Beat 'Em At Their Own Game: Hawks 3, Canadiens 1

For a few years, now, The Montréal Canadiens have iced rather uneven teams, with much of their lineup populated by Guys, often relying on All-Universe goaltender Carey Price to steal wins more often than not.  Well, tonight the skate was on the other foot, as Corey Crawford continued his dominance of The Habs by thoroughly "Pricing" MTL in their home opener.

Make no mistake, The Habs have a number of truly fine players beyond Price; Shea Weber has yet to fall off the cliff as I had predicted he would, Pacioretty and Drouin are good all-rounders and Paul Byron is an underrated gem, despite being so small that he can order from the Kids Menu without argument from his server.  Even Tomas Plekanec, at age 63, continues his sterling two-way game.  Then we get to The Guys....Benn, Petry, Shaw, Mitchell and so on...marginal at best and too often entrusted with tasks beyond their grasp.  Spare a thought, also, for Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk, two talented youngsters who have endured so much mismanagement and mind fuckery that you wonder why they haven't bolted to The KHL to sweat it out until their contracts expire.

My point is that, between the brace of below-average skaters, promising players being crushed by the weight of expectation and a front office that allows the Montréal media to influence their decisions, far too much is left to Carey Price who, somehow, has yet to crumble under this enormous responsibility.  The Canadiens are not nearly as good a team as they are made out to be.

ANYWAY
The Hawks barely played well enough to win this one, but an indifferent effort by Price and an outstanding performance by Crawford allowed them to slip out of la Belle Province with another two points in the bag.  Here are ya Bits:

* Ah, so much gushing over Alex DeBrincat potting his first pro goal but, apart from that and the helpie he picked up later, he didn't really have an outstanding game, otherwise.  Still, it's great that he was able to contribute and perhaps he'll get a little confidence boost as a result of tonight or, better yet, maybe tonight's efforts will be enough to earn him a look alongside Kane.
* The second line was essentially rubbish again.  Yes, Anisimov scored, finally, albeit on a tap-in that anyone but myself could have completed.  Hartman has been nowhere since the moment Schmaltz went down on Saturday and, for some ungodly reason, Kane spent a chunk of the game skating alongside Hayden and Wingels.  I get that the second line was flailing but, man, there has to be a better option than deploying Kane with the fourth-liners.

* In the feel-good story of the fall, however, the first line continues to steamroll over everything in its path. Their backcheck has been solid, their forecheck relentless and their offensive awareness shockingly apt.  The two quick, pinpoint passes that led to the Saad goal were beautiful to behold.  While other parts of The Hawks' lineup have struggled these last couple of games Toews, Saad and Panik have been consistently excellent, all the more important with the other lines being such a mess at the moment.
* I didn't mind Franson slotting into Murphy's spot.  Sure, The Habs had him running around a bit in his own end but, really, he wasn't any worse than Murphy has been at times and, surprisingly, no slower.  The big upside with Franson tonight was that The Hawks had another option on the power play; Franson's shot is hard, low and he doesn't waste any time unleashing it, and his cross-ice pass to DeBrincat was borne of equal parts skill and nerve.  I'll take my chances with Franson's shortcomings if he can bring this 'zazz on a regular basis.

I'm still deeply concerned about the wide-ranging effect of Schmaltz's injury.  If this is what happens when a second year forward who played only half the time last year goes down.....well, Toews and Co., as well as Corey Crawford, had better be prepared to carry the mail.  A Lot.