Fun times in Habs Nation. They're 1 point behind the Caps for that 5th spot and proving the Tool Sports Network how silly their predictions were. Of course now that the Blackhawks stomped their beloved Leaf back to reality, they're in mourning. And when the Bruins beat the Lightning to move into second, it was trumpets and parades. For the Habs? Well they beat the OBVIOUSLY slumping Lightning. Excuse City.
The Lightning are like last year's Washington Capitals: offense coming out of their wazoo, putrid on defence, goaltending is variable. Only difference is they have Dominic Moore on their side.
I still don't think I could take a playoff series against those diving pukes. Stamkos dives more than Crosby ever did, only he doesn't seem to whine to the ref every five minutes because he assumes they'll fall for it every time (which they do). The only bonus? It would be home ice for the Habs in either arena.
And because the general consensus is that Boucher should be the coach of the Habs (and I still believe Bob was building this team for him but never expected him to ditch us so quickly), noted Habs beat writer Arpon Basu mentioned if the players had any pride or belief in their team, they'll win this game.
Win 31 for #31!
- There is definitely a god smiling down on the good guys because Hal Gill has another goal.
- Time to start working on giving Carey a goal eh?
- Awesome play by AK46 on the powerplay, even better move by Desharnais for the goal. He's so small everyone forgets about him. My mom says all players see is the top of his helmet go by and by then it's too late!
- Would have been 3-0 really quickly. Guy Boucher would have gone nuclear.
- Stamkos is a bit of a bitch eh? McGuire would just call that "being competitive" because "he gets it".
- The faceoff sheet looks abysmal, guys. You think with Pleky being 9-25 while Halpern's 2-3 would mean that Halpern would take the faceoffs on his line then move over? Oh sorry, that would be thoughtful and proactive coaching.
- Put PK on the PP? Patches scores. What a concept!
- Hamr on the PP? Price had to leave his net, twice. Sloooooooooooooow...
- Tom Kowal wins the Chris Lee award for Worst Ref Of the Year. Seriously, someone get this man a rule book and video examples and don't you dare start giving him playoff games.
- If they had lost this game because of Moore's PP goal you probably would have seen 400 articles on the failure to overpay him.
- Wonder if there will be 400 articles on the absolute fail that is Marc-Andre Bergeron?
- Gomez knows EXACTLY how to play against MAB while defending him on the PK...
- Price got eaten by the net.
- The boards in this rink make no sense. You shoot the puck at it and it never goes the way you think it'll go. Physics! You fail!
- Pouliot's door opening skills suck as much as his stickhandling does these days.
- Price's stickhandling is way better than Pouliot's.
- Patches on his 2nd of the night: "BOOM!" Those self-help books did wonders.
- Organ grinder loves the Hava Nagila.
- The first call was bullshit (Cammy was screaming at the ref "HE HIT ME!"), the 2nd was chintzy. It gave the Lightning a 5-on-3 in the third. HUGE KILL and a statement. And as Bob Cole said "here comes the Carey Price moment of the game" none better exemplified by his pokecheck on a lone Stamkos:
One of these days these guys will consistently hit the empty net...
And one of these days these fucking refs will properly call interference...
Pricey made 43 saves. And while they tried, the refs didn't succeed in fucking him over like that first game of the year. Habs smell the playoffs. And if Hal Gill scores on Tuesday, I'm going to start playing the lotto.
This game was also #600 for Gionta. All those people who said he would never make it because of his height must feel pretty silly day after day, year after year. Desharnais should take notes.