Habs Shut-Out Bruins 5-0, And Take Series 4-3

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 5-0 tonight at the Bell Centre, in doing so the Habs also take the series 4-3, the fans finally saw the real Habs.

The scorers for the Habs were, Mike Komisarek, from Alex Kovalev, and Saku Koivu, then Mark Streit, from Maxim Lapierre, and Kovalev, then Andrei Kostitsyn, from Sergei Kostitsyn, and Roman Hamrlik, the fourth goal was scored by Andrei Kostitsyn, from Patrice Brisebois, and lastly Sergei Kostitsyn, from Andrei Kostitsyn, and Tomas Plekanec. Carey Price made 25 saves for the shut-out.

This was the real Habs, the Habs of the regular season, the Habs that took a 2-0 lead in the first two minutes of game no.1. Where had they been hiding all this time? The Boston Bruins didn’t stop all game long, but Carey Price was spectacular on many occasions, Price made some exciting saves at opportune times, even though the Habs scored 5 goals, it was the Price show tonight, most likely a little disgusted at the fact that he let in 5 goals in each of the last two games.

The whole team played well, even Sergei Kostitsyn who once again got a couple of un-timely penalties, played well. Sergei got hit hard on the boards and had to go get some stitches, but came back and played well. The rest of the team played well too, but for the few times that the team was lacking some defensive zone coverage, Price was there to prevent the Bruins from getting any momentum.

If the Canadiens played like that all series, it would have been over in 5 games maximum. Boston’s light for the future is Milan Lucic, what a thorn in the sides of the Habs, but a good player. Yes the young factor had something to do with the fact that the Habs didn’t play well for a few games, but they prevailed, this time. Let the kids go out and celebrate tonight, and let the team breathe for a few days, no hard practices, let the bumps and bruises heal, and let Saku Koivu, and Francis Bouillon completely heal.

The Canadiens did almost everything right, they blocked shots, scored a power-play goal, and didn’t stop when they got the lead, of course Price helped, especially during the penalty-kill. Once again the referees made some bum calls, and let many penalties slip by, but it didn’t hamper the Habs tonight.

The Habs won this series, but await the winner of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Washington Capitals series which after the Caps won tonight, is tied 3-3, if the Flyers win, then the Habs would play them in the next round, if the Caps win, the Habs would play the New York Rangers. Although I think that the Habs have a better chance to get to the Conference Championship if they play the Flyers, I don’t think that they want to chose their opponents. It doesn’t matter who the Habs play, as long as the whole team shows up every game, and they play their style, they can beat anyone in the east.

Koivu, and Bouillon returned in game no.6, even though they are not healed completely, Koivu who won over 70% of his face-offs in both games, and was key in certain plays, helped the Habs give the Bruins something they didn’t plan for. Bouillon played decent, but more to the point, he gave the Habs another veteran on the blue-line, for which Andrei Markov could take a breather. Guy Carbonneau wore his ugly lucky tie, I’m starting to like that tie.

So the Habs wait for another day to see who they will face, Flyers, or Rangers. As long as the whole team plays, it doesn’t matter. Congratulations, it took longer than everyone thought, hopefully adversity will help the young kids get back to earth, and bond the team even more.