• Red Fisher’s take

• Dave Stubbs on Frankie Boo

• Quotes from the room

• About last night …

• Pierre Ladouceur’s game analysis

• Hickey’s column

Lars Eller was the best forward in a red jersey last night.

That was gratifying to those of us who see a lot of potential in the tall, talented kid obtained in the trade that sent Jaro Halak to St. Louis.

Eller used his size and speed effectively. He drove the net when opportunities presented themselves. He made deft passes.

There was an air of excitement in the Bell Centre when Eller, Travis Moen and Tom Pyatt were on the ice.

Unfortunately, an air of frustration accompanied shifts by Tomas Plekanec’s line.

And we won’t even discuss the air engulfing Scott Gomez. I’ll leave that to friend Arpon Basu, who points out the Gomez lethargy – six points in 19 games – is allowing opposing teams to focus on Plekanec, which makes the going very tough for the Canadiens’ best forward.

The Tampa Bay Lightning took 33 shots last night. Eight went in.

The Canadiens: 30 … and a big, fat goose egg.

Pleks had one shot on goal last night. His speed was effectively neutralized by a Nashville defensive scheme that turned the neutral zone into a traffic jam.

The Predators took away the Canadiens’ time and space, forcing them to make decisions before attractive options presented themselves … which they seldom did because nobody was moving their feet.

Case in point: the winning goal.

Roman Hamrlik had the puck to Carey Price’s right. With two Predators closing on him, Hamrlik panicked and threw the puck into the slot, where more white jerseys were prowling.

Nashville had possession in the Canadiens’ zone and worked the puck until old friend Frankie the Bull found Marcel Goc on the lip of Carey Price’s crease, where Pleks hadn’t bothered to pursue him.

Another case in point: the sequence that led to Goc’s second goal began with Brian Gionta making a neutral-zone pass into Andrei Kostitsyn’s skates.

Turnover.

Nashville rush.

Game over.

Credit Nashville with a solid game plan and the discipline to follow it. They skated and battled ferociously for every loose puck. Their big  defencemen – Shea Weber! What a stud!! – kept Canadiens forwards out of Pekka Rinne’s face.

The Finnish goaltender extended his shutout streak against the Canadiens to 138:55 and Rinne was the game’s first star. But he wasn’t severely tested.

Every scoring attempt was either long-range or from a bad angle. Alexandre Picard and Maxim Lapierre were the leading shooters with five. P.K. Subban and Jaro Spacek each had three SoG.

When 16 of your 30 shots are coming from those guys, it’s a long night at the Bell.

And boring. Homer that I am, I was disappointed by the Canadiens failure to get into any kind of rhythm and flow. But it wasn’t like Nashville was running a Red Wings-type artistic hockey clinic, either.

The Predators just work hard and oblige their opponents to match their intensity level.

The Canadiens didn’t, with predictable results.

Toronto shouldn’t present  as much of a technical challenge, but the Leafs will be riding a two-game winning streak into the Bell Centre tomorrow night.

The Canadiens best will have to be better than they were against Nashville.

•  •  •

A member of the Commentariat pointed out the Canadiens have scored a grand total of eight goals in their six losses this season.

They’ve been on the short end of 3-0 scores three times – twice on home ice.

The Canadiens are 20th in the league in per-game goal average at 2.58 (the massacre of Carolina helped that stat).

But thanks to Carey Price, they’re second in GA per game at 2.05.

The power play took another whiff last night, and its efficiency sits at 14.9.

The PK is at 90.1 per cent – tied with L.A. for number one.

•  •  •

Before the season began, Patrick V. Hickey bet CJAD’s Rick Moffat that Jaro Halak would win more games than Carey Price and have a lower GAA and higher save percentage.

Price is leading in all three categories.

And Jaro’s save percentage of 90.6 has him 30th.

Andrei Markov.

Since then, bupkes.

And sooooooooo boring.

Love Hurts comes close. Just apply lyrics of the Boudleaux Bryant classic to what this hockey team is doing to your achy-breaky heart:

Love hurts, love scars, love wounds
And mars, any heart
Not tough or stong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud
Holds a lot of rain
Love hurts… 

Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves I guess
They’re not foolin’ me

Are the Canadiens still foolin’ you?

