Devils

Jacques Martin may have won his gamble.

We'll wait for the Rangers game at the Bell Centre before delivering an early verdict, but for now it looks like the coach has made the right decisions ... at a very critical time of the season.

Georges Laraque: Gone.

Matt D'Agostini: Five shifts, 2:37

Max Pacioretty: 10 shifts, 6:23

Martin got rid of his useless enforcer, shortened his bench and played the guys who he thought would give him the best chance to win – including Mathieu Darche, a 33-year-old journeyman playing for his fifth NHL team.

So far, so good.

Do it again against the Rangers and the bandwagon will get very crowded very fast.

Martin F. first star

Lovely evening of live-blogging on the road.

Props for splendid hospitality to the Friedman family of Hampstead – Dr. Ruby, Adele, Josh, Noah and Hannah, who was off in another room studying for an exam.

The game?

We all should have been in the other room studying.

Jacques vs. Jacques, and the Martin- and Lemaire-coached teams produced a predictably soporific game that won't be showing up on ESPN Classics any time soon.

The Canadiens had 18 shots on goal – three in the third period.

There were 59 faceoffs – 36 of which the Canadiens lost.

Intensity?

Andre Kostitsyn led the Canadiens with four of their 17 hits

New Jersey had 18 giveaways but still won the game.

A TOTAL snoozer .... with some scary implications.

Canadiens catch the Devils on a not-great night.

But in a close-checking, boring game Patrik Elias scores late, from close in.

And that was it.

The Friedmans are 0-1.

Well, how do you like the Bob Gainey Era so far?

Do you find it eerily reminiscent of the Guy Carbonneau Era?

Don't these guys realize that a coaching change is supposed to revitalize a hockey team?

It happened in Chicago. Denis Savard got canned, Joel Quenneville took over and the 'Hawks took flight.

Same story in Carolina, Pittsburgh, Ottawa. A change behind in Washington last season turned the Caps into contenders.

The New York Rangers have a new man behind the bench and a new/old pest on the ice. We'll see the John Tortorella and Sean Avery Show on Tuesday night, when the Canadiens begin Week II of Gainey Redux.

So far, he ain't no Bruce Boudreau.

22 shots.

Not a real hard day at the office for the great Martin Brodeur.

Ant a great night for your Montreal Canadiens.

Let's be very noest:

We saw a Cup contender against a playoff pretender.

And by the end, the chants of "CAR-BO!" were persistent ... and loud. 

Well, that was grim eh?

What was worse than the loss – just one game in a very long season – is what it portends.

Based on what we saw las night, how would the Canadiens fare in a first-round playoff series against the Devils .... particularly one that starts in New Jersey?

I must confess I'm copping a good deal of this analysis from L'Antichambre, but Norman Flynn and Michel Bergeron made good points during the post-game RDS chin wag.

They said the Canadiens played as badly as they did against Philadelphia last spring.

The team got pushed around in New Jersey last night. The Canadiens did not push back. And unless that changes, they're doomed to an early exit from the payoffs ... maybe even earlier than last season.

Ho-hum, another loss in New Jersey.

5-2.

Not pretty ... and a few worries heading into the All-Star break 

Sitting in the press room after the game, looking over the stat sheet and waiting for Guy Carbonneau, a few of the beat guys were moaning about how boring it would be to cover the New Jersey Devils.

"If I had to watch that team play 82 games, I'd open a vein" said Marc-Antoine Godin of La Presse, feigning a slicing motion on his left forearm.

No one asked Carbo what it's like to watch Alex Kovalev play 82 games.

The coach might have pretended to slit his own throat.

Zach Parise's 15th goal of the season was scored on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime.

Outshot 13-7 in the first period and trailing 1-0, the Devils dominated the latter 30 minutes of the game.

Carey Price, beaten between his pads for the tying goal, made several spectacular saves to keep it 1-1 and was named the game's first star.

The good news: Andrei Markov, who took a deflected puck in the face and went down like he'd been shot, was not seriously injured.

The Canadiens' best defenceman has a stitched upper lip and is short a tooth. Markov will miss the team's Metro grocery public practice on Sunday.

A statement game by your Montreal Canadiens.

The statement, loud, clear and totally unambiguous: We are for real.

