Game #66 Falling Leafs Bury Habs

Details

Date: 3/03/2012
Opponent: Maple Leafs
Location: Montreal

Loss: 1-3

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

Habs goalscorers: Cole
Opposition goalscorers: Frattin, Grabovski (2)

Play of the game

Pacioretty held up his rush and threw in a shot with Desharnais crashing Gustavsson. The centreman grabbed the loose puck and threw it over to the slot, where a waiting Erik Cole buried his 23rd of the year.

Dome hockey team

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

Forwards

Max Pacioretty
He's been the quiet one of his line the last couple games I've watched, but the fact remains that this trio is the only one the Habs have running that can actually score.

Erik Cole
Came through early to put the Habs up in the first period. Had a lot of great rushes at Gustavsson and although I wish he'd been able to put one of those away, there's no one else generating the offense he does every game. Wish he hadn't taken that bone-headed penalty at the end.

David Desharnais
The final cog in what seems to be the entirety of our offensive machine. Desharnais is a smart, tough player with a nose for the net and great hockey sense. A key piece of the team's future.

Defencemen

PK Subban
Hit, shot, played good defence and quarterbacked the power play. Got under the Leafs' skins. What else do you want?

Chris Campoli
Actually liked what I saw from Campoli tonight. Led the team in hits (5) and tied for the lead for blocked shots (3). Liked Weber tonight too, but I gave Campoli the edge.

Goaltender

Carey Price - Game Puck
Made some tremendous saves, even if the 42 shots recorded for the Leafs was a little misleading. I didn't feel like any of the goals was particularly weak, but neither were they particularly spectacular. Still, Price was one of the few positives of the evening.

Comments

A bit of a sleeper, which is a surprise given we were facing the Leafs. We really didn't seem to have much killer instinct, and we missed some serious assignments in our end. Kessel was left wide open in 2nd only to be robbed by Price, but Grabovski buried his opportunity on the PP late in the 3rd. On our side, Gustavsson made plenty of mistakes and we failed to take advantage.

We still didn't see much offense from anyone beyond the Cole/Desharnais/Pacioretty line, although the last 2 or 3 minutes featured a little bit from the Eller and Plekanec lines. We'll need to find some secondary scoring if we expect to improve our record.