Yeah, so I was right. The days of the Habs owning the Bruins are over. So too appear to be the days of Mike Komisarek and Andrei Markov playing anything close to NHL-level defense, and, of crap I just can't go on.
So rather than trot out a laundry list of Canadiens who played utterly craptastic last night, let's look at the bright spot. Oh, right. There wasn't any. Aside from seeing Latendresse improve his skating and stickhandling, there wasn't much to brag about for the Habs.
Milan Lucic is fast becoming enemy number one for Montreal. He scored a goal and won a fight against Mike Komisarek, although I have this to say: If Jack Edwards is going to slander other teams' players by referring to them as "The coward (insert name here)", he needs to stop and consider that Lucic passed up several opportunities to fight Georges Laraque. So, in deference to Edwards, I have no choice but to now refer to him as "The Coward Lucic." Fair's fair.
Gripes aside, Boston deserved this win, and Montreal is going from Bad to Worse in the effort department. We'll probably start seeing Manny Fernandez getting most of the starts against Montreal from now on. Thomas has had zero luck against the Habs, and the change seems to have worked. Montreal came out strong for the first four minutes, and Fernandez was solid. That enabled Boston to find their rhythm and start hammering away.
Luckily for me, once Carey Price got the delay of game penalty four minutes into the second period, I knew it was all over. I turned off the game and played with my Wii (God, that sounds dirty) the rest of the evening. I did, however, suffer through the highlights* this morning so as to bring you all the best commentary around; you're welcome.
Boston has won five straight. Wow. Montreal will try to move on and hopefully give more than a four-minute effort against Filthydelphia on Saturday. Hey, Boston: Got any more of that Revenge Juice you drank before last night? We could use some before our rematch against the Pppphbblyers.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Habs-Bruins Preview #2
Both teams have some high expectations this year, but few predicted that Boston would be first in their division and second in the conference at any point in the season. Boston finds itself in just that situation, looking down at third-place Montreal.
Montreal shit the bed against the Leafs, but followed up with a season-best effort against the Senators on Tuesday. Price earned a shutout, Higgins had a hat-trick, and Montreal's penalty-kill was solid, and, more importantly, on the ice less much than in recent games. A major concern for the Habs is the play of its first line of Kovalev, Plekanec, and Andrei Kostitsyn. They have been uncharacteristically quiet, and fans are getting impatient.
Boston won in a shootout last night against the Blackhawks, and have now won in four straight games. Marc Savard has been outstanding with 16 points in 15 games. Tim Thomas isn't letting his lack of basic positioning get in the way of earning a stingy .946 save percentage.
Will fatigue play a factor tonight? It may be cliche, but watch for the Habs to sit back and wait until the third to put the pedal down and use their speed against the Bruins. Then again, these things never work out the way you expect. Watch for Boston to storm out of the gates tonight, buoyed by returning fans and adrenaline from their winning streak.
A new year brings new possibilities, and the days of the Habs owning the Bruins are over. Key players from Boston to watch are: Michael Ryder, Milan Lucic (Mike Komisarek's Secret Santa this year, for sure), and Savard.
The ship wasn't exactly knocked down, but it sure was listing until Tuesday's shutout against the Senators. The Habs have gotten by with some weak efforts so far, and need to start playing better. Key players tonight will be Mike Komisarek, Guillaume Latendresse (turning into a true power forward?), and Carey Price (We've seen how he responds to a 6-3 drubbing; how does he do following a shutout?).
Bottom line: two teams at the height of their game are meeting tonight, and it should be a good one.
Montreal shit the bed against the Leafs, but followed up with a season-best effort against the Senators on Tuesday. Price earned a shutout, Higgins had a hat-trick, and Montreal's penalty-kill was solid, and, more importantly, on the ice less much than in recent games. A major concern for the Habs is the play of its first line of Kovalev, Plekanec, and Andrei Kostitsyn. They have been uncharacteristically quiet, and fans are getting impatient.
Boston won in a shootout last night against the Blackhawks, and have now won in four straight games. Marc Savard has been outstanding with 16 points in 15 games. Tim Thomas isn't letting his lack of basic positioning get in the way of earning a stingy .946 save percentage.
Will fatigue play a factor tonight? It may be cliche, but watch for the Habs to sit back and wait until the third to put the pedal down and use their speed against the Bruins. Then again, these things never work out the way you expect. Watch for Boston to storm out of the gates tonight, buoyed by returning fans and adrenaline from their winning streak.
A new year brings new possibilities, and the days of the Habs owning the Bruins are over. Key players from Boston to watch are: Michael Ryder, Milan Lucic (Mike Komisarek's Secret Santa this year, for sure), and Savard.
