Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers

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 (16-20-8) host New York Rangers (28-10-4)

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Game Forty-Five (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)

 

Charles finishes off the US anthem, RDS coming in midway.  He’s ageing.  It’s been a long season for us all.

Paul Devorski and Mike Hasenfratz.  Devorski. Again.  I thought I sent out that memo.

First Period

Rangers win the draw.  Price stops it behind his net (Ed note: You meant Budaj, goon).  Girardi’s long shot is stopped by Budaj.  He was full of advice for Pacioretty during last night’s shootout.  Pacioretty shot.  And was stopped.  Budaj was animated and loquacious.  Eff.

He drops low and stops the puck.  Gathers it up like a favourite wallet.  Faceoff to his right.

I’m sure some people have multiple wallets.  Sure of it.

Habs barn out.  And are herded back in.  And the puck is out on the right.

Bourque.  Right side.  Backhander.  Crowd cheers on the rush and then after the save.  Bourque showed good acceleration.  He’s tall.  Six two.

Bourque is the new guy.  Over for Cammalleri.

Two minutes gone.

Something is happening.  Lundqvist is down.  Fallen backwards.  And then Pacioretty shoots over the sack.  And under the bar.  Desharnais went around the net and all men fell as from strings detached.  What is it about those long surround sound carries?

We love them.

Montreal 1, New York Rangers 0

Jeero.

New York.  I think many of us would love to live in New York.

Bourque is on the ice.  He’s focused.  We’re shown the replay.  Looked at the puck the whole way, tried to control it and then lifted it.  Shoulder angled to the net, showing Lundqvist his numbers.

Denis says Bourque has a great shot and likes being in front of the net.

Bourque hits a man hard.  Side boards.  Blunden is there to support Bourque.  Rangers don’t like it.  Bourque is robust.  Could have been called.  Shoulder to the head.

Moen and Bickel are going to fight.  Moen goes to a knee early but up quickly he resumes.  The fight is long and useless.  Each holds the other by an arm, recalling the Beat It video’s closing battle scene.

Knuckles crack plastic. And both teams tap their sticks in appreciation.

Appreciation.

For what.  Nobody is fired up.  Nobody’s fears have been assuaged.  It’s a nothing gesture.   And there were no fears to be assuaged.

Bourque’s arrival may have motivated Moen to showcase though I didn’t see who initiated.

I think Moen’s fighting days are done.  He’s too grown up, too reflective.  His prairie wisdom can’t be kept off the ice.  Seeing him fight is almost farcical.  It’s something he used to be.

Why the fork does prairie requires two “i”’s?

A Sunday evening crowd. How different is this group from a Saturday crowd?  And why am I craving Dr. Pepper?  Does (the) Pepper even exist anymore?

I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper …. Um.  Yeah.

The Rangers are winning games and somehow John Tortorella has been allowed to work his system and influence this disparate band of strangers.

The roster is a normal-looking Ranger roster; some high-priced free agents infiltrate a rag-tag bunch some from here and some from there with no seeming thought to cohesion, no theme.

But a closer look reveals a much younger Ranger team than in the Jagr days and a more robust defensive unit.  Tortorella is a fine coach and he’s a Stanley Cup champion (2004, Tampa Bay).

The media loves him.  He’s often blunt, revealing.

Gomez’ stick hits someone in the face. Neutral zone accident.

Rangers go to the man-advantage.  Gomez specializes in useless penalties.  A useful penalty is one that prevents a certain goal or a high-threat scoring chance.

Plekanec and Darche are up top for the closing segment.  Subban on the low right spot.  Diaz, opposite.

Rangers are forced out and re-enter offside.

Penalty ends.  Budaj stops a shot low and then shakes his head.

Kaberle looks like he wants to hide somewhere.  Rene Bourque looks to be taking in his surroundings and eager to acclimatize.  He’s from Lac La Biche.  I can’t help but be tickled.  I lived in Fort McMurray for four years and five, six summers.

Houde mentions the town now.  Calls it a village.

And my iced Vietnamese coffee has arrived.  Another inside technique on fighting a cold.

Right?

Budaj.  Compromised.  Doesn’t know where it is.  And the rebound is buried.  Look for the puck.  Look.  Oh, goodness.  Didn’t see it til it was too late.

I’m very used to Carey Price.  He would have found it.

Rangers 1, Canadiens 1

Under seven.

Gorges is reaching and then sending, from his left hash.

I’d play Price 72 games, too.  Those were his numbers last season.  Seventy-two starts in an eighty-two games season. About ten to fifteen above the norm.  The body, even for a young fella, needs time to recover from the games.

I wonder if the welting (from pucks) is what it used to be.  Today’s equipment suggests no.  But it adds up. And are there gaps between the pads?

