• Pat Hickey’s game story

• Gill takes blame for first goal

• Price moving up in record book

• Devils brought their A-game

• About yesterday afternoon …

• Jack Todd on Gomez

• Arpon Basu on good 2011 stats

• Pierre Ladouceur’s game analysis

• Brendan Kelly on Nos Canadiens

It used to happen on a regular basis when the Canadiens played the Devils.

This time around, the visitors only needed Martin (he didn’t earn an F. today) Brodeur for 20 minutes.

By the time the future Hall of Famer left the game with what looked like a knee injury, the Devils led 2-0 and were on their way to winning the Jacques vs Jacques systems war, largely on the strength of size, hustle and hard work.

I thought Ilya Kovalchuk set the tone early with three hits on P.K. Subban during his first shift. This was an indication the Canadiens defence would be under pressure – from bruisers like Dainus Zubrus, Jason Arnott and David Clarkson – and New Jersey was able to induce stress in all three zones.

Lemaire did not like the conditioning level of the team he took over from John MacLean. So the new old coach ran what was, in effect, a training camp in mid-season; and the result is a Devils team that will skate, hit and contest every inch of the ice.

The Canadiens could not get any flow going. Zone clearances were pressured, hurried and often ill-advised. Passes were bouncing off skates. And clearing was just the first step; advancing the puck through the neutral zone was another challenge complicated by white jerseys that seemed to converge in a heartbeat, reducing time and cutting off space.

This is what New Jersey used to do in the glory years.

Minus Zach Parise and with an aging legend in nets, Lemaire has them doing it again.

The good news: the Canadiens don’t play the Devils again until April 2. They have become a VERY tough out.

It’s funny: Philadelphia sits atop the Eastern Conference standings and New Jersey is near the bottom.

But the Flyers and Devils are two teams that give the Canadiens fits.

I don’t know what the Canadiens can do to beat the Flyers. But against the less-talented Devils, matching their compete level would be a start.

The Canadiens began the game sluggishly. By the second period, they were a three-line team, with Tomas Plekanec and Scott Gomez trading wingers in an effort to get some sustained offence going. DD, Mathieu Darche and Tom Pyatt ended up playing single-digit minutes.

Gomez, who set up the only goal, played a solid game. Perhaps his jittery and unpredictable passing style was more of a challenge to New Jersey’s tight checking scheme than Plekanec’s more studied techniques.

Pleks had six shots on goal. But I thought NJ pressure stifled his playmaking.

Kovalchuk matched Pleks’s shot total, played 25:10 – high for both teams – and scored twice.

Kovy II’s second goal came off a ruling I’d never seen applied: With Carey Price on the bench, Kovalchuk was breaking away and was hooked by P.K. Subban before releasing a shot that hit the post.

Rather than award a penalty shot on en empty net, Kovalchuk was credited with a goal. Weird one.

Fans booed Kovalchuk. Probably because of the $$$. Like any of the boo birds would turn down a raise … which might be offered these schmucks if their bosses thought Earth was about to be hit by an asteroid.

Kovalchuk has no personal history with anyone on the Canadiens’ roster or in the organization. It’s stupid to boo him, like it’s stupid to boo Zdeno Chara and Daniel Brière.

Montreal fans like to think of themselves as the best, most knowledgeable and sophisticated in the league.

The Bell Centre is supposed to be the La Scala of hockey. But in Milan, they throw rotten vegetables at bad singers, not at great ones.

No one ever mistook the TD North Garden for a great house of culture. The Canadiens are there Wednesday for a four-pointer with the Bruins.

I’m not holding my breath on Mike Cammalleri, but maybe James Wisniewski will be back. That would allow Jacques Martin to restore the Alexandre Picard-less defence pairings that were working so well.

•  •  •

Guest Comment from Coach K:

“it’s what they do,” Brian Gionta said.

The Canadiens captain knows his former team well.

The New Jersey Devils contest every inch of the ice. They clog the neutral zone. They collapse back to minimize scoring chances on their goaltender.

Spot them a 2-0 lead and it’s a very steep uphill battle.

I’ll have more later on, after thinking about it during play stoppages in the football game.

Just don’t let’s freak out.

The Canadiens took six of a possible eight points, through two gruelling sets of back-to-back games.

They’re in Boston on Wednesday for a HUGE four-pointer.

Same old Devils … even without Parise and Martin F.

It’s not often the Canadiens romp in New Jersey.

