Habs Beat Flyers

The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime tonight at the Bell Centre, in doing so the Habs take game no.1 and lead the series 1-0.

The scoring for the Habs went like this Andrei Kostitsyn from Sergei Kostitsyn, then Alex Kovalev from TomasPlekanec, then Kovalev from Saku Koivu, and finally in overtime Tom Kostopoulos from Andrei Markov. Carey Price made 30 saves for the win. The scoring for the Flyers went like this R.J. Umberger from Randy Jones, and Derian Hatcher, then Jim Dowd from Steve Downie, and Patrick Thoresen and lastly Joffrey Lupul from Braydon Coburn, and Mike Richards. Martin Biron made 30 saves in the loss.

This was a game that felt from the viewers point of view that didn’t have much action. It felt like no team wanted to impose the physical aspect, and were afraid of each others power-play. The Canadiens started of well, playing better than the Flyers for a while but couldn’t cash in on their chances, even-though the Flyers were out played early in the game, they took advantage of their chances.

The Flyers scored first, lucky redirect thanks to Patrice Brisebois putting it in his own net, their second goal Carey Price was screened, and their last goal was questionable as it looked like Lupul’s foot directed the puck in, but Kovalev’s first goal was questionable as well as to how high his stick was, Kostitsyn’s goal was a rebound, and Kovalev’s second goal was a nice shot, Kostopoulos banged in his own rebound to win the game.

Both teams looked like neither one wanted to fully open up, or they were both tired. I guess we’ll see what happens next game. The Habs out played the Flyers for about 2 periods, Philly didn’t impress me, they just capitalized on their chances, besides that the Flyers were being led by the Habs for the most part. The Canadiens hit two posts in the first period, and missed the net on a few occasions, but I’m sure that they will rebound next game.

The Habs took game one at home, they played just well enough to win, let’s hope that they learned their lesson against the Boston Bruins, which is just because the other team is down, doesn’t mean the series is in the bag. The Habs have to come out strong next game like they did tonight, but this time they have to capitalize on their opportunities, as the Habs could have been leading 2-0 early in the first. The Flyers are not the Bruins, they have some more talent, so if the Habs have the chance to take a lead, or put the game away, then they should as the Flyers showed that they can beat arguably the best player this year in Alex Ovechkin, so they can come back against the Habs.

1-0 series lead for the Habs, let’s hope they play the whole series this time, instead of choosing when they want to show up. In reality, Price was weak on Lupuls goal, he had it in his glove, but it came out, he should play a bit better as the series goes on and he learns who shoots from where, and who passes.

For the most part this was a boring game, not much action, not much hitting, a little speed, but nothing to write home about. The Habs will probably play better next game, but hey, they should be happy they won, they didn’t play horrible, just not as good as they can…