Game comments

Montreal vs Florida comments

Jacques Martin’s team managed to do something that they haven’t been doing a whole lot of this season… outshoot their opponents. However, the final shot count was as close as you can get. The Habs edged the Panthers 39-38 in shots.

Jaroslav Halak was the game’s first star as he stopped all 38 of Florida’s shots facing off against former Habs pick Tomas Vokoun who was named the game’s 2nd star.

I certainly wasn’t on the edge of my seat watching the game and to be honest I’m surprised at the high shot totals. Maybe it was just me… but I didn’t find it was a spectacular game.
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Montreal Canadiens vs Washington Capitals – 2009/2010 season 45th game highlights

Here are the game highlights from the Montreal Canadiens vs the Washington Capitals played on January 5th 2010.

Washington won this game 4-2. The Canadiens managed to make it close towards the end by making it 3-2… but in all honesty the only thing that kept them in the game was their goaltender. On this night it was Carey Price.

An all to common theme. Outshot 43-26 by Washington it looked as though the Canadiens were just out-worked all night long. In many of the games battles for the puck the Capitals would just come out on top.

Frustrating to see this scenario play out again and again. We have the luxury of having 2 great young goaltenders at the moment. Both Price and Halak have played great, but you can’t expect the Habs to win too many if they continue to be so badly outshot. Team defense is a biggie.

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Montreal Canadiens vs Atlanta Thrashers – 2009/2010 season 38th game highlights and comments

Here are the game highlights from the Montreal Canadiens vs the Atlanta Thrashers played on December 21th 2009…. but first some comments.

The Canadiens won the game 4-3 in Overtime (which was predicted with little time to play in the 3rd on Twitter by Arpon Basu). It wasn’t the prettiest of games. Montreal were again outshot by a very large margin. Overall team defensive play has to be improved to cut down on the shots that make it to either Jaroslav Halak or Carey Price.

You can’t expect to win very many games in the NHL if your opponent is in your zone firing rubber at your goaltender most of the evening. Although I will say that in the case of the Montreal Canadiens at least Jacques Martin has 2 very capable young goalies to rely upon. But they won’t steal every game.

Jaroslav Halak was, in the end, left to face 53 shots (that made it through to him) stopping 50 of them. Is that not scary? If I was coaching this team that would be one of the most frightening numbers that I would have to face…. never mind they somehow won the game. The last several years the Montreal Canadiens were outshot alot and though this year it seemed that it was getting a bit better early on it’s pretty much back to where it was in terms of these shot totals.
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Montreal Canadiens vs New Jersey Devils – 2009/2010 season 35th game highlights and comments

Here are the game highlights from the Montreal Canadiens vs the New Jersey Devils played on December 17th 2009.

I missed the first period of play as I was at my daughter’s Christmas concert. (She did very well!)

Something the Canadiens have to improve on is the penalties they take. Again last night they took bad penalties which always puts them behind the 8 ball. While their penalty kill has been good this year (currently 8th in the league) it’s certainly not a reason to play shorthanded. Even when your only goal comes short handed (Travis Moen scored Montreal’s goal shorthanded).

Last night wasn’t the most exciting hockey in the world…. lot’s of shut down style defense. In the end though the one thing that sticks in my mind is New Jersey’s first goal. A long shot that was going way over the net…. Price puts his glove up…. the puck hits his glove, goes directly on the right side post…. bounces up to his feet…. where the puck then hits Carey’s skate as he skates back…. and the puck goes into the net.

Bad.

Here are the game highlights:
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Montreal Canadiens vs Pittsburgh Penguins – 2009/2010 season 32nd game highlights

Here are the game highlights from the Montreal Canadiens vs the Pittsburgh Penguins played on December 10th 2009.

The Penguins won the game 3 – 2, but the Canadiens did score a goal which was disallowed late in the game. Upon seeing the replays it was my opinion the goal should have stood. Fleury never had possession of the puck. But in the end, the refs call stands.

Carey Price showed once again that he is capable of being a stellar goaltender. He’s looking really good out there and always seems to give his team a chance to win no matter who they are playing.

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Thinking about the changes made after the first game

Thursday night.. at long last the 2009/2010 NHL season got underway. Getting back to Habs hockey…. love this time of year.

I got to watch a good chunk of Thursday’s game. I missed some of it so I’m not going to write a game recap or anything like that. But there were a few things that I did notice that I thought were worthy of a comment.

I can remember last season, and the season before and etc…. The Montreal Canadiens had a core of players for a good number of years, the veteran guys who weren’t brought back…. some who just up and left.
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Canadiens vs Penguins – Game highlights and comments

Montreal Canadiens won their pre-season matchup against the Penguins last night at the Bell center.

The Habs were at times a bit flat (I thought) although I’m sure they weren’t hustling…. it just seemed it wasn’t clicking all the time through the first 2 periods.
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Canadiens vs Bruins – Game highlights and comments

Though the Canadiens lost last nights game against the Boston Bruins there were many positives in the game.

Some players were certainly making the best of their pre-season games….

A couple of these guys are both similar and quite different.
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Canadiens vs Senators – Terrible pre-season game

Last night’s game certainly wasn’t a great performance by the Montreal Canadiens. At first, the pace of the game seemed to indicate that we were gonna be in for an entertaining game…. both Habs fans and Sens fans alike. The pace was fairly quick and there was some jump on both sides.

But it soon started to turn for the worst for the Habs.
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Canadiens VS Senators – Post game highlights and comments

The Montreal Canadiens played their second pre-season match up at the Bell center last night against the Ottawa Senators who opted not to dress Alex Kovalev. I really didn’t expect Kovalev to play because I’m sure he’ll get a favorable reaction from the crowd and he is quite fresh in voicing his desire to return to Montreal someday…

This game marked the second win in the pre-season for the Canadiens and another loss for the Senators as the Canadiens won 2-1…
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