Author: Ron Reusch

Talk about saving your best for last. It was the Canadiens most complete game of the year during their most important stretch of games of the year.Granted, with the playoffs looming the Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t have their eye on the prize Tuesday night, but they weren’t so much off their game as to subject to the kind domination the Canadiens presented. There was no area of the ice that the Canadiens didn’t excel. They controlled two-thirds of the game’s puck possession while outshooting Tampa 45-24. It actual shooting attempts it was 92-52 against the NHL’s best offensive machine.

After Saturday night’s game in Winnipeg you ask yourself why the Canadiens couldn’t have played as well against Columbus as they did against the Jets. A better question might be why Winnipeg could play so badly considering their tentative hold on first place in the Central Division. But for a brief stretch after the Jets made it a one-goal game with eight minutes remaining, the Canadiens had total ownership of a team that is vastly more talented than they are. That said, when the Canadiens are skating and implementing Claude Julien’s stifling defensive game to it’s fullest, they can be very hard to get around. Consider this as one of those ‘perfect road games’ to which we often refer.

It is a question that’s been asked around Montreal for the last decade.It goes like this. “Which is better? A small but very fast team or a team with size and speed?” The answer from any NHL coach would be the latter, especially heading into the playoffs, or in the case of Thursday night’s game in Columbus, a game that could decide playoff berth.  You would not be far off in blaming size as the key factor in the Canadiens 6-2 loss.  Size, and a failure to play the game away from the boards, where the Blue Jackets were guaranteed to dominate.