I’d feel cheated if I paid to watch this one.
You can blame Michel Therrien (and Max Pacioretty for that matter) all you want for running a 90 minute practice on what is normally an off day Sunday following their thrilling come from behind win over the New York Rangers the night before at the Bell Centre. What were they thinking, you ask with a 3 PM Monday start in Detroit? At least they were thinking – long term.
If you’ve seen Montreal play of late you know there have been issues with defensive zone coverage that go beyond the lingering injury to Andrei Markov. You also know their penalty killing has been awful and that Carey Price has been slumping. And that they are still in the middle of a hellacious portion of their schedule. There’s only one way out of that mess and it’s Allan Iverson’s favourite word.
They didn’t expect to lose in Detroit but they didn’t expect much. They allowed the home team just 20 shots on goal – which included four power plays. And there wasn’t much Price could do on the deflection goal by Tomas Vanek. Other than the Alex Galchenyuk-Alex Radulov-Max Pacioretty trio the Habs generated little to no offense. In fact, it was Galchenyuk and Pacioretty who were the only Montreal shooters to really test rookie goaltender Jared Coreau (2nd shutout in 5 starts. He also blanked the Kings in LA) as they took turns setting each other up with shots from the high slot early in the second period. There was also a Nathan Beaulieu shot from the left side that rang off the crossbar and then late in the third Mark Barberio, who replaced Beaulieu on the second defense pair, set up Jeff Petry who was open down low but couldn’t handle the pass which was slightly airborne. The Red Wings protected Coreau well but when Montreal is on they force turnovers down low with their speed and strong forecheck. We didn’t see any of that, especially in the third when they are normally at their strongest.
Once Therrien announced the Sunday practice it was obvious there would be no practice prior to Wednesday’s game at home against Pittsburgh. So in effect, what they did, was run back to back practices, to better prepare them for the rest of January starting with a team that just pumped in 8 goals against the high flying Washington Capitals.
It’s all about practice, man.
