Colorado Musings and In-Game Scribbles
October 15, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
My English is as good as yours, I just write these in a stream-of-consciousness mode that I insist excuses me from small things like rules of grammar or general etiquette. Let’s call it conversational English, hopped up on beans. You know what kind of beans (no, Carl Mellesmoen, not the magic ones)
Montreal Canadiens (2-3) host Colorado Avalanche (4-1-1)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Game Six (score posted following scribbles)
Musings and In-Game Scribbles are a “live blogging” of the game that are compiled (typed, actually) during the game and edited and posted shortly after the game.
Je suis Homme de Sept-Iles. Ridiculous microphone ceremony to begin the game. I’ll get back to that shortly.
Meanwhile it’s Carey Price and Craig Anderson as the starting goalies and Price’s firewagon pads are new and designed for the home jersey. They’re dominant red trimmed in white.
First Period
Shawn Belle is in the lineup on defence tonight. He’s listed in some places as six-foot two and 240 pounds. Many were expecting newly signed Marc-Andre Bergeron but Bergeron needs more time to get ready. Just how out of shape was he? So, Belle.
Moen, Gomez and Gionta are an intact trio but some of the other groupings will be new, says Pierre Houde.
This is the team’s first home game of the season, game six, after five straight on the road. The team is seeing another Western opponent and there are, for me, very few familiar names on this team. Benoit Brunet, surprisingly, is saying the same thing as I type this. Colorado is a very different team from the one that won the Stanley Cup in 2001 and is significantly different from the one that played last year.
A whistle allows me to explain the microphone ceremony. Right before the anthems, a wireless microphone (and spotlight) went from player to player standing on the blue line. Each player (Colorado players were excluded from this) spoke in French saying “Je suis so-and-so”. Some seemed mildly amused until the mike was in hand. Something about public speaking is solemnizing for many. Gomez managed to smile through the process. Andrei Kostitsyn was too bashful to say the “Je suis” part. He said simply “Andrei Kostitsyn” and then smiled almost apologetically.
Gomez line gets two shifts in the first five and half minutes. Both teams are slow.
Koivu isn’t there to fire up the red team. And I don’t know what excuse I can offer for Patrick Roy’s old team. Maybe the drop in altitude. Why is the altitude always such a big story involving any Denver sports team? Yes, I know why. But why. Why.
Vous êtes un partisan de hockey. Je suis Guillaume Latendresse. It sounded best, of course, when the Francophone players said it.
Kyle Quincey goes to the box and Montreal gets the first advantage of the game. Price’s pads remind me of Huet’s. Price is a much smoother athlete so it’s strange to see Huet-style pads gliding around to field pucks behind the net so smoothly.
Habs do very little with the first powerplay. But then a great chance by the Plekanec-Kostitsyn line.
Canadiens SCORE!
Plekanec to a deep-entry Hamrlik. Easy shot for Hamrlik.
Montreal 1, Colorado 0.
Crowd begins the olé, olé, olé chant. But the Canadiens seem just as uninspired and slow. Gomez is one of the exceptions.
Kovalev got a goal for Ottawa, we are informed. And Ottawa is leading their game tonight 1-0.
Montreal gets another power-play.
Just under seven minutes to play in the first period. Spacek and Hamrlik are on the blue line and about ninety seconds into the advantage they get things together. Tripping against Colorado during this sequence and Montreal’s power-play will extend.
Again, both teams seem rather slow. Colorado is uninspired or tired on top of it. This is not the savvy, dangerous Avalanche team I remember. And respect.
Montreal’s power-play is getting warmer and I’m hoping this will have a spill-over effect on the team. They’ve had several days off so that might be a variable in their seeming lack of purpose.
Tucker is still as irrelevant as ever. I forgot he was in Colorado. He starts jawing with Plekanec behind the Colorado net after a whistle. What sort of lessons does the local boy have for visiting immigrant Tomas, I wonder? Driveway-cleaning tips? Sit down Tucker.
This number 40 on Colorado has a sense of urgency about him. Colorado is playing a bit more tenaciously overall since the commercial break and with about two and a half minute left in the first.
Gill and Spacek are a defensive pairing tonight and I’m interested. A study in opposites. Personality-wise. On-ice personalities.
