THIRD PERIOD:
- He's had a fine game, Gonchar with a point wrister redeflected by Parenteau with his second of the night, and the ship is righted a bit with a two goal lead reestablished. In any case, Gonchar looks like an excellent pickup - at least tonight.
- Flyers defense looks really sluggish right now. Habs might score one or two more before this night is done.
- Incredible scrum around Price, the Flyers Reed somehow retrieves a puck that's never frozen and snaps it past Price. The puck luck has kept Philly in this game.
- Ofdicials with a quick whistle denying Gallagher a goal, only moments later. The irony and poor officiating is strong.
- Win or lose, Habs defense hasn't been assertive tonight protecting its goaltender. Hopefully the line gets a talking to after this one is done.
- Habs doing a lot of chasing in their zone. Tying goal might be moments away.
- Well that'll help. Emery lets a softie in off a Weise wrister, and surely ... surely that will wrap this one up.
SECOND PERIOD:
- Lecavalier in his younger years, would have buried one of his two PP scoring chances. He's just lost too much of a step.
- Lecavalier in his younger years, would have buried one of his two PP scoring chances. He's just lost too much of a step.
- Strange penalty calls tonight. No rhyme or reason other than taking turns. One on Habs, one on Flyers.
- Parenteau and Desharnais getting cute again on the powerplay. Already they've forgotten the can't-miss lessen for success in the first period.
- Well nevermind. Plecks-Gally-Subban-bam-3-0. Third powerplay goal. And counting. When it rains it pours. Again the Flyers unit just too slow footed and physically soft to stop anything.
- If Habs continue to score by carrying the puck in, even Therrien will have relent on the dump-and-chase.
- For no real good reason Prust drops his gloves and proceeds to hurt his elbow. He won the fight, but up three goals, who cares?
- Game slowing up as Habs start to sit. At the halfway mark of the second period. Wayyyy to early.
- Yup. Sitting on it, Schenn wrists one past Price and it's 3-1. Habs forwards just taking too much time to cover their zone.
- Plekanac makes it 4-1, official signals goal, but then calls Gallagher for a hold, taking away a goal. I'm fit to be tied to understand the calls tonight.
- And .... another call. Oy. Flyers set to make it 3-2.
- Tentative, overly conservative play (tuttuling) has cost the Habs a comfortable lead through two periods. Yes, it should have been 4-1, but blown calls aside, this team started to sit far too early, wrongly thinking the Flyers had nothing in the tank. Well, now they'll have to battle to earn two points. Unnecessarily so.
FIRST PERIOD:
- Habs off to a good first period start?? My eyes must deceive me.
- Habs off to a good first period start?? My eyes must deceive me.
- DRINK. POWERPLAY.
- That's more like it. Quick shots on goal (Pacioretty), rebound prone Emery, Paranteau cashes in. POWERPLAY GOAL.
- POWERPLAY. DRINK AGAIN.
- Guess who gets the quick shot away? Paxioretty. Desharnais the easy deposit. 2-0. Flyers PK utterly incompetent (that helps a bit).
- Wasn't exactly star-struck by what I saw from Gonchar on Thursday, but he's looking a heckova lot more involved and mobile tonight.
- Silly roughing call on Gallagher. Officials trying to "even" things up, I suspect.
- Subban letting forwards get past him undetected. Too many times this season.
- Habs totally outskating and outmuscling the Flyers in Philly's zone - reflective of a thin Flyers defense, and given they played last night, perhaps tired legs.
- The very first time this season the Habs clearly outplayed their opponent in the first period. It took 18 games to reach that milestone.
GAMEDAY GAME PREVIEW:
WHO'S NUMBER ONE IN THE LEAGUE? WE'RE NUMBER ONE IN THE LEAGUE.
