Canadiens Krakdown: Habs storm into Carolina in search of a win

The Montreal Canadiens are in Raleigh, North Carolina tonight to play their second game of a three game road trip. The Habs (10-4-2) will face off against the Carolina Hurricanes (9-7-2) in what is being dubbed ‘the battle of the inconsistent teams’. The two teams met on October 28 in Montreal, with the Canadiens prevailing in a shootout. However, since the lockout, the Hurricanes have won 13 of the last 19 contests between the two teams. 
 
This season, the Canes have been hit hard by the injury bug and even though they are still missing Justin Williams and Frantisek Kaberle, they are the healthiest they have been in a long time. This is the major reason for Carolina’s unpredictable play and it will be interesting to see how good the Hurricanes can be when they are able to field the same lineup every night. To Montreal’s delight, the biggest disappointment in Carolina this year has been the awful play of Sergei Samsonov. After being completely ineffective in Montreal and Chicago, “the invisible man” was shipped to Carolina where put on a show for the Hurricanes organization in order to earn himself a big contract over the summer. He has not even come close to earning his 2.5 million dollars, as he has yet to score a goal and he has a -10 plus minus rating in 18 games. On the whole, the Canes are typically a fast team that will make you pay for your mistakes and it is this style of play that has given Montreal trouble over the last 3 seasons. On a side note, one of my favorite events on the hockey calendar is the Memorial Cup, and last year, I was able to watch Drayson Bowman, one of Carolina’s top prospects, put the Spokane Chiefs on his back and lead them to a championship. He should be a lock for USA’s World Junior team in December and I fully expect that he will be on the Canes roster next year. It’s scary to think that in a few years, the Hurricanes’ centers will likely be Eric Staal, Drayson Bowman, Zach Boychuk and Brandon Sutter. That is scary good!
 
Montreal enters this game still trying to figure out how to fix their powerplay. They are 0 for 20 in their last 4 games and are ranked 25th in the NHL at 14.6%. Regardless, the Canadiens are coming off a hard fought win in St. Louis and they hope to carry that momentum into tonight’s game. Carey Price will be in goal and all of the forward lines and D pairings will be identical to the ones used on Sunday. There has been a rumored rift in the Habs locker room over the past few seasons between Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu. The two have been limited to short term chemistry over their years together as teammates and rarely find themselves on the same line. This is why it was surprising to me to see the two playing together on a line with Alex Tanguay. Regardless of whether or not the power struggle is true, I don’t expect those 3 to be on the same line for long, mainly because you have three players who all play a pass-first style. Maybe this is all part of Guy Carbonneau’s plan to get Alex Kovalev to start shooting the puck more often. The Kostitsyns played very well together and Robert Lang seemed to enjoy centering to two brothers. I have been particularly impressed with Montreal’s defense over the last two games. They seem to have bought in to a ‘keeping it simple’ game plan and it looks like its working.
 
For the Hurricanes to win, they will need to:
Use their speedy forwards to force the Canadiens D into making mistakes
Use their last change to get favorable matchups against Montreal’s 4th line.
Get an above-average performance from Cam Ward.
 
For the Canadiens to win, they will need to:
Get contributions from all 3 of their scoring lines.
Be physical and wear down a team that is still not 100% healthy.
Break out of this PP slump that they are in.
 
Look for a close game that can really go either way. I will go out on a limb and predict that this game will go into overtime.
 
 
GO HABS GO!
 
Kraks
coreykrakower@sportstalkbuzz.com

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