Habs Do Just Enough to End Losing Skid

Can you believe it? They were 2 minutes away from me destroying my television. Nevertheless we managed to pull through with 2 points and end the 4 game skid. With so many mistakes, this was one of the sloppiest wins of the season. There's so much to cover here, so let's get started.

First off, I would like to bring up Denis Gauthier hit on Gorges. This is exactly the kind of hit that everyone has been saying the same thing about. (I must have heard these same words about 1000 times) "The league needs to step in and do something to eliminate these hits from the game." I was watching the game on CBC and catched the panel discussing their thoughts on this hit. Thank God the refs gave Gauthier the boot because Gorges didn't look like he remembered what number he was. He didn't see him coming, Gauthier jumped into it and brought up the elbow to the head. It's a suspension plain and simple. Ron MacLean went as far as saying that he would be nailed with 20 games as he is a repeat offender. You know, there's only so much the league can do in this situation. At the end of the day, Bettman can't run out onto the ice and put up his hand to stop these hits. The players are the ones throwing them, so they need to take this seriously. Here's another interesting point brought up by the panel. PJ Stock, who back in the day was a fighter himself, said that he was disappointed in Montreal because of the fact that no one stood up for Gorges. This has been a problem year in and year out. Why didn't anyone jump on top of Gauthier and beat the living hell out of him? Not very impressed by the lack of standing up for your teammate. So what if we got penalty minutes? The game was tied and it was early in the 2nd. Let's hope to God his injury isn't too serious. The last thing we need is another injury, and to Gorges no less!

Moving on to the game. I saw some of the sloppiest play in the defensive zone today. How many times did we mess around with the puck and fail to clear the zone? Awful lazy play like that may not cost you against a team like LA, but tomorrow against a team like Boston, they will make you pay. If, in our defensive zone, we show up with that kind of performance, we're going to get pommeled.

Everyone who needed to score, did just that today for Montreal. Plekanec's play has improved in the past couple of games and he finally scored tonight. Koivu and Higgins getting a goal each is good for confidence for the comeback. A.Kost was pointless in 4 going into this one, and his goal was good enough for his 5th goal on PP.

Kovalev didn't seem to really care about the outcome tonight. There wasn't much effort coming from l'artiste when battling for the puck along the boards. Knowing Boston's solid shutdown play, he probably won't be much of an offensive threat tomorrow.

Carbo is in for a tough decision tomorrow. Well, a couple actually. First off, who starts in net? Do you go with your number 1 who is still looking rusty after 5? Or do you go with Halak who craps his pants whenever Price is on the bench? On another note, what to do with Sergei? Do you stay with the same lineup, or bring him back in? I don't know guys, only time will tell for these answers.

To rap it all up, the hockey gods were really on Montreal's side for this one. Alexander Frolov must have had 3 chances to put the game away but was either denied by Price or the post. LA's work ethic was truly admirable and will hopefully be compared to ours. Carbo needs to tell the boys to come out fast and score first. If I'm not mistaken, Montreal's record when scoring first is 17-3-3. The fact of the matter is, there is no way in hell we will win tomorrow if the same effort is repeated. You can't beat Boston by sleeping for 58 minutes and lighting up for the final 2. Hopefully, the boys will show up to play tomorrow afternoon, because another loss to Boston is the last thing I would like to see.

Photo courtesy: Yahoo! Sports

They Just Keep Getting Uglier and Uglier

There is only so much a blogger can say after watching a game like this one. Montreal has now dropped 4 consecutively and are showing no signs of ending the drought. A number of factors key in to this. First off, we've allowed 19 goals (4-5-5-5) in this drought. Price's awful comeback includes 16 goals allowed and 0 wins. Maybe all these players returning to the lineup has psychologically influenced the team? Well it certainly hasn't helped because were not scoring either. The effort has not been there.

Honestly, Sergei Kostitsyn has not been an NHL-caliber player since day 1. It's almost as if he believes his spot is cemented into the roster. Hmph, I beg to differ and as soon as Tanguay's back, he will be sent to Hamilton just as quickly. If it weren't for all of these injuries, he would be with Don Lever right now. Brother Andrei hasn't exactly lit the lamp of late. Since going on a 7-game point streak, he's vanished from the score sheet in the last 4 games (hmm, seeing that number a lot..) And Gorges! My man Gorgeous Gorges is now -11 in his last 8 games, Josh of all people! This isn't golf buddy, it's not 11 under par after 8 holes.

Now looking back to last night. Whew, 5-1 to Florida. Ouch. Boy I would love to see Jay Bouwmeester in a Habs jersey. Apparently, we were too stupid to pick up on the fact that he pinches to the back door every time. Didn't he score one like that? And almost set up another? Florida went into this one 27th in the league on the PP but managed to pot 2 on us. Disgusting.

And can someone please tell me what's with this "lose all hope when we're down"? Why is it that when we go down early, no matter how bad the team is, we fall back and pray for the buzzer. Isn't that the first thing that we were told as kids, never to give up. It's ridiculous!

For those of you who watched the game on TSN, you might have noticed the stat that was shown. If my memory serves me correctly, they said that Montreal is 17-3-3 when they score the first goal. I wonder what our record is when we don't? We dig ourselves into to holes that were to stubborn to get out of.

For whatever reason, I have a strange feeling about our upcoming games. I highly doubt that Carbo will allow the "dream team" to drop their 5th in a row to LA on home ice. Even more likely, we just might show up to play against Boston.

Alright, I'm done.

Photo courtesy: Yahoo! Sports

Good Things Happen to Those Who Try...

Well it's the first time in almost a month since my last post and I get to start over with this. Perhaps it's some sort of hex or curse that someone cast upon Montreal that disables our talent whenever we play >playoff teams. Whatever the case may be, Tampa Bay (now 17-21-10) has picked up 5 of a possible 6 points against us.

It's simple, the Bolts won tonight by doing the exact opposite of what Montreal did: They worked their buts off. Yes, the first period was all Habs however, one period doesn't win games. Starting right from the get-go of the 2nd, the gritty players stepped up (Downie, Artyukin). By fore checking, hitting, winning the one-on-one battles, they managed to completely shut us down. Plus, throw in 9 penalties called on Montreal to the equation. Vinny and Marty combine for 2 on the PP while everyone else works to get 3. Kudos to them, because they're not too far off from a playoff spot.

I have to say, Ryan O'Byrne played quite well tonight. Not spectacular, but managed to stay at even par in +/- with 12:38 of TOI. Perfect, boost up his value right in front of the eyes of both of Florida's GMs. Higgins also, made a very good comeback. If it weren't for Lang's lack of finishing, he would have gotten at least gotten a point.

Just like Carbo said after the game, something is not right when your 4th line is your best one. Lapierre, Kostopoulos and Latendresse combined for 2 goals and 13 shots. Hmph, if it weren't for these 3 and Smith's bad pass, we'd have been shut out.

We have to look at the big picture here. The amount of pressure on le tricolore is tough to match. When you're expected to win 82 of 82 games, chances are some might crack. However, when you play sub-par teams like Tampa Bay or Atlanta, these are the points that are going to kill you in the long run. A good team would have come out flying, but played a full 60 minutes. We have failed to do that on multiple occasions this year and it is costing us some valuable points. Hopefully, we'll take the Panthers a little more seriously on Thursday night.

Photo courtesy of: Yahoo! Sports