Game #10 Habs Extend Championship Hangover For Bruins

Details

Date: 27/10/2011
Opponent: Bruins
Location: Boston

Win: 2-1

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

Habs goalscorers: Cole, Plekanec
Opposition goalscorers: (Bergeron)

Play of the game

After what was meant to be an inspirational move by young Subban, the Canadiens end up shorthanded to end the second. This is the territory they have been losing games from. Sure enough a bad bounce and a Bruin receives the gift straight on the tape. As if from nowhere, in slide Rafael Diaz like a centreback in the six yard box to block the puck and save the tie. He's on for a lot of good saves thanks to his tendency to pinch, but this was the first and best of his own, I'd say.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Erik Cole
Let's all thanks Jessica Rusnak, shall we? She inadvertently changed the course of the season. The chivalrous Erik Cole, since coming from nowhere to protect the honour of the young reporter was a week ago on his way to booking another trade home to Carolina. Since that time, he has been a fixture in the dome and has been creating chances nearly non-stop. I thought his goal was good, but yet again he had better chances (homemade ones) that were the product of better skill.

Tomas Plekanec
He should be the best player on the team, and in this game he was. The own goal was never his fault. The gamewinner was all his fault. Besides those two scoresheet items he played an all around game with the proficiency we took for granted but haven't really been seeing until this point of this season.

Mike Cammalleri
Who am I to take Mike Cammalleri out of the dome. He didn't score, but he was dangerous again as he paired well with Erik Cole. That breakaway would have been a goal against 9 out of 10 goalies in this league, and his empty scorecard didn't reflect his dangerous presence.

Defencemen

Josh Gorges
Back in camp I was simply amazed at the way Gorges came into the year. He seemed not to have lost an inch in his game. It's taken a few regular pace games for him to get here, but I could see that coming back this evening. Gorges contributed to the game winning goal with his 6th assist of the season already. It was a simple enough play, but if you didn't know better you'd have seen #79 as the originator of a pass like that. He was the workhorse tonight too and the minutes leader at ES by minutes.

Jaroslav Spacek
Spacek is slowly usurping Hal Gill's role as he shows the other 22 year-old Dman of the future the ropes. He took another important shot (last night too) and ended up kick starting the comeback. Most impressive to me was the sheer amount of shot blocking he did. He was sharp at being in lanes in this one, something that seemed to frustrate the B's and he ended with a scorer's 6 in that column.

Goaltender

Carey Price - Game Puck
It's not easy to stop every shot the Bruins send at the net (but one, thanks Diaz). I thought he was especially superb late in the game when the Bruins were resorting to any tactic to get that tying goal. Carey stayed calm, eyed the pucks and importantly didn't cough a big rebound to a big scorer like Thomas did. A couple of breakaway saves again, and the team can again think about winning thanks to Carey's leadership.

Comments

Probably should have been watching the Winnipeg game (9-8!?!), but watching this team figure out how to win is fun in itself.

I didn't write that piece on comebacks so the guys could prove me wrong, but that's twice now that the team has done what I said they couldn't. Twice in three games. What else do you guys want me to write about? Gauthier could never trade for Crosby and Malkin? The Leafs are a sure-fire bet for the playoffs? Gomez was a terrible pick in the pool for me? (Oh, wait).

Anyway, the fact that these two wins have been comebacks mean so much more in my opinion. This win, against a goalie that was clearly hot and a good team (champions, remember?) who needed a win as much as the Canadiens was the better and more meaningful of the two.

It's to the team now to go for the high straight with a win in Montreal as the boos rain down on Zdeno. It won't be easy, especially as we witness the tactics the Bruins are willing to employ in the later stages of this one. However, the fans who were robbed of a key player by a vicious maneuver and were forced to watch the smirking brutes at parties all summer deserve as much. And wouldn't it be sweet if the talk about the first coach being fired this season could switch for a few minutes to Claude Julien.