7th Place Canadiens Rout Islanders 5-1 : Looking Good
As I watched Mike Komisarek score his 3rd goal of the season last night against the last place New York Islanders, I couldn't help but drift back to the night he intercepted an errant Bryan McCabe pass and skate down the length of the ice to score on Toronto's net for the game clincher. You got the feeling that when Komisarek is scoring, the Habs are in a good place.
It is yet to be seen if Komi will match his career high 4 goals this season, however it does seem as if the Montreal Canadiens are finally in that good place; 7th in the eastern conference standings with a game in hand over the eighth place Rangers and just 3 points out of 4th.
As long as they continue the work ethic that has allowed them to take the last 9 points out of a possible ten, they can now begin to look ahead as opposed to behind. With last night's win, Montreal is now 3 points ahead of 9th place Florida and have shown signs of improvement on a game by game basis, going 4-0-1 in their last five games and 5-3-3 under coach Bob Gainey.
Some naysayers may proclaim that yesterday's 5-1 romping may have had a differnt outcome if Kyle Okposo or ex-Hab Mark Streit would have been in the line-up and not on the IR. The same could have been said about many of the Canadiens' losses when Robert Lang, Alex Tanguay, Andrei Kostitsyn and Saku Koivu missed their fair share of games due to injury.
Those same "glass half empty" enthusiasts have also pointed out that the Habs had an easier schedule down the stretch, compared to the other teams in the hunt. I will remind all that every team has 82 games to play, regardless of when and where they happen to fall on the calendar. You have to win more than you lose right up until the last one and at the end of it all, the top 8 will enter the second season. That's all I'm going to say about that.
To revert back to the positive, the Canadiens are playing with confidence, and it would appear that all is in the process of peaking just prior to the playoffs.
They are getting good goaltending from both young goaltenders while lowering the total of shots against, they are getting scoring from different lines, while the number one trio of Kovalev, Tanguay and Koivu are arguably one of the best in the NHL down the stretch, and are also getting scoring from their D. Let's not forget that the power-play, which has struggled all season long, has been red hot of late, as the Habs got 3 of their 5 on the man-advantage last night.
While the Habs fan in me wishes the Canadiens were sitting pretty atop the east, the hockey fan in me is anxiously awaiting every game as the season nears an end, knowing that the final playoff spots will most probably be finalised on the very last day of the season.
Fearless prediction : When it is all said and done, Montreal and Florida make it to the playoffs, the Rangers, with only 4 games left vs Montreal, Boston and the Flyers twice, will be eliminated from the hunt.
Read on for the NHL game recap .
pic from habsinsideout.com
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