Montreal Canadiens vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
December 7, 2011, by Homme de Sept-Îles
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 (11-13-3) host Columbus Blue Jackets (7-16-3)
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Game Twenty-Eight (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 23 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)
Reseau colour-man Marc Denis (former NHL goalie) is featured in a montage highlighting his 77 games in a single season with Columbus. He set a record for minutes played with 4511. If he wasn’t a member of the RDS crew, this wouldn’t be a feature. Denis is solid and likeable but the video gesture makes me think of other careers, story-lines and accomplishments exaggerated through repetition because a guy in the booth had some history. Don Cherry’s four Cupless seasons behind the Bruin bench come to mind. And his lone pro game as a player.
Having the attitude and verbosity of a publicist can help any athlete both during and after his career. If we’re talking about optics and legacies. Having a quiet demeanour has a similar but reversed effect.
The great Joe Sakic comes to mind. One of the greatest players of the past fifteen years, his praises are not sung as loudly (shrilly) as say, Steve Yzerman’s. Or several others. Or Jeremy Roenick. Yzerman effects humility, after all.
The Mechant Mardi lead-up rolls. It’s pretty bad.
Some decent video clips. But the song. Oy. And the singers. Yikes.
Pacioretty is back after hitting Letang and getting suspended for three games. We’re shown the replay and I recall that Letang paused, saw Pacioretty and shot anyway. Reminds me of that character played by Michael Keaton in Pacific Heights. The one that made a living by provoking people into assualthing him. Creepy film. Letang? Hard to say. A strange play. Pacioretty, not a pleasant figure himself, said he saw the whites of Letang’s eyes and that this gave him a green light.
So he took it. Letang might have known and decided to take one for the team. To draw a penalty or worse. Just a thought.
Curtis Sanford and Carey Price are the goalies. David Banfield and Dave Jackson are the refs.
First Period
Jackson resembles (Philadelphia’s) Chris Pronger. Try not to hold that against him.
Pacioretty, Gionta and Plekanec are the starting line for Montreal.
Desharnais line. Cammalleri on the right. Desharnais behind the net. Again, the presence so reminiscent of Marcel Dionne. He’s much smaller than Dionne but he holds his head up with the same determination.
Blue Jackets score. Backhand by Aaron Johnson off a right side entry and the rebound was to the slot. Price was very slow to move. Odd.
Columbus 1, Montreal 0
I contemplate the differences between the 78-79 Habs and the 11-12 unit.
It isn’t fair, of course. The 10-11 unit was much better than this one. So far. And the team has had terrible luck with defencemen this season. And it isn’t fair in general, as well. Different eras. Different competitive environments. And so on.
Once upon a time, these excuses weren’t meaningful. Teams have caught the Canadiens both in methods and in personnel. Up and down the building. Not just the ice surface. The Canadiens (and their fans) are learning what the Raiders learned before them. Dominance is not permanent. Though decades of success can warp the senses.
The team was first fractured in the nineties when they traded Patrick Roy. The hiring of Rejean Houle and Mario Tremblay) not long before the trade) were also turning points. The man in charge? Ronald Corey. Not too well-liked to this day. He was featured (or will be?) recently by RDS. A chance to correct his image. But an image is a perception. And I have no time for forgiveness.
Fourteen left.
Habs pressure. Sanford stands tall.
It’s taken years to recover from the Ron Corey years and the team may not get all the way back. But it’s possible. And there are certainly many more good hockey men in the building than in, say, 1996. Or 2002.
Cammalleri finds Cole in the slot. Sanford stretches fully and nabs the puck in his glove.
Emelin takes a puck off the draw and turns it over immediately. Return rush sees the team close and in coverage ode. They manage the works well and the puck is out of play.
The Blue Jackets are one of the worst teams in the league.
Going into Saturday’s game they were in last place. In the league. Thirty-team league.
Weber and Gill low. Long puck allows changes.
