credit Associated Press

Big Brother:

Finally, the Habs have come back… to victory… After a ridiculous period of time where your Habs were pitiful, some players answered the call and played to win. It wasn’t pretty but it got the job done.

The first star of the game is without a doubt Jaroslav Halak. After giving 5, 6 and 7 goals in their past 3 games, the Canadiens desperately needed a very strong performance from their goaltender and tonight they got it. Halak was solid, spectacular and without his performance, maybe more than 2 of the 48 shots would have found the back of the net. But more importantly, he kept his team in the game when their confidence was at an all time low.

Max Pacioretty also was solid tonight, as Matt D’Agostini. When the injured players come back it will be very hard to find a good reason to send them back to Hamilton. If anything, we now know those two will be able to take the spots of two leaving UFAs come July 1st.

Before the game begun, I already had a problem with Carbo decision to sit out Ryan O’Byrne and keep Brisebois in the lineup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Rocket. I don’t have personal hatred for the Breezer but Ryan was playing better than some and added a physical presence I like on my team. Besides, he needs to be ready for next year when we lose Brisebois, Bouillon, Dandenault or all three. But tonight, Breezer made his coach look like a genius. He played his best game all year… and probably in quite some years. In a weird twist of events, he spent most of the night covering for Hamerlik’s mistakes. He broke at least 3 Colorado scoring opportunities, scored the second goal and even fought Darcy Tucker. I am NOT kidding you.

Saku Koivu was again playing a solid night, working hard as usual but this Kovalev-Koivu combination has to go. All four shots from that trio came from Tom Kostopoulos. It wasn’t because they didn’t work together but those two never produced great results together for whatever reason. And no, I am not agreeing with the idea that they dislike each other so they can’t play together. My guess is more towards a style clash that doesn’t mesh well.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here either. The Habs didn’t play a good game. As it’s been somewhat of a trend for some time the Canadiens played a very solid first period and then played sub par for the next two periods. Only 8 shots in the second and third period combined is well below what is expected fro a fast, offensive, talented team like the Montreal Canadiens.

But for tonight, I don’t want to dwell on that. I want to be happy for Halak who entirely deserved the win. I want to be glad for the victory. I want to be hopeful that this will build back the confidence needed to get back on track for good before the start of the playoffs.

Now let’s show Mats what a mistake it was not to sign in Montreal on Sunday…