We’re 20 games in; and to mark the quarter-pole, the team played their worst game of a long season.

The scary part is: 62 to go.

Don’t let the score mislead you.

Without Carey Price – tying team records for saves in a period, 23, and a game, 53 – this one is at least 6-0.

And this wasn’t San Jose or some other Western Conference Cup contender.

The Nashville Predators began the evening in 12th place in the Western Conference. They had scored 37 goals – tied with woeful Carolina for fewest in the league.

How does a team that can’t score rack up 55 shots against the Canadiens?

How does a team that gave Phoenix 20 shots in Thursday’s game give Nashville that many in the first 15 minutes?

In addition to the 55 on Price, there were 10 blocked shots and 13 misses. That’s 78 times a Predator brought his stick into contact with the puck and sent it in the direction of the Canadiens’ net.

The comparable Canadiens total: 37, including 20 shots.

78-37.

That’s the basketball score at halftime when the U.S. plays Iceland.

How does Steve Sullivan, who had one goal in Nashville’s 17 previous games, bag two while firing 11 shots?

11 shots. Andrei Kostitsyn has 38 THIS SEASON!

Nashville took two minor penalties, both in the offensive zone.

The Canadiens were so docile and unthreatening, Jordin Tootoo couldn’t even be bothered to run anyone.

Brutal – and you could read the hopelessness on the faces of the habitually-happy RDS analysts.

Jacques Demers and Joel Bouchard looked like they’d just watched their cocker spaniels hit by a bus.

Maybe their bonuses are pegged to April ratings.

Bouchard was unequivocal: If Jacques Martin gets this team into the playoffs, he’s the coach of the year.

But why should he settle for the Jack Adams Trophy?

If Martin gets this squad into the postseason, he’ll be one miracle up on beatification?

Think I’m being my usual drama queen/roller coaster/bandwagon hopping self?

After a visit by Carolina on Tuesday – and that won’t be a gimme – the Canadiens play in Washington on Friday and return to the Bell Centre for a Saturday date with – gulp! – Detroit.

If Nashville had 55 shots, how many will the Capitals  get?

The Red Wings?

Look, I love Brian Gionta. But should his absence reduce the Canadiens to total suckitude?

There have been many injuries on defence, and I’m not going to dump on Jaro Spacek, playing hurt, for a less-than-stellar game. The situation on D was so dire Marc-André Bergeron logged 1:13 on the PK.

Spatch, Roman Hamrlik and Paul Mara played huge minutes, most of the time spent in the exhausting pursuit of the puck in their own zone.

Where was the Jacques Martin system? Where were the forwards coming back to help out against relentless Nashville forechecking and a blizzard of shots coming at Price from all angles?

Apart from depriving Guillaume Latendresse of a well-deserved night in the pressbox, Gionta’s injury – a footproblem, and reports are it looks bad – demonstrated the team’s lack of depth at forward.

Maxim Lapierre, a centre, played RW with Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri.

For a few futile shifts.

Then it was Ryan White on the top line.

I love White. The kid busts his stones on every shift.

But if White is your first line RW, even for part of one game, you’ve got BIG problems.

The Tomas Plekanec line? Invisible.

The 3Ms did what they could – Metro, Moen and Max-Pac are nothing if not gamers – but they’re not difference-makers.

The Montreal Canadiens’ only difference maker is Carey Price.

He was the difference between 2-0 and a REALLY embarrassing final score.

And as has been the case in nearly all of his starts this season, Price’s teammates played crap in front of him.

They’ve been better for Jaro Halak, but better than crap still doesn’t cut it in a very tough hockey league.

Guys that don’t compete for 60 minutes are … well, roll video on nearly every Habs game.

Give the team 20 games, the more rational pundits advised, heading into the season.

Well, here we are.

The Canadiens are 9-11. They’ve scored 49 goals and allowed 59.

They are on pace for a 73-point season – which would be the lowest since 70 points in 2000-’01.

That got Alain Vigneault fired and the hapless Réjean Houle replaced by André Savard.

Jacques Martin has finished the first 20 games of a four-year contract. He isn’t going anywhere.

Bob Gainey is in Year 7 of the five-year rebuilding plan.

