A Few Notes from the Season Opener

So Habs fans, the Centennial season has commenced! We’ve been waiting a while for this, and here we are…too bad Ryan Miller and the Sabres had to go spoil it.

Not to fear, fellow believers, not to fear. It’s one game, decided by a shootout-there’s no shootouts in playoffs. Besides, we all know Carey Price’s track record in shootout-he’ll be fine.

A few observations I made while watching tonight’s game:

Thank you, Mats Sundin: Without your offseason soap opera, and taking it to the point where Mr. Gainey couldn’t wait anymore, we would have never acquired Robert Lang from the Hawks-and what a start he had! A goal in his first shift in his first game as a member of the Tricolore…now that’s making a statement. He and Sergei Kostitsyn showed flashes of brilliance together, and Kostopoulos did a fine job on that line, but when Higgins returns from injury we will be seeing Guillaume Latendresse alongside those two, which will hopefully add another dimension to what looks to be shaping up as quite the trio-and that’s only the third line!

The Price is Right: So the Carey Price show only lasted 65 minutes, but it was the performance by the 21-year old netminder. Besides the Vanek goal, he was solid, making many key saves and showing the quickness and agility…a big year for Carey, should all go well.

Kovy and Co.: They didn’t hit the scoresheet, but every time the Kovalev-Plekanec-Kostitsyn line got on the ice, you could feel Lindy Ruff tighten up. That line had Buffalo srambling all night-give it a couple of games, and they’ll be firing on all cylinders once again…

Tanguay and Saku: These guys are gonna need a couple of games to adjust. There also going to need Chris Higgins, because someone needs to shoot the puck, and right now it isn’t going to be either one of these two. They HAVE to shoot more.

Ryan O’Byrne: Solid game tonight, I can see another Komisarek in the making here, still a work in progress, but coming along nicely.

All in all, not the start we all envisioned, but we can take some positives out of it. Some sloppy moments, especially penalties, but the PK looked good-the PP didn’t. Some time needed there as well for some chemistry to develop.

I leave you all with this final, burning question…

Why is Patrice Brisebois still around? (I have nothing against the guy, but c’mon, he’s the Breezer for a reason, those terrible passes that the opponents receive on a silver platter need to stop if he wants to be even the 7th defenseman-’cause Yannick Weber ain’t far folks…not far at all…