Against the odds
Inspiration, luck, and lots of good breaks make up a winning combination for
Montreal. But will all three stay in place for this last stretch of the
season?
With Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard in attendance, the Habs felt that
they just had to win against Buffalo - a team they had not beaten in
Montreal since March 18, 1996. In addition to feeling good, Buffalo coach
Lindy Ruff did them a
favour by giving goaltender Dominik Hasek a night off. Hasek, if you don't know,
boasts a 15-4-4 lifetime record against the Habs. Finally, officials disallowed
two goals including a controversial one where Vaclav Varada was pushed into
the crease by defenceman Patrice Brisebois. Those factors gave the Habs
their fourth win in ten games.
However, numbers speak volumes and nights when everything goes the Habs way
might be hard to come by before the playoff. As of February 8th, there are 29
games remaining, including 13 against +.500 teams, nine against -.500 teams
and seven against barely-making-.500 teams like Florida and Boston. Luck and ghosts
aside, it's a fact that 14 out of 20 wins were against -.500 teams like Tampa
Bay and Vancouver. Those victories were no mysteries: Montreal is 7-0-1 in
their last eight meetings against the Lightning. The last time they played it
was a Martin Rucinsky night, he scored twice in less than 3 minutes during the
second period to give the Habs a 2-0 win. Yet the Montreal victory was anything but
dominating. As coach Vigneault pointed out, "They were on top of us. If not
for Hackett, it could be 2-0, 3-0."
Montreal also has the upper hand on Vancouver as they defeated the Canucks 2-1
to extend their unbeaten streak against them to 10 games. But this time it
was Turner Stevenson who delivered the precious two points with the third
two goal game of his career. On a side note, Damphousse had an assist on
the first goal in his 500th game as a Canadien.
Facing reality is something Montreal did three times out of four in games against
+.500 teams like Carolina (23-20-9), Pittsburgh (25-15-7) and Philadelphia
(28-10-12). With 45 shots in a 3-1 loss against the Hurricanes, one can't
say that they did try. "We played 30 good minutes, but then we picked up
two penalties which were well-deserved. We dominated them, but we could
find a way to score," said Vigneault. So inspiration was there but not luck
this time.
It was the same old story when meeting the Penguins. Montreal went into the third period with a 3-1, but Jaromir Jagr was not
going to let two points get away. In addition to his first period goal, he added another
goal and two assists in a 5-3 win over the Canadiens. "We made many
mistakes in the third and it's a real frustrating loss," said Koivu. "It
seems we get the shots and the chances to score but we don't and the next
thing you know, the other team comes down the ice and they score."
As for the Flyers, you have to be lucky to win against a team with three
scorers among the NHL top ten while you have don't have one. And lucky the
Habs were not in losing 5-2 against Philadelphia. "I though for two periods
we did an excellent job of staying with them," said Canadiens coach Alain
Vigneault. "With a little bit of luck it should have been at least a tie.
We were not able to put the puck in the net. This game is about timely
goals."
The Habs need to buy a rabbit's foot if they want to win the four way race
(Florida, Boston, maybe NY Rangers) for the 8th and final playoff spot. They
lost 1-2 to the Panthers on January 27 and will meet on three occasions.
Their record against the Bruins this season is 0-2-1 with two more games to
be played in April. It is interesting to try and guess what the race will
look like then. Hopefully, Montreal will still be a contender.
So as the win against Buffalo shows, unless inspiration, luck, and lots of
good breaks are in the stars for the Habs, the numbers do not favour them.