With his fre-agent spending spree, the general manager bet all in. The future of this team is tied to the performance of Gomez, Cammalleri and Gionta.

On a grim night in Music City, the future – near- and long-term – looked kinda bleak and may have had long-suffering Habs fans thinking of a Patsy Cline classic:

I’m crazy for tryin’ and I’m crazy for cryin’

And I’m crazy for lovin’ you.

18 other players: SUCK OUT LOUD!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

After ten years in the league, that basically sums up the plight of the Predators.  Fighting to build a fan base while staying well below the salary cap, this never-ending dilemma seems to be the main focus for the franchise.  The team certainly seems to be wary of taking chances after making the failed Peter Forsberg deadline trade in 2007, and have been stuck in neutral ever since.  Suffice to say, if you don’t risk anything, you won’t gain anything.

• Historically, the biggest problem with Nashville  is that they simply can’t score enough goals.  To add insult to injury, this year they rank 29^th in the league in goals scored which is also a reflective of the fact that their PP is dead last in the NHL.  In fact, they only have seven PP goals and three of those have come from stud defenseman, Shea Weber (Frankie Bouillon also has one).  The Predators don’t have that many quality forwards, and the ones that they do have simply haven’t been producing.

• David Legwand, was their projected star player during the expansion days but after nine seasons he seems to have hit his peak.  He only has scored one goal so far this year and eats up $4.5M of cap space.  He also has missed at least 9 games in 6 of his 9 NHL seasons.  He’s OK, but nothing special. Another player who is off to a slow start is LW, Martin Erat. He has one goal and three assists with a -8, hardly good value for his salary of $4.5m a year.  The oft injured, Steve Sullivan, has only scored two goals so far but is the type of player who usually puts up good numbers.  

• Nashville’s best two forwards are centre, Jason Arnott and RW, J.P. Dumont.  Arnott (6’4″/225) has scored 32, 27, 28, and 33 goals during the past four years despite having some injury woes.  He is the prototype big centre that all teams desire.  Dumont has averaged 68 points a year for the past three seasons and has 11 points in just 10 games so far.  He is the leading scorer on the team even though he has missed 7 games.  There is some hope in the near future as first year pro, Colin Wilson, has star potential written all over him.  He will be the heir apparent to Arnott.  Sulllivan, Arnott, and Dumont form the top line for Nashville and are the heart of the PP along with Weber.

• The talent pool up front drastically drops off after these “core players” but there is one newcomer  who might catch your eye.  Second-year pro, Patric Hornqvist, is my player to watch tonight.  Hornqvist (5’11″/190/R/$620,000) is 22 years old, and was a 7^th round draft pick who was selected 230^th overall.  Shades of Sergei in terms of coming out of the blue.  He’s a gritty, hard working player who can play both flanks.  He split his rookie campaign between Nashville and the AHL last year, with mixed results.  He’s the type of player who needs a centre to make him shine (instead of the other way around) and may one day be a perfect match for Wilson.  He has five goals and five assists so far this year and wears sweater #27.

• Ryan Jones and Joel Ward are a couple of hard working, two way players who answer the bell on a nightly basis.  Jordan Tootoo is an undersized version of the same thing while Jarred Smithson is a solid checking centre who is a mainstay on the PK unit.  All four of these guys are solid role players but aren’t really scoring threats in any way.  Marcel Goc arrived from San Jose but he is basically on the clock (and may not have noticed the time change at the beginning of the month).  He has only two points so far this year.   The much traveled Wade Belak is on the 4^th line and is the town thug.  With all this lack of scoring,  the Preds would surely love to have Alexander Radulov back in the fold.  It also hurts that they lost Rich Peverley on waivers last year to Atlanta.

• Nashville has had their share of goaltenders over the past ten years, and most of them have served the club quite well.  Right now, the duties are being shared by Dan Ellis (2.90/.900) and Pekka Rinne (2.60/.909).  Thomas Vokoun was the last real #1 in Nashville and now both of these guys are battling for the top spot.  There’s a lot on the line seeing that they both are going to be UFAs this summer.  Rinne seems to have the inside track at the present moment as he displays more upside than Ellis.  Chet Pickard, 19, has all the tools to become an elite NHL goaltender but will need a few more years of seasoning before he challenges for the #1 job.  

