Calgary Musings and In-Game Scribbles
November 10, 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 (8-9) host Calgary Flames (10-4-1)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Game Eighteen (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.
First Period
Weird new jerseys. Halak is in net. Weird old jerseys. Throwback green and red.
Kostitsyn passes in front for Gionta. Missed.
They look like Chicago Christmas outfits.
Canadiens get called for tripping near their blue line. Paul Mara. Stick got caught up with Nigel Dawes.
Fifth-best power-play in the league, we are told.
Moen and Gomez are the first pairing. Two stops. Hamrlik upends a corner Calgarian to the left of Halak. And Metropolit clears soon after. One minute gone in the advantage.
Moen and Plekanec work it out. Moss enters with a forward. Shot results. And Halak makes a glove save. Jay Leach is in his first game with the team. He’s wearing number twenty, is on the third pairing and is signaling to somebody.
He sends it down the ice and is called for icing.
Home Hardware brown gloves. Green shorts. And a greenish logo. Bring back the home whites.
Canadiens show some lack of coordination and we get a shot of Brent Sutter at the whistle. He looks concerned. About what, I don’t know.
Halak’s new mask is one of the nicest I’ve seen. Black and red. Half slice devilish.
The green on these uniforms is a pleasant fir tree variety.
Pacioretty has an ungainly stance when he is in low speed mode. Now he misses a big rebound entirely in front of Kiprusoff.
Calgary gets brief control. Bergeron is not much for hitting Calgary players. Passes up a good opportunity after a Flame touches the puck in the corner.
Bourque gets a look at an open side. Can’t connect with the puck. Best chance of the night for the Flames, says Houde.
Eight minutes elapsed.
Hamrlik accompanies two Canadiens into the Calgary zone but the play goes offside. He’s been playing very good hockey in Markov’s absence.
Gomez, Gionta and Kostitsyn are the first line. Where will AK46 lurk? They’re both going to talk to him. I expect something new to happen in regard to his positioning once the puck is in the Calgary end.
Metro, Moen and Pacioretty are on now.
Bergeron gets a shot through. Kiprusoff may not have seen it but stops it.
Phaneuf takes down Pacioretty who, again, was not paying attention, not keeping his head up. He’ll learn. On the replay, I get the sense that Pacioretty saw it coming but thought the collision might go his way. Not with Dion Phaneuf who is one of the strongest Calgary players and one of the most rugged defenders in the league.
Another long shot is handled by Kiprusoff. This one he retains. Spacek’s shot. From the point.
Kostitsyn now tests Phaneuf. Perhaps remembering his successful shoulder take-down of Saturday night he, like Pacioretty, is disillusioned. Whap. Phaneuf ices another.
Kiprusoff gloves a harmless deep shot and the action escalates with the whistle. Moen versus number seven. Moen loses that one. Split decision. But he hit the ice first.
Dion Phaneuf inspires dislike and fear.
We see Pacioretty and Moen in the penalty box. Gionta and Iginla talk it over with one of the refs. Pacioretty takes down Giordano on the replay. And it’s the hit, which was dangerous and close to the boards, that inspired the Flame uprising.
We stay at five-on-five and I’m not clear on why.
Play resumes and within a minute, Bourque’s stick makes contact with Gorges face. Whistle goes. Brunet says it should be interference. Rene Bourque goes to the penalty box. Canadiens have a power-play. My math is not clicking.
Bergeron is on with Mara on the blue line. Metropolit and Plekanec with Cammalleri as the first wave forwards. They get some movement and a shot and must then regroup.
Mara has impressed me with his passing and overall decision-making since joining the Canadiens. He has a Rivet-type game. Economical but with some offensive panache and vision.
Canadiens are stopped twice in the neutral zone.
Gomez leads a second incursion but the puck is cleared out easily.
Bourque is back on the ice. Bouwmeester sets up a slot chance but no sticks can connect. Then a pass goes from behind the net to Iginla in the middle of the circles, a bit high and Iginla fires it in. Must have hit someone on the way in. Replay shows it was a clean wrist shot.
Captain Canada scores.
Calgary 1, Montreal 0
Sixth goal in six games for the intrepid leader of the Flames.
