Habs 4, Oilers 1: Thankful for that warmup game yesterday

I spent much of the first half of the game wondering if future Hall of Famer Devon Dubnyk was going to one-up JoeyMac's easy night in Calgary. Then Gallagher happened. Saved by the 5'8" (with skates) wunderkid, and his twin Galchenyuk!

- It's amazing what those two can do with just 13 minutes of ice time.
- Yakupov also had 13 minutes of ice time. Ended minus 1.
- The old "get other guys who are stuck in neutral going" has caused Therrien to split Eller from his bros. Plekanec (who is still rather lost in space) got the Gallys while Eller got Briere and Pacioretty.
- I'm totally behind Eller with Pacioretty, but when stuff wasn't happening you had to wonder if our ONE working line was going to make a guest appearance in the 3rd. Didn't have to happen.
- Desharnais got tossed over to Gionta and Bourque. Did one fantastic takeaway, then fell on his ass so...
- And while he was completely non-existent last night, Bourque did the "fly down the wing and snipe one top shelf" that he always did to us. Except he hit the post. Or Dubnyk's face.
- For what seemed like an eternity, Habs did everything but score. Posts, simple practice shots, and a puck that walked the line...
- And of course PK plays Smyth properly on the penalty kill by clearing him from the crease only to have the puck deflect off the falling Smyth and in behind Budaj. That ended up being the premature play of night for the Oilers Sportsnet joke of broadcast.
- Of course they picked it right before Gallagher and Galchenyuk went 2-on-1 to score.
- Then again it's Sportsnet. You should see their Senators games. (Re: DON'T!)
- Budaj was surprisingly less of a ping pong super lucky goalie than he usually is and actually looked quiet and solid. However someone really needs to tell him to stop playing the puck. It's scary when he does. But it's PAYS to play him before December!
- Bournival's second game. Can we stop pulling him from the line up? Rest Moen if you want to play White.
- Beaulieu hasn't played much hockey lately and it kind of shows. Also pairing him with Bouillon is just a disaster. Tinordi is suffering because of it as well! If you're going to put a kid with a veteran, Bouillon is like not even on my first 10 pages of names. (GET ME HAL GILL!)
- Lars Eller did no score but was in absolute beast mode. So much so he lost his brain and hit Taylor "I get flattened 3 times per game" Hall. (It was indeed the 3rd time that game). Though a bad hit, the image of him standing completely remorseful over Hall with 5 Oilers hanging off his other arm was kind of funny.
- PK could stick handle in a phone booth with 2 other defenders in there with him.
- It only took Captain Planet Ference two periods before he remembered he's a douchbag and went after Gionta because HOCKEY!
- Speaking of douchebags, Perron seems like a douche.
- Dallas Eakins is upset another team is on the ice getting in the way.

Eakins does look like David Tennant.

- Dallas Eakins pulled Dubnyk with 4 minutes to go. Normally I'd be excited over this, but the Habs are allergic to empty nets.
- Pacioretty saved us from embarrassment and took the pass from Briere to score on the empty net. That said, I lost confidence in Briere actually scoring there.

Tonight we found out that a not-100% Josh Gorges is indeed better at hockey than a healthy Josh Gorges. Someone needs to re-tweak his MCL or whatever it was he had broken for 6 years. And in terms of tracking, Galchenyuk 1 Yakupov 0.