PITTSBURGH - At what point does it stop being a fluke? When does it actually become a formula for victory?
Is four times enough?
Four times where the Canadiens grabbed a lead and held on for dear life. Four times where they hoped that Jaroslav Halak would bail them out. Four times where the Canadiens allowed a ton of perimeter shots but actually did a reasonably good job protecting the front of their net. Four times where a game that looks like they should have lost instead turned into a win.
It's not a marvelous formula for winning. But it's working.
The only question is what happens if the Canadiens don't get a lead they need to protect? How do they win then?
For four of the past five games they haven't needed to worry about that question. They got their second period lead and sat on it. Successfully.
Halak is a big part of that, the penalty killers are a big part of that, and Jacques Martin's defensive system that everyone appears to adhere to is also a big part of that.
But the question remains: What does Martin do to overcome a deficit?
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
In the meantime, here's my story today for The Canadian Press and I wrote kind of the same thing I just did here for CBC.ca, except it's a lot longer. It hasn't been posted as I'm typing this, but you can find it here.
Can't wait to get back home Monday, I would imagine Montreal is jumping tonight.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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26 comments:
They did overcome a deficit tonight, but I suppose you're talking about later in the game?
Apart from the somewhat fluky second period, I thought they did quite well.
Carey Price smashes his goal stick against the goalpost - 2 minute penalty for unsportsmanship conduct and the CANADIAN media/announcers call Price completely out of control!
Sidney "perfect human being in the world" Crosby smashes and breaks his hockey stick and the SAME announcers praise him for "just being frustrated because all he wants to do is win".
I'm not starting to like Cry-baby Crosby.
The stick broke and hits the goalie, and he thens throws the broken stick. The throw was worth 2 minutes on it's own. TSN says Moore held him up on the play. That didn't happen either.
Are you suggesting this is all luck?
considering that i'm used to watching the habs fold after they get scored on, i have more hope of coming out of a deficit now than i did the entire second half of the season. : )
Dirtiest player in NHL, the coward and thug Cooke with an IQ of about 3 which he inherited from his 2 IQ daddy and 1 IQ momma. Listen to this ingnoramous's whine today.
ap
"Penguins' hit man Matt Cookie is saying his foot was nearly cut by P.K. Subban's skate in Game 2 and links the incident to Jordan Staal's cut in Game 1. "It’s the second time (it’s happened),” Cooke told the Beaver County Times. "I know it’s not a penalty when skates collide but for that to happen in back-to-back games by the same guy is suspicious."
by that logic my IQ would be over 240 if both my parents were around 120
where is Paul Mara?
supposedly mara hurt his shoulder and would be out for this series after missing the previous one and a bunch of games before the regular season ended BUT there was talk back then that mara had played his last game for the habs because of poor play? today martin in tallking about subban said he's doing a great job considering even more so that markov, spacek and MARA are all injured. another thing today- it seems markov is NOT out for the year as CBC reported. canadiens have said nothing. remember camallerri too was supposedly out for the year. besides habs can use the injury to make an emergency callup of weber so it is not as bad as it seems.
how do call ups and emergency call ups work? We are out of call ups now right? If hamilton is eliminated can we call more players up? or only if there is an injury situation?
martin/gainey/gauthier almost were too late by the time they called up subban, the series could have been over. this genius gainey benched ryder for the entire philly series 2 years ago- ryder was habs leading scorer vs, philly all season. habs lost last 4 games of that series. now gainey fights with laraque and i think mara too who stopped playing NOT BECAUSE OF AN INJURY but now they say he is injured. ribeiro, samsonov and grabovski another 3 gainey couldnt push around. i guess begin too. the head games of gainey and
his phony stepping down - he and gauthier TOGETHER have run this team for 7 years since 2003 and still are as you see the 2 of them in the booth together. the habs are where they are right now with this LOSING RECORD THIS ENTIRE YEAR AND PLAYOFFS in
spite of bob gainey and gauthier!
re:callups
yes if hamilton is eliminated all can be called up
but in an injury emergency situation habs right now could call up weber if they wanted to. but you saw the dimwits gainey and gauthier NOT call up subban until it was almost too late and the team already eliminated.
Bettman wants the whing canadian wimp gutless crosschecker in the back crosby in the finals as he is bettmans poster boy. big crosby really showed his guts and his class crosschecking 5 fot 9 cammaleri in the back. with no penalty of course. just like when he crosschecked ruutu and should have been thrown out of the game. the crybaby doesnt sdhut his yap crying to the refs. ovechkin is a better player than this prima donna. only reason he won championships is he played for a better canada team than ovechkins russians and because he has malkin and ovechkin has no such player. this was a 39 minute 0-0 game. a game shortened to 21 minutes. THEN refs call a chintzy holding penalty for holding the crosschecker crosby, then crosby gets involved in a skirmish among the first 2 players battling as period ends BUT OF COURSE he does not get sent to the box to start the period which would mean he is not on the power play. and presto with habs 2 penalty kill defensemen in the box BETTMAN'S REFS DECIDE THE GAME THE WAY BETTMAN WANTED IT DECIDED. and now bettman can go back to new york city - got himself a chicago win and a pittsburgh win the last 2 days. and insists reinsdorf with the lowest bid wins the phoenix franchise. well done gary! great control of your refs tonight. all it took them was 2 calls to decide this game! bravo!