Milan Hejduk is still a great skater for Colorado and he sends a high wrister between two defenders. Price captures it and gloves it for a faceoff.
Price is looking a bit more deliberate in his posture on occacions when the puck goes off into corners. Stands up and moves like a vector-man ice robot. Whatever works.
One particularly good thing about winter is that we (the heat-deprived) are now excused when turning up the thermostat. It suddenly seems normal to do such a thing.
First Intermission
Montreal has the shot advantage 11 to 6.
The RDS team is in agreement that the Canadiens have just played their best period of the season. The consensus is that the team was on the same page and passing the puck well.
Second Period
Benoit Brunet says that this is the first time since game one against Toronto that Montreal has scored first to start a game.
Hejduk tests Price from the top of the left circle with a slapshot. Parried. Teams trade the puck before Montreal pushes in with Gomez and Moen leading the way. Nothing results this time.
On the return rush from Montreal a bouncing puck gives Anderson a bit of baseball to think about but he gloves it for the faceoff. Pacioretty gets a shot off from the faceoff but it hits a Colorado defender.
Some back and forth shotlessness with Tucker and Latendresse leading respective rushes. Latendresse’ wild shot ricochets harmlessly behind Anderson.
Back and forth we go.
Hejduk is maintaining a dangerous presence and he mucks around in front of Price before the goaltender can freeze the puck. Hejduk is wearing the “A” for Colorado. That’s alternate captain, y’all.
Kostitsyn sneaks a shot in from behind a screen. Anderson freezes it. Wrister.
Moen is effective along the boards. In general. Tenacious.
Belle is beaten along the left side but gets back to tangle. Gionta takes a tripping call moments later, behind Price. Colorado goes to their first power-play.
Plekanec and Moen are the first PK pairing. They get it out quickly and then Moen controls behind the Colorado net briefly and then sends a pass out front to two Avalanche. But Colorado can’t get it going.
Now Lapierre and Gomez are creating problems for the Colorado attaque massive.
Gomez doesn’t panic with the puck. Always uses the maximum amount of time to make a decision. Unless he wants to be quick. Very hockey-smart dude.
We see a shot of former Canadien (and Nordique and Avalanche and name three other teams) Sylvain Lefebvre behind the Colorado bench. Bald, suited and young.
Remainder of the penalty is killed with little to show for Colorado.
Gionta nearly gets free for a breakaway out of the box but the puck goes a bit far and Anderson is able to field it.
Plekanec line hops on. Belle is struggling; some weak puckhandling so far tonight.
Another blind pass from Moen from behind the net. This one was along the boards but was intercepted.
Spacek leans on Colorado’s Wojtek Wolski and negates an entry. Wolski is back again seconds later and creates a play. Price has to make a quick stop going left to right.
Another entry and Matt Duchene gives Price his toughest shot of the period but Price stops it with his chest, standing up.
Jack Todd was critical of Price in a recent Montreal Gazette article, accusing the goalie of going to his knees too early and too frequently. And some other peppery sentiments.
Colorado is able to control while Lapierre and Pacioretty stand around. Finally Latendresse takes it out himself. The line is unable to control deep, however.
Plekanec line is back on and Tomas is aggressive, hitting two Avalanche one after the other deep down Colorado ice.
Refs are hesitating on a call. One lifts his arm. Then drops it. Finally a decision is made and a whistle goes when the Avalanche touch the puck. Colorado penalty. Kyle Quincy.
Montreal’s lone goal is a power-play goal, we are reminded.
Gomez is tripped crossing the blue line. Not really an intentional and offside is whistled, as well. Gomez loops it along the boards to the point. Shot from Spacek results. Then the Avalanche is almost able to break out but some bump and thud from Hamrlik prevents a disaster as Spacek had fallen during the sequence.
Another whistle and about a minute left in the power-play.
Plekanec line is on and they win the faceoff. Get it in. And now referee Dave Jackson calls Plekanec for tripping. Plekanec does not argue it and looks skyward. He knows it’s on him.
Four-on-four for about twenty-seven seconds. Colorado get it in. Some scrambling in front and the puck trickles in from Price’s left side. Bounced off Josh Gorges’ skate.
Colorado 1, Montreal 1.
Cammalleri is on with Gomez now for the first time tonight. A Martin strategy we’ve seen before. Get the three best forwards together when the score get tight.
