Top Six Minutes

Canadiens vs Islanders Top Six Minutes: Carey Price is Neo

Carey Price and the Habs came up on top, in this clash of potential Hart trophy candidates.

By Aruny Siv@arunysiv Mar 14, 2015, 9:53pm EDT

For our new readers and members, Top Six Minutes is a brief overview of the Habs game, and a continuation of the discussion threads usually happens in the comments. We try to keep it light and entertaining. Full recaps are up the morning after every game.

I ate a fortune cookie before this game. This was my fortune, "Character Is The Cornerstone For Success".
I swear, I did not make that up.

First Period

Pacioretty is playing!
Gonchar isn't playing, Beaulieu isn't benched and Pateryn isn't in the pressbox. What is this brave new world?
No Halak today but there's an ex-Sabre in net. This definitely does not bode well.
Weise is on the third line, so I guess that this technically means that Eller's playing with a first liner today.
What was that penalty on Weise for?
Uh oh, Mitchell looks hurt.
And the Habs have a powerplay. On the road. This is going to end well.
Fun fact: the Habs are 30th in the league when it comes to scoring powerplay goals on the road. Nope, no coaching problems here.
Still dumping and chasing on the powerplay. Woo hoo!
Weise just received his second penalty of the game, this time an actual penalty.
Plekanec sprung Pacioretty on a breakaway on the penalty kill, as is tradition.
Eller-Galchenyuk-PAP looked pretty good out there. So of course, that line is broken up as soon as humanly possible.
The Habs subsequently refused to leave their end of the ice.
Naturally, taking two penalties means a promotion to the first line…if your name happens to be Weise.
John Tavares split Montreal's defence to take a clear shot on net.
No matter, we have a Price and he has a poke check.
It was a great save. It was greater still, to see how pissed off Tavares was over a non-call.

Second Period

Don Cherry's suit is what nightmares are made of.
The Habs are leading in blocked shots. Teams tend to lead in categories like that when they don't have the puck very often.
Sweet, sweet goal by Plekanec, off a great play from Parenteau and Galchenyuk. See Habs? Good things happen when you don't dump the puck.
And Prust got called for a weak penalty.
Pacioretty scored a SHG!
Normally, it's Plekanec who springs Pacioretty on a breakaway when the Habs are trying to kill penalties. Eller just settles for giving Pacioretty point blank shots on net, instead.
The Habs are back on the powerplay, which is predictably awful.
But Beaulieu and Subban were out together, so progress?
Blind robbery by Price on Martin. Just unbelievable. Cue the CAREY CAREY CAREY chant in Nassau.
Galchenyuk took a shot to the chest from Plekanec.
Third powerplay of the game for the Habs, hopefully third times the charm.
Nope, the Habs PP is still pretty bad.
The Habs have 2-0 lead heading into the third because the Habs be habbing.

Third Period

An icing by Montreal to start the period.
Gallagher was buzzing around his natural habitat but Hamonic took exception to that.
A fourth Montreal powerplay has already led to a shot on net for the Islanders.
Insanity, thy name is Montreal's powerplay setup.
Galchenyuk decides to decline the powerplay 30 seconds in, presumably to save Habs fans witnessing yet another putrid PP.
Weird sequence where sticks were breaking, the puck was bouncing and neither side was able to touch the puck.
Also weird, not getting oushot to high heaven.
As soon as I type that, Price went into god mode to keep the Habs afloat.
Montreal's resident Russian Machine took a bad penalty, in the dying minutes of the third.
The Islanders have such a scary looking powerplay unit.
6-on-4, crud. The Islanders scored too. Double crud.
Less than a minute to go and the Islanders pull their goalie again.
Pacioretty can't seem to beat empty nets.
But Eller certainly can and his goal gives the Habs a 3-1 lead!
35 saves for Carey Price and 2 valuable points of the Montreal Canadiens!