Habs Lose, but Prove They Belong

The Montreal Canadiens should feel pretty good after Game 1 of their Eastern Conference clash against hated rival Boston.

Quite frankly, the Habs were right there with the B's on Thursday night, and might have evened deserved better than a 4-2 loss. In fact, the visitors probably surprised even themselves with their ability to compete physically with Boston, a big, rawboned team with some serious hitters.

The Canadiens did well to fight back from a 2-0 deficit to make it a deadlocked game well into the third, and only a Bruin power play allowed the home team the room to pot the winner, with Marc Savard making a nice look off before setting up Zdeno Chara.

Carey Price was very good in the Montreal net, another good sign. But he also showed one of his most maddening characteristics on the first Boston goal of the night, a tendency to be just too casual at times when urgency is called. With the puck loose in his knees, Price moved calmly to cover it with his glove, but not quickly enough before it was jarred loose and stuffed into an open net.

It's a little thing, but these are the Stanley Cup playoffs and you need your goaltender to leap upon that loose puck as though he were protecting a baby, not coolly try to swipe it with his glove.

Too cool for school is how my TSN colleague Michael Farber frequently describes Price, and this was another occasion in which that description fit.

The Habs got good mileage, if not enough offence, out of their good players, including strong efforts by Saku Koivu and Chris Higgins. That said, the absence of Andrei Markov from the blueline is glaring, and a big problem when the Canadiens try to organize their power play.

The Habs didn't get blown out, as some predicted they would. They got a taste of the physical sacrifice it will take to win this series, and for one night, even in defeat, they appeared prepared to pay it.

Comments

[Noam Sugarman]

It's amazing how when you watch the Bruins, they always manage to look like the underdog, even when they come within a nose hair of the President's Trophy. I can't help but cheer for them this year, especially against the unlikeable Montreal Canadiens. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the animosity spill over into game two, but the league will probably ask the officials to make sure that doesn't happen, for some maddening reason.

[Scott CL]

I'd like to know how many games suspension Montreal's Kostopolous, or however it's spelled, will get for the elbow he threw that started the melee at the end of the game. Philadelphia's Carcillo got one game for less.

[Gabe]

The big bad Bruins sure did have a tough time with those lowly Habs... Next game will most likely be a much different outcome. Montreal has gained momentum with the loss (as funny as that might seem) and the Bruins know if won't be a cake-walk.

[GPK]

Credit Grabovski for the Bruins win. Without their MVP, the Habs fell just a bit short. Markov's puck moving and positional play was sorely missed and might've been the difference. On to game 2

[Jim]

problem with the premise is that if you watched the Bruins this season you'd know this was way off their standard. They were optimal for about a total of 10 minutes tonite. Obviously Montreal deserves some credit for that, but on the "room for improvement" scale Boston has a lot more room than Montreal. Not sure if those Habs dmen - who played really good tonite - can keep that up for several games without Markov.

[Peter]

for some reason the Bruins took their feet off the throttle and let Montreal back into the game. i wonder if the league will do anythink with Kosto-dirty-pulos and Komisarek...

[Sk88ts]

Prove they belong? The Bruins played their C game and still won while the Habs worked hard and came away empty handed. Maybe the Habs found out that even when the Bruins play poorly their best still isn't good enough. Call it what you want this Habs team is bad and their goaltender was 2 hit posts away from having 5 goals scored on him. They handled the physical game Thursday but towards the end of the game you could see Boston's depth was too much. Lucic schooled Schnieder who could not stop him with that bad shoulder on the empty net goal.

[Conn Smythe]

Agree with Sk88ts...Bruins played a pretty bad game and won, and Montreal played a great game and lost.

The key in this series is Chara - if he stays healthy, the habs are in trouble - Gainey can keep putting out Laraque, but Laraque can't score and is terrible in his own end.