The Canadiens hit the lottery jackpot.
After Friday night's 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres, we were wondering whether or not Andrei Kostitsyn's tremendous performance could be reproduced, comparing him to a scratch lottery ticket.
It's only two games and the Canadiens have 77 left after Saturday's 4-3 comeback win over Ottawa, but if Kostitsyn can continue to build on what he did this weekend it could have a tremendous impact on Montreal's attack moving forward.
"If you play 100 per cent every game, you feel more comfortable and you have a lot of chances to score goals," Kostitsyn said afterwards, as though this was something he had just learned.
But if he has indeed learned it, then it should be fun to watch him apply it on a nightly basis. His physical presence, his dangerous shot, his net drive, his speed, everything was working for Kostitsyn this weekend.
It's just a shame the Canadiens have this strange four-day break in the schedule, with no game until Thursday and Jacques Martin giving his team two days away from practice.
Kostitsyn is clearly someone who feeds on momentum, and when he loses it, it's often lost forever. I'm not sure whether or not two days away from the ice and four days between games will be enough to make Kostitsyn lose his mojo, but the timing of the break couldn't really be much worse.
Plekanec line a shooting gallery
Tomas Plekanec was saying after the game that Kostitsyn's net presence was opening up more space for Michael Cammalleri to shoot. That's pretty clear when you see Cammalleri had eight shots on goal in the game (though I would estimate six of them hit Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott right in the Senators logo on his chest), and the line had 15 shots in the game.
The entire Senators team had 19.
When asked why he thought Kostitsyn was playing so well, Plekanec had no idea.
"You better ask him, I don't know," Plekanec said. "He didn't tell me."
Martin had his own theory.
"I think it's the last year of a contract," he said in a rare moment of levity, "so that's pretty good motivation."
Power play woes continue
If you want to nit-pick, the Canadiens power play went 0-for-5 and is now 1-for-17 on the season. The only reason that's not worst in the league is because the Senators have had three more power play opportunities and have also scored only one goal.
But Martin is not worried.
"Our penalty killing has been outstanding, so it balances out," he said. "Also the fact we're winning games 5-on-5 is also a key for us compared to last year."
Martin is right.
The Canadiens have allowed only two goals on 20 opposition power plays this season, and 12 of their 14 goals on the have come at 5-on-5 after finishing dead last in the NHL in that category last season.
Eller benched again
While the weekend was a wild success with four out of four points against two division rivals, and Carey Price getting his first win on home ice since Feb. 10, I'm wondering what's going through Lars Eller's mind right now.
Eller played only two shifts in the third period against Buffalo on Friday and against Ottawa on Saturday he didn't get another shift after he was on the ice for Erik Karlsson's goal at 10:20 of the second, a play where Eller was on the wrong side of the ice and left Karlsson wide open as the trailer.
The goal made Eller a minus-2 on the night and put an end to his game with only 4:21 of ice time.
Is that the right approach with such a young player, one who is clearly a bright talent that cost the organization it's most valuable offseason asset in Jaroslav Halak?
"It's a learning process for him," Martin said. "Not that it was his fault tonight, but he was a minus-2 and he just seemed to be struggling."
Martin wanted to make sure he didn't sound like he was ripping Eller, so he quickly added a disclaimer to that statement.
"I like Lars and what he brings, and we're trying to bring him along," he said. "In a game like tonight, where it was a tough battle, I just shortened up the bench and he's the one that didn't get as much ice time as he'd like, I'm sure. But it's a new game Thursday night. I like the dimensions that he brings."
That would suggest Eller will have an opportunity to win back his coach's trust against the Devils on Thursday. But I'm wondering if another mistake will result in Eller sitting right back down on the bench again, and whether that's the best environment in which to learn.