Colorado goes to the power-play now. Trouble setting up but they maintain possession in their end and in the neutral zone before getting into Montreal ice. Wolski is on the left point. He is quarterbacking the attack for the time being. Colorado gets their best control of the night. One shot but it’s wide. Then Montreal stoppers things along the boards near the blue line and the penalty ends. We get a whistle and a car commercial.
Four-twenty-four left in the second period.
Hamrlik rounds his own net and then backhands up to the slot. Puck gets trapped along the boards with six players around it. Finally Lapierre gets it to the neutral zone and it makes its way into Colorado territory. I feel as if I’ve been typing the same eight words all game. My imagination is as absent as Alex Kovalev is from the Bell Centre.
Plekanec is on with Cammalleri. Puck makes its way to the point for Belle after some magic from Plekanec (fakes receiving a pass) and Anderson gloves Belle’s high shot.
Now it’s Moen on with Gionta and Gomez again. This line sacrifices the body to maintain possession and they’re an every-shift kind of line. Gionta likes to park in front of the net between the circles and above the cage defenceman when the puck is in the Montreal zone. Sense of defensive responsibility. Not just hanging out at the hash or blue line. That’s easy work though the hash is a schooled position.
Colorado scores a quick goal.
Avalanche 2, Montreal 1
Rink is quieter now. Lapierre line responds right away by winning the faceoff and forcing play down to the Colorado zone. About eight seconds of control but the period ends with Colorado chasing the puck out of their zone.
Second Intermission
I get my first look at Colorado head coach Joe Sacco and we are told that the shots are now tied, seventeen apiece. Sacco is wearing an unattractive suit and a boring tie. At least at first glance. Perhaps we’ll get another look. He has a calm bearing. First impression only, of course.
Remember that time Marc Crawford and Scotty Bowman were yelling at each other?
Alain Crête suggests that the Canadiens are playing with a certain lack of emotion and Jacques Demers agrees with him. They say that after five minutes of play, the team lost some of its intensity.
Third Period
They interview Hamrlik just prior to the faceoff and he still says “we” in the same way as Kovalev does; “vee”.
Up in le passerelle, Brunet’s black on black tie and suit combo looks very sharp.
Gionta’s line is on but Cammalleri is with them this time. Gorges is with Gill on the blue line.
Gorges is aggressively pinching. Puck goes overboard. Whistle.
Plekanec line is on. Pacioretty and Kostitsyn with him. Accidental icing and we face off to the left of Price. Colorado wins and get a shot from the point. Deflects wide.
Spacek pushes it out and Montreal gets Chipchura’s line out. Laraque and Moen on with him.
Moen dumps it in and two Habs are deep. Moen comes up with it briefly on the boards but it bounces out to the neutral zone. Now Belle carries it over the blue line and takes a wild shot wide. Slapshot.
Latendresse makes his way towards Anderson but can’t get a shot on net.
Gill’s shot from the point rebounds to Latendresse and he gets a high shot which is gloved. Some brief yapping after the whistle but not much more than that. Both teams are playing a neigbourly game thus far. No rivalry.
Another frozen puck. Another frozen faceoff. Gionta line creating. Two shots. One of them hits a leg. Gionta dives to get at one puck and then adjusts a shot to a shot-pass from the slot. It bounces back for Cammalleri but Anderson is in position.
Plekanec line on again. Puck stops on the boards and a whistle. Tucker delivers and elbow to Gorges’ head prior to the whistle and is called for roughing. Montreal power-play. And still no Markov.
Gomez takes it over the line and slaps it off the post. Loud ping and the crowd is taken aback. Then Hamrlik fires one from the blue. Wide. Whistle.
Gomez’ shot has power. Brunet is very impressed with the velocity.
One-twenty in the advantage.
Plekanec with Latendresse and Kostitsyn. Foote puts an arm around Plekanec after a puck is gloved by Anderson. Latendresse is talking some more. Cammalleri takes the faceoff and Montreal has about 50 seconds to work with.
They work it around. Shot from the point. Anderson is not allowing many rebounds. Another stoppage in play. Hamrlik placed the shot well. Just at the midsection. Colorado kills the penalty.
