2009 Playoffs Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Game #1
Montreal 2 Boston 4 (TD Banknorth Garden)
posted by Rocket
AllHabs.blogspot.com
Finally, it was gameday! Of course, listening to all the hockey pundits, there was no reason to drop the puck. We heard that, line by line, the Bruins had better players. We were told that the Canadiens would be wallpaper on the Banknorth Garden boards. We were led to believe that the Habs had no hope to win a game against the first place Bruins given the regular seasons series.
But the truth is that the Bob Gainey led Habs had a record of 0-0-1 in the regular season. Gainey’s Habs proved that they were able to compete with the Bruins in game #81.
Funny thing happened after Rene Rancourt tortured the national anthems. The Canadiens didn’t get blown out of the rink. Sure the Bruins came out attacking in the first ten minutes. It was expected and the Habs withstood the pressure.
At the end of the first, the Bruins had a 15-to-9 shot advantage but only a 2-1 lead.
Defensive zone breakdowns by the Canadiens resulted in the two Bruin goals. Mathieu Schneider and Matt D’Agostini were guilty of not taking their man on the two goals.
Chris Higgins had a goal in the first and was very good on the penalty killing unit. Higgins had a great game for the Habs. His linemate Metropolit seemed to relish the chance to play an important role against his former teammates.
The Habs outshot the Bruins 13-to-10 in the second period. Alex Kovalev scored on a rocket to tie the game.
The supposed big, bad physical Bruins seemed to enjoy pasting Patrice Brisebois to the boards and running Carey Price. The Canadiens outhit Boston 31-23.
Boston was more disciplined than Montreal but was also getting the breaks. A slow whistle enabled the Bruins to dislodge the puck while covered which gave them their first goal. While the Bruins were crashing the crease often, only one goaltender interference penalty was called.
Bad penalties by Tomas Plekanec and Josh Gorges also played a role. Gorges’ penalty was particularly costly as the Bruins scored the winning goal on a subsequent power-play.
On the play, the penalty killers, Max Lapierre and Tom Kostopoulos collapsed back to the slot leaving the point open for Zdeno Chara to blast the puck ito the net. Kostopoulos also provided a screen.
Suprisingly, Georges Laraque played a smart game and had a positive impact. He seemed to distract Chara. Laraque was used on a number of lines including playing with Koivu and Kovalev.
Saku Koivu’s line had three points.
Andrei Kostitsyn also had a strong game. He had three shots and three hits including a solid check on Milan Lucic.
The Lapierre line was quiet again (until the last four seconds of the game). In a physical game, the line had three hits combined. The line is a key to the series for the Canadiens. They will have to play much better especially on the road.
Mike Komisarek had a solid game with hits and blocked shots. While he didn’t get an assist, Komisarek made a good play to keep the puck in the Bruins zone on the Canadiens’ first goal.
Roman Hamrlik seemed feisty but in a strange statistic, he led the team in shots with five but recorded no hits.
It would be difficult even for the Brisebois-apologists to whitewash his brutal play tonight. There were errant passes, bad giveaways, and soft play. Brisebois showed none of the experience that he was the reason for him being in the lineup.
Mathieu Dandenault played a smart, simple game and showed how a veteran can make a positive contribution.
Carey Price made 36 saves. He had good positioning and controlled rebounds.
Special teams need to be better. Without Yannick Weber the power-play looked lacklustre going 0-for-2. The Bruins power-play was 1-for-4.
The players seemed to be well prepared and knew their roles. Bob Gainey kept Julien off balance by moving Georges Laraque around. Gainey made minor adjustments to his lines and defensive pairings all game long.
The Canadiens played well and proved that they could beat the Bruins. But this was a game that the Habs should have won. If so, it would have changed the dynamics of the series.
The Canadiens are indeed underdogs but there performance tonight suggests that this series isn’t over yet.
Pre-game
Starting lineup: Koivu, Tanguay, Kovalev, Dandenault, Gorges
Carey Price and Tim Thomas started in goal.
O’Byrne, Weber and Stewart were scratched from the line-up. Sergei Kostitsyn, and Markov were out with injuries. Bouillon and Lang are on injured reserve.
