Game Eleven: Habs vs. Canucks

Overtime:

- If Therrien plays it smart, he heavily rotates his best forwards tonight. Eller, Galchenyuk, Gallagher.

- A horrible, just horrible interference call on Gilbert. What. The. Heck?

- Emelin wandering somewhere else, leaving Daniel totally unchecked. Why Emelin was on the ice is also a mystery. 3-2 final.

Third Period:

- Emelin back for the third. Still doesn't change the fact that Burrow's hit was suspendable.

- Eller line, especially Eller has worked so hard tonight, and can't buy a goal or break. Argh.

- And Price whiffs on a snapper. A bad goal. Go figure. 2-0.

- Halfway through the 3rd, Habs offense simply throwing darts in the dark and hoping it hits something. It's not going to work.

- And a dart hits a target. Holy moly, was it Bourque?

- Nay. Galchenyuk. Didn't see the number clearly. How could I possibly have mixed those two up? It's late guys, so very late.

- Oh yeah, Galchenyuk is playing centre. Should have mentioned that.

- Habs get penalized. It was inevitable. A real softie on Eller. Officials were looking for something, anything, to calm the crowd, I suspect.

- Huge defensive breakdown by the Canucks and Pacioretty buries the puck off a beauty Weiss pass. The Habs do it again in the third period.

- And the Habs earn at least a point. They find a way, even though they could only muster 6 measly shots on Miller.

Second Period:

- Good news considered with the Habs finally doing more of zone carrying, the team is still doing the same old chopping of the puck up the boards to clear a zone. It's pretty much wrecking their neutral zone transition, and generating a mountain of icings.

- Jarad Tinordi might be one of those guys that has a decently long, totally goalless NHL career.

- Horrid turnover by Emelin on a horrid pass. 1-0 'Nucks. After the horrid pass, Burrows with flagrant head shot on Emelin. Almost nobody notices or cares, but Therrien is fuming at the officials.

- The clowns that work for Sportsnet called the Burrows headshot "finishing his check". Guess what guys? Burrows is going to get a suspension for that.

- I swear, sometimes I think Price has see-through vision.

- Habs looked so good in the first period. This period? Not so much.

- Another fantastic shift by Eller. Wish these would pay off for him with goals/points.

- Put Eller with just about anyone else other than who he's saddled with now, and he scores points. Guaranteed.

First Period:

- Well lo and behold, Therrien starts Eller. I'm of the mindset that Therrien is now doing this stuff to drive us crazy, or maybe Bergervin did an intervention. Anyway, it's good news.

- That's a weird call by Walsh who didn't call a slash until Weise demonstrated his stick had been chopped in half. That's not good officiating. It was clearly a slash regardless of a broken stick.

- Pretty sure there nobody better stopping point blank snap shots in this League than Carey Price.

- That little two on one is a pretty good demonstration why Galchenyuk has a way to go before he can play centre.

- Another futile road powerplay attempt. 0 for the last 23 (actually, zero for the season, unbelievably). Anyway, Habs are at least now carrying the zone - which is a step in the right direction. Still, bushels of passes and nobody either willing to, or able to, take a damn shot on goal.

- Desharnais is just so predictable now. Take puck, carry, try to pass to Pacioretty. Rinse, repeat. 

- Habs have been consistently carrying the puck in, perhaps more so than any game I've ever seen with Therrien behind he bench. I'm ... impressed.

- Bourque and now Prust, so many criticize Eller for his lack of production, but really ... look at what the poor guy is saddled with.

- Carey Price, again carrying (yeah yeah) more than his share of the load.

- Pleasing period. Habs were clearly attempting to so more, way more, zone entires either carry or passing the puck. Dumps were few and far between. It's as though the team had an epiphany. "Hey wow, we have speed and skill, let's try using it!". Anyway, I'm happy.

Gameday Game Preview:

Vancouver! What a beautiful city! The city of champions like ... the ... uh ... well ... anyway ... Stanley Park! It's beautiful! Hey, look over there. A pot smoking hippie. Lots of them in these parts. And over here is Granville Island. So much beautiful fresh food to buy. And if you look to your left, we see a tire fire from a riot. And straight ahead, why, that's Gastown. Are you a heroin addict by chance? GREATrw!

Actually, Vancouver is a very nice place mostly comprised of nice people. The weather, when it isn't raining four consecutive months, is pretty nice, especially for those of us who endure Canadian Prairie winters. And it's hockey team is ... well ... did I mention the weather? It's very nice.

The Vancouver Canucks. Dear, or dear. What to say. They were following the quintessential blueprint for building a champion so well for so many years. Drafting well, developing young talent into stars. Signing sold third and fourth line free agents here and there. It got them a ticket to a Stanley Cup final, which is pretty impressive. But then there was the goaltending, and the chocking, and then misappropriation of key assets, and then everything just kind of fell apart. And then most of the front office decision makers were fired. And now ... they're rebuilding.

It's not a riot zone of destruction, mind you. The Canucks still retain some pretty good assets like Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Ryan Miller was picked up during the summer, as was centre Nick Bonio and defenseman Radim Vbrata, Still, these Canucks are a team that didn't come close to making the post-season last year, and even with the change of front office guard, and an attempt to refresh and reinvigorate their starting lineup, it remains highly unlikely Vancouver will be able to claim a wild card spot in the tough Western Conference.

Now. We shift to Habsland. Lots of things happening today.

First, a small review of the last game against Edmonton. What a mess. The night somehow salvaged by an unbelievable performance by Carey Price, who spends far too much time making his coach look good by standing on his head.

Speaking of the coach ... hoo boy. Developments today. Lars Eller, one of the few guys who's actually played a relatively consistent  game this season, despite a low point total (but I mean, look at who he's saddled with on each wing, folks), is a healthy scratch tonight. It's an absolutely perplexing decision by Therrien, especially when you consider how many other players have been consistently worse this season, the foremost being, to no one's surprise, Rene Bourque.

Yet, Bourque gets a pass, and Eller gets a sit in the press box.

Eventually, you just have to wonder what runs through the mind of one Michel Therrien. It's pretty clear right now, it isn't sound judgement or logic.

Puck drops at 10:10 est. Grab your jammies and a cup of coffee.

Oh yeah. Fire Therrien.