3P 0:00:
Thank God that's over.
A length-of-the-rink backhand makes it 3-0
3P 3:00:
I've figured out the Buffalo system: they skate faster, they pass bettter, they're first on the puck, they never panic in their own end.
Sneaky bastards.
3P 4:24:
And the boos rain down on the so-called power play.
3P 5:26:
Sabres just don't care what Canadiens do on the perimeter during PP. This must be the word going around the league.
3P 9:31:
THE REFS ARE CONSPIRING AGAINST US!!!!!!!!
Josh Gorges goes for hooking.
He'll be back in the pressbox till Christmas.
3P Commercial break:
Canadiens are being outshot 6-5 this period.
It's embarrassing.
3P 10:00:
This is gettting ugly. The ccrowd booed Day-O.
3P 10:43:
Now Ryder, Koivu and Kovalev
3P 11:13:
Still only three shots ... and the boos are starting.
3P 13:14:
Big cheer for a young guy in the crowd waving a tin-foil Stanley Cup.
Older folks remember the real one.
3P Commercial bbreak:
Three shots, but nothing close to a goal.
I don't believe Jocelyn F. Thibault is pitching a shutout here.
3P 16:43:
First shot of the period ... a 50-footer, by Roman Hamrlik
2P 18;00:
Ryder, Dandenault and Smolinski
2P 18:38:
I think Derek Roy ried to cover a loose puck with his mouth.
2P 19:19:
Pleks, Higgins annd Kostitsyn
2P 20:00:
Koivu, Kovalev and Latendresse.
Between periods:
I'm in deep denial here, fighting off the terrifying notion that beyond the déja vu of seeing the Sabres two nights in a row and three times in nine days, the Canadiens' season is turning into a Groundhog Day repeat of 2006-'07.
They were outplayed last night in Buffalo by a team that lost Daniel Brière and Chris Drury.
They're being outplayed even more decisively tonight bby a team that's playing its backup goaltender ... who had all of two starts this season.
I don't know about Guy Carbonneau and Bob Gainey, but I'm worried.
2P 0:00:
The crowd is cheering heavy checks.
Nothing else to yell about.
2P 1:03:
Here's a good one: Ryder, Higgins and Chipchura.
What the f---!!!!!!!!
2P 2:30:
I don't know how the puck stayed out. Lady Luck said "Screw the Canadiens, I'm spending the evening at the Ritz Bar cruising for rich guys."
2P 5:00:
Two-goal deficit. Canadiens have the Sabres right where they want them.
2P 6:06:
The boos begin ... as they should. With Huet flat on his stomach, Thomas Vanek cashes a rebound.
2-0
2P 8:00:
Your Montreal Canadiens have played 32 minutes of hockey. They have 13 shots and are being shutout bby a backup goalie ... in their own building.
2P 10:00:
Latendresse joins the Koivu line.
2P 10:22:
It took them nine seconds.
Campbell dinged one off the crossbar, Huet looked behind him and Spacek buried the rebound.
1-0
2P 10:31:
First goal gonna be HUGE!!!
No s--t Sherlock.
And Kostopoulos draws ANOTHER hooking penalty
2P Commercial break:
A HORRENDOUS Kovalevv giveaway nearly produces the game's first goal. He's showing troubling signs of regressing.
Good night for the third and fourth-line pluggers.
2P 16:30:
Koivu line can't get anything going.
2P 17:20:
Another penalty killed ... but they're playing with fire.
2P 19:20:
Given the chance to develop together, Pleks and Kostitsyn are going to be a sweet combo.
But nnot in their own end.
Pleks for a hook.
Between periods:
Another tough nnight in the faceoff circle: Koivu 0-3, Chipchura 0-2, Plekanec 1-3. Smolinski is 2-2 ... Kotitsyn has three of Canadiens' nine shots.
1P 00:00:
Period ends with a Buffalo forechecking fllurry. They're relentless.
1P 3:25:
Gorges on the PK, with Hamrlik. Great work by Dandenault. Komiisarek whacks Vanek out of the crease after a whistle. He's taken his nasty pills tonight.
1P 4:32:
PK was not great last. Smolinski, Beegin, Markov, Komisarek are first wave.
1P 6:52:
Jocelyn Thibault makes a nice glove save on Kostitsyn. PP doesn't produce much, though. All the shots are into a forest of white jerseys. And now Kostopoulos goes for a hook..
1P 7:08:
A good head man pass by Smolinski and Dandenault's skating produces a Buffalo penalty.
1P 9:00:
Buffalo is well-coached. They withstood early heat and have settled into what they do: quick transition, skating, hustling for loose pucks.
1P 9:32:
Nice drop pass from Derek F. Roy to Nnatahn Paetsch, coming late. That play always produces good chancces against Canadiens. Butt the shot was right at Huet.
1P 11:20:
Komisarek jawing at Andrew Peters before the faceoff. Very bad trade for Canadiens.
