Cornwall ON – Winning is always better than losing as the Habs discovered after edging Carolina 4-3 in Montreal. It wasn’t pretty and the team’s woes aren’t fixed,but a win is a win is a win and for Montreal right now every win is important.
The good: Montreal played well enough in front of Alex Auld to get the win, but Hal Gill and PK Subban both manned over 25 minutes of playing time. Andrei Kostitsyn scored a few points although was a -1 for the night. Plekky and Cammy are clicking again which is good timing as the play offs approach.
David Desharnais keeps looking good in a Habs uniform.
The not as good: Carey Price has the flu which means we probably will see more of Alex Auld unless Pierre Gauthier does something interesting like grab a Pascal LeClaire off of waivers today or even a Ty Conklin.
Tom Pyatt and Lars Eller are still getting manly minutes which danger! Montreal still has a tendency to spend more time on the PK instead of the PP. Montreal needs to draw more penalties. Brent Sopel played his first game and did what you expect from Mr. Sopel which is ok. The challenge now for Pierre Gauthier is to shuffle the deck before the end of Monday and make sure that Habs are geared for a play off run.
So what targets are out there? Many media sites are of course talking about the usual suspects, but Stephen Weiss last I checked wasn’t wearing any Stanley Cup rings or been on teams worth of wearing one. No offense to Mr. Weiss, but if you’re going to pull the trigger on a major trade the element you get needs to meet a goal.
As St. Louis has shown sometimes the obvious isn’t obvious which is why Mr. Stewart is now scoring goals for them instead of Colorado.
That’s the challenge for Pierre Gauthier. He has some chips to trade. Personally I’d like to see Mr. Kostitsyn upgraded and one more forward added. I’d like to see Edmonton’s Dustin Penner wearing le Bleu, blanc, et rouges Tuesday morning. I’d even be willing to take back Sheldon Souray to help make it happen which is something I’m sure Edmonton would like to see.
NHL SCORES
A BradRichards less Dallas Stars squad beat Nashville 3-2; LA held on defeating Colorado 4-3 in spite of the Avalanche’s 3 goal 3rd period outburts; Detroit welcomed by Mike Modano with a 3-2 win over Buffalo; Pittsburgh out dueled Toronto 6-5. Typical Alex Kovalev game; scored a goal; didn’t look that great, and scored the winner in the Shoot Out. Not bad for a 7th round draft pick! I know this is going to get me booed, but I’m kinda rooting for the Leafs. I’m not sure why, but there’s something about this team I’m starting to like.
Ottawa surprised Philly 4-1 with fans I’m sure wondering what their season would be like if they’d had the goal tending that Craig Anderson has given them since their trade??
Washington beat the Islanders 3-2 and Boston beat Vancouver on the road 3-1.
What do you think Hockey fans? Who do you think will get swapped by Monday?
