Not out of the doghouse yet!

But this was a good step in the right direction. I had almost forgotten what winning was like... *g*

First off, the Habs won. More importantly, they won because they didn't quit even though they made some stupid errors that lead to all three of the Kings' goals. As I grumpily predicted, the Kings got the first goal. As I also grumpily predicted, it came on a LA powerplay and it was mostly due to a huge lapse in defense by the Habs. I think lesson number 1 should be "it's not necessary for four guys to skate after one player. In fact it's stupid and leads to a wide open space in front of the net for the Kings to score on". Evidently they didn't learn that lesson quickly enough as they were to do the same thing in the next period. But at least the Kings didn't run away with a lead. Which would have happened if they hadn't high-sticked (is that a word even?) the first "goal" into the back of net earlier in the first period. Video replay proved the officials wrong and the goal was overturned. Thank god for that. Anyway, of all the people to score the Habs first goal, I wasn't expecting it to be Tomas Plekanec. But there he was battling for the puck which LA goalie Quick (nice name) couldn't handle when he fell flat on his face and Plekanec put it around him and into the back of the net.

Things got ugly in the second period. Josh Gorges got well... okay, this one will get debated maybe but I saw Denis Gauthier deliver a hit to Gorges head with his elbow. I also saw his feet leave the ice. To me in my biased opinion it looked like Gauthier was aiming for his head. Like I said, I'm being biased. Either way, Gorges went down and looked like he had a mild concussion after that hit. And the idiot returned to play after words only to get hit again (more on that in a sec). I seriously hope that he's okay because we can't lose him right now. While certain people on a certain English television station think that the Habs should have tried to kill Gauthier after that, I much preferred what happened next and I'm sure at the end of the day Gorges does too.

Habs ended up with a 5 on 3 powerplay. And Andrei Kostitsyn got a really nice goal almost off the faceoff. Unfortunately they couldn't capitilize on the rest of Gauthier's 5 minute penalty. Party got crashed when the Habs first of all forgot what I said about not needing four guys to chase after one opponent and the Kings pretty much got another goal exactly like the first one (except on the opposite side). Okay... that was bad.... It got worse too. Price tried to clear the puck, Gorges got the puck, Gorges got hit again, Kings took the puck and put it over Price. 3-2 Kings. Second period over.

By this point one had to wonder whether this was going to end in heartbreak again. That was three goals that the Habbies had let in by being really stupid. Full credit to the Kings for somehow being in the right place at the right time. *sighs* Well, it looked to be mostly all Kings through 18 minutes of the third period. They played really well defensively and the Habs started to look a little disinterested again. With 2 minutes to go, I'm getting annoyed despite my best efforts and Higgy saves the day when he took a pass in the neutral zone and pushed Doughty out of the way - people are griping that that should have been a penalty - and put the puck over Quick's shoulder before he could come out and poke him. Now don't tell me that wasn't at least a little nice. Of all the people who I would have thought would be saving the Habs, Higgy wasn't not on the list. At all. Maybe now we'd go to OT and have a shot at it? Or.......maybe not. A mess ensued and the next thing anyone knew 3 Kings were sent off along with Komisarek. A here's what the good luck came in. Markov shoots the puck from the blueline and it goes through the goalie. He goes to lie down and he pushes it into this own net. Or at least that's how I saw it. Whatever. Looked like a legit goal to me despite what anyone else says. Sucks majorly for the Kings but I'm not about to complain. After all those goals that the Habs have let go in in the last four games, I'll take this one. Yes, it was freaking good luck. Fine. I admit it. It still counted though and the Habs have taken 2 points for the first time in.... well, a while.

Obviously they can't play like that against Boston or else they'll get really embarrassed but we'll whine about that when that happens....

The good

• wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin
• I thought the Koivu/Pacioretty/D'Agostini looked good even if they didn't score
• Higgins' goal was nice. Sorry. I liked it.
  
• effort was mostly there from most people for a lot of it. Yes, you can have effort but be sloppy at the same time.
  

The bad

• defensive lapses at bad times
• powerplay showed a lot of crappy-ness
• Kovalev looked completely uninterested.....which dragged his whole line down....
• why did it feel like the Habs couldn't win a faceoff to save their lives even though the stats say otherwise?
• what the heck was Pacioretty getting into a fight for?!
• Latendresse not getting that puck into the open net. BAD!
• While I just said that I think myself and Gorges preferred that the Habs got a goal, it would have be a nice gesture someone attempted to do something instead of continuing to try and score....
• And.... wanna bet Gauthier is going to get suspended for less time than Sean Avery and his comments about his ex?
  

How my predictions went

• communication will still be bad....okay, so it looked pretty good other than those stupid defensive lapses
• turnovers will be made and it will be bad.....a lot of turnovers were made
• penalties will be dished out a lot. Carbo will be upset. Yup
• the Kings will score first and Price will be upset and the crowd will be booing a lot Yup
• the Koivu/Pacioretty/D'Agostini line has the best chance of working Kind of. I thought that line worked fairly well even if they didn't score.
• Brisebois - assuming he's playing - and Higgins will do something less than desireable today *coughs*
• Powerplay will work once and once only okay, so it technically worked twice....
• PK might be better but I'm not counting on it it looked not too bad
• I keep my word about not being upset when they lose to the Kings and go off to see what this Extra Attacker fantasy game thing is for the Pittsburgh Penguins.... I'm happy and now I'll go off to see how bad I am at this thing

I"m off to eat and then to sleep so I can be awake for the Australian Open Finals.

Oh and.....as if we needed more proof that Alexander Ovechkin was amazing... go look at the highlights for the Caps 4-2 win over the Red Wings (for the records, the Stanley Cup champs have just lost their 5th straight game. More than us, yes? That makes me feel better)