Montreal 3 Pittsburgh 2 (Consol Energy Center)
If you are a Habs fan, better still a Carey Price fan, it was a very good night. Price was otherwordly in the Canadiens goal, making 36 saves. Several left Penguins snipers celebrating prematurely or shaking their heads as they exited the playing surface.
Providing an escort to the Pittsburgh bench was P.K. Subban enthusiastically describing how they had just been stymied by his friend wearing number 31.
The highlight reel saves came one after another as Price’s quick lateral movement allowed him to rob Penguins shooters. His characteristic good rebound control kept pucks away from the opposition.
The haters called him lucky, a radio host grumbled about a soft goal, but the critical voices only serve to make themselves look more foolish. For Price, this was a statement game, with an exclamation point!
For most of the game, it appeared that Price’s performance would be wasted as his team struggled to score more than one goal. But some leaky goaltending by Marc-Andre Fleury allowed the Canadiens to score twice in the final 2:12.
The Habs once again got themselves in penalty trouble. Price, Tomas Plekanec and Jeff Halpern were effective penalty-killers with the Penguins going 0-for-6. It was a different story on the power-play as the Canadiens went 0-for-3.
Plus and minus:
▲ Tomas Plekanec was not only stellar on penalty-killing, he made a slick move to set up Cammallleri on the Habs first goal.
▲ Jeff Halpern won 80 per cent of his faceoffs which was vital to a successful penalty kill.
▲ Andrei Kostitsyn was solid, playing physically and picking up an assist.
▲ P.K. Subban was targeted by the Penguins and the Consol Energy fans boo’ed him everytime he touched the puck.
▲ Ryan O’Byrne had five hits and cleared bodies in front of the net. That’s the kind of game needed from O’Byrne.
▼ The Canadiens are taking far too many penalties. Penalty-killing has been excellent but they need not tempt fate.
▼ The top line of Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez and Benoit Pouliot looks disjointed and isn’t producing.
The Canadiens have their home opener on Wednesday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre.
All Habs game stars:
1. Carey Price
2. Mike Cammalleri
3. Tomas Plekanec
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
Know what I hate? After playing his arse off all game, if they didn’t get those goals in the final 2 minutes to win, all anyone would be screaming about would be that Letestu goal and how he always gives up at least one softie in a bad time. Rediculous people.
I was thinking of the many times he stood on his head for this team last year only to get the shaft by no goal support or horrible defence and how this game was starting to look like that…
Loved the big hug Hal Gill gave him at the buzzer.
As for the penalties, I’m so sick of seeing Rhino get those 2 minutes for playing defence. No wonder he’s so confused when he gets a penalty for doing his job! Even the play-by-play guys were wondering what the hell this new ref was doing. (He was awful). And the Pens get away with so much crap it’s disgusting… At least Talbot fell for Lapierre’s trap ;D Bonus is he complained about it later. Sucker.
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