Advice for Eric Belanger: Get a new agent!

As painful as losing 9 teeth was in the playoffs, Eric Belanger’s latest contract debate may have been more painful. Photo: AP (Nick Wass)

Well what an interesting debacle this appears to be!

When the Montreal Canadiens signed shutdown centre Jeff Halpern, several fans and media questioned why GM Pierre Gauthier did not spend the extra money and go after local faceoff specialist Eric Belanger instead?

Regardless of which player you get, it would be an upgrading for a two-way centre, and take the added burden of short-handed ice time for Tomas Plekanec. Speaking of two-way players, you should read Dave Stubbs’ fantastic piece on former Habs centreman Glen Metropolit, but I digress.

Belanger was expected to fetch close to the $1.75 million range in salary, which would have been more than what Metropolit made last year, leaving some tweaking for Gauthier to keep his team under the cap, or have zero space left.

My choice? I would have gone after Belanger. He’s been consistent offensively over the last three years, and quite frankly I don’t know many NHLers that can take a high stick, lose nine teeth (pulling one out on national TV) and stay in a playoff game.

In any event, the Habs signed Halpern to a one-year $600K deal, leaving speculation that a deal with Belanger couldn’t bee reached.

Was Belanger looking for more than his value, after a career high 41 points with the Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals? Was he like many NHL players fearing the high tax brackets in Quebec? Who knows. Maybe he had reached a deal elsewhere…ahhhhh!!!

On Tuesday, Belanger signed with the Phoenix Coyotes for a single $750K a season. Huh???? Makes no sense, or does it?

By Tuesday evening, the accusations from the Belanger camp were fired out. Apparently there was a verbal deal between Belanger and the Capitals for the centre to stay in Washington. A deal that the Capitals allegedly reneged on  according to the forward and his agent.

A frustrated Belanger spoke to Montreal’s Team990 on Wednesday, citing that the Capitals gave him and agent Joe Tacopina gave him a reasonable offer, but did not wanted the signing to be announced as the team was working on a trade.

“They said it would take about a week to make a trade,” Belanger said. “It wasn’t a question of if they were making it but when, and you’re going to be signed, because they didn’t want to lose any leverage on the trade.”

This all started close to seven weeks ago, according to Belanger, who in the meantime leased an apartment and had his children enrolled in local schools. The Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle seems to back up the situation with an article from August 12.

“I’m no lawyer guy but the line has been crossed, and now I’m looking ahead,” Belanger concluded.

Tacopina spoke to Toronto’s the Fan590 on Wednesday, reinforcing his client’s statements, adding that he had this all on record, via email, from Capitals assistant GM Don Fishman.

According to Tacopina, he was told by Fishman that this deal would be taken care of, once the trade was finalized, and not to worry about negotiating with other teams.

An exchange of stalling emails from the Capitals were sent to the agent, telling him to be patient. Tacopina also noted that Capitals Team Services manager even emailed his client in assisting with housing and getting his belongings moved from Minnesota.

Mirtle seems to verify Tacopina’s side of the story to an extent, in Wednesday’s article ,in the Globe and Mail, and includes excerpts of emails between the agent and Capitals GM George McPhee.

With time running out, and no contract, Belanger signed for $1 million less than what he thought he would a month prior.

But while Tacopina plead his case in print and on air, after all he is a prominent New York City defense attorney, the all important question came to mind.

If there was a deal, why not get it signed and done with and not dicker around for close to two months?

Tacopina easily should have said, “OK, we have a deal but this trade must happen in five to seven days.” He didn’t and Fishman and the Capitals appear to have played him and his client like a fiddle.

Contractual agreements and plea-bargains, which he is more familiar with, are two different things. From this debacle, it’s questionable if Mr.Tacopina realizes this.

The validity of the afore mentioned Globe and Mail article from mid-August also has some concerns. If the Capitals did not wish to unveil the signing, why would Belanger (according to the Le Soleil source in the article) say anything regarding it? Was this the deal breaker? Why would Tacopina allow his client to speak publically on a deal that way?

Mirtle continues to back the errors on Tacopina’s judgment in his Wednesday article below;

A contract, however, was never signed and registered with the league, an arrangement several veteran player agents said they would never have agreed to.

“They don’t have a legal leg to stand on,” one agent said Wednesday. “The entire situation is governed by the CBA. An agent and the player are obligated under the CBA to not take individual legal action or you can lose your certification to be an agent ... The sole remedy would be a grievance.

“The grievance precedent is 100 per cent crystal clear: Unless you have a signed standard player contract on file, registered with the NHL, you have nothing.”

A grievance? Yeah there’s a book the NHL and NHLPA likely don’t want to visit twice in a year, eh?

Mike Vogel, senior writer for the Washington Capitals, also replied to to Tacopina’s statements, and has the backing of the team’s majority owner Ted Leonsis.

So in the meantime, Eric Belanger is stuck with a lease on apartment in the D.C. area, where his belongings likely already are, and now has to look at either finding another school in the Phoenix area, or playing distant father to his kids. Oh, and he could be out a million or so due to his agent’s bungling.

As Belanger said, he’s now looking ahead. For him, the 2010-11 NHL season will obviously be a hockey one, as opposed to a financial one. He should just continue doing what he does, possibly getting some power play time in Phoenix, and start over next July.

Hopefully by then, it will be with an agent that knows what he is doing.

Some Quick Notes on Habs Pens Game 1, Markov & more…

I have run into at least a half dozen Habs fans, as I run the family errands in my little corner of the world today, and they all said the same thing to me, “They were too tired.” The same thing shows up on my Facebook account, where everyone was on the same page, after the Montreal Canadiens 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

No blaming the refs (even with Chris Lee officiating), the coaches or the goaltending. They were just too tired after a grueling seven game series against the Washington Capitals and one day to get ready for the next series.

Being tired leads to mental errors, hence four power play opportunities that turned into Penguins goals. It could have been worse. Dominic Moore avoided a four-minute high sticking minor when his stick errantly cut Sidney Crosby.

Maxim Lapierre managed to draw a slashing call, that led to Brian Gionta’s power play marker, that could easily have been negated for diving. If you look at the replay, Chris Kunitz’s stick gets him the ribs, but Lap embellishes it my covering up his head.

The worst mental error, or just plain stupid award, goes to Andre Kostitsyn. With the Canadiens down a goal, and attempting a line  change, Kostitisyn made a weak dump in that barely penetrates the Penguins blue line and skates across ice to the bench.

With the play cross-ice, no Habs in sight and five Penguins at the ready, it was an easy stretch pass for Sergei Gonchar. What makes it worse is the Canadiens coverage overloads to one side and totally miss Craig Adams skating in for the rebound.

Fatigue also showed on goaltender Jaroslav Halak. The hero of the first round just looked confused and out of position during most of his time on the ice. Midway through the second period, I noted a save he made of his right pad. The puck was no more that four feet from in on open ice, and he seemed to have no idea where it was.