My favourite part of the statement game was the statement period. Leading 3-0 with 20 minutes to play, Canadiens dominated the visitors.

They outshot New Jersey 15-5 in the final period. The Devils spent 20 minutes being checked, harassed, hemmed in. There was zero chance of a comeback.

What made the shutdown impressive was the guys who were doing it: Bryan Smolinski, Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse, Michael Ryder, Mark Streit, Tom the Bomb Kostopoulos.

The third and fourth lines have not been the Canadiens' forte this season. But they'll be needed down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Last night they contributed with secondary scoring – goals by Smolinski, Lapierre and Ryder – and textbook perfect defensive play to protect the lead.

Canadiens bedevilled New Jersey with Devils hockey – a magnificent team effort in which Guy Carbonneau rolled four lines and everyone worked hard for 60 minutes.

Winning hockey – and hugely appreciated by a Bell Centre crowd that started the standing O with 90 seconds to play. 

Devils goalie Martin Brodeur is crowded by Canadiens' Christopher Higgins and Saku Koivu last night.
John Kenney, Gazette

Include New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur on the growing list of believers in this year's Canadiens.

"What impresses me is their depth. All four lines," Brodeur told the Newark Star-Ledger after last night's convincing 4-0 Montreal victory. "They get contributions from their whole lineup. Before it was one line and if you shut them down, you had a good chance to win. They're a better team than they were the last few years. I'm definitely surprised."

On Habs goalie Carey Price: "It's impressive to watch him. I like his poise, how he's able to get to rebounds and freeze the puck. And how big he is. His future is bright. He's going to get tested here the next few years." 

Brodeur, the much-decorated goaltender who arguably is the best of his generation, has now lost three straight to the Canadiens after owning the Habs for more than a decade. In pursuit of Terry Sawchuk's all-time NHL shutout record of 103, he's profiled here in today's Montreal Gazette.

Updated with audio at 10:27 pm

Canadiens defenceman Francis Bouillon flattens Devils' Travis Zajac during the first period on Tuesday night. John Kenney, The Gazette

Lineups | Preview | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Hickey Game Story | Boone | Carbonneau Press Conference | Price (from RDS) | Price Smolinski Sergei Kostitsyn

Updated by Kevin Mio

In the battle for top spot in the Eastern Conference, a rookie goaltender upstaged a future Hall-of-Famer.

The Canadiens and New Jersey Devils did battle for first place in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday night and it was no contest. The Habs held the lead from start to finish en route to a 4-0 win over the Devils to grab the conference's top spot with 87 points, one more than New Jersey. The Devils do have a game in hand, however.

The Habs also came out on top in another battle, the one between the pipes. Rookie goaltender Carey Price was solid for the Canadiens as he stopped 38 shots in front of Martin Brodeur, who did not have his best game against his hometown team. It was Price's second shutout of the season.

It was Montreal's third straight win over the Devils, meaning the Canadiens have won the season series against New Jersey for the first time since the 1992-93 season.

Just Martin Brodeur.

What the heck, Canadiens have beaten him three times in a row – the latest in a battle for first place in the Eastern Conference.

Brodeur is still great. And there's plenty of F. hockey left in him.

But the curse, it would seem, is lifted. 

And the guys who did the heavy lifting for Canadiens were a 20-year-old goaltender and a seventh-round draft choice who turns 21 later this month.

With his cap on backwards, cradling a bottle of water behind his back and looking a it like  Belarussian deer caught in Montreal headlights, Sergei Kostitsyn murmured assent to the idea that he had scaled new heights in this crucial contest.

"Yes, I think was best game for me so far," said the kid brother of the first-round draft choice. Sergei K. had set up Saku Koivu and Maxim Lapierre for goals that Grandma Kostitsyn could have scored.

"We beat a great team and we're in first place," added Kostitsyn, who deferred some of the questions to Genady Boguslavsky, the Russian journalist who does yeoman duty on after-game translation in Moscow-sur-St.-Laurent. 

 "We wanted to show we were serious," said Lapierre, who was merrily hitting Devils in the game's dying minutes. "There are 11 games until the playoffs and we want to show we're ready."

Canadiens looked ready for the postseason – particularly during the third period. They outshot New Jersey 15-5, forechecking the Devils into the Bell Centre ice and giving them no chance to mount a comeback, particularly affter Michael Ryder, who played hhis heart out tonight, poked the fourth goal past a suddenly-human Brodeur.

