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Montreal vs Toronto, October 6, 2011


dlbalr

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Some bad luck tonight, and some awful decisions by PK. Like other have said, the forwards looked disinterested, but I do think the ice played a factor in some cases. The boys have to shoot the puck more often when their high-risk passes aren't working. Here's hoping Campoli and Betts are back soon, and our top 6 start playing appropriately.

Bright spots were Gorges, Diaz and the PK unit. Carey gets my first star.

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Apparentally not if you think Diaz played a great game.

I wouldn't say great myself but I thought he played fairly well. He's shaky in his own end for sure but when he had the puck (especially in the offensive zone), good things usually happened.

Quite the disappointing game after what looked to be a promising start. On the plus side, Price played well, I had a gut feeling going in he would struggle for some reason.

Some stats that caught my eye for various reasons:

- Desharnais was stunningly 4th among Hab forwards in ice time and went 4/15 on the draw. I thought he had an appalling preseason and frankly, I didn't think he was much better tonight. Evidently, Martin disagreed as he got nearly 4 more minutes than Cole and Kostitsyn.

- Gorges leads the team in blocked shots in his first game back, glad to see his game didn't change. In fact, he had a solid game.

- Pacioretty's statline doesn't look too bad, led the team in shots and hits. I didn't think he was terrific but I didn't think he was as bad as some of the comments on here suggested.

- Both Plekanec and Gomez were over 55% on the draw in this one, very nice to see even though it's a small sample size for sure.

The statsheet, if anyone's interested: http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20112012/ES020002.HTM

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The last 40 minutes of that game reminded me of the Winter "Classic" against Calgary last year. The team looked totally, completely out of it. Not even interested in coming back, perhaps because they don't believe they can come back. The similarity may owe something to the seemingly brutal ice conditions. Still, they'd better find their intensity and fast before the city of Montreal turns on them.

EDIT: dlbar, your observations are pertinent as always. Good call on DD. I'm not among the JM haters, but I agree that his usage of Cole has been decidedly odd - you'd think he'd want to give the veteran addition all sorts of opportunities to put his stamp on things instead of parcelling him out like a delicacy.

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Diaz and kostitsyn were give away machines tonight....but Price looked pretty good....give everyone a couple of games to get there feet under them and it will come together

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is possible that Campoli is going to be a key guy this year. Either that, or Subban is going to have to raise his game a couple of notches from where it was tonight. Everything starts on the back end.

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I wouldn't say great myself but I thought he played fairly well. He's shaky in his own end for sure but when he had the puck (especially in the offensive zone), good things usually happened.

He's not perfect, but I liked him a lot. He had maybe 1 or 2 bad shifts in his own end, but thats to be expected of a rookie in his first game. He did far, far, more right than wrong... and compared to others, he had a good game IMO.

Quite the disappointing game after what looked to be a promising start. On the plus side, Price played well, I had a gut feeling going in he would struggle for some reason.

I think Carey is gonna have a very similar year to last year.

Some stats that caught my eye for various reasons:

- Desharnais was stunningly 4th among Hab forwards in ice time and went 4/15 on the draw. I thought he had an appalling preseason and frankly, I didn't think he was much better tonight. Evidently, Martin disagreed as he got nearly 4 more minutes than Cole and Kostitsyn.

Seems to me that the reason for the extra minutes is that they have him playing centre on the first PP and Pleks playing the point.

I'm not a fan of this.

We'll be massively improved when Markov is back and Pleks is centring that PP unit.

Did DD get any PK time too?

- Gorges leads the team in blocked shots in his first game back, glad to see his game didn't change. In fact, he had a solid game.

Best Habs skater. 2nd best habs player tonight (price 1st)

- Pacioretty's statline doesn't look too bad, led the team in shots and hits. I didn't think he was terrific but I didn't think he was as bad as some of the comments on here suggested.

Agreed on that... he wasn't as good as he's been at times, but he wasn't as horrible as suggested either.

- Both Plekanec and Gomez were over 55% on the draw in this one, very nice to see even though it's a small sample size for sure.

The statsheet, if anyone's interested: http://www.nhl.com/s...12/ES020002.HTM

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I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is possible that Campoli is going to be a key guy this year. Either that, or Subban is going to have to raise his game a couple of notches from where it was tonight. Everything starts on the back end.

60+ games out of Markov will be huge. Moving everyone down one notch on the defensive pairings would make a huge difference.

Markov - Gorges

Gill - Subban

Campoli - one of S/D/E

Things look so much better in that lineup.

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60+ games out of Markov will be huge. Moving everyone down one notch on the defensive pairings would make a huge difference.

Markov - Gorges

Gill - Subban

Campoli - one of S/D/E

Things look so much better in that lineup.

Maybe. But JM said Markov is "quite a ways" from returning. To me that implies weeks. These guys have to find answers that don't involve #79.

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Maybe. But JM said Markov is "quite a ways" from returning. To me that implies weeks. These guys have to find answers that don't involve #79.

I said 60 games of Markov...... missing 22 games takes us to late November/Early december.