• Pat Hickey’s game story

• Quotes from the room

• About last night …

• Arpon Basu on Weber opening up options

• Pierre Ladouceur’s game analysis

• The New York Post’s Mark Everson on the woeful Devils

That’s the question that will preoccupy sports talk radio in Montreal today. It may even come up on Mitch Melnick’s afternoon show on the Team 990, during which Dave Stubbs and I pinch-hit for His Mitchness this afternoon.

The show begins at 3 p.m., so I’ve got till then to formulate some advice for Jacques Martin.

Should be alter an effective lineup after one of the Canadiens’ rare wins in New Jersey?

If P.K. Subban plays, who sits?

The other hot issue on the day’s agenda is Andrei Markov.

There is credible indication, as we say here at the C(anadiens) I(ntelligence) A(gency, that a high-level meeting today will determine the injured defenceman’s status going forward. Attendees likely will include Don Meehan, Markov’s high-powered agent, general manager Pierre Gauthier and team physician Dr. David Mulder.

The upshot will be a decision on whether to put Markov on long-term injury reserve. This would free up an additional $4 million in salary cap space for the Canadiens. It would give Gauthier money to play with should the GM try to bolster his lineup now or at the trade deadline.

They’ll also talk about Markov’s future – which is in jeopardy.

The Canadiens’ best and, it must be said, most frequently injured player will be 32 next month. Markov is facing a second surgery on the right knee that was repaired during the summer.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Markov, whose current contract ends this season.

Does Gauthier re-sign him? And for how much?

One need look no farther than Ottawa for an example of a superbly-conditioned Russian athlete who has bounced back from knee problems.

But Markov plays a more physically demanding game than countryman Alex Kovalev. Can he ever again be the Markov we know and love?

The Canadiens D corps played superbly last night. It was only one game, but Yannick Weber looked an awful lot like an NHL-ready defenceman.

Weber deserves to play against San Jose tomorrow afternoon. So who’s the odd man out if Subban returns after a one-game penance?

Alexandre Picard played almost 16 minutes last night and delivered what we’re accustomed to seeing from him: smart puckhandling, adroit pinches, few mistakes – the kind of Dman play that pleases his coach.

Josh Gorges is playing with some sort of undisclosed injury. But the Canadiens ironman won’t want to miss a game against his original team.

I would sit Subban again.

Yes, he is the future of the possibly Markov-less Canadiens. But P.K. has to modify his high-risk/high-reward style to some degree.

This is the NHL. At this level of hockey, mistakes by defenceman are costly – even against teams like the Edmonton Oilers (Luke Schenn was minus-3 last night).

Would another game in the pressbox sap Subban’s confidence?

You’ve got to be kidding. An amputation wouldn’t affect this kid’s self-belief.

And please, spare me the hand-wringing about the Canadiens screwing up young talent.

For all his travails, Carey Price has turned out pretty good, wouldn’t you say?

Jacques Martin has brought Lars Eller along slowly. And in his 33rd NHL game, Eller was First Star spectacular last night.

Weber looks like two seasons in Hamilton have helped his game. And Max Pacioretty is tearing up the AHL.

So what bright budding star has this team mishandled?

Christopher Higgins?

P.K. Subban is going to be the Canadiens’ best defenceman in the post-Markov era … whenever that begins.

But he’s not the second coming of Bobby Orr just yet.

And turning P.K. into the defenceman he can be is a process in which I have a lot of faith in Jacques Martin and the organization.

•  •  •

Enough about the D.

How ’bout dem forwards?

I liked all four lines last night, and Martin was able to distribute ice time against a woeful New Jersey team that was down 2-0 after 98 seconds.

It wasn’t long ago we were singing the praises of the PhD line, but you have to love Eller with Benoit Pouliot and Mathieu Darche: a creative playmaker, a digger and a talented scorer.

So just who are the Top Six on this team?

I likes Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri last night, after both were meh against Edmonton.

But they need a winger with better hands than are affixed to Travis Moen’s hard-working arms.

Max-Pac under the Christmas tree?

•  •  •

My friend Arpon Basu is always a great read, and he’s got an interesting analysis of what the Canadiens might do if Markov is on LTIR.

Or as Michel Bergeron put it on RDS:

“Les Devils. Wow! Wow! Wow!”

No Martin F.?

No Zach F.?

No effing way – especially when the Canadiens are in bounce-back mode.

This was the Canadiens’ most dominant outing since they stomped Carolina.

But you have to factor in the quality of opposition.

The Devils are a mess, the Haiti of hockey.

And Johan Hedberg dug them a deep hole before the sparse crowd had settled into their seats.

So let’s not get back to parade-planning until we see what the Canadiens do against San Jose on Saturday afternoon.