Mara line is on. Rare appearance. Chipchura and Moen are with him. Another quick whistle.
Just under thirteen minutes in the period. Gomez is back on with Gionta and Cammalleri. Gomez intercepts a clearing attempt by Colorado. Can’t create much further. Puck goes to the neutral zone. Colorado gets their best chance of the night from the slot and Price makes a good save. Right pad and flash of reflex.
Plekanec is on. Gets it cross-ice to Kostitsyn. Shot. Back to Andrei. Passes to Plekanec alone in front. Goal. Cross-ice, as well. Not a lot of that this season. AK46 has to play like this every shift. Creating and using space.
Montreal 2, Colorado 2.
It’s Tomas’ second goal of the season.
Just over eleven minutes left. Colorado forces it down but the Canadiens get it out. Accidental icing is waved off and Colorado carries it over the centre line and blast it in. Belle makes a nice play to take the puck off a stick and clears it out. But Colorado are back in again. Then Belle gets it out with ha burst. Laraque is chasing the play. But there is no Sakic to fear. Gomez. To Cammalleri. Cammalleri carries it. To the point. And then Colorado break it up.
Cammalleri keeps it in. And then he gets a nice feed but it’s stopped. Paul Stastny flies in and Cammalleri is forced to take a tripping penalty. Solid call and this penalty I can live with. The trip took away a sure scoring chance.
Colorado goes to the power-play.
Montreal gets an early clear. Stastny and Hejduk are on. They move it in quickly and get a good shot. Price makes a great save. Glove. Best save of the night for him. Play stops. Brunet compliments the save and Houde says this is what Price needs to do regularly.
Montreal wins the faceoff and clear.
Colorado get it together and start moving it around. Two shots. First goes high. Second is low and dangerous. Both from the point and the second is captured and held by Price.
Keep it up.
Just over thirty seconds. Tucker is on the ice now. Just twenty seconds. Tucker. Yep.
Nothing further happens and Montreal kills it. But Colorado maintains control. And now a dangerous shot from the point. And another. Both from Colorado defenceman Scott Hannan. Montreal escape danger this time and they create a chance of their own on the other end.
Price makes a good save but nobody is helping him and the rebound is wrapped around Price and in the net. All this off a scrum in the corner.
Colorado 3, Montreal 2
Crowd is hosed down again. Cold water. We see the replay and Gomez’ helmet had been knocked down in the corner and lost his helmet. He sticked the guy (Mcleod) in the fracas. No calls.
Plekanec line is on. Pacioretty is taken down in front of the Colorado net while creating something. Some members of the crowd don’t like it. It’s not a call, though.
Just over five minutes left. Hunger. Ice-tracks. Roughness. Moen nails Foote. Crowd loves it. Now Laraque is trying a one-hand back-hand wraparound and is taken down. This one could have been called. Crowd sounds unruly. Booing is scattered but breakless now and the crowd is cheering three different chants. Chaos on the ice reflects the crowd’s anger and unease. Just adrenalin and effort from both teams. Goals come from these heartbeast moments.
Plekanec shoots from the side of the net. Point-blank. Nothing.
Adrenalin seems to be declining again. And now a whistle ends the fury.
And a commercial will get things back to normalcy. Bad news for Montreal. That intensity was going to go the team’s way. I could feel it.
Gill knows how to make up for his lack of mobility. But this time he gets called for it. It was a good play in the sense that it prevented a Colorado entry but this penalty comes at 17:22. Not good.
Colorado power-play.
And Tucker gets a penalty within ten seconds. What a liability he is.
High stick. And Montreal has a chance. Four-on-four. First pairing is Gionta and Gomez. (Yes, I’m thinking of Kovie hopping over the boards but I told y’all I’d try and move on. Didn’t I? Well, I thought it. I’m trying. Really.)
Canadiens produce three quality shots to none in the first thirty seconds of the four-on-four. Now with just forty-seven seconds left, Price is halfway from the net and the bench. He moves to the bench with 33 seconds left. Montreal keep it in. Montreal hit the post in a scrum. Colorado was all lung and no oxygen. But the team couldn’t score. Three more good chances. Blood leaves organs for chances like those.
Disappointing.
End of third period.
