Feb 25 Jacques Martin May Have Made a Colossal Mistake

Let me make myself perfectly clear before going on with this topic, I don't blame Alex Auld for the loss to Toronto last night. However, Jacques Martin's decision to start Auld over all-world workhorse goaltender Carey Price may prove to be a colossal mistake because Martin severely underestimated the importance of last night's game.

Before the win against Vancouver on Tuesday night, the Habs had lost six of their previous seven games, in the process playing some of their most putrid hockey this side of the holiday road trip. Then came the match-up against the Canucks, a game NO ONE gave the Canadiens a chance to win. Somehow, though, they pulled it out and in that one instant, the pathetic February the team had played up to that point had been forgotten.

The plane ride home must have been quite a joyous occasion for the team. They had pulled off their first win in Vancouver in 10 years, a nearly-forgotten long-ago time in which P.J. Stock occupied a stall in the Bell Centre locker room and not a phone booth on Hockey Night in Canada. They had a pair of winnable games at the friendly confines of the Bell Centre to look forward to followed by a southern road trip in which they could work on their tan as opposed to their snow-shoveling muscles. The opportunity for the team to really get on a roll was there....as long as Jacques Martin didn't get in the way.

Martin owed it to his boys to give them the best chance to win last night and that was to start Carey Price, who has shut out Toronto twice this season already and had just stolen two points in Vancouver. Alex Auld is a capable goaltender in his own right but when he is pencilled in as the starting net-minder, the team will not properly recognize the importance of the game that lies ahead because if their coach doesn't, how can the team? It wasn't a back-to-back game situation and Martin clearly wasn't worried about Price's stamina if he went to him a few minutes into the game.

We all know what happened, Auld allowed a softie, the team came out flat and uninspired and before we knew it, it was 3-1 Toronto. It was a hill the team couldn't overcome with Martin pulling Auld in favor of Price in a classic "too little too late" move. Spirits dampered. Momentum lost. Two valuable points unattained. Coach second-guessed. Team back to square one.

Tags: Alex Auld \ Carey price \ Jacques Martin \ Montreal Canadiens

< Prev		Next >