Honey, I Shrunk the Forward!

Clearly someone shrunk Brendan Gallagher or swapped his jersey with Price's.  (Yes I know he's modelling the new Habs Snuggie).

Habs 1, Pens 3: The Sleeping Bulldog

You know you're in trouble when even Pleky looks like he has nothing left in the tank and chugs down the ice.

About the only guy who looks like he's got a jet engine attached to his ass is Pacioretty. He was everyhwere tonight, offensive and defensive, using his long spaghetti legs to power his way around. But the Pens had their plan, and well Habs kept their heads up, rolled up the socks, and tried to match it with the gas running to an absolute low. If the game would have been tomorrow, the outcome would have been a bit more balanced. Habs were like Columbus last night, only the difference was a good goalie not giving up 5 goals against. (At 44th overall? Really Habs circa 1996? And he's got his name on the Cup because he relieved Fleury for Game 5. Talk about a sweet deal eh).

Valiant
- I think Price has faced more rubber in the past two weeks than he did all year last year. And a double back-to-back? I'm thinking a vacation was due, Jacques...but there wasn't much choice as Jaro doesn't really handle the Crosby-Malkin show too well. And Price was a victim of a sleeping whistle on the second "goal". (FUCK YOU REF!)
- The "high glove" thing is blown way out of proportion. Especially on curve balls.
- Pacioretty off a perfect drop pass by Sergei for his goal was fantastic. And that's 2 assists for Sergei!
- Though Sergei's "lower body injury" was very apparent in how he was skating. However he adjusted himself accordingly to move over to the back end off his line instead of dealing with the rushes unless he saw an opening that didn't require too much pressure on his feet. He was great on the PK though you could see the ankle affected his pivoting. Didn't look out of place at all with Cammy and Pleky. And picked up a new tool: ploughing through people to keep the puck alive and some pressure on.
- Hammer was like a zombie. I'm afraid he's gonna drop dead by Christmas...
- He may have been tired but Pleky's "fuck off" shrug on Crosby made me smile.
- Rupp's late cheap hit from behind on Patches better not have aggravated his shoulder. Doubt he'll even get suspended for it too. Didn't even get a penalty (FUCK YOU REF x2!). Newsflash! He was only dizzy! Praise the Lord!
- "How to Hit Someone" by Travis Moen should be a required reading for everyone. (You too Rupp. Jerk.) Ryan White appears to keep this book in his back pocket.
- Blah blah blah Crosby is the greatest. Whatever. Will he ever man up and play for the team he loves one day or will he stay forever in Steelers Town? Only the Salary Cap knows!
- Mmmmalkin seemed more asleep than the Habs. Saving himself for tomorrow I guess?
- Desharnais, who was brought over by limo because of the Thanskgiving weekend travel problems almost got a goal!
- Price's away jersey is looking like Gary Cheever's mask.
- Fleury has a tendency to make saves look better (harder?) than they are. I mean, really? Rhino pretty much took 2 years to aim for that glove. If that were Cammy, he would have owned your ass (or shot too high).
- BabyPyatt's face is a mess from yesterday's (missed) high stick! Poor BabyPyatt!
- With Andrei out after blocking that shot last night, Habs are up to 30 million off the payroll. Stunning.
- You know you're tired when: hockey sticks look like 2-by-4s

A 3-1 loss with this lineup in this situation against the Cup champions and 1st round draft presents? Yea, nothing to be ashamed of. They didn't give up, they competed, and the wide-eyed Bulldogs grinded it out to the best of their abilities while Price did his job in the back (games like these that his puck moving abilities really help). It's very telling when while heading for the room after the second period, they were dragging their sticks behind them and barely made it to the door. With a little less fatigue, it would have been a whole different game with the same effort. Definitely would have been better than the flu-fest last time! (Actually it was better).

Who knows if Ovechkin will play Saturday after his hit from behind on Kaleta. Then again, it was Kaleta...so maybe he'll get a medal. Then again, he was tossed. Oh who am I kidding, it's Ovechkin! He'll probably get fined again. Colin Campbell will probably just spin the wheel. And by wheel I mean the special one for superstars (the one with "suspension" that's about as thick as a line.