In today's article I don't want to go too deep into my thoughts, because it will seem like coach Martin bashing, and I don't want to go into that. That being said, the habs played poorly in the first period, and for the oiler's first goal hemsky seemed like he was alone on the ice, Pacioretty missed his coverage and Gionta was a spectator looking at hemsky go close to the slot and make his shot.
In seeing Darche in the Buffalo game I saw right away something was wrong with him, he seemed hesitant and wasn't his old self from before his injury, so obviously he is still injured. If I saw it how could a coach with so much experience not see it and put him in the line up last night. Now for his adjustments. People will agree with me, yesterday wasn't Plekanec's best game, that being said his line has been the best line of the habs for a long time now, and I would of kept them together, they deserve at least getting a chance to get back in the game. Kostitsyn looked ok on the ice last night. People say Gomez was good last night i would rather say that he has played so bad lately that when he plays a bit better, people will say he had a good game, he was still a minus 2, 3 shots on net with 20:51 of ice time. When Gomez was on the ice for oiler's second goal, Coach Martin didn't limit his ice time he actually improved it.But when Desharnais was on the ice 15 seconds later for the oilers third goal, Coach Martin barely made him play in the 3rd period, in a game where the canadiens needed offence and Desharnais was one of the best offensive players in the last few games i don't think he deserved to be benched the way he was. To quote Latendresse, it's not good for rookie development when the coach benches him everytime he is on the ice for an opponents goal or makes a mistake because than he plays on his heels scared to make a mistake and be benched instead of sticking to what he does good and what has rewarded him in the past. But Desharnais is an intelligent player and i don't think he is going to react that way, but still.
As fot the defencemen, I can't blame them too much because they were short one man with the Wiz out, so that means they were 3 rookies with Picard and Hamirlik. Picard is not a defenceman that should play 23:23 minutes in the nhl, with Subban, Weber and Hamirlik all playing over 27 minutes and Nash playing 8:30 minutes, that basically means the habs played with 4 D's majority of the game, that's a big work load for that blue line.
With all that said the canadiens didn't play they're best game last night and better bounce back sunday in the Heritage classic against the flames, because they need those points if they are going to push boston for the division lead, cause as I'm writing this article Kaberle has just been traded to boston for 6 feet 5 Colburn from Providence and a 2011 1st round pick(not the toronto one acquired in the Kessel trade)so that means boston has just improved considerably without giving anything from their line up.
This last stretch to the end of the season will be important for a habs playoff run. Let's see what happens and what pierre Gauthier will do to improve his team, but I highly doubt he will do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment