Columbus Blue Jackets versus Montreal Canadiens
November 24, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
Musings and In-Game Scribbles
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 (11-11-1) host Columbus Blue Jackets (12-7-3)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Game Twenty-Four (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.
Sergei Kostitsyn is back in the lineup tonight. It’s his first game of the season.
Some kids skate out with flags and in hockey equipment. The usual pre-game ritual.
First line is announced prior to the unneeded, irrelevant and always irritating anthem function; Andrei Kostitsyn, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri.
Mathieu Garon gets the start in net for Columbus with Carey Price in net for Montreal. Garon is one of the least appreciated goalies in the NHL. Great athlete, never really worked out anywhere.
First Period
Nash uses his size early and shoves his way partially around the back of the Montreal net and gets a backhand pass out to the slot. Not this time.
Andrei Kostitsyn moves down the right now and accelerates partially past his defender as he closes in on the net for an inoffensive backhander.
O’Byrne is paired with Gorges and he backhands it behind the Montreal net to start a Montreal rush. Short-lived.
Both teams are more lively than the last time they played. Better passing, more jump. That’s the difference when you play in Montreal’s Bell Central as opposed to playing in dreary hockey-forgotten Ohio.
Laraque got five games for his gesture last game. The knee on knee against Detroit Red Wings.
Metropolit follows a connected-dots-passed puck into the corner and quickly dumps a puck in front but no Canadiens can get a stick on it.
White and Lapierre get the first decent control of the evening. Lapierre’s buddy is gone, gone, gone. Guillaume Latendresse was traded yesterday to Minnesota Wild for Benoit Pouliot and a draft choice. Pouliot was selected fourth overall in the 2005 NHL Draft one position ahead of Carey Price and is considered an under-achiever and is something of an unrealized commodity having played only 65 NHL games. By contrast, Latendresse’ 232 games played gives Minnesota a better idea of what they’re getting.
Cammalleri scores while I’m talking and talking and talking. The guy you don’t invite to your house if the game matters.
Montreal 1, Columbus 0.
Montreal wins the faceoff and generates a distance shot right away before Columbus responds with their longest possession of the night. Vermette and Nash combine for a goal. No-look backhand pass (near-no-look) reminds me of Larry Bird and Mario Lemieux simultaneously. Nash has the ‘stash and the girth and reach, all. Vermette gets the goal.
Columbus 1, Montreal 1.
Nicely done.
Cammalleri’s goal is one I’ll have to discuss plus tard.
White, Lapierre and Pyatt are on again. Lapierre looks a bit more spiky in his approach on the forecheck. He had two or three of the best twenty shifts I’ve seen over the past five years. Too bad those shifts occurred in his first three weeks getting regular duty. He has never matched that intensity though he has been playing at a high emotional level for most of his time this season and last.
Gorges takes a penalty and Brunet is surprised.
Gorges has the face of someone who knows he wasn’t trying to hurt anybody but knows they’re going to make the call, regardless. Shakes his head.
I like Gorges more and more as the days go on. He’s got the growing demeanour of a team leader.
Two minutes for a perfectly legal check. They’re erring on the side of caution and I can live with the call because of that.
Columbus wins the faceoff. Puck goes to the point. To the hash. To the slot. To the opposite faceoff dot. And into the net. Anton eman Anton Stralman gets the goal.
Columbus 2, Montreal 1.
Montreal wins the next faceoff. But they lose the puck on the forecheck. It’s stopped by Bergeron on the blue line and his shot is gloved for a stoppage in play by the southpaw Garon.
Columbus moves the puck well with Voracek’s line on for an extended possession in which they have near-power-play control for about eight seconds.
RJ Umberger makes his way right to Price on the next incursion and Brunet chuckles as Price makes the save. It continues to amuse people that Umberger became Bobby Orr for one series in his life (Philadelphia-Montreal in 07-08). I’m not amused. Accidental greatness isn’t something I approve of.
Bobby Orr. His greatness was not accidental. It was every game. Every season.
After the commercial Houde and Brunet discuss Umberger. The face of the undeserving. We get a shot of his boll-weevil visage.
Kostitsyn fans on a goal-making pass from Cammalleri on a sudden two-on-one. It’s unfortunate and beyond irritating.
Columbus enters on a three-on-one. Pass goes between two forwards. Lucky.
I guess that evens out the AK46 miss.
White line is on yet again. Just over seven minutes in the first period.
Sergei Kostitsyn is on with Kyle Chipchura to start. Some dude named Wyman is with the Canadiens tonight, too.
