Montreal Canadiens Lose 5th In A Row, Fall To Tampa Bay Lightning
On the upside, your Montreal Canadiens aren’t the worst team in the league. That dubious honour goes to the ever-so-wonderful Columbus Blue Jackets followed closely by the Edmonton Oilers. The bad news is that the Montreal Canadiens are the absolute worst team in an altogether inept Eastern Conference.
Tonight, facing a Lightning team that had more AHL-ers than NHLers missing, with Mattias Ohlund, Vincent Lecavalier, Marc-Andre Bergeron, and Victor Hedman among the injured for the Lightning, the Canadiens waved the white flag and were stymied by Mathieu Garon of all people.
The game was a total snoozefest. The Lightning, predictably, opened the scoring with a goal by Steven Stamkos (his 44th of the season) and David Desharnais would score his 13th to tie it up on a nice play. Adam Hall would score to make it 2-1 with his 2nd of the season. In other notable news, Ryan Malone was thrown out, receiving 2 mins for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 5 for fighting and a 10 minute instigator after a tussle with Alexei Emelin after a hit. Staubitz also received a 10 minute misconduct and a 2 minute interference. He also fought J.T Wyman in a pretty good bout in his debut in the bleu-blanc-rouge. Speaking of debuts, Blake Geoffrion played his first NHL game for the Canadiens, finishing the night at +1 in 14:22 with 1 shot on goal. Not tremendously impressive, but demonstrated some potential for a third line role.
At the end of the night, Garon was the difference for the most part. Oh, and a little something called effort. The Canadiens pressed in the third, but weren’t able to come up with a tying goal. But for long stretches, it looked like they would rather be almost anywhere else. It speaks volumes about this team that they can’t even beat a depleted lineup that was playing Tom Pyatt on the second line. YES, THAT TOM PYATT. This team has given up on the season, and I guess in some ways that’s to be expected with where they are in the standings. It’s going to be tough to watch the rest of the season unfold, but hopefully the rookies get more ice-time and the Canadiens stop leaning on undeserving veterans (see: Gomez, Scott). It’s time to see what the rookies have to offer.
It’s increasingly difficult to be positive about this team, but on the bright side, they may be able to draft Mikhail Grigorenko if this keeps up! Only a 6’2 183 pound left handed centre who already plays for a Quebec team …. Projected to go #2 overall, at latest within top 5. Definitely something the Canadiens have seemingly always needed. A 1-2-3 punch of Tomas Plekanec, Mikhail Grigorenko and Lars Eller doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
For your viewing pleasure: Grigorenko Shootout Goal for the Quebec Remparts
On a side note: the Trade Deadline. I was initially pleased with the return obtained for Andrei Kostitsyn, but I would have to retract that after seeing that Nashville was willing to give up a 1st round pick for Paul Gaustad. That may have been a result of the bidding war that Darcy Regier supposedly created, but I don’t buy it. Either Gauthier is completely inept at bargaining, or Kostitsyn really just appeared so horrible that no teams were biting. Could go either way, but I was surprised at the Gaustad return. Other than that, I was disappointed to not see Campoli gone. Hard to believe that he couldn’t fetch even the conditional 7th rounder that Tampa Bay paid for Mike Commodore.
Other than, I thought there were two huge winners. The first is rather obvious, Nashville. They loaded up on good players for a stretch run without giving up the farm. I think they sufficiently gave themselves some extra scoring, despite their reputation they are actually 10th in scoring, and gave up picks. 1st and 2nd rounders yes, but they should be late picks if all goes as planned. The second? It pains me to say it but the Boston Bruins. Like last year, the veteran additions of Mottau, Zanon and Rolston should give the Bruins some much needed depth. Could be a fly-under-the-radar pick much like the Kelly and Peverley deals of last year. The biggest loser? For me, no question at all, is Columbus. I hated their lack of movement on Nash and then Howson trying to throw Nash under the bus was classless. Nash has earned the right to ask to leave that mismanaged mess, and throwing him under the bus like that could damage the potential return for him in the summer. I felt that Nash handled the fallout rather well, regardless of whether his altruistic motives were authentic or not. I also thought the Kassian–Hodgson trade would work out for both teams in the long-run.
That’s all for today folks! The next game is on Thursday, when the Canadiens welcome the Minnesota Wild to the Bell Centre at 7:00 pm!