Habs skate hard into the zone following a retrieval. Leblanc and Darche are flying.
Jared Boll tried to take Subban’s head off but missed on the mid-boards. Subban responded by whipping Bolls’ helmet off and tossing it. All very casual. Boll sits on the bench minus his helmet. Lesson learned?
Wisniewski carries from behind his net. His first game against Montreal since leaving this summer (he was unsigned). Some guys are traded. Some guys aren’t worth it.
Moen deep left. Eller follows. Whammed. Jackets try another hit. Puck leaves but he Canadiens are unmussed.
Moen on the let. Up for Eller. To the slot , a pass. And a near thing.
Habs retrieve.
Gionta and Plekanec follow. Pacioretty skittering on the boards.
How long can a character like Pacioretty pretend to be hard-working and genial?
Canadiens are a better team but the game takes time to show it. Here’s an open net. Plekanec from the right circle. Misses everything.
And it’s out of play. He grits his teeth. No consolation requested.
Rick Nash was another Next One. He’s forgotten now. How convenient. The sizable Nash is 27 and sports the number 61. Look at me. I’m unique.
Maybe I need a chocolate bar or something.
Shot from the blue. Emelin. Wobbly rebound and the Cole line can’t convert.
Five minutes.
Gorges tripped Letestu. Letestu fell as he approached the right corner. Did he fall on purpose? If so, he got up rather quickly, full interest in the puck.
Columbus power-play. They’re at 12.9 coming in. There are actually four teams with worse percentages.
They work the perimeters. They find Wisniewski. A wasted dead-heavy disc. He’s on the left point. One of the better shots in the Western conference. At least for velocity.
The period ticks away. Finally Cammalleri and Kostitsyn combine. The Belarusian beats Sanford in the low slot after a perfect pass from Cammalleri. High to the left.
About two seconds left in the period.
Montreal 1, Columbus 1
Columbus led on shots 10-7.
First Intermission
Montreal 1, Columbus 1
Maybe it’s up to this team to lead us out here.
Or me.
Second Period
Montreal 1, Columbus 1
Price with a big save to open the period. And they play the theme from the original Superman film. A bit much. Price doesn’t like the Jesus Price stuff, either.
Reseau nods to Nash saying that he’s in the top six since 03-04 for goal scorers. What about since the lockout? What about in the past two years?
One minute gone.
Plekanec is low. Gill Has Dorsett a little higher at the left hash. Taken. Cleared. Icing.
Yeah. Sugar. And coffee. I’m fighting someone else’s cold. It’s going to lose. You know. The kind that’s brought to work.
Cole is in. Lunge-stick and then a pass through legs. Nice play.
Faceoff to Sanford’s left. Penalty against the Blue Jackets. Columbus’ coach looks rather sure et certain. There are a lot of smug guys in this league.
Some pressure from Montreal. But the power-play sees Price end the advantage with a save.
Nash leads a rush. Diaz’ stick got stuck in Nash. Automatic call. Nash got the pass across a bit far. Price’s right post.
Letestu fires it in behind Price. He torques a high one out from behind his net.
Action stays on the boards.
Habs keep messing up the Blue Jackets’ entries.
Twenty-two seconds.
Puck is out again.
The Jackets are looking rather incompetent. A baseball swipe at the right point leads to an easy and dangerous incursion by one Canadien. Nothing of worth results. But the Jackets are not impressing. They haven’t all game.
Sanford scoops up a puck. Jackets make up for their lack in skill with some threats after the play. Small gathering.
Mark Methot showed his pedigree by bashing Eller after a legit hit. Methot is from Ottawa, Ontario. Don’t mess with us. You’re not allowed.
Jared boll is swearing at the ref after a call. It’s time to introduce technical fouls to the NHL. The call is on the border as Diaz was falling but there’s enough for a call. Dave Jackson, an old vet doesn’t seem fazed by Boll’s outburst.
Montreal power.
