Pregame:
- In a rare turn of understanding when a big, slow, physical defencemen is terrible, Michel Therrien scratched Bryan Allen and put Tom Gilbert back in the lineup, a good sign no?
- I am still pretty disturbed about the idea of the Emelin-Gonchar pairing having any encounters with Nathan MacKinnon or Matt Duchene tonight, the speed difference is such you could see relativistic time dilation occur.
- Charles Hudon was named Rookie of the Month in the AHL for November and the Habs could use some offensive help, it seems there are a pair of dots that could be connected here.
- This is only my 2nd time doing Top 6 Minutes, last time I did it, Habs blew a 3-0 lead and lost 5-4 in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes. So hopefully tonight goes a little better.
First Period:
- First shift of Gonchar-Emelin and Duchene is already making me feel nervous.
- I don’t watch the Western Conference much due to my schedule so holy crap, MacKinnon doesn’t need much time to do things does he?
- JIRI SEKAC opens the scoring! The man is a pleasure to watch, the definition of a puck possession player. It was the end of his shift but it sure didn’t look like it. 1-0 Habs.
- Seeing that MTL has been outscored 21-8 in 1st periods this season is all kinds of depressing, even with the early lead today.
- Consolation stat, they mention Habs are 8-0-0 when scoring first this season. Or is that jinxing it?
- Parenteau wants to find the scoresheet tonight, probably the best player on his line tonight for maintaining the offensive zone cycle.
- Pretty sure Pacioretty said “Fiddlesticks” on that Pickard save after he made Landeskog look pretty bad on that turnover.
- You knew it was coming… Briere’d
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- In the “WTF” stats from the 1st period, Weise played a minute more Galchenyuk and Gonchar The Grey is on pace to play 23 minutes tonight, why? Nobody knows. Except that maybe Therrien seems to believe that Russians age backwards.
Second Period
- Crazy thought, play the guy you want to become your franchise centre more than a 4th-liner who can’t stop cherrypicking.
- I will pay 5 whole dollars to these announcers if they stop talking about the altitude.
- Habs apparently took their Nyquil during the intermission, 2-1 Avalanche as Tanguay and O’Reilly capitalize on the team dragging their feet.
- The goalpost ping is either the best, or the worst sound you hear. Galchenyuk denied.
- Habs PP? At this point we just root for no shorthanded goal against right?
- Galchenyuk feeds on the power play are a public health due to many viewers feeling the need for a cigarette after they happen and hot damn, I have missed the Markov back door sneak on the man advantage.
- Marc Bergevin is going to invent time travel technology just so he can back and prevent himself from giving Emelin that contract. Might as well be standing still versus Duchene.
- Thank you goal posts.
- I think Pacioretty wants a goal tonight…
- If anyone figures out what Prust was doing on his backcheck for the 4-on-1, let me know. 3-2 Avalanche.
- Why does Therrien think that the 4th line is a ‘push-back’ group when a goal is given up?
- It’s crazy that Therrien tries to hold Subban back from freewheeling when he creates chances as often as he does and hey, Subban bomb for the tying goal! 3-3!
- Dale Weise on the top line because he’s got a high ClutchScore or something.
- Meanwhile, Parenteau practically generated a full offensive cycle by himself on the 4th line because clearly he did something bad that only Therrien can see.
- Well oh my stars and garters, they call goalie interference when it is on Price?
- It’s a miracle, at the 2nd of 40 minutes, Galchenyuk has played a minute more than Weise, granted that also owes to Therrien not putting Weise on the PP, yet.
Third Period
- Pacioretty hurt his wrist? Yeah I’m just going to see how far down the fall would be from my balcony.
- It’s not even that Montreal ices the puck a lot, it’s that you can’t even understand the thought process involved in 2/3 of them.
- Emelin has played 2x as much as Gilbert tonight. WHY
- You knew Montreal couldn’t go a whole game without taking at least one penalty.
- Pacioretty-Plekanec are crazy good on the penalty kill, but you knew that already.
- Weaver should check his back pocket to see if his wallet is still there after that move by MacKinnon.
- General Jiri Sekac appreciation here.
- Sportsnet complimenting Emelin
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- To Desharnais: To wait for the opportune time to shoot and then not do it.
- Max Pacioretty! He was due.
- Really can’t feel confident about this game knowing how much Emelin is likely to play in the last 5 minutes.
- Galchenyuk felt it was his turn to go bowling.
- 3 minutes left and Roy pulls his goalie. Can’t say he doesn’t make the end of a game interesting.
- Therrien decides to make it more interesting and send out the 4th line to handle a 6-on-5 situation, yeesh.
- Almost Tangradi?
- That’s why Weise doesn’t belong on a scoring line.
- Habs need to spend their next practice shooting on some empty nets.
- Relief! Habs squeak past the 12th-best team in the Western Conference by the skin of their teeth.
- Emelin may miss the next game recovering from the whiplash Duchene gave him though, which actually would be a plus.
- Absurd Dale Weise fact of the night: He had 15:51 TOI this evening, more than Sekac, Eller and Gallagher, hey Michel…
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The EOTP Three Stars:
1. Scott Matla designs a workout routine around the Habs
“I’m turning the Habs into a workout routine…least they can do some good for me
10 pushups and 10 sit ups per Habs goal
20 Burpees for a shutout
10 mountain climbers per goal against
25 squats per powerplay goal(so zero squats)”
2. Hungry Hippos Shares what we are all feeling about the defence
“Watching Montreal’s defense like…
3. .______. Gives a succint opinion on Daniel Briere
