fourtrax Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Faceoffs: Koivu: 10/19 Plekanec: 9/15 Lapierre: 6/15 Smolinski: 3/9 Just when our top two centres have strong faceoff games, our bottom two centres struggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest halifax_habs Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 As for us the dee has improved i can't help but notice Gorges he is bloomin i can't believe we got this kid wow what a deal.And a first round pick that could turn into a dandy if Mr. Pacioretty matures as hoped. BG did quite well there. I love the Godfather pic, by the way, everytime I read your posts it's a Don Corleone voice in my head.Faceoffs:Koivu: 10/19Plekanec: 9/15Lapierre: 6/15Smolinski: 3/9Just when our top two centres have strong faceoff games, our bottom two centres struggle. I really think that's 90% of our consistency problem. The games we win face-offs we seem to cruise and outshot and outplay or opponents, and the games we don't win faceoffs we give our goalies a work out. Thankfully we've taken some wins with timely scoring and goaltending despite being outplayed but it's still a bit troubling.A third line center would have been a nice addition but chemistry is pretty valuable and this team is really jelling so I will defer to Mr. Gainey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest carey31price Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Great game by Halak! Nice to see the kid jumping in there and holding down the ship. He made some great saves at times, but he did however look a tad shaky at the begininng but that is expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KRH Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Great game by Halak! Nice to see the kid jumping in there and holding down the ship. He made some great saves at times, but he did however look a tad shaky at the begininng but that is expected. Halak is a good goaltender. He showed that when he played several games for the Habs last year. I was not concerned when Huet got traded. Price and Halak are quite capable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KRH Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Outshot 76-52 in the vlast 2 games,,,,,,,,,,,this has GOT TO STOP NOW,,,,,,,, We can't let the birds do that, or they will burn us bad. Price was the best player on the ice against Phoenix. Halak was the best player on the ice tonight. It is great to have goaltenders win games for us sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KRH Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I like Price, and he will have his days in the sun. I think Halak, if given the opportunity, could take us a long ways in the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hurock Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Ah, even if they won this game, I'm not sure they played at their 100%. But, I really hope it was for keeping some forces to play the Ducks tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest burr Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Great game. But like you said it seems like they are holding back. This team can win the cup. The talent is there. As long as the management don't let the presure get the best of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Habby67 Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 I am grateful and happy they won the game. However being outshot badly again is a worry. Especially to inferior team like Phoenix and LA.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest burr Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Roy/Dryden - 2 reason's why they won a couple of cups. Price and Halak can definatly do some damage this year. It's going to be an entertaining playoff season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ricochet Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Thanks for the comments on the thread again. Nice call too Habs Mania 5-2 and we definitely stole their crown. This was a scary game with how much we were letting LA accomplish, but it was also a great game because everyone was playing fairly well. A very confusing match, but I'll try to make sense of it. Forgive me if I misremember anything, I normally post fairly soon after the game, but because of the early time I stayed out a bit later. Halak was excellent in his first game back with the club. He is more athletic and he doesn't stay down for longer than necessary, so it's a bit different watching him play. I'm loving his mask, the color, with the wire red as well. Was that Patrick Roy hoisting the cup on it? The goal that was waived off was not necessarily a bad call. If you watch, seconds before the goal Halak attempts to move across and his stick makes contact with the LA player's skate. Then Halak is forced by the play to come across in the exact same manner, but the player is still in the way, so rather than bring his stick sweeping across, Halak brings it in behind the player, which was slower, and it is possible Halak could have made a save otherwise. I do think we were lucky to have that call go our way, but it isn't as clear cut as it appears to be. I understand why the referee made the decision, even if I don't agree with it. As far as not calling interference, it was ruled as incidental contact. It wasn't intentional on the part of the player, but his positioning interfered with the play and his positioning wasn't an infraction. This is one situation the league was attempting to avoid with the crease rule that failed. Otherwise, you could have a player go stand in the crease and restrict the goaltender's movement without actively interfering with him. I support the reasoning for the call, but I don't believe the contact was significant enough to disallow the goal. If you check the shift rotations for the game, you'll