So The Red Sox are in the World Series. The Patriots are the most dominant NFL team I've ever seen. The Bruins started the season 5-2-0 and strutted into the Bell Centre on a four game win streak.
Boston is riding high on sports glory right now, but the Cristobal Huet and the Habs brought their not-so-beloved Bruins back down to earth with a resounding thud. Huet improved to 6-2-0 against the Bruins in his career, kept the Habs in the game early, and then the forwards took over and put on a passing clinic in what ended up as a 6-1 blowout.
The Canadiens were outshot 32-20 in the contest, but that's where the Bruins dominance ended. Marc Savard looked like an angry punk with a big contract, Zdeno Chara looked like Larry Bird on skates and Manny Fernandez stopped 14 of 20 shots. People had been busy jumping on the Bruins bandwagon for the last few days following their convincing win streak, but the team picked to finish last in the East by many of the "experts" was true to form last night, losing to the Habs for the 13th time in their last 17 meetings.
Alex Kovalev was spectacular. Dominating the flow of the game, especially on the power play. Saku Koivu and Tomas Plekanec were winning faceoffs all night. The Canadiens were passing the puck so fast at times that I felt my head spinning just watching them. Brisebois, Grabovski and Steve Begin all scored highlight-reel goals.
Breezer actually had what I consider one of his weaker performances this year, but his teammates picked him up, and all four lines played a great game. This team is scary when they get confident and use their speed. Cristobal Huet is starting to look like the magical guy who led the league in save percentage two years ago and was an Eastern Conference all-star last year. Here's hoping he can keep it up all year. Carey Who?
Just kidding. The Habs have a huge weekend coming up with back-to-back road games against two hungry and gifted teams, the Hurricanes and the Penguins. Expect Carey Price to be in goal for one of the two games.
It's always nice to see the Canadiens win a game that doesn't come down to the last ten seconds. Don't expect too many like that but enjoy them.
1 comment:
Amen, brother. I listened on the radio, but I bet it was a joy to watch at the Bell Center. Do the reporters ever cheer in the press box, or is it professional decorum throughout?
On HI/O they're talking about whether Ryder would improve with a benching. I'd be interested to hear your take on that.
Post a Comment