Sir_Boagalott

Struble was looking dangerous offensively and damn good thing he noticed Truba coming right before he tried to take his head off. Great small lil play by Slaf in NYR zone when he got up against their net just to get his body in the way of the dman that was chasing after the Habs player with the puck. D'oh, I was hoping this wouldn't go to OT. I often question Marty's choices for 3 on 3 and in SO's.

Yep, and that was a great penalty by NYR hooking Yolenen at the Habs goal line. lol I hoping the Habs would capitalize on that opportunity. After that blown PP things changed and it turns out the Habs almost needed to score on that gift chance. I somewhat assumed that the NYR would score on Suzuki's penalty. Thank god they didnt but the Habs still need another goal or 2 to win this game.

I keep noticing Slaf doing all sorts of small lil things that can often go unnoticed but they are super important lil things. He is definitely developing even when he is not putting up points. Nice, Monahan scores. Habs are 5-0-2 when he does. Even better: Armia!!!

I agree with rotating them and any that are on ELC's I'd even be yo-yo-ing them up n down. i.e. Harris and Barron could both benefit from some high minutes in Laval. I believe it is unfair they have only sent Arber down when there are others that are more deserving of AHL time. They should be making the most of their waiver exemptions while they can and before they can't anymore. I sorta get the impression that Kovacevic could turn out to be a top 4. However, it is probably better to devalue him and not let him know/realize that he could be a legit top 4 guy. He'd be good to keep as a great low priced 3rd pair rhd.

D'oh, why in the world did Gally skate hard to the crease when Armia was in alone? With Gally standing in the crease there was 0 chance of Armia passing to him and scoring. Oh well, at least he made up for it a minute later. 1-0 Habs!!

I missed the game so I didn't know about the high stick. It definitely looks like he's bleeding from his nose and all over his bottom lips. It would be surprising that a high stick hit the edge of his nostril yet missed his nose. If all that was done by a high stick Lane must be tough. How many teeth did he lose? The Swed was much larger too and Lane didn't shy away at all and wanted more.

Thx for posting that link!! It is great to know that there is a limit to the amount BS that Lane will put up with. Poor Lane though, the stupid ref grabbing him and letting the Swede keep punching him until he had a bloody mouth.

There is what happened to Andy's knee that made him fall and then the fall itself which looked awkward. It thought the fall might have made his knee worse or even injured his ankle. It sorta looked like he might have rolled it. I'm concerned about if the Habs have learned anything from last year or not and if they are repeating the identical mistakes? i.e. Monahan and Gally playing injured last year because they wanted to. Was Andy medically cleared to play or is he playing because he can and/or wants to? Andy must be sore from that fall so should he really be playing or should he be given a forced week or so off to rest? Last year with numerous players I saw plays where I thought they were injured yet they continued to play. However, every instance of that with time proved that they were in fact injured but were still able to play when they should have been resting. I'd rather see a player be sat out for 1-2 weeks for precautionary reasons rather than continue with a minor issue until it becomes a serious injury and then be out 8-12+ weeks.

Earlier in the season I certainly noticed Matheson in numerous games where he was blocking the Habs goalie's view but failing to get his body in they way to block a shot. I swear I've even seen him be in the way of a shot but he turned and allowed the puck to go by him and into the Habs net. Oftentimes, they seem to be chronically bad with their sticks. ex: on the 1 goal it seemed like the 1 Habs player let the puck be passed down to the Sabers player down at the side of the net who passed across to the goal scorer. If the Habs player used his stick that pass might have been intercepted or deflected and the goal would have been prevented.

Wow, jeez, did Andy just break Levi's jaw with that shot that popped his helmet loose? He definitely felt that shot for sure.

Nice screen by Pezz, but was it goalie interference? I certainly hope not. He definitely made contact with Levi but was it really enough to call back the goal? Son of a, apparently it was. That totally sucks, Armia needed that goal.

I definitely like Strubles pass over to Harris and the ensuing 1 timer attempt was impressive. Its too bad Harris didnt score on that shot and I don't recall ever seeing him tee off like that before. Harris needs to try doing that more often because apparently he is good at it.