Carey Price, who had made 33 saves through the first two periods, was able to cruise down the stretch and notch the second shutout of what is becoming a dream season for a goalie who was in the Western Hockey League a year ago. 

In the post-game celebratory scrum, Christopher Higgins urged Price to smile and enjoy the moment.

"I don't usually get very emotional," the stoic star said later. "I was excited on the inside."

There was delirium inside he Bell Centtre as the seconds ticked down. This "CA-REY! CA-REY! CA-REY" cheer could catch on.

Asked if he derived any special satisfaction from beating Brodeur, Price got off a good line.

"Well, he's not shooting on me," Price said. "But it was definitely special to get a shutout. I'm just thankful to get the two points."

I'll cook Sunday dinner for anyone who thought Canadiens would sweep Buffalo and New Jersey this weekend.

And I'll dine alone.

I'll buy a round for everyne who thought the team would be leading the Eastern Conference on March 2.

And I'll drink alone.

What the heck is happening here?

OK, before we scout choice spots for the parade, let's take a nervous glance at the standings and note that the Boston Bruins – you thought our team was amazing? – are five points back with two games in hand.

And while Canadiens head west, Bruins play at Washington, host Florida, Toronto and the Caps, then play the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Canadiens visit Boston on the 20th and the Bruins are here on the 22nd.

So I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but ....

Well, let's just say there's been a lot of precipitation in these parts. So before we precipitously decide the playoffs are a lock and the Cup a possibility, let's take a few deep breaths, savour a great weekend and gear ourselves for a sleepy Tuesday morning at the office, because the San Jose game starts 10:30 Monday night.

Updated at 10:18 p.m. with post-game audio

Canadiens' Andrei Kostitsyn scores the game-winning goal on Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, the puck on his wraparound effort tucked just inside the post at left.
Allen McInnis, Gazette

Lineups | Preview | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Game Story | Boone | Post-Game Audio: Price 1 | Price 2 | Koivu | Higgins | A. Kostitsyn | Carbonneau

This might be the way it’s going to be the last month of the NHL’s Cardiac Calendar – the Canadiens flirting with first place, playing for top spot one night, battling to stay abreast of the leaders the next.

And who would have believed that, on March 1, the Canadiens would be atop the Eastern Conference?

Andrei Kostitsyn scored his 20th goal of the year on a huge-effort wraparound at 14:17 of the third period to lift the Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

The win puts Montreal atop the East with 81 points, one more than both the Devils and the Ottawa Senators, winners this afternoon over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It's the first time the Canadiens have been in first place after the all-star break since March 1993 – coincidentally, or not, the last time the club won the Stanley Cup, the captain's C worn that year by current head coach Guy Carbonneau.

81 points.

First in the Eastern Conference. Third, behind Detroit and Dallas, in the whole  National F. Hockey League.

The Montre-F-al Canadiens.

Un-F-real.

And now that Canadiens have beaten him twice in a row – with a chance to make it three on March 11, when they return from their western road trip– I've decided to strip the coveted F. off New Jersey's goaltender.

He's Martin Brodeur. And he stopped 23 of 25 shots.

The Canadiens' goaltender – known in New Jersey as Carey F. Price – stopped 31 of 32. Later, in the room, Price talked about being a Brodeur fan as he was growing up and how awesome it was to look down the ice and see the great Devils' goalie.

It was a particularly pleasant view late in the game, when Bryan Smolinski and Maxim Lapierre took turns tying up the puck in the corner near Brodeur.

As the clock ticked down on a one-goal lead, it was textbook defensive hockey.

"A team like that has such good skill and they execute very well," Smolinski said of the Devils. "For us to waste some time, I guess it was 30, 40 seconds, and to get some fresh bodies out, they were a little discombobulated.

"Smart play," Smolinski added. "That was a big step forward for us. It didn't matter who was out there, I think it would have been the same thing. The philosophy that we have was executed."

"It was a lot of work," Price said of the pivotal Smolinski shift. You got to tip your hat to them."

Martin Brodeur beaten for three third-period goals.

Roger Federer loses in straight sets.