I was curious as to why Jacques Martin did not pull Halak at the end of the second period. Didn’t make sense in my opinion to play him any longer. In any event, I’d like to see him back for Game Two.

As for Matt Cooke’s hit on Andrei Markov. Cooke has a reputation as a dirty hitter, as the Boston Bruins can attest, but it was a clean hit. Cooke’s arms being up in the vicinity of Markov’s face made it look worse. That with Markov’s positioning away from the boards, and how he landed, did not help his situation.

The end result, as per Martin on Saturday afternoon, is that Markov is out indefinitely. In all likelihood, his season is over. Montreal went 14-20-3 after Markov's injury, in the first game of the season on October 1, and went 24-13-7 with him back in the lineup.

A bit of a trade-off with the Penguins Jordan Staal cited as day-to-day with a severed tendon? For this series maybe, but in losing Markov the Canadiens will need to fight and be in every game for any further playoff success.

A few bright spots did emerge though. The first was the Canadiens great play in five-on-five situations, something they lacked in the regular season.

The other of course, was P.K. Subban. The youngster potted his first NHL goal, in  which Tomas Plekanec promptly retrieved the puck, and gave nearly a full twenty minutes. Yes he made a few mistakes, but against the defending Stanley Cup champions and in just his fifth NHL game, it can be expected. Subban will clearly get more ice time with the injury to Markov. If anything else in this series, watching him learn the NHL game will be a pleasure to watch.

Game Two roster update: In his afternoon press briefing on Saturday, Martin also stated that playing Mathieu Darche or Sergei Kostitsyn will be a game time decision. There was no decision yet on the availability of Jaroslav Spacek (virus), or who the starting goaltender will be.

One thing Martin did do was call upon Roman Hamrlik to step up and fill the void left by Markov’s injury. “In Markov's absence a guy like Roman Hamrlik raised his game,” he said. “We expect the same thing now”

Game time on Sunday is 2pm. to accommodate NBC, that thinks to believe that a game on Sunday afternoon is the norm.

The pain that is watching HNIC: Don’t get me wrong, but Hockey Night in Canada has a great lot of talent on their roster. Jim Hughson, Jeff Marek, Scott Morrison, Pierre LeBrun and Elliotte Friedman are some of the best they have on the screen, not to mention some great, and often unnamed, writers in the background and online.

But why are they using the combination of Bob Cole, Glenn Healy and Gary Galley to call the Cinderella Habs against the defending champions? At some points in the game, I almost wanted to fall asleep. Maybe it was the play in general, but Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire did a much better job on TSN. Galley as a third wheel just doesn’t help the HNIC situation.

There were also major communication problems throughout the broadcast, from video miscues, missed plays (Cole was a little delayed on Mike Cammalleri’s goal) and announcers interrupting each other.

The factual errors were the worst. One that caught my ear was during the Canadiens goaltending change. The trio agreed Halak would be back for Game Two. Unfortunately Healy worded it along the lines of “just like was pulled (in game three of the first round) he came back to start the next game, and we saw how that turned out.” Actually Mr. Healy, Carey Price started that next game, but yes I know how that turned out.

I’ll leave it with this. Is Jaro’s last named misspelled everywhere, or does Donald S. know something we don’t? Mr. Cherry is always going on about respect for the other players. Well doesn’t that start by pronouncing their names right?

Five Keys to Game Two from canadiens.com

 

The latest from Annakin Slayd “Feel’s like ‘93- 2010 edition”

Annakin has been out doing his thing through Europe and catching Habs playoff games wherever he can.  At the same time he’s remixed his popular music video, excluding the likes of Kovalev and Komisarek. It’s been up for a few days, but the team surely needs some motivation in light of the Markov injury.

 

These never get dull..

Aftermath and afterthoughts from the Habs Capitals series

Well there was lots of reaction to the Canadiens big win Wednesday night. Here’s a mash from all over the web. This is all over the place so apologies for lack of continuity.

Even the NHL has caught on: This is not a “made up” version of the “History will be made” video series.

That’s a lot of pucks!: First off some amazing numbers that I caught via a tweet from TSN’s Darren Dreger.

The Montreal Canadiens allowed 292 shots on goal, blocked 182 and had 102 that missed the net/hit the post. That’s a staggering 576 opportunities over seven games, or 82.3 per game.

Will the Penguins get that many chances? Probably not as they are less of a shooting team.

Big Numbers: From a ratings standpoint the Canadiens/Capitals series was a huge success. An estimated 4.7 million people watched the game on either TSN or RDS.

At it’s peak at the end of the third period, TSN reported numbers as high as 8.2 million viewers watched on either network. That’s almost one in four people in Canada. The series averaged out to 1.8 million per game on TSN and 1.34 on RDS.

I’m still looking for numbers from the US networks.

Talk and tweets from Cammy:  Mike Cammalleri talked to the Fan590 Thursday morning.

Below is a pic Cammalleri submitted on his Twitter account. I’ve never seen a photo of four guys happier to be going to Pittsburgh.

Honest Abe: Abe Hefter and the crew from CJAD pulled off a mini-marathon post-game show last night, taking it until midnight. He offers his thoughts on the series in his blog.

Four Habs Fans look at the chemistry and numbers in the Habs’ upset.

Getting some OT from the CBC: Arpon Basu on the road to Pittsburgh. I think he forgot to pack enough underwear in the event the habs won Game Seven

From the Capitals owner: I gotta give some props to Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, who offers congratulations to the Canadiens and his view on the series. Mr. Leonsis also remains optimistic about the team’s future. Have to admire an owner willing to share his thoughts on his team in a  public forum.

Fedorov weighs in: An excellent interview from Puck Daddy’s Dmitry Chesnokov, who talked for former Washington center Sergei Fedorov on the Capitals’ elimination and next move.

I exchanged tweets with Dmitri, and asked if he felt Ovechkin would play for Russia in the World Championships. Though nothing official has come from the players, with the exception of Semyon Varlamov who has confirmed, he feels all three Russian-born Capitals will play.

Looking at the series from a collector’s standpoint: Nice piece by Chris Carlin from the Upper Deck blog.

Reaction from followers of the Habs next opponents: I happened to check in on ThePensBlog, s who had submitted a eulogy for the Capitals to Puck Daddy, this morning to see what Penguins supporters are up to.

A GOOD OMEN?

I noted something of interest on ThePensBlog and lucked in later that the ad was still there. Take a look below and see if you can figure out what it is. It’s easy if you know your Habs. A hint: think of a goalie.

Habs/Capitals - Game Seven: An upset for the ages

They said it couldn’t be done, but the Montreal Canadiens battled the odds and defeated the Washington Capitals in the seventh game of their Eastern Conference Quarter Finals.