• The greatest strength of the team is on the back end.  They have a solid collection of young Dmen who display great size and potential.  Shea Weber is only 24 but has already broken through to be an elite defender.  His excellent size,  great shot, and PP prowess help make him an all star candidate.  Ryan Suter (24) and Dan Hamhuis (26) help round out Nashville’s version of the big three.  Cody Franson (22/6’5″/230) is finally playing with the big club as is Kevin Klein (24/6’1″/200).  Jonathan Blum (20)  set the AHL on fire last year but needs more experience.  2009 1^st round draft pick, Ryan Ellis, has elite puck moving skills but is severely undersized.   Nashville probably should have gone with a forward but they collect young Dmen the same way that Mike Boone collects single malts.  

• As I said in my introduction, it’s too bad that Nashville doesn’t spend some money to sign some big ticket UFA forwards.  Or maybe trade off some young defenders to help balance out the team.  The Preds will never take it to the next level unless they start to show some moxie and try and jump start the franchise.  

• Nashville is just coming off a tough stretch of games that saw them play 9 of their last 11 on the road.  They are 2-2 so far in November and 6-3 over their last nine.  Another scarey stat is the fact that they are 8-2-1 when scoring more than one goal in a game.  Here’s another caution for Hab fans.  Nashville coach, Barry Trotz (the only one the franchise has ever had), realizes his team has scoring issues and has therefore implemented a very restrictive trap system.  Bring a pillow.

• Stat pack – GF: 29^th, GA: 10^th, GD: -11, GAA: 2.76, PP: 30^th, PK: 22^nd, FO: 50.7%, CS: 12.7M

• Injury Report – Colin Wilson (groin).  Weber, Erat, Dumont, and Tootoo have all just returned from the injury list.

When it’s all said and done, the Habs really need to take advantage of the schedule that is presently in front of them.  A win over Phoenix was a good start and the same outcome is needed during the next week as they face second-tier teams such as Nashville and Carolina.  In a perfect world, we would head into next weekend on a three game winning streak.  That’s pretty well a must seeing that we will be facing Washington and Detroit.

The TV ratings would be the lowest ever …. and not just because the finalists were two of Gary Bettman’s ridiculous Sun Belt teams.

It’s the style – or lack of same.

Grinding defensive hockey. Rapid line changes. Hard-working, tight-checking players who won’t be in the All-Star game.

In his superlative The Game, Ken Dryden wrote that defensive hockey was the easiest to coach, as long as players were dedicated and bought into the system.

Easy to teach; but man, it was hard to watch last night.

Maybe it was the letdown after an emotional game in Boston.

Maybe it was playing an unfamiliar and largely faceless opponent lacking two of its best players: Shea Weber and Jason Arnott.

Whatever, the Canadiens and Predators dialed up a non-classic, the most exciting moments of which came during the final minute, when the home team managed to miss an empty net five times.

The Canadiens had TWO shots in the second period and six in the third. Absurd … and really boring.

But two points is two points. And it’s not like I paid to get into the Bell Centre.

The team bagged a W against a difficult opponent. And they did it – again – without their number-one goaltender and three of their top forwards.

Not to mention the "heavyweight champ."

When his face appears on the giant scoreboard during pre-game introductions, Georges Laraque still gets tumultuous applause.

Why?

BGL has played in 17 games this season. He has fewer penalty minutes than Alex Kovalev.

And while Laraque nurses a tweaky groin and a bad back while ballooning up to 260, his valiant teammates are losing fights.

I don’t know why Steve Bégin squared off with Jordin Tootoo last night. It wasn’t a good idea, and Bégin joined Kyle Chipchura and Tom Kostopoulos as players with big hearts and inept fists.

(For a example of effective pugilism, check out Sheldon Souray drilling Craig Weller with a left.)

So tell me again why the Canadiens signed Big Georges.

Robert Lang was a better acquisition. I love watching this guy play hockey.

Lang never makes bonehead plays. He has intuitive hockey sense, the lack of which was what me drove me nuts watching Michael Ryder last season.

Segei Kostitsyn has it, too. But Lang is more experienced and bigger. He’s no Todd Bertuzzi, but Lang uses his size and reach effectively.