HDS Stars: Craig Anderson, Tomas Plekanec, Scott Gomez
RDS Stars: Kyle Cumiskey, Tomas Plekanec, Craig Anderson
Je suis Homme de Sept-Iles. Ridiculous microphone ceremony to begin the game. I’ll get back to that shortly.
Meanwhile it’s Carey Price and Craig Anderson as the starting goalies and Price’s firewagon pads are new and designed for the home jersey. They’re dominant red trimmed in white.
First Period
Shawn Belle is in the lineup on defence tonight. He’s listed in some places as six-foot two and 240 pounds. Many were expecting newly signed Marc-Andre Bergeron but Bergeron needs more time to get ready. Just how out of shape was he? So, Belle.
Moen, Gomez and Gionta are an intact trio but some of the other groupings will be new, says Pierre Houde.
This is the team’s first home game of the season, game six, after five straight on the road. The team is seeing another Western opponent and there are, for me, very few familiar names on this team. Benoit Brunet, surprisingly, is saying the same thing as I type this. Colorado is a very different team from the one that won the Stanley Cup in 2001 and is significantly different from the one that played last year.
A whistle allows me to explain the microphone ceremony. Right before the anthems, a wireless microphone (and spotlight) went from player to player standing on the blue line. Each player (Colorado players were excluded from this) spoke in French saying “Je suis so-and-so”. Some seemed mildly amused until the mike was in hand. Something about public speaking is solemnizing for many. Gomez managed to smile through the process. Andrei Kostitsyn was too bashful to say the “Je suis” part. He said simply “Andrei Kostitsyn” and then smiled almost apologetically.
Gomez line gets two shifts in the first five and half minutes. Both teams are slow.
Koivu isn’t there to fire up the red team. And I don’t know what excuse I can offer for Patrick Roy’s old team. Maybe the drop in altitude. Why is the altitude always such a big story involving any Denver sports team? Yes, I know why. But why. Why.
Vous êtes un partisan de hockey. Je suis Guillaume Latendresse. It sounded best, of course, when the Francophone players said it.
Kyle Quincey goes to the box and Montreal gets the first advantage of the game. Price’s pads remind me of Huet’s. Price is a much smoother athlete so it’s strange to see Huet-style pads gliding around to field pucks behind the net so smoothly.
Habs do very little with the first powerplay. But then a great chance by the Plekanec-Kostitsyn line.
Canadiens SCORE!
Plekanec to a deep-entry Hamrlik. Easy shot for Hamrlik.
Montreal 1, Colorado 0.
Crowd begins the olé, olé, olé chant. But the Canadiens seem just as uninspired and slow. Gomez is one of the exceptions.
Kovalev got a goal for Ottawa, we are informed. And Ottawa is leading their game tonight 1-0.
Montreal gets another power-play.
Just under seven minutes to play in the first period. Spacek and Hamrlik are on the blue line and about ninety seconds into the advantage they get things together. Tripping against Colorado during this sequence and Montreal’s power-play will extend.
Again, both teams seem rather slow. Colorado is uninspired or tired on top of it. This is not the savvy, dangerous Avalanche team I remember. And respect.
Montreal’s power-play is getting warmer and I’m hoping this will have a spill-over effect on the team. They’ve had several days off so that might be a variable in their seeming lack of purpose.
Tucker is still as irrelevant as ever. I forgot he was in Colorado. He starts jawing with Plekanec behind the Colorado net after a whistle. What sort of lessons does the local boy have for visiting immigrant Tomas, I wonder? Driveway-cleaning tips? Sit down Tucker.
This number 40 on Colorado has a sense of urgency about him. Colorado is playing a bit more tenaciously overall since the commercial break and with about two and a half minute left in the first.
Gill and Spacek are a defensive pairing tonight and I’m interested. A study in opposites. Personality-wise. On-ice personalities.
Milan Hejduk is still a great skater for Colorado and he sends a high wrister between two defenders. Price captures it and gloves it for a faceoff.
Price is looking a bit more deliberate in his posture on occacions when the puck goes off into corners. Stands up and moves like a vector-man ice robot. Whatever works.
One particularly good thing about winter is that we (the heat-deprived) are now excused when turning up the thermostat. It suddenly seems normal to do such a thing.
First Intermission
Montreal has the shot advantage 11 to 6.
