Habs vs. Bs - Back Down to Earth Edition

Notes on the third:

-Metro has been the hardest-working and most opportunistic Hab all night and it was reflected in that first goal. Pyatt over D'Ags? Yes, please.

-The Habs are not aggressive on the puck at all. They back off and let the other guys take it first, then try to take it off them. Not a good plan, guys.

-Lapierre! He lives!

-The single MOST annoying thing about the Bruins: When their fans chant "USA, USA."

-Jaro on the bench looks totally fried. I hope they're not planning to start him in San Jose unless he gets twenty hours of sleep first. And not on a plane.

-The only chemistry I've seen between the Kostitsyns tonight is the kind that blows up the lab and gets you an F

-Gomez chirping Chara. I hope the words "gorilla" and "misshapen" came into the conversation.

-Fortunately for the Habs, Ryder's more easily robbed than an old lady with her life savings under her mattress.

-How can you not love Mathieu Darche?

-Nice for Pouliot to pad the stats with the empty-netter. He needed to pick up a point to get back in the swing of things.

-Price was strong. Now, if he could only stop allowing those killers early on...

-Well, that was a very nice third period. I hope there's a chance in hell they pick it up where they left off, in San Jose.



Notes on the second:

-Things the Habs need to work on: hitting the net and hitting the opposition. If they don't, they'll be hitting the road and then hitting the golf course.

-Until RDS mentioned his name five minutes into that period, I'd completely forgotten Maxim Lapierre even existed.

-I'd also forgotten the Habs can't score. At all.

-Markov was solid on that PK. After the Olympics I now wonder if we all think he's so good because we see him on the ice with such bums most of the time.

-I didn't realize shooting the puck was either: a) not in their contracts, b) illegal in their home countries or c) against their religion.

-If the Molsons are hoping to make money with the Habs, they'd be wise to produce a really high-octane beer for all the fans to buy as a painkiller.

-Gill to Lucic: "Oh, am I in your path to the net, good sir? So sorry. Let me just give you some room. Jolly good."

-Watching Hamrlik, it's obvious Jacques the Knife has told the Ds to pinch more. Watching Gill do it gives me a strange pain in my left arm.

-Speaking of the Knife, he's looking particularly like an insurance salesman for the mob tonight. I'm guessing they're paying him less than they paid Carbo, based purely on wardrobe choice.

-Pleks' passes are intended for Elias. He's got to dial them back a bit.

-I was just crapping on Gill to a friend when he saved a goal right on the line. Too bad he can't just be a PK specialist. I've always thought it would be great if the NHL could carry specialists like the NFL does. You get your 20 skaters, but also a PK guy and a PP guy. In that situation, Gill and Bergeron would be gold.

-Price looked very focussed in that period.


Notes on the first:

-I'm afraid I'm going to have good hockey withdrawal after the Olympics. I saw Metro miss an open net and couldn't help thinking, damn, Perry would have buried that.

-From my non-hockey-fan spouse: "I haven't missed any of these guys for the last two weeks. Too bad they couldn't have fallen off the face of the earth and just stayed there." Harsh, but I laughed.

-Good start. Pouliot looks like a puppy just let out of the pet shop.

-Plekanec seems to have a bit of an Olympic hangover too. Or maybe he's just adjusting to being the older cousin who doesn't speak the brothers' secret language.

-One Hab who probably really benefitted from the break is Moen. He plays a style that can only be sustained for a finite number of games. A two-week break would have allowed him to stop hurting for a while, so he can go back to hurting other people.

-Hell has a better chance of freezing over than Price does of freezing a puck in his crease.

-Then he makes a nice save on the two-on-one. He's the most frustrating goalie alive.

-Incidentally, on that nice save, the goalie and defenceman are both playing the shot. That burns them if Price doesn't get over with the timely splits. Can they not get someone to drill them in "Goalie takes the shooter, defenceman takes the pass?"

-A pretty good period, except for yet another wretchedly deflating goal against. They need to come out flying in the second, because losing this one is the first step to missing the playoffs.