Ya, no doubt. When I heard the announcer mention Anderson I figured the Sabers had a player with the same name. I was in shock when I realized it was Josh. Considering the Habs luck with injuries I assumed he would be out for the rest of the season or several month at a minimum. In the last game it didn't take much for him to fall but the way he did definitely looked like it was a serious injury. The Habs need to keep riding Andy's recent upsurge in play. Hopefully, that keeps up but I wont be surprised if he is sore and his pace slows down for a bit.

I didnt see much of this game at all but I caught Harris' goal. I tend to think that he's more offensive than we realize. After all, he did get 2 goals in 1 game in his rookie season and in the last 30 years the last 3 rookie Habs dmen to do that were: Subban, Markov, and Schneider. I dont believe it's a fluke that Harris did that and it could be a omen of his scoring potential. I saw Andy's injury and it certainly looked serious and I'd definitely be surprised if he plays anytime soon. The Habs potential long shot at playoffs took a bad turn with that injury. Andy had been coming on fairly strong compared to his start of the season and even in games that he wasn't putting up points. Can another player possibly start producing again? ex: Moneyhands? Is Dvorak out as well? If Andy and Dvo are now out is there any chance that the Habs can do an emergency recall of Beck? I'm dying to see him come up but I'm uncertain if this creates an opportunity to do so.

I'm bummed Canada lost but I'd say they should have won that game. Honestly, I always dislike seeing the Czechs win because they usually seem to be the least deserving team when they do. ex: their 1st 2 goals were fairly weak and the winning goal with 11 secs left was a fluke. At 1 point in the 3rd the announcer said that 14 out of the last 17 shots were Canadas. Plus, like mentioned they missed the net a bunch. Canada dominated about 35 mins of the game and out chanced the crap out of them but failed to score.

I wondered that too and I forget which feed I saw it on but the 1 replay showed it pretty good that there was no intent to blow the whistle. The 1 replay shows that Monty saved the puck, and the linesman that was out by the blue line started skating in towards Monty to retrieve the puck. However, when Monty gave the puck to Kova the ref immediately stopped and went back to where he was. Apparently, the only people that were aware that the puck was still live was Monty and the refs. Kova was confused when Monty gave him the puck and the rest of the Habs had no clue either that the play was still live. I believe it was Corrado on TSN that gave an explanation as to why that goal happened. i.e. when Monty made the save, none of the Bolt players skated over to him, and when an opposing player challenges a goalie that just made a save is typically when the refs blow the whistle. When the other team isn't around the goalie they get to decide if they will play the puck or hold onto it to get the whistle. Well, Monty realized no whistle had blown so he decided to play the puck considering how Tampa skated off to do a line change.

Nice goal by Cole from him forechecking hard and stealing the puck. Andy with a big hit on a Bolt that wasn't a 1st over-all pick and it led to a fight. Wow, surprise surprise; who'd a thunk it? What a bunch of goon 2 time Cup winners? No, winning teams have camraderie and protect each other. Although it was great to see Kovacevic score and that goal was unbelievably funny I tend to think Monty messed up on that play. i.e. it would have been epic if he had shot it himself. I was having issues with my feed and when I 1st saw it and I had no idea what happened and thought my feed froze. ex: I saw Monty save the puck, then it showed Tampa players changing, then the puck was in their empty net. Incredibly, I watched it on both feeds and all the commentators were also stumped as to what had happened. Afterwards, both sets of commentators said their crews had never seen anything like that before. They also both mentioned how strange it was for the refs to go upstairs with it and have a prolonged review. i.e. the refs would have know if 1 of them had blown the whistle or not - so why review it? However, 1 eventually said that the ref probably had to explain to the situation room that they had not blown the play dead. It still seemed unusual how long it took to review that. It is unfortunately that they lost, that was a winnable game; but that was exactly what I wanted to see from them in all these 4 point games. They were playing like it was a playoff game and the Tampa fans seemed to be helping fuel that intensity.

