HABS FEVER GRIPS CITY
Excitement was rampant Wednesday night as playoff hockey returned to the Bell Centre for the first time in two years. Alas, the Rangers dulled the fans’ fervour with a 2-0 win.
It had been two years since the last Canadiens playoff game in Montreal.
The city was pumped with a group of employees at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport working on their day off last weekend to put the large “MONTRÉAL” sign in bleublanc-rouge with the CH logo in the middle of the “o.” The fans were ready, showing up early for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. start for Game 1 against the New York Rangers to take part in the pregame Fan Jam party outside the Bell Centre, complete with a large Ferris wheel.
Ginette Reno was ready, belting out O Canada like only she can before the puck dropped and the building started to shake with “Go Habs Go!” chants.
The Canadiens were also ready. Andrew Shaw won the opening faceoff clean and the Canadiens started throwing their weight around while outshooting the Rangers 8-2 in the first nine minutes.
Then there was a scramble faceoff in the Canadiens’ zone to Carey Price’s left with Tanner Glass beating defenceman Jeff Petry to the loose puck in the circle. The Rangers forward then lifted a backhander short-side over Price’s glove as the goalie dropped to his knees too early.
It was the only goal the Rangers would need as they beat the Canadiens 2-0 with Game 2 slated for the Bell Centre Friday night (7 p.m., CBC, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690). After finishing in first place in the Atlantic Division and winning all three games against the Rangers during the regular season, the Canadiens already find themselves heading into their first “must-win” game of the playoffs.
Price said Glass’s shot surprised him a bit.
“He got a lot of wood on it,” the goalie said about Glass, who finished with only 8:01 of ice time, the lowest total for either team. “It was a pretty good shot. Didn’t really think at the time that it was going to be the difference. You got to give that team credit, they played pretty well.”
The fact the Rangers won at the Bell Centre shouldn’t come as a shock, since New York had the best road record in the NHL during the regular season at 27-12-2. What was a surprise was Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist beating Price as both teams finished with 31 shots and New York got its second goal from Michael Grabner into an empty net with 1:10 remaining in the game.
Price had a 3-0-0 record against the Rangers during the regular season with a 2.27 goalsagainst average and a .922 save percentage, while Lundqvist was 0-2-1 with a 4.04 GAA and .871 save percentage. Lundqvist’s career record against the Canadiens was 14-17-0-3 with a 2.87 GAA and an .898 save percentage.
“We don’t pay attention to that stuff,” said Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who had five shots.
“We know that we’re facing one of the best goalies in the league, so it’s our job to make life difficult for him. I thought we had some good chances tonight to score, but could do a little bit better job around the net bearing down and trying to bury those second and third chances.”
You can’t blame Price for this loss — unless Canadiens fans are wishing he could also score.
Offensive depth has been a problem for the Canadiens since ... well, for a very long time. When they were eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games during the second round of the playoffs two years ago, the Canadiens scored only five goals in the four games they lost.
This game was very close in more than just the final score. Both teams won 28 faceoffs, the shots were 31-31 and the hits were 53-45 in favour of the Canadiens in what was a very physical affair. The Canadiens’ Paul Byron — all 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds of him — had a game-high seven hits.
Pacioretty said the fans helped the Canadiens come out fired up, outshooting the Rangers 16-5 in the first period, but trailing 1-0 at the intermission.
“It was really awesome,” the captain said about the atmosphere in the Bell Centre. “It was a lot of fun. I felt pretty nervous. … I felt like an 18-year-old there when the fans were going nuts. They always seem to amaze us with the show they put on. It seems like every year it gets louder and louder. It was a lot of fun and we got to do a better job next game for our fans.”
Scoring a goal would be a good start.
“What I look at is the number of opportunities we had and what we can do with them,” coach Claude Julien said. “So you try to improve in those areas and say: ‘Listen, next game these are things here that may help us score some goals.’ Both goaltenders were strong tonight, made some good saves. It’s up to us to figure a way to score those goals.”
They better figure it out soon.
We know that we’re facing one of the best goalies in the league, so it’s our job to make life difficult for him.