For Your Consideration

Life has been hectic during the Holidays and will likely only be moreso when I move next month so I'll be posting fewer game reports, but a week-in-review for the Canadiens, Capitals and Blackhawks each Sunday will be put up instead and other postings during the week about thoughts I'm having regarding hockey, this week, I'll work to shelve the Price V Halak debate by showing what issue the team is up against.

Goal Scoring:

When it comes to the goalies, we can all throw the numbers around as much as we like and I'm sure there's enough numbers to make either goalie seem like the Legit, No. 1 man for the next ten years in Montreal but I'm considering this.

It's a team game and the team has let down the goalies a lot more than the goalies have let down the team, considering the amount of 1-goal losses this team suffered when either goalie needed to manage a shutout or 1.00 GAA to get the win. Right now, let's examine Montreal's ability to fill the net with some rubber and in front of which netminders they did it.

By the Numbers in Team Scoring and Goals Against:

October: discounting the OT shootout winning goals, the team was at 2.5 goals per game, while allowing 3.21 goals against them, not a happy number and a serious strike against the offence when the GA was that high.

Goals Scored, Goals Against with Carey Price in October: 14 Goals scored, 24 goals against. 2 wins in 7 games, pulled in Vancouver after 6 goals against and put in the final period of the Montreal-Pittsburgh match when 2 more goals were scored, so if you count that as his missing period from the Vancouver pull, the team scored a flat 2.00 Goals Per Game (GPG) in front of him with 3.43 GA. That's a mountain for any goalie when you're giving up 1.43 GA on average in a month.

Goals Scored, Goals Against with Jaroslav Halak in October: 22 goals scored, 20 goals scored against, 5 wins in 7 games, was in nets for the final goal in Vancouver but was pulled after 4 goals against in Pittsburgh. Balancing the numbers, counting his 3rd period in Vancouver and his missing period from Pittsburgh, the team scored 3.14 GPG with him in nets and 2.86 GA. Not hard for a goalie to build a winning record if the team is scoring more than they're being scored on.

What it Shows: Evidently, Price would had to have been absolutely heroic to turn some of his games into wins with 14 goals scored over 7 games, especially since 10 of those goals came from 3 games alone! That's a scoring problem, not a goalie problem especially with his theft in Toronto and Buffalo. Jaroslav Halak enjoyed an average of

November: It got worse in scoring, 2.16 goals per game for Montreal, but the numbers against went down, 2.41 Goals against them for the month, thanks to some nifty netminding by Carey Price, that number could have been a couple tenths higher alone if not for his magic in Nashville.

Goals Scored, Goals Against with Carey Price in November: 23 goals scored, 29 goals against, 5 wins in 11 games played, with a rate of 2.09 GPG, with 2.63 GA. His best stretch came from his 53-save performance in Nashville that he built on, exhaustion caught up with him by the end of the month though. Still, the opposition was outscoring his team, not as bad as last month but almost every point collected in his starts was due to his heroics in nets.

Goals Scored, Goals Against with Jaroslav Halak in November: One lonely start, 1 loss, 0.00 GPG with 1.00 GA for the Calgary start, other than that, riding the pine as it were. Calgary wasn't his fault, but it certainly blew a hole in the "Team plays more confidently in front of Halak" argument.

December: Montreal is scoring 2.77 Goals per game, and if you call the Centennial Game the "Turning Point" of sorts, we're at 3.09 Goals per game which is a winning goal-scoring number in today's NHL. Montreal is averaging 2.29 Goals against this month, Post-Centennial? An impressive 1.92, which means we are scoring on average more than a goal than our opponents are per game in the last 12 games, thanks to recent offensive outbursts by a certain gentlemen called Tomas Plekanec to create an elite scoring line.

Carey Price, Goals Scored, Goals Against in December: 19 goals scored, 18 goals against, 3 wins in eight games played. That's an improvement in GPG, with 2.38 GPG with 2.25 GA. He didn't have that good a night against Toronto, but like Jaro against Calgary, the team was shut out so they were no help to anything. He had a flat 1.00 GAA for 3 straight games, then ran into some glove trouble, which shook him up a little in Pittsburgh, leading to the last 4 losses of the month. Albeit, 15 goals scored were in 4 of his eight starts and that's , 3 goals left over to win 4 games, statistically impossible. He wasn't that good following the Pittsburgh game flubbing Dupuis's shot for the GWG, but the team didn't exactly have a barn-burner of goal-scoring against Toronto, Minnesota or New Jersey either.

Carey's "Turning Point" Numbers: 19 goals scored, 15 goals against, 3 wins in 7 games played. GPG improves to 2.71 and GA goes to 2.14. Winning record for GPG to GA and a couple of games do fall on his shoulders, but again, 1 goal in each the Minnesota and New Jersey games do not help matters, not saying he didn't make mistakes but again, scoring is key to wins.

Jaroslav Halak, Goals Scored, Goals Against in December: 14 goals scored, 14 goals against in 5 games played, 2.8 GPG with an identical 2.8 GA for the month. However, his Save % over his last three games is an astonishing .970, with 133 saves on 137 shots against with a 1.33 GAA!

Jaro's "Turning Point" Numbers: Fantastic, 12 goals scored, 8 goals against in 4 games, an exact 3 GPG with a flat 2.00 GAA, that is a winning record by far, he's entered the benefit of the Habs discovering their scoring and the return of Andrei Markov while playing his best games.

Basic Fact: Goalies have been left hung out to dry too often by this team, but the rise in scoring will mean more wins for either goalie, whether playing to their best or not as goalies can't always be at their best, but teams scoring 3 goals a game at least? That means there's a lot more wiggle room for goalies to get wins and not be worn out from having to save the tame with a 2.00 GAA or less.

Myth to Dispel: "The team plays more confidently in front of Halak", they were shut out against Calgary at home, then were beaten twice by the Buffalo Sabres with Halak in nets, a lax performance in the first game but Halak did not play well and the second game really ended no better. The Dec. 21st win over the Thrashers was a result of Halak's brilliance and Plekanec's Heroics, not a confident team really, the Dec. 19th Islanders win could have gone the other way as well if not for the return of Andrei Markov. That's 5 games where the team didn't seem to display much confidence in the goalie they apparently are so confident in. 5 games of his 14 starts this season, just over one-third, where the team played without confidence in their netminder.

