Those were the words of Bob Gainey prior to the game said as if to emphasize that despite being down 3-0 in the series, that the Canadiens intended to give their best effort. Perhaps it was also a reminder that there are a number of teams who would have be glad to be in the playoffs who didn’t make it.

The game couldn’t have started any better for the Canadiens. Only 39 seconds into the game, Andrei Kostitsyn wristed a shot into the top corner past Tim Thomas and the Habs had an early 1-0 lead. The goal was set up on a nice play by Saku Koivu who carried the puck into the zone, dished to Kostitsyn and then drove to the net taking a defenseman with him.

The first period was dominated by the Canadiens. The Habs outshot the Bruins 16-7. Glen Metropolit and Chris Higgins were terrific.

There were some tense moments. On a Bruins power-play, after Max Lapierre failed on a chance to clear, Marc Savard rang the puck off the post.

But it wasn’t until the last three minutes of the period that the Bruins took the lead with two quick goals. Both resulted from defensive miscues by the Habs.

The Bruins pressured the Canadiens in the second period. Carey Price made several big stops including a glove save on Phil Kessel who was all alone.

With just over 11 minutes left in the second and the Habs trailing by one, the Bell Centre boobirds were heard. With more than half the game to play, some fans were turning on the team. It was surprising.

After Kessel took a penalty for slashing, and the Canadiens power play began its shift, the booing by the ‘fans’ had intensified. The players had no patience. They seemed to be rushing.

As the power-play ended, Kessel received a breakway pass while coming out of the penalty box. He scored after going in all alone.

Replays would show that the play was clearly offside, but to no avail. Just another botched call. It was the point of no return for the Canadiens and for the mood of the fans.

Shortly after, the Lapierre line were caught in the offensive zone which gave the Bruins a 3 on 2 break. Michael Ryder made the score 4-1. The Habs were outshot 14-4 in the period.

Carey Price was left defenseless on all four Boston goals. Yet as he made a routine save at the end of the period, the Bell Centre fans mock cheered him. It was distasteful and undeserved.

After the game Bob Gainey said, “I suppose he (Price) could have kept his cool and not made any kind of gesture, but on the other hand, when you’re being bullied, if you don’t stand up for yourself, who is going to?” said Gainey. “He had two or three breakaways to stop, as well as some open scoring chances, so what’s the basis of the jeering?”

Gainey continued, “He reacted. You can read into it whatever you want. The people were rude. The people were unfair. So he stood up for himself? What’s wrong with that?”

It was refreshing to hear a Montreal coach who was defending his player rather than throwing them under the bus.

With a hostile Bell Centre crowd and the Bruins in shutdown mode, the Canadiens looked defeated in the third period. Kudos to Metropolit who skated hard on every shift to the end. Credit also goes to Price who ignored the fans and made several good saves in the period.

The first star for the Bruins was a former Canadien who was stripped of his confidence by the coach, and run out of Montreal by the media and some fans.

The Habs may have been beat by the Bruins but were skewered by their fans. It was shameful.

The Canadiens were bitterly disappointed that they couldn’t mount a better attack against the Bruins but they were without Markov, Schneider, Tanguay and Lang. It’s unclear how many of the players on the current roster will be back. They deserved a better sendoff.

Koivu chose to speak about Price after the game, “I said it before the season and I still believe it. I have a lot of confidence. The kid is going to win a Stanley Cup one day. Hopefully, I will be with him when that happens.”

It was a special moment. Koivu, who has given everything to his team, yet been subjected to unwarranted criticism, was empathizing with his young goaltender. And he was looking towards a future where #11 and #31 would be hoisting a Cup together.

It is a vision that I hope is realized.

Pre-game

Even though PA announcer Michel Lacroix emphasized respect for the anthems, there was scattered booing during the U.S. anthem.

Starting lineup: Plekanec, Stewart, D’Agostini, Komisarek, Hamrlik

Carey Price and Tim Thomas started in goal.

Brisebois and Sergei Kostitsyn were scratched from the line-up. Markov, Schneider, Bouillon and Tanguay were out with injuries. Lang is on injured reserve.

Lines:

Koivu-Kovalev-Andrei Kostitsyn
Plekanec-Stewart-D’Agostini
Lapierre-Latendresse-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Laraque-Higgins

Defense:

Hamrlik-Komisarek
Dandenault-Gorges
Weber-O’Byrne

Rocket’s three stars:

1. Michael Ryder
2. David Krejci
3. Glen Metropolit

[Source: AllHabs.com]

Goals

Only four Habs scored in the Boston series.

Two goals each from Higgins and Kovalev.
Weber and Andrei Kostitsyn each had one goal.

Points

Top five scorers (in order): Kovalev, Koivu, Higgins, Metropolit, Weber

(zero points from Lapierre, Latendresse and Plekanec)

Special teams

Canadiens ranked last in the NHL playoffs in both special teams categories.

No power play goals.
(3/5 of first unit was injured: Markov, Schneider, Tanguay)

Only 75% penalty killing efficiency.