1P Commercial break:
Quite a flurry for Buffalo, with the Pleks line trying to play D. Not pretty ... and Huet hhad to be very alert.
1P 13:30:
Canadiens forwaards are hhustling back and zone clearances are quick and easy. Shots are 6-0. Quite a contrast to last night
1P 17:25:
Gorges and Streit. This could be interesting.
Great chance for Pleks on a feed from Kovalev. That line is flying early, and the crowd loves it. Shots are 4-0.
1P 19:40:
Good screened point shot from Breezer right off th opening faceoff. I still can't get my head around the Bouillon benching.
Moment of silence:
for the great Tom Johnson.
1P 20:00:
Pleks line to start, with Hammmer and Breezer.
Bouillon out:
And Josh Gorges in. Wow! I would have thought Breezer or Streit.
And Roman Hamrlik does a bilingual team introduction of the team on the scoreboard.
Pre-game:
Déja vu II:
Or was we say in Québec, déja vu deux ... and this voodoo is freaking me out.
It's the hockey version of Groundhog Day.
We watch the Canadiens lose 4-2 in Buffalo. We go to bed disappointed.
We wake up and they're playing the Sabres again ... this time at the
Bell Centre.
It's diabolical.
I expect the halftime extertainment at the Grey Cup to be an abbreviated Montreal-Buffalo hockey game.
The good news is we don't see the Sabres again until Feb. 29.
Hey, wait a minute. Aren't there only 28 days in February.
This is getting weird.
I shouldn't have smoked that joint after breakfast.
Cue Bill Murray.
Actually, cue Jocelyn Thibault. He's in nets for the Sabres tonight
... which surprises me, because Ryan Miller was excellent in Buffalo.
But back-to-back starts on consecutive nights are tough on goaltenders,
who do a lot of moving and stretching in 60 minutes on the ice.
Major repairs on the glass behind the net Buffalo will defend for two periods. The work crew is replacing two broken panels. I wasn't here for warm-ups, so I don't know what happened.
Share the agony and ecstasy of Habs fandom and read live blogs from every game with Gazette columnist Mike Boone.
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I would just like to say that November has been a very tough month & that all Of the Northeast Division is feeling the effects of it. The only team that has made any headway as of late is Buffalo.
Rest... and bring on December.
Our smaller players might also feel more confident on the puck if they knew that there was a much bigger, stronger, meaner player that was keeping an eye on them. I never was a fan of the enforcer, but I'm beginning to think this might encourage some more inspired hockey. Teams have just been walking into our building and throwing everything they want at us, and why not, nobody is going punish them for it.
Have you seen the Western Conference standings , the 2nd place team is 4 points ahead of the 13th place team but the 13th place team has a game in hand, Now that's parity but makes trades difficult.
Yesterday I had some optimism left, today I'm miserable, what is going on, have they all lost the will to try, do we need a big trade now as clearly our first line is not up to the name.
Time to change it up a bit, get Lapierre back, I know we need a scorer but we also need a chippy little battler who knows what effort is and how about a young D man who will give his all to get his NHL career off to a good start.
Now about a trade, it needs to be looked at if we are to do anything serious this season.
Trades arn't happening anywhere in the New NHL, at least big trades,right now and why would you want Lapierre when you can have Sergie Kostitsyn (LW) brought up and it may be time for O'Bryne (D) if he's healthy.
I'm beginning to think that both Koivu and Higgins are playing through injuries. This may partially explain their uninspired play of late. Although Koivu has been in a mild funk lately, the hit that Sillinger laid on him during the Isles game seemed to suck all the intensity out of his game. Higgins was clearly favouring one of his hands during the same game.
I hope the Habs can turn it around soon. It's too darn early in the season to have to cancel my RDS subscription.
Well sounds like loads of fun. I'm glad I missed this one because I have real issues turning off the TV when the Habs are playing.
I agree, we need some sort of trade or personnel shake-up (coaches are fine, players only) to wake these guys up!
We can't repeat last year. Must act now ! Need a trade ... Olli Jokinen ... what's the price ?? We need to change, this team will not go far. Ryder must go . Let's package a few players and make a huge splash out there !!
koivu, higgy and ryder combined for 2 shots on goal tonight, while kovy and kostitsyn had 3 and 4 respectivley. Kovy looked like he was pissed off all night which is good because it shows that he cares.
I just don't see the strong core we're supposed to be building this team around. You can't build a team around players that fade in and out of action. I'm not saying that our superstars have to be brilliant every single game (although that would be nice), but they have to show up at least more then half the time. Every game is a surprise, you just don't know what to expect from one game to the next. It's tough on the heart.
There is a very good core of young players to build around but are not good enough to win on talent alone and when 20 guys are not pulling in the same direction to achieve a common goal, this is the result.
Remember that phase where we all agreed to be patient and let the lines gel a little. Well, we've done that and it paid off for a little while, but now we're back where we started... no... we've dug even deeper, and I don't think anyone feels like being patient anymore. Work those magic fingers over those phones Gainey... please?
