Sunday, January 2, 2011

Thrashers vs. Habs - A New Start Edition

Notes on the third at OT:

-Gotta love five-year-olds. I was yelling at the TV after that killer late goal in the second, and mine drew me a picture of Pleky scoring to make me feel better. From your crayon to the hockey gods' ears, kid.

-Just for a couple of shifts, Martin, you conservative troll, put Desharnais and Pacioretty together.

-Subban's looking the slightest bit defiant today...like, "You can't keep me down, you old fart."

-Nice idea by Wiz on the 2-on-1, but it would have been nice to see what would have happened if he shot.

-You just get the idea Price is a ticking time bomb. Even if the Habs tie it up, he'll let in another softy.

-You know who else isn't earning his money? Moen. He's really not doing much of anything on the "good" side of the ledger.

-The sad part of this game is the Habs are doing a lot of things right. They're getting to the puck first, they're transitioning quickly and they're maintaining territorial advantage. They're victims of poor goaltending tonight.

-Gill in the o-zone is like a 747 performing with the Snowbirds.

-Gionta comes through like Hannibal in the Alps.

-Okay, I know the reffing is bad, but when a guy has the puck, gets high-sticked in the face and drops like a stone on the rush, how does the official miss it?

-Hey, RDS paid for the OT feed today!

-Oh crap. Price finally makes a good save and P.K.'s in the box.

-The winner was typical of the entire game. Price beaten like a soggy speed bag and a valiant effort by his teammates down to a loser point.


Notes on the second:

-Uh oh. Pacioeretty looks like he's got a hand injury.

-Penalty call on Antropov was kind of soft. There's been worse in this game with no call.

-Pax is back. Good.

-PP was pretty decent, but nobody goes to the net. How hard is that to learn?

-Kane's goal was the biggest donkey goal I've ever seen in my life. Even they didn't know they really scored. Blech. The horrid luck continues.

-Price isn't good. I'm glad he fell behind in the ASG voting. That would have been too embarrassing.

-Pavelec's glove is like the Bermuda Triangle.

-What a shot by Subban! Cannon fire.

-Habs could learn a lesson from the Thrashers. Every time the puck is in the Habs zone for more than a few seconds, there's a huge scrum in the Canadiens' crease. Those goals count too, guys.

-Unbelievable. Another last minute goal. This team is unbelievably without the ability to shut it down when it counts. Well, going into the third down by one. I guess that means it's game over.


Notes on the first:

-Great to see Desharnais get a chance. Too bad it's not in Gomez' place with real linemates.

-Price is not looking as steady as he was early in the year. He's down early and loses sight of the puck. Looks like a bit of a confidence issue.

-Speaking of things that are kind of "off," Cammalleri's shot isn't nearly as frequent or dangerous as it was last year.

-Subban. Sigh. And I guess Peverley is the newest Habs Killer on the block.

-Why is Gomez not playing left wing? He goes there on every rush anyway, cutting off the winger from doing anything useful. And it's not like he wins tons of faceoffs or anything.

-Martin's tie is making me want to adjust my vertical hold.

-Desharnais goes to the net like a dog to a crotch.

-I swear I heard Hamrlik in the corner against Bufuglien shouting, "Help!"

-Okay, Martin, can we NOT have Peverley out against Spacek? Spatch is the weakest D on the team right now, including Weber and Subban.

-Gomez: King of the pointless drop pass.

-Pyatt goes after the puck like a dog chasing a car. Lots of dedication and enthusiasm, but if he ever caught it, he'd have no clue what to do with it.

-PLEKANEC!!! The puck was on its side the whole time and he still roofed it. Amazing. Kudos to the Wiz for the perfect breakout pass too.

-Not a bad period overall, but with shots 16-5 in favour of Montreal, you'd hope they'd be ahead, not tied.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Price is off his game so this was a great opportunity to get Auld some work. Too bad JM doesn't realize it. If not for Cole's brain fart and a questionable sportsmanship call in Fla the Habs could have been 0 for 7 on the road trip. Auld needs to work.

Ladd with 15 secs to go and the game is over. Only team in the league without a comeback win. The Habs need a big save and Price can't do it so rest him for a week or so before the season is over.

DKerr said...

"Last minute of play in the period" is the Habs hynotic message that really means "relax, the period is already over, no harm in easing up". Listening to the game on the radio, it is apparent that Carey is not on his A game (or his B game - what would be the harm in brining Auld in? I'm not saying Auld should carry the load (no goalie controversy), but it would be nice to fight for a win in a game that the other skaters are doing decently.

Anonymous said...

Bigger, stronger, faster, hungrier, better coached. When will a Hab fan be able to say that about the Canadiens? Not any time soon I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

Hate to say this but the Habs are looking more and more like the leafs. Lots of shots and effort but not much finish. If Cammalleri doesn't score soon the season is over. Gionta can't do it by himself.

Anonymous said...

This is so frustrating. The Habs really have serious issues. The Wiz guy has 5 points on our last 6 goals......That's positive.
Is Moen still a Hab? If Lapierre can be traded than Moen could bring us a 5th rounder too, right?
Price is not doing his job. This MUST change.

Anonymous said...

The only good thing about this game was we didn't have to watch Price swimming all over the place in a shootout. That would have been too much. JM please play Auld, pretty please. And put Eller back in the lineup!

MC said...

On the plus side, the Habs played well enough to win, which was not the case on the road trip. I also thought the defense pairings looked great, matching youth and experience. I especially liked Spacek back on the left side; his timing seemed better as he stepped up into the neutral zone a few times to create turnovers which is important in this league. It's been a while since the Habs put up 50 shots, so the defense pairings were working offensively. It will be interesting to see if the Habs' offense improves as a result.

Anonymous said...

Subban looked better today. The OT penalty was BS, even if you leave out the pretty blatant stuff that was not called earlier.