The last time Vancouver and Montreal met, Carey Price pitched a demoralizing shutout. So you can be sure that on their second meeting of the season, the Canucks wanted to treat all 600 Vancouver fans at Rogers Arena to a good show. The remainder of the sellout crowd, of course, were Habs fans, who crawl out of the woodwork every year, reeking of gravy-covered fries and Francophone sarcasm. It was the blue team versus the pou-team.
Vancouver continued to limp from compiled injuries. Loui Eriksson was hurt in Anaheim, Jacob Markstrom is nursing an injury (and chose to man the phones for the Canucks For Kids fundraiser), while Nikita Tryamkin is still out of action fighting the mumps.
This meeting also marked the first Montreal-Vancouver matchup for new head coach Claude Julien, a bench boss I wanted Vancouver to pursue. He thought it was better if we just stayed friends. I pretended not to care, but our eyes met across the ice several times, and he knew. Julien saw right through my emotional armour as I watched this game.
- The game start was a lot of fun. Daniel Sedin and Markus Granlund had a good charge into the Habs’ zone, but newly acquired defender Jordie Benn made sure to get back and between the two wingers. It wasn’t the only time, as later in the first another Sedin-Granlund passing play was broken to pieces by an opportunistic Habs defence. This team's system, like the Burj Khalifa, is very highly structured.
- Montreal didn’t take long. Less than five minutes in, Torrey Mitchell swiftly tipped an Andrei Markov point shot past Ryan Miller. By rights it shouldn’t have even been in Vancouver’s zone; Markus Granlund had possession and chipped it up the boards, but the play unfolded like a bad poetry: Daniel Sedin couldn’t clear, Markov found himself near, Mitchell was without peer, no defender could interfere, Montreal fans did cheer. (Yikes. On the Jenny Wren scale, that’s like a 1.5/10.)
- I like Brendan Gaunce. He plays the right way and was rewarded for it with over 17 minutes of total ice time. Gaunce defused an ugly scrum in front of Miller when he grabbed the puck, sped up the ice and fired on net, leaving a juicy rebound chance for Brandon Sutter. Later in the second, Gaunce broke a sustained stretch of Montreal pressure by muscling past Nathan Beaulieu for a partial breakaway, changing the momentum. Despite putting up 8th line numbers, he deserved those 3rd line minutes.
- Nikolay Goldobin has had some meagre ice time the last few games, but he was finally given a cherry assignment alongside Bo Horvat. Being an irrepressible little scamp, he took those proverbial cherries and ground them into Willie Desjardins’ proverbial white carpet. Goldy gave away the puck twice in one first-period shift, the latter being truly horribad. After whiffing a one-timer gift from Horvat, he passed nonchalantly back to Torrey Mitchell, who had a clear path right back to Miller. Blame it on cultural differences. “In mother Russia, good graces earn you.”
- I figured this would be the last we’d see of the young winger, but moments later Goldobin skated out with Bo and Sven Baertschi and had a solid scoring opportunity when Baertschi fed him for a stunning deke. And that’s good, because basically the Canucks desperately need a guy like him. Yes, his defensive game needs attention. Sure, he’s young, cocky, and opportunistic. On the li'l d-bag scale he probably measures a solid 7.5 / Bieber. But when’s the last time you saw a Vancouver prospect with such a combination of speed and evident scoring instincts? His fashion is offensive, but so is his game.
- The second period, like clientele at the hockey-themed pizza restaurant I once visited in Puerto Vallarta, was all Canadiens. I’m not sure how they accessed and hijacked our Ice Tilter 3000, but I suspect that in addition to coaching chops Claude Julien also has 1337 h4x0r skillz. It’s telling that the most potent chances came from Brendan Gaunce. Both of Vancouver’s top lines were utterly flummoxed by Montreal’s tight checking defence. The strategy brilliantly took Vancouver’s stars out of the game while simultaneously acting as a lethal sedative for anyone watching. Many died this night.
- The Goldobin experiment on the second line was short lived. After looking pretty darned effective for two periods, Desjardins decided that offensive dynamo Joseph Cramarossa was the real guy for the job. Before you throw rotten vegetables, remember that Joseph has four times as many goals, and therefore is mathematically four times better at hockey. Actually, Horvat and Cramarossa had an OK chance, with Bo working the puck free behind the net to feed Cramarossa in the crease, but the puck was tied up between his skates and a Habs defender’s stick. Being no Andy Dufresne, he couldn’t dig his way out.
- At the 12 minute mark of the third, some silky Sedinery left Markus Granlund free and unmolested in front of Carey Price, but sadly he had nothing but a big Habs crest to fire at despite two good cracks at it. That’s when the “Carey! Carey!” chants rained down from the Canadiens faithful. When asked to keep it down, they threatened a referendum to secede their sections from the rest of Rogers Arena, and so the subject was dropped.
-
With Vancouver staring down the barrel of a scoreless game against Carey Price in the late third period, I’m not going to lie: I was feeling pretty low. Last time they were in this situation it didn’t end well. But luckily Alex Edler knew a Chap who was able to brighten my day.
Deft Pokémon trainer that he is, Willie Desjardins knew that his opponent was weak against surly Quebecois wingers, so he pulled out a Pokéball, shouted, “Chaput, I choose you!” and hurled the forward onto the ice. It was super effective!
Troy Stecher flung a long pass across the blue line to Alex Edler, spreading out the Montreal defenders and giving Edler space to shoot. Michael Chaput deftly tipped the puck down under Carey Price to tie the game. - That goal gave them a bigger jolt than a can of Jolt cola, which I can tell you from personal experience is both highly jolt-y and also not fit for human consumption. Vancouver had a handful of dangerous opportunities to grab the lead. After several close calls for Price and the Habs, the Sedins were working their game behind the net when Shea Weber clocked Daniel with a heavy check, and then proceeded to sandwich the dazed twin against Max Pacioretty. Daniel didn’t leave the game, but he looked woozy. For a guy with a concussion history, that has me worried.
-
The game squeaked into overtime. Bo Horvat usually has his stuff together: he’s strong as an ox, he’s creative and fast, and he’s got a remarkably symmetrical, square head. But like the many dolls that will probably be made in honour of that head, he bobbled. Breaking into the Montreal end, Bo caught a rut or something, because the puck went one direction and he another. It wasn’t a major error, but it was enough to send Paul “Just Drank a Jolt Cola” Byron off to the races. Once controlling the zone, Alex Galchenyuk faked the defender, won some open ice, and then ripped a shot that Byron sneakily tipped, just trickling past Ryan Miller for the overtime winner.
Paul Byron tips the shot from between his legs to give the #habs a 2-1 win in OT#Canucks pic.twitter.com/ogztVj2s8C
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) March 8, 2017 - The story of this game was the goaltending, as is usually the case when Carey Price comes to town. Ryan Miller was equally sharp (yet again), stopping 36 of 38 shots. I’m not surprised that the first two goals were tips. If either goalie could see it, they would stop it. Miller's play, like Donald Trump's evidence of Barack Obama hacking his phones, was totally unreal. So, Mr. Benning, are we working on that contract extension yet?