It wouldn’t be easy on Wednesday night, as they would need to block 41 shots and rely on Jaroslav Halak to make 41 saves to preserve a 2-1 win.

The first period opened up with the Canadiens not showing the energy that hey had to start Game Six. The Capitals on the other hand had their chances with 11 shots on Jaroslav Halak, and one that went off the post.

On top of the near dozen shots, Washington added another 12 that were blocked by the Canadiens and out hit the underdogs 15-3.

Physically overmatched and outgunned, the Canadiens knew they’d need to take any opportunity they had and make it count. They did just that to close out the period.

Already playing four-on-four, the Capitals Mike Green wound up in the penalty box on a foolish cross-checking call. Montreal took advantage when Scott Gomez fed Marc-Andre Bergeron, who laced it past Semyon Varlamov at 19:31, to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Washington’s power play, just one for 30 in the series, had a pair of opportunities in the second period. Unfortunately for the Capitals, the Canadiens’ shot blocking and some key stops by Halak  added to their futility mark.

“I needed to do my best and the guys did the rest. They were scoring the goals and blocking the shots,” Halak said. “Before the game we said everyone needs to block shots.Tonight the guys were there.”

“It had to be done,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges. “These guys shoot it from everywhere. We knew we’d have to pay the price to win this series.”

Montreal managed just three shots to the Capitals 13, yet still skated away with the lead after forty minutes.

The Capitals thought they had it tied up early in the third, but the goal was waved off as Mike Knuble’s skate had tied up Halak in the blue paint. Montreal had one of their own called off, near the midway point of the period, as Maxim Lapierre crashed into Varlamov.

The offense began to put on an attack for the Canadiens, getting several chances in the Capital’s end, even ringing one off the goal post.

They would hit there mark, thanks to a brilliant effort when Hal Gill chipped out a puck. Lapierre drew the hit while chasing the puck, allowing Dominic Moore to move in and give Montreal a two-goal cushion with 3:36 to play.

The Capitals finally solved Halak, when Brooks Laich found a rebound at 17:44.

With a final 1:44 of power play time, and Varlamov pulled from the goal, the Capitals had one final chance to tie it up. The Canadiens held strong to take the win and pull off the upset.

“He (Halak) played great,” said a dejected Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin. “I don’t have words to say right now. I think everybody is disappointed.”

Montreal becomes the first eighth seeded team to win a series after being down three games to one.

“We’re extremely proud of how we played and how we competed,” said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin. “But you’ve got to give credit to the Capitals. I thought it was tremendous hockey and a tremendous series. Our goaltender was the difference.”

All three division winners in the Eastern Conference (Washington, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils) have now been eliminated in the first round.

The Canadiens will fly directly to Pittsburgh in preparation for round two of the playoffs against the Penguins. That series will begin on Saturday.

“We’ll enjoy the moment tonight and tomorrow we’ll get ready for Pittsburgh,” Martin said.

Game’s Three Stars: 1. Jaroslav Halak 2. Marc-Andre Bergeron 3. Hal Gill

Related Links:

Habs Eyes On the Prize

 

 Montreal fans celebrate the Canadiens Game Seven win Wednesday night – Photo: TrueRivalry.com

Game Photos: Bruce Bennett – Getty Images

Live Game 7 Habs Caps Chat and some last minute notes

It’s here, judgment day for the Montreal Canadiens. Can they take out the number one seeded Washington Capitals and complete the major upset? Of course they can!

The Hockey News, who predicted a Capitals sweep, and ESPN throw in their opinions, but neither is willing to call it. Reading between the lines, THN seems to be favouring the Caps

It appears the the Canadiens will use the same lineup as in Game Six, which means Jaroslav Spacek will likely sit out again tonight, barring a last-minute game time decision my Jacques Martin.

It looks like Bruce Boudreau will toughen up his roster, by playing Scott Walker. Walker came off the ice in the morning skate ahead of the scratches.

Karl Alzner will fill in for the injured Tom Poti on the Washington blueline. He will be paired up with rookie John Carlson, whom he was played with in Hershey (AHL).

Look who’s not talking: Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin did not skate or talk to the media Wednesday morning. What’s the matter Alex, Halak got your tongue?

But look who is: I’ll be sitting in, along with other Caps and Habs bloggers and tweeters, on a live chat hosted by Steven Hindle, Washington Capitals blogger for HockeyBuzz.com

You can follow it in the panel below, or join it via Steven’s page.

 

Canadiens/Capitals Game Six: Halak carries Habs to seventh game

Facing elimination, and having not won a home playoff game in nearly two years, the Montreal Canadiens had their backs against the wall in Game Six of their first round series against the Washington Capitals.

Perhaps the young player sporting a Ken Dryden mask in the pre-game ceremony was a positive omen as they answered the call, thanks to the brilliant 53-save goaltending performance from Jaroslav Halak.

After an early exchange of end-to-end rushes and opportunities by both teams, the Canadiens struck on the power play at 7:30 when Mike Cammalleri blew a shot past Semyon Varlamov.

Ninety-nine seconds later, Cammalleri struck again on a set play from the draw, taking a quick pass from P.K. Subban for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

“Everyone was concerned about getting the job done and movign on to game seven,” said Subban, who had been called up Sunday evening from the Hamilton Bulldogs. “I was a little bit tired. It was a bit of a battle for me, but I’m happy I kept the puck out of my end.”

The Canadiens appeared on track but got into penalty problems later in the period, finding themselves on the opposite side of a 5-on-3 Capitals power play.

Hal Gill and Josh Gorges were crucial in killing the Washington two-man advantage that lasted 49 seconds. Whatever they couldn’t stop, Halak was there to turn away. Another 1:46 of unsuccessful 5 on 4 time for the Capitals had the Bell Centre crowd on it’s feet.

“Our biggest penalty killer was Jaroslav,” said Canadiens coach Jaques Martin. “The five-on-three was crucial and I thought they (Gill and Gorges) played it extremely well.”

The Capitals had 18 shots on Halak, to just 10 for the Canadiens, but the home team skated out after the first 20 with a 2-0 lead. They also held the physical edge early with an 11-5 hit advantage.

Montreal was forced to kill off two Capitals power plays early in the second period, but Halak answered the call yet again. The Slovak netminder came up with big saves, including one on the snake-bitten Alexander Semin and stopping Alex Ovechkin in close.

Washington had an 11-0 shot advantage through the first nine minutes, with the Canadiens not getting one on Varlamov until the 10:13 mark and managed just three all period.

Playing his best game of the series, in light of a pair of diving infractions, Maxim Lapierre raced up the right wing blasted in a shot past Varlamov to give the Canadiens a three-goal lead at 4:17 of the third. It was Lapierre’s first career playoff goal.

“Everybody played great tonight,” said Lapierre noting a full 60-minute effort from everyone on the ice. “I just followed the group.”