Really, dammed if I know how we've arrived at the top of the heap nearly one quarter through the regular season schedule? Productive offense? Naw. Miserly defense? Uh, no. Powerplay production? Hah ... uh, yeah. Dumb luck? I'm starting to wonder. We all have since the team got off to a 7-1 start that maybe, just maybe, the hockey gods have been overly generous this year. Maybe it's a make-up for the 10 years we fans were subjected to the horrors of Rejan Houle and Mario Tremblay.
Oh, Mario. Did ya hear today? Apparently the genius never-to-coach-again ex-coach says the reason why P.K. Subban hasn't been producing this year is that he's out of shape. HAHA ... makes you wonder, does Tremblay even use his eyes. I mean, geez louise, have you seen P.K. Subban? In person? I have. The man is a rock of muscle and athleticism.
The reason why P.K. hasn't scored a ton this year is pretty simple. The team's powerplay unit is a complete disaster ... on pace to score 13 ... that's right, 13 extra man goals this season. Second big reason? P.K. has too much Therrien in his head. He's not carrying the puck through the neutral zone, he's rarely, if ever pinching from the line, he's doing everything you're not supposed to do if you're an offensive defenseman. The culprit here isn't Subban, its the guys telling Subban how he's to play.
Anyway, tonight. The Flyers. Up three goals late in the 3rd period back in mid November, Philadelphia somehow found a way to be on the losing end of a 4-3 score to the Habs. The Flyers, as many expected, have slowly but surely sunk their way down their division, and conference standings - the almost certainly won't be making a post-season appearance next spring, and might not be a playoff presence for some time to come, as they go through a rebuilding process.
So even with the iffy offense, the wobbly defense, and the god-awful powerplay, the Habs should be in pretty good shape to extend (this sounds crazy) their first play lead in the NHL standings.
But then, we thought the Oilers were going to be a piece of cake, and we all know how that turned out.
Puck drops at 7:10 EST. On local cable CITY TV (good grief), if you can stand it.
WHO'S NUMBER ONE IN THE LEAGUE? WE'RE NUMBER ONE IN THE LEAGUE.
Really, dammed if I know how we've arrived at the top of the heap nearly one quarter through the regular season schedule? Productive offense? Naw. Miserly defense? Uh, no. Powerplay production? Hah ... uh, yeah. Dumb luck? I'm starting to wonder. We all have since the team got off to a 7-1 start that maybe, just maybe, the hockey gods have been overly generous this year. Maybe it's a make-up for the 10 years we fans were subjected to the horrors of Rejan Houle and Mario Tremblay.
Oh, Mario. Did ya hear today? Apparently the genius never-to-coach-again ex-coach says the reason why P.K. Subban hasn't been producing this year is that he's out of shape. HAHA ... makes you wonder, does Tremblay even use his eyes. I mean, geez louise, have you seen P.K. Subban? In person? I have. The man is a rock of muscle and athleticism.
The reason why P.K. hasn't scored a ton this year is pretty simple. The team's powerplay unit is a complete disaster ... on pace to score 13 ... that's right, 13 extra man goals this season. Second big reason? P.K. has too much Therrien in his head. He's not carrying the puck through the neutral zone, he's rarely, if ever pinching from the line, he's doing everything you're not supposed to do if you're an offensive defenseman. The culprit here isn't Subban, its the guys telling Subban how he's to play.
Anyway, tonight. The Flyers. Up three goals late in the 3rd period back in mid November, Philadelphia somehow found a way to be on the losing end of a 4-3 score to the Habs. The Flyers, as many expected, have slowly but surely sunk their way down their division, and conference standings - the almost certainly won't be making a post-season appearance next spring, and might not be a playoff presence for some time to come, as they go through a rebuilding process.
So even with the iffy offense, the wobbly defense, and the god-awful powerplay, the Habs should be in pretty good shape to extend (this sounds crazy) their first play lead in the NHL standings.
But then, we thought the Oilers were going to be a piece of cake, and we all know how that turned out.
Puck drops at 7:10 EST. On local cable CITY TV (good grief), if you can stand it.
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