Montreal Canadiens Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: Jacques Martin Highlights Week 3

This was a short third week of the season for the Montreal Canadiens highlighted by two very different performances. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Week 3's edition of Thumbs Up/Thumbs down.

Without further adieu, let's take a little look at the scoreboard recap for those who were Lost on some island filled with incessant storyline twists all week.

Thursday October 21st 

New Jersey Devils 3 at Montreal Canadiens 0

Saturday October 23rd

Montreal Canadiens 3 at Ottawa Senators 0

Thumbs up to you, Big Ben

With a goal in the second period, Benoit Pouliot finally ended a streak that saw him go 31 games without finding the twine. 

That alone is an accomplishment itself. It could very well be the confidence boost Pouliot needed to get his season started. Goals are like cockroaches—you get one, but there's plenty more hiding in the top shelf. 

More importantly for him, perhaps this tally helps him regain his position on the second line with Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta as his mates.

Who knows? Maybe Big Ben can actually help those two unblock as well, or maybe he'll retire from the NHL and write a tell-all book about his adventures in The Land of the Goalless. 

Whatever happens, I'm personally very happy that his name is back in the goal column.

Thumbs up to you, Andrei Kostitsyn Model 46

If you told me at the start season that Andrei Kostitsyn would be the Canadiens' best goal scorer by the end of Week 3, I probably would've taken your drink away as well as your keys.

AK46 had a field day against the Senators, scoring a beautiful wrister from the slot in the first period and picking up a rebound in the second. 

Kostitsyn has now notched six points (four goals and two assists) in seven games played. 

An amazing start to a contract year for the first line winger, his contribution on the ice will be very valuable for him this year. If the start of the season is any indication of things to come, it's safe to say we've got a lot of Kostitsyn's goals to look forward to. 

Thumbs down to you, Jacques Martin

Two games were played and two questionable decisions were made by Jacques Martin. Decisions that technically revolved around the same player. 

The first one happened early in the week, as it was revealed that Martin would be trying out Tom Pyatt on the second line—a move that had me scratching my head to find solutions as to how exactly this would work. I shared my ideas with the Bleacher Report's Habs community in my last article. Even writing it felt sort of eerie.

Pyatt is a great two-way forward, but inserting him into a line with a prolific scorer and playmaker didn't really make any sense. On the defensive side of the play, he looked like he fit right in. When it came to producing offensively, he looked very tentative.

As one of the readers of my Pyatt article mentioned, why doesn't Jacques realize the talent that Lars Eller has and finally give him a tryout to help fill the void?

The second adjustment Martin made was sitting down fourth line center Dustin Boyd and pairing Eller with Travis Moen and Mathieu Darche.

Another move that had me scratching my head like it was infected with annoyingly itchy lice: anyone who actually watches the games can see that the young Dane's superior offensive talent is too much for his line-mates to handle.

It feels as though Martin is forcefully sitting the jock at the nerds' table. Whatever the analogy is, Eller absolutely needs to get top six minutes, and if he can't get them in Montreal, he should be getting them in Hamilton.

I would prefer to see him play first line minutes with the Bulldogs than being stranded on the fourth line with the Habs. 

The Montreal Canadiens shouldn't feel like they need to save face over the Halak deal anymore. Carey Price is doing great at the moment and the fans have other negative things to concentrate on. Like the impotent power play that has hopped on the ice for seven straight games, for example.

The Habs have a very busy week ahead of them with four games in seven days. Here's what the schedule looks like:

Monday October 25th

Phoenix Coyotes at Montreal Canadiens

Wednesday October 27th 

New York Islanders at Montreal Canadiens

Friday October 29th

Montreal Canadiens at New York Islanders

Saturday October 30th

Florida Panthers at Montreal Canadiens

Until next week, tip your waitresses people.

I'm serious, it's important.