Habs 5, Orange Crushed 3

I normally do play-by-play chat on a few forums with fellow fans, so here's a recap to a rollercoaster of an evening.

1st Period
- The Habs came out sleepwalking, almost like they were skating with cement blocks. Once again, Carey Price was left out on his own while his defense flatfooted and his offense couldn't get onside.
- There were about 26 faceoffs, half of them icing...
- Four penalties on each side, including a 5-on-3 for the Flyers.
- Downie looked rather subdued. Probably floating on painkillers.
- Komisaurus left his calling card on Cote. They proceed to go after him the rest of the night. (Hey, I told him to Big Bird their ass, guess he heard).
- Kovaleve: 1 post
- Shots 8-14 in favor of the Flyers. Price says he ain't afraid of no Phantoms.

2nd Period
- Andrei Kostitsyn hits a man, gets the puck, shoots from near the blue line, and scores. Goal number 1 for the game and for the older brother this season!
- Carter takes advantage of a sleeping Markov and Komisaurus and sneaks one by Price.
- Lang takes a hooking penalty, Richards hits a fast one from afar by Price. Never saw it coming.
- Lapierre and Downie start hugging, but I think Downie's knee is buging him 'cause they don't do much...
- Price throws another in the bin for the Save of the Year as he robs an open net with his glove. It rivals Nabby's in that 4OT playoff game against the Stars. In other words, it was amazing! (If this were TSN, we'd all be deaf by McGuire).
- Habs continue sleeping with weak passes. Someone needs to tell them that Price can only do so much...
- Lang: 1 post
- Shots are 18-23 Flyers. Tussle at the end that doesn't go anywhere.

3rd Period
- Right at the start, Kovalev remembers he's the star of the show, dangles the Flyers and feeds Hammer a goal. (Goal number 2 for the usually stay-at-home defenseman!) It's tied and the fans have gone quiet.
- Almost immediately, Gui! gets hit in the face (ignored by the refs) and then parks himself infront of Biron where Komisaurus slaps one over his head. Now 3-2 Habs and the fans have just died.
- Penalty for Sergei almost right after, Kostopoulos shows me why he rocks on the PK.
- Kostopoulos almost scores but is knocked off before it connects
- Knuble is a knob, flubs all his shots and passes.
- It's like a whole new team came out to play in the 3rd so either Carbo threatened them with a trade to Toronto or tickets to Celine Dion, or Price said he was gonna switch with Denis for the year.
- 4-on-4 hockey and Lang score a lovely one. Now 4-2 and the fans are zombies.
- Price gets stuck after making a save with a rebound that lands right in front of Gagné, who beats Gorges to it, and it's 4-3, fans live again.
- Kovalev checks the new kid, and Italian defenceman. I've actually fallen for this kid. He's good! (And it's hard to impress me when you play for the Flyers). His name is Luca Sbisa and he's 18 years old. Keep that name in mind...
- Is Biron really the same height as Price? He looks smaller in nets...
- With the Flyers net empty, Habs force in on the attack. Bégin shoots first, misses, gets the puck back, is checked from behind so he spins and dumps it in the net without looking. It's 5-3 and the fans have been crushed.
- The game ends and Hartnell leaves a calling card on Kostopoulos (or Gui!, I couldn't tell since they were next to each other). Take a loss like a man and go to your bench! It's players like him that make me hate the Flyers because they do have some good players, but these constant douches always ruin it. Gui! also tackled Lupul (who was suddenly dancing with him) under his weight, just to hold him down so he won't do anything.

Bonus: No one got hurt. Markov blocked a shot by that Sbisa kid right on the hand though, so we HOPE nothing is broken... Komisaurus got hit in the nose with Markov's stick during an interference call.

Stars of the evening: 1 Andrei Kostitsyn, 2 Jeff Carter, 3 Carey Price.
Total shots: 27-32 Flyers!

Free wings at Cage aux Sports! Good comeback, boys. That third period reminded me why I love you. Just don't do that first/second ever again. (Ya, right).

And on a "kill your day" note...
Ranger's 2007 first round pick, Alexei Cherepanov has died of a heart attack after colliding with his teammate, Jaromir Jagr, while on a line change. It's a complete tragedy. He was only 19 years old. The Rangers won their game tonight against the Devils in his memory with a final score of 4-1. My deepest condolences to his family and friends, to Jagr (who was very close to the young man) and the Rangers.