Habs Snooze, And Lose

The Montreal Canadiens once again lost to the Boston Bruins, this time 5-4 in Boston. Saku Koivu, and Francis Bouillon both came back tonight, it seemed to spark the Habs, obviously not enough.

The Scoring for the Habs went like this, Chris Higgins, from Saku Koivu, then Tomas Plekanec from Steve Begin, following that was Francis Bouillon, from Josh Gorges, and Sergei Kostitsyn, lastly Chris Higgins from Saku Koivu, and Sergei Kostitsyn. Carey Price made 31 saves in the loss.

The Bruins scoring was Phil Kessel, from Marc Savard, and Shane Hnidy, then Vladimir Sobotka, from Peter Shaefer, and Denis Wideman, next was Milan Lucic, from Arron Ward, and Marc Savard, then Phil Kessel, from Marco Sturm, and David Krejci, and lastly Marco Sturm, from David Krejci, and Zdeno Chara. Tim Thomas made 31 saves for the win.

When Saku Koivu won all his face-offs in the first period, and assisted on Chris Higgin’s goal, it seemed as though the Real Habs were back. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Andrei Markov continues to struggle, one could see that Bouillon doesn’t have his timing back yet, and the effortless performance of the Habs was appalling. Yes they scored 4 goals, but the checking line had one, or two good shifts all game, and the other lines, well…. When the third period started, the Habs were pinned down in their own zone for a few minutes, result, a goal. The Canadiens are having so much trouble clearing their zone, and keeping it in the Bruins zone.

The Bruins showed once again that they want it more than the Habs do, are the Canadiens even thinking about this series, or perhaps in what hot sunny place they will be playing golf next week! Koivu played well, winning most of his face-offs, and having a couple of assists, not bad for someone who started skating three days ago. Bouillon was fine half way through the second period, but what can you expect from two players coming back from injuries? I think that they at least played well considering.

It was a nail biter all the way, every time the Canadiens scored, the Bruins replied not too long after, there was some good hits from both teams, and the goalies were excellent even with the score. I think that perhaps the Habs should look at themselves in the mirror on Sunday, and decide what they want to do after Monday, play golf, or play hockey. The momentum is squarely with the Bruins, and there is the possibility that Patrice Bergeron comes back for game 7 on Monday, like the Bruins needed more motivation.

Well it’s do or die for the Habs on Monday at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens have home ice advantage through-out the Eastern Conference play-offs, meaning all game seven’s well be at the Bell Centre, but if they don’t screw their heads on right, Tuesday will be clean out your lockers day, and Wednesday the team will be dissected by every media source there is, and let’s not forget the fans. There is no reason for a game 7 against the Bruins, yes, yes, the play-offs is another story, but the Habs should have been done with this series on Thursday, now they face elimination as well. Where is the no.1 team in the East? Well they had better show up on Monday, or they will replace the Ottawa Senators on the front page of all hockey magazines this month.