The ship wasn't exactly knocked down, but it sure was listing until Tuesday's shutout against the Senators. The Habs have gotten by with some weak efforts so far, and need to start playing better. Key players tonight will be Mike Komisarek, Guillaume Latendresse (turning into a true power forward?), and Carey Price (We've seen how he responds to a 6-3 drubbing; how does he do following a shutout?).
Bottom line: two teams at the height of their game are meeting tonight, and it should be a good one.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Chris Lee: worse than Clarence Campbell
When the final number of power plays is ten to five, something is amiss. I've been following this trend for a while now, and it's finally so painfully obvious that I have to say something. I've always suspected that referee Chris Lee was biased against Montreal. He has made some weak calls in his time, and nine times out of ten, when I see a series of bad calls made against Montreal, and I check the box score, Chris Lee's name appears.
Thursday night was the clincher. I was in Kansas City (no Gary, no NHL team needed there) on business, so I didn't see the game. But I did notice that Montreal had to kill off TEN power plays. This is a pretty big number, and included a lot of tripping and holding calls. Basically, the question is, was this a typical game? If so, then no one can fault a referee for awarding ten power plays against an undisciplined team. So, let's take a look:
As of today, Montreal is tied for 11th in the league for the most penalties-in-minutes per game with 17.2. That means, that out of the 60 minutes (or more) per game, Montreal averages playing 17 minutes and 12 seconds with a man in the box. Now, let's throw out Thursday night's game. Without it, Montreal has a total 148 total penalties in minutes over nine games. That averages out to 16.4 penalties in minutes per game. So Thursday night saw Montreal's entire average shoot up almost an entire minute per game. So, statistically speaking, Thursday
was NOT a typical game for Montreal. They are usually MUCH more disciplined. Add to that Montreal is in the upper half of the league in the number of fighting majors, it becomes apparent that Montreal is quite disciplined; when they do get penalties, a good amount of the minutes come from actual fights, not from hooking and tripping.
So, maybe Montreal cut loose and played a hard-nosed game. But if that had been the case, there would have been at least one fighting major. As it turns out, Montreal was playing the least penalized team in the league and there were no fights. People did get to see Saku and Mikko Koivu in a scuffle near the end, but that was it.
So, in my book, it's official. Chris Lee is a biased referee with as much credibility as Tim Donaghy. Notice has been served to Montreal: when Chris lee is officiating, he does not want you to win.
As a post-script, I will readily admit that I have seen calls in Montreal's favor from some officials. But, as is human nature, we dwell on the negative. I really don't keep track of who is giving these gifts to Montreal, but when they happen, I roll my eyes and think of how they at least off-set all the crap from corrupt referees like Chris Lee.
Thursday night was the clincher. I was in Kansas City (no Gary, no NHL team needed there) on business, so I didn't see the game. But I did notice that Montreal had to kill off TEN power plays. This is a pretty big number, and included a lot of tripping and holding calls. Basically, the question is, was this a typical game? If so, then no one can fault a referee for awarding ten power plays against an undisciplined team. So, let's take a look:
As of today, Montreal is tied for 11th in the league for the most penalties-in-minutes per game with 17.2. That means, that out of the 60 minutes (or more) per game, Montreal averages playing 17 minutes and 12 seconds with a man in the box. Now, let's throw out Thursday night's game. Without it, Montreal has a total 148 total penalties in minutes over nine games. That averages out to 16.4 penalties in minutes per game. So Thursday night saw Montreal's entire average shoot up almost an entire minute per game. So, statistically speaking, Thursday
was NOT a typical game for Montreal. They are usually MUCH more disciplined. Add to that Montreal is in the upper half of the league in the number of fighting majors, it becomes apparent that Montreal is quite disciplined; when they do get penalties, a good amount of the minutes come from actual fights, not from hooking and tripping.
So, maybe Montreal cut loose and played a hard-nosed game. But if that had been the case, there would have been at least one fighting major. As it turns out, Montreal was playing the least penalized team in the league and there were no fights. People did get to see Saku and Mikko Koivu in a scuffle near the end, but that was it.
So, in my book, it's official. Chris Lee is a biased referee with as much credibility as Tim Donaghy. Notice has been served to Montreal: when Chris lee is officiating, he does not want you to win.
As a post-script, I will readily admit that I have seen calls in Montreal's favor from some officials. But, as is human nature, we dwell on the negative. I really don't keep track of who is giving these gifts to Montreal, but when they happen, I roll my eyes and think of how they at least off-set all the crap from corrupt referees like Chris Lee.
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