Monday, April 21, 2008

JESUS PRICE!!! Habs WIN Game 7!

The Habs salute their fans after winning game 7 vs. the Bruins by a 5-0 score.


Carey Price did everything expected of him in a pressure situation; he held his ground and COMPLETELY shut out the opposition en route to a Habs 5-0 romp of Boston in the deciding 7th game.

Price stood on his head throughout the contest, but most importantly in the 1st period which was dominated by the Bruins once again. Price turned aside 11 shots in the 1st and 25 overall tonight, but at least 5 or 6 of those 11 saves were game savers, noteably stops on Krejci with a flash of the left pad and Savard with the blocker.

Montreal came out guns a-blazing from the moment the second period started, and they never looked back.

Already leading 1-0 on Mike Komisarek's fluky opening goal at 3:31 of the first, the Habs padded their lead by two in the 2nd, starting with Mark Streit's possible goal of the year (for Montreal), as he absolutely undressed big Zdeno Chara with a move similar to Kessel's in game 6 and pump-faked a couple of times before finally fooling Thomas (guess where?) 5-hole.

Andrei Kostitsyn then scored his first of 2 on the evening just as a Boston penalty ended. Young brother Sergei hit him with a perfect pass in the slot, and Andrei found a way to coral the puck and release a deadly accurate wrist shot through a few bodies and over Thomas shoulder, who saw the puck at the very last second and couldn't make the save.

The Habs officially iced the contest with 2:02 remaining in the 3rd, as Andrei was the scorer once again, this time backhanding home a rebound of a Patrice Brisebois point-shot on the powerplay.

As the game seemed destined to end at 4-0, the Habs, on their last rush of the outing, produced yet another goal. Andrei dropped a pass for Plekanec, who went wide and hard-passed one at the crease, hitting a poorly-covered Sergei Kostitsyn for the easy redirect past a downed Thomas.

The Canadiens were backed by a very loud 21, 273 at the Bell Centre, who really did figure in as the 6th skater on the ice tonight.

Guy Carbonneau's lucky tie is now 3-0, and we would really like for him to use it in every SINGLE remaining game we have left.

All luck aside, Carbo's coaching made a huge difference in the outcome tonight, as he pulled a curveball on everyone by forming two new scoring trios: Saku Koivu centered Chris Higgins and new linemate Alex Kovalev, while Plekanec centered the high-flying Kostitsyn brothers.

The result: Koivu's line - 3 points; Plekanec's line - 6 points

The Habs unblocked their clogged powerplay tonight, getting credit for 1 PPG on 4 opportunites (keep in mind that Andrei Kostitsyn's first goal came exactly as a Bruins player stepped out of the box, so it could have been 2 for 4.

Boston, despite putting up an amazing, nail-biting fight, have seen their cinderella run come to an end.

Let's not forget, BOTH of these teams were predicted to finish near - if not, dead - last in the East, so for them to not only be in, but put together such a fantastic series is just amazing.

Hats off to the Bruins, who gave the Habs (and their fans) a real run for their money; but, in sport, one team must one, as one must lose, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to continue to wear the bleu-blanc-rouge colors proudly.

Unfortunately, LCN cable 29 is currently showing a live helicopter-feed of 6 police cars on fire in the downtown area. The fans involved here are definitely crossing the line, and these kind of actions can really put a bad cloud over such a greatly respected hockey city. It's a real shame that these morons are doing what they're doing, but it would be naive to not expect any sort of wild action at the end of such a great series by two classy organizations. The riot suqad has been called in to help deal with the overly violent downtown crowd.

The Habs now await tomorrow's result of Washington's game 7 with Philadelphia to find out who they will face in round two. The possible scenario's play out like this:

Washington wins game 7: MTL vs. NYR, PIT vs. WSH
Philadelphia wins game 7: MTL vs. PHI, PIT vs. NYR

The Sharks and Flames also conclude their series tomorrow night with game #7.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to the Habs!!!

