Monday 16 September 2013

Pre-Season Game 2: Canadiens 3, Bruins 6

With a more rugged, experienced lineup than the previous night against the Sabres, the Canadiens came up short in a training camp drubbing at the hands of the Bruins.  Jarome Iginla, trying to curry favour with his new insect overlords, played on a line with Daniel Krejci and Milan Lucic and scored twice.  Mighty mite defender Torey Krug added three assists, but was useless because he's small and soft.  Right?

I caught the game midway through the first period, and while I was dealing with jumpy streams and whatnot, had trouble figuring out what was going on.  At one point they were showing lowlights from late last season, they must have been, when Carey Price let in a soft unscreened wrister from the blue line.  And I guess there was also a retrospective of the best moments of Travis Moen's early career, since I could have sworn there was footage of him standing in front of the opposition net disrupting the defenders there and tapping in a short-range goal.

It was a good thing I watched before dinner too, since this game had a powerful emetic effect, not only due to the sight of Jarome in black and diarrhea-yellow, or the final score, but also to the sight of a proud Subban brother as a Bruin.  Peter Chiarelli was trolling Boston hard when he drafted the Belleville goalie, imagine what their stupid racist stupid fans will tweet when he lets in an unfortunate goal.  And imagine the back-breaking contortions of the apologists who will claim that those aren't 'real Bruins fans' just casual watchers who happened to be tuned in to the game and care enough to spew their hate on social media.  The famously cultured and tolerant 'real Bruins fans' will only be silent because they're busy checking if the Riesling is properly chilled, or jotting notes on this fan's technique to use the next time they're at the new Garden.

As previously stated by Michel Therrien, the team cut fourteen players from the main camp after the game, sending Martin Reway, Charles Hudon and goaltender Zachary Fucale back to their junior teams, and forwards Joonas Nattinen, Stephen MacAulay, Stefan Fournier, Sven Andrighetto, Louis Leblanc, and Erik Nyström, goaltender Robert Mayer and defencemen Morgan Ellis, Darren Dietz, Dalton Thrower, and Matt Lashoff to the Bulldogs training camp.

I guess they want to have a longer look at both Michael McCarron and Sebastian Collberg, since they're still at camp.  They can't be 'kept' in the organization/sent to Hamilton, they have to stay with the Canadiens or be sent back to the London Knights and Frolunda, respectively.  Louis Leblanc could take this as a slight, that they stay and he goes, or accept it as a practical reality, that he has a ways to go to prove himself, and that the two kids are special cases that don't apply to his.  What he should worry about, and work hard to overcome, is the fact that Michaël Bournival and Gabriel Dumont are still at the main camp, these guys are the ones he's really competing with.  He showed some good things in the game tonight, he just needs to continue on that trajectory.  I have to admit I'm not that worried about him.  All the news that have come out of camp in his regard has been encouraging.

A few fleeting thoughts remain.  Nice goal by Max Pacioretty on a feed from David Desharnais and Daniel Brière.  Stefan Fournier didn't wow me with his takedown on Adam McQuaid.  Did he have second thoughts, realize he'd bitten off more than he could chew?  He'll need to figure this out in the AHL.  He's up against fully-grown men now, not juniors, that changes things, he ain't the biggest baddest dude around.  

The refereeing was uneven, with a glaring error on the high-stick call on Gabriel Dumont, which video replay clearly showed never happened.  I did appreciate that the refs were aggressive and made more calls than non-calls.  I'm not too optimistic though, they'll tire of this when springtime comes around, the Bruins will be allowed to run rampant then.

And obviously, Ocho Cinco's new choice of career won't be a success.  A .605 save percentage, yikes!...

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