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Game 61: Canadiens vs Stars AKA More of the Same |
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Within a minute of puck drop, the Canadiens had the lead. Joel Armia scored his 15th goal of the year with helpers from Domi and Lehkonen. This new look line was the result of Jonathan Drouin being a late scratch. Claude Julien said in his post game comments that Drouin had suffered a ankle sprain in Boston and played injured in Pittsburgh but after the warm up tonight, it was decided that he wouldn't play. The Canadiens doubled their lead early in the second through Jordan Weal (who had replaced Drouin in the line-up) and then made it 3-0 at the 6 minute mark in the second. Surely they would manage to win this one, with that kind of lead right? Wrong. Slowly but surely, their mistakes caught up to them. Sure, they dominated shots wise but look at the face-off percentages and worst, at the giveaways....
I know, there were some questionable calls and some missed calls tonight but bottom line is, even without those, the Canadiens could not have won tonight. Scandella setting up the Stars' first goal perfectly sums up this game in which they were guilty of so many turnovers. I'll admit that the no call when Domi was cut was mind boggling and the fact that Armia was tripped in OT stings but hey, it's not like a power play guarantees a goal for the Canadiens these days in any case. They did have most of the puck possession in overtime but that doesn't win you anything. So the Canadiens got themselves a point tonight but the Maple Leafs got 2 therefore widening the gap between the two teams to 8 points and it's worth noting that Toronto has 2 games in hand on top of that lead. With a week to go before the trade deadline, the Canadiens may not be mathematically out but it's only a matter of time and I must say that I was surprised to see Carey Price in net tonight. In a back to back so late in the day when all is pretty much lost, it's weird that the Canadiens are willing to ride their star net minder so much.
At the end of the game, Brendan Gallagher looked positively livid. He charged towards the ref and well, he ended up telling him where to go before breaking his stick on the way to the locker room. While Gally is passionate, it's quite rare to see him lose his mind like this but it's easy to understand where he's coming from...Tonight was a 4th loss in a row and in a season which already includes two 8 games losing streak, how can one not be fed up with losing? So, what's next for the Habs? A 3 game week which will start Tuesday in Detroit (you all remember how well Montreal has done against the Wings this season) before heading to Washington on Thursday and visiting the Sens on Saturday. At this stage, there are 21 games left to the season and should things cary on as they are well, we'll be in for a very very long end of the season but hey, at least we get to watch Nick Suzuki's great rookie season...silver linings and all that as they say.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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