On the downside, if Lapierre has a previous diving call this season, he could be subject to suspension.

“Lapierre’s been called his whole life on diving,” said a bitter Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who has seen his team squander a 3-1 series lead. “They dive a lot. I’m grateful that they started calling them.”

Not giving up, Washington continued to minimize the Canadiens attack, limiting them to just 22 shots on the night, and keep the pressure on. Halak answered every attempt, even flashing the leather a-la Patrick Roy on occasion at the frustrated Capitals.

Eric Fehr finally solved Halak on the Capital’s 52nd shot, tipping a point shot past the Canadiens netminder with just under five minutes to play.

Halak’s 53 saves set a franchise record in a regulation playoff game. The previous holder was the man emulated in the pre-game ceremony.

“You can’t stop all of them,” Halak said on Fehr’s shutout buster. “It’s a great feeling, especially in the playoffs, winning a game like that.”

The Canadiens goalie was asked if he had another performance like that left in him for Game Seven, “We’ll see what happens. Every game is a different game.”

Tomas Plekanec potted an empty net goal with 57 seconds remaining to seal the win and snap the Canadiens six-game home losing streak in the playoffs.

“We’ve liked our group all year long,” said Cammalleri on a rebuilt Canadiens team that was given little chance to even make the playoffs, let alone take the top seed to a seventh game. “You’re not going to shut these guys down. We know we have to do our best to make it difficult for them. They’re the team that’s supposed to win and we’re the underdog.”

The series concludes Wednesday night in Washington.

Three Stars: 1. Halak 2. Cammalleri 3. Maxim Lapierre

Game Photos: Montreal Gazette

Secondary scoring will be a must, if the Habs want Game 7

You can almost count on one hand the number of goal scorers from the Montreal Canadiens through the first five games of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals.

In total, just seven separate players have found the back of the net, and all but one has come from a third or fourth line player (Dominic Moore). The Washington Capitals have seen tallies from ten different players, and all but three skaters on their roster have registered at least a point in this series.

The Canadiens top scoring lines have been fortunate that the Capitals Mike Green has been in a playoff coma. If he were playing at his Norris-nominee level, this series may have been over by now. Here's hoping the extra day off doesn't wake him up.

If he does, the Washington strategy should be simple enough, adapt to the speed advantage of Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn, and find negate Travis Moen from the undersized second line.

This is where the third and fourth line players on the Montreal bench must step up Monday night. The likes of Benoit Pouliot, Sergei Kostitsyn, Glen Metropolit (injured or not) and co. need to bring it up to another level, much like their 1993 counterparts did.

I saw Gary Leeman at the Hockey Expo in Toronto on Sunday, and it reminded me of the little guys who were hidden in the shadows of Patrick Roy in that Stanley Cup run. Leeman had been picked up by the Canadiens from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Brian Skrudland. He played in 11 playoff games and contributed three points on a squad that saw key contributions from a group of non-household names (Kevin Haller, Paul DiPietro, Ed Ronan and Benoit Brunet).

It's a group of guys that today's Canadiens squad could take a page from. Even though Jacques Martin did shorten his bench in Game Five, and probably will again as Game Six progresses, the supplemental lines must take any advantage of their limited ice time and pot a goal or two. Without them, or barring another standout game from Jaroslav Halak, it will be over.

Beyond the forwards, it's been argued that the Canadiens defense has yet to contribute to the offense. Yes it has struggled, but they had some life in Game Five when Andrei Markov had a couple solid chances.

One has to realize though that they have been more preoccupied, most of them anyways, with their primary task, to defend. With the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin and a well-overdue and hungry Alexander Semin, that's just what they'll be forced to do again Monday night.

The Capitals will certainly not want to return home to the Verizon Center on Wednesday night, so expect their offense to put on the pressure.

Markov (27:39 in Game Five) , Hall Gill (25:01) , Ryan O'Byrne (16:53) and Josh Gorges (27:45 ) have been going beyond the call on many occasions to keep their team in this series.

They will need to yet again with Jaroslav Spacek still a likely game-time decision while he battles a virus. Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Bergeron has been a total dud in the series, most notably on the power play, and Roman Hamrlik's ice-time continued on the downslide to a season low 12:10.

Hamrlik, who saw a lot of ice time early in the season, when the Habs were plagued with rearguard injuries, may be just exhausted, or even injured, who knows. Regardless his play has been a questionable liability since Game Two.

So with only four defencemen that appear able or willing to give a 100 per-cent effort, there's even more urgency for a overacheiving performance from the bottom-six forwards on Monday night.

Spelling out the Habs Playoff strategy

The Habs aren’t done yet, heading into Game 4, but not following the suggestions listed below may find them in the playoff morgue.

Game Four of the Eastern Conference Quarter Final between the Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals goes tonight. A Washington win and I suspect we’ll see the last of the Canadiens in the Bell Centre this season, with the exception of their locker cleanout/post-mortem.

That in mind, here’s some recommendations to making it a respectable game. Just keep in mind I am not an NHL coach, nor am I an expert.

 Continue with game plan for the entire game, not just a period.

Avoid unnecessary penalties. Stay focused and out of the box.

Negate the Capitals side advantage with speed.

Anticipate any set-up plays, such as the SH one used in the Game 3.

Defend the goalies and the crease area from crashers.

Irritate within reason ie:pre-game smack talk. Get them to retaliate.

Evaluate the situation. Know which Caps are on the ice, and when.

Never give up the fight. Don’t panic, just get back on track.

Simplicity. Don’t rely on the fancy play. Just shoot the puck on goal.

I don’t think I could spell it out any easier. Puck drops at 7pm.

Capitals/Canadiens Game Three: It was a game, for 20 minutes

The Washington Capitals took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night – Washington Post photo

Playoff hockey in Montreal is a sight to behold. The fans walking the streets have more life in their step and the Bell Centre crowd is always loud an excited. Unfortunately when the Montreal Canadiens don’t echo that feeling, or only show it for the first 20 minutes, home ice advantage quickly becomes non-existent.

Such was was the case in Monday’s Game Three playoff matchup against the Washington Capitals. The top seed in the Eastern Conference had four unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 5-1 win and a 2-1 series lead.

The pre-game opening featured a young lad, in a Canadiens “rocket” Richard jersey, carrying out the fabled torch to ignite a eye-popping lighting display.

With Habs legend Jean Beliveau appearing at the Bell Centre for the first time since his January stroke, all the positive energy appeared to be in place.

The Canadiens came out the gate, much like the Capitals had in the first two games, mounting the offensive pressure and limiting their opponents scoring chances.

Despite being out hit 15-7, the home team was ahead in shots in the first period for the first time in the series (10-7). Capitals Captain Alexander Ovechkin was held without a shot in the opening 20 minutes.

The Canadiens shut down two Capitals power plays, and even had more scoring opportunities than their opponents in the first one.