But still, lots to like.

• Yannick Weber may have played his best game in a Canadiens’ jersey. He played 17:10, led the team with six shots on goal, and if the kid made a defensive mistake, I didn’t see it.

• Lars Eller had his first – but assuredly not last – multi-point game. He was First Star … again, not for the last time.

• Carey Price went long periods with nothing to do but made some spectacular saves.

• For the second straight night, Scott Gomez scored a goal on the power play.

• With New Jersey enjoying a 5-on-3 for two minutes, Tomas Plekanec, Hal Gill and Josh Gorges kepot the Devils to the outside for 100 seconds without a whistle, then the second unit finished it off.

• Canadiens had 11 names on the score sheet. Thirteen players had SoG.

• Playing hurt, Gorges was on for 22 minutes. What a warrior!

• Roman Hamrlik played almost 23 minutes and blocked four shots. Spatch was good, too … but it was the Devils.

• The PK passed Pittsburgh to become the league’s best: 89.9 per cent efficiency.

• PP is at 17.9 – 11th place!!!

• Carey Price’s 15 wins top the league, as do his minutes. GAA of 2.00, save percentage of 93.4. Jaro who?

And P.K. who?

Jacques Martin has a decision to make before the San Jose game.

More tomorrow.

And what’s more entertainiong than 30 minutes of garbage time.

“What a pice of s—?”

My pressbox neighbour, Arpon Basu, thought that just about summed things up.

Basu is lucky. He writes for NHL.com, which means his story can focus on the Devils.

Anyone trying to write about the Canadiens is doomed to … well, trying to pick it up by the clean end.

“I have one word for this game,” said Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated.

“Refund.”

Imagine, Farber added, if this were the first live hockey game you’d ever attended. And you’d laid out $100-plus for a ticket.

Basu, Farber and I got in for free, of course.

And the customers got what they paid for when they saw “New Jersey Devils” printed on their tickets.

Chris Stevenson, who writes hockey for the Sun chain, described what we saw as “pre-2003″ hockey.

Vintage stuff, before the lockout and before the rule changes that opened hockey up and made it a more pleasing spectator sport.

Someone forgot to tell Jacques Lemaire, who forgot to tell Pat Burns, who forgot to tell Larry Robinson, who forgot to tell Claude Julien, who forgot to tell Brent Sutter.

John MacLean, the latest Devils coach, played for Lemaire. So did Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta.

The style involves an aggressive forecheck, neutral zone trapping, clogging up the passing lanes … doing everything to slow the world’s fastest game to a somnambulant crawl.

For the final nine minutes of the first period, NEITHER TEAM had a shot on goal. The Bell Centre crowd was lulled into surly near-silence, erupting only to boo hapless referee Stéphane Auger.

Ilya Kovalchuk earned his ridiculous salary playing 21 minutes, during which one of the game’s most dynamic players had one shot and no hits. Welcome to New Jersey, Ilya. Let’s get to work on turning you into John Madden.

It’s anti-hockey – not fun to watch, but the success of the Devils suggests it’s effective.

And it helps to have a goaltender who’ll be in the Hall of Fame a New Jersey nanosecond after he becomes eligible.

That was Martin F. Brodeur’s ninth shutout against the Canadiens. It seems like more.

In addition to stopping 29 shots – most from the perimeter, many right at him – Brodeur suckered Gionta, his old teammate, into two penalties.

Martin F.’s current teammates ensured the Canadiens would generate no speed on their breakouts and little sustained pressure in the Devils’ zone. By the third period, Jacques Martin had shuffled his lines – Mike Cammalleri with Gomez and Gionta, Lars Eller with Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn – but nothing clicked.

Some stats:

• Cammalleri, Gionta and P.K. Subban had 17 of the Canadiens’ 29 shots – eight by the Captain.

• Josh Gorges and Hal Gill were each minus-3.

• Alexandre Picard played a solid 15:46, had three hits and wasn’t on for any GA.

• Carey Price faced only 20 shots but made more spectacular saves than Martin F.

• Eller was involved and on the puck all night in 10:25.

• Subban’s 24 minutes were high for both teams.

• Andy Greene had eight  of NJ’s 21 blocked shots. Roman Hamrlik had four of the Canadiens’ 14.

The Canadiens’ power-play took another 0-for. It’s been blanked in five of the six games the team has played and is 1-for-20 on the season.

Martin calls his PP “a work in progress” – and we’d better hope progress progresses when Andrei Markov returns, because if this team fires blanks with the man advantage all season …

Like Devils hockey, that just doesn’t bear thinking about.