Regarding Carey Price: Price is still just 22 years old, he has 50 career wins faster than Patrick Roy did in his youth when Roy had a far superior defensive corps to protect him. He has been brilliant this season in key games and while he has struggled, he played basically the entire month of November when the team was barely managing 2 GPG on average and kept the team's head above water, but he still wasn't ready for a grinding pace like that. Price is young and needs breaks to keep that mental focus that lets him play like he did in Nashville or his game-theft work in Buffalo, Toronto or Phoenix. He's stolen key games, OT points and kept the team alive through tough times. The team hasn't thanked him in return nearly enough by having many games where they overcame his mistakes in nets to seal the deal and earn a regulation win. His 9 wins came because he was brilliant in nets and his OT losses? Much the same case, his losses came from some bad performances but also a team that has rarely found the net in front of him. The team scored 56 goals in his 26 appearances this season so on average, 2.15 goals scored with him in nets this season, while he posts a 2.75 GAA. For the record, Patrick Roy's career GAA was 2.78 in Montreal, Jacques Plante was 2.23 and Ken Dryden's was 2.24, so really, are we expecting Price to be better than those guys in his 3rd career year when he doesn't have a Dynasty team in front of him like Dryden and Plante or in Roy's case, some Selke and Norris winners?

Price needs some glove-side work, although someone's number crunching showed that it's not in fact that weak and plenty of goalies let in glove-side goals more than anywhere else, Henrik Lundqvist is a notoriously weak glove for an elite goalie for example. Price's main roadblock it's more his mental focus that needs adjustment, he is highly athletic and his 6'3" frame gives him advantages, but while he rarely collapses after a bad goal these days in the same game, he tends to take that bad goal around with him from start to start when it does happen. He's corrected one issue by not letting the bad goal really interfere with the game he's playing at the time, but he needs to purge that goal from his mind altogether for his next game and the game after that if he wants to be a top goalie. He plays the puck well and while he's a bit reckless with it, he'll learn with time when not to play the puck and honestly, the way the team handles the puck in their own end sometime, can you really fault Price for wanting to manage the puck himself? Granted he needs better judgement, but that comes with time and above all, he needs to stay mentally sharp against everything, that will come but right now, it's risky putting him in for more than 5 games in a row, especially if a softie goes by him in game 2.

Regarding Jaroslav Halak: Yes he's been good this season, he was good last season and the whenever he was used the season before that. However, he's not faced the No. 1 job in name, only in duty from time to time. Being the Starting goaltender in Montreal is the most stressful and hardest position in the NHL and it has crushed many a goalie long before Halak ever heard his draft number called. Halak however showed weakness last season when he played long stretches of starts, much like Carey Price has as well. They're young goalies so they find it difficult to maintain that mental focus a goaltender needs over long periods and both of them can only get it from getting many consecutive starts in a row. However Halak has not outdone Price when the two of them have a lot of starts, both decline the same amount over time I find. Halak's also had the advantage of padding his record on weaker teams this season compared to a lot of the teams Price has had to face and Halak's not done that well against Contender teams, so it's hard to say Halak could be No. 1 when he hasn't really beaten a contender team by himself yet, save maybe Atlanta. Jaro is at 2.57 GAA this season, better than Price but I don't see how he could have saved a few games that Price lost in to be honest, even as well as he's playing now, Price was just as good if not better in November and his 3-game streak in December was no accident on his part. The team scored 36 goals in his 15 games, 2.4 GPG average and with a .17 difference, it's easy to see why he's a bit ahead of the standings, easier teams to beat, a team with scoring troubles will score more often and be scored against less.

Halak's rebound control and ability to play the puck is not something you'd say he has on equal with elite goaltenders, he is certainly a battling goalie who hates to let the puck in the net when he's 'on', but those rebounds are a problem and too often, I hear the goalpost ring when he's in nets. These are things that can be corrected with time of course, much as Price is facing his own issues, but Halak does have his weak points, his playing the puck isn't reckless like Price's at times, it's just not good, Price can generally put the puck where he wants it, Halak seems to have trouble with the initial handling of it. Price gives up rebounds of course, but so does Halak and in front of just about everyone, which is partly why I suspect he's not done well against the better teams, stronger teams know how to take advantage of the boune, the rebounding puck better than weaker teams and it leads to more goals. Halak obviously deserve more puck-clearing assistance from his teamamtes but Halak's rebounds have inflated the shot count against him in his last 3 starts I find, more than he stopped 40+ top quality shots. His style as a battling goalie has him fighting against those rebounds, but I find he should work to make sure they just don't rebound as often. The goalpost ringing, I'm not sure if it is a bias of mine, but it just seems we hear those posts ringing more with Halak than Price, does he cover the space between himself and the post not as well as Price, or is it just he doesn't give the opposition anything but the posts and himself to shoot at? I don't think he's that good at positioning myself to force that kind of shooting and no goalie really likes to offer the inside of a goalpost, since the bounce can go against them. I suspect it is partly that he needs to work on his positioning, because better scorers will find a way between him and the post to score that goal rather than be hounded by a ringing goal post.

For Consideration:

In October, A 3 GPG minimum would've meant as many as four more overtimes rather than regulation losses and possibly as much as 4-8 more points, but let's say 6 going on the team's OT Record.

In November, 3 GPG for the month would have meant at least 2 more overtimes and two other wins from Nashville and Detroit alone, plus with the team's OT record, at least one of those OTs would've been ours, adding 3 points from that and another 3 points from the Nashville game and the win point from the Detroit game that went to shootout, 6 extra points.

What 3 GPG would have meant for the season: 12 points to add to the current 39, Montreal would be at 51 points in the League. A winning record, secure place in the Conference, that's what a proper goal-scoring average does, it prevents it from being all about which goalie is white-hot this week to keep us in games we should be losing because we can't find the opposing team's twine.

Right now, we have the tools for 3 Goals per game and should enjoy that while we can, Gionta's return can up that average further, an average like that is what got the Capitals to the top 4 of the Conference. We have an elite scoring line, an All-Star Defencemen, a PP specialist in Bergeron and a shiny new toy in Benoit Pouliot with the Triple-M line always being a scoring threat in a pinch, with two solid young goalies in nets, we can ride that 3 GPG average to a Playoff spot and maybe the 2nd or 3rd round of the playoffs.

