Canadiens Lose To Bruins

The Montreal Canadiens lost to the Boston Bruins 5-1 tonight at the Bell Centre, in a game which should have had the Habs play with the intent to close out the series, but the Habs had other plans.

Alex Kovalev, who was the lone scorer for the Habs played decent all game long, so did Josh Gorges, and a couple of other players, were was the rest of the team? Carey Price had his first bad game in a while, but he kept the Canadiens in the game for the whole series so this game shouldn’t be hung over his head.

The Canadiens had an opportunity to close the series on home ice, and relax, and heal some bumps and bruises before the start of the next series. The Habs once again missed many shots, or their shooting lanes were blocked, hello, are the coaches studying tapes, or are they just hoping that the better team will prevail, if that’s the case, with the exception of game no.1, the Bruins have been the better team, even without some of their players.

Are the Habs missing Saku Koivu, and Francis Bouillon that much? Is the fact that Bouillon, and Koivu aren’t playing affecting the team to such a degree? If in fact the reason that the power-play is non-existent, and that the no.1 line for the Habs all season isn’t working is because the Habs are missing those two players, are the Habs as good as their statistics indicated?

It seems as though the Bruins want it more than the Habs. What happened to the buzz cut boys team unity? Where have all the stars for the Habs gone? The other day in an interview with the French media, Tomas Plekanec said that he was playing like a girl, well guess what Pleky, you still are. Plekanec has been playing like a junior, and Andrei Kostitsyn hasn’t fared any better, Sergei Kostitsyn has taken stupid penalties, and almost every time he carries the puck into the opposing zone, he loses it on his own, not to mention that he tries to go through three players to get into the zone.

What are the Habs thinking, their play since game one has gotten worse game by game, sure the plumbers are playing well and scoring a couple of goals but they won’t win the series for the Habs if no-one else is chipping in. Where is Chris Higgins, you see him on the ice as he zooms by, but he doesn’t really do anything. Stop trying to push through the Bruins, if they are playing the trap, then dump it in and chase it, but get there before the Bruins do. The Habs overcame the New Jersey Devils trap system earlier this year, the Devils are the best at the trap, so why can’t the Habs beat the Bruins style of it?

What ever the case may be, the Canadiens go to Boston to play game 6 on Saturday, the Habs had better come out and tear the house down, enough of this boring neutral zone play, do what you did in the regular season, score goals, sure it’s harder in the play-offs, but still, the Habs have the skill to do it. The Habs still lead the series 3-2, but the Bruins have the momentum, will Koivu and Bouillon be inserted into the line-up on Saturday? Well if that’s what it takes then they should be, maybe those players are missed by the team, it would allow the coaches to get there season line-up back together.

After game no.1 the Habs fans were ecstatic, and especially when the Habs took a 3-1 lead in the series, now they are sitting on their hands. Don’t lose faith, just send a message to the players to start playing like they did in the regular season, in the regular season, they could beat anyone, but now they have problems with the Bruins, so be a real fan and support them, and telepathically send them a wake up call.