Columbus entry. Nash. Perfect pass. Swings the rope from one tree to another. But the treestump entry is slid into by Price.
He claims a puck from the rear glass next and apples it back into play.
Price then makes a sharper than noticeable save off a midrange circle shot.
Next he janitors the puck to a forward from behind the net.
Canadiens then work in the neutral zone to get an offensive footprint. Puck is sent back. Bad work, please redo. And they do. Next incursion moves the puck into Blue territory.
But Sergei Kostitsyn gets called on the possession. Brunet says Kostitsyn has to watch his stick.
Little talk with future NHL head coach Kirk Muller. Bouchard talks to him at the side of the bench.
The call against little bro is tripping. Replay confirms it.
Second power-play for the Ohio players.
Octagon passing. Play is whistled. Penalty against Columbus. Jackets’ Kristian Huselius, holding the stick. Columbus head coach Ken Hitchcock’s face is inscrutable. He remains one of the most respected coaches in the game.
Four-on-four. Kostitsyns and Pyatt are the first pair. They generate a minimum of offence. They get it over the blue line once. Andrei Kostitsyn leaves it deep and stays on when Plekanec joins the action. And finally with just a second in the four-on-four he returns to the bench.
Sergei is back on and the Canadiens get twenty-eight seconds of man-advantage. Early control is ended quickly. Then a faceoff outside the Montreal zone. Which Plekanec loses. Puck bounds down to the Jackets’ end and the man-advantage ends.
Price is looking his new normal self. Quick. Positionally sound. Confident.
Just forty-three seconds left in the period.
O’Byrne exits the Montreal zone, passes just as he crosses that blue line. But the rush cannot be elaborated. More neutral zone snip and snipe and the period ends with nothing else to say.
Hitchcock has long ago shaved his moustache and is his usual imposing self as he crosses the ice. In a benevolent way.
Shots are 14 to 7 in favour of Columbus.
First Intermission
Columbus 2, Montreal 1
Francois and Alain discuss the 2005 Draft. Who could they have had? You can make lists like this for every team. Which teams have the worst record over a ten-year period? That would be more interesting.
Pouliot, the guy we got for Latendresse strikes me as an unpleasant fellow (just from watching some video clips of him today and looking at several photographs; could be dead wrong but I don’t like the vibe). Can’t stop all the cauliflowers from entering the building. Let’s see what happens.
Second Period
Columbus 2, Montreal 1
O’Byrne is doing the minimum around the net and waiting for other guys to do the physical work. Either he’s playing hurt or he’s going to end up on the list.
Price makes a long shot save look athletic but the puck leaves his glove and has to be deflected behind the net. He does it. Makes another workmanlike save right after and holds on to this one.
Seven minutes of hard third-line type work follow from both teams. Then Paul Mara is called for some stickwork. It’s borderline but Houde says that the refs are calling a tight game tonight. Brunet agrees. I wonder how many thousand games Pierre Houde has called and seen.
Carey Price makes a good save followed by a great save. Vip-vip. This power-play has been neutralized by Price.
Crowd starts chanting the BC kid’s first name.
Power-play continues. Just twenty seconds left. And another stop by Price. Short side, right side, on the knees. Retains the puck.
Houde and Brunet discuss Sergei’s performance as the penalty runs out. They think he has to do more to stay in the NHL.
In the meantime, big bro Andrei is on the ice with Cammalleri and they go offside. This pairing can score a lot. I think Cammalleri is the best player to match with Andrei Kostitsyn since AK46 joined the team.
Montreal scores. Bergeron. They made it look like a power-play somehow and the puck pattern was a pentagon of Columbus turnovers until the final firing from Marc-Andre.
Montreal 2, Columbus 2.
Moen is knocked down. Crowd is booing. No call. He gets up. Does something inappropriate. Gets called. More booing. Columbus is going to the power-play.
Another Montreal goal is in jeopardy of quick nullification.
Nash really mashes Moen we see on the replay. Then his response doesn’t look like a penalty. Brunet says the refs are not up to the job tonight. Well, it looks like this one might have been an error.
Small square of Habs watch Carey Price make an itchy, stretched cat of himself as he makes a worm-curve save on his side. Whistle goes. And a Jacket goes, too. Flying across the crease.
Columbus controls off the faceoff. One pass completed after another. Then a shot from fifteen feet is stopped and the rebound goes through the five-hole. Good first save.
Columbus 3, Montreal 2.