29 saves and a big fat goose-egg

It’s very boring … and I’m afraid we’re in for a lot more of it when the playoffs begin.

How much more of your Montreal Canadiens we’ll see after April 10 … well, that’s more problematic.

The Rangers lost in OT, but Atlanta won. The Thrashers are within four points of the Canadiens with a game in hand.

The Canadiens played four games in six nights, taking three of a possible eight points.

They were bad against Ottawa, good but unlucky against Buffalo, very good against Florida and pretty much outplayed by New Jersey.

The Canadiens started the game strong. It took the Devils more than two minutes to get across the red line, and the Canadiens had an early 7-2 shot advantage.

Patrik Elias’s power-play goal turned the game. The Canadiens were never able to re-establish their early dominance, and New Jersey did what New Jersey does:

Win puck battles.

Protect the front of the net to prevent second chances after Martin F. makes the first stop.

Clog up the passing lanes in the neutral and defensive zones, preventing opponents from developing any speed, rhythm or flow in their attack.

Jacques Martin predictably cited special teams as the factor that did his team in. It’s a familiar refrain from the coach, and the numbers bear him out.

New Jersey went 2-for-2 on the power play.

The Canadiens fired blanks during four chances.

The return of Marc-André Bergeron has not boosted the PP. Opposing PK units are aware MAB has a howitzer and pressure the point accordingly.

This should open things up down low. But the Canadiens, as Martin noted, were “too stationary” and too content to move the puck, when they managed to control it, around the perimeter.

There wasn’t the kind of aggressive net presence we saw from the Devils on their two PPs.

The Canadiens’ PP was further handicapped by the loss of Glen Metropolit after only two first period shifts. Metro went out with a suspected shoulder separation, and his absence deprived the power play of its leading goal-scorer – and a right-handed shot.

Martin had to play the game with three lines, only two of which could conceivably score against Martin F. But the Metro injury was not the difference in this game.

New Jersey has a Hall of Fame goaltender, a smart, if unspectacular, D that doesn’t turn the puck over or make egregious errors in zone coverage. Devils’ forwards play a disciplined system, battle ferociously along the boards and in the corners, jump on the puck and wait for opportunities.

They’ve also got a few stars – the  Lou U varsity that has succeeded Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta.

Zach F. Parise had six shots on goal. His linemate, Patrik Elias, had four. Their centre, Jamie Langenbrunner, played an aggressive game that annoyed Andrei Markov to the point they took coincident roughing minors. And a pissed-off Markov was not an effective offensive weapon.

When Roman Hamrlik, on a highly dubious tripping call, joined Markov in the box, New Jersey had the 4-on-3 power play that produced Elias’s goal and a lead they’d never relinquish.

The Canadiens weren’t dominated in their own building. Andrei Kostitsyn played his best game in a good long while, scoring on a quick release that makes you wonder why he doesn’t bag 40. AK46 threw his body around with rarely-seen abandon and set up Tomas Plekanec for the tap-in that made it an interesting game.

Gomez and Gionta skated hard and had some chances against the team whose system made them the fine Canadiens they are today.

It wasn’t enough against a serious Stanley Cup aspirant.

The Canadiens’ playoff aspirations remain a day-to-day proposition.

They’re off until Wednesday, then play three in four nights.

None of them is a gimme: Carolina here on Wednesday, in Philadelphia Friday night, then back home to face Buffalo on Saturday.

And so the soap opera continues for a team perched precariously on the bubble.

•  •  •

Some members of the Commentariat and a post-game caller to CKAC remarked on the play in which Sergei Kostitsyn slammed on the brakes rather than go into the corner to battle for the puck with a Devils’ defenceman.

Do you suppose Brian Gionta has ever done that in his career?

How about Zach Parise?

•  •  •

Ilya Kovalchuk is settling in as a Devil.

He tested Jaro Halak a few times, but the superstars best play came with the Canadiens’ goaltender on the bench.

Breaking in on an empty net, Kovalchuk passed up his 39th goal in favour of feeding Brian Rolston for the latter’s 700th NHL point.

A team guy on a very good team.

He has an amazing set of tools – size, speed, hands, hard shot – that were wasted in Atlanta.

Fearless prediction: Kovalchuk will come up big in the postseason.

Canadiens?

Not so much.

But they made it interesting

We’ll wait for the Rangers game at the Bell Centre before delivering an early verdict, but for now it looks like the coach has made the right decisions … at a very critical time of the season.

Georges Laraque: Gone.

