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I'm not a big believer in the Habs right now. They're compiling points at a nice clip, but with 66 scored, 67 allowed, that ain't legit. Carey Price is the engine on this ship, pretty much, and even he hasn't been crazy good. Trip-And-Fall Against was having a better year than Price.
The death of Jean Beliveau has me thinking about how the Habs being kinda good is almost more heartbreaking than them being really bad: it underscores that they'll never be magical again. Where are the names like Vezina, Richard [pron. hkhree-SHARR], Beliveau, Geoffrion, Plante, Lafleur, Lemaire, Savard, Carbonneau, Roy [pron. hkhWAH], Lemieux, Desjardins, or even Patrice Brisebois (whose name combined with his defensive ineptitude to yield an all-time great nickname: Patrice Breeze-By)? They're not a special cultural institution wherein the best of Quebec played for their province and dominated. Now they're just another team. There aren't even great French-Canadian players like there used to be. The Q has been the weakest of the three major-junior leagues for years now. Teams barely even scout it anymore.
So that sucks. Anyway, last three games: Hawks won handily in Montreal, Hawks won some bullshit Game 81 at home in overtime, and then the Habs won in overtime off a Markov shot in Montreal.
Looking at the lines for tonight, the 24-time world champions have Dale Weise on their first line with Patches and Desharnais, so that's cool. Galchenyuk-Plekanec-Gallagher looks to be the line you most want to shut down. Clendening went back to Rockford rather than be a healthy scratch, so they brought up Klas Dahlbeck, who will also be a healthy scratch tonight. Q seems to want to use up Rozsival's minutes before Valentine's Day. The Clendening scratching and demotion seems rather draconian to me. He played well in his first few games before shitting the bed against Vancouver just as the rest of his teammates did, then we never saw him dress again. Oh well, it could be worse. He could be Jeremy Morin.
I'm getting a little concerned about Dan Carcillo. For a while, I thought he had turned the corner on being a retard, and that the birth of his son had made him realize that he was hanging by a thread to his life in professional hockey. He had been playing about as disciplined as he can play for a while, but in the last few games, he's been a mess. 19 PIMs in three games, not good. Would have been staring down a healthy suspension had Andrew Shaw, of all people, not been the voice -- and hands -- of reason. I want him to be an effective fourth-liner and stay out of trouble, but the Canadiens are a typical Eastern team that loves to fight, and this could be a fourth night of big penalties for him.
Nonetheless, I feel good about this one!
Habs: 17-8-2 (36), 13-9-5 adjusted (31), 26.557 expected
Hawks: 16-8-1 (33), 13-9-3 adjusted (29), 35.849 expected
Habs: 28.0 shots for (27th), 30.3 shots against (18th)
Hawks: 36.0 shots for (1st), 28.0 shots against (7th)
Habs: 11.6 PIM/game (24th)
Hawks: 8.3 PIM/game (3rd)
Habs: 2.444 scored (21st), 2.481 allowed (11th), -0.037 differential (17th)
Hawks: 3.000 scored (7th), 1.960 allowed (1st), 1.040 differential (2nd)
Habs: 10/71 14.1% on the power play (24th), 80/94 85.1% on the kill (7th)
Hawks: 19/102 18.6% on the power play (17th), 59/75 92.0% on the kill (1st)
_________________ Molly Lambert wrote: The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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