and my loyalty for this team in question.

Anyone who has read my entries on this website will know, will absolutely know, that i remained a staunch and fiercely loyal supporter until it became clear that changes must take place.  This stark realization came during the 4-3 loss to the Devils on Thursday and was marked with sadness and melancholy.  Relative to many other fans and members of the media, my epiphany came very, very late.  In one sense I am proud of that while in another way, i am a bit embarrassed that i held onto a losing cause for as long as i did in not truly seeing things for what they really are.

Upon discovering that the Habs had lost again by a 3-0 margin against the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon, my state of mind changed dramatically.  I am finally officially angry.  It took me quite a while to get here…i guess that i have a pretty long fuse but now there is some contempt within me as i reflect on the team that used to be a source of immense pride to my hometown.  Lisa Fiorilli, an ardent Montreal Canadiens fan who contributes regularly to the site, described the team’s performance as follows:

Well, this was a doozy. And not a good doozy, a terrible doozy. The game was outright putrid, and I question whether any of the players on the ice today really felt like playing.

I completely agree with her assessment.  So, what happens now?  How does one remain a fan when the team seemingly no longer deserves support?  This would ideally be a two-way relationship.  This team has to start giving back.  And if these players are not going to be the ones who do it, then let’s ship them out and bring in players with heart.  I can forgive missed scoring opportunities and defensive lapses and bad goals against, but i cannot stand behind a team that does not care.  What is the point of that?!

I can probably handle an 82 loss season as long as i trust that the team is giving the game and the fans absolutely everything that it has got. But i simply will not endorse any club that falls anywhere short of that.  In one sense this might represent a bit of a high-expectation on my part, while in another manner this truly is a very, very generous offer.  To the Montreal Canadiens organization i say: Take it or leave it.