Definition of a Good Team: Good teams play well enough to give each other a break, goalies will post 50-save performances to deliver a game, then forwards score 6 goals in a game to overcome failures that led to 4 goals against the goalie by the defence. Or the forwards kick in two goals to create a padded 5-2 win when the goalie allows two soft goals in the third and the team needs insurance, or the defence and goalie just play heroically as the forwards are frustrated by a hot goalie on the other end. Everyone has to help everyone else out, it's hard for a team to have confidence in a goalie that allows a soft goal now and then, but how hard it is for a goalie to hold themselves in a tight mental focus to maintain to a strict 1.00 or 2.00 GAA when they have no confidence the forwards can score better than 2 goals per game on average or the defence to leave them hanging helplessly for 2 goals against them? It's got to be a team game at the end of the day.

The Centennial Game, Montreal-Boston, A Night of Legends and History

I've not always been the most ardent supporter of Les Habitants through my life, but I've never had nothing else but the utmost respect for the history of the team. They did a fantastic tribute to the team on the official, 100th year anniversary of the Club's founding and I can't imagine how the night could have gone any better.

Every Montreal legend who could still skate was out there, Lafleur, Dryden, Robinson, Cournoyer, Carbonneau, Roy, Lapointe, Savard, Gainey, Mahovlich, Naslund, Houle, Jarvis and more. A series of legends in Montreal took to the ice and recieved an enormous, thundering applause from the Bell Centre faithful. The organization has always showed class in these events and they outdid themselves, from Serge Savard introducing Patrick Roy to Gordie Howe "Mr. Hockey" introducing Le Gros Bill, Jean Beliveau, the consummate Team player, Gentlemen and a magnificent player.

Tonight, two more sweaters were retired and lifted to the rafters of the Bell Centre, Elmer Lach's #16 and Emile 'Butch' Bouchard's #3. Lach formed one third of the infamous 'Punch Line' of the 1940s with Rocket Richard and Toe Blake, together these three would terrorize the entire NHL, the Rocket would score 50 goals in 50 games and two Stanley Cups would be won in three years. Bouchard was one of the legendary defencemen of the team, the Captain from 1948-1956, he would lead the team to two Stanley Cups including the first of the team's legendary 5-straight from 1956-1960. Bouchard was a dominant blue-liner for his entire time with the Canadiens, his ability was so persistent some of it passed down to his son Pierre Bouchard who would suit up with Montreal in later years. The finest defencemen Montreal has seen since Chris Chelios left the team, Andrei Markov who is recovering from injury came out with Ryan O'Byrne to assist in hanging the banners, Ryan O'Byrne proudly removed his jersey bearing his usual #3 to reveal that he would wear #20 from now and handed it off to Bouchard. The organization has always had class in respect to honouring the past and recognizing the achievements of the team's legendary players and tonight was no exception. A grand picture with the legends of the team and the current roster of the Montreal Canadiens was taken, I can only imagine what that picture, signed by all those who were in it would command in an auction. The amount of trophy metal and Stanley Cup rings collected by those legends? Too much to count, they defined hockey for decades with their play and show why Montreal has been the greatest team in the history of the sport.

They changed up the National Anthems for the night, having members of the brass section of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra play them with no one singing, it was an excellent move I felt, they performed it beautifully.

Now to the game, to say this would be a statement game for the rest of the season would be an understatement. The Canadiens had come off of two bad losses in a row, they'd dropped a decision to the Washington Capitals in a shootout after nearly securing a rare regulation win the dying seconds of 3rd period but lost out to a game-tying goal, then suffered the humiliation of being shut out by the Maple Leafs. That was pretty bad, then Buffalo shelled Montreal 6-2 because of an invisible defence in front of Jaroslav Halak, after Montreal had attempted a comeback, but Buffalo stunned them with 2 more goals to make the night an embarassment rather than at least an honorable loss. This was the Centennial Game, the team had stood with the legends of the team and were going to be watched by them all night long, they had to win the game to retain their honour it seemed. They did not disappoint, they would play their most dominant game against a Contender team this season.

The Roster: Jacques Martin mixed things up tonight, deciding to employ defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron in a role some fans (including myself) have felt he would excel at, a 4th-line forward but playing the point on power play situations. Hal Gill, sidelined for a month with a fractured foot returned to the game, which I felt also helped the team off the ice, he has always been noted as being that great locker room guy that every team likes having around, he would pair with Gorges to form a great shutdown line all night long. Roman Hamrlik and Jaroslav Spacek would form their usual steady pairing while Paul Mara and Ryan O'Byrne teamed up to form the rest of the defence.

Georges Laraque teamed up with Max Lapierre and Bergeron, back in the lineup after serving a deserved 5-game suspension for his knee-on-knee collision with Niklas Kronwall, who I have to admit kind of had it coming. The third line formed a checking line that is becoming a pleasure to watch, Glen Metropolit, Travis Moen and Max Pacioretty, only one goal on the night but they hounded the Boston team all night long and nearly cashed in on several scoring opportunities throughout the game. Sergei Kostitsyn, based on his excellent play with Scott Gomez in last night's Buffalo game that helped nearly spark a comeback for the team teamed up with the recently returned centremen, along with Matt D'Agostini, another recent return from the IR list. Andrei Kostitsyn, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri stayed to form what has been the team's best line since Brian Gionta's broken foot ended the Gionta/Gomez/Cammalleri line which carried the team through October. Rookies Tom Pyatt and Ryan White, who had done honorable work for the team but Jacques Martin's feeling was a different lineup was required against the Bruins team decided they would sit out the match. It was a questionable decision to start the match, Georges Laraque has been mostly a liability this season and last, Pyatt and White had been hard-working PK men to this point, but had only two points between them in 13 games each, both assists by White and were a combined -12 in that stretch. I can't say Laraque impressed me on the night, but he didn't make any glaring errors that stick out in my mind.

The Opponent: The Boston Bruins were a dangerous team, they had won 6 of their last 7 games and their only loss had been in the shootout. Marc Savard, one of the league's most dangerous playmakers and the team's best centre this season, Patrice Bergeron were both looking to take it to a Montreal team Boston had bested five of 6 times last season and swept in the playoffs. Zdeno Chara had won the Norris Trophy as the League's best defencemen while goalie Tim Thomas had been a hard man for the Canadiens to solve last season and had won the Vezina Trophy and William M. Jennings trophy for Best Goalie and for least regular season goals allowed by a team respectively. Former Habs Michael Ryder and Steve Begin were very much in favour of proving the team had been wrong to get rid of them.

The First Period: The team had a good, strong start that saw back-and-forth offence between the two teams, Montreal had come out to play and they were committing 100% effort to the match. Montreal had several good scoring chances through the period and while it is a little early to say a first-period save by the goalie was the game-changing moment, but it was. After a breakdown during the power play would give Boston the puck, Carey Price would stone Marco Sturm on the breakaway and restore life to the Canadiens offence.

