Yes it is possible for the 2011-2012 version of the Montreal Canadiens to win back to back games, although it took a long 10 games to accomplish this, and they did it with the 2-1 win against the Boston Bruins last night. It's early, but the Habs dug themselves a hole, they have some work to do to get back into a playoff position. They've climbed from 15th to 12th place in the Eastern Conference with these back to back wins, and you know whose last in the Eastern Conference? The Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. Feels pretty sweet for a Habs fan I must say. Anyways, 12th place may seem bad, but they're only 2 points out of a playoff spot, so it isn't that bad in the big picture. The Habs are starting to pick it up, let's hope it stays this way.
On to last night's game. The Canadiens took numerous penalties, three of which were in the first period. Those troubles seem to continue, and the Bruins scored a power play goal in the first as fluky as it was. The goal went in between Carey Price's legs when Tomas Plekanec won the face-off, and Patrice Bergeron was awarded the goal. Even though the goal may have nothing to do with the fact that it was 5 on 4, the penalty still caused a defensive zone face-off and it lead to a goal, so the penalty still caused a goal in my eyes. The Canadiens need to learn to stop taking penalties.
That fluky goal would be the only goal Price would let in all night, as he went on to stop 29 out of 30 shots from the Bruins. Halfway through the second period Jaroslav Spacek took a shot from the boards on the right of Tim Thomas, and Erik Cole tipped it home to tie the game. The game would be a tight checking one, one with many battles along the boards. Raphael Diaz took away a sure goal during a Boston power play early in the third when he slid across the ice and blocked a shot on the goal line that seemed destined to go into the empty net. The deadlock was finally broken by Tomas Plekanec halfway through the third period, when he took a shot which was blocked by the Boston defenseman, picked up the puck right away and shot it into the net past Thomas. Although Plekanec was 10 feet from the net with no defenseman on him, I still believe Tim Thomas wants this one back as he was out of position by at least a foot to the left, and it went in by the right side as he tried to awkwardly save it. The Canadiens took a 2-1 lead and never looked back from there.
It was a fun game, but not the typical Montreal-Boston game. There wasn't much physicality. And nothing happened between Zdeno Chara and Max Pacioretty, as they share the ice for the first time since Chara injured Pacioretty, besides a trip by Pacioretty on Chara, which trust me, wasn't Pacioretty getting revenge. The most interesting part of the game was with P.K. Subban and Brad Marchand at the end of the second period. They tried to drop the gloves one time, were sent to the box for roughing instead, tried to fight another time, were sent to the box for roughing again, and right when that penalty ended they got out of the box and had a real fight. Subban tried to go for the big knockout punch right away, but missed and fell, got back up and then had a spirited tilt with Marchand, with both players getting in some good punches in a pretty even fight. It was a good game, but with the B's frustrated with the start to their season, I think Saturday's game will be a typical Habs-Bruins game.
Let's hope the Habs sweep the home and home series!
No comments:
Post a Comment