Matt D’Agostini: Five shifts, 2:37

Max Pacioretty: 10 shifts, 6:23

Martin got rid of his useless enforcer, shortened his bench and played the guys who he thought would give him the best chance to win – including Mathieu Darche, a 33-year-old journeyman playing for his fifth NHL team.

So far, so good.

Do it again against the Rangers and the bandwagon will get very crowded very fast.

This might have been the best 60-minute effort of the season.

After Zach Parise opened the scoring on a breakaway goal identical to the one he scored to beat the Canadiens in OT at the Bell Centre, I was sure the rout was on.

Wrong.

The Canadiens did not fold.

They did not play the kind of nervous, tentative hockey that has driven fans – and, undoubtedly, their coach – crazy all season long.

Jaro Halak made 31 stops. He handles the puck like it’s a live grenade, but he makes the stops. And, most critically, he doesn’t give up easy goals.

After Benoit Pouliot’s goal tied the score, Jamie Langenbrunner had a good look and fired a slap shot from the left faceoff circle.

I don’t want to wade into the goaltender debate, but there’s no help for it:

Given the situation of the game and the nature of that shot – a riser to the glove side – would the other guy have stopped it?

Halak was beaten 6-2 last weekend in New York. He wasn’t good, and his teammates were worse.

I think Martin has to come back with him at the Bell Centre. But we’ll see.

There are other, easier predictions:

• Darche will play against the Rangers. Mathieu the Mature plays a simple game predicated on hard work and tenacious checking in all three zones.

It’s not exciting, and Darche has a grand total of nine NHL goals in parts of seven seasons. But he’s not the kind of player who’s going to hurt his team. And like Glen Metropolit, Darche provides an inspiring example of how dedication can transcend skill limitations.

Speaking of transcendence, how about Pouliot?

Since the season began, we’ve been talking about the importance of locking up Tomas Plekanec. I’d also making signing Pouliot a priority. He’s playing himself into a nice, three-year second pro contract.

Pouliot came to Montreal with the reputation as a head case. Enough talent that he was drafted ahead of Carey Price in 2005, but a poor work ethic.

Credit Martin with adroit deployment. When Pouliot’s wrist finally healed and he was ready to play, the coach could have broken the kid in on the third or fourth line.

Granted, desperation is the mother of deployment. But Martin put Pouliot and Scott Gomez together, and there was instant chemistry.

Gomez, emerging his early-season lethargy, is a fast-skating playmaker. Pouliot is a physical triggerman with the best hands on the team.

Add Brian Gionta and … Magic! A line that gives opposing defenders fits.

What was interesting in New Jersey was the subtraction of Gionta. Martin moved the diminutive spark plug in an effort to re-ignite Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri.

If Sergei Kostitsyn is ready to go against the Rangers, martin will have some flexibility in staffing his two top scoring lines.

Play Darche with Travis Moen and either Metropolit or Maxim Lapierre on the third line. Slap together a fourth line with whatever’s left and play them six minutes.

Despite Martin’s juggling, which included shifting Marc-André Bergeron back to defence after Paul Mara was injured, no one had to play crazy minutes, so there should be plenty in the tank for the Rangers, who undoubtedly spent their Friday night in Montreal reading the boble in their hotel rooms.

Ryan O’Byrne should be back in the lineup subbing for Mara. Josh Gorges (four hits, four blocked shots) and Andrei Markov played perhaps their best game since becoming the team’s number-one pairing. Markov’s pass to Cammalleri for the insurance goal was instant, instinctive and absolutely inspired.

Jaro Spacek played one of his better games (maybe because his ToI was a manageable 18:52). And Roman Hamrlik was, as always, quietly competent.

Because the game was a solid, 60-minute effort, it would be churlish to point out that Matt D’Agostini continues to play himself off the team. And Max-Pac has yet to offer any indication that he should be coached by anyone other than Guy Boucher.

The Canadiens moved past idle Florida into 10th place. They have 53 points, same as the Flyers, but Philly has three games in hand.

The Rangers game will tell us much about the Canadiens. Are they primed to make a pre-Olympic push toward a playoff spot? Or was a road win over Martin F. Brodeur just a brief respite from the death spiral?

The game may also provide some indication of whether Laraque will be missed.

Minus David Clarkson, New Jersey is not a tough hockey team – although Mark Fraser was plenty tough enough to clean poor D’Ags’s clock.

The Rangers have Sean Avery. They have Aaron Voros. They have Donald Brashear, if John Tortorella wants to really load up on muscle against a team that just fired its enforcer.

