GDT: Game 46: New York Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens 1/19/25 7:00pm EST TSN2, RDS, TSN 690

[Habs13]

Laval played on Friday and Saturday so I don't see them calling someone up and have them play 3 games in 3 days.

..and had two injuries, including Josh Roy

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Rangers are f***ing ass . Should easily win

 

[SwiftyHab]

Dobes wins this one and starts on Tuesday on his way to stealing Monty's position

 

[Noble]

Hopefully Dobes has a solid game and provides some reliable goaltending unlike that nightmare last night.

 

[JianYang]

Hopefully Dobes has a solid game and provides some reliable goaltending unlike that nightmare last night.

Dobes is is kind of like svilovs last year when demko got hurt. The more he plays the more teams will adapt to expose his weaknesses. Then dobes will be have to react and adapt accordingly.

It's one thing to start your career with a great run, but another thing to translate that into a long nhl career. Svilovs was getting picked apart this year after a great playoff because teams eventually realized that he struggled mightily with long shots with traffic.

Even price and Roy did not establish themselves as permanent #1s until at least a couple years into their respective careers.

This is all to say that they will need both Monty and whoever the goalie #2 will be down the stretch at their best (and dobes has given no reason so far to send him down but he has by no means proved that he's an established nhler yet).

 

[JianYang]

Rangers are f***ing ass . Should easily win

I wouldn't count them out yet. I don't know where they will end up this year but based on some recent results, I think they have at least stopped the bleeding.

This is a big weekend for them. They got a big 2 points yesterday against cbj and they got Montreal today.

I'm sure they looked at this weekend as an opportunity to get right around the playoff line

 

[bud12]

Im ready to bet Xhekaj will drop again Rempe tonight and Pez vs Carrick too. It's a f***ing big game and we need all the emotion we can get. Hutson will also have a strong showing....

 

[The Great Weal]

I'm expecting a monster game from Hutson, you can tell he knows he was dog shit last night and wants to make up for it.

 

[ReHabs]

Huge game for the playoff picture.

I expect a Juraj Slaftrick: one nice goal, one scrappy goal, and one goal deflected in off his giant ass.

 

[JianYang]

They looked gassed yesterday. Don't know about this one, fellas. Could get ugly.

The habs had a day off prior to this game even though they traveled from Texas. They shouldn't have been gassed, and Toronto is not one of those teams that really has a high tempo.

I think they were rattled. Lots of coverage breakdowns especially after that late 2nd period goal. It looked like the old Habs with no structure.

 

[Habssince89]

The habs had a day off prior to this game even though they traveled from Texas. They shouldn't have been gassed, and Toronto is not one of those teams that really has a high tempo.

I think they were rattled. Lots of coverage breakdowns especially after that late 2nd period goal. It looked like the old Habs with no structure.

It was definitely a mental collapse. They skated well, and a lot of the issues were bobbled pucks and bad penalties. Leafs simply took advantage like an experienced team should. It's a strong silver lining that the team will remember this loss and learn lessons.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

It's sad to watch a warrior like Gally lose his game at a pretty rapid rate. He was never fast but now it is even worse.

He can barely get off the ice in the 2nd period long change if there isn't a stoppage.

 

[le_sean]

He can barely get off the ice in the 2nd period long change if there isn't a stoppage.

Like I get being slow as you get older, but I really can’t understand not having the endurance. You’re a pro athlete, cardio should be the bare minimum.

 

[zx81]

It was way too early to play shutdown hockey when they got that lead. They just stopped playing the way they've been playing; Started forcing entries with low percentage fantasy plays because they didn't feel they had the energy to win races to the puck.

This fed into the leafs' breakout. Toronto was able to get their forecheck going because our fwds and Ds were disjointed.

The style the habs play is physically demanding since it's ultra aggressive on the puck carrier, it caught up to them.