also notice we were running all four lines. This is one reason the Kings seemed a little harder to handle. Carb made a smart decision with reportedly ill players and back to back games on the agenda. We managed to get the win and played a little more relaxed to conserve energy for tomorrow's game in Anaheim. One growing concern I'm having is the number of opportunities we are allowing. Looking at the stats from this game, the true story of the offense is scary. The Kings registered 37 shots on goal and missed the net 23 times. We blocked 26 shots. We gave them every opportunity to take this game from us. Luckily Halak was solid and our D was working hard. The stick switching play was almost comical to watch. Halak drops his stick at the side of the net. Gorges passes his stick to Halak, loving Gorges btw, it's all the little things he does right. Koivu then sees his D man without a stick and passes his stick off to Gorges. Koivu then plays the blue line closest to the benches and waits for his opportunity to switch off or grab a new stick, some heads up hockey by our captain. The puck goes to our corner and Halak takes a quick look to make sure it is safe and hooks his own stick back over, takes another quick look around and drops Gorges' stick to retrieve his own. Brisebois played very well for someone out of the lineup for so long. He opened the scoring to break the deadlock. He made one mistake that maybe cost us a goal, but there was also a non-call by the referee which affected the play. The play was Breezy chasing the puck along the boards in the zone alongside a King. The King's player obviously has a hold of Breezy's stick, which prevents Brisebois from fighting for the puck or making a defensive play. Brisebois compunded the problem by taking time to talk to the referee in the middle of the play and doesn't react in time to prevent the pass for the scoring play. He should have kept his focus on the play and plead his case when it was safe to do so. He was as disappointed as I was with the way the play developed, but he can't afford to let his guard down like that in a game situation. So a call by the referee saves us a goal and then a later non-call costs us a goal. Balance has been achieved? Not exactly. A. Kostitsyn appeared to have an opportunity and had that opportunity quashed by the referee. Why the Referee was 5 feet in front and to the side of the net with the play coming directly at him, is a complete mystery. Nevertheless, there he was in all his Zebra glory, breaking up the play by being where he had no business being. I know it can't be easy to stay out of the way, but where he was and considering he is supposed to be watching the play closely, there is no excuse for him to be anywhere near the middle of that play. As far as individual performances go, I'm happy to see that noone was held under 10 minutes of ice time this game. Everybody on the ice was making contributions. Lats exceeded his 4th line role and Smolinski played a solid 4th line game (He wasn't winning his faceoffs, but he was working this game). Lats was shifted with S. Kostitsyn when he scored and his assist came on the empty netter, but he played well for the 10+ minutes alloted to him tonight. Lats, Higgins, Koivu and Smolinski appear to be hitting their stride. This was actually one of Koivu's best performances this season. As of tonight I am officially taking Koivu and Higgins off of my naughty list. They are doing what they are supposed to be doing and doing it well now. Koivu has been hot with his production, but now he has his game back as well. Higgins is playing like he should be for the last few games. Lat's test will come on the third line over the next couple of games. I'm satisfied with Smolinski aside from his faceoffs tonight. If he can prove dependable against Anaheim, I'll take him of the list and place him on probation. He committed a couple of recent blunders that are still fresh in the mind, so I need some time to put them behind me before I can cheer for him. Tom and Brisebois were almost exceptional considering how rusty they must be. Both were mostly solid, both scored goals (Tom's was an empty netter) and they made 1 mistake between the two of them, which didn't affect the outcome of the game, while both going +1 on the night. Ryder, Lapierre and Streit didn't play poorly, but they could use another game or two playing together to be a producing 3rd line. I'm happy with the win, disappointed in the late starts, but I'm pleased with Carb and the players after tonight's game. Anaheim could be in trouble. Nobody tell them we didn't even break a sweat tonight. Let them think we are tired and battered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourtrax Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 How Halak was 'unintentionally interfered' with but it was okay for Marleau to ram Price into his crease and knock away his stick seconds before San Jose scored a goal on us the other night I'll never know. The former was so marginal it could have easily been ignored, while the latter was so blatant that the non-call on the play was sheer egregious stupidity on the part of the refs. We were damn lucky that the goal was waved off. The reffing has really been abysmally bad this past week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GoHabsGo_CanucksAreChoking Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 The reffing has really been abysmally bad this past week. I noticed Eh, you can't really get away from it. So I guess we'll have to live with it [Or get the NHL to go over their officiating again?] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1970 Habs Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 Not locked yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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