Early penalty against Montreal. NO blood. Gionta’s stick hit Nikitin in the face looking backward for a puck lost on the sword swing.
Eleven and a half. We go to four on four.
Maybe just my heart is sick.
Gorges with a trailer reception and s host wide. Big space and puck is wild. Here’s Subban. Fires. Misses. Ach.
Another rush.
Cole to the net. Pauses and Tyutin times it perfectly and bumps the momentarily clipped Cole off the puck.
Best hockey of the game.
Jackets. They complete some passes. Into the left side.
Stopped. Emelin ices a guy. Ba-boof. He’s getting more and more confident, said Denis last period. He likes hitting and he’s good at it. The clean kind. The Lanny McDonald kind. Strategic. Robust. Clean.
Gionta is down on the ice. Gets up holding his nose. Gionta gets up and returns to the bench. To the trainers’ office. Methot is the culprit.
A bit toothless, he looks around for approval and a bottle of cheap beer.
Subban didn’t like the gesture. Don’t attack team captains. Let’s see how Methot survives.
RJ Umberger drives to the net and scores. Houde says that this guy is at home at the Bell Centre. Beats Price on the short side through the pads. He’s a garbageman (or do you prefer garbage man) but somehow he has Price’s number. We recall the damage he did in Montreal’s series against the Flyers in 2007-08. Umberger was like Bobby Orr for a five-game blip. Not the kind of guy you’d want rubbing your Genie. Or is that lamp?
Columbus 2, Montreal 1
Under eight.
Jackets control.
For those who think firing Martin will solve problems and right the ship, it won’t. Change is incremental in the modern NHL. Any team that is able to make a quick jump was probably doing a lot of things very wrong. Jumping from 30th to 20th is easier than jumping from 20th to tenth.
Six minutes.
Big collision. The Jackets are a team of misfits, lame-ards and punks. Who runs this outfit? What a joke.
Yeah, lame-ards.
Penalty against Derek Dorsett.
Kindersley, Saskatchewan. Get a postage stamp. Drink some gas.
Penalty ends with little threat.
And your Jackets executive (the hockey operations people) are a group of moose gutters.
Umberger gets free. Skating in that wide stance of his, he tries a deke and Price reminds the limited forward that it’s 2011. But a call against the Canadiens leads to a power-play to close the period.
Second Intermission
Columbus 2, Montreal 1
No excuses.
Third Period
Columbus 2, Montreal 1
Habs kill off the penalty with a Price save, knees down and turning as he moved left to right. And cleared.
Price makes a save on an offwing entry by Nash. Deadly shot repelled with the blocker.
Fifteen and a half.
Diaz’ wrist shot is blocked. Cole has it a moment in the slot but his shot is blocked.
Leblanc, with a high shot, misses it all from the left side.
Nokelainen line. Subban is low and clears it around the boards.
Montreal entry is rebuffed. Gionta tries a move around Dorsett and is topped.
Another failed entry. Wisniewski stopped it.
Two deep and they lose the puck.
Pahlsson on the right. Best pace of the game. Both teams work and search, the short passes are better and the forecheck is alive on both ends.
Eller. Cross ice. Covered. Habs retain. Lead pass and Eller has to chase.
Subban retrieves. The clouds will part soon. Kostitsyn’s shot goes up and into the crowd.
Eller squints in the artificial sun.
Stoppage.
Desharnais deep right. Loses it to Jeff Carter. Yes, that Jeff Carter. He wears number seven now. Seventeen in Philadelphia. Flyers change is nearly complete. And Jagr will be a torch and flower in the playoffs.
Subban rings one off the post.
Sixty wins. Forget it. Fifty-five? Most won’t. Vancouver had 54 last season. Washington 54, the year before.
It’s become a game of inches and a league featuring parity like no other. Even the NFL.
Eleven eighteen.