Larry Carriere is spoken with.  Yep.  He’s definitely Anglo.  What a strong accent.  He talks about pucks and what the team needs to do.

Great.  Thanks, Larry.

Attribution of tone is a dangerous thing.  Especially in an email.  These musings are like very long, one-sided emails.

Carriere.  I don’t know enough about him.  He’s Gauthier’s left-hand man and has a long history as a scout.  He’s been installed as a spy, er, advisor on the bench for Cunneyworth and he has taken a media meeting or two for the coaching staff.  Spoken for Cunneyworth, I mean.  Strange, isn’t it?

But so were face guards, once.  I don’t know. I’m deciding.  This season is even more complex than the previous two.

Ice cubes that have absorbed coffee are quite heavy.  Intriguing.

I need a chemist on staff.

Two and a half.

Crowd is quiet.  Teams are trading turnovers.  Brandon Prust follows Gorges around the net.  Can’t catch him.  Now Gorges has Prust against the wall and glass behind the net.  Plekanec is able to walk away with it after Gorges does some good, falling to his knees work to kick it away from the Rangers.

Bourque is racing for a puck.  Can’t get to it.  The crowd responds. Rising anticipation.

Erik Cole is no longer the new guy.  Neither is Campoli.  Neither is Kaberle.  It’s Bourque, now.

The call-ups?  Sure.  They count.  Leblanc is back in the Steel City.  Blunden is still here.

Whistle.

Under a minute.

Rangers win it.  Pacioretty hops on it.  Puck goes long.  And he can’t beat his man to it.  Grits teeth.

Period fades away.  No further threats.  Three Rangers stand around, own zone, Cole watching the three as the siren goes.

Rangers led on shots 11-9.

First Intermission
Montreal 1, New York 1

Malkin had a five-point game today against some other hockey team.  Five points.  Five.  Second time this season.

Who’s the greatest.  Who’s the greatest.  Who.

Bourque makes a good first impression.  Damphousse says that we saw all the things we expected to see with him.  Forces to the net.  Robust.  Hits.  Attacks the net.  Yes, there is a distinction between forces to the net and attacks the net.  One is with the puck.  One is without.

I don’t have an editor.  I am the editor.  Yes.  Vader tone.

I am your editor.

No!

That can’t be.

(Ed note:  It is.  Search your feelings, Homme)

I’d apologize but it would dilute the dramatic impact of this unexpected revelation.

Ok.

I’m sorry.

I’m in action mode.  Keyboard balanced on one knee and Vietnamese Pho at my left, I’m ready for the second.

Who was that goalie that showered between periods?  Every period?  Could that even be true?

Second Period
Rangers 1, Canadiens 1

Because we’re the Canadiens you can say Gong Show all you want.  And it won’t matter.  The city shapes the team.  And this team’s history isn’t rife with the putrid cements of totalitarian hockey corruption.  Unlike Conny’s boys’.

We’ll be fine.  Knuckleheads have to walk in Montreal.  They stick around in permissive, forgiving Toronto.  There are nice things about that, sure.  I respect Toronto and their fans for their patience and trust.  It comes from a very good place.  An admirable set of qualities.

Just one demonstration.  Nathan Phillips Square.  Invite Sittler, Pinball and Barbara Hall (and that other white-haired smoothie).  Set a date.  And boycott.

I suppose the team is in different circumstances.  Perhaps better.

Miller.  David Miller.

Cole fwooms to the ice after delivering a hit.  The Ranger remains standing.  Habs keep it in.  The formation coagulates.  Rangers underneath, confused and bleeding blue.  Habs on the perimeter, in the shape of a star.  The shot.  The struggle.  And the puck is in the net.

Montreal 2, New York 1

Pacioretty.  Off his leg.

Long shot.  Off Bickel, too.  To the right of an unmoving Lundqvist.

The Rangers will unravel slowly. I can’t imagine the powers-that-be at MSG can keep from meddling and ruining what good they’ve got going now.  I’m only acknowledging what a nodding Ranger fan knows too well.  The sullen amiability of the knowledgeable Ranger fan.

Blunden.  Chance.  A second.  Gomez from the side of the net. From Gomez.  Brilliant pass.  Called for it.  Found the man.  And the goal. Gomez.  That’s what he was brought here for.  And that’s what he can do.

More.

Montreal 3, New York 1

Sickness is a series of unwanted pains and inconveniences.

Daft Punk’s One More Time cycles and pumps through the arena.  We get a long look at Andrei on the bench.  I never have to specify which one anymore, do I.

Andrei reminds me of someone.  Not Sergei.  Someone else.  Someone super-heroic.  Or villainaic, perhaps.

