This past week, the Montreal Canadiens collected five of a possible six points, including a Habs historic night on Saturday. The Canadiens ended their week strong with a 10-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche. With that being said, the Habs are the first team to score and allow ten goals in a game in the same season since the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres. The Canadiens did this without their number-one centre Alex Galchenyuk, who will miss the next six to eight weeks with a knee injury.
Montreal Canadiens Weekly Report: Habs Historic night
The Canadiens week started on the road against the St. Louis Blues where they finished their five-game road trip. The Habs came out on the short end of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Blues. The Canadiens came out strong grabbing an early 2-0 lead after two periods of play. However, the Blues scored two quick goals to tie the game up early in the third.
The Canadiens luck seemed to turn on them early in the third when David Desharnais, who was replacing Galchenyuk on the top line, went down with his own knee injury. At that point, Desharnais was having a very good game. Like Galchenyuk, Desharnais is expected to miss six to eight weeks as well.
Being short a man at centre, it created the downfall that led to Habs collapse, as they watched the Blues win the game in overtime. However, the Canadiens collected five of a possible ten points in what is likely the hardest road trip of the season.
Home Sweet Home
The Canadiens played their first game back at home on Thursday night. They beat the New Jersey Devils by a score of 5-2. Despite the injuries, the team showed that they could overcome it by putting up a good all-around team game. This included a season-high 49 shots on Cory Schneider.
Despite the win, the biggest story line was the beatdown that Carey Price put down on Kyle Palmieri. Palmieri was the second Devil to crash into the Habs star netminder in the game. Price had enough and started throwing punches on the Devils forward. For a goalie who has had knee injuries in the past because of situations like that, it made sense that Price lost his cool. Price received a double-minor roughing penalty on the play, and Palmieri got a minor for goaltender interference.
However, following Palmieri’s crash into Price it would have been nice if a player were there, in order to help protect their goalie. Price showed that he means business, and it could make opposing players think twice before crashing into him like that.
Historical Night
Saturday night, the Canadiens delivered their fans an early Christmas present with their 10-goal performance. This was the team’s first 10-goal performance since they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 11-1 on February 24, 1990. The team almost tied a franchise-record seven goals in one period after leading the Avalanche 6-1 after the first period.
The game was especially a success for Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who scored four goals and added an assist. His linemates Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Radulov also had big games. Plekanec put up four assists, while Radulov scored a goal and an assist. Radulov may not have had the same success on the scoresheet as his linemates, however, it’s also the little stuff that makes him so important to his line.
“It’s tough for me to express how I feel about how important he is because … how dynamic he plays not only is great to produce offense but it rubs off on our ee ntire lineup,” Pacioretty saidon the impact of Radulov to the team.
Another player who made a nice impact in the game offensively was Brian Flynn. He scored his first two goals of the season against the Avalanche.
Max Pacioretty is Getting Hot
While scoring four goals in a game, is a big feat for anyone. But for Pacioretty it is especially huge. This is because he needed to make a statement that the captaincy hasn’t changed the type of player that he is. Last week, Pacioretty scored seven of his twelve goals on the season. It may seem like an incredible hot streak, which may cool down like any streak. However, he is now healthy.
Last week Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reported that Max Pacioretty played through a broken foot all through the month of November. While much of the fanbase was criticizing Pacioretty’s leadership throughout the month as he struggled, it turns out he has a lot of leadership. He shows that he really wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to the Habs.
Another problem is that he is seen as a player that lacks toughness, yet he was able to play with a reasonably bad injury. Pacioretty might not be a typical power forward like many players his size, but he isn’t a soft player either.
Pacioretty will cool off from this extremely hot streak, but he won’t fall into the slump that he had in November while partially injured. Since 2013-14, Pacioretty has been among the NHL’s top snipers. Expect him to step up in the absence of Galchenyuk.
Overall Thoughts
The injuries to Galchenyuk and to Desharnais will likely eventually catch up to the Canadiens in the next few months. They look to be motivation for the team to play better as a team. Since the injuries, the Canadiens four lines have been producing at a reasonable rate.
Plekanec’s offensive game has taken shape again. For a while, it looked as if he completely lost it. But since being paired with the team’s top two wingers in Radulov and Pacioretty it has been found. Plekanec scored a goal and five assists in the past week. Although it was only his second goal of the season, Plekanec is playing his best hockey of the season. Playing with Radulov and Pacioretty for what could be the next two months will get his goal scoring back to a reasonable rate for the two-way centre.
While out west, it seemed that Shea Weber and Alexei Emelin‘s time on a pairing has taken its toll. It seems that the pair of rugged defensemen have found a second wind. Both players were great at shutting down the other teams’ top lines with their physical play.
The Canadiens will look to build momentum off their historical night this week.
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