The mood is definitely somber for Habs fans this week...Last Sunday, just about everybody was pumped for what had been a rare successful trip out west but now, turns out that les Glorieux are telling us that perhaps the trip was too tiring and they left a lot of energy back there...Well, tough, that's what professional athletes are paid for...but aside from that obvious excuse, what actually went wrong?
That question can actually be answered with one word: defence. 8 weeks have now gone by in the NHL and as time passes by, it is more and more obvious that the Canadiens blue line is scary. Of course, Shea Weber is supposed to be back on Tuesday but it will not fix everything. Granted he is a number 1 d-man but the Habs still won't have a bona fide first pairing d to play alongside him. The fact is, no NHL team should ice a side that includes Benn, Schlemko and Alzner all at the same time...even just one of them is risky. Thankfully, seems that the powers that be have noticed as they recalled Brett Kulak to replace Noah Juulsen who has been sidelined by a facial fracture but don't rejoice, this is by no means a permanent fix even though he made Schlemko look better.
It's never a good week for the Canadiens when they lose at home against Boston and last night particularly hurt. No, not because of the mother of all give aways by Kotkaniemi, the kid is learning and that's called growing pains, but rather because of the lack of discipline. When you're playing your oldest ennemi, there's bound to be a lot of electricity in the air but you must manage to keep a calm composure. While Jonathan Drouin scored a truly beautiful goal last night, he ended up taking one of the most stupid penalties ever by cross checking an opponent in the face which resulted in a four minute power play on which the Bruins scored the game-winning goal. Yes, I know brain cramps can happen to anyone but I really did not like his post game comments as shown on RDS last night. Instead of saying yes, that was a bad thing to do on my part he actually said that he would not be commenting on the officiating or the penalties. Yes, there were some bad calls but that one? The one that destroyed the Habs hope and momentum? It was thoroughly deserved.
As for Carey Price, he played like the real Carey Price last night and he would have deserved a win. He stood tall on numerous scoring chances and bailed his team time and time again but sadly, that was not enough...
This week, the Habs will have somewhat of a relaxed schedule. They will be playing Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes and then they wont be back in action until Saturday when they'll host the Rangers and then the Sharks on Sunday. If one player speaks of fatigue because of the 2 games in 24 hours, I really hope one of the beat writers asks him if he didn't have enough time to rest in 3 days...
Have a good week everyone and let's hope the Canadiens do better, it shouldn't be too hard...