The RDS team is in agreement that the Canadiens have just played their best period of the season. The consensus is that the team was on the same page and passing the puck well.
Second Period
Benoit Brunet says that this is the first time since game one against Toronto that Montreal has scored first to start a game.
Hejduk tests Price from the top of the left circle with a slapshot. Parried. Teams trade the puck before Montreal pushes in with Gomez and Moen leading the way. Nothing results this time.
On the return rush from Montreal a bouncing puck gives Anderson a bit of baseball to think about but he gloves it for the faceoff. Pacioretty gets a shot off from the faceoff but it hits a Colorado defender.
Some back and forth shotlessness with Tucker and Latendresse leading respective rushes. Latendresse’ wild shot ricochets harmlessly behind Anderson.
Back and forth we go.
Hejduk is maintaining a dangerous presence and he mucks around in front of Price before the goaltender can freeze the puck. Hejduk is wearing the “A” for Colorado. That’s alternate captain, y’all.
Kostitsyn sneaks a shot in from behind a screen. Anderson freezes it. Wrister.
Moen is effective along the boards. In general. Tenacious.
Belle is beaten along the left side but gets back to tangle. Gionta takes a tripping call moments later, behind Price. Colorado goes to their first power-play.
Plekanec and Moen are the first PK pairing. They get it out quickly and then Moen controls behind the Colorado net briefly and then sends a pass out front to two Avalanche. But Colorado can’t get it going.
Now Lapierre and Gomez are creating problems for the Colorado attaque massive.
Gomez doesn’t panic with the puck. Always uses the maximum amount of time to make a decision. Unless he wants to be quick. Very hockey-smart dude.
We see a shot of former Canadien (and Nordique and Avalanche and name three other teams) Sylvain Lefebvre behind the Colorado bench. Bald, suited and young.
Remainder of the penalty is killed with little to show for Colorado.
Gionta nearly gets free for a breakaway out of the box but the puck goes a bit far and Anderson is able to field it.
Plekanec line hops on. Belle is struggling; some weak puckhandling so far tonight.
Another blind pass from Moen from behind the net. This one was along the boards but was intercepted.
Spacek leans on Colorado’s Wojtek Wolski and negates an entry. Wolski is back again seconds later and creates a play. Price has to make a quick stop going left to right.
Another entry and Matt Duchene gives Price his toughest shot of the period but Price stops it with his chest, standing up.
Jack Todd was critical of Price in a recent Montreal Gazette article, accusing the goalie of going to his knees too early and too frequently. And some other peppery sentiments.
Colorado is able to control while Lapierre and Pacioretty stand around. Finally Latendresse takes it out himself. The line is unable to control deep, however.
Plekanec line is back on and Tomas is aggressive, hitting two Avalanche one after the other deep down Colorado ice.
Refs are hesitating on a call. One lifts his arm. Then drops it. Finally a decision is made and a whistle goes when the Avalanche touch the puck. Colorado penalty. Kyle Quincy.
Montreal’s lone goal is a power-play goal, we are reminded.
Gomez is tripped crossing the blue line. Not really an intentional and offside is whistled, as well. Gomez loops it along the boards to the point. Shot from Spacek results. Then the Avalanche is almost able to break out but some bump and thud from Hamrlik prevents a disaster as Spacek had fallen during the sequence.
Another whistle and about a minute left in the power-play.
Plekanec line is on and they win the faceoff. Get it in. And now referee Dave Jackson calls Plekanec for tripping. Plekanec does not argue it and looks skyward. He knows it’s on him.
Four-on-four for about twenty-seven seconds. Colorado get it in. Some scrambling in front and the puck trickles in from Price’s left side. Bounced off Josh Gorges’ skate.
Colorado 1, Montreal 1.
Cammalleri is on with Gomez now for the first time tonight. A Martin strategy we’ve seen before. Get the three best forwards together when the score get tight.
Colorado goes to the power-play now. Trouble setting up but they maintain possession in their end and in the neutral zone before getting into Montreal ice. Wolski is on the left point. He is quarterbacking the attack for the time being. Colorado gets their best control of the night. One shot but it’s wide. Then Montreal stoppers things along the boards near the blue line and the penalty ends. We get a whistle and a car commercial.
Four-twenty-four left in the second period.
