In the quest for brevity, let's put it this way: yikes!...
The Canadiens laid an egg on the second game of a back-to-back on the road, losing 5-0 against the rested Rangers, who benefited from an unscheduled day off on Friday, their game in Buffalo against the Sabres being canceled due to snow.
Humble thoughts, in very digestible point form:
-The Habs went .500 against the Pens, Blues, Bruins and Rangers, which is respectable. It may have been the reasonable objective for this spell. Anything better than that would have been nice.
-The Rangers are a fast team, too. When people say the Canadiens are fast, I kind of nod, but take it for granted, when Max or Tomas go off on breakaways, when Dale Weise or Michaël Bournival are flying all over the ice. Tonight, I saw that from Carl Hagelin, Mats Zuccarello and Martin St. Louis, and went "Oh, that's what that feels like..."
-Not blaming Dustin Tokarski for the loss, but this is the kind of game where Carey might have made one or two more big saves to keep the boys in it, motivate instead of deflate them until they found their legs and their inspiration, and mounted a comeback.
-Chris Kreider continues to roam the Earth, uncurbed.
-If my team is going to have an enforcer, I want him to play like Brandon Prust does. He went after the puck hard in the third period, but put on the brakes and held up instead of barreling into Henrik Lundqvist. When Kevin Klein insisted on finding fault with this and demanded satisfaction, Brandon filled in the mohawked palooka. Nice job.
-Compare to Milan Lucic's putrid turn when he cynically went after Ryan Miller and the crooks at the NHL let him get away scot free.
-Nos Canadiens are honest and pure of heart.
-Which is more than we can say for Henrik Lundqvist, with that backwards flop like Earl Campbell had just run into him on fourth and 1. Hey Henrik! Enough with the wincing...
-Glaring turnover by Alexei Emelin on Martin St. Louis' goal, and obviously he knew it. He just took his foot off the gas a touch, and 99% of the time he would still have made that play, but he got burned. We have seven d-men playing now, wonder if he sits next game.
-Because I bet Michaël Bournival will be ready by the time we play again on Friday against the Sabres. We'll run with twelve forwards then, and only six D. Realistically though, Alexei has earned himself some latitude, and I would think it's Bryan Allen who sits Friday.
-And Nathan Beaulieu will be sent to Hamilton, where with him and Jarred, there will be even fewer excuses for the Bulldogs. They have to make the playoffs, comfortably.
-Still waiting for P.K. Subban to wow me, consistently. At $9M, he can't have off nights. He will, but it's not permitted.
-It'll be good for the Habs to have all this time off between games, get a lot of practices in, and allow Sergei Gonchar and Bryan Allen to blend in better, integrate into the team.
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