Then again, Laraque had the best seat in the house to watch the Rangers manhandle his teammates in New York.

As one wag described the BGL fiasco, the Canadiens “thought they were signing the NHL’s best policeman but what they got was a mall cop with a bad back.”

Playing tough but smart – the Canadiens took only three minors, and one was coincident roughing – the Canadiens are undefeated in the post-BGL era.

Lovely evening of live-blogging on the road.

Props for splendid hospitality to the Friedman family of Hampstead – Dr. Ruby, Adele, Josh, Noah and Hannah, who was off in another room studying for an exam.

The game?

We all should have been in the other room studying.

Jacques vs. Jacques, and the Martin- and Lemaire-coached teams produced a predictably soporific game that won’t be showing up on ESPN Classics any time soon.

The Canadiens had 18 shots on goal – three in the third period.

There were 59 faceoffs – 36 of which the Canadiens lost.

Intensity?

Andre Kostitsyn led the Canadiens with four of their 17 hits

New Jersey had 18 giveaways but still won the game.

A TOTAL snoozer …. with some scary implications.

Roman Hamrlik was hurt in – stop me if you’ve heard this before, like in the opening game of the season – a collision with Carey Price.

Since the injury to Andrei Markov, Hamrlik has been the Canadiens’ best defenceman. If he’s out for a while, with the Canadiens facing seven straight road games after their back-to-backer against the Wild, the team is in big trouble.

Know what?

The Canadiens are in trouble regardless.

Last season, they snuck into the playoffs with a regular season record that included 30 losses in regulation time. Through 35 games, they’ve lost 17 already.

The Canadiens have 47 games to play. Anyone believe there won’t be at least 13 Ls in there?

They’re in 10th place. All nine teams ahead of the Canadiens – indeed, every other team in the Eastern Conference – holds at least one game in hand.

Carey Price did not have a great game in New Jersey. The Ilkka Pikkarainen goal – his first in the NHL – was ridiculous. It came shortly on the heels of the Pascal Dupuis goal that won a game for the Penguins last week. Price needs either a new glove or contact lenses to correct long-range vision problems or both.

But as my great and good friend Mitch Melnick was saying on the Team 990 after the game, on a list of the Canadiens’ 10 biggest problems, goaltending is 11th.

A looming problem may be the fatigue factor affecting Tomas Plekanec, who has been the team’s best player to date.

Plekanec played another 4:08 on the penalty-kill last night. Because the Canadiens chase the puck and commit weak-ass fuls in every game, Plekanec has to play significant PK minutes.

So the centre who won a mind-blowing 23 of 26 draws against the Sabres on Monday loses 19 of 28 against New Jersey.

And when the Devils pop open a tight game with an odd-man rush late, Plekanec can’t keep up with Patrik Elias, who scores the winner.

look, I love Pleks. One of the nicest guys in the room, and he’s played his guts out this year. Scary to think where the team would be without him … and we may find out next season, but that’s another story.

Plekanec is generously listed at 5’11″, 198 lbs. Playing a regular shift plus the power play plus the five PKs this team seems to average per game, how much will Plekanec have left in February and March?

Of course by then, Scott Gomez – four goals, 12 assists in 31 games – will have taken up the slack.

Yeah, right.

The Canadiens have one productive. And all the shorthanded situations eat into the shift totals and ToI of Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn.

In a tough league playing a compressed schedule, the Canadiens are a three-line team.

Georges laraque played 4:52 against the Devils, who didn’t dress their heavyweights.

Tom Pyatt played 8:43 but only six minutes of even-strength.

Remember Maxim Lapierre, the Most Improved Player of 2008-’09? He was one of the few bright spots in a fairly dismal season.

Now Max is another underachiever in what is turning out to be a difficult season. maybe Lapierre will be motivated to play well against his pal Gui!.

Maybe not.

And if Hamrlik is unavailable, as is likely, against Minnesota, who’s picking up those 24 minutes – including PP and PK – per game?

Do the Canadiens come back with Price against Minnesota?

Or does Jaro Halak get a start in the building he’s asking to leave?

One last question:

If Hamrlik is out, does Andrei Markov make his first start of the season against the Wild?

•  •  •

It’s great to see hard work rewarded.

Travis Moen skates up and down his wing, hits, kills penalties and will fight if he has to. The goal that cost Martin F. a shutout was Moen’s seventh of the season.

This matches the four he scored with Anaheim and three for San Jose in 82 games last season.

But in a close-checking, boring game Patrik Elias scores late, from close in.

And that was it.

The Friedmans are 0-1.