Hamrlik rounds his own net and then backhands up to the slot. Puck gets trapped along the boards with six players around it. Finally Lapierre gets it to the neutral zone and it makes its way into Colorado territory. I feel as if I’ve been typing the same eight words all game. My imagination is as absent as Alex Kovalev is from the Bell Centre.
Plekanec is on with Cammalleri. Puck makes its way to the point for Belle after some magic from Plekanec (fakes receiving a pass) and Anderson gloves Belle’s high shot.
Now it’s Moen on with Gionta and Gomez again. This line sacrifices the body to maintain possession and they’re an every-shift kind of line. Gionta likes to park in front of the net between the circles and above the cage defenceman when the puck is in the Montreal zone. Sense of defensive responsibility. Not just hanging out at the hash or blue line. That’s easy work though the hash is a schooled position.
Colorado scores a quick goal.
Avalanche 2, Montreal 1
Rink is quieter now. Lapierre line responds right away by winning the faceoff and forcing play down to the Colorado zone. About eight seconds of control but the period ends with Colorado chasing the puck out of their zone.
Second Intermission
I get my first look at Colorado head coach Joe Sacco and we are told that the shots are now tied, seventeen apiece. Sacco is wearing an unattractive suit and a boring tie. At least at first glance. Perhaps we’ll get another look. He has a calm bearing. First impression only, of course.
Remember that time Marc Crawford and Scotty Bowman were yelling at each other?
Alain Crête suggests that the Canadiens are playing with a certain lack of emotion and Jacques Demers agrees with him. They say that after five minutes of play, the team lost some of its intensity.
Third Period
They interview Hamrlik just prior to the faceoff and he still says “we” in the same way as Kovalev does; “vee”.
Up in le passerelle, Brunet’s black on black tie and suit combo looks very sharp.
Gionta’s line is on but Cammalleri is with them this time. Gorges is with Gill on the blue line.
Gorges is aggressively pinching. Puck goes overboard. Whistle.
Plekanec line is on. Pacioretty and Kostitsyn with him. Accidental icing and we face off to the left of Price. Colorado wins and get a shot from the point. Deflects wide.
Spacek pushes it out and Montreal gets Chipchura’s line out. Laraque and Moen on with him.
Moen dumps it in and two Habs are deep. Moen comes up with it briefly on the boards but it bounces out to the neutral zone. Now Belle carries it over the blue line and takes a wild shot wide. Slapshot.
Latendresse makes his way towards Anderson but can’t get a shot on net.
Gill’s shot from the point rebounds to Latendresse and he gets a high shot which is gloved. Some brief yapping after the whistle but not much more than that. Both teams are playing a neigbourly game thus far. No rivalry.
Another frozen puck. Another frozen faceoff. Gionta line creating. Two shots. One of them hits a leg. Gionta dives to get at one puck and then adjusts a shot to a shot-pass from the slot. It bounces back for Cammalleri but Anderson is in position.
Plekanec line on again. Puck stops on the boards and a whistle. Tucker delivers and elbow to Gorges’ head prior to the whistle and is called for roughing. Montreal power-play. And still no Markov.
Gomez takes it over the line and slaps it off the post. Loud ping and the crowd is taken aback. Then Hamrlik fires one from the blue. Wide. Whistle.
Gomez’ shot has power. Brunet is very impressed with the velocity.
One-twenty in the advantage.
Plekanec with Latendresse and Kostitsyn. Foote puts an arm around Plekanec after a puck is gloved by Anderson. Latendresse is talking some more. Cammalleri takes the faceoff and Montreal has about 50 seconds to work with.
They work it around. Shot from the point. Anderson is not allowing many rebounds. Another stoppage in play. Hamrlik placed the shot well. Just at the midsection. Colorado kills the penalty.
Mara line is on. Rare appearance. Chipchura and Moen are with him. Another quick whistle.
Just under thirteen minutes in the period. Gomez is back on with Gionta and Cammalleri. Gomez intercepts a clearing attempt by Colorado. Can’t create much further. Puck goes to the neutral zone. Colorado gets their best chance of the night from the slot and Price makes a good save. Right pad and flash of reflex.
Plekanec is on. Gets it cross-ice to Kostitsyn. Shot. Back to Andrei. Passes to Plekanec alone in front. Goal. Cross-ice, as well. Not a lot of that this season. AK46 has to play like this every shift. Creating and using space.
