Game Twenty-Three: Habs vs. Rangers

THIRD PERIOD:

- Yeah, I know Therrien likes to juggle things up, but this Desharnais/Pacioretty/Weise combo is inexcusable.

- Speaking of inexcusable, the Gilbert/Allen combination is pretty atrocious, Allen looking worse as the game progresses. Hagland makes it 4-0. Lights out.

- Oh boy. Lundqvist comes darting out of his net into Prust's path, gets bumped and sends himself flying. Disgraceful. Somehow Montreal doesn't get a powerplay, even though Prust is wrongfully mobbed by Rangers goons.

- Emelin still getting shifts. If Beaulieu or Tinordi did what Emelin did tonight, they'd be on the first bus to Hamilton.

- Don't have the numbers, don't really need them. Fair to say the Rangers have won the vast majority of puck battles tonight. A pathetic effort by the Habs.

- Good lord. Nash. Where Subban and Markov were, who knows? Tokarski looked bad there. 5-0. It's been a drubbing.

- Habs come alive. In the final three minutes. Sorry guys you ain't fooling anyone.

- Wretched performance for everyone involved. 5-0 to Chicago. 5-0 to New York. Number one teams don't lose this badly, even on back to back nights. The lofty heights are a facade. 

SECOND PERIOD:

- Great start. Neutral zone turnover and soft defensive reponse (indifferent?), Stepan converts a neat pass by St. Louis and it's 2-0. Habs continue to look like they've played a back to back to back game. Sloppy and slow.

- I know the Habs wanted to test drive their acquisition, but it's hard to envision how Allen is an improvement over either Beaulieu or Tinordi.

- St. Louis having a monster game - he's single handedly stoping all over the corpse of the Montreal Canadiens.

- Habs slowly gathering some legs at the halfway mark, but it's still not nearly enough to reasonably compete tonight. Only lucky bounces will save this game tonight.

- Alexei Emelin. Just awful. The Habs motto "no excuses." Well there is absolutely no excuse for failing to hustle back to pick up a loose puck, get pocket picked by St. Louis. 3-0. One of the most shamef and embarrassing goals I've ever seen given up by this franchise. 

- Brilliant pass by Subban sending Desharnais across the Rangers line in full flight, he could have easily driven the net for a goal, but instead makes a useless pass that's easily intercepted. Same old story.

- Not like the nightmarish first period, but still pretty bad. Habs getting their clocks cleaned tonight. Fully deserved the scoreboard butt kicking.

FIRST PERIOD:

- That's a pretty soft trip call on Markov. If the officials are going to be that strict for e rest of the game, they might as well plan a parade to the penalty box.

- Allen unspectacular but competent. That's really all there is to say about him, at least from what we've seen so far.

- Another poor first period start, Habs getting totally outskated in their zone. One side of the ice barely touched.

- Tokarski drops an easy 60 foot shot, Emelin wanders off to somewhere else, Galchenyuk fails to hustle back to cover his man, and Moore shots in the loose puck. 1-0.

- Really could easily be 3-0 Rangers, virtually every second of the period played on the Habs side of the goal.

- Looks like only on line has shown up tonight for the Habs - the Eller line. Otherwise, everyone else looks pretty much half-asleep.

- god awful Habs powerplay, creating two great scoring chances ... for the Rangers.

- Bad Habs version in that first. This team is impossible to figure out - how can a team leading the League standings be so consistently awful in the first period? How can a team this so dysfunctional with its powerplay have 16 wins in 22 games? Incredible.

Yeah. The hell with the Rangers. Tonight, revenge shall be extracted. Without prejudice.

Also, Dustin Tokarski will start, so we're safe.

Live blogging to commence shortly.