Montreal Canadiens: Kirk Muller has nothing to apologize to the Flyers for
By Omar L
Flyers coach Alain Vigneault wasn’t pleased that the Montreal Canadiens played their top power-play unit in the final minutes of the game. Nicolas Aube-Kubel was called for slashing on Jonathan Drouin. When the man-advantage started, it seemed like it bothered Vigneault to see Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, and Shea Weber climb take the ice.
The unit didn’t score, and they didn’t get a shot either. Joel Armia was the only Habs player to attempt a shot on that power play, but it was blocked by Travis Sanheim.
Vigneault had the ‘Hurt Feelings Report’ going after that.
Alain Vigneault didn't like that Kirk Muller put his No. 1 power play on the ice late in the game: "We had embarassed ourselves enough. I'm not sure we needed to be embarassed more."
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) August 14, 2020
Adds that he'll be sure to point that out to his players.
There are a few things to take away with this.
In the game of hockey, it’s heavily discouraged and/or frowned upon to run up the scoreboard and “show up” your opponent. This usually comes up when a player celebrates a goal during a blowout win. Sometimes it happens in the NHL, but we mostly see it in the CHL and more often at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Someone will say something about it, there’s a couple panel segments that follow up, especially if karma reels its ugly head, and we move on.
Vigneault must of that the Montreal Canadiens were trying to do this. “Hey, it’s 5-0? Let’s make it 6!”
Claude Giroux, on Montreal sticking with its top PP unit late in a 5-0 game: "Yeah, I saw it, but ... no comment on that."
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) August 14, 2020
I can rationalize this to an extent, but there are some flaws to that theory, and Muller handled it well in his response to Vigneault’s comment.
Kirk Muller says he stuck with his top PP unit late in the game because it's his job to make his team as good as it can be: "It's the playoffs."
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) August 14, 2020
Muller expanded on this saying it wasn’t a means of disrespect but more so a way for the Montreal Canadiens to practice their power play as it wasn’t good against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I’ll take a step further and say the Habs’ power play hasn’t been good all season.