Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators

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 (4-5-2) visit Ottawa Senators (7-6-0)

Friday, November 4, 2011

Game Twelve (score posted following scribbles)

Missed it? Musings capture the game in writing. A written transcript typed during the game, posted and edited about thirty minutes afterward.  Based on the RDS French telecast of the Montreal Canadiens game, Musings take about 20 minutes to read. More detailed than an article, fresher than a looping highlight and good with morning coffee. Or late-night chocolate.  A unique way to re-experience the game.

click here to expand post (it looks prettier)

Scotiabank Palace.  At least I kept the corporatocracy name in there.  Right? Right?  And I’m set up and it’s different.  More as I learn more.

Pierre and Marc are standing in some high-up part of the arena.  And I’ve discovered that my thighs might be the best foundation for a musing station.  This keyboard, expensive, ergonomic and a Gates product, still suffers from poor bounceback on the keys.  I was informed by an IBM bigwig that the spring-loaded keyboards, though they wear out, are the best way to go.

Impresario Pierre Houde gives Marc Denis his evaluative stare as the former goalie provides analysis.  The entire crew is wearing poppies as we move to the big desk with Alain, Denis Gauthier (not Marc Denis) and Benoit Brunet.

Nokelainen is at 62 percent on faceoffs.  He’s playing on a reconstructed knee and is 26 years old.  He’s been with four or five teams in his short career.  The Finn has impressed certain Gazette staff.   And Martin’s staff, too.   And Montreal Mystique’s staff, sure.

Spezza is off to a fifteen-point start.  Brunet says that Spezza respects the guy behind the bench now and that he didn’t respect Clouston nor Hartsberg before him.  I agree with Brunet but Spezza shows his nature very easily.  He’s a coach-killer.  And typical of the stars produced in the Ontario minor leagues.  There are exceptions.  So?

In fact, Subban seems to be one of them.  But then, he isn’t typical of what Ontario hockey produces, either.  He’s, uh, black.

African-Canadian.  That takes too long to say.

Also, I hate switching accents in mid-sentence.  If I’m speaking in English and Lafleur comes up, it’s “Laflurr”.  Goes both ways.

They show us mercy and we miss the anthem.

Carey Price and Craig Anderson are the goalies.  Anderson is only at 0.880.

Gord Dwyer and Stephen Walkom are the refs.

First Period

Plekanec against some Ottawa goon.  Oh, wait.

Eller line follows a shift that sees Ottawa possess mildly.

Eller line follows.  Kostitsyn and Moen accompany.

Diaz and Gill down low.

Gill starts out from behind his net.

Left side.

Kostitsyn fires a wrister into black jerseys.  Puck bounces out like a funhouse ring and the Sens are on it.

Da Costa and Foligno against three Habs, two parallel and one a bit lower.  Centring pass is sealed off.

Under eighteen.

Anderson kneels to scoop a puck.  Leaves it for a teammate.  Moments later, a long Montreal puck is called for icing.

Faceoff to Price’s right.  The flow stays along the neutral zone boards.  And then Subban is beaten and splays legs to trip the forward.  Martin expresses hockey disgust and moves his fingers like a man checking chive quality as he signals men on and off.

Ottawa man-advantage.

Sens have trouble setting up mostly because of their own poor entry plan and with only fifty seconds to go in the penalty, have yet to establish control.

A clear.

And now Price with another clear.  Denis says that Price is sometimes audacious but.

Penalty is over.

Are the 11-12 Sens a sad-sack organization?  Ottawa has a long, rich history of such.  Particularly to close out the last century.

How many winless seasons did the Rough Riders clock before folding?  They reopened (reappeared … what, then?) in 2002 only to fold again.  It’s all very sad.  As for the Sens, they re-entered the NHL after decades away, in the early nineties but like most expansion teams went through much more losing than winning before Jacques Martin found them.  In fact, Ottawa’s best regular season record is with Jacques Martin at the helm.  Fifty-plus wins early this century.  Gauthier was also involved.

Thirteen minutes.

Nice move by some number twenty-one guy.  That’s two players that aren’t listed on the Ottawa site.  If I was a visiting member of the press, I would have received several stapled sheets of paper detailing those changes as well as thick tables and charts of nearly meaningless information on both teams.  The Ottawa communications coordinator or some such manages this process.  Or should if hockey works like football.

