Habs 4, Leafs 3: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

[Habsfan84]

The Good:
In a game that appeared a must win for both clubs, it was Montreal who came out on top with a shoot-out victory against their rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Andrei Kostitsyn was the hero tonight as his goal proved to be the winner after Alex Kovalev and Mats Sundin exchanged markers in the first and second round of the shootout respectively.
While I don’t expect to see John Ferguson Jr.’s firing splattered all over the papers tomorrow, tonight’s loss is yet another nail in the coffin for the Leaf’s general manager.
As for Guy Lafleur? Well, his words were heard loud and clear, and Saku Koivu et all responded with a big win tonight by fighting back every time they were down. Twice Toronto took the lead in the second period and twice the Habs’ responded by tying it up.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Leafs outshoot Montreal 17 to six, the four second period goals came in a span of four minutes and 18 seconds. Not bad.
Alex Kovalev continued his power play expertise by scoring two with the man advantage tonight, including the third Habs’ goal in the third to give them their first lead of the game.
Meanwhile, Guillaume Latendresse - subbing in for Michael Ryder on the Canadiens’ first line – was the only other Hab to score during regulation and notched his fifth of the season (that’s two more than Ryder has, for those keeping count).
Ah, have I not yet mentioned one, Carey Price? I do apologize. He was excellent in goal tonight by making saves on 43 of the 46 shots he faced – not to mention the four he stopped during the shootout.

The Bad:
Why do players always have to reach their milestones against the Habs?
With the game winding down and Montreal just over 20 seconds away from a straight up victory, Koivu did what he believed to be the smartest possible move – get the puck out of the zone as far as possible without icing the puck.
The Canadiens won tonight, but you can be sure that if they had lost, it would be Koivu receiving a bulk of the blame for not going for that empty net – just as he’d be blamed if he iced the puck and Toronto still managed to score.
He didn’t go for the empty net tonight, and I’m sure make the same move again.
However, you know all too well by now that Sundin did pick up Jason Blake’s rebound and pot it in not only to tie the game at three and push overtime, but to score his 400th goal as a Toronto Maple Leaf.
Now, if Toronto is well out of the playoff picture come the trade deadling, wouldn’t Sundin look really good centering fellow Swede, Daniel Alfredsson?

The Ugly:
The game that didn’t want to end is how I’ll forever remember tonight’s win over the Leafs.
With the game seemingly over in regulation, Sundin pushed it a step further into overtime.
So to overtime we went.
Then, the back and forth intense hockey had my blood to a boil, but the goalies stood tall.
So to a shootout we went… sort of.
I’m not sure how long the shootout was delayed, but judging by the lack of commercials, the conclusion to this match was put on ice for a little while as the holy Zamboni made it’s run not once, nor twice, but three times to ensure that both coaches were satisfied with the conditions of the frozen surface.
This joke was so funny it nearly had Mr. Paul Maurice in tears, a man whose job was and is seemingly on the line. Well, they do say laughter is the best medicine. You have to wonder if that Zamboni driver will be the only Leafs’ associated employee without a job tomorrow.

[Habsfan84]

Huge win for The Habs.