Montreal 2, Colorado 2.
It’s Tomas’ second goal of the season.
Just over eleven minutes left. Colorado forces it down but the Canadiens get it out. Accidental icing is waved off and Colorado carries it over the centre line and blast it in. Belle makes a nice play to take the puck off a stick and clears it out. But Colorado are back in again. Then Belle gets it out with ha burst. Laraque is chasing the play. But there is no Sakic to fear. Gomez. To Cammalleri. Cammalleri carries it. To the point. And then Colorado break it up.
Cammalleri keeps it in. And then he gets a nice feed but it’s stopped. Paul Stastny flies in and Cammalleri is forced to take a tripping penalty. Solid call and this penalty I can live with. The trip took away a sure scoring chance.
Colorado goes to the power-play.
Montreal gets an early clear. Stastny and Hejduk are on. They move it in quickly and get a good shot. Price makes a great save. Glove. Best save of the night for him. Play stops. Brunet compliments the save and Houde says this is what Price needs to do regularly.
Montreal wins the faceoff and clear.
Colorado get it together and start moving it around. Two shots. First goes high. Second is low and dangerous. Both from the point and the second is captured and held by Price.
Keep it up.
Just over thirty seconds. Tucker is on the ice now. Just twenty seconds. Tucker. Yep.
Nothing further happens and Montreal kills it. But Colorado maintains control. And now a dangerous shot from the point. And another. Both from Colorado defenceman Scott Hannan. Montreal escape danger this time and they create a chance of their own on the other end.
Price makes a good save but nobody is helping him and the rebound is wrapped around Price and in the net. All this off a scrum in the corner.
Colorado 3, Montreal 2
Crowd is hosed down again. Cold water. We see the replay and Gomez’ helmet had been knocked down in the corner and lost his helmet. He sticked the guy (Mcleod) in the fracas. No calls.
Plekanec line is on. Pacioretty is taken down in front of the Colorado net while creating something. Some members of the crowd don’t like it. It’s not a call, though.
Just over five minutes left. Hunger. Ice-tracks. Roughness. Moen nails Foote. Crowd loves it. Now Laraque is trying a one-hand back-hand wraparound and is taken down. This one could have been called. Crowd sounds unruly. Booing is scattered but breakless now and the crowd is cheering three different chants. Chaos on the ice reflects the crowd’s anger and unease. Just adrenalin and effort from both teams. Goals come from these heartbeast moments.
Plekanec shoots from the side of the net. Point-blank. Nothing.
Adrenalin seems to be declining again. And now a whistle ends the fury.
And a commercial will get things back to normalcy. Bad news for Montreal. That intensity was going to go the team’s way. I could feel it.
Gill knows how to make up for his lack of mobility. But this time he gets called for it. It was a good play in the sense that it prevented a Colorado entry but this penalty comes at 17:22. Not good.
Colorado power-play.
And Tucker gets a penalty within ten seconds. What a liability he is.
High stick. And Montreal has a chance. Four-on-four. First pairing is Gionta and Gomez. (Yes, I’m thinking of Kovie hopping over the boards but I told y’all I’d try and move on. Didn’t I? Well, I thought it. I’m trying. Really.)
Canadiens produce three quality shots to none in the first thirty seconds of the four-on-four. Now with just forty-seven seconds left, Price is halfway from the net and the bench. He moves to the bench with 33 seconds left. Montreal keep it in. Montreal hit the post in a scrum. Colorado was all lung and no oxygen. But the team couldn’t score. Three more good chances. Blood leaves organs for chances like those.
Disappointing.
End of third period.
HDS Stars: Craig Anderson, Tomas Plekanec, Scott Gomez
RDS Stars: Kyle Cumiskey, Tomas Plekanec, Craig Anderson
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2 comments
Nice summary. You need to do the same thing for Pens games. :-)
Thanks Dan. =)
If there is interest (and if my writing stops being so frazzled by all these changes and resumes some sense of creativity), I might do a few non-Canadien games this season. I did a few non-Canadien games in the most recent playoffs including a few Pittsburgh games. You might like one or two of them. Most of them are in the Musings section. Against Washington. Against Detroit.
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