Now a brief and uninteresting fight involving Montreal newcomer White. They should just have the fights and the anthems about twenty minutes prior to the game. While we’re getting our beverages.
Commercial.
Bouchard talks to Kirk Muller. Very Gretzky style of speaking Muller has. It’s the cadence and the hockey honesty. But there are other similarities between the two. Muller wants to see more deep control from the Canadiens. Kirk Muller will be a head coach in the NHL one day.
Canadiens start to create quality chances and it’s Latendresse with Pyatt who create the most devilish thrusts. But on the whistle, Lapierre is added to the penalty box. Three Habs in there. It has to do with what I missed earlier. Lapierre’s play is just dirty. Whacks a Flame who’s down in the crease. Does he have to?
Give me Steve Begin.
Calgary power- play.
Calgary controls and they get two shots in the first minute. They keep it in during the second minute and move it around the high perimeter. Canadiens PK is tired. Plekanec with Metropolit. Both are gassed. And Halak smothers it to help get a line change.
Twenty seconds. Calgary wins the faceoff. More quality control from the Flames. Shot form the point goes wide. Penalty ends. Calgary kept it in. Finally it scoots out. Montreal can change their personnel. Gionta is on.
Pyatt can’t get around Bouwmeester and the big defender is called for interference. Houde said the call was right at the limit. Replay confirms it. Montreal goes to the power-play. How do you like all these power-plays, Tej?
We reach the last minute of play in the first period.
Kostitsyn fakes a shot and Kovalev’s it around the defender for a quick wrister. Kiprusoff gloves it. Gomez, Gionta and Cammalleri are on for this wave. Puck bounces over a stick at the Calgary blue line and Montreal resets.
Twenty seconds. They enter. Spacek lobs it forwards. It’s on the boards. Now to the point. They get a shot. A good one. Gionta. Pass from the corner. Shot from the slot.
Brunet says that Montreal’s confidence is fragile.
Shots are in favour of Calgary, 13 to nine.
First Intermission
Calgary 1, Montreal 0
Alain Crete and Francois Gagnon discuss the four recent entries to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Luc Robitaille gets some highlights. We see his Cup win with Detroit. It was his only one. He could be Willem Dafoe’s cousin.
Brett Hull was intronisé (that’s how they say it in French). Yzerman and Brian Leetch. Not much discussion of those three. Robitaille is French.
They discuss some of the potential candidates for 2010. Vincent Damphousse and Guy Carbonneau are the Francophones on the list. Crete seems to find it mildly amusing that the French dudes are being mentioned. Or it could just be Gagnon’s endearing delivery.
La Question Dodge: Who should be Team Canada’s captain? They offer voters three choices; Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla and Scott Neidermayer.
Recent Montreal waiver pick-up Jay Leach ends his Anglophone interview with the commonly said “merci beaucoup”. It seems almost insulting. Just do it all in English. Yes, I know it’s a friendly gesture. It just seems contrived and therefore useless. He says he is happy to be in Montreal. We read earlier in the week that he has been placed on waivers many times in the past but nobody has ever shown interest in him.
Second Period
Gionta line creates two scares for Calgary. Penalty ends. Two shots from the top of the crease. Gionta. Cammalleri. Second one should have been a goal.
Kostitsyn is on with Plekanec and Lapierre now. They show better control than in previous incarnations this week.
Gorges seems annoyed with the Calgary aggression following a Flame incursion and whistle. The gathering closes with little more than farcical smiles from some of the Calgary posse.
Leach likes his long passes, as well. This one fails and results in icing.
Pacioretty dump-in fails.
White takes it in offside. And he challenges Phaneuf. Phaneuf finds it mildly amusing but seems annoyed as well. They just talk briefly.
Montreal is a slower team than last year and they will spend far less time with the puck as a result. That means more shots against and more goals against. It means a lot more. I guess I’m a master of the obvious. Montreal will miss the playoffs. The East is just too fast.
White takes a high-stick penalty. I’m with Levy. Get me veterans.
Montreal’s first unit is first to the puck throughout the first minute. Metropolit gets a clear to end that first segment.
Second wave is more successful for Calgary. But only one shot. Montreal kills the penalty.