Since their power play units couldn’t connect, the Capitals gave it a shot with the PK unit in the second period. It worked when Tom Poti’s clearing shot eluded the Montreal power play, allowing Boyd Gordon to move in and cash his own rebound, between the legs of Jaroslav Halak, at 1:06.

Gordon, a healthy scratch in Game Two and not known for his scoring, emphasized the depth of the Capitals offence. “We’ve got a lot of quality guys on this team that can step in and play,” he said. “We have to take advantage of our opportunities when we get them.”

If the Capitals shorthanded goal didn’t silence the Bell Centre crowd, Brooks Laich’s screened point shot at 4:42 certainly did.

Three and a half minutes later, Washington increased their lead to three when Eric Fehr swept in to find a rebound right in front of Halak.

“It feels good coming into a hostile environment like this and play the game we play,” Fehr said. “It’s a tough building to play in for both teams. We were able to quiet the crowd down in the second period.”

Allowing three goals on the last six shots faced, and 8 in his last 28, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin pulled his starting goaltender in favour of Carey Price.

“You’re trying to change the momentum at that point,” Martin said. “We had a tremendous first period and lost our momentum and they capitalized.”

Things didn’t get any better as Ovechkin dumped the puck into the corner. Nicklas Backstrom got to the puck back out to his captain. Left wide open , and with a perfect shooting lane, Ovechkin made good on his only shot of the game to make it 4-0.

“It’s an unbelievable crowd. It’s a good atmosphere and our team loves to play here,” Ovechkin said on playing in front of Montreal fans that booed him every time he touched the puck. “I don’t hear it. I just concentrate on where the puck is and where my guys are and play hockey.”

Down by four goals, it fell apart at a disciplinary level for the Canadiens. Two minutes after the Ovechkin goal, Brian Gionta took a cross-checking penalty. Linemate Scott Gomez argued the call and wound up with a 10 minute misconduct.

“I probably said something I shouldn’t have said,” Gomez said. “I’m not going to comment on the refs because they’ve got a job to do. I just wont say that again. I gotta choose my words different.”

Almost three minutes after that Tomas Plekanec argued an interference call and was assessed a two-minute misconduct to close a humiliating twenty minutes.

After killing the Capitals power play, the Canadiens found themselves with the man advantage, where Plekanec managed to solve Simeon Varlamov at 2:25 of the third period.

Price did everything he had to do to keep his team in it, making 21 saves on the night, many spectacular.

“You gotta gather your chickens when your sitting on the bench,” Price said on getting called off the bench. “I didn’t think we gave up that many chances. A lot of the shots were from the outside.”

Unfortunately for Price, his team was unable to meet the task on the offensive end. Canadiens couldn’t capitalize on a later power play, then had one taken away when Andrei Kostitsyn was called on a questionable hooking call.

Maxim Lapierre’s ridiculous roughing call at 16:44 put the exclamation point of a lack luster 40 minutes of play from the Canadiens.

On the flip side, the Capitals played a disciplined game and refused to engage the attempted Montreal roughhousing attempts.

“They talked about it themselves on the bench saying ‘Don’t get involved, we don’t need it’,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, praising his clubs self-control. “Even though we didn’t score (on Plekanec’s double minor), I think it sapped a lot of the emotion out of the crowd and them.”

“We made a couple mistakes and we just didn’t respond,” said Montreal defenseman Josh Gorges. “We got frustrated and started making plays that weren’t working. When you get that far behind, it’s too hard to recover.”

As fans made their way out the Bell Centre, Matt Bradley had three chances on a helpless Price before finally connecting with 45 seconds remaining.

Varlamov had 27 saves for the win in the Washington goal.

“He loves these kinds of situations,” Fehr said on his goalie. “He’s a big-name player and he did a great job.”

On the stat sheet, the Canadiens remain weak in the faceoff circle but if anything positive came out of the loss, the Canadiens continue to shut down the Capitals power play, which sits at 0-for-13.

“We suck right now,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said on his team’s struggle with the man advantage. “It’s the worst stretch that we’ve gone through. We’ve had some good looks and chances, but none went in.”

The Canadiens also kept a better pace in hits, laying out 19 to Washington’s 22.

Game Four goes Wednesday night at 7pm. The Canadiens will have a 4pm practice at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

“We gotta respond and regroup tomorrow,” Gomez added, “We had our chances, we could have made the game a little different.

Though it won’t be official until Wednesday afternoon, one has to think that Price will get the start in goal.

The Canadiens netminder was able to defend his fellow backstop, who arguably cant have all the blame for all three goals pinned on him, “The best thing about Jaro is that he’s head strong. He’s a confident guy and I don’t think he’ll let that bother him at all.”

Game’s Three Stars: 1. Simeon Varlamov 2. Brooks Laich 3. Tom Poti

Capitals/Canadiens Game Two: Backstrom and Ovechkin escape potential Habs strangle hold

Mike Knuble (l) celebrates with Nicklas Backstrom (r) after Backstrom scores the overtime winner in Game Two – Photo: Chuck Myers (MCT)

The Montreal Canadiens were looking to extend on their stunning Game One victory and continue to contain Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. It looked like they might for the first 28 minutes. It wouldn’t be the case as the Capitals came back from a three-goal deficit to win 6-5 in overtime.

Washington came out early, with Ovechkin dishing out some early hits, but the Canadiens needed just one shot from Brian Gionta to take a 1-0 at the 1:00 mark.

Montreal got their second goal on their second shot of the night, when Andrei Kostitsyn was left wide open in front of the net at 7:58. Capitals goalie Jose Theodore was immediately pulled for Semeon Varlamov.

Simoen Varlamov relieves Jose Theodore in the first period of Game Two – Photo :Bruce Bennett (Getty Images)

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau hoped the goaltending change would wake his troops up and give them some momentum. He certainly got their attention when Tomas Fleischmann broke up a Montreal offensive sending Eric Fehr in on a breakaway, going high blocker on Jaroslav Halak.

It was a first period dominated on the stat sheet, with Washington leading in shots (13-8), total chances (31-14), hits (18-4) and faceoffs (12-5). Ovechkin managed to get on the shot count with two and had seven hits.

Nonetheless, the Canadiens led 2-1 after 20 minutes.

“We knew that it was coming (the Capitals offense),” said Gionta between periods. “We had to get behind them and exploit their D.”

Montreal began mounting an impressive defense in the second period, keeping the majority of Washington’s shots to the perimeter.

Kostitsyn scored his second on the night at 11:06, again left open for a Mike Cammalleri pass, to give the Canadiens a two-goal lead.

This play was reviewed after Andrei Kostitsyn’s third goal, during the second period. It was questioned if the puck had crossed the line earlier in the play. Photo: Chuck Myers (MCT)

The sold-out Verizon Center crowd soon began showing their displeasure as a chorus of boos echoed from the seats.

