Habs win while fans snooze

You know, people keep talking about the Bruins or the Maple Leafs (err well, maybe not the Leafs anymore) being the Habs top rivals and in the case of the Bruins, the team that has been causing them the most grief. I disagree with that. The Habs worst enemy is themselves. How many times have we see a game where the Habs should have dominated and they didn't? They didn't dominate not because the other team was good but because the Habs were simply not altogether there. I still think that this team can handle any team in the league including Boston and San Jose. But they there are just some days when they haven't come up with their best effort for whatever reason.

My point?

Well... the Habs didn't really show up tonight that's what!

But on to the game now:

It was the battle of the horrid clothing styles tonight. On one side we had the entire Predators team in their puke coloured jerseys. And on the other side we had Guy Carbonneau with his weird striped suit and spotted tie. The winner? Well.... both lost on the stylistic points but it was the good looking Habs who ultimately prevailed.

I was hoping that the Habs would show that they had left the Bruins behind in Boston and come out and clobber the Predators but umm, I guess the Habs had a different idea. The good news is that the Habs won. The bad news is that for a lot of the game, it looked like the Habs had left their brains in Boston. Oh sure, they got the first goal but can someone tell me why it wasn't until 19:26 when Latendresse ripped a shot from the blueline - or wherever he actually shot it from (I almost missed it what with my mind wandering to other things) and finally put it past Pekka Rinne? Please tell me that it wasn't just because the Preds played good defense, were able to get the puck out of their own zone fairly quickly which kept the Habs really good chances at a goal to a minimum, that they took a particular disliking to Kovalev who was playing tonight, and just over all frustrated the Habs? Because the Habs could have come up with answers to all of those problems. They just didn't.

The second period was.... interesting. The Preds outshot the Habs 10 to 2 and got a goal for their troubles. Tootoo was the one doing the celebrating but it was Dumont who got the credit for the goal. The Preds took 4 penalties and with 3 of them coming in the first period. The Habs looked horrendous on all three of those penalties in the first period but they caught a break in the second period and despite getting practically no shots on goal, they scored a goal on the powerplay. Andrei Kostitsyn actually got a very nice goal. I'm still amazed that the powerplay is alive... especially last night....

On to the third period! I was just whining about how dead the Habs were looking when Markov scored in the first minute of the period. Technically his goal went off the skate of Radek Bonk's skate and past Rinne but no one was complaining in the Bell Center. Fiddler then recorded his seventh goal of the year when the Habs defense fell asleep and let Halak try to figure out two of the Preds on his own. Fiddler scored on his own rebound while Halak was left sprawling on the ice.

On a whole, I wasn't impressed at all with this game. The Habs were completely not there but were lucky to catch some breaks and steal the win. If you want proof that the Habs weren't there tonight than tell me how they couldn't score on an empty net? I'm not talking about scoring from their own zone. They owned that last minute or whatever that Rinne was not in the net. They were all over the Pred's zone. But they couldn't score....... And no... the Preds weren't just that amazing on the defense.... the Habs weren't there...

The good

1. Whine all you want, but I liked Halak. I think he was solid again.
   
2. Ummm a win was nice...
3. Begin may have lost his fight terribly but bonus points for trying! It's more than a certain other guy has done for the team.....
   

The bad

1. uh the apparently dozy playing.... that has to be one of the most boring games I've ever seen... and the Maple Leafs were playing the Hurricanes on TSN.....
   
2. not scoring on an empty net when you have guys all over the Pred's zone and you had plenty of time to set up a shot that would have gone in. Okay, so maybe that was just the most exciting bit of the entire game....
   

The stupid

1. Every time I had a thought about about how the game was going to go, everyone had to go and do the opposite. I was just sitting there wondering when or if Nashville was going to score and oops, they scored. Then I was despairing over the Habs every getting 1) a shot on goal in the second period and 2) actually getting a goal and bingo, Andrei Kostitsyn scores. Then I was further whining about how badly they were doing when Markov scores too. And just when I was thinking that maybe this will be the factor that gets the guys going, another goal goes in past Halak. Eh. Go figure. I think I'll stop having thoughts during the game.
   

My wish for Saturday:

1. Considering I'm going to be there... I would appreciate a resounding win over the Sens. Please? For me?

Around the league in 1.23 minutes

• Islanders almost fared better than Habs against Boston. Bruins took it 2-1.... No idea how that happened.......
  
• Toronto completely dominated Carolina in Raleigh going up 4-0 before the Hurricanes woke up. They recorded one goal in the second period and then took three more to even up the game. Unfortunately, the Leafs came back and potted in two more. Only saw part of the game, but I'm thinking Schenn got the starter in nets and was replaced with Toskala in the third period because he was needed to play some defense instead hence the 6-4 score.
  
• Wild down the Oilers 5-1.
• Tampa Bay pulls off big upset over the Flyers. It's the Flyers so I'm not complaining too much but umm.... really... did the team not show up or something? I don't necessarily blame them for not showing.... Oh well!
  
• Dallas just wasted a big lead over the Sabres and they're going to OT now...
  
• Luongo may be back and the Canucks may have Sundin now but they're still struggling. They're currently down by 2... err 3?! goals to the Coyotes.