Well our line of higgy,ryder and koivu have been a line for 3 years now, so i would say that is plenty of time to gel. This is supposed to be the line that scores most of our goals. This team just has to realize that they don't have a game breaker and they need to outwork their opponents every night in order to have a chance to win.
bench Mark Streit
He has been garbage and deserves a wake up call. If not, at least put him on forward so he can regain some confidence in this league. It's not his defensive play that's bothering me, it's his offensive zone plays, he's making the "safe play" every time instead of using his shot, skating with the puck, or pinching in, and when he does pinch in, he never gets the puck.
And Patrice Brisebois needs to shoot on net. He always fakes a slap shot and sends a pass that gets to nobody or bounces off a skate, drives me nuts!
They played a lot better than they did last night, or maybe I was watching a different game. Thought you might have taken a hint from Dave's post today, patience.
I watched the but...
Did Koivu play???
Did Higgins have his left and right hands surgically switched??
What was Carbo smoking after per 2 to come up with those line combo's??
"Can't score 5 on 5???...no problem, we'll get some on our #1 Powerplay...Oooops! Oh ya, we have to move our feet??"
Bye Lats....do us a favor and LEAVE please! get sick, injured, do something you spoiled brat! Go to the ECHL where you belong (no offence ECHL).
Ahhh...Koivu did play...minus 2 for the night!
Why the hell are we playing in packs now?? 3-4 guys in along the boards fighting for the puck...is this hockey or Aussie Football on ice?
Stop looking at how well you played so far....it's not even Xmas yet. Stop reading your headlines boys and get skating again!
These guys all need a little @*&&$ to relieve some tension and get some flow back.
Holy Shit!
You know its the holiday season when:
Habs lose 3 times to a last place team in 8 days.
Not once have we had the lead.
The Sens are losing a few games, their only win?
vs the Habs.
Buffalo came in winning only twice on the road all year, they then trown their backup goalie into his 3rd game and.....
They pitch a shutout!
Habs have not won a game when trailing after one or two periods.
We play the loafs on Tuesday so that should be yet another tough game that goes to ot at best. Look back through last years games and note how many points the loafs picked up in games with the Habs. Look at this years games. More points in the standings for Toronto even when they lose.
Sorry to say but with the Holidays come alot of Montreal losses. They have started the trend yet again. The only difference so far is the lack of a long term injury to a key player...aka Chris Higgins.
I hope I am very wrong but it looks like they have started their holiday cold streak. We will go from 2nd place to last and praying just to make the last playoff berth. If we keep giving up points in the standings by either taking Toronto to ot or by blowing games at home to Florida, Atlanta and the neighborhood girl scouts it could become over before we know it.
Mike Boone said it himself. We have seen this before and its starting to look alot like last year. I pray that I am wrong.
Oh...burn! On RDS'post-game show, when they were talking about the Habs' first line, Guy Lafleur just said it looks as though they have four fourth lines. Ugh. He should know.
I caught a bit of that post game show... what else did Lafleur say?
now way you can call the Plekanec line a 4th line, it is usually the best line on the ice for either team and it was tonight. The other three were simply horrible. Couldn't generate any pressure or scoring chances.
Hopefully it was a comment made that wouldn't fall on deaf ears (gainey) to make a move to improve the team before we have a replay of last season where carbo lost the room and we lost a playoff spot.
This team needs a serious wake up call now, especially having to play the laffs next week. Either a call up from hamilton or possibly a trade. Either way something has to be done, last year gainey sat on his hands when we had problems with injuries and the flu bug and it ultimatly cost us at the end of the season. Gainey can't afford to take that wait and see attitude this season, we are still in a good spot in the standings but he needs to send a message that mediocrity is unacceptable or else we are gonna be in the same scenario as last season.
Maybe now's a good time to bring up Lapierre. How's he doing down there? Has he earned it yet?
he is second on the team in points with 14 in 17 games, but its the intangibles that he brings like size, speed and the ability to be a serious thorn in the side of the opponents. I would almost go as far and say bring up sergei kostitsyn who is leading the team in points also and lapierre and send down grabovski and possibly latendresse. I would of kind of like to see lapierre get a shot playing wing on the top line cause at least he is willing to pay the price and go to the net, kind of like a bigger, faster version of ryan smyth. Who knows it may work
This slump against the sabres goes way back to the days of the "French Connection". Anybody remember that line? It's mind boggling to me.
Hey J.T. I think you may have missed something... when do the flu symptoms settle in?
Oh, that'll come...that'll come. It's only a matter of time. I think depression figures into the immune system's ability to fight off disease. It's just a theory, but we'll see.
yes, I think it has something to do with stress causing the release of cortisol, which in turn reduces the productivity of... I think it's leukocytes. And that reduces the bodies ability to... I think I just gave myself a headache.
Easiest shutout of T-Bo's, or anybody's, career!
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