Antoine Vermette. Should Quebec players be allowed to play in Bell Central? Maybe. If they’re wearing Hab uniforms. Vermette gets his second goal and he will go back to being a good player after this game. Tonight he will be Luc Robitaille.
Another rush by Columbus. This one at even strength. Price makes a Theodore-type save. Goes from right to left with the quickness of a compact player. Left arm save.
Three-on-two the other way. Pacioretty sends it to trailer Bergeron. Nope.
Just under seven minutes.
Gorges reaches while retreating pokes it away and then does some more work to ensure the puck’s exit. A watchman’s work. Quiet. Precise. Reliable.
Hamrlik thunders against Jared Boll in the corner.
Spectacular offensive single effort from Lapierre. Left side. Beats his defender on speed alone. One-on-one plus the goalie. Stops. Extends. Shoots from the circle as he falls. Draws a penalty.
Bergeron hits the post after a series of short passes. Mid-range shot.
Canadiens control for the first ninety seconds and beyond. Three good shots. Now four. In the corner they battle for it and this power-play is one of the most inspired of the season. Desire.
That’s how you play the game. And in the hearth, tail flaming and nostrils flared, your red devil Sergei. What fire. I love it. Two more good scoring chances. But it ends.
Crowd seems stunned. They don’t cheer. They just wonder in awe at how to process this. From goat to showboat. He’s on the tickets tonight. The game tickets.
Brief chant starts about six seconds later than normal. That ends. The game enthralls its viewers more deeply than at any other time tonight and with its greatest depth of the season, perhaps.
Canadiens continue to push the issue. They can feel it, too. The game is bigger than anything for moments like these. We hear the last minute announcement. Plekanec is taken down in the corner of the Blue Jacket defensive area and gets up slowly.
Both teams’ are draining slowly. The manna is low. But they remain hypnotically if near-faintedly committed. Finally a whistle saves us all.
We resume to the right of Garon with about three seconds left. And, like magic, there is a penalty against Columbus. We see the guilty party in the anger cube. No shot results from the faceoff.
Columbus continues to lead on shorts and has stretched the gap to 28-16.
Second Intermission
Montreal 2, Columbus 2
We get an interview of the new kid. Alain Crete and Jacques Demers interview him. Pouliot seems very nervous. He has a nice suit on. Brown jacket, striped blue and white tie and a black dress shirt.
Demers now takes the role of avuncular coach. Crete observes Jacques. He is listening intently. Demers asks the new kid a comfortable question regarding what to expect. Pouliot looks thrilled to be talking to Jacques Demers on air.
He seems a bit nicer here than on the videos I saw earlier. Being wrong is an art. Send me gifts.
Demers apologizes for making a comparison but he says that Price’s apparent resolve to win tonight and in recent weeks reminds him of his own former goaltender Patrick Roy’s similar resolve. With Roy it was an imprinted manifesto of ferocity. It can be stoked. And Price has certainly played with great passion and precision (props to Neil Peart) tonight and in his past several games. Bien fait.
But don’t buy any buns.
Derrick Brassard answers a question by not answering it and succeeds in coming off as a self-absorbed master of false modesty. The Blue Jacket was interviewed just prior to the third.
Third Period
Columbus 3, Montreal 2
Power-play continues. Canadiens take pains to keep the puck in and succeed. No quality shots but some quality passing and movement.
One more minute or so in the advantage. Ken Hitchcock calls a time-out. He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then he says something at the end of the time-out. Bouchard watches the whole thing and Houde and Brunet discuss with him how Hitchcock’s method, though unorthodox at times, have their good effect.
Just under a minute in the power-play. Montreal gets it back into the attacking zone after a quick early exit following the time-out.
This sequence has no shots. Next one does. But just one. Montreal keeps the pressure on with Sergei Kostitsyn working hard. Puck finds its way to Hamrlik who blasts it off the crossbar. No goal. Rebound goes in. Metropolit. Advanced, picked it up on his backhand from the right of the crease and just under Garon’s glove and to the forehand and into the net, nanoseconds before the net was flipped upward.
Montreal 3, Columbus 3.
Pyatt is knocked off the puck on a rush. Just upended with one arm. Houde remarks that this is where Pyatt lacks the most as a player.
Ole, ole chant begins.
Price gives it away. Gets lucky.
Just over sixteen minutes in the period.
Hamrlik clears the puck up the boards. It’s stopped at the blue line.
Refs miss a call as Moen is elbowed by Nash on a takedown.
