Flyers – Habs Game 3: I won’t be crying in a Toronto bar
May 21, 2010
And there will be a Game 5, which is good because I wasn’t looking forward to having my Annual Habs Elimination Cry in a Toronto bar on Saturday. The Montreal Canadiens are 1-0 in this series when they actually score goals. That’s a 100% success rate… who knew?
In all seriousness though, it was a great game by our Habs. They did all the right things, made smart decisions and zomg went to the net. Still a pretty steep climb, but this game was, at the very least, encouraging. For the first time in the playoffs, the Habs objectively zambonied their opponents instead of clawing out or piecing together a win.
therangersfan: It is legal to play like this in Pennsylvania, too.
theactivestick: Yeah, Habs.
Your bullet points, ladies and gentlemen:
- When Chris Pronger has a bad game, the Flyers have a bad game. Love him or hate him (okay, hate him), that’s how awesome and amazing he is.
- No broken bones on the Habs so far… it makes me more and more nervous every game. Will they survive?
- Michael Leighton has been kindly escorted back down to earth.
- With a soundtrack.
- Doesn’t he look like a not-attractive version of Gerard Butler?
- Okay, O’Byrne didn’t have the world’s best game. Fine. But I still love him and I still say he’s going to be better than Komisarek.
- Those stops Halak made early in the first may have won the game.
- The Habs are not tough by any means, but Andrei and the Bottom Six (that should be the name of a band) played as tough as they could.
- Which, it turns out, isn’t that bad.
- You catch glimpses of it when you’re at the Bell Centre or even in the victory scrum shots. Carey Price may or may not like playing in Montreal and he may or may not have an attitude problem, but he really, really loves his team.
- Especially Jaro. People have said a lot of shit about these boys over the past two years or so, but you can choose to listen to Elliotte Friedman talk about Carey calming Jaro down in Game 2 over reading some of LaPresse’s or Le Journal’s eight thousand hockey columnists.
- You know. If you want.
- Then again, it might not have been this way all season, I don’t know, but you watch the two after every Halak win and tell me.
- Maxim Lapierre, Dominic Moore, Travis Moen, and Tommy Pyatt have more playoff goals than Scott Gomez and Benoit Pouliot. I’m not complaining, especially not about Gomez (check it), I’m just saying, if those two can get going…
- Anyone who’s even accidentally clicked or landed on this blog knows that there is no love lost between me and Maxim Lapierre. But man is he a playoff performer. Can’t say I didn’t love his yap last night.
- One day, the universe is going to come collect on the favour we owe it for Mike Cammalleri choosing Montreal over Toronto. Get ready. It’s going to be a big one.
- It’s amazing how this is the toughest test for the Habs after what they’ve accomplished so far, eh?
- Remember, about a month ago, when there was talk of Halak sitting in the Bell Centre for a while after the game (after going down 3-1 against Washington), taking it all in as though he’d played his last game in a Montreal sweater? Me neither.
9 Comments
leave one →
The Active Stick 
I would like for Michael Cammalleri to be the Jean Béliveau of the 21st Century Habs.
Ryan O’Byrne, four shifts last night, one came in the final 30 secs. The others all in the first. Glad Jacques put him back in
This is why your blog should be considered required reading after a game. Great stuff!! I had been thinking about what peeps had said about Jaro a month ago… my how times have changed!!
“It’s amazing how this is the toughest test for the Habs after what they’ve accomplished so far, eh?”
It’s no secret that the deeper you go in the playoffs, the harder it becomes to win, regardless of the opposition. At this point, it’s all about will and hunger. And coaching. And goaltending. The Habs have all of this right now, but among those 4 items, coaching can still be better. Martin has smartened up and often has 2 centremen on the ice for important faceoffs. He’s released the hounds at appropriate times (why doesn’t he do it more often?). He wears his lucky tie when he needs it. But his handling of youngsters is shockingly bad. Subban aside (who Martin needs more than the other way around), Martin has taken almost every young player on the roster and reduced them to confidence-less stumps.
Now that we have a series again, and that the real Habs showed up, we can now legitimately think of taking the series. Even falling behind 3 games to 1 doesn’t scare me, though it certainly isn’t ideal. I’m stoked for game 3, but pissed as hell that the NHL has to bend over for NBC, who wants the game in the afternoon.
Mr Roussel is a closet Jacques Martin fan.
Leighton really does look like Gerard Butler. A bit skinnier. And no accent.
And all those “fans” who piss on Price all year never see it. He always gets up to join in the victory high-fives on the bench, tossed his hat in a hat trick once, and is always there for the team even if it means yelling at Sergei to get his shit together.
I think Andrei and the Bottom Six would be a ska band; dontcha think? 😉
NHL needs NBC more than NBC needs the NHL…even though NBC is terrible.