I'm not asking for him to play Saturday Night, and this team is gonna have to win games without him... but even if he misses almost 2 months its only 1/4 of the season.

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I agree that Gorges looked great. It was me picking on Pac. I just thought he made a ton of low percentage plays and had a lot of giveaways. Kosty had way more real scoring chances. Well one or two which is better than none. He wasn't bad but I didn't think Kosty deseved the demotion

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The last 40 minutes of that game reminded me of the Winter "Classic" against Calgary last year. The team looked totally, completely out of it. Not even interested in coming back, perhaps because they don't believe they can come back. The similarity may owe something to the seemingly brutal ice conditions. Still, they'd better find their intensity and fast before the city of Montreal turns on them.

EDIT: dlbar, your observations are pertinent as always. Good call on DD. I'm not among the JM haters, but I agree that his usage of Cole has been decidedly odd - you'd think he'd want to give the veteran addition all sorts of opportunities to put his stamp on things instead of parcelling him out like a delicacy.

This is the same team that in their last meaningful game overcame a 2-0 game seven deficit, then a 3-2 deficit with 2 minutes to go. How could they possibly be so mentally fragile that they don't believe in themselves after 20 regular season minutes?

It is one game. Last season they lost the opener to the Leafs and played an inferior game.

This team bounced back through everything all season last season, one loss and we are doubting again?

You are going to give yourself an ulcer.

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Diaz and kostitsyn were give away machines tonight....but Price looked pretty good....give everyone a couple of games to get there feet under them and it will come together

I know the giveaway stat can be iffy at best with its inconsistencies in how it's scored around the league but neither Diaz nor Kostitsyn were credited with a giveaway. I must say that surprises me a little as I had Diaz with a couple.

Mike's 3 Stars are up for those interested: http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=2603

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Well as we have all seen it is tough to win on the road when you can not score on your early chances.

There was little fow to the game and I am very glad I did not have to drive home would have been a long drive.

Leafs played perfect as they limited the Canadiens chances (or maybe the Canadiens limited thier own chances)....anyways the better team won.

Plekanec and Cammalleri looked awful as they do on many nights away from bell centre ice.

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Well that sucked. Boring game by both teams.

The Habs were flat, disorganized, lacking chemistry.

It's still early, but that was an ugly game all around. On to Winnipeg!

This is how I saw it as well. Our defense looked especially lost and disorganized.

Price was superb.

Weber scares me.

Diaz has potential and looks super comfortable with the puck.

Cole needs and deserves better line mates.

Don Cherry is so full of nonsense that words fail me. I'm emailing CBC to complain - it's high time for retirement.

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I just don't see peoples love for Diaz, with the puck he looked decent, but on the defensive end he was a mess, leafs players were able to skate in on him and get good scoring chances all night.

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I just don't see peoples love for Diaz, with the puck he looked decent, but on the defensive end he was a mess, leafs players were able to skate in on him and get good scoring chances all night.

I really thought Diaz had a great game... so I decided to look a little deeper into things.

The leafs had all of 5 shots on goal while Diaz was on the ice last night. Diaz was not on the ice for any goals against.

Looking at the summary, I identified the shots.... there are three that I remember well....

One of those 5 shots was Dion Phaneuf shooting the puck on net from centre ice.

Following up on that shot, Steckel skated past Spacek and got a shot on the rebound. (not Diaz's side).

The only one that was a particularly good scoring chance was when Kessel deked Spacek and Price made the pad save. (again, not Diaz's side of the ice).

The last two were:

Lupul Wraparound

and

Gunnarson 60 foot slapshot.

http://www.nhl.com/s...12/PL020002.HTM

I'm still confused as to what game you watched.

All these plays where the "leafs players were able to skate in on him and get good scoring chances" didn't happen in the game i watched, and don't appear in the full NHL summary of the game as shots on goal.

Edited by Commandant
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Well when I say shots I mean shots towards the net, I counted a bunch of times where the play was broken up by the other habs player, but he just looked weak. I am not an expert, I just noticed the leafs getting a lot of chances when he was on the ice.

Well I am in the minority here, I must have just been wrong then. It happens, a lot...I just expected more of a 25 year old 'rookie'. Then again, I expected more from most of the habs last night haha...

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Well when I say shots I mean shots towards the net, I counted a bunch of times where the play was broken up by the other habs player, but he just looked weak. I am not an expert, I just noticed the leafs getting a lot of chances when he was on the ice.

Well I am in the minority here, I must have just been wrong then. It happens, a lot...I just expected more of a 25 year old 'rookie'. Then again, I expected more from most of the habs last night haha...

I think most people agree with you about Diaz. I was impressed with his poise with the puck because I didn't expect it. His defensive play was weak and he looked really unsure at times (most of our players defensive play was weak).

I'm curious to see how Emelin does.

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Tough to expect more no matter his age from a player who has never played in the league.

He was composed and I think what you saw was how he backs in at the line, that is the one thing I would like to see change is him pressure more at the line and not give that space so easily.

But if he can play as heads up and ensure the puck gets out of the zone that smoothly all year Ill be happy.

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