It didn’t get better for the home crowd as the Canadiens went on the power play and Kostitsyn got his first career playoff hat trick, at 17:44, by deflecting in a Jaroslav Spacek point shot.

Kostitsyn’s three-goal night was the first for a Canadiens player in the post-season since Eric Desjardins turned the trick in Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals.

“He played great. He went to the net and did what he was supposed to do every night,” said Kostitsyn’s linemate Tomas Plekanec. “Hopefully he can keep that up and keep scoring to help us to win.”

Andrei Kostitsyn scores the first of his three goals on the night in the first period of Game Two – Photo: Bruce Bennett (Getty Images)

The Capitals kept it within two when Nicklas Backstrom blew a shot past a screened Halak 37 seconds later.

“He’s a guy you’ve definitely have to key on,” said Canadiens defenceman Hall Gill. “But he’s not the only guy. They have a lot of good players that can make plays and score goals.”

One thing the Canadiens need to know is that any lead against the Washington Capitals is not safe. Washington was second overall in the league when trailing after the first period (8-7-2), and first overall when trailing after two (8-10-4). They were also an impressive 16-8-6 when their opponents scored the first goal in a game.

Montreal fought off a Cammalleri slashing call early in the third period, but Ovechkin finally got in the goal column when he came off the bench to shovel a rebound between Halak’s pads at 2:56.

With Mike Knuble crashing the net, Backstrom one-timed an Ovechkin pass for his second goal at 9:47 to tie it up.

The Canadiens regained their lead five minutes later ,when Roman Hamrlik battled the puck from Knuble and got it to Plekanec. The centre played give and go with Cammalleri, around defenceman Mike Green, before putting the puck past Varlamov.

The Capitals, sporting the top power play in the regular season, had two more opportunities late in the period but Halak and the Canadiens held them back.

With just over a minute to play, and a possible delayed penalty coming to Montreal, Capitals rookie John Carlson fired a shot from  just outside the faceoff circle to take the game into overtime.

of the 37 shots he would face on the night, the Carlson one would be the one that Halak would want back.

It didn’t take long (31 seconds) for Backstrom to complete his hat trick with a wrist shot between the hash marks that tied the series at a game apiece.

“The second period was kind of embarrassing," Backstrom said, talking on the Capitals’ second period collapse that led to a three-goal deficit. "We stepped it up at the end of the second and the third. We never gave up, and that's a good sign, I think.”

Alexander Ovechkin lays out one of his eight hit in Game Two on Scott Gomez –Photo: Bruce Bennett (Getty Images)

Ovechkin, who had no shots in Game One, had a four point night (1G, 3A) in just over 20 minutes of ice time.

“I played my game. Some days you’re in a good mood, some days a bad mood,” he said. “Today we were in a good mood.”

“You could see his energy, his desire and his leadership,” coach Boudreau said of Ovechkin, a change from calling him out two nights earlier. “The difference (from Game 1) was like night and day.”

“He's a big part of this team, a big key,” Backstrom added. “It was good to see him get going again and hopefully we can keep going on the road.”

The Canadiens managed a split in the first two games as it now becomes a best-of-five series heading in to Montreal.

“We went on the road and we got one against the best team in the league,” Gill later said. “We can’t match them individually and have to play them as a team. We’re going to go home to a great crowd and feed off that.”

Games three and four go Monday and Wednesday at the Bell Centre.

Having played a seven game series in every NHL playoff round he’s been in, Ovechkin is well aware that it is far from over.

“It’s mentality important for us to win tonight, but it’s not done yet.”

Three Stars: 1. Nicklas Backstrom 2. Andrei Kostitsyn 3. Alex Ovechkin

Will the real Alexander Ovechkin show in Game Two?

The Canadiens will be looking to contain Alexander Ovechkin in Game Two   Photo: Molly Riley (Reuters)

Having had the night’s sleep to reflect on their stunning Game One victory, over the Washing Capitals, the Montreal Canadiens were back on the Verizon Center ice for Friday morning practice.

After being outplayed in the first twenty minutes, the Canadiens came out strong in the next forty minutes and overtime to pull out the 3-2 win.

Despite shutting down the two-time defending Hart Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin, the Canadiens still allowed 47 shots at Jaroslav Halak. They know there is still work to be done going into Saturday’s Game Two.

“We were very fortunate to be in the game,” said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin. “Our goalie kept us in it early  and that’s what we have to remember.

“It took us a while to find our game and that’s one thing we need to correct moving forward. You can’t play a first period like the one we did last night”

After leading the league in shots in 2009-10, some have speculated that the Capitals sniper may be injured based on his performance Thursday night. If so, the Capitals aren’t talking, and neither is Ovechkin.

“It was my fault. I didn’t play my game and maybe I was too excited,” the Capitals captain said. “Our line didn’t play well and we’ll make some changes.

“Tomorrow is going to to be a  different game for us.”

It would be highly doubtful of any injury to Ovechkin, given the fact Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau called him out after Game One and reiterated after Friday’s practice.

“He’s 100 percent healthy. We’re not making excuses for him,” Boudreau said. “He just had a bad game, and they played very well against him.

“I wasn’t trying to light any fire, but when he’s playing on top of his game, it doesn’t matter how (or who) they’re playing against him.”

Boudreau also acknowledged that the Canadiens cannot be underestimated in light of coming into the series as the overwhelming underdog.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s the number one versus an eighth seed, and it was an eight seed vs an eight seed, everyone would say, ‘What a great game from two evenly matched teams.’

“We’re not going to change our game, but they’re a lot better than what their regular season indicated. they went through stretches where they beat everybody.”

Players playing injured wouldn’t be something new in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Whether a player is injured or not, they know the importance of the post-season. Bob Baun, Dickie Moore, Maurice or Bernie Geoffrion are prime examples of that.

“That’s the playoffs. Guys are hurt and some guys show it, some guys don’t,” said Canadiens veteran defenceman Hal Gill. “But It comes down to what happens on the ice and getting wins.”

Gill, who earned a Stanley Cup ring with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, knows what it takes in the playoffs and what to expect from an opponents top players from one game to the next.

“I’m sure he’s gonna come back and play a lot better than he did, That’s the exciting part of the challenge",” he said. “He’s a dynamic player that can change your game and we have to be just as hard on him as we can.”

Fellow veteran rearguard Jaroslav Spacek noted that shutting down Ovechkin’s linemates Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Knuble, is also a factor.

“We all played good against that line,” Spacek said. “If you make it hard on him (Backstrom) and that makes it tougher for Ovechkin because he wouldn’t get as many pucks fed to him.”

Game Two goes Saturday night at 7pm.

Capitals/Canadiens Game 1: “Jagr” Wins it in overtime for Habs

Tomas Plekanec is swarmed by his Montreal Canadiens teammates after his overtime goal in Game One vs. Washington Capitals – Chuck Myers (MCT)

Tomas Plekanec put his money where his mouth was, in the media-fuelled war of words against Jose Theodore, in Game One as the Montreal Canadiens shocked the Verizon Center crowd with a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals.