all i know that if carter and gagne return in the bruins series, whoever the penguins will meet in the next round either philly or bruins, will lay a beating on cooke and mr perfect canadian the crybaby crosby.
he kicked out and tried to slice a habs players legs to start that skirmish last night at the end of the 2nd period when he was lying on the ice. and was part of the first fight. malkin took off his gloves in another battle that ensued. BUT pens had just started the power play and the greedball dwarf bettman was there in montreal at the game and neither crosby nor malkin were sent to the box but the habs 2 best penalty killing defensemen were. gill for the chintzy call, then gorges who merely was defending himself.
even bob mckenzie and the others on tsn said malkin and crosby should have been in the penalty box when the power play ONLY GOAL OF THE GAME was scored by pittsburgh breaking the 0-0 tie.
this bettman and his nbc crap deal based on having ovechkin or crosby as the face of hockey has ruoined the credibility of the officials and the sport.
jeffrey pollack is bettmans half brother - same mother. he is commissioner of world series of poker. who bettman deals with as he moved nhl awards ceremonies to same vegas casino. same tournament the pled guilty to taking bookmaking bets from players rick tocchet played in after tocchet was given a leave of absense by gretzky whose wife bets $10,000 on the coin flips of super bowl games. then bettman allows the convicted bookmaker/bet carrier tocchet to coach the tampa bay team.
this sport is no longer on the level. thank gary bettman!
Bettman controls the weather as well!
Nice blog. Thanks for sharing this information.
Where Les Canadiens are not liked in the least
When The Toronto Sun and Don Cherry both speak out against Reffing against Montreal, the Refs had to be blatently terrible.
c/p TORONTO SUN
MONTREAL — There was plenty of good reason for whining and moaning at Bell Centre Thursday night, and not by Sidney Crosby.
The Habs were screwed over big-time by the refs in the first period of what would become a stunning 3-2 victory over the Penguins. Up 1-0 on the softest goal given up by a netminder in these playoffs, Montreal held the lead for all of 53 seconds — until Ruslan Fedotenko’s tackle of P.K. Subban at the Penguins’ blue line allowed Max Talbot to make good on a breakaway.
“I knew Fedotenko would make a contribution at some point this spring,” mused one Pittsburgh writer.
A half-minute later, Hal Gill was sent off for holding, and with the Penguins on the power play, Crosby tripped Roman Hamrlik in the Habs’ zone.
Now, it could be argued that Hamrlik was guilty of some embellishment, but it wasn’t blatant embellishment. It could have easily been called and, with Paul Devorski and Eric Furlatt having ignored the Fedotenko takedown, it should have been.
The thundering “Referees Suck” chants started up after Crosby banked a pass off both of Chris Kunitz’s feet (what, Sid didn’t mean to do that? Please.) to put the Penguins up moments later, and picked up again when Mark Eaton clotheslined Andrei Kostitsyn without being called for it with five minutes left in the period.
“We battled through a lot tonight,” admitted centre Dominic Moore. “We weren’t getting a lot of bounces early in the game.”
That’s a diplomatic way to put it. The fans finally had enough in the third, when Mathieu Darche was given a penalty 1:40 after the Habs, bravely clinging to a one-goal lead, had killed off a boarding call on Brian Gionta. They tossed onto the ice wave towels and anything else they could get their hands on, but while the customers lost their composure, the Habs maintained theirs.
They killed that penalty, too, and hung on to even the series and ensure at least one more game at Bell Centre this season.
“It’s part of playoff hockey,” Gionta said of forging through the adversity. “You’ve got to keep your emotions in check. You can’t worry about things that you can’t control.”
Even the rookie Subban, who struggled early in his eighth NHL game, showed remarkable maturity.
“To be honest, I didn’t see whether the guy grabbed my leg or not. I’m not going to debate that,” he said. “It’s playoff hockey. You’re not going to get the calls every time. I’m not saying the ref missed a call or anything like that. You’ve just got to stick with it. The game carries on. There’s lots of hockey to be played at that point. It’s a challenge for me to learn these things and how to battle back from things like that.”
It’s a good thing the Habs came back to win this one, or it could have been a busy night for Montreal police. In a playoff season that has seen 27 too many men on the ice penalties called, the Habs had to beat not just the defending champions, but also two referees.
Where Les Canadiens are not liked in the least
When The Toronto Sun and Don Cherry both speak out against Reffing against Montreal, the Refs had to be blatently terrible.
c/p TORONTO SUN
MONTREAL — There was plenty of good reason for whining and moaning at Bell Centre Thursday night, and not by Sidney Crosby.
