- Montreal had one of their best periods of the year in the first. Daniel Briere, who seems to be heating up, scored a squeaker. Mike Obrand described it perfectly, so I won’t bother trying to top it.
- P.K. Subban is back on the penalty kill, at least for now. Praise Maurice Richard! Our penalty kill, which is already dominant can only get better. It seems like Therrien has finally decided to let the thoroughbred run.
- Let’s all take a minute to appreciate Tomas Plekanec. He’s great on the powerplay. He’s great defensively, he constantly faces the opposition’s best lines yet manages to produce, often with underwhelming wingers. He never complains, he never creates any sort of controversy. He just goes out there and plays amazing hockey. He puts forth a Selke effort every single night. He’s the glue that keeps this team together. We’ve all seen him walk through Zdeno Chara, shut down Sidney Crosby and undress Tuukka Rask, but for some reason his name doesn’t come up when discussing the best two way forwards in the league. It’s a shame, because he’s definitely among the league best. He does it all and he’s ours, all ours.
- That being said, never, Â I repeat never use him in the shootouts. He’s terrible. He’d be better if Therrien could somehow convince the league to allow a defenceman to chase him during his shootout attempts.
- The Habs penalty kill is good. It’s starting to make me forget the horrors of last year.
- At one point Subban and Ovechkin got into a shoving match. A scrum ensued and what did they do? well, they kinda just grabbed each other’s butts and stood there. I have a feeling they respect each other a lot.
- Peter Budaj is a solid goaltender, but he should probably stay in his net, especially if Bouillon is on the ice to hang him out to dry. He looked weak on both Caps goals and he probably cost us the game tonight, but he gets a pass because he’s been one of the best back-up goaltenders in the league recently.
- I was secretly hoping for Holtby to get a non-serious injury, so that the Caps video coach would see some NHL action.
- We often talk about the need for ‘smart toughness’. Alexei Emelin is the epitome of ‘smart toughness’. Â He’ll be leading the Habs in hits in about a week or two, and that’s a conservative estimate. However it’s quite obvious he’s still rusty, he had a Murray-like shift on the Grabovski goal. He’s probably not ready for 20+ minutes just yet.
- David Desharnais is once again on his way to being a productive member of the Habs. Any way you cut it, that’s great news. Plus his mustache is amazing. He shouldn’t shave it off, and if he does he should send it to the Mustache Hall of Fame. At the very least he should get some work with a local Harley Davidson dealership this weekend. I’m jealous and in awe of his lip fur.
- The refs were predictably bad, but what annoyed me the most (GET OFF MY LAWN) was how they ignored a blatant Eric Fehr punch to Moen’s face. Why ignore that? Punching someone in the head has to be a minor penalty, no? Malkin got a penalty for having his jersey tucked today. Think about it.
- Grabovski is a very good hockey player and I wish he was still with the team. As per usual he scored against his former club. Take solace in the fact that Toronto bought him out and replaced him with David Clarkson. At least we still have Greg Pateryn in the system, AND a brand new Habs meme. VICTORY!
- Yes we lost, and we probably should have won, but 9 points out of the last 10 means that this loss stings a little less.
- I rather have Grabovski score against us while wearing a Caps jersey than a Leafs jersey.
- Speaking of the Leafs, we face them tomorrow night. A perfect opportunity to start a new streak vs a visibly struggling club. Suck if Phaneuf.
- I should probably mention Eller’s magnificent shootout goal and Desharnais’ beautiful deke, but the Habs don’t win many shootouts, therefor I think shootouts are dumb.
TEAM STATS
SHOTS BY PERIOD
EOTP 3 Stars:
All Tomas Plekanec, All the time.
