Boston vs. Montreal | December 5th, 2013 | 1930 EST

[thehabbit]

Two old rivals getting reacquainted in their first meeting of the season. The habs did very well there to win the game having 6 in 9 nights. Watched the game with an NESN feed, their announcers are actually very knowledgable and balanced, they called a great game.

[Chris]

Yes, I thought it was a solid effort. 5 games in 8 days takes the legs out of you. I don't know that they sat back in the third as much as being gassed.

I think I would put Briere back with Pleks, try Bournival with Eller. Especially against the Sabres.

Great week so far, would have been happy with 5 points al week. Hopefully there isn't a let down against the Sabres.

[hab29RETIRED]

anyone know what our record is with Emelin??? We really are a different team with him.

[Lovett's Magnatones]

anyone know what our record is with Emelin??? We really are a different team with him.

Idk, but he's heading towards Plekanec, or dare I say Markov territory as far us needing him to win. Did anyone care that Bouillon wasn't in tonight? Murray is playing him out of the lineup. I have to say, despite three years of my bile, Diaz is playing awesome hockey this year. When you have a couple of bruisers out there, and a competitor like Subban in the opposition's face all night, Diaz is an excellent complementary player. If only MB would give Emelin a shot on the second wave. Diaz can't hit the net, and with Gorges out there they should put the fourth line on to rest the skill guys.

[Neech]

anyone know what our record is with Emelin??? We really are a different team with him.

Tony Marinaro mentioned that it was 33-9-6. Crazy!!

(It must only include this year and last year)

[Neech]

Overall, we lucky to get a point, let alone two. I liked how we fought but we were hemmed in our zone for two periods, and looked really tired in the third. Gutsy performance, and of course all credit to Price for standing on his head again.

[Commandant]

Overall, we lucky to get a point, let alone two. I liked how we fought but we were hemmed in our zone for two periods, and looked really tired in the third. Gutsy performance, and of course all credit to Price for standing on his head again.

We definitely hung on, and it wasn't pretty, but it was a great result.

A team playing its 5th game in 7 nights vs a team on 5 days rest.

Of course we were gassed in the game... and went into that third period shell, and needed Price to stand on his head.

But they got the win by any means necessary. Thats a sign of resiliency and I'm really happy with this one.

anyone know what our record is with Emelin??? We really are a different team with him.

This season 8-1-1.

Overall its not pretty cause it includes most of 2011-12

[Guest Stogey24]

Diaz and Murray make a perfect bottom pairing. I've trashed Diaz a lot, but he looks a lot better with the sheltered minutes. Murray is starting to become more confident with the puck too.

I would seriously consider a trade for Bourque when he's back healthy.

[Habsfan84]

Watched the game with an NESN feed, their announcers are actually very knowledgable and balanced, they called a great game.

Im surprised you would say that. I find them to be the worst announcers in the game. Maybe not with hockey knowledge but with the way they are so partial towards the Bruins and very unproffesional. Mind you I watched it last night and they were not bad. But what I base it on is the many times I watched it in the past. I'll always remember Jack Edwards (NESN announcer) calling for Pacioretty's head after he scored the ot goal and gave Chara a push a few years ago. You can youtube it.

Jack Edwards - "Max Pacioretty, the win wasnt enough, he had to do a little trash talking. 67 is the new name in the books. He's a cocky kid and some day he gonna get his head taken off"

[brobin]

Diaz and Murray make a perfect bottom pairing. I've trashed Diaz a lot, but he looks a lot better with the sheltered minutes. Murray is starting to become more confident with the puck too.

I would seriously consider a trade for Bourque when he's back healthy.

Diaz brings decent Defense but with a first pass and offensive threat to the third pairing. Murray scares everyone on the ice. Both are good shot blockers.

With Emelin back, our D is now as designed and based on the season so far, a very good six when healthy.

We are still soft and small up front. The focus should be on getting another big forward that is hard to play against to replace DD or Gionta. If nothing else, a deadline deal for Jagr might help. He is still a beast in the offensive zone. Creates a lot of room.

[Guest Stogey24]

Diaz brings decent Defense but with a first pass and offensive threat to the third pairing. Murray scares everyone on the ice. Both are good shot blockers.

With Emelin back, our D is now as designed and based on the season so far, a very good six when healthy.

We are still soft and small up front. The focus should be on getting another big forward that is hard to play against to replace DD or Gionta. If nothing else, a deadline deal for Jagr might help. He is still a beast in the offensive zone. Creates a lot of room.