Pacioretty alone. Too slow. Garon poke-checks it away at full extension and on his stomach. Action follows the group down. Or maybe the other way around. Biff. Shot. Clack. Shot. Whiff. Miss. Thud. Shot. In. Goal.
Montreal 4, Columbus 3.
Maxim Lapierre in a crowd and Jackets sweat-stained.
Just over fourteen minutes left.
I get a commercial break and can now mention that Nash is a dirty player. I just needed this fourth game to confirm it. This is my fourth time seeing this player. It’s somewhat more shameful when a bigger player has dirty habits. Dommage.
Whenever you hear someone described as “he plays with an edge” keep in mind that this is the apologist’s method to protect a good ‘ol boy. The apologist is usually a media member or in-game crony.
More hard-scrabble action from both teams with Montreal providing most of the puck-carrying. I start to consider the differences between the pluggers and the elite players.
Andrei Kostitsyn has to go to the dressing room. Got a stick in the face. Brunet says Nash did it accidentally. Replay is too distant to tell.
Price is ready for the distance shot that comes with about a three-minute game-clock gap between shots. At the front of his crease. Pads on the ice. Captures and holds. Man, is he good. Finally. He got his head screwed on right and I hope it never falls off.
Hitchcock is ranting at one of his players about something. Cuts him down. In front of the other guys. Must have used humour as the corner of his mouth tugs up a bit. The player has his head down.
We resume play for eight seconds before the puck escapes the oval again.
Commercial. Environment-destroyer first (car) and then a liver-destroyer afterward (beer). I’ve never seen a commercial promoting Echinacea.
AK46 is back on the ice. Some believe that Sergei’s call-up is to showcase him for a trade. Some believed that Kovalev’s two-game vacation last season was a precursor for a trade, too. Nobody is learning that Bob Gainey cannot be generalized about.
Sergei gets a strong wrister off. We hear the echo of the pads. Now Sergei is forechecking well. He is roughed up a bit and there is no call. Crowd boos. There are still referees who have biases. I missed the names at the start. But these ones may be.
Action increases in velocity. Pacioretty makes another rush but can’t get around the defender. Pacioretty has a lot of potential. But which attributes will peak and plateau early and which ones will keep increasing? His last incursion was easily eliminated by a low check that took him off his skates. Once a game, boys.
White line. They pursue but allow the puck to leave.
Five guys try and take the puck from Nash. Sticks. Fifth guy succeeds.
Rhythm is getting extra-terrestrial again. Rhythm of magnetics. Physics of puck balance.
Plekanec gets a wrap-around chance on this sequence.
Flow stays. And then a two-on one results in a goal from Maxim Lapierre. This one was a goal-scorer’s touch. Lapierre entered. Lost it a bit. Decided he couldn’t pass it because of that. Waited. Baited. Shot. Over Garon’s left shoulder from the off-wing. Very nice shot.
Montreal 5, Columbus 3
Ole and ole. No bulls. Just red horseshoes and wasps.
Now Kostitsyn gets over the line and puts it all into one shot. Five-hole attempt is stopped by Garon.
Now Lapierre leaps over two sticks and nearly gets down the middle like Lafleur but he loses the puck. Yes, that Lafleur. That’s what speed looks like. And say whatever you want about him, Maxim Lapierre has speed.
The two teams are, for long minutes, seemingly made for one another. A perfect rhythm of blast, rise and almost mechanized passion. I didn’t know hockey could look and feel as precise and satisfying as this.
Houde gets sarcastic. Compliments the refs for a good night as we see Pyatt’s face get accidentally raked by Huselius. Blood and a short curtain. Brunet chuckles and agrees. Pyatt wears a visor. And he will be back without going to the dressing room. Just in case Mrs. Pyatt is reading this.
The metrodome rhythm resumes. Metronome melody. Machinique hum.
These two teams chase one another and time leaves the rink. Just under a minute when it feels as if there should still be ten.
Crowd is sporadically happy. It’s a strange sound. I’ve never heard the rink sound so non-uniform in its happiness. Fourteen seconds left. Jackets have a lot of trouble trapping the puck in the Montreal zone. They finally do but can’t get out of the corner.
Period ends with the puck harmlessly in that corner to the left of Carey Price. Price lobs his stick over the glass. It bounces back down and he picks it up without his blocker and hands it to a ten-year old boy at the same spot.
Montreal 5
Columbus 3
HDS Stars: Carey Price, Maxim Lapierre, Sergei Kostitsyn
RDS Stars: Carey Price, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Antoine Vermette
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