Eller, deep right.  Habs keep it in.  Eller tries a one-hand Zednik style keep-around at the circle.  Elbow bends, stick extends and he keeps it despite sticks from both Zack Smith and Kaspars Daugavins.  Who?

And someone is wearing the number six.  Or is that a bad font five?  Oh.  Bad font five.  That stripe across the number is obscuring.

Brian Lee is the defenceman I couldn’t identify.  He shoots from the right point and Price (or Rice if you or my keyboard prefer) freezes it for the faceoff.

Cammalleri passes to send Desharnais in on the left.  Desharnais across to Cole.  Sliding Sen.  Cole reaches back.  Time slowed too much on that.  And Sens recover.

Eight and a half.

So, Spacek fires one in and Markov remains out of the lineup.  Markov is skating daily but hasn’t been involved in any contact.  I don’t even think he’s practicing in non-contact format, either.

There’s no dedicated web-cam system following Markov.  Yet.

The Senators are a younger team than last season and still learning one another’s habits.

New names include Jared Cowen, Colin Greening and Erik Condra.  They’re new to me, anyway.

Gorges and Plekanec combine after an Ottawa turnover.  Plekanec’ shot is high and out of play; from the high slot.

Ottawa lacks confidence and cohesion.  Montreal, still within their system, are relaxed and tightening their grip on the game.  But the zero-zero score is all that matters to some.

Yes, the goal is to score.  We’ll keep that in mind.

Desharnais against Spezza to Anderson’s right.  Spezza wins it and Karlsson speed-tractors into view and around the boards he goes with it.  But the Canadiens are back in and pressing, right side.  Shot by an offwing Cammalleri and now they jam at it.  Stays out.  Net knocked off, they dig and search all the while.

It’s called after the whistle.

Montreal power.

Cole down the right side after a failed first incursion by Montreal.

Winchester clears a lofting crow of a puck into the corn near Price.

Habs are in again.

Darche from the end boards.  Gionta is crosschecked.  Darche too.  No calls.

Phillips running things his own special way.  Elbows high and full of impunity for those players he feels are his inferior.

Such an ugly character to watch.  There’s one guy who hasn’t changed.

Canadiens are unable to keep in the zone and the penalty ends.

The other thug was Brian Lee.  Bears watching.

Hard crosscheck across Darche’s’ back.

Spezza makes a nice move to get by a defender.  Slips the puck between the legs and moves his body around.  Stick goes high.  You’ve seen it before.  And it’s hard for a bigger man to do.  But Spezza can and does.  And he falls as Gorges got back to hit the puck away into the corner.  Spezza took the opportunity to whoomf Price a bit harder than usual.  No call and no thought of it from the booth partners.

A robust Ottawa home arena.  Is that what we should expect?  Is that what we should get used to?

Two minutes.

Eller remains a busy man, excellent chase and hit efforts in the neutral zone.

Blunden takes a run behind the Ottawa net and he, too, gets away with it.

These refs.  They belong in a beer league somewhere.

Thirty seconds.  Plekanec, Pacioretty and Gionta.

One shot from the left point.

But they can’t build on it.

Spezza is forechecking.  Canadiens from behind their net.  One pass.  A long puck.  And the period-ending siren.

Montreal led on shots. 10-4.

First Intermission
Montreal 0, Ottawa 0

The Flyers’ D. Briere (I refuse to call him Daniel or Danny, equally) scored a disputed goal in the shootout.  He braked, or perhaps came close enough without braking, stepped to the right and lofted it into the netting.  A full brake would have nullified the goal.  The goal stood.  Alain, Denis and Benoit discuss the value of creativity in the shootout but will we see the day when people start circling the net three times or performing the Denis Savard spinerama on the way in?  Alain simplifies, a rarity for him, and I disagree with his distillation; anything goes; if you can do it in regulation, you should be allowed to do it on the penalty shot.  Problem is, there are no defenders on the penalty shot.  There have to some limits.  And there are.

Alfredsson was demolished against the Rangers; concussion.  Suspension pending; no decision yet.  Looked nasty.  What disrespect.

Replay shows that Condra closed his hand on the puck and threw it (on the thug power-play).

Second Period
Ottawa 0, Montreal 0

Gionta shares a word with one of the refs.  The one who looks like he thinks he’s the show.