Cammalleri was happy to go.  But I think Gomez is a different case.  Gomez has a different sense of conscience about his play.  He can take more ownership.  But he needs to back up his words a bit more.   The extra work that we need to see.

He works, yes.  But there are missing pieces.  More of the in-traffic stuff.  And maybe working some new wrinkles into his offensive game.  Film-based creativity.

Ten and a half.

Rangers are playing a slow cautious brand.  Not a lot of interest from Gaborik on the forecheck, for example.

The amount of water lost in fighting sickness leads to physical annoyance.

Gill dives to keep a puck out of danger and the crowd’s admiration of the hulking defenceman increases yet again.  He can’t get off the ice and finds way

Another goal.

Dumped in.  Pacioretty.  Right hash, tick, tack and the finish.  Pacioretty sent it to the crease for the finish by Desharnais.

That’s how it’s done.

Montreal 4, New York 1

What about Old York?

Last night felt like a win, by the way.  Felt that way all night and this morning.  The loss in shootout format to Ottawa was another arrival for the team.

More battling.

Puck is free.  Bourque.  Digging, scooping and the ice chips are glistening.  Plekanec is nearby.

Rangers let Bourque jam at it.  And it stays in play.

Finally they’re out.

Long Montreal puck.  Icing.  The five stay on. Kostitsyn.

It’s as if he had parents that forced him to take hockey.  And he complied.  Like an Indian kid in engineering.  He’ll be competent.  But he won’t love it.  And one day he’ll phone and say he needs to be a tofu baker.  His true love.

They bake it don’t they?

Don’t they?

Pumpkin baker?

Richards is grimacing and skating about.  The demeanour of the very anointed.

Very anointed is when you’re tabbed and you actually come through.  And live up (more or less) to the expectations.  I’ll take substance over rep any day.

David Desharnais.

Brad Richards is consistent, one might say. But he’s no Brad Esposito.  I mean Phil.

Richards has 747 points in 814 NHL games.  The way he’s lauded one might think otherwise.  That he’s a point-a-game man.  He’s good.  But he’s no Rocket Richard.

Rocket Richards.

Around the pocket chance.  And then Gomez steps into the space and whicks it.  Stopped.

Three and a half.

Faceoff outside the Ranger blue.  Cole line.  Cole and Pacioretty meet behind the net and the puck stays on the left point.  Gorges shoots.  Stopped.  Wobbles in the crease.  But no shot.

Budaj montage.  Nineteen saves.  Denis says he’s been excellent for the most part.  Solid comme la rock, Denis says.  Roque?

Around the net.  Kept alive on the boards.  And then the Rangers have it.  Across.  To Staal.  Blasted down.  Two and two under the end line.
Richards is tripped in the muzzle.  What.  Where’s the call.  No replay yet.

Here’s Montreal.  Rush.  Blunted.

Gomez is pointing, patting arms, instructing, and talking to teammates and officials alike.

This is new or hasn’t been seen for a long time.  More to come and more to observe before we can decide.

Waiting under the end line.  Gomez.  Two forwards against two with Gomez waiting for the puck.  I don’t like the decision but if the puck floops free, it’s a good play.  It doesn’t.

And the Rangers are out.  Prust.  Offwing.  Very good fake to pass.  Keeps.  Shoots.  Beats Budaj.  Off the very large-looking post.

And the rebound is handled.

Lucky, lucky.  Just under forty seconds and the draw is down at Budaj’s right.  Gill helps move it out.  Bourque.  Left side.  Passes.  To Plekanec.  Backhand.  Around the net. It goes.  Bourque gain.  Backhand pass from the left post.  No finders.

And then Montreal resets and re-enters offside.

Bourque, wearing 27, is still on the ice.

I know his rep, I know his pedigree and I’ve seen video.  But I can’t help but like the kid.  Reminds me of Asham somehow.  A different kind of toughness.

Shots were tied at 11.

Rangers lead 22-20, overall.

Second Intermission
Montreal 4, New York Rangers 1

Or the Rovers.  There was once a New York Rovers team.  Farm team for the Rangers.  Back in the forties.  Al Rollins was an alum.  The goalie.

Third Period
Montreal 4, Rangers 1

Dunedin.

I guess I do need some new material.  What should I watch and read next?

Or do.

Blind nationalism is galling.  True.  Moving on doesn’t necessarily solve it.  But perhaps it’s a mistake to keep hammering.  I suppose I’m in the late stages of shock.  I thought the NHL was a better league than what I’ve discovered on this second tour.

It’s a long process for some.  Particularly your literary goon.

Let’s see where I grow.  I mean go.

Travis Moen is hurt and not back on the bench.  Denis informs us that he left in the second.  Desharnais wins the draw, stepping lightly forward to coup the puck and with another few ginger steps launches the wrister into the right corner.  Timing is off and nobody can retrieve.

