Game #21Habs Do Their Best; Can't Beat Thomas

Details

Date: 21/11/2011
Opponent: Bruins
Location: Montreal

Loss: 0-1

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

Habs goalscorers: None
Opposition goalscorers: Ference

Play of the game

After Emelin coughed up the puck at the offensive blue-line the Bruins turned around to go in on a 2-on-1. It was Lucic who took the pass and was in alone on Price, but it was Carey who had the last laugh. He stoned the Bruin and gave his team a very good chance at getting those points. The loss ended up happening, but without that save it wouldn't have even been an exciting finish.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Erik Cole - Game Puck
Erik was fast, alert and hungry tonight and looked to be our best bet at a goal. The goal didn't end up coming, but the chances did and that is often good enough. When he plays like he did tonight (and like he has done for the past 10 games or so) he can be unstoppable. Unfortunately tonight, however, Thomas was at his best.

Brian Gionta
Brian has found his game of late and, like Cole, was on tonight. The goals, however, didn't go in, but on most nights, against most goalies he is walking away with some points. I feel that his even-strength and PK games are where they should be, but his PP game could use some work. We talk a lot about point-men being the problem on the PP, but we also need to see more creativity from the forwards like Gionta, Cammalleri and Gomez.

Tomas Plekanec
Is everywhere a good enough description? That is where I felt Tom was tonight. He was our best centre and was involved in all aspects. The only part of his game that let him down tonight was his last-touch offence, whether that be a shot or a pass right before a chance. The Bruins made it hard to play cleanly in this area, but if we are to beat them it has to be more than effort, it has to also be about that last step.

Defencemen

Raphael Diaz
He and Emelin formed our best partnership tonight and while his partner took care of things in our own end I felt it was Diaz who did well offensively. I liked how he was jumping into the play tonight from the blue-line as he can add a different direction to our sometimes linear attack.

Alexei Emelin
The number one difference between Emelin now and Emelin at the start of the season is confidence. It is so obvious to see that he is comfortable out there and isn't mortified of making a mistake. There will still be errors (and there was a big one tonight on the play of the game), but without confidence there would be more and likely very little good play. He seems to always be there in the corners when he should be or breaking things up in front of the net when he should be. He has gone from a player who we expected in the minors to a guy that I would have a hard time taking out of the line-up.

Goaltender

Carey Price
This was another great game from Price, a game in which he kind of got robbed of the win by Thomas. We out-shot Boston 33-18, but couldn't give Price the one or two goals that he needed to work with. There were some questionable passes early in the game that could have cost us, but otherwise it was a clean, solid game.

Comments

On a night when Crosby came back and got four points all I cared about was us getting two. We played our game and basically overwhelmed Boston. We limited their chances and shots and were able to get in their end with frequency and get the puck to the net. We stayed out of penalty trouble, but couldn't do anything with 8 minutes of our own on the PP. Otherwise, it was kind of the perfect Habs game with the main difference-maker being Thomas. I do believe, however, that 9 times out of 10 we come out of this game with at least a point. So, there is nothing to be changed, we just have to move on.

The key now, however, for this week has to be to make our performances count. We let a silly one get away against the dismal Islanders last week and now couldn't turn a strong home performance into a win against Boston. There are three games left this week, 2 on the road, 1 at home to Crosby, so we have to ensure that we keep up our pace and find ways to get points. I would be happy with 4 points from those games and almost think that 3 or less would be deceiving from this group. We can get the ball rolling again on Wednesday when we face the 'Canes, the worst team that we have yet to play this season.