The Habs were screwed over big-time by the refs in the first period of what would become a stunning 3-2 victory over the Penguins. Up 1-0 on the softest goal given up by a netminder in these playoffs, Montreal held the lead for all of 53 seconds — until Ruslan Fedotenko’s tackle of P.K. Subban at the Penguins’ blue line allowed Max Talbot to make good on a breakaway.
“I knew Fedotenko would make a contribution at some point this spring,” mused one Pittsburgh writer.
A half-minute later, Hal Gill was sent off for holding, and with the Penguins on the power play, Crosby tripped Roman Hamrlik in the Habs’ zone.
Now, it could be argued that Hamrlik was guilty of some embellishment, but it wasn’t blatant embellishment. It could have easily been called and, with Paul Devorski and Eric Furlatt having ignored the Fedotenko takedown, it should have been.
The thundering “Referees Suck” chants started up after Crosby banked a pass off both of Chris Kunitz’s feet (what, Sid didn’t mean to do that? Please.) to put the Penguins up moments later, and picked up again when Mark Eaton clotheslined Andrei Kostitsyn without being called for it with five minutes left in the period.
“We battled through a lot tonight,” admitted centre Dominic Moore. “We weren’t getting a lot of bounces early in the game.”
That’s a diplomatic way to put it. The fans finally had enough in the third, when Mathieu Darche was given a penalty 1:40 after the Habs, bravely clinging to a one-goal lead, had killed off a boarding call on Brian Gionta. They tossed onto the ice wave towels and anything else they could get their hands on, but while the customers lost their composure, the Habs maintained theirs.
They killed that penalty, too, and hung on to even the series and ensure at least one more game at Bell Centre this season.
“It’s part of playoff hockey,” Gionta said of forging through the adversity. “You’ve got to keep your emotions in check. You can’t worry about things that you can’t control.”
Even the rookie Subban, who struggled early in his eighth NHL game, showed remarkable maturity.
“To be honest, I didn’t see whether the guy grabbed my leg or not. I’m not going to debate that,” he said. “It’s playoff hockey. You’re not going to get the calls every time. I’m not saying the ref missed a call or anything like that. You’ve just got to stick with it. The game carries on. There’s lots of hockey to be played at that point. It’s a challenge for me to learn these things and how to battle back from things like that.”
It’s a good thing the Habs came back to win this one, or it could have been a busy night for Montreal police. In a playoff season that has seen 27 too many men on the ice penalties called, the Habs had to beat not just the defending champions, but also two referees.
Good story by Arpon
http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/806495--tom-pyatt-goes-from-anonymous-trade-throw-in-to-playoff-performer-for-canadiens
Game 5 of the Bos/Phi series AND game 6 of the Mtl/Pit series are BOTH to be played Mon May 10. Why? BECAUSE Montreal after a middle of the night flight from Washington after a tough game 7 and a day rest was forced to start their series BEFORE the Bos/Phi series that had 2 resting teams already long ready to start their own series. And even now have played a game more. So look at it - the ONLY game of the Montreal/Pittsburgh series that was NOT close was that first game where the tired out Montreal team (with 4 power play goals served on them by the refs)were forced to play by the NHL "brass". And then the refereeing that was committed against them. This is a disgrace!
Hey Anon, why don't you get your own blog where you can expand upon your conspiracy theories.
Leave this one for people to discuss their favorite team.
hello?
so the habs get wiped out by philly in an easy 5 making the playoff record of the habs 9-10 and if you add the 3 final playoff games of the season habs needed bad to even make the playoffs all 3 losses to powerhouses carolina, islanders and leafs or in total closed the hockey year with a fabulous 9-13 record AND what do you know all these hab sites like this one and hio suddenly disappear. btw - philly who all their airhead hab fans want to lose who they think stinks well flyers went 12-5 so far in these same playoffs. and dont give me habs played tougher teams or had injuries, flyers had more better players miss games and still won and beat devils who beat penguins all 6 times- they beat the devils in 5 games.
^ What's your point Anonymous, or should i say NYG24?
(you're writing style is hard to mask)
And this site has not disappeared- Arpon mentioned that with his multiple writing gigs during the playoffs that he won't be blogging with his usual frequency.
DSL said...
^ What's your point Anonymous, or should i say NYG24? (you're writing style is hard to mask)
--
unreal! arpon has his own sherlock holmes.
The idea of dealing Markov away is completely stupid. The rest of the blog is great, but if a player as good as Andrei Markov wants to remain a Habs player, you keep him, that's it and that's all.
We finally have a very decent core of skaters (Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri, Markov, Subban), let's keep it like this for at least the next couple of years. What we need right now isn't to get prospects, neither is it to deal away our best player. What we need is to add a good supporting cast who'll bring some extra weapons to those five aforementionned.
Trade Markov, you get the shorter end of the stick. That's a guarantee.
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