110% and I have a completely different reason for wanting that. Guhle and Harris cannot be paired together and be out there with their top line. When the Habs have 3-4 dmen that will fight they cant have 2 that don't fight out there with Nick, Cole, and Slaf. That is a major problem and huge mistake by Marty. Slaf took a direct head shot last game and no Habs player did anything about it. On that play, if Harris was replaced by Matheson there likely would have been a fight. If Guhle was replaced by Savard, and I imagine even Struble again there would have been a fight.

Last year I was kinda worried about how Hughes viewed Arber but on draft day he made that clear. If he was planning on trading WiFi he wouldn't have drafted Florian that high. I definitely disagree with 3rd pair and seems like the Habs management believes he's better than that. i.e. if they thought his ceiling was only 3rd pair there'd be no need to send him down. Their plan seems to be to give him a ton of minutes and improve some of his deficiencies to help him become a top 4 dman. I absolutely agree with the brings something that no other player brings comment. I tend to value players that are great at doing a particular thing. That is another reason why I question if Guhle will be around in 3-5 yrs. Sure, Guhle's all round game is better than Hutson, but he doesn't seem to have a specialty. However, Lanes O game is off the charts so I'd value Hutson over Guhle. So far this year it seems like all they need to do is improve their PP and PK. If they moved up from the bottom 10 into the middle of the pack they'd get more points. If they could improve both and get into the bottom of the top 10 they'd likely be top 3 in their div.

Yep, if fully agree especially Harris. It will be interesting and numerous people here have said not to trade any of the dmen until they know how good they are, which is insane. The Habs have so many D prospects that they can't sit on them all forever and wait to see. They will be forced to trade numerous of them before it is fully known which Dmen are best. I've said this before that I believe even Guhle is in that same category of unknown if he'll still be around in 3-5 years. If Slaf is concussed and misses time remember that Guhle was the largest and toughest Habs player on the ice on that play. Not only did Guhle not even touch Noesen he was actually the furthest player away from him. In fact, other than the tiniest guy in the game i.e. Cole no other Habs even touched Noesen. Its absolutely pathetic that on that play I almost wished the Habs had veteran Giordano out there because he would had a superior response and would have at least tackled Noesen. .

Good on Andy, his streak ended but he still remains hot. I hated the non-response to the hit on Slaf. I thought both penalties against the Habs at the end of the game were weak. On the 1st penalty the guy was clearly chicken winging Armia's stick. If the ref makes a call they should take both or none at all. I tend to prefer Kovacevic to Barron because Barron is still young and needs to get better defensively. Barron is better offensively but Kova is no slouch with O and he is way better on D. Plus, Kova is taller and stronger, more physical and has a longer reach. I'm uncertain if Barron will still be with the Habs in 3-5 years. I'm thinking their future 3 rhd might be Reinbacher, Kova, and Mailloux.

Pezz with the near-miss. Damn that was a lucky save by Raanta. Did anyone else notice that he tried to punch Gally on that play? That seemed to be why he was somewhat out of position. D'oh, I was hoping for another late period goal to tie it again. Oh well. they're only down by 1.

That was a decent period for a road game and the last 5 seconds was the highlight. Thank god Marty challenged the Cannes 3rd goal. I wasn't sure how that 1 would go, but I did think that the Cannes player prevented Primeau from being able to move. The announcers seemed to think that Dvorak's stick would negate the Cannes player being in the crease but I'm glad they were wrong.

I was wondering if anyone other than me was considering this game to be 1 of those important 4 point games. That is how I view this game and the next 2 games will be as well. I hope they win tonight and the next 2 games because those games are more important for playoff hopes than their last 3. It's unlikely they will win all 3 but maybe they can get 5/6 points again on this road trip.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Out of all players on Team Canada it is Owen that should damn well know Lane is awesome. After all, Owen is aware that Lane is above him on the Habs prospects depth chart. In Owen's defense though he didn't have control of the puck so Lane didn't steal it from him. However, Owen definitely should have have been more careful and been in control of the puck - especially when it was Lane who had the puck. When I 1st saw it I thought Lane recovered the puck with the blade of his stick, but the camera angle from the end boards showed that Lane did a nice goalie like paddle down move and dragged the shaft of his stick along the ice to recover the lose puck.