Game 21: Habs score huge win over Wings

Detroit just returned from a 3 game road trip in the west. They didn't have that usual extra drive to counter our Habs last night. We had more room in the Wings' zone too that other teams usually clog up. It was an important win, but not a defining win. Putting several of these games together consistently will define what is possible for the playoffs. We are still not designed completely yet for very deep in the playoffs. I really liked the grit & hustle, the fore & backchecking combined with the skill that we definitely have is the only way we will win consistently. Price would be even better if he did not go so low when in his butterfly. The book is to go high on Price. He flops to sit on his haunches, costing him 12 " of vulnerable vertical space. That was the first game in a long time where an effective strategic game plan was obvious from Carbonneau. The team, and Carbonneau, coming to the defence of O'Byrne was also inspiring and great to see. It showed TEAM character, and hopefully will be a catalyst to realise what has been obviously missing; character, chemistry and a backbone.

Another review and preview, Babcock suspects foul play in Hab manoevers after the Boys lay Motor City to waste. ...cry-baby... http://habsbros.blogspot.com/ Peace Out ______________________________________________________ Lord Bugs Potter, esq. Earl of Fluppitburg, Baron of Flopshlupshire and Knight of the Flannel Republic.

Ironic the Habs trapped and played defense first against the Red Wings. The very strategy they could not adjust to when employed against them in recent games... The Habs recent losses were mostly attributable to their inability or unwillingness to adjust to the trap (the Leafs & Boston games in particular). Instead of dumping and chasing they kept trying to 'dance' through three to four defenders in the neutral zone or even worse those f*#&$! cross ice passes coming across the opposing blue line... Overall they have been playing well recently (a couple of no shows in between) and it was great to see them get rewarded for their efforts last night, especially after the Islander game, which outcome aside, I think was their best effort this season... Is it me or does the team seem to play better when "Latin-Dress" is not playing?

This is a reply to Vintage on the second page... No i think head shots should be deemed illegal of course, im not for seeing any player get injured, but there are blatant hits to the head and then theres clean hits, where momentum will carry and cause parts of the upper body to elevate: a good example: Boullion on Ovechkin last year, ovechkin broke his nose on that hit, how do you think that happened, theres a size difference between boullion and Ovy so Boullion must have gotten his arms up to cause that but nevertheless a clean hit, Wideman on Stajan this year, perfectly legal hit, he cut across the middle and wideman seen the opening and hit him square on, now the bad ones : Kovy on Gagne, as much as i love Kovy that was a clear headshot, i forget the guys name on phoenix who hit Akost, his arms went completely up to Akost head when he could have simply hit him without bringing his arms to the head, Ruutu on Lapierre, again blatant head hunt...theres differences between blatant intent to injure and simple hockey hits to take the player away from the puck & play as everyone knows you gotta keep your head up in the game but every one is still gonna look down to keep an eye on the puck and thats bound to happen and you will get hit, remember this is a mans game and every player in the NHL knows if they arent fully aware of there surroundings they will get leveled its just a matter of where the hitter is looking to hit... "We get nose jobs all the time in the NHL, and we don't even have to go to the hospital." ~Brad Park.

I was at the game yesterday in Detroit and let me tell ya, the Habs fans at Joe Louis Arena made a MAJOR DISTURBANCE. It was awesome! I would estimate that the building was 40% Habs. A few minutes after the game ended, I told my friend that was there(he's a Red Wings fan mind you) that I wanted to walk to the other side of the arena to see if I could catch a glimpse of the guys at CJAD radio, or Benoit Brunet or Jacques Demers. But I couldn't find any of them. Slightly disappointed, I kept walking a little further and lo and behold, who do I see??? Bob Gainey standing way at the top all by himself trying to finish up his carton of popcorn! I shouted to him, "Mr. Gainey!", and I climbed up the steps to meet him. As I approached him I said, "Congratulations!", and extended my hand to him. He replied, "Thank you", with popcorn still in his mouth, and he shook my hand. Then I abruptly turned around and walked away, but it was something I'll never forget, that is, congratulating the GM after beating the Stanley Cup champions in their own building! I didn't want to bug him for an autograph just because of his private nature and all. Thirty feet further to our right, my Red Wing friend spotted Steve Yzerman with about ten fans hovering around him. He started his way up the steps to meet him but before he could get there Stevie went out the back door! I was laughing. The habs played the first two periods perfect! It was a very gratifying game to watch.

How many of you are aware that it is one season with many games....NOT many seasons of 1 game each? This manic/depressive response to every game must be wearing you out. Keep in mind that at the present pace the Habs finish with 110 - 112 points.

