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Game 59: Canadiens vs Bruins AKA Manhandled in Boston |
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For the second time this season, the leader in the Rocket Richard trophy race got himself a hat trick against the Canadiens. Yes, David Pastrnak is an exceptional goal scorer and no one car argue with this. To be fair, it just looked like he was everywhere on the ice last night and like he could do no wrong. Straight from the initial puck drop, it was obvious that this would be a long night for the Canadiens... After 2 minutes, the Bruins already had 4 shots on net and clearly had the upper hand. Unfortunately, that was the case all night. Not once did it look like the Habs might get back in this one. Even when Suzuki made it 2-1 shortly after Pastrnak scored his second, the Canadiens just looked like they were being manhandled. They did try but sometimes, trying just isn't enough.
Let's give credit where credit is due, the so-called "perfect line" combined for 6 points last night, Rask had himself a good night with a .966 save percentage and Brad Marchand was his usual pesky self. I'm not going to blast the referees, well, I won't do it too much but I will say that Marchand did spear Petry and could have got a much bigger penalty and that jousting bout between Gallagher and Chara? Both being sent to the sin bin for cross checking when all Gally did was receive a cross check to the chin was ridiculous. Add to that the fact that Gallagher has recently come back from a concussion and I'll be honest I would have liked to see someone step up to Chara and say "Hey, you can't do that". Perhaps, had Dale Weise been in the line-up, he would have sent that message....but the fact is, no one did it last night. Yes, I know Chara is huge but if you're going to let him abuse the heart and soul of this team without doing anything? It just doesn't sit right with me.
And no, the $5000 fine Chara received this morning did not make me feel better about that "play":
Kudos to Nick Suzuki for getting his 12th goal of the year and taking sole possession of the 3rd position in rookie scoring with 36 points behind Quinn Hughes who's got 44 and Makar who's on 42. Aside from that though, there isn't much positive to take away from this game. I'm probably not the only one who ended up shooting: "SHOOT!!!" at the TV numerous times last night. It just looked like no one was willing to take the shot. They were all looking for the perfect line, the perfect shot, the perfect timing but they all seemed to forget that if you do not shoot, you do not score. Max Domi's name springs to mind as the prime guilty party of that last night... On a 2 on 1 with Kovalchuk, he tried a ill advised pass through a player instead of a shot to the net when there was a clear path. and to make matters worse, Tomas Tatar had his hand in a splint at the end of the game...
The Canadiens have a day off today and they'll be back on the ice on Friday night to take on the Pens in Pittsburgh at 19:00. No word yet about Tatar's availability for the game but at this stage, I say let the guy take his time. Weber is down for the foreseeable future, their odds of making the playoffs are now down to 1.3% and frankly, while I hate to say it, there's not much of a point in trying hard to win games.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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