Calgary’s Nystrom, Boyd and Leach are on the ice and only Halak stops a sure score as the three create a chance by passing it to the side of the net. Good save.
Plekanec takes a hit behind the Calgary net.
Legal hit. But Lapierre savages Phaneuf with his stick and glove. Mutual dislike.
Iginla and Cammalleri hear out the referee. One penalty each. Four-on-four.
Cammalleri and Plekanec are the first pair for Montreal.
Iginla is on for Calgary with Jokinen.
Gomez escapes. Breakaway. Great deke. Better save.
Second entry. Another great chance. Crowd gets loud.
Third entry. No shot. More great spacing though.
Four-on-four ends.
About ten minutes left in the second period.
Moen is on with Pacioretty.
They stand around and watch the Flames move it around. Finally Pyatt bangs it out. Neutral zone plugging. Montreal regroups and exits.
Whistle goes as Montreal enters with speed again. Mara and Conroy fall to the ice in mutual antagonism. Cammalleri tangles with Phaneuf for a conversation. It seems to decline and we hear from Coors. Who basically bailed out Molson’s a few years back. What a shame. Did you know that Budweiser is the number one beer seller in Canada? Such bad beer, too. Not that Molson’s is much better. Any beer that needs a commercial is probably not worth drinking. Heineken sucks compared to Beck’s, too, for those of you who’ve been seduced by the green bottle disguise for mediocrity.
Calgary goes to the power-play. Brunet compliments Plekanec involvement in the prior activities. Mara was penalized.
We have to wait for the replay. In the meantime, Montreal’s penalty-kill benefits from Glen Metropolit’s good work. And Plekanec is on again. He is getting Saku-type shift-work. Give him Cammalleri. For the rest of the season. It’ll all work out.
Calgary can’t get much going. And Montreal’s initiative is the main reason.
Penalty dies.
Gionta exits. Flips it into the corner. Line changes ensue.
The pace has picked up permanently. It’s finally a contest both teams are interested in. All with about five minutes left in the second period. Chopping pace.
Canadiens still haven’t scored. Should have had three by now. Maybe two. Flames have had their chances, as well.
Four minutes.
Canadiens begin to gain control over the play. Hamrlik fires from the point. It’s stopped and held by Kiprusoff.
Was watching Al Davis addressing the Lane Kiffin firing on YouTube yesterday (yes, I know that was a long time ago). He’s still the same. Sharp. Interesting reminder from the old Raider patriarch; “We have players we feel have a chance to be great. We will live with those players.” Younger players will make mistakes but with a cap, every team has players that make small money. Some are younger, inexperienced players who may not always make the best decision.
I watch Pacioretty lose the puck after Metropolit wins a deep faceoff to the right of Kiprusoff.
The action has settled into a basics lesson. Both teams are working for the small advantage and there is that satisfying mutual agreement to play and play hard without looking for the fancy play or the strange pick-me-up (like a fight). It’s the kind of game a third-liner lives for. This is what the game is at its Adams’ best.
Three minutes of it to close the period. And then the usual gathering to give Plekanec a hard time. He has a reputation for being a dangerous guy around the boards. Slew-foot.
Calgary leads on shots 21-16.
Second Intermission
Calgary 1, Montreal 0
Highlights. Jacques. Mikko (Koivu). Boston leads Pittsburgh and Minnesota leads Toronto. Sounds about right.
We get a boring interview from Jay Bouwmeester. Joel Bouchard says that the transplanted Florida defenceman (now Calgary) is not very expressive and very diplomatic.
Third Period
Calgary 1, Montreal 0
Once again, Montreal is suffering a low-scoring game. But this time it is not for a lack of quality scoring chances.
Moen line has enough skill to negate but not enough to create. Latendresse is on next with White and more of the same.
Gomez line is on.
They can create. And they do. Kostitsyn gets a flank shot. Good save. Biscuit.
The dance of integrity is ongoing. Good play.
Now Cammalleri punctuates it with a dwizzle-puck between a defender’s legs and takes a shot that almost slithers through the pads. Stopped for the faceoff. Which Daymond Langkow wins.
Montreal soon regains control. And then Langkow takes it back and shoots from the boards. Powerful shot. Halak turns it away.
