STU COWAN
MONTREAL GAZETTE
The highlight of the game for Canadiens fans at the Bell Centre Thursday night might have come early in the third period — with the Habs trailing 3-1 — a loud version of Led Zeppelin’s classic Rock and Roll song played during a TV timeout.
But it could have been a lot worse were it not for goalie Mike Condon.
Condon was definitely weak on the Coyotes’ second goal by Shane Doan at 9:17 of the second period — allowing a juicy rebound on a shot he easily should have caught — but the rookie goalie made a number of key saves after Oliver Ekman-Larsson made it 3-0 for Arizona at 3:51 of the second period to keep the Canadiens in the game.
Max Pacioretty made it 3-1 with his team-leading 10th goal of the season at 15:59 of the second period and Dale Weise, with his ninth of the year, made it 3-2 at 19:09 of the third, but it was too little, too late.
If Canadiens fans had been told Carey Price would miss nine games early in the season with a lower-body injury and the team would go 5-2-2 during that span they wouldn’t have believed it. And if they were told Mike Condon would be the replacement goalie, they probably would have said: “Mike Who?”
Condon, an undrafted 25-year-old in his first NHL season, started nine consecutive games and earned 12 of a possible 18 points for the club while posting a .904 save percentage. For the season, the Princeton University graduate has a 7-2-2 record with a 2.23 goals-against average and .913 save percentage.
Condon’s consecutive-game streak will come to an end Friday night in New York when Price returns to action to face the Islanders (7:30 p.m., SNE, RDS, TSN Radio 690). But the Canadiens have proven to themselves and to the league that they can win without the NHL’s best player between the pipes.
“You can’t expect your goalie to make any of those saves,” Brendan Gallagher said after the game about the three Coyotes goals. “Those are scoring chances that we can’t give up. We have to do a better job defending. They’re all from prime scoring chances. Don’t say anything to (Condon). I just think everyone in this locker room knows it’s on us.
“He’s been good for us,” Gallagher added about the backup goaltender. “You just look at his composure since training camp, every single game. And even in games where we fall behind like this, he seems to make one or two really big saves to keep it at the deficit where it gives us a chance to come back, and that’s all that you can ask from your goalie.”
(Photo by John Mahoney/Montreal Gazette)
Price makes long-awaited return, by Pat Hickey
Price returns against Islanders, nhl.com
Game notes
Tough luck for Mitchell
Torrey Mitchell’s stint as a second-line right-winger — taking Alexander Semin’s spot beside Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller — didn’t last long.
Mitchell had only 8:56 of ice time before leaving the game in the third period with a lower-body injury suffered after he was checked from behind by Coyotes defenceman Zbynek Michalek. The way Mitchell did the splits as he hit the ice makes you think it was probably a groin injury or maybe a knee.
Mitchell didn’t make the trip to New York with the team and has been listed as day-to-day.
Another slow start
For the fifth straight game, the Canadiens gave up the first goal and for the third straight game they fell behind 3-0 against the Coyotes.
When asked if he could explain the slow starts, defenceman Gilbert said: “That’s a good question.”
He added: “You get scored on first, it’s understandable But for some reason it seems like we deflate a little bit right now and I don’t know why that is. It’s tough to come back in this league. We’re just digging ourself a hole.
“It’s a 60-minute effort. To have a good start, be ready for the game always gives you a better chance to go out there and win a game. We got to refocus on that.”
When asked if he was happy the Canadiens were playing again on Friday, he said: “Yes, always. The travel sucks, but it’s definitely nice to come back and play another game.”
Gilbert also had praise for Condon, who held the fort after the Canadiens fell behind 3-0 to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday before coming back for a 4-3 overtime win.
“It was like the (game) before,” the defenceman said. “The score could have been a lot different. He kept us in it, gave us confidence to go out there, and we kind of got our game halfway through. But it came just a little bit too late.”
Weise one goal short of his career high
Dale Weise scored his ninth goal of the season on a nice deflection of a point shot by Andrei Markovon a power play.
“I think that’s just a great play by Marky,” Weise said. “I kind of popped out in the high slot. All game we had guys right in front of (Coyotes goalie Mike) Smith’s eyes and we couldn’t get a stick on it. So I thought I’d come out a couple of feet, give him a little space, and Marky makes a pretty good play there to hit my stick.”
