Game 3 Review
You know what they say - 11th time's a charm.
Not a bad game. I thought Montreal had the better chances, especially later on. Thomas made some stops in OT. If you want to worry, worry about the power play. If you count tonight's OT winner (I'd sure like to get a look at the penalty that was going to be called), the Bruins's PP has outscored the Habs' 2-1.
Habs lines
AKost / Pleks / Kovy
SKost / Higgins / Ryder
Begin / Smoke / Kostopoulos
Lats / Lapierre / Dandy
Markov / Komi
Hamrlik / Brisebois
Streit / Gorges
If Carbo wanted to match Markov/Komi against one of their top lines, they failed. Contrary to what Greg Millen observed, the top pair saw nearly half their EV icetime against Schaefer/Metropoili/Nokelainen. The rest of their minutes were evenly split against the Krejci and Savard lines. Hamrlik was on for half of Krejci's minutes.
Streit's EV icetime was cut back.
Habs shots, from timeonice.com.
Bruins lines
Lucic / Savard / Murray
Axelsson / Krejci / Sturm
Schaefer / Metropolit / Nokelainen
Reich / Sobotka / Thornton
Chara / Ward
Ference / Wideman
Stuart / Hnidy
Julien wanted Chara and Savard on Kovalev. Carbo pulled some tricks in the 2nd period to try to get Kovy away from Chara. There was a stretch in the 2nd period where Chara played about 8 minutes in a 10 minute stretch.
All Julien's match preferences were in the same order I have the lines/pairs.
Bruins shots
Looking at the shot numbers and matchups, it looks like:
- The top line was treading water in terms of EV shots. Can't complain there.
- 8/79 have to be used against the Bruins' threats. Hamrlik wound up playing a lot against Savard and accumulated the biggest minus. If Julien can get Chara out against Kovalev 75% of the time on the road, Carbo should be able to do the same.
- The Axelsson/Krejci/Sturm line smoked the S.Kostsitsyn/Higgins/Ryder line. Koivu can't return soon enough.
- The vet checkers (6/20/22) are getting the job done.
Not a bad game. I thought Montreal had the better chances, especially later on. Thomas made some stops in OT. If you want to worry, worry about the power play. If you count tonight's OT winner (I'd sure like to get a look at the penalty that was going to be called), the Bruins's PP has outscored the Habs' 2-1.
Habs lines
AKost / Pleks / Kovy
SKost / Higgins / Ryder
Begin / Smoke / Kostopoulos
Lats / Lapierre / Dandy
Markov / Komi
Hamrlik / Brisebois
Streit / Gorges
If Carbo wanted to match Markov/Komi against one of their top lines, they failed. Contrary to what Greg Millen observed, the top pair saw nearly half their EV icetime against Schaefer/Metropoili/Nokelainen. The rest of their minutes were evenly split against the Krejci and Savard lines. Hamrlik was on for half of Krejci's minutes.
Streit's EV icetime was cut back.
Habs shots, from timeonice.com.
Bruins lines
Lucic / Savard / Murray
Axelsson / Krejci / Sturm
Schaefer / Metropolit / Nokelainen
Reich / Sobotka / Thornton
Chara / Ward
Ference / Wideman
Stuart / Hnidy
Julien wanted Chara and Savard on Kovalev. Carbo pulled some tricks in the 2nd period to try to get Kovy away from Chara. There was a stretch in the 2nd period where Chara played about 8 minutes in a 10 minute stretch.
All Julien's match preferences were in the same order I have the lines/pairs.
Bruins shots
Looking at the shot numbers and matchups, it looks like:
- The top line was treading water in terms of EV shots. Can't complain there.
- 8/79 have to be used against the Bruins' threats. Hamrlik wound up playing a lot against Savard and accumulated the biggest minus. If Julien can get Chara out against Kovalev 75% of the time on the road, Carbo should be able to do the same.
- The Axelsson/Krejci/Sturm line smoked the S.Kostsitsyn/Higgins/Ryder line. Koivu can't return soon enough.
- The vet checkers (6/20/22) are getting the job done.
posted by Jeff J at 12:53 a.m.
4 Comments:
Carbo rarely fiddles with a winning lineup. That's the way he rolls baby...
Now that they lost, where would you put Streit? I guess O'Byrne will be back and Georges will slide leftward, but who sits? One of Latendresse Ryder or Dandenault, I guess.
If you sit Le Gros Gui, then you somewhat shore up the Lapierre line, but 73-73-21 remains as it is (somewhat vulnerable to matchups).
If you sit Dandenault, you open up a slot for SK on the right side (where he is far more efficient; in fact, he often ends up there once the play starts, I sometimes wonder who's actually the RW on that line).
If you sit Ryder, well it means you get 32-21-74 and the Lapierre line intact. Unless you do what Dany Dubé was suggesting on Radio Canada, that is 32-40-25 & 84-21-74...
Or, you do what Carbo certainly won't do, that is put Dandenault on D and mix and match whatever ain"t Pleks or Smokes line... Was Dandenault that bad on D?
Oh hum, do we miss Koivu or what? Have to love the speculating tough...
Once Bouillon's healthy he has to be in the lineup, which means Streit's spot on the 5/6 pair. Streit's needed for the PP so he would probably bump Latendresse off that line.
If O'Byrne plays I think it would be at the expense of Brisebois. At thins point in the season, Dandy won't be playing D unless there are lots of injuries. I know I keep saying it, but getting Brisebois and moving Dandy to the wing just didn't make sense. He was a fine #4-6 defenseman last year. Gainey could have used Brisebois' money to re-sign Johnson (or some other vet RW) for 1 year.
When Koivu is ready, any one of Dandy, Ryder or SKost will sit. If it were up to me:
46-14-27
21-11-73
22-20-6
32-40-74
79-8
44-71
51-26
Hum. Brisebois won't sit. O'byrne should replace him, but he won't.
As far as I am concerned, Higgins is superior to Lapierre as a center. Thus, with Koivu, I'd suggest:
46-14-27
32-11-74
22-20-6
73-21-40
I know you like Ryder and I see your point, but I think he is inferior to SKost in every facet of the game. In fact, every RW on the team except for Kovalev is inferior to Skost. Wich is quite sad, if you ask me...
I put Ryder on LW because I like the way he behaves when on the off-wing.
Ok, you can laugh now.
That being said, we won't see Koivu against the Bruins.
The Habs pointmen need to shoot more on the PP....Thomas has already proven to have a problem with long shots, they have to take advantage
Mikado
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