Metropolit line is on now and flying. And firing. Metropolit. Best surprise of the offseason movement was his retention. He is very good. And we have been told in the past week that he has a very positive attitude.
Brunet says that Calgary’s line changes are very, very quick. We have five minutes elapsed in the third.
Kostitsyn turnover deep in Montreal territory. I haven’t seen that for several games. Nothing occurs and Montreal gets it out, regardless.
Pace is workmanlike and textbook. We are seeing a lot of the third and fourth lines. Hard work rewarded. The ratio of shifts has shifted.
Now a Flame, Langkow, bursts in on Halak and is hooked. Halak stops it but is turned around in the crease. They call it. It’s merited. Josh Gorges. Good penalty in this case. Another example of the smart work by Gorges this season. Good deal. Rivet for Gorges and a second-round pick. Tough to take at the time but the right thing for the team.
Calgary power-play. Jokinen with Iginla. Phaneuf and Bouwmeester on the blue line. Good power-play unit. Fifth in the league, eh.
Puck bounces in front of Halak in the crease and he scoops it.
Montreal wins the faceoff and clears it.
Calgary set it up and pass it around. Calgary forwards don’t move around much on their power-play. Not a lot of imagination. But it’s fifth-ranked. So what do I know.
I know this. Montreal killed it. Again.
Crosby wins the little phone tournament with a 44% margin over Iginla’s 34%. Houde agrees. He cites the recent Stanley Cup as a good reason. Uh. No. Captaincy is not about resumes. It’s about attitude. And respect. Iginla wins. What exactly does a captain do differently in international play, anyway?
Cammalleri turnover while skating backward in the Montreal zone results in shots and trouble for Montreal. Halak is forced to freeze it.
Eight and a half minutes. Montreal’s entries are dwindling.
Tempo increases about twenty seconds after Houde notices and mentions that Montreal’s intensity is flagging. Ten seconds after that Jokinen is called for holding Spacek’s stick.
Metropolit and Plekanec. With Mara and Bergeron. And AK46. Calgary makes two early stops. Then they get control deep. Nystrom. Kills about twenty seconds.
Gomez is on for the second wave. Shot. Gionta pokes at the rebound.
Montreal sets up again.
I feel my first tension of the evening during this sequence.
Thirty seconds.
Gionta drops it for Gomez who cracks it high. Goes out of play. Faceoff.
Calgary wins it. But Latendresse interrupts it on the boards. Yes, he’s getting some ice time on this power-play. Moen nearly gets it in from the crease as the penalty expires. Bouncer that crossed Kiprusoff’s rectangle.
To the other end we go where Halak stops play with a glove on ice.
Gionta sends it along and Gomez just misses it as they swoop in on the Flame net.
Some back and forth. Calgary’s offside entry brings a whistle.
Just under four minutes.
Halak makes his thirtieth save of the night. A high, harmless, gloved shot.
Just over three minutes.
Montreal can’t get established deep. Finally with some help from a pinching Spacek they get enough control to generate a shot. And the Flames move it out. Rene Bourque goes the other way and his shot is neutralized.
Boyd creates on this sequence and Gorges makes an error. Tries to correct it. Is penalized.
Like Saturday night. Late penalty in a one-goal deficit game. This one comes with just over two minutes on the clock.
Expect a lot of Gionta, Cammalleri and Gomez. Plekanec is on with Gionta first.
Calgary manages to control and set it up. They match Montreal’s intensity and beat the Canadiens to the puck on the boards. Montreal exits their zone. Cammalleri carries it in. Halak leaves the net. Metropolit is on the ice, as well.
Puck meanders back into Montreal territory. We hear some booing. One more entry. Shot from Gomez. Wide and long. Another shot. Kiprusoff stops it and sends it out of his glove and into the corner.
Period ends. More booing.
Brunet says the Canadiens are lacking creativity. This is one Montreal needed to steal. But eleventh-tier teams can’t steal them all. That’s why they are eleventh tier.
Calgary 1
Montreal 0
HDS Stars: Dion Phaneuf, Miikka Kiprusoff, Jarome Iginla
RDS Stars: Miikka Kiprusoff, Jaroslav Halak, Jarome Iginla
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