They would score a goal four seconds after their first power play ended, a one-timer from the point off a great pass by Scott Gomez to Jaroslav Spacek who would blast in a shot to beat Tim Thomas on his glove side, 1-0 Montreal.

Ryan O'Byrne would later be caught on a weak interference penalty, but Montreal killed it off, beginning the start of a perfect penalty kill for the evening. A second power play would deliver no goals for Montreal, but their offensive pressure gave them the overall edge for the period, while Price would make strong saves to keep the score 1-0. Montreal would end the period with a 10-8 shot advantage.

The Second Period: The game ended for the Bruins in nearly as much time as it took for Montreal to score their first goal of the Buffalo game last night. Price's saves had energized the team, Hal Gill had returned to help keep the team composed in the locker room and they knew they had the Bruins where they wanted them with an aggressive forecheck and a 100% effort the team has used to get their wins this season.

The period looked to have turned against Montreal early on though, after a scrum around the Montreal goal following a tight save by Carey Price, Jaroslav Spacek and Maxim Lapierre were both served with roughing minors and while I can see why Lapierre took the penalty, I can't see how Spacek's was justified at all. Boston would have a full 2 minutes of 5-on-3 power play with Zdeno Chara, the fastest slapshot in the NHL on the point, with Marc Savard, one of the league's best set-up man ready to go. The penalty killers were brilliant, Price moreso as key stops were made, shots were blocked and Hal Gill used that massive 6'7" frame of his to interfere with everything he could reach, which was quite a bit, he and Gorges self-sacrificing ways for shot blocks showed great commitment to the team and Price himself. The 5-on-3 was killed off but Montreal really wanted to rub it in and exact justice for a rather unjustified penalty, 36 seconds later, they would score and the game's momentum was irrevocably changed.

A Plekanec play slightly over 8 minutes into the 2nd period that initially missed the net, but with great offensive pressure by Montreal saw Mike Cammalleri score on the third rebound of the puck against Tim Thomas to give Montreal a 2-0 lead, his 13th goal of the season, which was rather unlucky for Boston.

5 minutes, 23 seconds later, Cammalleri would pounce on a puck that Thomas mishandled to slip it through the Boston netminder's 5-hole to secure his 2nd goal of the night and push the lead to 3-0.

Montreal wasn't even close to finishing their offensive clinic for the night, a quick pass from the ever-improving Max Pacioretty to Hal Gill, who fired off a shot towards the Boston goal was redirected by a perfect Glen Metropolit tip-in to give Gill his first assist of the season and Metropolit his 6th goal.

Cammalleri hadn't quite finished using the Boston Bruins to pad his stats for the night, feeding off of a great pass from Scott Gomez, his one-timer would beat Tim Thomas to earn his 2nd hat trick of the season and after only wearing the Habs uniform for 28 games, 5-0 for Montreal.

The efficiency of the Montreal shooters gave them 4 goals in 13 shots for the period, although now Boston had outshot them 26-23 over 40 minutes, thanks largely in part to the 5-on-3 situation. Montreal had not scored 5 goals on Boston in over a year until this game. Sergei Kostitsyn would leave the ice late in the 2nd period after a collision with a Boston player that seemed to injure his knee, we can only pray this is not too serious, Montreal's had a hard time retaining their top 6 talent of late.

The Third Period: Tim Thomas was pulled and Tukka Rask came in, who put on a fine performance for a late-game appearance. Sergei Kostitsyn had not returned to the bench, leaving Jacques Martin to double-shift Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn for stretches of the game. Montreal was pushed back more in this period, Boston needed something from this game to feel better about going into tommorow night, they didn't need to get wiped out by Montreal and demoralized for their game against Toronto the following night.

A redirection mid-flight by Bruins player Sobotka who had been tangled up with Josh Gorges on a Matt Hunwick slapshot from the point beat Price, who barely even saw the puck because of the Sobotka/Gorges screen. Price had nothing to be ashamed of on that play, but it was a bit heartbreaking as for about the 4th time this season, nothing that was his fault denied him a shutout against an opponent that had caused him much grief in his young career, the score went to 5-1.

Boston further got a chance to get the score closer and spoil Montreal's night as penalties against Montreal started to pile up. Maxim Lapierre was caught on an accidental double-minor high-sticking which drew blood, which is another reason I always argue for the visor, that Boston player might have lost his eye on that play had the stick been an inch up and to the left where he was cut. The double-minor set in, Montreal's penalty killers went to work again to deny Boston any more goals and did so, Gorges and Gill threw themselves into the shot block heroically time and again and every other Montreal player gave it everything they had, or too much.

After 2:34 of penalty kill action, D'Agostini got caught slashing and it turned into a 5-on-3 once more. More sacrifice from the penalty killers, brilliance by Price prevented any more goals, but Tomas Plekanec and David Krejci would each go off the ice for penalties off of a faceoff, with Plekanec serving a double minor for high-sticking, while Krejci served a single minor for roughing. 12 seconds later, Bruins forward Marco Sturm would be caught for tripping, turning the penalty into a 4-on-3 situation. The theme of the night continued, perfect penalty killing and great goalie work as the 4-on-3 became 4-on-4, then 5-on-4 for a brief Boston power play before all the players were finally released from the sin bin.

The rest of the game showed a bit of weariness in Montreal, but considering it was their 2nd game in two nights and they had killed off a grinding series of penalties, I think one might forgive them for being a bit sluggish towards the end. Montreal tried for a 6th goal towards the end, but their weariness and a more resolute Boston defence kept them at bay so the final score would remain 5-1.

The last thirty seconds ended with Montreal managing a little keep-away game against the Bruins, not wanting them to spoil the night any further with a quick goal.

The crowd would seranade the Boston Bruins with the "Hey Hey, Goodbye" song as early as 8 minutes remaining in the third, which would seem to invite bad karma, but the Canadiens kept it locked down and Boston seemed to have accepted their fate to a certain degree, better to be ready to take it against the Maple Leafs the next night then kill themselves for a nigh-impossible comeback.

The Offence: Magnificent across three lines, Lapierre/Bergeron/Laraque was marred by Laraque being ineffective as a forward on a Jacques Martin team and Bergeron's first time playing forward, Lapierre's penalties really took away from his effectiveness on the night.

