Leave it to the Canadiens to walk into Wild Country and put on a show. The trap and the constant stream of rather questionable penalties dragged Habs offense to the defensive, but the Tricolore snuffed 10 power plays granted to the Wild, including two and a half 5-on-3s. Also, it's the second time they won a game even though they gave up the first goal. Interesting!
Evening notes:
- Lemaire has quite the tan.
- Both Canadiens goals were scored from the blueline, with Cube netting his 2nd of the year and Markov getting his first after nearly decapitating Josh Harding with a rocket on an early 2nd period powerplay.
- Habs played through the trap and managed very well.
- Wild fans BOOED their team after not being able to get anything thanks to excellent PK units and Carey Price being the wall.
- History! Captain Saku and Captain (of the month) Mikko face off as the first pair of brother captains for their respective teams. I don't much understand the Wild's captaincy policy, but whatever.
- History! Habs played their 2 900th road game.
- Mom and Dad Koivu were in the crowd watching their sons.
- Saku's first penalty of the season was uh...holding his brother (a light tap on the stick, really).
- Hanson brother wearing a Chiefs sweater in the audience right beind Lemaire!
WOO!- Pileup right at the end, involving the Koivu brothers with Mikko arguing with Markov (woah, he speaks) and Price trying to hold Mikko back.
- Both coaches invested in some antacids thanks to the refs. And Carbo on the 5th penalty of the 2nd period mouthing "fuck me..." right as the camera took a shot at him.
- The RDS intermission comment crew love Price and Kostopoulos.
In other news... Habs blueliner prospect, Pavel Valentenko, has apparently signed a 3-year contract out of the blue with the KHL's Moscow Dynamo. Apparently, he was given an indefinite leave to attend to some family matters back home (watch out Capitals, isn't that what Ovechkin is on?) which seems kind of sneaky, or suspicious. I'm wondering if the mob has any hold on the new hockey league like in the old days. Apparently on Tank's facebook he left a note saying he was sorry to leave and that he just wanted to be close with his family. If it's a personal thing, then I guess there's nothing you can do about it. It still hurts though, especially since he was working hard to join the Canadiens and knew the place of the depth chart and completely understood the waiting. Also his rather North American style might not do him a whole lot of good in the KHL. Another prospect over there named Alexei Yemelin plays the same way and finds himself constantly in the penalty box. He claims to be rather annoyed with it all and wants to come over here. Anyway, the downside of it is despite how good the Habs and the Russians have been to each other since the Summit Series, we might see less of these guys drafted in the coming years. Probably why Gainey is picking more and more from Minnesota eh?
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