Perhaps the Montreal Canadiens were suffering from Halloween Hangover- too many bags of chips, candy bars and liquid refreshment or maybe no one remembered to tell them Monday night was not a practice session... but a real live game! Whatever the reason the Habs were in "snooze control" for 60 minutes against the Columbus Blue Jackets and the old adage is true...Snooze and you lose and they did! Not only did they lose but they were shutout by a former Habs backup goaltender. No disrespect intended to Mathieu Garon who blanked his former team 3-0. The truth is the Blue Jackets deserved to win and the Habs didn't.
By nature I'm a positive person and look for good in all situations but I'm hard pressed to find anything to celebrate last night's fiasco. The only words that come to my mind that describes the Habs on ice performance are Stink! Stank! Stunk! When the buzzer sounded to end the game, that was good! I could then remind myself why I'm paying extra for the RDS channel to watch Habs games.
The thought crossed my mind to switch to the Sens - Leafs game and after the second period I was even tempted to change the channel to watch Dancing With The Stars. But like a horrific accident on the highway, as disturbing as it is you are compelled to look and painfully I hung in there with the Habs.
It's too early in the season for fans to panic but there's becoming reason for concern. Gomez and Spacek have been the brunt of criticism for their play lately by fans. Last night, for me, no one player looked bad, they all did. There was no energy, there was no life. Price can't be blamed for the loss. He might have stopped one goal but Nash will get the one he got 90% of the time. Where was the solid defensive hockey we were seeing? Where was the checking and hitting? I swear I saw one Habs player mouth the words "excuse me" when he attempted to get the puck along the boards. It was Chip' N Dale hockey and I'm not meaning the male strippers (now that would have provided some excitement) but rather the two cartoon chipmunks. "No, no, no you take the puck" " Oh, no you take it, I insist. " " Oh, I couldn't possibly. Why don't we both take the puck?" " Excellent idea?"
The only player we can't be too disappointed in or critical about is Andrei Markov. This is only his second game and he had no pre-season play. It will take a few games for him to get into his grove.
Then there's the power play...what power play? Even though the Habs only had 3 powerplay chances last night, it's not hard to see why it's the worst in the league. It's been twelve games and it's just not working. Isn't it time for the bozo behind the bench that's responsible for the power play to try something else? Oh, I forgot they're scoring 5 on 5 so the powerplay will come around too! Well they didn't score last night and they only got one goal on Saturday night.
The games against Florida and the Blue Jackets are games they should have won and those four points might be really important late in the season. Yes they're still tied for first in the Eastern Conference today but that can change tonight if the Capitals get a win and they shouldn't feel too comfortable being first in their division either. Ottawa is playing better hockey now and the Habs match up with them on Saturday night. Boston has a four games in hand and a hot goaltender, expect them to be climbing up the standings not slipping down. Toronto is Toronto they always play tough against the Canadiens.
One blogger suggested a bag skate for the boys today after last night's result. Personally I think they should be forced to sit and watch last night's game in it's entirety, like we poor (fools) I mean fans did. If they don't get the message after that, they never will.
Still there's another game to play and another chance for redemption. The truth is if the Habs beat the Sabres on Friday night no matter what the score, we fans will forget Tuesday night's stinker very quickly.
No matter how annoyed or disturbed we get with this team, they are the Canadiens. They are our team and we gotta love 'em. Go Habs, Go! Please!
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