Carbo plays net detective on road

[Habsfan84]

Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau has an interesting decision to make as the team prepares to face the Phoenix Coyotes tomorrow night (9 p.m., RDS, CJAD Radio-800) in Game 2 of their four-game western swing.
Does he show his confidence in rookie goaltender Carey Price and give him a chance to atone for a poor performance Monday in San Jose?
Or does he give Jaroslav Halak a chance to make his first

National Hockey League start this season? Carbonneau had a chance to mull over his options yesterday as he gave his players a day off to spend time with their wives and girlfriends, who are here for a few days.
Carbonneau wasn't pleased with Price's effort in the 6-4 loss to the Sharks Monday, but made a point of saying the goaltender shared the blame with some of his teammates.
"I'm sure there are some goals he would like back, but we lost this game because we made too many mistakes," Carbonneau said.
"We've been playing well defensively, but (against the Sharks), our defence wasn't good. We just got beat one-on-one."
The Sharks put pressure on the rookie goaltender throughout the game. They drove hard to the net and made sure there was lots of traffic in front of Price. The goaltender found himself having to push aside Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton as they took up position in front of the Canadiens net and he complained on several occasions to referees Tim Peel and Kevin Rooney.
"We knew they were going to drive the net and that's the kind of game we should be playing," defenceman Roman Hamrlik said.
Hamrlik and Carbonneau agreed the Canadiens did some good things, but they came up short in a number of areas.
Carbonneau was happy to see his team score four goals at even-strength, but not as happy to see his power play, which is ranked No. 1 in the NHL, come up empty on seven tries.
And he definitely wasn't happy that Montreal allowed six goals.
The Sharks went around defenceman Mike Komisarek for the first and last goals of the game. The final goal was scored by the recently acquired Brian Campbell, who used a spinorama to catch Komisarek off-guard.
"I wanted to do something special for the fans in my first home game," Campbell said.
Price was particularly weak on a long shot by Jody Shelley later in the second period. The puck took some strange bounces, including one off the goaltender's paddle, but the bottom line is that the shot was wide of the net before Price redirected it.
In the first period, Thornton scored the first of his two goals when he banked a shot from behind the net off the fallen Price's back. But, while the Sharks gave him a rough time, Price found himself on the ice on that play after he was dumped by teammate Bryan Smolinski.
The question facing Carbonneau is whether to write off the game as an aberration and come back with Price or to give Halak a chance. Halak had a 10-6 record last season, but Carbonneau hasn't seen fit to start him this year. Halak has been limited to only two relief appearances and has played well.
The Canadiens did manage to come back on three occasions to tie the score and Tomas Plekanec scored his 25th and 26th goals of the season.

The team also received an unexpected goal from rookie defenceman Ryan O'Byrne. It was his first NHL goal.
"It was good to get that one out of the way," said O'Byrne, but fans shouldn't expect him to go on a tear. As he pointed out, he played 80 regular-season games in Hamilton last year and never scored.
The Canadiens get a bit of a break from the NHL schedulemaker. While they get a chance to relax in the sunshine after practising this morning, the Coyotes are on the road tonight in Dallas.

The Canadiens wrap up their road trip on the weekend with back-to-back games Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles and Sunday in Anaheim.