Niemi excels, but his teammates let him down
Loss sees Canadiens drop to 29th in offence, averaging 2.49 goals per game
Antti Niemi was selected as the third star in the Canadiens’ 2-0 loss to the Florida Panthers.
In a perfect world, he would have been the No. 1 star.
Niemi gave his team a chance, but he’s playing behind the punchless Canadiens, who were shut out for a team-record 12th time, including the last three times they faced the Panthers.
Niemi said he didn’t care who the Canadiens were playing, but this was a game he wanted to win if only because, earlier this season, the Panthers gave up on him. He arrived in Montreal after being waived by Florida after previously being let go by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who the Habs play on Wednesday.
Since he joined the Canadiens, Niemi has posted very good to elite numbers, with a .932 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against average. But after the loss to Florida, his record with Montreal dropped to 5-4-4.
Paul Byron described Niemi’s performance as “incredible.”
“Since the day he got here, he’s done nothing but work and work and work. He’s played incredible hockey for us. Every game he plays, he gives us a chance to win. The saves we were forcing him to make tonight just can’t happen,” Byron said.
“It’s just not good enough for our team. It doesn’t matter who’s hurt. It doesn’t matter who’s out of the lineup. Guys have to execute better — they got to play the game better. We’ve all played this game a long time and we know we can’t give those chances like that and expect to win hockey games.”
With the loss Monday, the Canadiens dropped to 29th in league offence with an average of 2.49 goals a game. In addition to the 12 shutouts, there have been 13 other games in which they were held to one goal. That doesn’t leave much room for error for the goaltenders.
Byron said the forwards have to accept responsibility for the lack of quality scoring chances.
“I think that’s on us not going to the middle,” Byron said. “I know they back pressure hard, but we got to find ways to get pucks to the net and find ways to get shots inside the scoring area.
“You can take as many perimeter shots as you want — it’s on us as the players to go out there and work hard and find ways to get pucks to the middle and get secondary chances. We’re just not getting enough of those right now.
“There’s no way to beat around the bush — it’s been a tough year, not the year any of us here thought it would be,” Byron added. “It’s been disappointing — there’s no real word to say other than that.”
The result might have been different had a potential tying goal late in the first period not been wiped out because the play was offside, but Nikita Scherbak said he wouldn’t use that as an excuse.
“There was plenty of hockey to be played after that and we couldn’t score,” Scherbak said.
It’s been a frustrating year for coach Claude Julien, who vowed to continue to teach and help his players get better.
“We are what we are because of the situation we’re in, but we know there are better days ahead,” he said.
Julien said the Panthers are in a different situation because they are chasing a playoff spot.
“They won battles. They won races. We weren’t able to compete with them,” Julien said. “The biggest challenge for our guys — if you want to be part of this team, guys should be playing for their jobs.
“We’re missing veterans playing big minutes. (Phillip) Danault, (Max) Pacioretty and others can give us minutes, but some of the guys we have now are used to playing 12 minutes and they can’t handle more right now.”