Do you find it eerily reminiscent of the Guy Carbonneau Era?

Don’t these guys realize that a coaching change is supposed to revitalize a hockey team?

It happened in Chicago. Denis Savard got canned, Joel Quenneville took over and the ‘Hawks took flight.

Same story in Carolina, Pittsburgh, Ottawa. A change behind in Washington last season turned the Caps into contenders.

The New York Rangers have a new man behind the bench and a new/old pest on the ice. We’ll see the John Tortorella and Sean Avery Show on Tuesday night, when the Canadiens begin Week II of Gainey Redux.

So far, he ain’t no Bruce Boudreau.

Decisively outplayed in six of nine periods and one of two OTs, the
Canadiens  have taken three points in three games under their new
coach. That projects to an 82-point season, which wouldn’t be enough to
make the playoffs.

In the waning second of last night’s game, with the Devils up by two goals, Jaroslav Halak was waving frantically at the bench to see if he ought to vacate his net. He was ignored by four coaches, all of them looking up ice.

What a mess! 

And yet the Canadiens cling to fifth place in the Eastern Conference. And their fans await a turnaround. 

At the risk of sounding a tad negative and eliciting bitter condemnations from Commenters who think Habs Inside/Out should be a cheerleading site, I don’t think Bob Gainey can turn this mess around.

This edition of your Montreal Canadiens has too many weaknesses. 

Scotty Bowman couldn’t coach them into being a contender. Neither could Toe Blake.

The Devils dominated every aspect of the game last night – with the arguable and ironic exception of goaltending.

En route to tying Patrick Roy’s record for career wins, the great Martin F. Brodeur had a quiet night: 22 saves, maybe five of which were difficult.

A the other end of the ice, Jaroslav Halak was beaten early on two long shots but faced a barage of 48 New Jersey shots.. When you add 14 misses and 28 blocks, the Devils had a mind-boggling 90 chances to fire pucks at poor Jaro.

It’s called total domination.

Men against Boys.

A bona-fide Cup contender against a team that will be trading its sticks for golf clubs no later than the fourth week of April … and quite possibly sooner.

A few grim stats to chew on during Sunday brunch:

• Andrei Markov: No shots (not even misses or blocked), no hits, two giveaways

• Saku Koivu: No shots, 6-13 on faceoffs

• Alex Tanguay: No shots … and totally invisible all night

• Glen Metropolit: 0-5 on faceoffs

• Mike Komisarek: two hits, six turnovers

• Roman Hamrlik (who I acually thought played well): five turnovers

• Gregory Stewart, Mathieu Dandenault: Each had one hit, no shots

The Canadiens turned the puck over 27 times – 16 turnovers by defencemen, another two by Halak.

It’s called relentless pressure in the offensive zone. New Jersey had it going all night – in all three zones.

If there was a single time that a player in a red jersey lost a puck battle to a player – and sometimes two players, and even three – in white, I can’t remember it.

The Canadiens took six minor penalties. With the exception of an Alex Tanguay interference that Brodeur sold effectively, all the infractions were what Michel Bergeron called au bout du baton – lazy, unaggressive crap by players uninterested in getting their hands dirty.

Through the first 20 minutesof the game, Canadiens’ defencemen had no hits. They finished the night with three: two by Komisarek, one by Josh Gorges.

Absurd. Disgraceful.

The Canadiens’ D is softer than doggie doots in a thunderstorm. They wilt under any sustained forechecking, and the Devils – all the way back to Jacques Lemaire – start forechecking when they disembark at Dorval.

Two plays by the excellent Travis Zajac symbolize what the Devils are about:

During the second period, Komisarek wiped Zajac out behind the Canadiens’ net. As the crowd roared its appreciation, Zajac popped back up, pursued the loose puck and gained possession.

On the Devils’ third goal, Zajac fought off Saku Koivu – if you can call a struggle between a 6’3" 23-year-old and a 5’10" 34-year-old cancer survivor a fight – to feed a perfect pass to Jamie Langenbrunner in the slot.

Like his team, Jaro had no chance.                     

Figure-skating ends at the All-Star Game. To win at this stage of the season, teams have to get physical and play desperate, take-no-prisoners hockey.

Maxim Lapierre understands that. He had six hits last night and played like he cared.

Sadly, Max can’t carry this hockey team.

After the Rangers visit on Tuesday, the Canadiens play the resurgent Senators in Ottawa before coming home to face the Leafs on Saturday.

Gainey says his team has to take more than three points from these three games.

And if not ….

Not a real hard day at the office for the great Martin Brodeur.