I would be a liar if I were to say that I wasnt worried at all about tonights game. In fact, i was shitting bricks, scared that boston had some more lady luck on their side. thanks to price and the newly formed lines things panned out they way they should of in the sense that 1st place beat 8th.
it seemed like boston ran out of gas after the 1st period, names like savard, lucic, and kessel seemed unnoticeable on the ice.

personnally id rather that montreal faces philly next round, and i am still confident to say that i am expecting montreal to make it to the conference finals. whether they win or not is a different story. dont take this as a "jynx", i mean after the year they had and the hurdles they jumped, what less do you expect the first place team in the East to achieve, certainly not a 1st or 2nd round loss.

putting my thoughts out their,

jerrytuts

-what do you think sasa?

Max Power said...

I couldn't be happier about how the Habs finally looked like the regular season team that was so dominant and earned themselves 1st int he East.

What I really am not enjoying is seeing the terrible state of downtown right now...we won a round we were SUPPOSED to win by the skin of our teeth, and assholes decide to start fires on cars and raise our tax dollars in the process.

I too am hoping to meet Philly in the next round, so that we could replace Chara's booing for Briere. Also, I feel we would have an easier time with Philly as well than vs. NY, but we can't take any Conference semi-finalist for granted.

At least the PP got going tonight, but Breezer seriously has to go. Markov still had a poor outing, and that is becoming more and more worrying.

All in all, I'm just going to really let the good feelings sink in... the Habs are destiend for the 2nd round, and my jersey will continue to be worn!

k_cardi said...

i agree with you jerry...when a team finishes first in the season it is expected they at least attain the conference finals...

Boston played great but we saw what a desperate Habs team looked like and...lol...it was scary...this team is serious and it is a HUGE win for us no matter who we face next round...a game like this really scares the competition

as for the riots...pathetic...i mean the media is actually trying to make the fans look respectable by saying that it isnt habs fans and just ppl who want to cause problems...who are they kidding?...its disgusting to see that citizens are willing to put the lives of firemen in danger...what happened to a normal celebration???...im appauled

k_cardi said...

lolol...we'll have Avery to boo if we play NYR...lets not forget the slurs he made about french-canadians...i am NOT a breezer fan and you know that Sal...but i like the experience that he brings at this time of year...he is slow and not very tough, so his presence probably resides on who we play

as for Markov...speculation says that he's playing with an injury...this afternoon (before game 7) he was asked if he was playing with an injury...Markov responded 'no' with a smile on his face.

Max Power said...

Injured or not, if he tells Carbo he's good enough to play, Carbo's showing the confidence in him...if he then goes and makes a few mistakes that materialize into goals, what will he look like after? The crowd here is merciless and will boo him out of town...it basically goes both ways: he can look like a warrior playing through pain, or he can be a goat... and that's not fun (ask Breezer).

I agree though, our performance tonight is worthy of instilling fear into any opponent, NYR or PHI. However, for the good of hockey, Pit vs. Nyr will be an INSANE series, moreso than Crosby vs. Ovechkin, and Philly's Briere will headline very nicely in Montreal.

Anonymous said...

Happy Like Hell
Just after the game ,Habs fans took the streets (cresent ,maisonneuve ,st.catherine) ,was n't violent at all ,cars honking, things started to get crazy around 11:30 pm , 6 police cars were burned and flipped on cresent st. , several shops on St.catherine W. were attacked ( SAQ glassfront was broken ,and ppl looted the shop) ,as well a "western union " shop was attacked , and a clothing shop called "Americain Appreal" next to "3 Amigos" was smashed as well . At 12: 30 riot police was still surronding SAQ , the part of St. Catherine W. between St. Mathew and Guy is Blocked by police. What happened today is shameful ,our hearts and souls were with les canadiens at todays game .Its not even the final game ,seriously this madness is unexcusable.

Max Power said...

well put...

I shutter to imagine what will happen if these morons didn't learn if we win in round 2...or 3...or even 4 (meaning winning the cup).

I would love to (and surely will) be a part of it all downtown should we go the distance and bring #25 home, but will I have to worry about a car exploding left or right? What happened to the cheering-style of celebrations??? Why can't we be as classy as the organization we love so much?

Max Power said...

oh, and thanks for the informative scoop mr. anonymous, I may use it in my lead story on the vandalism.