11 Axelsson 37 Bergeron 73 Ryder
17 Lucic 91 Savard 81 Kessel
12 Kobasew 46 Krejci 26 Wheeler
33 Chara 44 Ward
34 Hnidy 45 Stuart
48 Hunwick 6 Wideman
MTL
17 Laraque 11 Koivu 13 Tanguay
21 Higgins 14 Plekanec 27 Kovalev
6 Kostopoulos 20 Lang 46 Kostitsyn
* Carbonneau has been playing around with his LW, putting Laraque on everytime Lucic is on... then after egging the young Bruin punk at the faceoff and afterwards, Big Georges goes to the bench for the winger set for that line
79 Markov 26 Gorges
44 Hamrlik 3 OByrne
51 Bouillon 71 Brisebois
End of 1st period (BOS 0-0 MTL):
I've written above a bit about the Laraque-Lucic thing. That has been the most exciting thing in this first period. Lucic smacked Komisarek in a fight last week and was showboating after the fight... and just a really annoying dude overall so Laraque wants to show him how fighting is done in the NHL. There is constant yapping and shoving before faceoffs and Laraque seems to be goading the young guy but he doesn't want to go (rightfully so, Lucic is a valuable player, way too valuable to lose for a goon). As usual, the crowd in Montreal is well aware of what is going on and boos every time Laraque invites him to a fight and he skates away.
Carey Price hasn't been very busy but he has made two awesome saves. I was quite critical of the young goaltender last year as from the little I saw, he had a very slow glove... but I was wrong and the kid is stepping up aand making crazy stops. He will be one of my highlighted players at the end of the game with an in-depth analysis of his play.
Stuart & Ward are the only guys over 7mins of ice for Boston... Why oh why are those two getting more ice than Chara & Wideman!!
The Habs coach is an equal opportunity guy giving pretty much the same ice time to everybody. Obyrne and Hamrlik are the only ones over 6mins.
End of 2nd period (BOS 1-1 MTL)
Lucic stayed classy and did not taunt the crowd or Habs after scoring the tying goal on a bad play from Bouillon who pressed the attack and left Kovalev as the defenseman... which simply will not work against a big boy like Lucic.
Boston is one hell of a hardworking group. They outplayed the Habs in this period on almost every shift. They play physical, they skate continuously, they backcheck perfectly yet always seem right there pushing back the dmen in the neutral zone as soon as they get control of the puck in their zone. Might just be the Canadiens playing crappy! Their passes are missing the mark, they get stuck in their zone forever and they cant get set up in the offensive zone.
3rd period 12:50 left (BOS 1-1 MTL)
The Habs might have trouble getting into the offensive zone but once they are set-up, it's a very sharp team with great movement, crisp passes and constantly threatening.
Tim Thomas might have crazy stats so far this year but the guy gets flustered so easily. Koivu leveled Wideman along the boards and he seemed to lose his cool. Suddenly, he wasn't standing up anymore, he kept going down while the Habs were mucking about behind the net, then hi tried a pokecheck from 10 miles away and almost lost his stick... I wouldn't feel comfortable with that goalie for the playoffs. If he gets flustered now, what will happened when things really get important and stressful?
3rd period 10:00 left (BOS 2-1 MTL)
Bad transition and backchecking again by the Canadiens leave tons of room for Krejci to get in the zone and find Hunwick who catches Price unprepared. It was a nice slapshot but Price was weak, with a huuuge opening 5-hole and his stick nowhere near to help. Nice stuff for the kid D just recalled to replace injured Andrew Ference.
3rd period 3:00 left (BOS 2-2 MTL)
Why haven't the Habs played like this for the last 57 minutes? They have been unstoppable in the last few minutes and it ended up with a great deflection from Kostopoulos to tie the game.
Why is Julien playing Savard and Ryder with less than a minute to go?? Those are the most irresponsible players defensively! Don't you at least want a point Claude?? Come on dude
End of OT (2-2)
Except for Hunwick almost scoring in his own goal, it was a nice buzzing OT but not that many real scoring chances.
Shootout!
Wheeler dekes like hell, misses the puck once and it slides in the goal
Kovalev stopped by a good low glove save
Kessel saved
Markov saved
Bergeron saved
Koivu can't lift the puck on a nice deke to the backhand and the Bruins win again
I was planning to analyze Carey Price's game tonight... but the Bruins had trouble reaching 25 shots on goal and there was little play inside the Habs defensive zone so I couldnt really watch him as much as needed. Who I did see lots of tonight was Plekanec. The guy was the best player for the Habs, constantly moving and controlling the puck, pushing into the zone then dishing out the puck. Markov ended up with 27:32 of ice time, the most by 3mins for the Habs.
For the Bruins, it was hard to think of who really stood out... Wheeler had nice moments, Krejci too... Ryder did some very nice things with the puck even though it didn't amount to much. He was dangerous with the puck and creates room for his linemates... but Zdeno Chara was really the best Bruin on the ice. 31mins of icetime, on the PK, on the power play, being such a presence, a calming influence on everybody else.
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