Your Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators | November 20th | 7:30pm Est

[Bourne]

Alright before I begin, I was bored and opted to have a little fun with this game thread, especially since it will be my first. Thus if you want to skip ahead to the actual information, the scroll down otherwise enjoy or mock me for my lack of creativity, whatever works for you.

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Tonight – or still tomorrow for some – we have the second meeting between two exceptionally unique teams. At home you have the Ottawa Senators, currently the league’s most successful team at losing; having won twenty of their last fifty-seven games; fans and media everywhere wonder how they manage to continue such an effective streak, despite an impressive roster.

“After having been so dominating in the past, we feel it necessary to show some pity for Toronto otherwise people may start to believe there is only one team in Ontario” claims Jason Spezza, Ottawa’s “star” player thus far this season.

Craig Hartsburg has been quite vocal about Spezza’s performance as of late, as he has contributed immense to their success of not being able to score goals, thus costing them games.

Some believe it is the curse of Tampa Bay, which arose when Tampa won the Stanley Cup with one of the most dominate lines in the NHL back in 2004 only to become one of the weakest teams since. Of course people are left bewildered, questioning Senators GM Bryan Murray considering Ottawas must be confused as they never won a cup to begin with…

Then you have the Montreal Canadiens, a team filled with such young impressive talent that they have decided it would be a rather boring season if they simply blew away every team as it seemed to be expected league wide. Thus they have apparently decided upon the uphill struggle strategy, battling from behind or taking pity on the bottom dwellers with only a have hearted effort; although strangely enough both the Islanders and Senators were subjected to the actual talent the Canadiens can muster, leading us to believe there is a dislike between the teams similar to the “love” shown to Mikhail Grabovski of Toronto who reports:

“They really are mean.” My apologies to why there is no further updates from Grabovski, I had to leave in disgust after an insult like that.

In an exclusive interview with Canadiens’ coach Guy Carbonneau, he claims this is all part of the Canadiens’ strategy.

“Last season we were the underdogs, the team no one expected to do anything and look at what became of that. Now all twenty-nine teams expect us to challenge them game after game and frankly this goes against my master plan. I want the league to once again believe we are nothing, which is when we will pounce. It is what I call playing possum. It was effective last season and it shall be again!”

Carbonneau says “look for the tie” as a sign of when the Canadiens will begin their wanton destruction of every team in the NHL.

There you have it hockey fans, two teams vying for the bottom of the barrel. Tonight will be a true test as one time must win. Who will forgo their strategy? Will the Canadiens’ dislike of Ottawa prove too much for them or will Ottawa attempt to redeem themselves, going against everything they have worked so hard for? This video we have located proves just how willing each team is to defend their strategy!

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Montreal Canadiens

Last Game

GA: 2

SA: 48

SV: 46

SV%: .958

Overall

Record: 8-4-1

SV %: .920

GAA: 2.56

8-9-17 +6 | 6-10-16 +9 | 1-13-14 +3

Alex Tanguay - Saku Koivu - Alex Kovalev

Chris Higgins - Tomas Plekanec - Guillaume Latendresse

Andrei Kostitsyn - Robert Lang - Sergei Kostitsyn

Mathieu Dandenault - Steve Bégin - Tom Kostopoulos

Andrei Markov - Josh Gorges

Roman Hamrlik - Ryan O'Byrne

Francis Bouillon - Patrice Brisebois

Healthy scratches: Maxim Lapierre, Georges Laraque

Injuries: Mike Komisarek

Apparently no changes in Habs lineup

vs.

Ottawa Senators

Last Game

GA: 1

SA: 27

SV: 26

SV%: .963

Overall

Record: 5-5-2

SV %: ..926

GAA: 2.14

10-8-18 -2 | 4-13-17 +2 | 6-9-15 -1

Currently unaware of Ottawa's lineup however both Chris Neil and Mike Fisher are out with respective knee injuries.

[SK74_mtl]

LOL ... Great interviews, you must have put a lot of work into traveling to the respective teams arenas. Thanks for the laugh.

[netcase]

Great article. Well done! Wish it was real to shed some light of understanding to what is going on here.

Yet this is accurate enough.

[Rocket-1]

At this point, no comment about this game lol.

[bailey1]

Alright boys! The Sens have lost a good chunk of their muscle due to injuries.

Let us be the ones who will push them around.

Slot the Win.

Survive until the weekend.

GO HABS GO!!!

[pitbull12]

Alright lets try and get more than one goal

[Rygar]

Got my fingers crossed.

[Glory_Days]

Anyone going tonight?? I'll be there!

[Brit6]

I'll be there, 200 level

GO HABS GO!!!

Anyone going tonight?? I'll be there!

[abuzaid]

lol great game preview

I actually read it out to my class ( i am a teacher in toronto )

Habs will win it 3-1

[babinator77]

Alright lets try and get more than one goal

you know it's bad when...

nice work bourne. that was the best hockey related article i've read in some time. (highlight: Carbonneau says “look for the tie” as a sign of when the Canadiens will begin their wanton destruction of every team in the NHL.)

so which team do we see tonight? the habs who destroyed ottawa for their last convincing win or the confused mess that is missing both confidence and the location of the opp's net? here's hoping for the former to put an end to this nonsense before the 20 game mark.

let's go boys

[GreekHockeyCoach]

Bourne, for your first game thread that was awesome. Great job and thanks for stepping up to create it.

