Game Thread | Montreal vs. Devils | 01/05/06

SpiderManNL · Guru

Game Thread | Montreal vs. Devils | 01/05/06

brooklynhabfan · Guru

Methinks the two underperforming goalies might have a great shootout (no pun intended) and provide max entertainment.

Our boys will de-slumber, effort will be made, but I'm calling a close 2-1 Habs victory, possibly in overtime.

Forget the past! Embrace the future! The Habs are still the greatest hockey team in history, and there's no other team worth supporting, so rid yourself of the droopy looks and cheer till you're horse!

GO HABS GO!!!

heet_150 · Guru

brooklynhabfan wrote:

Methinks the two underperforming goalies might have a great shootout (no pun intended) and provide max entertainment. Our boys will de-slumber, effort will be made, but I'm calling a close 2-1 Habs victory, possibly in overtime. Forget the past! Embrace the future! The Habs are still the greatest hockey team in history, and there's no other team worth supporting, so rid yourself of the droopy looks and cheer till you're horse! GO HABS GO!!!

Thank God someone has a little positivity left in them. I'll second a win, but, I'll go with 4-2 including an empty net goal.

Desi · Senior Member

I'm not optimistic enough about our goaltending or D to think we'll hold the Devs to 1 goal, but I do think Theo will "rebound" and play better, and that there will be more effort from the guys as a whole on Thursday.

There was one big pisitive in the Pens game and that was that the guys DID come back from a 3-0 deficit to take the lead. They didn't give up -- and I'm especially thinking of the younger crowd: Higgins, Kostitsyn, Bouillon and even Ferland. When this team really works and really hustles, they are magical -- just as they were at the beginning of the season.

Saku isn't 100%, but I give him credit for being out there and trying to make a difference for the team. In the games to come, I think we'll see him return to form, and that will bolster our first line in general.

I look for a 4-3 win for the Habs in a shootout, with the Brothers K figuring prominently in the scoring.

Les Canadiens Sont La

SpiderManNL · Guru

SpiderManNL · Guru

Jedah · Guru

I'm calling for 60 minutes (or close to it) of solid hockey. After Julien had a meeting with the team, I can't see anyone coasting too much. I don't know what the score will be, but I think we'll either get the win or at the least force OT.

barry33 · Guru

Jedah wrote:

I'm calling for 60 minutes (or close to it) of solid hockey. After Julien had a meeting with the team, I can't see anyone coasting too much. I don't know what the score will be, but I think we'll either get the win or at the least force OT.

Jedah- I agree. A loss tonite will not be due to lack of effort. I can GUARANTEE that. Like anything else in life, sometimes you need to hot rock bottom before you do the things that need to be done to fix it. I feel the Habs have and the meeting indicated that. One thing is quite clear now that was not clear before. Gainey has made it very clear that Julien is there to stay and Julien has made it very clear that it is his way or the highway. So the players that do get to play tonite had best realize that.

Sidenote- May as well run Brodeur in the first period. From what I have seen it seems to be open season on goalies this year.

SpiderManNL · Guru

http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/hockey/canadiensstory.html?id=57549aed-ef7c-4809-be13-0c2c814cf078

Canadiens back to basics

By PAT HICKEY

Canadiens head coach Claude Julien has urged his players to get back to basics and abandon what he called "reckless hockey."

"At the beginning of the season, there were a lot of things that were new for everybody," Julien said after the Canadiens practised at the Bell Centre before leaving for New Jersey, where they will play the Devils tonight (7:30 p.m., CJAD Radio-800; 10 p.m., tape delay, RDS).

"There was lots of scoring, but there was also a lot of reckless hockey," Julien said. "We won a lot of games by one goal late in the game, but now the league has stabilized and teams aren't playing as loose as they were. We have to get everybody on the same page and get back to playing our system."

The Canadiens, who have lost five of their past six games, took a step toward getting back to basics yesterday with a long video session, followed by an on-ice workout that stressed basics.

"It was a good workout, because it's the first time in a long time that we've had everyone on the ice and healthy," defenceman Craig Rivet said.

"We haven't played our best hockey for a long time and we have to concentrate on working and having a good attitude. We've had nights when we've worked hard, but we've expended energy doing the wrong things.

"We've pinched in and haven't been accountable defensively. It's a matter of getting everyone on the same page."

Julien tried to shake things up against the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday night by not dressing Mike Ribeiro and Pierre Dagenais and suiting up rookies Jonathan Ferland and Andrei Kostitsyn. But the moves didn't provide an instant cure as a rookie-laden Penguins lineup beat the Canadiens 6-4.

Julien described the night as the most frustrating of his tenure in Montreal.

There was no immediate word on whether Ribeiro or Dagenais will be back in the lineup tonight. Both players were spares at practice yesterday and Julien said a final decision on the lineup will be made today.

He did say that he made the changes for the "good of the team. We don't make changes to punish guys."

Said Ribeiro: "I was in the same situation two years ago. The coach benched me and I was a better player when I came back."

Oddly, Ribeiro and Julien both said they hadn't talked about the reasons why the team's third-leading scorer was not dressed Tuesday, although Ribeiro expected to talk with the coach sometime yesterday.

