<H2>Montreal Canadiens 5-Game Review (#7 & 8)</H2>

[Montreal Canadiens 5 Game Review takes a look at the last 5 games from an objective standpoint, with tabulations from Tobalev's game reports]

Date: Sunday, January 6th, 2008


The last 10

Opponents: Philadelphia, Toronto, Florida, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Florida, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay

Record: 6-2-2
Home record: 2-1-0
Away record: 4-1-2

How it happened: W, W, L, W, OTL, L, W, W, OTL, W
Goals for: 37
Goals against: 23

Conference ranking (Season): 4
Conference ranking (5 games - i.e., 12/13 to 01/04): T9





Stack of pucks

Alex Kovalev (9)

Cristobal Huet (6)










Play of the set
Contender for play of the year...

If I was to choose a player whose highlight reel would be played to reflect this 10 games, it would be Andrei Kostitsyn. But when it comes to one play, I was most impressed with this goal from Kovalev - courtesy of a confident-once-again Michael Ryder:

The Play of the Game came on our first goal scored by none other than Alex Kovalev on the Power-Play. We were playing with a 2-man advantage when Saku received a pass in the slot and fired a one-timer off the bar. The puck rebounded all the way to the right point where Streit picked it up. At that moment Tampa's first penalized player was skating back into the mix. Streit fired a crisp, precise pass right to Ryder in the low-left slot. Ryder took his time, faked a shot and the made a move down low around Ramo. He then slid a beautiful pass right to Kovalev who merely tapped it into the net.

See the play (within the game highlights).



10-game domers

F: Koivu (5/10); Streit (4/10); Kovalev(5/10)

D: Markov (7/10); Komisarek (4/10)

G: Huet (8/10)








Kovalev's 10-game Assessment - Very Good

Nodody thought this flight would be so smooth; but halfway through Kovalev has shown new talent for consistency, without any loss of acrobatic flair.




Scoring and statistics (Top 5 over 10):

Goalscorers: A Kostitsyn (6); Kovalev, Markov, Streit, Latendresse (4)

Point-getters: Kovalev, A Kostitsyn (11); Plekanec, Koivu, Higgins (10)

Shooters: Higgins (27); Kovalev (24); Plekanec, Streit (21); A Kostitsyn (18)

+/-: Kovalev (+7); Higgins, Markov (+6); Plekanec, Koivu, Bouillon (+5)

GAA: Huet (2.00); Price (2.77)
Save %: Huet (.937); Price (.901)