Ant a great night for your Montreal Canadiens.

Let’s be very noest:

We saw a Cup contender against a playoff pretender.

And by the end, the chants of "CAR-BO!" were persistent … and loud. 

What was worse than the loss – just one game in a very long season – is what it portends.

Based on what we saw las night, how would the Canadiens fare in a first-round playoff series against the Devils …. particularly one that starts in New Jersey?

I must confess I’m copping a good deal of this analysis from L’Antichambre, but Norman Flynn and Michel Bergeron made good points during the post-game RDS chin wag.

They said the Canadiens played as badly as they did against Philadelphia last spring.

The team got pushed around in New Jersey last night. The Canadiens did not push back. And unless that changes, they’re doomed to an early exit from the payoffs … maybe even earlier than last season.

"The energy line had a power failure," said Flynn in reference to Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and Tom Kostopoulos.

Bergeron made the point that on a team like the Devils, the energy is generated by Zach Parise, Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta, Travis Zajac, Dainius Zubrus – Top Six forwards.

The Canadiens, by contrast, rely on third- and fourth-line grinders to do the heavy lifting.

The Canadiens Top Six are artistes who don’t get their hands dirty. It can be beautiful to watch against teams like Ottawa and the Rangers, who play a similar wide-open skating style, but  artistry matches up very poorly against grit, especially in a best-of-seven against a team like New Jersey, Boston or  Philadelphia.

The Devils were first on the puck all night. They won all the battles along the boards and in the corners. Their tough guys, Michael Rupp and David Clarkson, tried to goad Mike Komisarek into fighting – invitations that Komo, since l’Affaire Lucic, has wisely declined.

Canadiens had 13 hits, the same as in Atlanta. In the win at Ottawa they had 15 … but you don’t have to hit to beat the Senators. Canadiens had 22 hits agans Nashville (five by Steve Bégin, wo was in the ressbox last night) and 28 when they lost a great game in Boston.

Defensively, New Jersey did what the Flyers did in the playoffs. There were five red jerseys clogging the slot and the crease in front of Scott Clemmensen. And even while ceding the outside to the Canadiens, the Devils would chase down loose pucks in the corner and engineer quick zone clearances.

There were few occasions when the Canadiens were able to cycle or generate any sustained pressure.

It was a game for a little while. Josh Gorges made it 2-1 and Matt D’Agostini, on the no-longer-moribund power play, narrowed New Jersey’s lead to 4-2.

But there was never any doubt the team that wanted it more was going to win the hockey game … and that team was not your Montreal Canadiens.

Last season, the Canadiens entered the All-Star break on a high. On Jan. 24, they erased a 3-1 third-period lead and won 4-3, leaving Brent Sutter fuming and humiliating his Devils with a post-game practice.

Guy Carbonneau might have liked to bag skate the Canadiens last night but they had to catch a plane.

The pre-break win in New Jersey last season was the Canadiens’ 27th, which is where they’re at now. It jump-started them into a nice late-season run that included two more wins over New Jersey – and Martin F. Brodeur, no less.

Did last night’s loss set the tone for the stretch run?

Let’s hope not.

"We weren’t prepared to fight for 60 minutes against a team that works for 60 minutes," a thoroughly pissed-off Carbo told French media after the game. He said the Canadiens would "try to turn the page … we have six days to regroup."

Carbo was asked if reducing their ice time was a message to Tomas Plekanec and Alex Kovalev.

"Sur et certain," the coach replied, using one of his favourite phrases …. and you don’t need a bac from the Sorbonne to understand it. Carbo said his best players have to be at their best every night.

New Jersey’s style hasn’t changed since Jacques Lemaire coached there. They draft players like Parise who can play tough, grinding hockey.

The Devils, Carbo said, "force you to work hard."

"It takes 20 players to win against New Jersey," the coach added. "That wasn’t the case tonight."

Carbo has six days to fine-tune his club for a tough schedule that includes a western road trip in February.

Based on what we saw last night, I don’t think Robert Lang, Tomas Plekanec or the Kostitsyn brothers will have big games in Calgary.

Questions to ponder during All-Star weekend:

• Are the Montreal Canadiens too soft?

• Should Georges Laraque, as Norman Flynn suggests, play every night?

• Does Bob Gainey have to make a move because Matt D’Agostini and Max Pacioretty, two guys who have some sand, are ready for the NHL?

• Lecavalier? Bouwmeester? Or does Gainey hang on to his nucleus of gifted young players?

See you next week.

5-2.

Not pretty … and a few worries heading into the All-Star break