Around the Columbus board. To Gill at the blue. Out of play. Subban’s shot is shown. Off Pacioretty’s stick and Sanford was beaten.
Plekanec loses the faceoff to Vermette, former Senator. Jackets are braked at the hash. Across. And turned over in Montreal ice.
Gionta is on.
Another stoppage.
Only eight Russian defencemen in the league. Four are on Columbus. Gonchar is one of them. Rag-tag.
Tyutin, too.
Jackets are 75% on the PK, by the way. Strugglers.
Ten oh two.
Desharnais. Cole. Pacioretty.
Lines change and Price brooms the puck behind his net.
It’s to the other end.
Eller finds Gorges on the opposite point for Gorges. Launches. Not enough time and he can’t get all of it.
Back to the boards. Sticks and shoulders. And the Jackets are going slowly. Pahlsson takes a shift off, for example.
Plekanec to Gionta. Cammalleri trailing. Wisniewski interrupts.
Gill finds the puck at mid-ice.
Carter with some jump. Has it deep right for a moment. Doesn’t get low and loses the puck.
Carter isn’t the machine he once was. And it wasn’t that long ago.
Denis is asked if the Jackets are as bad as their record. He lists some personnel changes and an injury and suspension that held them back. The diplomat.
Houde adds that the visitors are playing a more stable brand in recent games.
Under eight.
Wisniewski carries. Launches. Carter is there. Diaz gets to it first. Around. Emelin. Short for Moen. To Eller on the right. Kostitsyn emerges. Curls around high. Has it again coming down the left. Just misses. Big circles. Because he can. Because he saw how Kovalev could
Brief shot of head coach Scott Arniel. One of the funnier coaching staffs in the NHL. Todd Richards is an assistant. His bio includes a highlighting of a 19% efficient power-play unit he ran in Minnesota. Twenty is league midpoint.
Delayed offside. Gorges is talking and pointing. He felt it went off someone else. Stoic response.
Nice hit behind the Columbus net by Montreal. But no puck.
Gill takes down a man and then falls on him. Takes his time getting up.
Five and a half.
Five and nineteen.
Interception. Nash. Carter. Open. Missed. What did he miss, exclaims Houde. Game finisher, that’s what.
Columbus.
The boos begin.
As they should.
Four and a half.
No excuses.
Subban with a long shot from the right point.
It was Eller’s failed pass that led to the two-on-one against.
Carter knows he should have had it. He shakes his head more to himself than anyone else and finishes a sip of his Gatorade. Green.
He’s different. Changed. Trades have a way of doing that. Particularly trades from Philadelphia. What is it about that city? Yes, I’m including trades from the Eagles and the Sixers.
Something about leaving that city has an effect. Mostly good. But I wonder about McNabb. Iverson began distributing the ball. And Carter? Something.
It’s a tough sports town. Hard-core. Hard-nosed.
I wonder what Vermeil says about it. Barkley.
Two and a half.
Deep left. Lost. Kostitsyn chases with purpose and then precision and gets the puck for an instant before being knocked over by Derek Dorsett. Helmet falls off. Dorsett’s.
One of those “I’m skating so hard” guys. Speed of a gnat.
I wonder when Ryan White is coming back.
Ninety seconds. Montreal enters.
Price leaves the net. We score.
Gionta. Right side. Plekanec backhanded a puck to the crease. Off a defenceman. And popped in by the captain. Or was it even touched by Gionta? Oh. Yes.
Montreal 2, Columbus 2
Gionta. No moustache. No goatee. Looking as he did in the Devil days, and some patchwork on his top teeth after the hit in the second. He’s on the bench and nearly expressionless.
Under a minute.
Pacioretty. Looking. Rear pass. Misses. Two on one. Pacioretty got back Gorges ended the play.
Montreal rush. Cole is taken down. Falls into the net. Sanford spilled, net off the moorings. And no call. Cole doesn’t’ like it. Neither does the crowd.
We resume with a faceoff to Sanford’s right.