Shutdown hockey basically no longer works. At least not the way Montreal and Boston did it yesterday. You can't have your players retreat in your zone and let the opponents enter it easily. You will get burnt. You can either continue to forecheck or make a wall at your blue line and force the opponents to dump and chase.

 

[Tyson]

Shutdown hockey basically no longer works. At least not the way Montreal and Boston did it yesterday. You can't have your players retreat in your zone and let the opponents enter it easily. You will get burnt. You can either continue to forecheck or make a wall at your blue line and force the opponents to dump and chase.

It's like prevent defense in football...rarely works.

 

[CHfan1]

It's like prevent defense in football...rarely works.

It doesn’t, but what teams shouldn’t do with a 3-0 lead is give up odd man rushes or take penalties. Montreal did both and that lead to Toronto taking the lead.

 

[vokiel]

Rangers are f***ing ass . Should easily win

Not in their last 10 no.

 

[Skip Bayless]

Shutdown hockey basically no longer works. At least not the way Montreal and Boston did it yesterday. You can't have your players retreat in your zone and let the opponents enter it easily. You will get burnt. You can either continue to forecheck or make a wall at your blue line and force the opponents to dump and chase.

I don't think what you saw last night was the habs trying to play shutdown hockey. Shutdown hockey is tight, it gives nothing to the opponent.

When your forecheck is ineffective, the other team breaks out cleanly, which creates speed in the neutral zone, which makes the defence retreat and give up the blue line easily , which allows the attacking team to move the puck in all four directions, which disorganizes the defence, which allows more often than not for the attacking team to spend time in the offensive zone. It's a chain reaction of events.

It all starts from one's team inability to win 50/50 pucks in the opponent's end. That's where the collapse started. It was well before the leafs tied the game.

Even if the habs were generating scoring chances in the third, they were trading off huge chunks of their structure for it. This is where the leafs ran away with the game.

 

[Tyson]

Not in their last 10 no.

Yep they seem to have turned the corner. Habs are in for a tough game.

 

[red devil]

The Habs need to stay out of the box because it will catch up to them if they keep taking the amount of penalties they have throughout the season.

 

[Forum93]

The moral of the story is - if you want to get really lucky- you have to walk, not run.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

The Habs need to stay out of the box because it will catch up to them if they keep taking the amount of penalties they have throughout the season.

There is nothing they can do if they are being called for bs and borderline penalties that aren't called on a lot of other teams. Or if the same penalties they are taking are not called on their opponents. I expect Habs are near the botton in power plays.

 

[Habano]

Why is Rempe still in the NHL? Wanna be tough guy and cheap shot artist supreme. Our guys have to be extra aware when this clown is on the ice.

 

[Calendal]

Was there no other place for that habs logo?

 

[Rapala]

I don't think what you saw last night was the habs trying to play shutdown hockey. Shutdown hockey is tight, it gives nothing to the opponent.

When your forecheck is ineffective, the other team breaks out cleanly, which creates speed in the neutral zone, which makes the defence retreat and give up the blue line easily , which allows the attacking team to move the puck in all four directions, which disorganizes the defence, which allows more often than not for the attacking team to spend time in the offensive zone. It's a chain reaction of events.

It all starts from one's team inability to win 50/50 pucks in the opponent's end. That's where the collapse started. It was well before the leafs tied the game.

Even if the habs were generating scoring chances in the third, they were trading off huge chunks of their structure for it. This is where the leafs ran away with the game.

This is exactly what I saw the leafs were turning over all kinds of pucks when we pressured them.
Our posture right from the first shift in the second was not the same. It doesn't matter if it was lack of energy the game plan or just instinctive it isn't how this team won all those games against those top clubs.
I've been saying ever since the turn around defensively our improvement started in the neutral zone which is a reflection of a good fore check and the ability to press with 5 men who actually start defending well before our blue line. We should all know what it looks like because it's a method we've seen used successfully against us for three seasons running at the very least.