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Game 16: Canadiens vs Flyers AKA Price Deserved Better

November 7, 2019, 10:12 PM ET [226 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tonight's game was a rather strange affair...for the first half of the game, the Flyers were alone with Carey Price. By the midway point of the game, Philly had taken 33 shots and the Canadiens' net minder who was standing oh so very tall in his net. But try as he might, Price cannot stop everything and by early in the 2nd period, it was 2-0 Philadelphia. It could have been much worse mind you, the Habs spent so much time in the penalty box that this could have been a massacre. Tonight, Tomas Tatar got two more minor penalty and finally managed to make Claude Julien lose it. That landed him on the 4th line with Nick Cousins was flown 1st class to the the 1st line. Tatar wasn't the only one to get a pair of penalties, Arturri Lehkonen did as well. Both men have got an unacceptable amount of penalty minutes, Tatar has got 20 and Lehkonen is on 14 minutes...this is just too much. At least though, the penalty killing was flawless killing all 6 of the Habs' penalties.



Somehow, Ben Chiarot was the one to wake up the troops with his second goal in as many games to make it 2-1 towards the end of the second. Just like against the Bruins, the defensemen seem to really want to join in the attack and it was Shea Weber who brought everyone back to square on at 4:07 in the third period. The fact that the score was tied at that stage was just miraculous. The game wasn't over though and the Canadiens hadn't had their fill of penalties...before the end of the 3rd, the Tricolore got two bench minors, a too many men call that was oh so obvious and deserved and a delay of game on an icing call. Claude Julien was rather salty on that last call arguing that it was the referees fault for not letting them put on the right players on the ice. To add insult to injury, the zebras also missed an obvious high stick call on Jonathan Drouin and in the end, the Habs did not get a single power play tonight.



Against all odds though, this one sided game went to overtime even though the Flyers had 42 shots to the Habs' 24... Carey Price was phenomenal for the first 3 periods and that made the final outcome even more shattering.... since he unfortunately couldn't control the sole shot in OT and it trickled in behind him giving Philadelphia the win.

On the plus side, Price had a great game with a .930 save percentage, the penalty kill is doing fine and the Habs got a precious point in the standings but the fact that it took half the game for the Canadiens to show up is just unacceptable. Yes, they had a big emotional game against Boston on Tuesday but this is not an excuse. An NHL team plays 3 to 4 games a week and these are professional athletes, they are paid to be ready to play and they should be.

The Canadiens will be welcoming the Kings in Montreal on Saturday night and something tells me that if they do not offer a better effort then, Claude Julien could see red...
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