Hi all.....long time listener, first time caller I just had to throw my 2cents in and agree with Habhopeful. I've seen a bit of a double standard from a lot of the Habs faithful when it comes to the headhunting issue. Too many times I've read fans crying for blood when an errant elbow is directed chez La Flannel, but no one cries boo when Kovy gets the arm up high on a follow through. C'mon people, we're supposed to have more class than Make-me-laff fans....let's stop behaving like citizens of LaffNation. I don't want to see any player get hurt (ok....maybe Tucker), especially not one of ours. But unfortunately, the way the rules are written and applied these days, Stuart's hit was "technically" a clean one. Proof positive that the league needs to get its act together to update the rules. At any rate....sermon over. Here's hoping that the boys learned a valuable and lasting lesson last night about the rewards of hard work.

Just when you thought the glue holding the Canadiens together was starting to disintegrate, Alex Kovalev showed tiny gleams of the player we all know he has the potential to be, Tomas Plekanec partied like it was 2007 and Chris Higgins finally hit the back of the net after missing so many golden opportunities: talk about killing 3 birds with one stone! And to top it all off, it was against the “only-a-2-in-the-L-column” Detroit Red Wings, a team that we haven’t won against since… 1) Mathieu Garon was in nets 2) before the lockout 3) Nick Sundstrom (anyone remember him?) was still on the team 4) Mathieu Dandenault was on the other side of the ice and 5) the Bell Centre had empty seats. All that goes to show is that 5 years is a really long time in the hockey world, but then again it’s pretty short… if I’d have you guess the only current-Hab on the score sheet I’d bet you’d most likely be wrong…. drumroll please…. Steve Begin, getting his first goal of the season that year. From that, we can tell that this much hasn’t changed: our fourth line still does most of the dirty work and comes up big in wins, our power-play is about the same – awful (going 0-for-5 in that game in 2003) AND Chris Lee is still handing out penalties by the Zamboni-load. Well we can be thankful he wasn’t reffing the game tonight… fewer penalties gave a wonderful flowy-ness to it, and the guys from both sides were able to display their talent and skill. But it was the Habs who brought it home. Dominant for the first two periods, and playing safe defensive hockey the third, they rightfully took the win from right under the Red Wings, coming back from a – let’s just call it unpleasant – shoot out loss Monday night against the Islanders. When you get to thinking about it… if it weren’t for the unpleasantness, would we have responded with such a solid effort tonight? I’m not so sure. We needed a wake up call, and that’s we got… though we should have been answering for days now, but apparently we only got to picking up the phone tonight. You’re only as good as your next game, and ours is against Hat-trick Ovechkin and his merry Capitals, who will try to rob us of our newly acquired confidence & momentum. The Ovechkin show is always a pleasure to watch (from a fan’s perspective anyhow), but let’s hope our boys don’t get too caught up in it on the ice; we all know how mesmerizing Alex the gr8 can be. Another hard-earned win would do us wonders… Friday can’t come any quicker! "You can take the money and not be happy. Or you can take the dream." - Alexander Ovechkin

what a great win. now we are playing "clog the neutral zone" , but who cares if we get 2 points. price played fantastic. hope tanguay shakes it off and plays friday. oh'burned was turned inside out for the wings goal,carbo MUST teach oh'burned to PLAY THE MAN, NOT THE PUCK,ur 6 foot 15, 300lbs buddy, dont waggle ur stik at passers by, friggin paste their azz to the boards. another huge test friday vs the caps and the on fire ovechkinator. hope our clog system works its magic again. great win.

It was evident they viewed this game as a challenge and a test. Now from the ailing Motor City where the Wings owner pays his own way to Washington, where the Caps owner asks for hand outs and complains about Habs fans ruining the all star game voting. Kovalev is going to have huge game Friday, he's going to want to stick it to the young Russians in a big way.

looks like the boys watched ROCKY on the flight to Detroit. 5 hanging back at our blue line, that wasn't a trap, it was a super-hybrid-trap! We took all they could dish out and then when we started to get more comfortable we pounced on our chances. I really saw a desperate team out there around the Detroit net, playoff intensity to put that puck in, it was like sharks smelling blood, it looked good and it worked. I have to credit Carb big time for this win, against a team that played right into our hands, we love going against the finesse teams because they don't hit. If we can shut down their stars we'll win. It was a classic Carb/Gainey System played out perfectly. The hit on Tang (only hit Detroit threw) was a bit of a cheap shot by a headhunter, and I don't think Tang was expecting it. Let it be a wakeup call to him, it will only make him better. Just wonder why nobody chased down that Stewart....Sheldon would have....Speaking of Stewart, we've got one exactly the same. 1. We won't be a serious contender until PAX/STEW/CHIP/D'ags/WEB are in the lineup. 2. The BGL effect is pivotal to our success this season. 3. Kovalev is now in his prime...he just needs his linemates to reach his level.

