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Habs vs. Predators | Game Thread


Fanpuck33

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wow... shortest game thread ever?

I LOLed at all the empty net misses... :D

Nice to get a win as always... especially without our best efforts.

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I see the game thread is as exciting as the game itself. That was a yawner, after a decent first period. One thing I'm seeing more and more noticeably in games (in general, not just the Habs) is the interference on dump-ins (which Breezer was called for after he did it 2-3 other times).

That wrister from Kostitsyn was great, just ripped into the net. Maybe he should've been out there come empty net time. Ha! Begin's fight? Thanks, but maybe just stick to scrums after the whistle instead. Kovalev's turnovers are at least entertaining...he goes to the ice at the blueline and gives the Preds an odd man rush the other way. And more than once, Habs were stationary at the blueline and simply watched Preds skate by them, then eventually wandered into the play. Good thing it wasn't a more talented team.

Definitely a game that the Habs played down to their competition. On a side note (and not that the Habs play the Preds too often), Crisp was much better than usual while being the colour guy. He wasn't quite as Homer as he usually is. It was nice not having an away announcer continually pleading for some phantom tripping penalty...

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Man Lapierre is playing below his expectations...

Is he? He's skating hard and with some hussle, using his body to his advantage, playing a relatively good overall game, but not putting up much numbers on the scoresheet besides that one hat-trick(especially considering he's now playing 16-17 minutes every game, including some on the powerplay). After all he's only had points in 2 of his last 7 games.

This is what I personally expected from a guy like Lapierre. He's centering a fairly effective 3rd line (although again they could put up more points considering their ice time), which should become an amazing 4th line once we have a healthy roster. No surprise there, and he's now playing as he should (we can once again thank the injuries for forcing Carbonneau to give Lapierre and Latendresse the opportunity they deserved).

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One thing that is bothering me right now is how little ice time Andrei Kostsitsyn is getting. He's the hottest player in Montreal right now with 9 goals and 5 assists in his last 10 games, and yet he's hardly playing 14-15 minutes a game (while Lapierre is getting 16-17 minutes). This is a guy who's on the verge of becoming a constant scoring threat, and he's starting to look more and more like a game breaker now that he's not stuck in Kovalev's shadow. I would like to see Montreal fuel his current momentum, and give him the opportunity to take his game to the next level with an extra 3-4 minutes of ice time.

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Beh, crappy game, we didn't really deserve to win. Halak was shaky.

Those two things don't seem to go together. Either a goalie plays like crap and the team has to play great to make up for it, or the team plays badly and the goalie has to put the team on the back. If they played a crappy game and Halak was shaky, then they wouldn't have won. The team as a whole played an average game, which was enough to win against a lesser opponent for once. Personally, I thought Halak was fine. Nashville had a lot of good scoring opportunities. I'd say he outplayed the defense.

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One thing that is bothering me right now is how little ice time Andrei Kostsitsyn is getting. He's the hottest player in Montreal right now with 9 goals and 5 assists in his last 10 games, and yet he's hardly playing 14-15 minutes a game (while Lapierre is getting 16-17 minutes). This is a guy who's on the verge of becoming a constant scoring threat, and he's starting to look more and more like a game breaker now that he's not stuck in Kovalev's shadow. I would like to see Montreal fuel his current momentum, and give him the opportunity to take his game to the next level with an extra 3-4 minutes of ice time.

I was thinking the same thing. The only players that had less ice time than Andrei last night were Chipchura, D'Agostini and Brisebois. He isn't even being given top PP minutes.

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I was thinking the same thing. The only players that had less ice time than Andrei last night were Chipchura, D'Agostini and Brisebois. He isn't even being given top PP minutes.

One crazy idea could be to double shift him every once in a while (and perhaps Kovalev). They could alternate every other shift playing with Chipchura and D'Agostini on the 4th line, also giving these guys a better opportunity to showcase what they can do at the NHL level. The extra roster spot could even go to either Carle or Weber as the 7th defenseman, where they would play primarily on the powerplay and perhaps alternate with Brisebois on 5-on-5 depending on the score (thus allowing us to manage the aging Brisebois, and giving one of these guys some experience).

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One thing that is bothering me right now is how little ice time Andrei Kostsitsyn is getting. He's the hottest player in Montreal right now with 9 goals and 5 assists in his last 10 games, and yet he's hardly playing 14-15 minutes a game (while Lapierre is getting 16-17 minutes). This is a guy who's on the verge of becoming a constant scoring threat, and he's starting to look more and more like a game breaker now that he's not stuck in Kovalev's shadow. I would like to see Montreal fuel his current momentum, and give him the opportunity to take his game to the next level with an extra 3-4 minutes of ice time.

If the game is tied, or we're losing and that is the case, I'd be mad too. Carbo doesn't really trust him defensively, and I think it's a lead protection measure that holds his ice time down and brings Lapierre's up. We've been winning a lot of games recently, and Andrei tends to sit a lot in those scenarios. I'm sure if you did a period by period breakdown of icetime, the difference between the two is most significant in the 3rd period.