Lang is a superb complement to those two wild and crazy guys from Belarus, the older of whom is on fire. Andrei Kostitsyn bagged his 15th last night on a one-timer to Pekka Rinne’s short side. AK46 has scored in four straight games, all on the power play.

The PP is 8-for-26 after a 1-for-22 drought. The first wave still loses the faceoff too often, which necessitates regrouping and wastes time, but once it gets set up, the PP has ecome a dangerous weapon again – and a disincentive for opponents who might otherwise take liberties against the Canadiens.

The most impressive stat last night? Against a fast-skating, hard-working and disciplined team, the Canadiens took only two minor penalties – and none in the third period, when Nashville was coming on strong.

A minor quibble about a minor: my friend Sean Gordon of the Globe and Mail, who actually watches the game while I’m live-blogging like a maniac, pointed out that Patrice Brisebois’s interference penalty came after the referee had warned Breeze about holding up a Nashville player on a previous dump-in.

Brisebois was minus-2 last night, as was Roman Hamrlik. But Mike Komisarek  (four hits, six blocked shots), Josh Gorges and Francis Bouillon were steady, and Andrei Markov was spectacular.

The Canadiens blocked 26 shots (to 14 for Nashville) and did a good job clearing the rebounds that still bounce off Jaroslav Halak often enough to keep the fans on the edge of their seats. Jaro made 23 saves and did not look elegant on any of them. He’ll never win style points, but Halak has won 10 games and provided quality goaltending while Carey Price rehabs a sore ankle.

Speaking of blocked shots, Alex Kovalev had six of seven blocked last night. But Kovy played a strong game with Tomas Plekanec (10-6 on faceoffs, including a crucial win late against Radek Bonk in the Canadiens zone with an extra Nashville attacker on).

I’m starting to love Max Pacioretty on the Pleks line. Big kid who uses his size. Excellent and tireless skater. There’s still the odd defensive lapse or bad decision in the O-zone. But what the heck, Max-Pac is 20 years old and has played all of seven games in the NHL.

Definitely a keeper … and we can only hope Pacioretty’s play inspires Christopher Higgins.

Here’s one to ponder: When Higgins, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay return, do Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and Tom Kostopoulos become the Canadiens’ fourth line?

If so, there won’t be a better one in the league. Max has to be the most improved player on the team, Gui! has been revitalized and Tom the Bomb is the line’s Energizer Bunny … albeit a rabbit with bad hands.

Off to Ottawa tomorrow morning for the first of three road games heading into the All-Star break.

Canadiens are sitting fourth in the conference, three points up on Philadelphia with a game in hand.

Best of all, they – and we – have seen the last of Nashville.

How boring was it?

Canadiens Express should be on CPAC. 

Radek Bonk leads the Nashville Predators with 10 goals.
John Russell, NHLI via Getty Images

For two seasons, the Canadiens employed centreman Radek Bonk as a defensive specialist. This year, having signed in July with the Nashville Predators as an unrestricted free agent, the 31-year-old has rediscovered his scoring touch.

Now, instead of being used solely as a checker and a penalty-killer, Bonk is on the power play, and has a team-leading 10 goals to show for his new role. Bonk scored the tying goal in the final seconds of Saturday’s Bell Centre game against the Canadiens, then scored again in the shootout to help pace the Predators’ win. And how couldn’t you feel good for an honest worker who always did what was asked of him in Montreal?

Dave Stubbs visited with Bonk after Saturday’s game and found a player who had only good things to say about his time in Montreal, and who’s enjoying being a little off the radar in Music City, not a town known for its hockey fanaticism.

Former Canadien Radek Bonk (helmeted, facing camera) celebrates his game-tying goal.
Phillip MacCallum, Getty Images

UPDATED at 9:15 am by Kevin Mio 

Lineups | Preview | Carbonneau Press Conference | Game Story | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Boone’s Blog

Nothing is easy for the Canadiens. Like, a 3-0 lead.

Up by three on the Nashville Predators tonight with 7:34 left in regulation time, the Canadiens imploded, watching their visitors roar back and tie the game at 4-4 with 46.8 seconds to play on a goal by former Hab centreman Radek Bonk. According to Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau, his key players aren’t getting the job done far too often, The Gazette’s Pat Hickey writes.