I love Gionta's passion, but once a player of his size starts to lose speed and that "bite", he really just becomes a place holder. DD needs to start shooting more. Teams know exactly what his game plan is as soon as he hits the offensive zone.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

I've missed our last three games. If this keeps up, I'm going to officially stop watching the Habs! It's well worth the sacrifice

When I heard over the radio that Pacioretty had put Boychuk out on a stretcher, my first thought was that Patches had maybe delivered a bit of payback for Chara's attempted murder, and then I wondered what sort of retribution the Bruins would seek to exact. Imagine my surprise to find Julien refusing to make an issue of it, calling it a 2-minute penalty and nothing more - as well as Patches expressing sincere regret.

Both team showed a lot of class on this issue. The Bruins surprised me with theirs. Kudos to them.

The numbers with Emelin are really interesting. Intriguing to ask whether the issue is Emelin per se, or else just having three rather than two legitimate top-4 defencemen in the lineup. I suspect it's the latter. Ideally, we'd add another top-4 defender to the mix so as to enable us to absorb injury. But we're healthy now and showing that we can rip it up when we are. That's awesome.

[dlbalr]

I cannot believe that Brendan Gallagher was never on a Team Canada U20 junior team. I mean, come on, Brad Marchand made the team and Gallagher had better stats.

Gallagher was on Canada's WJC squad in 2012, recording six points in six games.

And, our 3 Stars from yesterday are up on the site: http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=3268

[Machine of Loving Grace]

Im surprised you would say that. I find them to be the worst announcers in the game. Maybe not with hockey knowledge but with the way they are so partial towards the Bruins and very unproffesional. Mind you I watched it last night and they were not bad. But what I base it on is the many times I watched it in the past. I'll always remember Jack Edwards (NESN announcer) calling for Pacioretty's head after he scored the ot goal and gave Chara a push a few years ago. You can youtube it.

Jack Edwards - "Max Pacioretty, the win wasnt enough, he had to do a little trash talking. 67 is the new name in the books. He's a cocky kid and some day he gonna get his head taken off"

You haven't listened to NESN recently then.

Edwards was giving Montreal more respect as contenders than some here do.

He has calmed a bit down but still sometimes gets overly excited and makes silly calls. Even so, the overall calling by Edwards and the NESN team is some of the best in the NHL. Passionate, informed and very aware of the game mechanics. Far better than TSN, who seems to get a pass from most. If I have to hear Ray Ferarro talk about something that has absolutely nothing to do with any player in the game again... oh wait after 2014 I probably won't.

[DON]

Gallagher was on Canada's WJC squad in 2012, recording six points in six games.

And, our 3 Stars from yesterday are up on the site: http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=3268

I thought Gionta and Gorges played very well

[DON]

You haven't listened to NESN recently then.

Edwards was giving Montreal more respect as contenders than some here do.

He has calmed a bit down but still sometimes gets overly excited and makes silly calls. Even so, the overall calling by Edwards and the NESN team is some of the best in the NHL. Passionate, informed and very aware of the game mechanics. Far better than TSN, who seems to get a pass from most. If I have to hear Ray Ferarro talk about something that has absolutely nothing to do with any player in the game again... oh wait after 2014 I probably won't.

Hate to admit it, but Edwards even in Bruin blownout vs Wings, gave full credit to Detroit and does do some good work, but like any Bruin fan, he likely does hold a ingrained hate for Habs, which is no different than RDS/Gazette guys and their take on Bruins.

[Machine of Loving Grace]

Some interesting stats about the Atlantic Division leading Canadiens:

- Habs are 9-1-1 against the Metropolitan division. No surprise since Montreal was 13-2-0 last year against the Southeast and while they were 7-6-2 against the Atlantic last year (which is the bulk of Metro teams), they are 8-1-1 against 2012-2013 Atlantic teams plus Columbus this year.

- Montreal is 6-6-1 against the West, which sounds pretty bad, but only Tampa, Toronto and Florida have better records against the West. Boston? They've completely avoided them so far with a 2-1-2 record. Boston will be dealing with an extremely tough road trip in January against the Western Conference.

- Montreal is 7th in the league for points, 8th for ROW, 10th for Goals for (15th in GPG average), 5th for Goals Against (2nd in GAPG average) and fifth in goal differential. The team is also fifth in Powerplay and third in Penalty Kill. Only the Penguins match us in special teams strength (they are first in PP, fifth in PK).

- Montreal, along with Nashville, Buffalo and Calgary have not won a game when trailing after two.

[JoeLassister]

Im surprised you would say that. I find them to be the worst announcers in the game. Maybe not with hockey knowledge but with the way they are so partial towards the Bruins and very unproffesional. Mind you I watched it last night and they were not bad. But what I base it on is the many times I watched it in the past. I'll always remember Jack Edwards (NESN announcer) calling for Pacioretty's head after he scored the ot goal and gave Chara a push a few years ago. You can youtube it.

