Habs Report

Phew! After a brief drop to fifth place after losing to Ottawa, the Habs are back in second. Last week just demonstrates how tight the Eastern Conference race is; one loss dropped us from first to fifth! Just wild. The battle for first in the East was in our favour on Tuesday as rookie net minder Carey Price shut the door on Martin Brodeur’s Devils.

Phew! After a brief drop to fifth place after losing to Ottawa, the Habs are back in second. Last week just demonstrates how tight the Eastern Conference race is; one loss dropped us from first to fifth! Just wild.
The battle for first in the East was in our favour on Tuesday as rookie net minder Carey Price shut the door on Martin Brodeur’s Devils. Price stopped 38 shots while the offence brought forth their best efforts to lead the Habs to a 4-0 win against New Jersey. It appears as though the Habs have finally figured out how to solve the Devils – a feat that has been a long time coming after Jersey essentially owned us for more than a decade.
Even future hall-of-famer Martin Brodeur was surprised and even impressed with Price and the team; just like all of the sports commentators and hockey analysts who didn’t even have the Habs making the playoffs at the beginning of the season.
The four goals of the night came from Bryan Smolinski, Saku Koivu, Maxim Lapierre and Michael Ryder. Although he didn’t get a goal on the night, rookie Sergei Kostitsyn was an extremely dominant presence throughout the game. He had two assists; some fantastic passes, and played a tough physical game. He always delivers, but I’m extremely impressed with how quickly he’s developing… at times he reminds me of a young Jaromir Jagr.
The nicest part of Tuesday night’s game was that there were no passengers on the ride – everyone was pulling their own weight, earning the team a 15 minute standing ovation from the always sold-out crowd after the final whistle.
Thursday’s game against division rival Ottawa didn’t go as planned. The Habs were shutout by Martin Gerber, Jason Spezza and the Sens in a loss that brought them back down to Earth – and fifth place!
The Habs have now lost to Ottawa five out of six contests this season, which needless to say, doesn’t bode well if we happen to meet them in the playoffs. Even worse than the loss is the fact that this was an opportunity for the Canadiens to put themselves four points up on Ottawa; it could have very well been one of the most important games of the season.

Thankfully, the Habs redeemed themselves Saturday night in a must-win game against the New York Islanders. With goals from Roman Hamrlik, Alexei Kovalev and Guillaume Latendresse, the Habs managed to blank the Islanders 3-0. With Jaroslav Halak getting the start in goal, he is now a perfect 8-0 at the Bell Centre since his first appearance there on February 20th 2007.
The Habs have a rare game against the Blues tonight and face a home-and-home against Boston later in the week. We’ve had Boston’s number all season; hopefully they’ll be able to keep the streak going and clobber them yet again. With only nine games to go, including two against Ottawa, the Habs are entering the final push to the playoffs. With a tricky schedule leading to potentially unpredictable results, one thing’s for sure: they’ve got the whole city behind them every step of the way.

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