magnificent victory last night. Pleky's goal was a thing of absolute beauty. best game plan, coaching, and execution i've seen all year. air-tight. the question is, will it indeed be the Turning Point of the season, or, just a bright spot we look back upon? the boys will decide, and let's hope they choose to make a statement with this game, and use it define the rest of the season. GO HABS GO

Didn't there used to be a guy called habsRnot that posted here all the time?

was there actually no second star, or is the habs post-game report email just screwy?

Start engraving the Cup ... we beat the defending Champs!! Eat your heart out Mats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im sticking by the hit on Tanguay was clean, no hit whatsoever is deemed legal by anyone anymore, everyone over analyzes the hit, perfectly legal clean hit, maybe if you watch it in slow motion you can see the follow through and his elbow comes up but thats just momentum, I dont like seeing players get injured especially on the habs but we seem to complain abotu every hit we see, this is hockey! this isn't basketball! i didnt see anyone complain about Kovy's hit on Gagne the other game, that was just as bad if not worse...im all for the habs but lets not restrict complaining about hits to our habs and none when we lay them out...JMO... "We get nose jobs all the time in the NHL, and we don't even have to go to the hospital." ~Brad Park.

Didn't I tell you guys not to worry? ;-) Watched the game. The Habs played a great game. all the Carbo bashers, know that he has been preaching defence first, and the chances will come. This is the best defensive game the Habs have played in a long time. The Wings were shut down and had very little room to move. They may have taken 33 shots, but most were not dangerous, and the few that were....that's why we have Price. Great game from so many players. Lapierre is showing why he belongs on this team. I loved how Begin & Dandy played also. Sometimes the 4th line guys CAN make a difference! On to Washington, and stick with Carbo's game plan! "I can't hear what Jeremy(Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy Go Habs Go!! Habsrule

What the Hell!!! TSN - "Canadiens snap slide; steal victory from Red Wings"??? Maybe they weren't watching the same game I was. Steal a victory? How about "Earned a win with hard work"

great win. i didn't see the game but did see highlites: each hab goal as well as detroit could have been prevented. just goes to show that hard work is what wins games! work created opportunities and good bounces. work work work - effort effort effort go habs go for thos ein the US - happy turkey day. getting ready for beer and football!!

Huge win for our confidence, and even better #84 was not in the lineup..I will say it again we are a better team without him bringing us down..La tricolore jusqu'au bout!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving all HIO posters! I am lounging around in my #14 T-Shirt waiting for some turkey.

Habs Back on Track with Win in Hockey Town http://canadienscentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/habs-back-on-track-with-win...

Everyone who has been yapping for the past week about how we suck, fire Carbo, make a trade, etc, turn your computer off NOW. You have forfeited your right to post ANYTHING about this game. We just beat the best team in hockey. Habs rule.

Some thoughts. 1. Great Effort = success. We beat them to the puck early and often. 2. Put the puck on the net and good things will occur. They don't all have to be beautiful. Try for only one highlight goal per game. 3. Pierre McGuire is the new Howie Meeker. High pitched babbling idiot! 4. When Bobby Clarke is decrying players deliberately hurting other players, lightning should strike him. 5. Why is it that when a player has his head down, it's okay to hit it with an elbow? Again when Bobby Clarke says something was a great hit, lightning should strike. IT WAS AN ELBOW TO THE CHIN! I hope Tanguay is alright. 6. Franzen goal was a beauty. O'Byrne is still untangling his jock strap. 7. Well done team!

Just watched Sportcentre and they figure "Detroit may have been tired, they played Monday night". Well no wonder we won so easy. It had absolutely nothing to do with a great game played by our boys, the poor Wings were a little tired.... Great game boys, keep them coming!!!

Great game for the Habs, one we should build on. Here's the NHL's Breakdown by Nationality .. by James Mirtle/From The Rink ..... http://www.fromtherink.com/2008/11/26/673622/the-nhl-by-nationality-52 ............ (an excerpt) The basics are that, with 768 players having appeared in a game so far this season, 52.0 per cent of the NHL is Canadian born.