Jack Edwards - "Max Pacioretty, the win wasnt enough, he had to do a little trash talking. 67 is the new name in the books. He's a cocky kid and some day he gonna get his head taken off"

Jack Edwards is a shame for this profession. His quotes are most of the time totally out of place or inapropriate.

[Meller93]

We are still soft and small up front. The focus should be on getting another big forward that is hard to play against to replace DD or Gionta. If nothing else, a deadline deal for Jagr might help. He is still a beast in the offensive zone. Creates a lot of room.

I wouldn't deal DD just yet. He's currently on fire so his trade stock is going no where but up too. As of right now you probably couldn't get shit for him. And to be honest if he could keep up this level of play and if the Habs keep up this level of play, why call for a trade at all? 17 out of 18 points in the last 9 seems like the team is functioning just fine as it is.

The way I look at it is when a chink in the armour becomes apparent, make a deal. As long as you still maintain a position of strength. Montreal could simply play .500 hockey for 10 games and still have a 23-14-3 record. Could be butter but it's not tea bag at all.

[Meller93]

Also felt like sayin I watched the nesn feed too and despite that they seemed to have some base level bias, I found myself thinking they weren't as bad as before. Just like they had a little respect for the team now. I believe they even complimented PK a couple times. When Pacioretty hit boychuck they said "hard but not particularly dirty hit" which I feel like would have been "Pacioretty just took a complete cheap shot on Boychuck, that should be 5 minutes and a game."

[Machine of Loving Grace]

Also felt like sayin I watched the nesn feed too and despite that they seemed to have some base level bias, I found myself thinking they weren't as bad as before. Just like they had a little respect for the team now. I believe they even complimented PK a couple times. When Pacioretty hit boychuck they said "hard but not particularly dirty hit" which I feel like would have been "Pacioretty just took a complete cheap shot on Boychuck, that should be 5 minutes and a game."

Edwards legitimately likes this Montreal team. From his tweets:

Jack Edwards @RealJackEdwards

Warning: anyone presuming that Montreal is going to be easy to beat is badly misinformed. This is going to be a helluva game. #NESN 7:30

Habs are humbler, harder- working, healthier, and MUCH grittier than in the last few years. 3rd in NHL in Fighting Majors (20). Bs #10 (15).

There were actually angry Bruins fans last night on how much respect he was giving to Subban. I also loved his recent rant on composite sticks on Twitter.

[brobin]

I wouldn't deal DD just yet. He's currently on fire so his trade stock is going no where but up too. As of right now you probably couldn't get shit for him. And to be honest if he could keep up this level of play and if the Habs keep up this level of play, why call for a trade at all? 17 out of 18 points in the last 9 seems like the team is functioning just fine as it is.

The way I look at it is when a chink in the armour becomes apparent, make a deal. As long as you still maintain a position of strength. Montreal could simply play .500 hockey for 10 games and still have a 23-14-3 record. Could be butter but it's not tea bag at all.

We need a trade because we are not built for the playoffs. I could see a deadline deal dumping Gionta and grabbing Jagr. That would help somewhat. Or just get Jagr and have some injury depth.

DD will be very hard to trade, as much as I wish we could. He has played better, but most of the points are the result of Pacs being on fire. DD doesn't bring much on his own.

[Machine of Loving Grace]

The chances of this team "dumping" the captain are slim to none.

The last time a team traded their captain and was a top team in their conference, as far as I could find, is Chris Clark in Washington in 2008-2009. Gionta is a higher profile player than Clark.

I mean, Bergevin certainly could. It could be absolutely disastrous for the locker room to see their captain traded away when they consider themselves contenders and completely knock the team's momentum. But if that's what it takes to make you happy that one less small forward is on the team I'm sure you're fine with that.

[Habsfan]

Tony Marinaro mentioned that it was 33-9-6. Crazy!!

(It must only include this year and last year)

They mentioned it last night on RDS. I think those numbers are about right. Our record without Emelin in the line-up was something like 12-12-2 and it was something like 32-9-6 with him in the line up!

Nice to see our boys beat both the Leafs and the Bruins in the same week!

[Meller93]

The chances of this team "dumping" the captain are slim to none.

I mean, Bergevin certainly could. It could be absolutely disastrous for the locker room to see their captain traded away when they consider themselves contenders and completely knock the team's momentum. But if that's what it takes to make you happy that one less small forward is on the team I'm sure you're fine with that.

I think the only way this happens is if Montreal have a great season until about 2-3 weeks before the deadline, where they really falter. Size as seen as a problem again, so Gio is shipped out for size. As Brobin said, Jagr would be a great fit. I'm 100% with you that if the team has momentum why mess it up?

Perhaps the team is a small in the top 6 but the team as a whole is tougher, with Emelin, Murray, Prust, Parros all healthy, we can deal with it when the going gets tough.