Whambulance

Having watched the video (and enjoyed the gory close-up) of Bruins' defense Chara spreading Montreal's Pacioretty into the center stanchion. Pacioretty lost consciousness due to the play and has damaged at least one vertebra.

Personally I agree with the on- and off-ice calls of this play -- it was a late hit on a player who had already chipped on the puck. That's text book interference, and that's what Chara served two minutes for.

The howls from the Montreal fan base can be ignored as partisan ignorance. With the way the random Wheel Of Discipline spins in the NHL, it was quite possible that this might have been seriously punished; the media loves to get out in front of these things so they can fill the moments until the next game with "I told you so" type comments.

The League's result of the Wheel Of Discipline is actually the right call. This was an unfortunate injury from a play, which while being "against the rules", was not worthy of further punishment.

This is not the kind of "violence" that the NHL needs to get rid of. The dangerous hits blindsiding players (such as claimed Spezza earlier this year) and the hits to the head (such as has claimed Crosby's year) have to go.

And the fighting has to go to, but for me that's an old saw.

I'm no fan of violence in hockey, but I don't think this incident is really worthy of the coverage it is getting.

Love For Jacques Martin

Jacques Martin got the bums rush out of Ottawa, and I didn't think that it was deserved at the time.

Head honcho Muckler let Martin(*) go, after yet another team which excelled during the regular season was shown the door early in the post season, with comments along the lines of "the room needs shaking up and I can't fire all the players". Which is perhaps simplistic, but on the other hand fundamentally true.

Now back from the dead Florida, Martin is once again running his system of defensive discipline with the Montreal Canadiens. Backed by a resurgent Carey Price, the Canadians are playing simple, tight hockey in their own end, waiting patiently for opportunities granted through the opposition's errors.

And it was this system which stymied the Ottawa Senators back on Tuesday(**).

What I saw on Tuesday was the Senators doing their best to create offensive chances, but the Canadiens' discipline and patient play meant that few chances came together.

Ottawa's lone goal from Foligno resulted from a power play rush that the Canadiens' mis-read, leaving Foligno alone with the puck long enough to get a shot off that snuck through Price. It was a lucky goal, sure, but if you give enough chances to a team, even Ottawa is going to get lucky occasionally.

Yes, Ottawa stopped trying in the third more than a little. But I think the first parts of the game were not entirely all bad, and if the team keeps playing together the way they played parts of the Montreal game, then good things will start to happen.

Maybe this is just diminished expectations brought on by the team's performance this year... but once you figure that playoffs are not really going to feature this spring, you'll settle for pretty much anything.(***)

But really, I thought Martin was made the scapegoat for the team at the time, and I'm more than a little pleased to see that he is once again enjoying some success.

---
(*) = Muckler, Murray, Martin, Melnyk -- The Ottawa Senators ownership and senior executives are brought to you by the letter M.

(**) == Yes, Tuesday. Life: I has one.

(***) = <include mandatory Leafs joke.>

This could be a long year

Tonight was simple. The Senators made more mistakes than Montreal did, and that's why they lost. Oh and lets not overlook the fact that Montreal looked like they wanted the win more too, although only barely.

Scoring on 67% of your second period shots is an awesome stat, until you notice that they only scored twice. That's going to hurt Elliot's save percentage somewhat, even if he was the best Senator on the ice tonight.

But all over the ice there was a great steaming pile of mediocrity. There just doesn't seem to be any speed anywhere on the team any more. Even (especially?) Alfredsson looked slow. And there was poor discipline which is drawing too many penalties.

Unless something magically turns around soon, this could have "long year" stamped all over it.

Wouldn't it be nice to have something like a nice, soft, goaltending controversy instead?

I still don't think things are as bad as the record -- or even tonight's effort -- makes the team look. There are bright spots here and there.

Return Of The King

So Alfredsson was good to go in Montreal on Saturday night. And was he ever -- one goal, two assists, including a nice little helper on Zack Smith's short-handed goal.

It is amazing how one guy can make so much difference on the ice. Alfredsson made an impact most of the time he was on the ice, and that dandy little poke-pass to Smith gave Ottawa the confidence that good things will happen.

But one guy I want to mention is Cheechoo. I thought that Cheechoo was definitely trying hard throughout the game on Saturday night. While his rushes seemed a bit labored compared to some of the other more fleet of foot on the team, Cheechoo was willing to put in the effort and I think generated some nice chances. I really want to like Cheechoo and I hope that if he keeps this kind of effort up that the goals will come.

In general I thought the Canadiens were faster on the ice than Ottawa was, but Ottawa held firm in discipline. "No Relation" Brodeur stood tall, including some scary looking scrambles in front of the net. Ottawa seemed to monopolize more time in the Montreal end than the other way around.