The Metropolit/Moen/Pacioretty line showed themselves to be one of the best checking lines in the NHL, they locked down their opponents and had more scoring chances against Boston than they allowed against their own team, which culminated in Metropolit's tally on the night. Pacioretty nearly cashed in himself several times only to be denied by Tim Thomas and Tukka Rask and was strong all night long, his best game of the season. Travis Moen played the strong defensive forward role he's embraced in Montreal, he and Metropolit played well in both the offensive zone and the penalty kill.

The Scott Gomez/Matt D'Agostini/Sergei Kostitsyn line had less than 40 minutes together but they plated well, Gomez's passes in the offensive zone set up two goals and D'Agostini seemed much more in place tonight than his last game, hopefully an encouraging sign since he would now have to clear waivers to return to Bulldogs for more AHL time. Sergei Kostitsyn would see penalty killing time and set up some plays that might have become goals, however his injury cut off his chances of adding any offensive totals to his night.

The Cammalleri/Plekanec/Andrei Kostitsyn would bury the Bruins effectively, Cammalleri cashing in on Plekanec's rebound then securing his 2nd goal unassisted, he is an offensive dynamo that at his current pace, will likely enjoy a 40-goal season and is the best goal-scorer I've seen in years that plays for Montreal. Tomas Plekanec had a strong night again, not as productive as he has been but he would be a key member of the penalty kill and solid all night long. Andrei Kostitsyn was kept to a single assist, but you can feel it from the way he's playing lately that the goals are coming, he always seems to get almost to the net and then misses the chance or is never fed the puck in a scoring position. Nevertheless, he had good offensive zone pressure for most of the night and I know he's going to really start lighting it up soon.

The Defence: Six Heroes took to the ice tonight, the game could have been a whole lot harder had these fine players not done everything within themselves and beyond their ability to preserve the game for Montreal. Hal Gill and Josh Gorges? Shades of the Scuderi/Gill pair during the 2009 Stanley Cup series between the Penguins and Red Wings, they were heroic in front of their goalie and protected him with their body and shook off every hard shot of rubber like it was a ping-pong ball, magnificent all night long.

Roman Hamrlik and Jaroslav Spacek, they're playing their best hockey in years I'd say, being a 1-2 pairing for a team missing it's Star player in Andrei Markov and doing everything humanly possible to serve their team's needs, Spacek's one-timer from the point helped get the team going especially after the near-goal during their own power play which had just expired.

Paul Mara and Ryan O'Byrne served up a hard course of intimidation all night long, combining their 432 pounds and combined 12 feet, 9 inches of height to crush every Boston player who crossed the blue line and keep the puck in Montreal's hands while serving vital penalty killing minutes.

The Goaltending: Price loves to play in a clutch situation, you can sense it the way he brings his performance up in a game like this. Montreal would score 5 goals, but it could have ended 6-5 Boston had Price not put another commanding performance to help make this win possible. From his stoning Marco Sturm on the shorthanded situation to his brilliance during every penalty kill situation, Price put on a performance worthy of Dryden or Roy, who were both in attendance for the night. Price has now allowed only two goals against Boston in two games this season, it seems if ever the Bruins haunted them, he has chased away the ghosts now. If Montreal is to win a 25th Stanley Cup, it will be because of the performance of this brilliant young goaltender.

Looking Ahead: While it can't be expected for Mike Cammalleri to score hat tricks all the time, his ability to score like he does gives Montreal a big gun in their offence that can't be easily stopped, as evidenced by Boston and New York, two teams with good defence that couldn't contain the 5'9" speedster. Tomas Plekanec and Scott Gomez showed themselves to be steady centres for this team, while the Kostitsyns and Pacioretty seem to keep improving with each game they play of late. The defence played their roles perfectly and there's plenty more credit to go around, especially to Price but the key tonight was effort. 100% from everyone practically, no one goofed off and they played their roles, which is how this team can win games deservedly and if they do so, will not be hitting the links too early, especially with the upcoming return of Brian Gionta late this month and Andrei Markov in January.

Three Stars for the Night:

1. Carey Price, his goaltending made the night such a fantastic experience.
2. Mike Cammalleri, his 2nd hat trick in 28 games, it's been a long time since Montreal enjoyed having such a natural scorer as Mike.
3. Hal Gill, his self-sacrificing ways and assist on the Metropolit goal made him a star tonight, many had bashed him until now, tonight he showed why he was signed and wears the A, his example of selfless work in the penalty kill makes him a great Team Man.

Chicago Blackhawks Report:

Didn't catch the game, but Nashville scoring 2 goals in 37 seconds in the dying minutes of the third seems to show the Hawks have a bit of a hangover from their 8-game winning streak still, despite their dominant forwards and impressive blue-liners, they have had trouble coming up with a convincing win since they handed the San Jose Sharks a 7-2 loss late last month. Down 2-1 with with 2:03 to go in the period shouldn't have been much of a challenge for Chicago and while Nashville is having a strong season, the Blackhawks specialty under Coach Quenneville (recently celebrating his 500th coaching win) has been a comeback and they've had a harder time with those of late. Jonathan Toews would score the lone goal for Chicago in regulation, the young Captain's 7th of the season.

Notable Juniors Habs recognition:

- P.K. Subban, every Montreal fan's favourite defensive prospect scored his 5th and 6th goals of his first AHL season against the Toronto Marlies(Baby Leafs), helping secure a 3-0 win over them.
- 3rd-round, 79th overall in the 2009 draft, Defencemen Mac Bennett in his first USHL season before attending University of Michigan next season, scored his 2nd goal of the season in a 6-4 win for his Cedar Rapids Roughriders over the Sioux Fall Stampede. Bennett is the Grandson of an NHL player, the nephew of NHL players and the last Montreal Canadien to be selected 79th overall was Ryan O'Byrne, a sign perhaps?

Ex-Habs Recognition:

- It seems Gui Latendresse was allergic to the Habs Uniform, he scored the shootout winner for Minnesota in a 5-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks, the teams had been in a see-saw battle the whole night long with Anaheim taking the lead and Minnesota tying it up.
- Anaheim Duck Saku Koivu was outshone by his younger brother Mikko, who would score 2 goals and 2 assists in a sibling battle that saw Koivu held without a point and missed on his SO attempt in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Wild.
- Boston Bruins Michael Ryder and Steve Begin were both held without a point by Montreal, but would avoid finishing with a negative in their +/- column.