Weise’s nine goals put him in the top 10 in the NHL — four behind leader Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks — and he needs only one more to match his career high for a season.
“I’d like to pass that one as quick as I can and then keep building on that,” Weise said. “I’ve had a lot of chances. I thought the past two, three games have probably been my best this season, I just haven’t buried my chances. I’m just trying to keep things going.”
Power-play slump
For the third straight game, the Canadiens were shut out on the power play, during which time they are 0-for-13, including 0-for-4 against the Coyotes.
“I don’t think you panic at three games,” Weise said. “That’s just the way it goes. There’s ebs and flows. They come in bunches sometimes. I don’t know what our power-play percentage is, but I think it’s probably pretty good for the season.”
It is. The Canadiens rank fifth in the NHL on the power play with a 22.2 per cent success rate after ranking 25th last season at 16 per cent.
“We were just out of synch,” Weise said about Thursday’s power-play performance. “We weren’t coming up together. A couple of guys were high and low and we just didn’t execute. Simple.”
Assistant coach J.J. Daigneault deserves a lot of credit — along with coaching consultant Craig Ramsay — for turning around the power player after being put in charge of it this season by Therrien.
Weise spent three seasons in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack, where Daigneault was an assistant coach at the time responsible for the power play.
“I’ve played on the power play at every level,” Weise said. “J.J. running the power play, he saw me play on the power play in the minors. I played with him a lot and I scored a lot of goals on the power play there. He’s given me a good opportunity and I’m trying to make the most of it.
“The three years that I was there with him we had the top power play in the league and it’s a lot of the same stuff (now) and it’s just about executing, and tonight we just didn’t do that.”
Checking the stats
One of the interesting stats from Thursday’s game was Paul Byron — all 5-foot-8 and 158 pounds of him — tying for the team lead in hits with four while logging only 8:47 of ice time. Greg Pateryn and Weise also had four hits.
P.K. Subban as usual led the Canadiens in ice time, playing more than half the game with a whopping 30:33.
Tomas Plekanec had a rough night in the faceoff circle, winning only eight of 24 draws for a 33 per cent success rate.
One of those nights
The Canadiens outshot the Coyotes 33-20 and were Carey Priced by Arizona goalie Smith, who let Habs fans know what it’s like to be on the other side.
“It was one of those nights … bad bounces,” Therrien said in his post-game news conference. “I thought we got a lot of energy when we started the game. We got 13 shots against five (in the first period) and we’re down by two goals. So it took us some time in the second period to gain momentum.
“It’s one of those nights,” he added. “I don’t think it was a lack of effort. I believe our effort was there. We only gave up 20 shots and we tried to press, but we didn’t find a way to tie the game. Special teams have to be better. We lost the battle tonight.”
Birthday boy
Happy birthday to Pacioretty, who turned 27 on Friday.
This Date in Habs History
Nov. 20, 1928: Boston Garden opened its doors to hockey for the first time. In the inaugural game, the Canadiens’ George Hainsworth recorded his first of 22 shutouts in 44 games that season in a 1-0 win over the Bruins before an estimated crowd of 16,000.
Nov. 20, 1943: Rookie goalie Bill Durnan improved his career record to 8-0-1 with a 7-2 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto while Buddy O’Connor had a goal and four assists. Durnan set an NHL record for rookie goalies by going 12-0-2 in his first 14 games.
Nov. 20, 1965: Bobby Rousseau scored his second career hat trick and added two assists, Jean Béliveau had a goal and four assists, and Ralph Backstrom recorded his second career hat trick as the Canadiens beat the New York Rangers 9-3 at the Forum.
Nov. 20, 1989: Bobby Smith became the 28th player in NHL history to record 600 regular- season assists. The assist came on a goal by Mike Keane in the first period of a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames, the defending Stanley Cup champs.
Nov. 20, 1995: The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted its newest members: former Canadiens defenceman Larry Robinson, Fred “Bun” Cook, Bill Torrey and Brian McFarlane.
Nov. 20, 2000: André Savard became the 14th general manager and Michel Therrien the 25th coach in the history of the Canadiens.
(Source: Carl Lavigne/Montreal Canadiens)
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