It’s always important to have guys on your team who aren’t afraid of the dominant order or are part of it.  Gionta, though American, is respected by the dominant ideologues.

Price is now on the left side of my screen.

Anderson is on the right and he sees an arresting image; Andrei Kostitsyn, free and clear and into Ottawa ice.   Kostitsyn pauses.  Then shoots.  Anderson gets a pad on it.  Puck skitters to his left.

Moments later, a net-going Cammalleri entry.

Nope.

Replay of the Kostitsyn shot.  Wrister.  About eleven feet out.  Mid-net height.

Pacioretty, tall and shooting.  Gionta, short and in the slot.  He hits a puck out of the air, arms in and the disc wobbles just beyond his reach in the crease.

That big gap we sometimes see.  No keeper, no leg but no Montreal sticks, either, Gionta tied up behind the play.

Darche sweeps in wide and then a lunge to the net, risking his health and vision … and ragdolled for it.  Into the back boards.  And up again.  Heavy hit.  He’s truly courageous.  A player his age knows exactly what the risks and consequences might be.  And the bruising and soreness lasts longer in your thirties.  Darche is 34.

Faceoff to Anderson’s right.  Plekanec wins it against Zack Smith.

They keep it in.  Turning shot by Pacioretty in the slot.

Ottawa responds.  Butterfly high and stopped.  Kept his chest straight, neck long.  Like a swan.
Fourteen left in the second.

Long Montreal puck.  Brian Lee.  Clown?  Sinister clown?  Vee shall see.

Montreal’s defensive presence is complete.  The five move in tandem with synchronicity and aplomb.  This glove is manned by Eller, Moen and Kostitsyn.  Even Kostitsyn.  When the forwards work in this way, hockey becomes a pleasure to watch.

All five players in unison with the puck as iris.  Defensive eyelash.

Ottawa fails to complete a pass in Montreal ice.  And shots?  Forget it.

But still.  Zeroes.  It’s disquieting.

Sen draw won.  Blue.  Big crackle boom shot.  Sounds like a head off wood.  Price has it.

Sens nearly retain on the blue. But the turnover, which I’m expecting almost automatically on any Ottawa possession, arrives in the form of a missed skate to the puck.

Around the rink, Montreal ahead by a bit and now they have it.  Cole.  Cammalleri with him.

And they’re tweeted offside.

Any smaller man in any of the pro sports will have certain qualities.  I watch Gionta on a faceoff; on the wing, he takes his position, unapologetically; the winger opposite him doesn’t like it (Daugavins)… finally, he moves out of the way and resets.  But Gionta’s lower body strength and particularly his leg strength won’t allow the taller Sen to move in.  The puck is dropped and Daugavins is behind the play.

Just forget it.

Eight and a half.

Gionta with a golf-ball swing under the Ottawa blue.  No.

Eight minutes left as the Sens take a break.  Anderson has made the difference on maybe three occasions and the Canadiens have only themselves to blame for having failed to create more opportunities for themselves.

Or maybe I don’t know how to read great Ottawa defence.

Chris Neil is shown.  One of the bigger dills in the league, he has white matter stuffed up his nose to plug the blood.  Now what piracy did he get up to this time?  Not a fan.

Took an accidental stick to the face after whamming Gorges to the cold turf.  Took several strides and wasn’t called.  I guess an ice god flicked a switch, then.

Dill.  Yes.

Spacek’s middle pass sets up Pacioretty.  Flipped by Chris Phillips.  Pacioretty takes a number, shakes his head on the bench and gives it another shake.  A license plate number.  Repaid in full?  More to come.

Cammalleri allowed to run in tight keycircle to the post.  Shot.  No.

More pressure.  Cammalleri.  Bats.  Closes.  Misses.  Passes.  Cole.  In.  Goal-scorer’s goal.  And his third.

Montreal 1, Ottawa 0

Half the bowl erupts in full flagon and cheap popcorn.  Expensive cheap popcorn.

Ottawa games on the road are easily accessible to Montreal fans, just up the boulevard.  And for those that reside in the pleasant bilingual town.

Francois Gagnon regularly tweets during the game and I find out that Cole’s goal was Montreal’s 20the shot on goal.

Ottawa is in Montreal ice.  Daugavins.  Allowed to wait behind Price.  Looks one way.  Jitter-stick.  Looks the other.  Plekanec at the low slot.

Failed pass follows.

Four minutes.

Desharnais line.