I don't want to talk about it, but I guess I have to

Montreal fell flat in their worst home game of the season to the one team we can't stand losing to, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Montreal had about 15 minutes of offensive strikes against Toronto last night, the first ten minutes of the game and the final five minutes when they decided they didn't want to be shut out. Toronto ran the game and Price came a bit back down to Earth, he wasn't particularly good on any of the goals against him and his ninth start in a row was at least one too many from what I've seen from him of late. Price is making great saves, but he is making less of them now, time for Halak to get some starts and keep the competition between the netminder going.

Toronto ran the game, despite their goaltender Gustavsson having to leave the game because of continuing heart problems and 3rd-tier goalie Joey Macdonald stepping in and holding the shutout for Toronto, although Montreal rarely challenged him during the match.

Offensively: Impotent, the team had few scoring chances, D'Agostini and Scott Gomez's return did nothing for team offence and Kyle Chipchura's trade the following day showed what Jacques Martin felt about the journeyman forward being -2 when playing under 2 minutes during the whole game. D'Agostini seems to need some time back in Hamilton to rediscover the form he had when he had his initial goal-scoring streak when first called up in the 08-09 season. Pacioretty took another couple of penalties, one was a phantom but the other was right against him and while he's been improving lately, I can't help but feel he would be better used in Hamilton, learning the game under Guy Boucher, who seems the favourite to head the Canadiens in the future. Max Lapierre had no penalty kill time, which would indicate how much Jacques Martin likes my favourite forward from last season.

Defence: A shit show, that's what you call it. The team can't clear the defensive zone or win defensive zone faceoffs to save their lives at times, it is infuriating and there are far too many mistakes. Marc-Andre Bergeron is getting better, but mistakes are made with his play and O'Byrne is a welcome revival, but their pairing is risky with Bergeron's defensive liabilities and O'Byrne is still pretty green, despite his great effort. Mara had a better game, but it's not hard to improve on the defensive miscues he's had that led to the team losing games during his time here. Hamrlik and Spacek were their usual warrior selves, but they can only do so much and these long minutes on the two 35-year old players is becoming more telling. Josh Gorges is always a hard worker with a few good moves every night, but he's just not that good and I doubt he ever will be, career 3rd pairing on any team with good defence.

Goaltending: As I mentioned after last game, Price has been making his brilliant saves, but fewer of them and is missing on more regular stops that he should casually handle. His puck handling around the net seems to be more reckless, although given the defensive ability of the team to move the puck, I honestly can't blame him at times for taking the chances to get the puck out of his zone himself. Halak's turn to get in there, get a competition going with Carey for starts and let Carey mentally decompile from having had to sit in nets for 9 straight, buy the team 4 wins, 2 OT points and preventing a 10-0 blowout in Nashville during that time.

Three Canadiens Stars

- Andrei Kostitsyn
- Brian Gionta
- Andrei Markov

They didn't play, but they're the only Montreal Canadiens I liked last night.

Ex-Habs Recognition

- Kovalev and Koivu were held without a point and were -3 and -2 respectively, ouch.
- Christobal Huet stoned 10 of 11 Blue Jackets shooters in an 11-round Shootout decision for the Blackhawks last night, he was brilliant.

Shout-out to the Blackhawks:

- Congrats to Quenville on his 500th coaching win in the NHL
- Congrats to Brent Seabrook for a slick SO goal to win the game
- Versteeg had a great dangle on a shorthanded goal
- If Breant Seabrook and Duncan Keith are not a Defensive pairing at the Olympics, it will be the greatest injustice in all selections made for the Olympic Team, they have a magnificent chemistry between them that makes for the best top pairing in the NHL I think.

12 Seconds too many, Habs miss on Regulation win to lose in the shootout.

I knew the Montreal-Washington game wouldn't be pretty but I really had hope going into those last thirty seconds of regulation time.

The first period wasn't that bad, but Carey Price didn't have much of a first period really, missing out on two goals he should have stopped and I feel he would have under other circumstances. If this wasn't his eigth straight start of the season, with two sets of back-to-back games on his recent record plus his 53-save performance in Nashville. This is only his third NHL season and since his second one was the requisite sophomore slump all goalies seem to go through these days (see Steve Mason in Columbus!) it's only really his second in some ways as Carey Price, The Franchise. The first period was marred by the fact that Montreal again, doesn't have nearly enough NHL-calibre forwards to take on their opponents, kids like White, Pyatt and Pacioretty have all the heart but they haven't developed enough skills to score and handle the puck to make scoring chances happen in these games. Montreal's cardiac moments in the defensive zone led up to the goals, a weak deflection by Eric Fehr to make it 1-0 to beat Carey Price on something he should have stopped with his blocker, albeit Ryan O'Byrne wasn't that helpful on the play. Alexander Ovechkin would then notch his 18th goal of the season on a slapshot from the point, beating Price blocker side once more. Things did not look good as the period ended, Price had allowed two goals he probably should have had and while Montreal had outshot Washington 7-4, 2 of those Washington shots were on the scoreboard.

The second period saw the team come around and take the game right against the Capitals right after Price stoned Ovechkin when Ovechkin outmuscled Spacek for the puck alongside the boards and went straight in on a breakaway. I can only imagine how Jacques Martin must have felt about one of his players trying outmuscle a guy who at last count, weighed 237 pounds and was known for hitting like a battering ram when he was 20 pounds lighter. Montreal would first convert on a power-play when Washington rookie Jay Beagle was caught tripping and Jaroslav Spacek would release a slap shot from the point that would bring the game to 2-1 and help charge up the offensive drive of Montreal. There were several scoring chances that Montreal would fail to convert on later, but this owed to some brilliant netminding by Washington rookie netminder Semyon Varlamov as well. Varlamov is extremely difficult to beat down low, he always seems to find a way to get a leg pad or his stick in the way of any shot that comes low or someone attempts to force in. It was just over eight minutes later that the top line of Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri and Sergei Kostitsyn would create a scoring chance that allowed Plekanec to sneak a rebound from a Roman Hamrlik shot through Varlamov's 5-hole to tie the game. I should also take the time to mention that Hamrlik is continuing to impress me with each game he plays, this is his best season with Montreal yet by far. Montreal would continue to generate offence through the second, but the game stayed a tie, Montreal still held their shot advantage, 16-11 by the end of the second period.

