More of the same
Canadiens look to continue to frustrate Rangers in Game 4
Claude Julien is not living in the past. He hopes that his team isn’t, either.
Julien’s Montreal Canadiens lead the New York Rangers 2-1 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final following a dominant 3-1 win in Game 3 Sunday night. Game 4 is set for Tuesday night in New York, and Montreal’s head coach wants his team prepared to press their advantage.
“Today is another day,” Julien said during his media availability at Madison Square Garden Monday afternoon. “We can’t sit here day after day talking about what happened.
“We have to start thinking about what needs to be done. I think we did a great job (Sunday) night. They’re going to come out next game a lot better and we need to be ready for that. “We need to be ready to be at least as good as we were in the last game. That’s where our focus has to be and not so much about sitting on all the good things we’re talking about. We have to move on.”
To that end, the Canadiens opted to hold a video session Monday. The Rangers held a full team practice in which rookie right winger Pavel Buchnevich participated in power play drills, although New York coach Alain Vigneault would not reveal if he was contemplating making changes to a stagnant roster.
“I’m looking at all our options,” said Vigneault, who later added, “We have quite a few options upfront and on ‘D.’
“We’ve got nine defencemen (so) it’s between those nine and I’ve got 15 forwards. I’m going to decide (between) those 15 forwards.”
Whereas he was circumspect about his player personnel decision making process, Vigneault stressed his team needed to improve its puck management following a Game 3 in which the Rangers had 21 giveaways.
“We need to do a better job,” Vigneault said. “We had a lot of unforced turnovers (in Game 3) that we need to correct.”
The Canadiens’ defensive structure in the neutral and defensive zones eliminated New York’s greatest asset - its collective team speed.
The Canadiens clogged the middle and took away passing lanes, so the Rangers spent much of Game 3 having harmless dump-ins intercepted at the blue line or cleared out by Carey Price and his defencemen.
New York finished the game with 21 shots, the majority of which were from the perimeter. Eighteen of the Rangers’ 21 shots came at even strength and the other three were on the power play.