hockeyrealist

Had to double check that Habs weren’t killing a penalty there

Terrible Time to fight, and was no real cause. He took a harmless, legal check…. bonehead play from a fourth liner when the whole line has looked bad tonight.

I counted 7 landed punches for Reaves, 0 for Chucklehead

What was Pezetta thinking, Habs just get some momentum and be decides to play punching bag and give the home crowd something to cheat for??? Seems like a dumb time to fight, and lose badly.

Hustle by Gally and nice hands by Dvorak!

yup, hard to blame him for the multiple complete défensive breakdowns. He bailed them out a few times at least.

Positives from first: Primeau looked good overall. Romanov continues to look good, especially his foray into offensive zone and net drive. Dvorak’s line looked decent, Jo was noticeable and looking quick, Anderson is moving well. Negatives: Fourth line was scary all period. Looked like amateurs vs pros. Petry continues to look suspect.

P Indeed, he was slow to react to an attempted wrap around a couple minutes before. Wonder if his legs are burning?

Re. Gally, he fires from anywhere and everywhere. It’s how he gets over 200 shots/season and often leads the team in sog, over half from low chances and rest from crease.

Wow, that was some novice level hockey right there leading to rags first goal. This is gonna be a tough one.

Indeed, probably a correlation between the lack of guys running around these days chasing hits/fights (like Pezetta most times) and the overall higher level of play/better coverages across the league. Guys like Czikias, Clutterbuck, B Tanev who’ve made a career in the bottom 6 did so by NOT being a liability, occasionally contributing but always bringing energy. Some vets have adapted to this role and prolonged their careers as well like Simmonds, Lucic, Maroon… Pezetta (like his haircut, although I love it) is a bit of a caveman in a modern NHL. The Habs have placed an impetus on four lines for years now and makes it that much harder to do that when injuries hit / fw depth get tested, so we are paying a lot of attention to minor league call ups, b/c we are used to seeing four decent lines (Habs were a deep team at start of season, how quickly that changes). Given the results are not supporting Habs strategy, at some point gotta try another tactic. Seems to support the idea of stacking your top 9 and barely playing a fourth line (top nine all get 18-20 min/game)….

Noticed Anderson/Gallagher both out with Poehling for a couple brief shifts, seems a good sign for Poehling. But I do believe it is not good for Anderson and Gallagher to be playing with AHL’ers. They’re being paid a premium to score, not help minor leaguers adjust. Scary state of affairs for centre depth since there aren’t many better choices, Dvorak has been so underwhelming lately after a strong start to preseason/season. Basically if you are an offensive winger on the Habs and not playing with Suzuki you are ####ed and going to look like a bad contract.

Yeah, he stepped it up in third period and was more visible, assertive. and as per stats he did great in draws so kudos to him for a decent showing.

Any news on Caufield’s play as of late? Has he scored a goal yet in Laval? saw some stats but they were a couple games old, even if not scoring anyone know how he’s playing?

Not worth mentioning much about former hab Mike McCarron , but the wicked upper cut he feeds this guy. worth the watch if you like scraps. https://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/n263055

Same here, wonder if these stats were helped by Bell Centre statisticians, like the hits thrown stat that is often surprisingly high for Habs. seemed like lots of scrambled draws all night.

Yeah, he apparently did well in draws. He had a strong third period which was huge and was not out of place overall.

Seems generous to me, he plays 7 minutes meanwhile Chiarot had another strong game, Lehks/Armia we’re strong with Evans as well. And Allen locked it down for third period after a questionable 2nd goal given up. All better choices than Pezetta, nothing against him but c’mon now.

Call on Pezetta tonight was weak sauce, he took a hard cross check in slot right before he gave a relatively light reply. Given they are supposed to be calling all those net front cross check it at least should have been coincidental penalties. Even when fourth line was “stacked” with multi millionaires in Armia and Lehks they didn’t score so I don’t mind seeing someone push the tempo and bring some hits, so long as they are not a liability and ideally can kill penalties. Not sure why Belzille still playing though, really hasn’t done anything. Poehling had a shift or two with decent players, still didn’t see him do anything worth noting.

True, expected more from him.

After two periods the biggest story for me is the brutal reffing. Flames are being given an awfully long leash on everything from obstruction to the vilified cross check that I was under impression was being called heavily? Not against the Flames this game, brutal reffing, we should not be noticing them so much. I hope Allen is OK from that hit he took. Suzuki took a nasty cross check from behind at end of period, could have easily been injured on such a play, should have been called. I like pissed off Toff as he usually makes opponents pay with a goal.

Doesn’t explain the second unit having no centreman while doubling up on first.

Mike Ferland, Folik haha. Turning back the clock.

Actual flames lineup.