The third period was a tightly contested game, Montreal would grab a 3rd goal when after drawing one penalty and then another on their power play, they enjoyed a 1:17 of 5-on-3 advantage, but getting too fancy and trying for a very peculiar sharp-angle shot saw the 5-on-3 end. The power play unit was not unsuccessful though, theyl managed to convert with 27 seconds left in the second penalty when they brute-forced the third goal by feeding PP specialist Marc-Andre Bergeron on the point multiple times, who let loose a series of successive shots until a Travis Moen redirection on his final shot slipped past Varlamov's glove side, giving Montreal their first lead in the game. Montreal played a strong defensive game for the rest of the third period, but Washington is a very persistent offensive force and with time winding down in the third period, Varlamov was pulled for a 6th attacker and Washington took over. Montreal lost a series of faceoffs and a mad scramble around the net saw Paul Mara caught for high-sticking on a rather bad crease-clearing attempt. With 15 seconds left on the clock, Washington had a 6-on-4 advantage, a faceoff win led to another Alex Ovechkin slapshot which Price stopped, but Eric Fehr tucked the rebound in to tie the game with 12 seconds remaining. Price wasn't good on the goal, but the penalty was what killed it, unnecessary and it prevented coverage that could have prevented Fehr from getting his hands on the puck. When a goalie's not having a good night, the defence needs to give him more help than usual, just as a goalie must step up and save his team now and then.

The overtime led to some scoring chances on either side, the 4-on-4 setup does very much favour the speed-based play of Montreal's forwards, but when half of their Top 6 is out of the lineup, it's rather worrisome since Plekanec-Cammalleri is your only truly reliable forward pair. Washington's also known for their offence but neither side got anything done, so the shootout was next.

Again, the injury situation killed Montreal on this. Of the three regular shooters they had to win their first three shootouts in Gomez, Gionta and Cammalleri, only Cammalleri was available tonight. Lapierre and Plekanec were selected as second and third shooters. Cammalleri's a sniper and his shootout move was just a quick shot that Varlamov turned aside. Price stoned Tomas Fleischmann when he tried to get fancy and then it went to Lapierre. I really like Lapierre in the shootout, but he's been shaky this season and he's not up to 100% yet I find, his shot missed the net. Price beat Ovechkin when he tried a rush with a last-second shot, but he ran out of room as Price contained his shooting zone. I'm still not sure why we have Plekanec on shootouts, he's 1 for 13 now in his career and he didn't exactly do anything Datsyukian, it was a bad attempt and Montreal failed in three tries, Nicklas Backstrom for Washington didn't miss, snapping a quick shot over Price's blocker side, he was beat there three times on the night, none of them good.

Post-Game Thoughts: Montreal salvaged an OT point while playing without a number of key players, but when you think about how the night went, it's not that bad while Montreal fields so many rookies and patch-in replacements for the regular roster.

Offence: There is only one scoring line right now in truth, Plekanec, Cammalleri and Sergei Kostitsyn, they created the most offensive chances and they will continue to do so until Andrei Kostitsyn, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta return from injury. Glen Metropolit, Travis Moen and Max Pacioretty do an admirable job working as hard as they can on the 2nd line, but they're not scorers, they're grinders and Pacioretty is a rookie power forward with 60 NHL games under his belt, 6 goals and 14 assists to go with them. Lapierre's starting to pick up his game more, but he'll need to keep playing every game harder as that is how he improved last season, by working as hard as he could every game. Pyatt and White are good linemates for Max when it comes to checking line work, but they're too slow with their reactions to create effective scoring chances in NHL games, they need more time in Hamilton. Chipchura, I don't care what people say about his heart, he doesn't have the legs for the NHL, his slow speed is irritating for a youngster who doesn't possess the muscle or stick skills to be an effective NHL forward from seeing him last season and this one. J.T. Wyman is the definition of a call-up forward and showed it, Jay Leach was the definition of a plug-in replacement, a defencemen put on forward because of the injury situation.

Defence: Hamrlik and Spacek are champions for this team right now, without them it would have been a slaughterhouse with Ovechkin going into his next game with a hat trick, they continually broke up his control of the puck and offensive zone chances, shot-blocking and doing everything humanly possible to keep him from getting a scoring chance. Ryan O'Byrne, outside his mistake on the Fehr deflection goal did good things all night long, he blocked shots, broke up plays and gave out some big checks to go with his performance that including drawing the initial penalty that led to the Montreal 5-on-3 opportunity. Josh Gorges had another quiet, but productive night that saw him make very few mistakes and make a number of good moves, just the kind of guy you like to have on a team when it comes to your lower-tier defencemen. Marc-Andre Bergeron is continuing to improve in his own end, he seems to have trouble handling the puck in his own end at times but his bombardment of the net during the power play led to Montreal's 3rd goal and he did make several smart defensive plays through the night. Paul Mara's on my list though and that's not a good list to be on, he made a foolish crease-clearing move that led to the Washington power play, which led to the 3rd goal and cost Montreal the win. Price wasn't good on the rebound goal, but Mara made the situation happen at the same time so the blame has to be cast on to him as well. Mara's career as a minus player is starting to tell, I remember him failing to break up the play when Patrick Kane set up the game-winning goal when Montreal played Chicago, his screening Carey Price when Sidney Crosby scored the first goal in Wednesday's Pittsburgh game, I can't remember the specific incidents right now, but there's at least two more situations like that were Mara has forgotten to manage the basics of his position in a close game and it's led to a goal that cost Montreal.

Goaltending: Carey Price needs a rest, he's been a great goalie over the last eight games but his goals allowed tonight were not particularly good and while he made brilliant saves several times to rob Washington of goals and keep Montreal in the game, I get the feeling three games ago, this would have been a shutout for him. There's no shame in it, he played eight games in a row and as I mentioned above, four of those were a set of back-to-back performances and his 53-save game in Nashville, all goaltenders need a rest now and then. Calgary hasn't figured that out yet though, which is why I don't see Kiprusoff in Calgary leading his team to any Stanley Cup Finals while he's playing 70+ games per regular season. Jaroslav Halak is a good backup goaltender and he's more than capable of taking the next series of starts provided he plays a good game and gives Montreal the chance to win provided they score 3 goals or more a game, which is a key to victory as we can't expect our goaltenders in Montreal to post shutouts or a 1.00 GAA to the team to win off 1 or 2 goals a game. Let Halak get his feet wet and take a few games for the team if they can score enough to say they earned the wins, Price can take some time off, refocus and have that blocker side ready for the next time that tries to beat him by going to that side.