A spirited overtime, featuring a brilliant glove save by Nashville goalie Dan Ellis on Alex Kovalev, and J.P. Dumont ringing one off Cristobal Huet’s post on the rush back up ice, failed to decide matters.

So it went to a shootout. Bonk, again, and Martin Erat scored for the Predators, only captain Saku Koivu for the Canadiens, giving Nashville an improbable, crowd-deflating 5-4 victory. And they were deserving winners, having outshot the Habs 44-26.

The Canadiens employed an unusual set of lines formulated by head coach Guy Carbonneau, who tersely disputed their "ranking" in his post-game press conference. Listen to that here.

Montreal got on the scoreboard at 9:02 of the first period, Christopher Higgins banging home the rebound of first-linemate Alex Kovalev for his 10th goal of the season.

Tomas Plekanec made it 2-0 at 13:39 on just their sixth shot, backhanding home a harmless-looking shot from close range for his eighth of the year. That was all Predators coach Barry Trotz needed to see, giving starting goalie Chris Mason the hook and sending in Ellis, who arrived with a 5-0-0 record and a .932 save percentage.

Ellis, who signed with Nashville as a free agent last summer, played 31 games with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs in 2004-05, as property of the Dallas Stars.

Guillaume Latendresse put the Canadiens up by three at 9:30 of the second period, converting a nice pass from Kyle Chipchura on the backhand for his sixth of the season.

The Predators ended Cristobal Huet’s bid for a shutout at 8:40 of the third period, shorthanded, taking advantage of a bizarre bounce of the puck off the end boards. With Huet have strayed behind the goal to play
a shoot-in, the puck caromed crazily out front to Nashville’s Jed Ortmeyer, who slapped it home before Huet could get back into position.

Any momentum that might have given the Predators was quickly doused two minutes later by Latendresse, who rifled in his second of the night on a rebound off a shot by defenceman Roman Hamrlik. Chipchura had done industrious work to get the play started.

But the Predators got that one right back tat 12:26 o make it 4-2 and the comeback was in full flight, David Legwand being left to rap his own rebound past Huet at 12:56. And then Alexander Radulov closed the game to within one with a long wrist shot that eluded Huet at 16:55.

Bonk finally tied it in the final minute on the power play, Bryan Smolinski sent off for tripping at 18:10, sending the game into overtime.

The Canadiens’ life gets no easier. They return to action on home ice Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings.

———-

Pre-game statistics:

First line: Higgins-Plekanec-Kovalev
Second line: Kostitsyn-Grabovski-Ryder
Third line: Streit-Koivu-Smolinski
Fourth line: Latendresse-Chipchura-Dandenault

Guy Carbonneau told his players this was the low point of their season.

Cristobal Huet, bombarded with 44 shots in regulation and OT, then beaten twice in the shootout, said the Canadiens were "fragile between the ears right now."

In a somber dressing room where the only sound was tape being pulled off and flung away, Christopher Higgins described the loss as "embarrassing."

"We can talk all we want," Higgins said. "We’ve got to get the job done on the ice.

"We have to play with passion and with pride. How are we going to enjoy a day off (on Sunday) after blowing a 3-0 lead in our own building?"

Carbonneau took a while to amble over to his postgame press conference, and the coach looked good and pissed when he got there.

"It was a bit like our 10 last games," Carbonneau said. "We play a decent first half of the game and then the second half is a total disaster."

Without naming names, Carbo said the loss was attributable to weak play by "guys who are supposed to do the job at the end of the game."

Roman Hamrllik, Mathieu Dandenault and Mike Komisarek were on the ice for the third and fourth Nashville goals.

Carbonneau bristled when asked about Saku Koivu centring the third line tonight.

"Where do you get Saku on the third line?" he demanded. "Did you see my board. I don’t see where you guys get that."

Carbonneau maintained that the Koivu line was his first line – which means Mark Streit and Bryan Smolinski are on the wings of the number one line of the Montreal Canadiens.

As if …

Huet was more candid.

"I feel responsible," the goaltender said. "I didn’t finish the job.’

He had plenty of company at the low point – to date.