Don't bother being pissed about a shootout loss to Buffalo. What's the point? Buffalo eats shootouts for breakfast. If it's not Vanek or Boyes (who did fuck all the whole game), it's Roy or Pominville. Or Gerbe. I can go on. You can be on top of your game all you want but if you counter by putting a hobbling injured Plekanec out first, you're telling all of us that it's a crap shoot and winning isn't really important to you at the moment.
I can list 3 other players that should have gone before Pleky. One of them actually did score on his attempt (Patches).
Nevermind. Habs should have been done with this game in the 3rd, let alone OT. Not registering a single shot for the first 15 minutes of the 3rd period ain't gonna work. JMart claims sitting back wasn't the plan. That the best defence is offense. Except his system totally contradicts that.
A joyous point, but another draining overtime game
- Do we really have to pray for Markov's return to get Pleky off the point?! It's madness! It doesn't work! And when the 2nd wave kicks ass, they're not the ones used in OT.
- Speaking of OT... That 4-on-3 powerplay setup was garbage. If Weber is there, PK needs to be there. However I lost track of how much ice time he had so he probably couldn't go.
- Carey Price was pissed. Smashed his stick while going to the bench (a teammate gave him a pat on the back but he was rather inconsolable). He was furious before leaving the room as the media came in, swearing and throwing a bottle down the hallway... But really? His first shootout was against a hot Colorado squad of first round picks, and now Buffalo while his coach counters with a guy who's 2-for-a-zillion AND decides to go first when he has the choice. Guy's got enough stress to deal with. People say he's gotta practice the shootout but that's just weak. In-game, breakaways are 50/50 but the shooter doesn't have much time to plan his shot the way you can in a shootout, and practicing with a team that's rather crap at scoring goals in shootouts doesn't really help much. (They can barely score goals to begin with). Especially when they rarely went to one all year last year..
- Erik Cole was great, however he nearly ruined it all with a boneheaded penalty in OT when he lost his bearings and walked into Enroth. Thankfully Habs killed that.
- Emelin has improved a great deal. He was wonderful tonight. Too bad JMart will probably bench him just because physicality is taboo to him.
- Lack of Andrei Kostitsyn is KILLING Eller...
- Seriously, all you people want him traded, and now that he's out of the lineup with an injury it's a HUGE hole to fill and has destroyed our best line in a while.
- Thankfully the Cole/DD/Patches line is kicking ass...
- Killing off a 5-on-3 without Hal Gill? Fantastic work.
- Stop killing my brain with 3rd period nada, Habs.
- Lindy Ruff is upset about what happened with Ryan Miller. I'm upset with what happened to Ryan Miller. But still having Kaleta on the ice almost every fucking minute? You have no right to comment about cheapshots until you remove that stain.
- Who, by the way, hit his former teammate/captain with an elbow to the head.
- And who's linemate took out newly recalled Engqvist's knees. So fuck you, Buffalo.
Shootouts are a cheap shitty way to kill a really good game. No excuses, Habs have got to go for the kill and their window to do so was in OT when they were given that 4-on-3 powerplay. However they put the same old set up on the ice and the same old results happened, which was nothing. (Eric Cole's goal was a powerplay goal, thanks in part to the Sabres smothering Enroth with Desharnais and PK's heads up pass. If they didn't score on that, it would have been ridiculous). And JMart blaming the young defence is getting old. Newsflash: They played their hearts out while shorthanded and with only Gorges as the veteran D. They're not the ones who lost you the game...that stubbornness of doing the same thing over and over and over ad nauseum cost you the game. I wonder how much Randy Cunneyworth's hands are tied because this does not look like something he would do.
Carolina next? I expect big things from Erik Cole...
In other news: I'm going to see what's left of the Bulldogs this Friday but at this rate I may as well go to a Habs game.
3 comments:
That's some meticulous stuff. Agreed on all points.
While Cole's penalty was careless, to be fair it was a smart play by Enroth. You can see on the replay he sees Cole coming and takes a full step to the top of the crease to make Cole move. And Cole did not.
Two minitue shut down hockey is exciting, 20 min not so much.
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