Three Canadiens Stars

- Roman Hamrlik, his blue-line work was dominant and kept Montreal in the game.
- Tomas Plekanec, he scored a goal to tie the match and helped set up a number of scoring chances that could have put the game out of Washington's reach.
- Marc-Andre Bergeron, he played his best game yet for Montreal, managing both great offence and his best defensive game yet.

Recognition of Ex-Habs tonight:

- Alex Tanguay assisted on the game-tying goal by Tampa Bay to force an Overtime the team would lose, but they gained 1 point thanks to his work.
- Guillaume Latendresse scored the game-tying goal for Minnesota in the 3rd period of the Colorado-Minnesota game, he must have figured out he might have to play hockey to keep his job there.

To Hell With Pittsburgh, They beat an AHL Team Tonight

The Montreal Bulldogs played the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight and lost 3-1, it could probably have something to do with the matchup of the Top 6 and the Defence.

Penguin's Top 6:

Sidney Crosby - 420 P in 314 GP, 25 P this season
Evgeni Malin - 325 P in 259 GP, 22 P this season
Bill Guerin - 825 P in 1209 GP, 15 P this season

Actually I'll stop right there, those three guys have more points this season so far, than the combined totals of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnis, Travis Moen, Glen Metropolit, J.T. Wyman, Kyle Chipchura, Ryan White, Tom Pyatt, Maxim Lapierre and Sergei Kostitsyn have this season, I'll even toss in the recently departed Gui Latendresse's points on to that total. Only Ryan White among the core of Wyman, Pyatt, Desharnis and Kyle Chipchura has registered points this season, he has two assists. Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri were the only high-scoring forwards left in the lot and these two were pretty much out of gas from the game against Colombus the night before, Cammalleri was clearly running on fumes by the 3rd period after all his double-shifting.

The Penguins had all their top forwards in action basically, Montreal had 2 solid Top 6 forwards who had been with them all season in Cammalleri and Plekanec. The Ad Hoc line of Metropolit, Moen and Max Pacioretty was brought together to try and fill in for the loss of Gomez, Gionta and Andrei Kostitsyn to start the match which is not exactly an equivalent replacement, no matter how hard the Triple M line works. At first, Sergei Kostitsyn served on the top line in place of his brother, his assignment changed during the game a couple of times however. Sergei had a little trouble handling his stick on some plays and reports of a twisted ankle would indicate he probably wasn't at 100%, so props to little Kostitsyn for competing anyway. His slick drop-pass to Max Pacioretty proved there is definitely a sharp player wearing No. 74 and Pacioretty's shot did not miss either, very nice bright spot on the night. Metropolit had a couple of opportunities, but he didn't quite cash in on them, however he is a career checking line guy, not Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen or Mike Knuble who live for the dirty goals and based their careers on it, he played a strong game otherwise.

The Defence:

Montreal is missing their All-Star MVP in Andrei Markov, a team that until this season, couldn't even win a 3rd of their games if Markov was out of the lineup. Hal Gill is out, not many people's favourite player, but let him play 3rd-pairing Defence and keep his minutes managed and you'll see why he's on the roster, solid positional player with great shot-blocking instinct. Jaroslav Spacek was out, the player meant to be our second-best puck-mover and had formed the shutdown pair with Hamrlik that had contained top scorers like Alex Ovechkin and kept a few games much closer than they might have been.

The finest Russian defencemen in the NHL, his likely partner had he played through the season and a shot-blocking PK man all out while the team worked with patchwork replacements, including Jay Leach, a journeyman defencemen picked off waivers from New Jersey and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who went unsigned on July 1st and was signed for 750,000$ after Markov was injured and the team's PP was anemic. His defensive zone play explains his salary compared to what Markov earns. I was pleased with Ryan O'Byrne and was heartbroken when he failed to cash in the SH goal against Fleury. Josh Gorges, Roman Hamrlik and even Bergeron himself all played solid games, but these guys were outclassed by an offence when they were missing 2 key cogs in the machine and a reliable big-body man who could've prevented Guerin from walking into the crease to poke his goal through.

Goaltending:

Goal no. 1, Price got screwed by Mara, again. I like what Mara does sometimes, but his momentary lapses when he should have blocked a pass or been quicker to get out of the way or simply shot-block make me pretty angry at times. Goal no. 2, Price might have been able to secure that puck better, but at the same time Guerin had a free pass into the goalie crease to jam that puck in. 3rd goal not that good really but considering he's stolen the team 7 games this season I'll let it go.

The Officating: A joke, hitting from behind and tripping are not considered penalties when committed against the Montreal Canadiens. Hamrlik didn't trip that guy either, he was just clumsy, if tripping occured every time a guy's skates were tapped with a stick the entire game would be an endless series of 4-on-3 or 3-on-3 matches.

In Perspective: Montreal had a good game against a team that by all accounts, should have walked all over them and left them in a 7-1 bombing that left the team without heart or hope. They didn't though, Montreal fought hard through 60 minutes, many key players taking on many more minutes than they usually do and fighting hard for every chance they could get. The rookies simply weren't up to the level of beating NHL-level defence and goaltending, they didn't have the time they would have in lower leagues to cash in on goals and get second chances, not a knock against these hard-working kids, more a notice that they should be polishing their game in the AHL while actual NHL forwards are in their place on the big club.

Montreal has nothing to be ashamed of for the night based on what they had and the Penguins have nothing to be proud of, a couple of good bounces, a proper shot-block by Mara, Price being quicker on Gonchar and that game would have gone the other way. Had the team been boasting Andrei Kostitsyn, Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta, the offence would have easily cashed in on scoring opportunities the kids just weren't up to making. I won't even mention how much I think the night would have gone in Montreal's favour if Markov and Spacek were healthy.

My Three Stars for the Canadiens:
- Tomas Plekanec, he didn't seem to lack too much energy even playing back to back and his shorthanded rush nearly made the game 3-2 when helped set up O'Byrne's chance.
- Carey Price, he made a mistake on Gonchar, but it could have been 7-1 had he not been sharp on some of those point-blank shots.
- Sergei Kostitsyn, a shaky start, but some smart defensive plays later on and set up the Pacioretty goal beautifully, especially since he seemed to have tweaked his ankle during the Colombus match. He is a real top 6 forward and when brother Andrei, unofficial Captain Gionta and Scott Gomez return, Montreal can roll out a top 6 grouping against the opposition.

Bastard of the Game: Mike Rupp, checking from behind is not a penalty against a Canadiens player once again. Hopefully in the next MTL-PIT game, O'Byrne gives him what he gave Kaleta in the pre-season.