Overall it was a nice win on Saturday and a reasonably entertaining game. Word is that the team will continue to ride "No Relation" as his hot streak continues, although Boston seems to own Ottawa pretty well the last few years and we should not be surprised if this afternoon brings a loss.

Hilariously Bad Officiating

Last night's tilt between Montreal and Ottawa left everyone unhappy. Whether you read the Montreal blog or the Ottawa one, everyone has something to complain about.

While the Senators were clearly jobbed of a goal late in the second period, Montreal fans can point to the total lack of Ottawa penalties as proof that they were not getting it all their way either.

This definitely has an effect on the flow of the game. While Montreal only really showed up to play for the first period, the lack of penalties called as Ottawa could apparently do no wrong (except when scoring, yuk yuk yuk) provided little incentive to work that little bit harder. Ottawa having that goal called back could have totally deflated the team had Montreal not already quit on them, and Ottawa then took gratuitous advantage of the "compensatory" officiating in the 3rd.

The officiating has to be fixed. While everyone wants to make sure that the officials on the ice get the call right, the emphasis has to be on getting the call right first. Officials deliberately not calling penalties is just as influencing to the game's flow as deliberately calling penalties.

We have to decide if we want the game decided by the players or the officials.

And if we can ever get that sorted, we can then move on to deciding if we want the game played by the rule book as it stands, or as it is currently interpreted.

Fix the officiating, then we can talk about changing the rules.

Hockey Night In Montreal

A few quick thoughts about the game in Montreal. Last year, Montreal provided two of the more entertaining pieces of hockey I saw all year. The whatever the team's failings, they always seem to be an energetic group which works hard and makes the other team want to win. So I had high hopes that this would be a good game, featuring speed and effort from both teams.

First. Pascal Leclaire, I am a believer. The Senators had no business being in the same area code as the Montreal Canadians for the first twenty minutes, let alone being ahead for much of the period. That frantic, seemingly disorganized scramble in front of the Ottawa net is becoming more of a routine -- and the more I see it, the less concerned I am, because I just know Leclaire will be there.

Leclaire didn't rob anyone in particular tonight. It is just the same rapid fire chances that the Senators are giving up. In previous years, enough of these would have gone in that we'd have gone into Coach's Corner down at least three.

For all the headlines about the rest of the team, my first, my only star of the night is Pascal Leclaire.

(But even so you have to shout out to the penalty kill performance. Leclaire can't stop five guys coming at him, he needs a little help, and tonight the PK showed patience and discipline.)

Second. I like how Montreal was a curious combination of classy and crass. Crass when Kovalev had his puck possessions for the first couple of periods, yet classy when Kovalev scored his goal to stand up and cheer for him.

I've been amazed watching him -- the details in his puck handling skills are phenomenal. I think once the rest of the team can learn to use his skills, good things will happen more frequently.

Third. Michalek -- fresh from a hat trick in Ottawa, threatening again in a short-handed situation. I love it. He could yet turn into an elite forward.

Overall. One of the commentators tonight noted that the Senators' recent good form can be attributed to a run of softer teams that they have been facing. The real test will come next month and the month after, where they will be playing teams somewhat higher up the food chain. But still, the Senators have traditionally struggled to pick the low hanging fruit, and it is nice that this team, right now, can pick up the so-called "easy" points when they are available.

Montreal trying to out-comedy the Leafs

PPP looks at the centennial celebrations in Montreal:

We've debated endlessly how losing Sundin as a UFA for nothing has been bad for the organization, imagine if the Habs lost Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay in one year for nothing? You'd think that Montreal would open up their piggy bank to ensure that doesn't happen but therein lies the rub. Montreal will have to either overpay or at least pay "fair market value" to retain its UFAs. The best part is, a lot of those guys are All Stars thanks to Montreal ballot stuffing, which should drive up their value. Success!

A Metaphore for 08-09

I've been thinking about it, and I think the metaphor for me for this past season was the fact that the most entertaining hockey I watched involved the Montreal Canadians.

Oh, and I should mention that the Canadians were playing the Flyers and the Capitals at the time.

Both times I got treated to high-energy, high-skill, flowing hockey featuring two teams that wanted the win.

And the thing is I never got that feeling watching the Ottawa team.

This is why I have serious doubts about next year. This is, fundamentally, the same group of players who quit on Paddock and Hartsburg. Last night suggested that are not above quitting on their new golden boy Clouston. The effort shown was conspicuous mostly by its absence.

Clouston came in and did turn things around, and showed what a sustained effort could net you -- the team improved from being worse than the entire Western conference to being slightly better than the Toronto Maple Leafs. But can one really expect that the team could hold together that kind of effort and discipline through an entire season? Every season will have its ups and downs, and Clouston's tenure so far has been mostly up.

In the end, though, the proof will be in the results this time next year.