Plekanec beat out Capitals defenceman  Shoane Morrisonn, inside the Washington blue line, and fired a wrist shot past Theodore at 13:19 of the extra period.

The two adversaries had been in a war of words after Plekanec said Theodore was not the same level of goalie as a Martin Brodeur or Ryan Miller. Theodore responded sarcastically, referring to Plekanec as “Jagr”.

The game began looking just like it has been predicted, with a Washington offence swarming the Montreal end. The Capitals outshot their opponents 19-7 in the first period and dominated in the faceoff circle.

It could easily have been a three or four-goal lead if not for the goaltending brilliance of Jaroslav Halak. The underdogs would not get their first shot until the 7:24 mark.

The Canadiens knew they would be in tough against the top five-on-five team in the regular season (213 goals) and would need special teams to help their effort.

They got just that at 12:26 when Mike Cammalleri scored on the power play to give the Canadiens a one-goal lead.

Washington continued to mount the pressure and Joe Corvo lobbed in a shot from the blueline, over the shoulder of a screened Halak, at 15:33.

In the second period, coach Jacques Martin made some adjustments and the Canadiens turned things around. The visitors dominated the Capitals in the second half of the period. Martin double shifted Cammalleri on a line with Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche to put some strain on the larger, but slower Capitals defence.

With the majority considered slow and, in some cases old, themselves, the Canadiens corps of blueliners were able to shutdown the league’s most explosive player, Alexander Ovechkin. The Russian sniper had no shots on goal and five attempts blocked for the entire game.

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau put more of the blame on his captain. “They gapped up on him (Ovechkin), but I don’t think he played very well,” he said, indicating that the rest of the Capitals had 47 shots on goal.

"Our best players weren't our best players tonight. I just didn't think he was very good tonight"

The Canadiens hoped to carry the momentum in the third period, but a poor clearing effort and a bad bounce off the skates of Hal Gill led to a Niklas Backstrom goal.

Washington Capitals Jose Theodore makes one of his 35 saves in Game One – Molly Riley (Reuters)

Montreal refused to give up and fired everything they had at Thoedore , who made 35 saves on the night. They finally broke through when Scott Gomez beat out defenceman Mike Green to the front of the net, defecting a feed from Brian Gionta past the Washington netminder to tie the game at two.

Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin skates away in disgust as the Canadiens celebrate Scott Gomez’s tying goal. – Greg Fiume (Getty Images)

The Habs defence and Halak continued to hold back the Capitals through the rest of the period and into overtime. Jaroslav Spacek logged just under 20 minutes and thwarted Ovechkin and co. at every window of opportunity. Gill was equally effective in his 25 plus minutes, blocking nine shots.

“We gave him (Ovechkin) no space or time to shoot,” Halak said. “He’s a great one-on-one player. We probably pissed off everybody, so they will try to come out stronger on Saturday.”

Martin praised his team for the group effort to shut down the league’s top offence shut down all four Capitals power play chances.

“When you face an elite player, like Ovechkin, it’s not one individual’s responsibility, it’s a team effort,” he said. “Our support players gave us some good help tonight. I thought it was some excellent teamwork.”

Overtime began with and unsuccessful Canadiens power play and was followed by some exciting end-to-end play, cumulating in Plekanec’s winner.

Plekanec explained post-game that his comments, from earlier in the week, were taken out of context. “I didn’t take it personally. It wasn’t completely right in the newspapers,” he said. “I would never say anything wrong about Theo, and I respect him.”

Game Two goes Saturday night in Washington, with Games Three and Four in Montreal on Monday and Wednesday.

Three Stars: 1. Tomas Plekanec 2. Jaroslav Halak 3. Jose Theodore

Forget the Experts: Habs in Six!!!

Game One of the first round of the Habs second season starts tomorrow and things don’t look good on paper for the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge.

Many have the Washington Capitals ousting Montreal in four games. The chart below breaks down some of the predictions. You will find links to their justifications by clicking on the names.

Name	Affiliation	Prediction
The Hockey News		Capitals in Four
Pat Hickey	HIO/Mtl Gazette	Capitals in Six
Mike Brophy	Rogers Sportsnet	Capitals in Six
“The Panel”	TSN	Capitals in Five
Scott Morrison	CBC/HNIC	Capitals in Five
Mike Boone	Habs Inside/Out	Capitals in Five

The Vegas Odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Hiton Superbook and additional comments from Todd Jacobs.

Montreal Canadians +460 vs Washington Capitals -600.

Another eight seed, the Montreal Canadians taking on a formidable opponent in the number one seed Washington Capitals. Why are the Washington Capitals -600? Alex Ovechkin is one NHL player that can take control of every game. Washington should skate circles around the once proud Montreal team. Washington -600 will beat Montreal soundly in four games.

Call me crazy, or just a solid gut feeling, but along with CJAD play-by-play man Rick Moffat (although he does have a question mark up), I say Habs in six.

The injury-riddled Canadiens managed to hold their own against the Capitals in the regular season, and a team that is closer to 100% health wise has a great shot of upending the top seed.

Arguments will say “but this is the playoffs, it’s a different season”. Why yes it is, and perhaps they should look up the Canadiens first-round playoff success in 1971 and 2002.

Both of those came from outstanding goaltending (Ken Dryden and Jose Theodore respectively). The Capitals never saw Jaroslav Halak this season….hmmmm.

The fact that everyone is ranting how Jose Theodore has returned to his Vezina and Hart form has me strongly sensing the final two games of the second round of the 2002 playoffs coming back to haunt him.

As for the verbal exchanges between Theodore and the Canadiens Tomas Plekanec, all I’ll say is time to put your words aside and prove yourselves on the ice.

Habs in six!

Recommended reading:

OK there are tons of articles and blog postings out there on the upcoming series, and the puck has yet to drop for the first game.

Here’s just a few suggestions. There are several more on my blogroll to the right.

HabsEyesOnThePrize.com : Robert has been firing out stats/history and everything else since he knew who the Habs were facing in the first round.

The Daily-Hab-it: Arpon Basu is not only an excellent blogger nd writer, but has the inside track as CBC’s playoff blogger for the Habs.

Dennis Kane: Just because it’s Dennis Kane.

BerkshireontheHabs: Nothing playoffs related just yet, but Andrew has a great compilation of top-10 games from the Canadiens regular season to get us fired up.

Bring on the Caps! Habs to face Washington in round one.

It went to the shootout Sunday afternoon, and the Philadelphia Flyers walked away the victors in a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers.

The win pushed Philadelphia into seventh spot in the Eastern Conference standings and knocked New York out of contention.

That leaves the Montreal Canadiens in the final playoff slot, where they will square off against the Washington Capitals starting Thursday in D.C.

