Officially, a third of the season has been played, and the Montreal Canadiens still have not won two games in a row. The Canadiens were strong in their last game, but they still lost to Tampa Bay allowing two late goals.
On Thursday night it was the Chicago Blackhawks at the Bell Centre, and it was another loss for Montreal, who fell 2-0.
Wilde Horses
It’s difficult to stand out in this one, but three Canadiens did despite it all.
Alexander Romanov continues to look better each game out. His decision making is more confident and his marking of his man is getting more controlled as well.
However, what is really setting Romanov apart right now is how physical he is at all times. Anytime that Romanov has a chance to take the body, he is laying out his opponent with power. After he does it, he is still in control as well to continue in a good defending position as the play moves forward.
One can sense as well that Romanov is getting a reputation around the league, because often there is a bit of trepidation from the opposing player now to go into the corner first. They know that if they go first, they’re going to get crushed by Romanov.
That type of reputation will only grow for this 21-year-old player, and that will make him a more feared opponent — which means a better one as well. Romanov still makes the odd error like on the second Chicago goal as he was too nonchalant with his cross ice pass, but on the overall, Romanov is figuring it out.
The other player who looked to have a little more jump than his teammates was Cole Caufield, who might have been the only Habs player who seemed to be carrying any speed through out the contest. Nothing came of it on the scoreboard, but Caufield, little by little, is looking more like he belongs in the NHL.
No one is going to truly excel on this team this season, but if Caufield can keep feeling more comfortable with his speed, keep the legs pumping and get off some quality shots each night, then he can build on that next season.
The final Canadien worthy of a mention is Jake Allen, who is going through his best stretch of the season with a save percentage of over .920 in his last half dozen. Allen is keeping the Habs competitive, even in the games that they don’t score allowing Marc-Andre Fleury the 500th win of his career.
Wilde Goats
The longer the game went without a goal, the clearer it became that it was one of those games where the first goal wins.
What was shocking wasn’t that Chicago got the goal halfway through the second period on the power play. Montreal is the 31st ranked team in the league killing penalties, so this was quite believable. What was shocking is it was the first goal this season for Jonathan Toews in his 26th game.
Montreal put another game together where they competed hard, but when a team is not in the playoff hunt, they have to entertain.
This game was so low-event, it’s difficult to find moments to write about. The Canadiens are trying to listen to their head coach and not give away any odd-man rushes. It’s nice in theory, but in practice, it means the Canadiens defend well while creating very little.
There are over 21,000 fans in attendance who know that the playoffs are out of the question, so they have to be entertained at least a little. Kudos to the fans, though. They have come to terms with the nature of this season, and boos have been kept to a minimum despite any action also being kept to a minimum.
In the long run, though, this team has to entertain more. No goals in your own arena for your own fans is unacceptable.
Wilde Cards
There is a popular movie called Moneyball. It’s a true story about Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane, who transformed baseball by embracing analytics. Written by Michael Lewis, Moneyball is a fascinating tale of the beginning of analytics, but it also has some tremendous anecdotes about other sports topics.
One topic in the book is the difficult relationship between a general manager and his coach. Beane and Art Howe, it is depicted, didn’t get along all that well. Beane couldn’t fire his field boss because of the team budget, so he had to work around some of the issues that Howe caused him.
According to Lewis, the author, the worst was that Howe would not play the lineup that Beane wanted. This included some rookies getting no action because of Howe’s preference for veterans. Beane also favoured players who had the best on-base percentage, but winning baseball during that era were managers more concerned with batting average.
The Athletics were mired in the basement in the division at the time, until Beane figured out that the only way to get his preferred players on the field was to trade the players away that Howe liked.
Howe had no choice. Howe only had the young players left, so they finally got in the games. The Athletics went on to win the pennant.
There is no playoff spot here for the Montreal Canadiens. The moral of this story is if you can’t get Dominique Ducharme to play the kids, then get the kids away from Dominique Ducharme.
Mattias Norlinder is a future hope in the NHL, but he couldn’t get in the lineup in Montreal, and if he did, he couldn’t get sufficient minutes. In stepped Billy Beane, or in this case, Jeff Gorton.
Gorton moved Norlinder down to the minors in Laval. In his first game, Norlinder got on the power play and, lo and behold, finally scored his first goal.
It was a move that had to be made, because Norlinder told a European media outlet that things are so untenable that he wants to go back overseas.
One can argue back and forth where is better for Norlinder: Europe, Montreal or Laval. That’s a debate for another day. However, there can be no arguing that wherever he is, Norlinder needs to be on the ice a lot to improve. Six minutes under Ducharme does not a career opportunity make.
Let’s hope that Gorton doesn’t have to ‘Billy Beane’ his ‘Art Howe’ for Cole Caufield, Jesse Ylonen, Alexander Romanov, and Ryan Poehling next. Looking at ice times for the young players against Chicago, Ducharme is still not getting the message.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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