Poor Len here, fighting depression after watching last night's game between the Montréal Canadiens and the Detroit Redwings. At the end of the second period, les Glorieux were leading 2-1. Then came a swift and terrible third-period let-down, with the Wings scoring two goals in just over a minute, to prevail 3-2.
3-2 is becoming a depressingly familiar score. Here are the results for the Habs' last four games:
3/12 - Washington 3 - Montréal 2
5/12 - Carolina 3 - Montréal 2
9/12 - Boston 3 - Montréal 1 (only)
10/12 - Detroit 3 - Montréal 2
That makes four straight losses for la Sainte Flanelle, in which they allowed three goals while scoring, errr, not so many. It's not a good trend, eh. Let me tell you what the team's problems are.
First,
defensive mistakes. Contrary to
my prediction of December 1st, P.K. Subban did
not learn to play defence, as he needs to in the absence of Carey Price. Instead, he has gone back to his old, risky, puck-hogging ways, getting trapped far too often deep in the other team's zone, leading to odd-man rushes, leading to goals against. Last night, with less than two minutes to play, and the Habs pressing for the equalizer, P.K. shot the puck over the glass, leading him to the sin-bin and the team to defeat. Bah.
But let me not point the finger at Subban alone. Also weak, in his last three games -- he watched from the press box last night -- was Nathan Beaulieu. I have never been impressed with his defensive play, but he made up for it with speed on the transition, contributing to the team's offence. That's fine if you have Carey Price to bail you out when you turn the puck over, but now Price is not right, which brings us to
Problems between the pipes. Carey Price is not expected back for another four weeks. That means Montréal's second- and third-string goalies have to take up the slack. They're trying. Dustin Tokarski (No. 3), who never had my confidence, couldn't be faulted on last night's three goals, and Mike Condon (No. 2) has played well enough to win. But, unlike Carey Price, Condon and Tokarski are mere mortals, and can't be counted on to allow no more than two goals per game. That means the team in front of them must score
more than one or two goals a game. Which brings us to
Sputtering offence. This was the Habs' greatest problem last year, manifesting itself particularly in the playoffs, when they just couldn't buy a goal. Starting this season with 9 straight wins and leading the league in +/-, lack of offence seemed to be a thing of the past. Everybody (except Tom Gilbert) was scoring and the team's goals-for average in October was well over 3. But now a scoring drought has set in.
It's hard to pinpoint the scoring problems. What I've been seeing is too many passes, a lot of too-fancy plays, and too many shots from the blue line with no-one in front of the opposing goalie to pick up the garbage. The team misses wee Brendan Gallagher. Without him, and with injuries to two or three other starting forwards, coach Michel Therrien has had to call up reserves from the AHL St. John's Icecaps.
Last night saw no fewer than four Icecaps players filling in. They try hard, and in the last week guys like Sven Andrighetto and Paul Byron have contributed to the scoring, so the real problem lies with the old, established guys like Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais. Their hands/sticks/whatever have gone cold, possibly because Therrien keeps juggling the lines, so they never know who they're playing with, from one shift to the next.
How would I fix the problems? Errr... I don't know. Let us pray for the return, ASAP, of Price and Gallagher [Don't forget Torrey Mitchell. Ed.] and, in the meantime, hope that all the guys, especially the defencemen, will concentrate, focus on winning, give 110%, yada yada yada. Let us hope...