Dumping in.  A science dependent on holding it for as long as possible as your wingers build up speed.

Canadiens are in.  Rangers want no part of it.  Eller.  Behind the net.  Finds Gomez alone on the right circle.  Tees and shoots.  Wide.

Around the perimeter.

Shot from the high circle.  Darche takes a shot in the throat.

Hustles off the ice quickly.  In pain but in control of his senses.  Two suited guys follow soon afterward.

I’m a believer in those neck guards.  The Velcro, itchy kind.  If more players wear them, more designers will be interested and motivated in improving the feel of such hockey garments.

Gomez.  Right side.  The quick stickhandling.  Closes to the net.  Backhander.  Now a crowd of sticks and poking.  Subban.  Others.  Puck stays out.

Crowd is in observation mode. Just over three minutes gone.

Rangers work it out.

Plekanec line.

Marc Staal down the left.  Puck is trapped on the boards, deep right.  Sticks and bodies.  And then it’s out.  Lines change.

Budaj stops one behind his net.

Desharnais.  Right side.  Pacioretty lights the rockers and chase from the slot into the corner when he sees Desharnais lose it.

Rangers stay ahead of the two forwards.

Darche is back after having been checked in the trainer’s room.

Blunden is on with him.  Blunden gets back to cover and goes past Gorges and into the corner to get a puck.  Now he’s on the other side.  This is how a winger should work.  Cammalleri?  He’d have hung out on the left point through the sequence.  And Rangers would have had a virtual power-play.

If you don’t watch the team, don’t defend Cammalleri.  It wasn’t English or French.  It was a do-nothing player daring to throw his team under the bus.  His sense of self so warped that he believed he was the only winner on the team.  It wasn’t even honesty.  It was delusion.  Decide who you want to align yourself with.  And accept the consequences.

Montreal sets up.  It looks like a man-advantage.  Rangers aren’t breathing well.

One shot.  A second.  Scrum.  Habs can’t jam it in.

And Lundqvist settles this one, closing a manacle on the puck.

Maybe I’ve never believed the value of silence until now.

In writing theory one often hears that readers don’t want to be sermonized, don’t want to be lectured.  I’ve never minded and maybe that’s why I deliver in that way.

But.  More to say.  More to come.

Plekanec leaves the ice and is standing in the hallway to the trainer’s room.  Some facial injury, perhaps.  No blood.

Ranger entry.  Offwing.  Budaj flicks the glove and the puck is hidden.  Stoppage.

Nine and a half left.

Bourque takes a neutral ice pass.  Small pass to Kostitsyn on the left.  Around the net.

And a whistle.  Bourque leaves the ice.  Says a word or two to Kostitsyn.  Doesn’t look at him directly.  They both leave the ice.

I stare accusingly at my Pinnacle Studio set-up.  It’s decided to stop jagging and warping the picture and is capturing smoothly after a three-minute personal vacation.

Tortorella is shown.  Smiling, tasting a lemony irony, he stares across the ice, over his players’ heads but seems to be listening to commentary from his bench.

Is he unhappy with the officiating?

The action is sloppy.  Both teams struggle with perception.  Canadians want to tell themselves they’re a team that can protect a lead.  Rangers want to convince those parties that care about such things that they’re not mailing it in.

Bourque.  High energy.  Eller.  Much lower.  Eller is going to have to reflect on his four-goal game.  One last time.  And leave it be.

Interference.  Carl Hagelin.  Boofed Kostitsyn to the ice.  Body on body.  Nothing nasty.

Faceoff deep right.  Two and seventeen.

I finally hit my energy stride (the supper kicked in).

It’s a bit late for this.  I could muse a heritage game, I suppose.

Desharnais line.  Forty-five seconds elapse before the Habs control deep.  Kaberle and Subban pass back and forth.

Kaberle looks more convincing this game.

More focused.  Thinking and deciding.

Who is Tomas Kaberle, anyway?

Leafs would know.

He was always good against Montréal.  But I’ve been told that certain guys only show up for Montreal games.

Eight games a year.  Or six.  Whatever it may be.

Power-play drains away.

Standing ovation.  Seems a bit much.  But it’s a been a rough season.

And a bad two weeks.

Stand, then.  I would too.  But I’m recovering.

They congratulate Budaj.

Final Score
Montreal 4
New York Rangers 1

HDS Stars: David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty, Brandon Prust
RDS Stars: Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais, Erik Cole

Related posts:

1. Montreal Canadiens vs. Carolina Hurricanes
2. Montreal Canadiens vs. Washington Capitals
3. Montreal Canadiens vs. New Jersey Devils
4. Montreal Canadiens vs. Washington Capitals
5. Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers
6. Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers