Game #1-4When You Miss That Many Chances, What Do You Expect?

Details

Date: 21/4/2011
Opponent: Bruins
Location: Montreal

Loss: 4-5 (OT)

Habs Goalie: Price (L)
Opposition Goalie: Thomas (W)

Habs goalscorers: Sopel, Cammalleri, Kostitsyn, Subban
Opposition goalscorers: Ryder (2), Ference, Bergeron, Kelly

Play of the game

Price made an incredible save on Boychuk in the third. He was sprawled out, at at the Bruins' mercy, all they had to do was shelf the puck, but Carey out-waited him and snagged what could have been a very deflating goal. In turns out that they did tie it up and they, of course, did win it, but at the time this was crucial and, all in all, it was our nicest play on the night.

Dome hockey team

The 6 players we're playing in a no changes, do or die contest in the dome

Forwards

Andrei Kostitsyn
Andrei was our second best forward all night long. He competed for the puck, took a lot of shots and had a lot of chances. I didn't see one bad play and saw a lot of good out there. I am, therefore, amazed that 5 other forwards played more than him, including Travis Moen who, I think, is lucky to even be playing at all right now. Kostitsyn needs to see more ice as he is becoming a key to this series. Oh ya, he scored a fantastic goal.

Michael Cammalleri - Game Puck
Mike had 3 points and scored a goal, but wasn't the main contributor on any of those goals. That shows how one can get points, but not necessarily be playing their best. In his case, however, he did have a decent game beyond the points and, quite frankly, no one else stepped it up any more; although the other forwards in the dome came very close.

David Desharnais
The rookie had a great game tonight, one of his best, and was the main reason that we scored our first goal. He played well enough tonight to warrant a little more than 11 minutes. In fact, if we aren't going to get off our high-horse (Martin) and give Pouliot a chance it may be time to put Desh on the wing beside Gomez and give him 5-8 more minutes per game. A re-think of how to group forwards #6-12 wouldn't go amiss as I think we are being beat in that regard. No problems with the top 5.

Defencemen

PK Subban
This is bittersweet as I didn't think that PK had one of his better games. The main reason that he is in here is that I didn't really like what I saw from Sopel, Spacek, Wiz or Hammer. At least PK scored the go-ahead goal and wasn't on the ice for any goals against. I didn't, however, like his poor line-change in OT (Moen is more to blame, however) and how he was trying way too hard to be the hero on the late PP rather than trying to distribute the puck.

Hal Gill
20 minutes, +1 and not on the ice for any Bruin goals are good stats to sport. I also felt that he played a strong game and didn't make too many mistakes. If I could change one thing, however, it would be that he would take low, hard shots on net instead of going for the weak-wristers every single time.

Goaltender

Alex Auld
Price wasn't the reason that we lost and is the main reason that we have 2 wins in this series, but after 5 goals on 35 shots I would have to try to shake things up. We blew 1-0, 3-1, 4-3 leads and the whole team must have a look at themselves. I am sure that he will rebound and I hope that it only gets better from here. My one other hope is that the Bruins don't start going glove-side all of the time because I think that may still be an area of relative weakness for him.

Comments

We started well, but you knew that Boston wouldn't just lie down. So, more of those early chances had to go in. That is where we miss a guy like Pacioretty as I am sure he would be able to score about half of Moen's great chances. Beyond the offence, though, how about our D? Our solid, shut-down style was not on display tonight, no, instead we looked confused and made too many mistakes. It wasn't just our defencemen either, it was our whole team defence. We did play a decent game, when you look at it on a whole, and it is nice to be tied at 2 after 4, but if you break it down little, by little one would expect more of a team that was up 2-0 in games and 3-1 in goals tonight. As upsetting and disappointing as it is, however, we must forget it and start anew in Boston. What has happened has happened and it is important to focus on winning the next game, the new all-important game. We can look at whys and hows and who to blames, heck, we can even ask why Chara is allowed to fully obstruct in OT (I guess the refs have no problem with cheating affecting the outcome, so long as it is not them), but at the end of the day that won't get us anywhere. It is a frustrating game, with frustrating opponents and officials, but we all love the Habs enough to look beyond that and do what it takes to take game #5. Good luck everyone.