"I've been in a slump, with one goal in the last 25 games but I don't know if that's the reason," he said. "I know that in the last few games I've played, I've worked hard.

"There were a few games before that when my work ethic could have been better, but we were short guys and there wasn't anything the coach could do."

Ribeiro said all he could was work hard and wait for his next opportunity.

The changes did give Ferland and Kostitsyn an opportunity to show what they could do. Ferland scored a goal in his NHL debut - "It's a dream come true,"he said - and had four shots on goal, while Kostitsyn picked up an assist.

Ferland played 9:12, while Kostitsyn, who averaged fewer than four minutes in his previous stints in Montreal, played 12:43.

The Devils, meanwhile, have Patrik Elias back in the lineup after he missed the start of the season with hepatitis. They also cleared some salary-cap space yesterday by releasing veteran Alexander Mogilny.

The Canadiens return home to play the Ottawa Senators Saturday. That game kicks off Hockey Day in Canada on CBC and will start at 2 p.m.

phickey@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006

Habs coach Claude Julien goes to the chalkboard at practice.

SpiderManNL · Guru

http://www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=4653

Game Preview: Canadiens vs. Devils

EAST RUTHERFORD – The Canadiens will be looking to get back on track as they face off with the New Jersey Devils in Montreal’s first road game of 2006. Tuesday at the Bell Centre, Claude Julien’s troops dropped a 6-4 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins, despite roaring back from a 3-0 deficit to take the lead in the second period.

The Devils, who are closing out a three-game homestand, head into tonight’s matchup fresh off a 3-0 victory over the Florida Panthers. Martin Brodeur picked up his 76th career shutout, giving Devils President and GM Lou Lamoriello his third win in seven games as interim head coach.

Tonight's assigment won’t be an easy one for Montreal. In the club’s last 22 visits to Continental Airlines Arena since March 1994, the Canadiens are 1-17-4 with their last win in New Jersey dating back to Feb. 5, 2002. The Devils hold a 76-36 advantage in goals scored on home-ice against the Canadiens, including a 5-3 win back on Nov. 18.

Faster than a speeding Bulis: Since recent move to centre, Jan Bulis has really taken off. The Czech forward put the Canadiens on the board Tuesday against the Penguins, and later added an assist. The future Olympian has also picked up four points in his last four games, including three goals. Bulis’ success of late should come as no surprise, as the 27-year-old has always been at his best in January with 42 career points in the first month on the calendar, the most of any other month.

"Jan has really responded well since moving to centre, " said Julien, who had Bulis playing between Andrei Kostitsyn and Michael Ryder against the Penguins. "He played a lot of centre during his days with the Capitals and he's doing a great job for us right now. Jan has got a lot of speed and his versatility has been a real asset to us. He's been given an opportunity and it's great to see how he has taken advantage of it."

A long-awaited return: New Jersey welcomed forward Patrik Elias back to its lineup Tuesday night. The Devils’ leading scorer in 2003-04 had missed the first three months of the season after contracting Hepatitis A while playing in Europe during the lockout. The 29-year-old didn’t wait long to get his name on the scoresheet, as he earned an assist against the Panthers while playing on a line with Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta, the club’s top two point-getters this season. To make room for Elias in the lineup, the Devils placed veteran Alexander Mogilny on waivers on Wednesday. Mogilny has 25 points in 34 games with New Jersey in 2005-06.

Ribeiro will be ready: While sitting in the pressbox was certainly the last place Mike Ribeiro wanted to be Tuesday when his teammates took on the Penguins, it may have been just what the doctor ordered for No. 71, who has scored only one goal in his last 27 games.

“I remember the last time this happened, two years ago, I was also in a scoring slump,” said Ribeiro, who remains third in team scoring with 26 points in 37 games this season. “I hadn’t scored in like 20 games, but after Claude sat me for a game, I came back and got on a roll.”

In 2003-04, the 6-foot center had 15 points in his first 24 games, including only three goals before being scratched by Claude Julien on Dec. 2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ribeiro responded to his coach’s challenge by putting up 25 points over his next 24 games – including eight goals – on his way to leading the team with 65 points in 81 games on the season.

“There’s no question that Mike is a talented player and we’ve seen good things from him before,” said Julien right before heading to the airport for the team’s charter to New Jersey. “We expect to see more positive things from Mike this season. In these situations the goal isn’t to punish the player. We’re just trying to help all of our guys reach their full potential.”

Manny Almela is a writer for canadiens.com

Saku Koivu scored a goal and added an assist in the Canadiens' last visit to New Jersey on Nov. 18.

SpiderManNL · Guru

ray · Senior Member

I wanna feel good about this game but I just can't right now, especially with the way this team is playing. The worst thing is that Brodeur hasn't been playing that great lately and he'll probably stand on his head tonight. but with that my heart is with the Habs and I wish them good luck and Go Habs Go! We really need this one especially with the Sens coming to town Saturday

Ando · Guru

And-o cringes to think of what might happen versus the likes of Jersey! These guys are known to work their butts off...while the Habs play the perimeter and creampuff it!!!

I hope that meeting was better than the ones we have where I work (And-o calls it "the bored room" as opposed to "the board room for a reason)!!!