Habs need to get back on track tonight, if we lose this game by playing sloppy hockey then we have to sit and reconsider our options. GO HABS GO

[cbarker78]

It will be a close game.Another dogfight to the end.Habs will win 4-3.

[Johnyc]

I will be there this evening in section 101, row 4 right behind the Sens net. I really hope the boys fill it full tonight! Man, it would be awesome to see this team break out of the slump and lay a beat-down on the Senators. I have a funny feeling about this game though. Ottawa might be more ready then we are....I hope I am wrong! Go Habs Go!!! Anyone else going to this game and wants to drink beer, come and see me. I will be wearing an authentic home Laroque jersey and Canadiens hat.

[2VP]

The Sens are due, but not tonight.

[maximus123]

and we got some new lines for tonight :

Latendresse - Koivu - Tanguay

Higgins - Plekanec - Kovalev

A. Kostsytsin - Lang - Kostopoulos

S. Kostsytsin - Begin - Laraque

the D remains the same I guess

I like those 2 top lines, I hope the Kostsytsin brothers can put in a good game

looks like Lapierre is having to enjoy a vacation week

http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/263889.html

[wiseguys23]

Great post. I was just reading Habs inside out an apparently the lines have changed to...

Pat Hickey checks in from morning skate in Ottawa to report Guy Carbonneau has shuffled the deck again.

Guillaume Latendresse will be reunited with Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay.

This one's intriguing: Tomas Plekanec centres Alex Kovalev and Christopher Higgins.

The third line has Robert Lang between Andrei Kostitsyn and Tom Kostopoulos.

The fourth line may be a game time decision, but it shapes up as Steve Bégin centring Georges Laraque and Sergei Kostitsyn.

Defence pairings stay the same.

Carey Price in goal.

[Johnny_Storm]

Great post. I was just reading Habs inside out an apparently the lines have changed to...

Pat Hickey checks in from morning skate in Ottawa to report Guy Carbonneau has shuffled the deck again.

Guillaume Latendresse will be reunited with Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay.

This one's intriguing: Tomas Plekanec centres Alex Kovalev and Christopher Higgins.

The third line has Robert Lang between Andrei Kostitsyn and Tom Kostopoulos.

The fourth line may be a game time decision, but it shapes up as Steve Bégin centring Georges Laraque and Sergei Kostitsyn.

Defence pairings stay the same.

Carey Price in goal.

Interesting lines...guess we'll see how they do; can't be worse than the last few games, can it?

[buddyralph]

and we got some new lines for tonight :

Latendresse - Koivu - Tanguay

Higgins - Plekanec - Kovalev

A. Kostsytsin - Lang - Kostopoulos

S. Kostsytsin - Begin - Laraque

the D remains the same I guess

I like those 2 top lines, I hope the Kostsytsin brothers can put in a good game

looks like Lapierre is having to enjoy a vacation week

http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/263889.html

i like the top 3 lines but i feel like Lapierre should center the 4th, just my opinion though

[HABFANDOG]

really don't understand kosto on the 2nd & 3rd lines. i love the guy dn't get me wrong but he has a role on the 4th line but who knows it may work.....anything is possible

[Dintrox12]

go habs go

[steph-Quintal-prevost]

really don't understand kosto on the 2nd & 3rd lines. i love the guy dn't get me wrong but he has a role on the 4th line but who knows it may work.....anything is possible

Switch SK with Kostopoulos and I think we have something good there. Problem is (IMO) that to be a successful team you need :

2 scoring lines

1 shut down line

1 checking line

We currently don't really have a shut down line as we are trying to have 3 scoring lines (which are not really scoring at the moment lol) what happens here is that the coach then needs to make the scoring line players play more defensively to make up for not necessarily having a shut down line. I don't know...maybe I'm nuts....yeah probably.

Anyways......GO HABS.

[babinator77]

and we got some new lines for tonight :

Latendresse - Koivu - Tanguay

Higgins - Plekanec - Kovalev

A. Kostsytsin - Lang - Kostopoulos

S. Kostsytsin - Begin - Laraque

the D remains the same I guess

I like those 2 top lines, I hope the Kostsytsin brothers can put in a good game

looks like Lapierre is having to enjoy a vacation week

http://www.rds.ca/canadien/chroniques/263889.html

very interesting. i'd have kept the brothers together but if we're going to put sergei on the 4th line than i'd at least put lapierre in the lineup. begin is hitting though...

[Stanley25]

i don't think the problem lies with the line configurations. what i notice most is lack team defense which leads to lack of offense with no speed attacking through the neutral zone (not enough backchecking and puck support in dzone), poor decision making resulting in chances for the opposition, lack of movement and shots on the net on the pp, and losing puck battles (perceived lack of effort).

their needs to be strategies executed in-game to adapt to the strategies other teams use against us. they need to play a more basic game of fundamentals, short, quick passing, defensive assignments, speed, shooting the puck and putting traffic in front of opposing goalies. if they can improve in these areas with practice and focus, we have many guys that can set up and score goals and they will have many more quality chances, so the end result would be more goals for and fewer goals against, more wins than losses, and an overall happier team and fans.

the line shuffling is always intriguing i suppose, but the player combos need time to adapt to the other players on their lines in order to determine their effectiveness. this is difficult to do when the changing is continuous. the lines should be sorted by now.

godspeed tonite to the boys in red, white and blue. loosing is not an option ...

[jean-1]

Lines are ok, good to see the 1st line back.

Concerned not having Lapierre in the lineup. I just find most nights he is the only one with some jump and skates hard.

Go Habs Go!!