Montreal Canadiens Blog

With two straight losses, the question as to be answered, “Is their a problem?”. No stupid! Just kidding, your not stupid, but seriously, their is no problem for the Habs, nor is their any problems with Carey Price. We’ve had some bad breaks in the last couple of games, and some questionable goals that Price should have saved, but he’s come back from these bad losses before. He won’t take those losses lying down and expect a big comeback from this team tonight.

Although Carbonneau did not explicitly state who would be in the net tonight, I wouldn’t expect it to be anyone other than Price. He brought them this far with some stellar games, it would be just plain crazy for Carbonneau to sit him now. We’ve played the type of game that we like to play, we just need to continue to get pucks in deep and forecheck hard.

Mike Knuble will be back in the lineup for Philadelphia Wednesday night after missing the last five games with a partially torn hamstring. Hopefully the shake up in lines will throw the Flyers off their game and provide us with the chances we need to take this one heading home.

The importance of a win for the Habs tonight is immense. It would be ideal to head back to Montreal with the momentum, and then possibly close out the series by beating them at Home ice. The Last thing I want is for this series to go to seven, frankly, I don’t think that my heart can take it.

Update 2:51pm
Carbonneau has determined who will be starting in tonights game, and the goalies know who it will be, but the rest of the team does not. Brisebois will be back in the lineup tonight bumping O’Byrne from his spot, and Sergei Kostitsyn will be a gametime decision with an undisclosed injury. If Kostitsyn does not play we’ll see Ryder take his spot.

Update 6:30pm
Jaroslav Halak gets the nod tonight! I’m pretty sure everyone is suprised, but I have always had faith in Halak and can’t wait to see him play.

Playoff Series: Philadelphia Leads 2-1

Team logos graciously provided by NHL Tournament of Logos.

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With two losses in a row, I’m reminded of the last series against Boston when the Habs lost two in a row to come back in win game 7 with a 5-0 shutout. Price may have been pulled in the third period of last game, but expect to see him back in nets and looking hungry. As usual the Game Day Post is where it’s at.

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A late rush in the third period wasn’t enough for the Habs as the Philadelphia Flyers take game 3 by a score of 3-2. All three of the Flyer’s goals were scored in the second period by Upshall, Richards, and Umberger, before Carey Price was pulled for the third giving Halak some time in nets.

Midway through the third period the Flyers received a four minute penalty to give the Habs a perfect opportunity to come back where they had a mass of chances but almost tied it up with 2 goals in a 1:12 span by Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu.

It was unfortunate that Price was pulled but his play the last few games has been questionable. He seems to be an up and down goalie at the moment which probably comes from the fact that he’s only 20 years old, and in his first playoff run in the NHL. I’m not at all worried, as we’ve seen this before from the kid (ala the 5-0 comeback against the Rangers), and he always seems to come back with a storm of great games.

Jaroslav Halak took the reigns in the third period, which was completely dominated by the Habs, stopping all of 2 shots that he face in that 20 minute time frame. Late in the third their was also a questionable too many men penalty which could easily be argued, but I’ll just leave it at that.

The next game will also be held in Philadelphia, so let’s hope for a better result to split the Away trip and tie up the series heading home.

We’re off to Philadelphia as the Canadiens hope to rebound from Saturday’s 4-3 loss. Head on over to the Game Day Post for even more information including a bit of a line change.

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Tonight is the third game of the second round in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the Montreal Canadiens look to rebound from Saturday’s 4-2 loss. Martin Biron will be a big factor in how well the Habs play as the posts can help a goalie go only so far.

Guillaume Latendresse will be in the lineup tonight after being a healthy scratch the last couple of games, which means that Dandenault will be out. This will allow the third line to be a little different with what looks to be a Streit, Lapierre, Latendresse combination.

Brisebois will once again be out of the lineup with Ryan O’Byrne playing in his place with Roman Hamrlik.

Playoff Series: Tied 1-1

Team logos graciously provided by NHL Tournament of Logos.

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The Flyers wanted nothing more than to tie up the series before heading back to Philadelphia and they did just that. A stunning game for Biron, the Flyers’ netminder, while at the other end Price might have been a little rattled and he let in some weak ones. The final score of this one was 4-2 for the Flyers with Umberger, Carter, and Koivu scoring in the first period, Briere scoring in the second period, and Markov and Umberger (again) scoring the third.

The Habs definitely made this game interesting and almost accomplished the come back which saw them win game one, but just couldn’t finish it off. They had a lot of chances including many posts, but Biron was definitely a game saver for Philly. Koivu is having an insane come back with 6 points in 4 games including the goal he got last night to open the scoring for the Montreal Canadiens.

Price will have to play better in the next games, and I am completely confident that he will. Here is a great response from him about the game, “It’s kind of tough when you’re not getting a whole lot of work and then you get a bad break, it’s tough to hang in there,” Price said. “I know I can play better, and it’s going to happen in the next game.” What a guy.

This series continues it’s battle in Montreal as the Flyers hope to rebound from that OT loss only 48 seconds in, on Thursday night. Don’t expect many changes on either side in regards to the lines as both teams seemed to at their best. Check out the Game Day Post for the latest.

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Playoff Series: Montreal Leads 1-0

Team logos graciously provided by NHL Tournament of Logos.

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One down, three to go. If tonight is any indication than it is going to be one hell of a series between these two teams. Philadelphia played stronger than even the Canadiens could have fathomed, especially for a team that has played three game in four days. The end result of this game was 4-3 for the Habs in overtime, after going down 2-0 in the first.

Goals by Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev in the second period brought this game to even, but Joffrey Lupul scored a fluke off of his skate to take the lead in the third. With 29 seconds remaining in the third period Koivu won the draw to the left of Biron, which found Kovalev with a clear shot to the top right of the net.

Overtime was very short lived as the Canadiens dominated all 48 seconds of it. Some great defensive play in the Philadelphia end game Kostopoulos the opportunity with the puck in the front of the net, and ended up scoring on his own rebound.

This game also saw the Habs return to old form as their speedy selves. Philadelphia played a very neutral game with Downie putting in some nice hits when he had his chance on the ice. Other goals by Philadelphia were scored by R.J. Umberger and James Dowd. They kept it close, but we turned on the jets in OT.

Frankly, we stole this game, but their were a few chances early which rang off the post and beat Biron that may have drawn a completely different picture in this game. Kovalev’s shorthanded goal in the second was in danger of being taken away, but the referee’s were able to determine that he in fact, did not use a high stick to score the goal.

I want everyone to head on over to NHL Tournament of Logos and vote for Carey Price’s mask, in their NHL Tournament of Goalie Masks. Price is up this week against Dany Sabourin, and I mean, come on. We can’t lose to Sabourin. At this time 6:23 EST, Price is winning with a total of 276 votes, which is 60% of the total votes. This poll ends April 28th, so hurry up and vote!

NHLToL also provides us, Your Habs.com, with the awesome team images you see in the game day posts, and other places around the site. Another thing that I wanted to add, is that the Montreal Canadiens are also the reigning champions of the Best NHL Logo.

Here is the Pic in the Tournament