Lapierre is facing the other team's top line a lot, he's penalty killing, and now his line is getting regular PP shifts as well. Carbo is using him in a lot of defensive situations that normally would've split between him and Koivu, and he's picked up additional offensive situations in Saku's absence as well.

But yeah, in offensive situations Andrei should probably get more responsibilities given his hot streak.

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One thing that is bothering me right now is how little ice time Andrei Kostsitsyn is getting. He's the hottest player in Montreal right now with 9 goals and 5 assists in his last 10 games, and yet he's hardly playing 14-15 minutes a game (while Lapierre is getting 16-17 minutes). This is a guy who's on the verge of becoming a constant scoring threat, and he's starting to look more and more like a game breaker now that he's not stuck in Kovalev's shadow. I would like to see Montreal fuel his current momentum, and give him the opportunity to take his game to the next level with an extra 3-4 minutes of ice time.

The reason why AK46 isn't getting 18 minutes a game is because he's still a defensive liability. He makes mistakes...too many of them.

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If the game is tied, or we're losing and that is the case, I'd be mad too. Carbo doesn't really trust him defensively, and I think it's a lead protection measure that holds his ice time down and brings Lapierre's up. We've been winning a lot of games recently, and Andrei tends to sit a lot in those scenarios. I'm sure if you did a period by period breakdown of icetime, the difference between the two is most significant in the 3rd period.

Lapierre is facing the other team's top line a lot, he's penalty killing, and now his line is getting regular PP shifts as well. Carbo is using him in a lot of defensive situations that normally would've split between him and Koivu, and he's picked up additional offensive situations in Saku's absence as well.

But yeah, in offensive situations Andrei should probably get more responsibilities given his hot streak.

You are probably right on this - and this is also my feeling - however I find this ridiculous. In my opinion AK46 has always been one of our more effective players at even strength, yes like anyone else he'll make the occasional mistake (and Brunet seems to be waiting for those so he can point them out, he doesn't seem to appreciate Andrei all that much) however I think he does a lot more good than wrong in those situations. Not that they should be taken too seriously, but his +/- every season (especially when compared to the rest of the team) also indicate that he's effective 5-on-5.

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Those two things don't seem to go together. Either a goalie plays like crap and the team has to play great to make up for it, or the team plays badly and the goalie has to put the team on the back. If they played a crappy game and Halak was shaky, then they wouldn't have won. The team as a whole played an average game, which was enough to win against a lesser opponent for once. Personally, I thought Halak was fine. Nashville had a lot of good scoring opportunities. I'd say he outplayed the defense.

It's not that black and white most of the time. We were outplayed by our inferior opponent, but got lucky on the winning goal and managed to squeak by. Halak was good enough, but shaky and the ineptitude of the Preds saved him. I don't know, the details of the game are escaping me because it was the definition of utterly forgettable, but I don't recall any major stops that Halak made, rather botched scoring chances from Nashville.

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The reason why AK46 isn't getting 18 minutes a game is because he's still a defensive liability. He makes mistakes...too many of them.

I don't see him as a liability at all. He's no worse in his own zone than Koivu or Latendresse or Higgins. He's just ordinary defensively and extremely talented offensively. When he's on the ice, we're likely the more dangerous team.

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I don't see him as a liability at all. He's no worse in his own zone than Koivu or Latendresse or Higgins. He's just ordinary defensively and extremely talented offensively. When he's on the ice, we're likely the more dangerous team.

Carbonneau doesn't seem to agree with you, and neither do I ;)

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Lapierre does not need to put points up as long as his line continues to play as it does. I like him as a shutdown guy more than Bonk or Smolinski. That's for sure. Lapierre reminds me a lot of young Carbo. It would be nice to see him put up a few more points, but he is doing a great against the opponent's top line.

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I agree that A. Kostitsyn in not a good defensive player. Him, along with Latendresse and the rookies, are the only forwards who are never on the PK, that tells you something about Carbo's confidence in him. He can be really passive on the ice, and disappears for long stretches.

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It was a less then inspiring game but they did what they had to and got 2 points. This is the first real stinker in about a month and they still won. Nothing in the game was great. the effort and energy level was down but it happens from time to time. They need to get it back for Ottawa which is playing better. I can't beleive they didn't even get 20 shots again, that's like the 3rd or 4th time this year. That is disturbing.

The good

had alot of blocked shots

AK46

hung in there when they clearly didn't have it. earned a win.

A few bad points:

Missing how many open nets? i have never seen anything like that before.

Another day another lost fight, it's a good thing the refs jumped in or Begin would have been destroyed.

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There's nothing wrong with him defensively...

I disagree - he's very suspect defensively. His positioning is off too often, and he sometimes attempts unnecessarily risky passes to get it out of the zone (leading to turnovers). There's just a lot of other players on the team who have a better understanding of what to do in the defensive zone, and they get the icetime when there's a lead to protect. I hope and believe he'll get better with experience.

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