I don't know if the falcon can hear the falconer, but surely the Second Coming is at hand. And if the playoffs were at hand, how many teams would want to be facing your Montreal Canadiens?

They're on fire. And my only concern (because a Habs fan always has concerns) is the team might be peaking too early.

There's a lot of hockey to be played. But if Canadiens play the rest of their schedule like they played the second 30 minutes of last night's game, the playoffs are a lock and a deep run is a possibility.

And if there's happiness to be savoured in April – and, inshallah, May – we can look back to last comeback win as the game that defined the season.

Canadiens' Bryan Smolinski celebrates his first goal of the night in front of New Jersey's John Madden.
Ray Stubblebine, Reuters

Lineups | Preview | Game Story | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Boone's Blog | Carbonneau Post-Game (from RIS, audio poor from source)

Quick: find a bottle large enough to preserve tonight’s third period in Newark, N.J., and keep it sealed until March 1, the next time the Canadiens take on the New Jersey Devils.

Montreal scored three unanswered third-period goals tonight, outshooting their hosts 20-3 in the final frame, and in the process snapped a gruesome streak of futility.

Christopher Higgins, on the power play, and Saku Koivu and Bryan Smolinski hit the mesh behind normally airtight New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur during tonight’s final 20 minutes, giving the Canadiens a 4-3 victory and ending a nine-game losing streak against the Devils.

This devilish domination had reached ridiculous heights, and for a time tonight it seemed like the Canadiens were going to carry another loss to New Jersey into this weekend’s all-star break. But a terrific third period turned the team’s fortunes, and Montreal now heads into a few days off with a very welcome one-game winning streak against the Devils.

Why not? It's only 2008.

Trailing 3-1 against Martin Brodeur in New Jersey, the Canadiens outshoot the Devils20-3 and get third period goals from Bryan Smolinski (his second of the game), Saku Koivu and – finally – Christopher Higgins to win their 17th – and sweetest – road game of the season.

Incredible.

But true.

Shots on the game: 32-13

In New Jersey.

Against a team that isn't the Boston Bruins. 

What a way to head into the All-Star break. 

And what a way to catapult themselves into the Dash for the Cash. 

No Scott Gomez?
No Brian Rafalski?
No problem.
Forwards and defencemen come and they go. New rinks are built.
But as long as Martin Brodeur is wearing a New Jersey Devils jersey, your Montreal Canadiens are toast.
Marc Antoine Godin has a better food metaphor in La Presse today. He writes that when the Canadiens fell behind 2-0 after 40 minutes, "les carottes étaient cuites."
The Devils have not lost a game they led after two periods this season.
Canadiens have not won a game in which they trailed after 40.

2-0 against Martin F. Brodeur?
May as well load the bags on the plane. That sucker was over.

Three down, one to go: New Jersey Devils' Brian Gionta watches Zach Parisé's third goal of the game enter the Canadiens net.
Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

Lineups | Preview | Hickey Game Story | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Boone's Blog

Four-nothing. Another victory for the Devils. Perhaps the sooner we come to this realization, the better: the Canadiens are never again going to beat New Jersey. Ever.

Usually it's Devils goalie Martin Brodeur who drives the stake through the Habs heart. Tonight it was more the goals – three of them – by Zach Parisé, one at even strength, one on the power play, one on 5-on-3.

The Devils have not lost to the Habs since March 2004, a total of nine games after tonight's matchup at the new Prudential Centre, the Canadiens' first look at their hosts' new arena. They've not won in New Jersey since Feb. 2, 2002. And this evening, the Devils had a near-perfect game, rolling to a 4-0 victory.

Brodeur was no slouch, as usual, earning his eighth shutout in 51 career games against the Canadiens. The whitewash was the 116th of his career - regular season and playoffs combined - to move him past the late Terry Sawchuk for the most in NHL history.

The Devils outshot Montreal 29-27.

That's his eighth in 51 career starts against the Canadiens.

Brodeur kept New Jeresy in the game through an early onslaught that included three Canadiens power plays. Then Zach Parise took over with a natural hat trick (two of them on power plays.)

Brian Gionta completed the 4-0 rout, beating Carey Price during a bizarre two-man New Jeresy advantage.

Another night to forget in New Jersey, where the Devils treat the Canadiens worse than Tony Soprano treated his mistresses.

At least they got dinner.