Game #64 Geoffrion's Lineage No Magic Potion for Habs

Details

Date: 28/02/2012
Opponent: Lightning
Location: Tampa Bay

Loss 1-2

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

Habs goalscorers: Desharnais
Opposition goalscorers: Stamkos, Hall

Play of the game

Working alone, a canny Desharnais made a great steal to start a rush down-ice with Cole keeping pace. As a second defender hustled back to get a body on Cole, Desharnais used the struggling pair as a screen and snapped a beautiful shot past Garon.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Tomas Plekanec
Once again showed his desire to win, his impeccable penlty-killing skills, and some smart drives to the net. He actually beat Garon, but the Tampa goaltender got lucky as he managed to deflect the puck just wide.

Erik Cole
Carried a lot of offensive weight once again. Won battles that seemed already lost, and got stoned by an incredibly lucky Garon in the 2nd. Also sent a defender flying into the Tampa goalie for a comical finish to the 3rd period.

David Desharnais - Game Puck
Scored our only goal and did it by himself. Tied up a game that, despite the shots being pretty even, did not feel even at all. With Cole, again created most of the meager offensive threats we had.

Defencemen

PK Subban
Was hard filling out the defenders this evening, as no one really distinguished themselves too strongly. Subban is one of the few things that keeps our top power play unit looking even vaguely competent, and looked good enough in his own end.

Josh Gorges
A bit of a no-brainer. Gorges knows where to be and when. St. Louis looked like he might be breaking free and turned hard to shake Gorges, who just put the body to his opponenet and neutralized the play completely. Made some smart plays at the other blue line and didn't make mistakes behind his own.

Goaltender

Carey Price
Let down once again by the skaters in front of him. The Stamkos goal was a beauty, and so was the the saucer pass to Hall and his top-shelf marker. Price made some good saves, including a pokecheck to strip Stamkos in a dangerous-looking play in the 3rd. Price kept the team in this one the whole way once again, but there simply wasn't enough offense to cash in on his good play.

Comments

Credit where credit is due: The Lightning did a lot of things right in this game. Garon made some really spectacular saves, and his team did a good job of getting bodies around him to control rebounds, and to limit the Habs' effectiveness in the offensive zone.

It was fun watching Emelin provoke Malone into a total frenzy and not throw a punch back, but less fun watching the Habs being unable to score over the 5-minute power play that ensued. Frankly, we probably had better chances on the PK. Almost every team we play against seems to work harder and have more discipline, and as a result we lose a lot of those games.

Liked what I saw from Geoffrion, he played about 13 minutes, mostly beside Plekanec. I think Price might have tripped 2 or 3 guys tonight, which I almost like to see as I think a lot of teams take liberties with him. All in all, another hard game to watch as it seems we're just limping through the rest of the season.