Cole beats an Ottawa defender to the puck.  On a long chase-down.  Unexpected.

He’s so huge.  Now he moves along the Ottawa blue line and his chubby gait is belied by his reasonably quick hands.

But he can’t get closer than the hash and it’s out.

Briefly.

Montreal entry.  Mistake.  Karlsson.  Total giveaway to the slot.  Wow.  Eller.  Cruises in.  Kostitsyn beside him.  Nobody else.  Yes, nobody.  Pass, a little one.  Kostitsyn buries it.

What a terrible pass.  Good reaction from Eller says Houde.  Marc Denis adds that when Karlsson is on the ice, lots of bad things happen for his team.  I’m being rather free with my translation on that one.

Montreal 2, Ottawa 0

I’m free!!!!!!

Uh.

Pelican squack.  Not squawk.  Squack.

Another Ottawa incursion.  But the scare is short.

Montreal retrieves.

Just how bad is Ottawa?

Spezza is happy with this coach?  So he gets what he wants and screw the team, screw the system?  I wonder.

There’s not much here.  One of the worst Ottawa teams I’ve ever seen.  Certainly the worst since the lockout.

Subban called for slashing.  Whacked it out of the man’s hands at the faceoff.  Subban was on the board hashmark to Price’s left.

Ottawa man-advantage.

Karlsson is served a one-timer.  Ka-rack off the glass.

A second chance.  This time it has eyes.

And Price.  And Price again.  First save was casual(ly) spectacular.  The second was a Turk Broda lifetime award save.  Duckwing and right-angled left glove-arm.  Ticked it with the glove.  Tick-slapped it, really.  You’ll see this one on TV.

Michalek goes into the net.  Interference is called.

We go to fours.

Four-on-four, smart-ass.

Period ends with perimeter skating and not much else.   Martin got a hair cut.

Montreal led on shots 12-4 in the first and trailed 14-10 in the second.  How?  Lots of harmless ones, then.  And several at the end, there.  That blasted shots on goal stat.  So bloated and imprecise.  Like the fumble stat.  What kind of fumble?  Caused or uncaused?  Special teams or on a running play?  And so on.

Gad.

Second Intermission
Montreal 2, Ottawa 0

Alain reminds us that Spezza has never been known as a very good defensive player.  And I’ll remind you that Stephen Harper has never been known as a very good leader.  Or person.  He’s known as other things.  None of them worth praise.

History used to bore me.  No more.  History names the truth.  Especially if the books aren’t burned.  It will be hard to burn the books of this era.  Won’t it.

Third Period
Montreal 2, Ottawa 0

Houde wonders about Gomez’ return and it will mean to the three forward lines.  The so-called top nine.  They’re all working well.  Fourth line, too, if we must know.

Canadiens are out with good speed.

Ottawa matches.  Right side.  Zack Smith finishes an Erik Condra short-handed pass with a nice backhanded goal at Price’s chest.  Condra was bumped hard after the play but no matter.  The near two-on-one was caused by a turnover on the Ottawa blue.

Montreal 2, Ottawa 1

Ottawa has 23 third-period goals this season.  Just 17 combined in the other two periods.  Denis is impressed.  Moi, aussi.  And as he finishes the phrase, Ottawa nearly scores a doorstep goal over Price’s left pad.

Pacioretty lobs a pass deep and waits before abandoning the lane.     Once he sees that the coast is clear, he heads back to the bench.  Nice.  And Eller trips Nick Foligno about three seconds later.  Called.

Stephen Walkom is one of the refs.  No wonder the first period was so bad.  Walkom is a dodgy figure associated with Colin Campbell, former league disciplinarian; himself, dodgy.  And additionally shady, triumphalistic, cronyistic and bombastic, to boot.  One of the less savoury characters in league history.  Son of the disliked Clarence Campbell, the man who ended the Rocket’s season and playoffs.  Have another can.

Ottawa is like a game and lame small-purse boxer, lurching in front of his home crowd, his girl screeching in the first row and seagulls wheeling on the wharf overhead.  For nearly twenty seconds, they nearly capsize the Habs.

Price.  And some luck.

Spezza’s sudden surfacing of ability is sickening.  He didn’t want to backcheck under Clouston and who knows what else.  What other expected hockey responsibilities.  And Spezza is not a man who takes criticism well.  Now Clouston is gone.  Wrong man.