The teams split the season series, with each team winning one game in regulation.

In their last meeting, the Canadiens snapped the Capitals team record 14-game unbeaten streak.

Below is a quick glimpse of the regular season matchup, including what Alexander Ovechkin did in those games. You can get more in-depth detail from caandiens.com/nhl.com by clicking on the dates.

Canadiens vs. Capitals 2009-10 Regular Season

Date	Decision	Winning Goalie	Losing Goalie	OV8	Top Hab(s)	SOG
Nov 20	Mtl 3 Wash 2	Price	Neuvirth	5 shots	Pleks/Cammalleri 1 G 1A	Wash 34 Mtl 22
Nov 28	Wash 4 Mtl 3 (SO)	Varlamov	Price	1 G 1 A 8 shots	Spacek 1 G 1 A/Hamrlik 2 A	Mtl 24 Wash 23
Jan 5	Mtl 2 @ Wash 4	Neuvirth	Price	3 Shots	Gorges 1 G +1	Wash 43 Mtl 26
Feb 10	Wash 5 @ Mtl 6 (OT)	Price	Theodore	2 A +1 8 Shots	Pleks 2 G, SK74 3 A	Mtl 39 Wash 38

Interesting to note that Carey Price started every game against Washington. Will Jacques Martin revert back to him, or stick with the current “number one” in Jaroslav Halak?

It will also be interesting to see how the Capitals Ovechkin responds in the playoffs. The two-time Hart Trophy winner lost out on both the Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies in the final weekend of the regular season. He may be looking to prove himself as an impact player in the playoffs, at the Canadiens expense.

Predictions?

Limping Canadiens Host Red-Hot Capitals

Washington’s Michal Neuvirth faces off against Montreal’s Carey Price (neither pictured here) Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.

The Pierre Gauthier era with the Montreal Canadiens (28-26-6) gets it’s first test Wednesday as they host the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals (41-12-6).

The Capitals are blasting through their opponents, much like the winter storm systems that are currently passing through Washington.

The team is on a 14-game winning streak. Their Superbowl Sunday come from behind victory, over the Pittsburgh Penguins, was their second over the defending Stanley Cup champions during the streak.

Washington has outscored their opponents by a combined score of 68-33, and all but three victories were against Eastern Conference opponents. Of those games, all but one (Toronto) was against a team in the hunt for a playoff spot.

A win over Montreal on Wednesday would set a new franchise unbeaten record that has stood since the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons. The NHL record is 17, set by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Nobody wants to talk about it because we’re superstitious,” Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau said.

“Until you're perfect you've got stuff to work on and we're far from perfect. We've had to come from behind in an awful lot of games lately.

“We're not either getting off on the right track or taking it too easy or we're making to many mistakes. We have to get better in a lot of ways right now.

“The minute I relax, is the minute they relax. Any team we're playing right now is giving us their best effort."

Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin leads the charge with 14 goals, 15 assists and a plus-18 rating during the streak. The two-time Hart Trophy winner has been kept off the scoreboard just once (vs. NY Islanders) during the 14-game run.

Washington is currently carrying three goalies on their three game, pre-Olympic road trip; Semyon Varlamov, Jose Theodore and Michal Neuvirth.

While Montreal native Theodore tied a franchise consecutive win record(10) on Sunday, the team’s Wednesday morning skate points to Neuvirth (3-0-0, 1.20, .967 in his last 4GP).

With Varlamov back in the lineup for the first time since Dec 7, Neuvirth is expected to be sent to Hershey (AHL) during the Olympics.

“It’s all good when they’re all playing great. I assume they all will. Neuvy and Theo have definitely been playing great,” Boudreau said. “With Varly (out since Dec 7), it’s sort of a wait and see scenario.”

“I think it’s remarkable,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges on the Capitals streak. “To string 14 together and not have one night where you don’t quite show up, or one when the pucks don’t bounce your way, or get a couple bad ones scored against you is quite impressive.”

Montreal will be looking to get back in the win column after being shutout Sunday afternoon by the Boston Bruins.

It will be the team’s first game for new GM Gauthier since taking over the reigns from Bob Gainey on Monday.

The Canadiens got some bad news on Tuesday, when it was revealed that defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron will miss at least six weeks with a new injury.

Bergeron has 10 goals and 14 assists in 51 games this season, with 16 points (6 goals) coming off the power play.

Forward Benoit Pouliot (14 points in 20 games with Mtl) is also out until at least the beginning of March with an upper-body injury.

The duo join Mike Cammalleri and Andre Kostitsyn on the team’s injured reserve list.

Battling injuries in the 2009-10 season is nothing new for the Canadiens and as they look to end Washington’s run. Despite missing key players throughout the season, they still remain in the thick of the battle for a playoff spot.

“We’ve played against them (Washington) with a banged-up lineup in two of our games against them, and got three out of four points against them,” said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin.

“The (Olympic) break will be good for us, he added noting the upcoming league shutdown will give players time to recuperate.

“Andre (Kostitsyn) was on skates for the first time today. Hopefully he’ll be back with us after the break. But before that, we have three huge games, starting with the Eastern Conference leaders.”

In the three head-to-head meetings this season, Montreal is 1-1-1 against the Capitals, and have limited Ovechkin to just a goal and an assist in the Capitals 4-3 shootout win on Nov 27.

“Montreal has given us fits all year, first of all,” said Boudreau. “They make a management change, they’re going to want to impress the new GM, and they lost the last game at home.”

Goaltender Carey Price has started all three games against Washington ( 2.95 GAA .910 SvPct) and will get the call on Wednesday night, despite the exceptional play of late from Jaroslav Halak.

“Carey’s been working extremely hard, I think he’s been very sharp at practice, so it’s a great opportunity for him to be in there,” Martin said.

Probable Starting Lineups

MTL	Forwards	MTL
Mathieu Darche	Tomas Plekanec	Sergei Kostitsyn
Tom Pyatt	Scott Gomez	Brian Gionta
Maxim Lapierre	Ben Maxwell	David Desharnais
Travis Moen	Glen Metropolit	Matt D’Agostini
MTL	Defence Pairings	MTL
Andre Markov		Ryan O’Byrne
Roman Hamrlik		Jaroslav Spacek
Hal Gill		Josh Georges
MTL	Goalies	MTL
S- Carey Price		Jaroslav Halak
WASH	Forwards	WASH
Alexander Ovechkin	Niklas Backstrom	Mike Knuble
Brooks Laich	Tomas Fleischmann	Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera	Brendan Morrison	Eric Fehr
Boyd Gordon	David Steckel	Matt Bradley
WASH	Defence Pairings	WASH
Jeff Schultz		Mike Green
Shoane Morrisonn		Tom Poti
John Erskine		Brian Pothier
WASH	Goalies	WASH
S- Michal Neuvirth		Jose Theodore