Lines:
Koivu-Kovalev-Tanguay
Plekanec-Andrei Kostitsyn-D’Agostini
Lapierre-Latendresse-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Laraque-Higgins
Defense:
Hamrlik-Komisarek
Schneider-Brisebois
Gorges-Dandenault
Rocket’s three stars:
1. Phil Kessel
2. Chris Higgins
3. David Krejci
(photo credit: Getty images)
Terrific summary of game 1.
The Habs have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of last night, aside from the ugliness at the end of the game. That was a little uncalled for, but I digress.
The Canadiens competed hard, made the Bruins work, and if not for a bad penalty from Gorges, the outcome could have been very different. I think the Bruins know this very well, as do their fans and media.
With Markov in the lineup and Brisebois out (he played one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him play), the outcome of the game is certainly up for debate.
If we can play the same way Saturday, and if the 2nd line can bother to show up (although Kostitsyn showed a couple flashes of being lucid), then we could have a series on our hands. On the other hand, if we go down 2-0, my outlook is subject to change. I still think Habs in 7 is just as good a possibility as it was 24 hours ago.
Would LOVE to see a Montreal fan attempt to justify Kostopoulos throwing an elbow at Hunwick and then Komisarek’s blatant eye-gouging.
Also interesting that there is no mention of Lapierre hitting Kessel well after the ENG. Too ashamed of your team’s actions to mention them?
LOL, best news for me after this game is all the whining coming from the Bruins side concerning the Habs “intimidation tactics”.
Music to my ears, it means that they have likely gotten into the BRUNS empty heads. Bit of a role reversal from the original script, EH?
If Bo(zo) Gainey had the simple common sense to pick up Sean Avery for free, instead of paying a king’s ransom for a broken Mathieu Schneider awhile back, the Bruns would be running around in circles tied up in knots by the second or third game of the series.
Oh… so apparently elbow-throwing at heads and eye-gouging is a laughing matter in Montreal. Who cares if Hunwick’s vision was affected and impairs his career… so long as Montreal can send a message, it is all good!
Well, fortunately for Poo Widdle Matt Hunwick, the 10 hour surgery to replace his missing eye appears to have been successful as he was back on the ice today. A miraculous recovery that was about 6 months quicker than Raitis Ivanans managed a couple years back when Ze Dino Saur sucker punched him and broke the orbital bone under his eye while Ivanans was held by two linesmen.
I guess Chara didn’t want to be the only player in the league whose eyes don’t line up properly.
A game Montreal should have won?! Man, you people really do lie to yourselves first, and then spit it out to the rest of the hockey world.
To further yourselves from any more unecassary dissallusion, I suggest you consider you have lost 5 games in a row, that the Bruins have beaten the Habs every which way winning 9 out of the last 11 meetings.
The Bruins have beat the habs in close matches, physical matches, blowouts (of course that would be the Bruins blowing out the Habs), Jersey retirement ceremonies, Silly jersey day, playoff games in Boston and Montreal, not to mention; Lucic DISMANTLED Komisareks face and shoulder.
The habs, have nothing but letting all you arrogant fools down on your 100th season.
Have a great time watching your team lose!
…and for the record, you don’t need your eyes to line up correctly to score on Price. All you need to is put it on net.
The next Ken Dryden….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! That seriously makes me laugh. Kids a joke.
“unesassary disallusion”?……Have you been taking English lessons from the Boston Bohunks? Or from fat “Friar Clod”, that Jabba the Hutt lookalike scowling behind the Bruns bench?
Never mind Dryden, hearing all the cries of “Waaaahhh!!! Waaahhh!! Waaahhh!!!!” coming from the Brun fans, I thought maybe Patrick had come out of retirment, let in a couple soft goals and was being mocked by the crowd.
The “bruns”? Where do you take your English lessons? You can’t even spell the name of a team you see on your black and white tv?
B-R-U-I (you forgot the I you pea soup eating dumbfuck)-N-S.
One more time, that’s B-R-U-I-N-S.
As in, the team that is kicking the shit out of your pathetic, panther piss of a hockey team.
Habs suck! And for all the rest of you pea-soup eaters who can’t read english;
odeurs de Montréal comme la pisse de panthère
Comments are closed.