Habs Out Of Gas In Anaheim

The Montreal Canadiens lost to the Anaheim Ducks 3-1, but two of the three goals came near the end of the third period.

The Habs held their own against the Ducks, the first goal the Ducks scored was a fluke goal, a couple of bounces and in. The Habs replied with a goal from Alex Kovalev, with assists from Mikhail Grabovski, and Andrei Kostitsyn. After the teams exchanged a goal each, the Habs fared nicely against one of the best teams in the NHL.

The Montreal Canadiens once again ran into the referee police who decided that they would call the Habs on 8 penalties, some of which were merited, but the ref police didn’t think to call all the picks that the Ducks were doing, or the elbows that the Ducks were landing, or all the holding, and interference that the Ducks also got away with.

The NHL must be telling the referees that the Habs have to lose, and that having the best power-play in the league for a Canadian team is unacceptable, so being that the Habs are near the basement in penalty killing, they call more penalties on the Habs nowadays.

Carey Price made 34 saves, and one goal he allowed was a fluke that he could not have stopped. Unfortunately for the Habs, the goalie being the best player for them did not make them win tonight. Tomas Plekanec did not play do to a virus he caught in Phoenix, Grabovski replaced him and played decent considering his little outburst earlier this week.

The Habs now return home to play the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, and the New York Islanders on Saturday. Let’s hope that the ref’s in the east, are ones that actually now how to do their jobs properly without being the center of attention. Perhaps Guy Carbonneau should put Ryan O’Byrne back into the lineup and sit Patrice Brisebois back in the press box, and maybe tell Maxime Lapierre to wake up and have better defensive zone coverage, Lapierre is the reason the Ducks scored their second goal as he didn’t cover his man properly.

Rough week on the road, now, a rough week at home. With the exception of the Devils, the Isles, and the St. Louis Blues, the Habs remaining opponents are division rivals, let’s hope they do well in the coming weeks.