Reward a baby and expect more of the same.

Jason Spezza is a grown man playing a spoiled child’s game.

Three on two.  Plekanec.  To Gionta.  Waits.  Fires a bit later than usual and this one is more likely to produce a rebound.  Gionta’s confidence is back.  That patience shows it.  He was shooting early to start the season.  The team is winning and Gionta doesn’t need to put the extra pressure on himself.

Eller line.

Diaz behind his net.  Sens keep it in but we are rewarded with a rare shove by Gill.  His man goes into the corner hard.  And legally.  Later in the shift, Gill takes a big hit of his own.  Backed into the glass, standing.

Stolen puck, Gionta.  Across.  Pacioretty.  He too waits.  Left side.  Riser.  Just over the crossbar.  Wrister with great velocity.

Like a damp grocery bag, Ottawa is slowly losing integrity.  They’re tired.  They’re out of position.  Gill finds Eller from the blue line. Eller turns and shoots.  Just wide.  Good touch in receiving it, back to the goalie and then turning to place it in shooting position.

Home Hardware’s guitar music is so depressing.  Even as it strives for a hoppity-red joy.

Price is left to right like a table-hockey goalie and the shot may as well be taken with a foam curling stone.

Seven and a half.

Seven.

Close-out.

Kostitsyn and Kuba.  Kostitsyn with turning chandelier and smooth cables.   Around his man.  Needs to evade and absorb what becomes a glancing end-board hit.  And the puck is lost to the second Sen.

Cole and Cammalleri are back on the bench.

Plekanec line.

Exactly six, says Houde.

Gionta shoots-passes it.  Misses them all.  Gonchar touches it.  Icing.

Gonchar is focused on.  His jersey is tucked up on the right side and I think back to how he let Moen get by him unimpeded in the 09-10 playoffs against Washington.  Moen scored on the play.

“If I live to be a thousand years old …”

Ditka on Harbaugh in a book about NFL and business.

People love criticizing Sergei Gonchar.   I hope I live to be a thousand.  Harbaugh checked down from a deep pass to a screen play and cost his team a sure TD.  And Ditka couldn’t understand it.

Another turnover.  Gionta.  Right in. Stopped.

Action continues but Anderson is in pain.  Down.  Gonchar hit Pacioretty into Anderson.  Marc Denis says that the goalie is shaken up.

Anderson fell, half into his left post and half onto the netting outside the post.

He stays in net and play resumes after about fifteen seconds.

Five minutes.

Three Habs back.  Four, Eller joins.

Sens centre anyway.  And Price is butterfly low and reaching forward.  Daugavins emerged from the hash and crossed the circle to shoot.  Snow spraying.

Sens win it.  Another net incursion.  Shot can’t be had.

And a shot.  And deflection.  And it’s.

Off the post.

Sure goal.

I hate this game.  Hockey.  Montreal should be leading by more than one wheedling goal.

Three and a half.

Way more.

Gill with a long pass to Desharnais at centre ice.  He clears it in for a line change.

Done.

Gonchar.  Across for Phillips.  Shot into the opposite corner.

Mild pressure.  Spacek ices.

Montreal’s losing start was full of posts and missed chances.  Should they win this game for their fourth in a row, the same can be said.

Montreal was the better team against Philadelphia in 07-08.  Just in case you were wondering.  They lost in five.  But dominated.  What a game. Hockey.

I hate hockey. I love the Canadiens.  My redundancy is just a reminder.

Ninety seconds.  Gorges.  Holding.  Stephen Walkom.  Why is this guy still reffing pro hockey games?

What a bully’s league.

Ottawa man-advantage.  Call may or may not have been legit.

If you think all refs are unbiased, you’ve got to think again.

All refs unbiased?  Based on what.  Training and rigid emphasis on ethics?  Or wishful thinking?

Ottawa controls and shoots.  But no dangerous chances.

Montreal survives.

Game ends.

Cole drains water into his goalie’s mouth.  Using a Gatorade container.

Three low fives.

Final Score
Montreal Canadiens 2
Ottawa Silver Seven 1

HDS Stars: Carey Price, Lars Eller, Erik Cole
RDS Stars: Erik Cole, Carey Price, Lars Eller

Related posts:

1. Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks
2. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
3. Montreal Canadiens vs. Los Angeles Kings
4. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
5. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
6. Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs