Canadiens Dismiss Oilers 4-1

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

The Canadiens will leave Alberta happy as they hung four tallies on the Oilers. Edmonton could amass just one, and it wouldn’t be enough as the Canadiens kept pouring on the pressure until Cam Talbot could finally be solved.

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

The Canadiens started out hot and heavy and didn’t let up. The Canadiens had a couple of power play opportunities in the first period, and let me tell you, the power play in Montréal was probably the best part about this game. The power play in Montréal was (on a scale of 1-10, one being like that time Steve Smith put the puck in his own net by banking it off the back of Grant Fuhr’s skate, and 10 being like, this, watching Montréal’s power play was a satisfying 6, which probably wasn’t much fun for them. It’s like watching moose who get intoxicated on fermented fruit bandy about the forest green, all disoriented from boozy fruit.

The Canadiens power play doesn’t look good. They didn’t set much up. They were bad.

Darnell Nurse and Michael McCarron dropped the gloves five minutes into the first period. Unfortunately, fights aren’t worth goals yet, so that didn’t change too much of anything.

The Canadiens took it to the Oilers over the first 20 minutes. Montréal outshot Edmonton by a 15-6 margin. It wasn’t very much fun, though Talbot kept Edmonton alive.

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

The game remained scoreless until four minutes into the second period when Milan Lucic scored his fifteenth goal of the season.

Lucic turnstiles Emelin after Emelin can’t handle an errant pass. Lucic looks like he’s about to dish it to Jordan Eberle, when he decides he’s going to send that deep dish pizza through Carey Price’s five-hole. Oilers 1-0

The Oilers are leading the Canadiens by a goal even though the Canadiens have pretty much outplayed the Oilers for the entire game up until this point. The Canadiens finish the second period outshooting the Oilers 26-16. Talbot is still standing on his head, but unfortunately, it won’t last through the third.

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

RISE UP THE THIRD

Montréal was busy doing what Montréal had done in the first 40 minutes of this game, and it took until the fourteenth minute for them to finally cash. You’ve got Benoit Pouliot on Brendan Gallagher screaming into the Oiler zone after Gallagher gets the puck behind Andrej Sekera. Everything good so far?

What’s Russell doing?

Paul Byron isn’t touched in front of the Oilers’ net. 1-all

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

So Talbot’s been doing 98% of the legwork in this one. Both the Oilers and the Habs each have a goal, and Talbot is clinging on to this one for dear life, when Max Pacioretty does the deed with about five minutes remaining. Oh, it’s a freaky bounce, and if you’re Montréal, you’re OK with this because they all count the same. 2-1 Canadiens

The Habs would score two more empty net goals (how often does that happen?) to wrap this game up in some grape leaves. Fin.

It is not time to panic. Not yet.

THE GOOD

Not a whole lot.

• Cam Talbot stood on his head for as long as he could, and he yielded a freaky goal with five minutes left in the game. Game could easily have been 6-1 or 8-1. but Talbot held it together with some gum and some airplane glue.

LESS GOOD

• The team looked gassed. Oilers had a day between games after playing inspired hockey against Pittsburgh. Team looked like it was bag skated earlier in the day.
• Canadiens finished with four goals, two of which were empty netters. Canadiens finished with 39 shots on Talbot. The only thing that made this game mildly entertaining was watching Talbot try to stand on his head. That, and Montréal’s power play was pretty awful.
• You can put Matthew Benning back in the lineup any minute now. Oilers had Kris Russell and Eric ‘The Sledgehammer’ Gryba on the right side.
• Kris Russell. Giving this guy anything more than another 1 year deal is going to be a sticking point for a lot of people. Limited minutes for this guy.
• Let’s shake up the first line. Let’s put Pouliot with 97. Pouliot has been back for a grand total of two games since sustaining his injury in practice nearly a month ago. Pouliot performs pretty darn well with McDavid, too.
• The Oilers face off against Dallas on Tuesday. They’ve got to do better on the second half of their eight game homestand, which currently sits at 1-2-1.

MISC

NHL.com

• There are fourteen games to go, and the Kings are still seven points away from the Oilers. All remains well for the time being. Edmonton would do themselves (and their fans) a service by knocking the stuffings out of Dallas come Tuesday.