Plekanec, Cammalleri and Gionta.
The three veer and turn as one to chase the puck. Lost faceoff. Again.
Right point. Price doesn’t see it. Does. Nicks it away.
Price stops Carter point blank.
What a third period from Price.
He was presented the Molson Cup to start the game. Player of the month.
Siren.
Shots were tied at eight. Columbus led 26-19, overall.
Gionta’s goal was his eighth. Emelin recorded his first assist on the play.
Overtime
Montreal 2, Columbus 2
Four on four for five minutes.
Houde says that the Jackets have given up five goals in four on four situations this season.
Cole and Desharnais to start.
Umberger and Pahlsson for Columbus. Jackets. To the slot. Blocked. Umberger whacks at it in the muzzle. Price has the pad down and across. Left pad. Stoppage.
Faceoff to Price’s left.
Around the net. Habs start it off. Gorges to Subban. Long for Plekanec. Brakes and finds Subban. Just wide. Three deep. Subban back. Finds the puck that escaped. Carries. Beats one man, around another and the shot is wide.
Four minutes.
Diaz and Emelin low. Cammalleri and Pacioretty. Who’s going to make the passes? Two black holes.
Offside.
Jackets win the draw. Tyutin. Carries. Keeps. Shoots after a lazy stroll though the garden.
Out.
And back in. Emelin was hit by someone. He gets revenge with the stick. Then legally with a huge check. No call.
It’s hockey.
Youppi is in the other corner tonight. Is it his overtime spot?
Two and a half.
On the perimeter. Looks like five on five.
Subban carries. Long pass. Off a stick. Eller struggles for it. Has it. Cole drops it into legs. Why. Somehow his pucks have sense.
Cole is found on the re-entry. Shot. Through legs and stopped.
Cole is hit behind the net and the crowd down there is enraged. Cole to the bench. Making mouth movements to recover feeling and sense.
Seventy seconds.
Long shot. Calm a save as you’ll ever see. Standing straight up, he shrugs a shoulder and puck, yes, it’s in his glove. The black pops up a moment.
Dorsett was the one who got the payback from Emelin. He’s improving.
One minute.
Plekanec and Gionta. Plekanec turns and brakes. To the right point or Subban. Can’t create.
Forty seconds. Vermette. Low circle. Shot. High.
Thirty.
Cammalleri and Pacioretty.
Subban. Pushes with one arm, uses the other to ward off. Works it up. It changes sticks. Mid-ice. Two seconds. Jackets are in, backs to the play. Siren.
Subban is down on the ice. Checks his mouth. Up to one knee. A bit out of breath. And he’s ok.
He took a stick to the face after diving to stop a pass.
Subban d Price share a lip and a kiss motion. Cute. Subban with the lips. You’re alright, buddy.
Shootout
Columbus 2, Montreal 2
Didn’t think I’d even make it to 3000 tonight. I’ve had a poor night. Eh? Worst night of the season for ol’ HDS. Word-total-wise. Too bad I woke up so late.
Shooters lists are provided for the refs. I like that younger ref. Banfield.
Ok, les boyz!
Desharnais starts.
Scruffy. Focused. What else. Jeans and oil.
Shot from the low slot. Over the crossbar.
Johansen. Ryan Johansen.
First shootout attempt of his career.
Down the middle. Brakes. Tries the backhand. This time the brake doesn’t work.
Pacioretty.
Not a deker.
Shot and it’s blocked. Blocker. No movement from the goalie.
Wrister.
Nash. Their captain.
Very quick hands. Still has it all. Beautiful goal. Right left but a few left-right on the way.
Gionta. Must score.
Backhander after the fake. Stopped.
Sanford resists.
Final Score
Columbus 3
Montreal 2 (SO)
HDS Stars: Alexei Emelin, Hal Gill, Carey Price
RDS Stars: Rick Nash, RJ Umberger, Andrei Kostitsyn
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