Faceoffs

Winning percentage:

Plekanec 66.7%
Koivu 51.5 %
Lapierre 46.0%
Metropolis 40.0%

Penalties

Laraque had four minutes in penalties (no fights)

(Lapierre and Latendresse led the forwards in PIM)

Performed at or above expectations

Higgins, Kovalev, Koivu, Metropolit, Weber, Dandenault, Komisarek, O’Byrne, Price

Performed below expectations

Lapierre, Latendresse, Kostopoulos, Plekanec, Hamrlik, Gorges

[Source: AllHabs.com]

We do know that Lucic had no problem, after a hard-fought series and a 4-1 Boston Game 4 win, skating through the handshake without incident, unless you count the bear hug he got from former Bruins center Glen Metropolit — who like his Habs teammates is heading home for the spring.

Lucic and Komisarek are longtime on-ice rivals dating back to last year’s playoff series, which the Habs won in seven games. In the second period tonight, things boiled over with the briefest of fights. Lucic leveled Komisarek with one mighty blow. Then in the third period came the crosscheck that ended Komisarek’s evening.

“I just went in and finished my check and he felt like he needed to crosscheck. I could stand here and talk about (it) and be unclassy and all those types of things, but really it feels a lot better when you win a series, so it doesn’t really hurt after that,” said Lucic, who was cut above his left cheek by the crosscheck.

Later in his interview, Lucic was asked about the fight and that’s when he dropping his classiness just a tad.

“There’s two ways to go about it. You can either go about it a cheap way and crosscheck someone or you can do it the right way and the honorable way and fight someone with your gloves off. If you’re frustrated, I guess that’s how you need to go about it,” he said.

Lucic said he had no intention of retaliating for the crosscheck, but defenseman Aaron Ward was there to defuse the situation just in case. Lucic learned his lesson from the suspension he received for Game 3 for his late-game hit to the head on Maxim Lapierre in Game 2.

“That shows me a guy that’s matured a lot in a short span of time,” said head coach Claude Julien.

Aside from the physical stuff, Lucic finished the night with an assist and a plus-2 rating as his line with Michael Ryder and David Krejci dominated the Habs. That was probably another thing Komisarek had no answer for.

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

One reporter even tried to convince Julien that Montreal head coach/general manager Bob Gainey, the man who once fired Julien, didn’t make eye contact in the postgame handshake. Julien was quick to shoot down that theory and any ideas the media had about Julien feeling extra satisfaction that Gainey was on the opposite bench for the Bruins’ triumph.

“The one thing I can tell you right now, everybody would like me to say what would make them happy, I guess, as far as revenge is concerned,” said Julien after his team completed a four-game sweep. “But Bob Gainey did not enjoy firing me. Neither did Lou Lamoriello (in New Jersey), if we want to talk about that stuff. Nobody enjoys doing that job. …You’ve got to be able to separate business from personal things. … There’s no reason for me to be sitting here and saying I’m bitter.”

Ryder scored twice in the game and assisted on the game-winner by linemate David Krejci with just 34.4 seconds left in the first period. All series long he held firm to the notion that playing against the team he bitterly left last summer as a free agent wasn’t any sweeter. But after the victory, he at least revealed a little bit of his spiteful side.

“It’s definitely good beating your old team. But I don’t hold that many grudges,” said Ryder, who finished with four goals in the series. “But it is definitely a good feeling, especially now we have a break — which will give guys time to rest up and get ready for next series.”

Winger Milan Lucic, who added an assist on a goal by Krejci, was excited for his linemate.

“It was huge for him, obviously, doing what he did against his old team here. He’s big part of our team, a big acquisition from the start since he got here, so he did a real good job,” said the bulky forward.

The fact is, regardless of the opponent, Ryder would be pretty hard for anyone to stop right now. And that’s because he’s sticking to the philosophy the coaching staff has tried to pound into his head.

“They try to tell me to not think too much on the ice and shoot the puck,” he explained. “When I don’t think out there things just seem to happen a lot better.”

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

Unfortunately there is little or no accountability for what is said or what is written about the Canadiens. Many stories are manufactured and driven by an agenda. The Montreal media are pampered and have a sense of entitlement. Some seem to feel that they have a role in managing the team.

Here’s a small sample from Tuesday’s ‘news’:

First there was Francois Gagnon who said that Bob Gainey recklessly jeopardized Francois Bouillon’s career and his ability to secure a new contract by rushing him back into the lineup before he was ready. As we know, Bouillon only lasted 1:46 in Game 2 before aggravating his injury. But why speculate that Gainey had sinister motives when there is not a shred of proof.

The theme was then picked up by the excitable, but rarely rational, Jacques Demers. Demers insinuated that Mathieu Schneider and Alex Tanguay kept themselves out of the lineup to improve their chances of getting a new contract. Demers in his warped logic ‘reasoned’ that the two players wanted to protect themselves from further injury which would affect their ability to sign as a free agent in the off season. That is outrageous!

Demers said that they probably learned from watching Bouillon get re-injured & decided not to play in Game 3. Demers said: “I think it was just a snowball effect. They (Schneider & Tanguay) said, ‘Whoa, what happened to Bouillon here? I don’t want to be put in that situation. I’m a free agent. I wanna sign’.”

Gaston Therrien wrote that one of the reasons that the Canadiens lost Game 3 was due to Patrice Brisebois not being in the lineup. Apparently Therrien didn’t see game 1, where Brisebois played one of the worst playoff games ever by a Canadiens’ defenseman.

After Game 3, Saku Koivu talked about not losing hope and taking one game at a time. Unfortunately Andie Bennett thought Koivu’s comments were too bland and cliche. She was looking for something far more emotional and controversial for her story. In her short media career, it seems that Andie is already tainted by the self-serving Montreal media who care more about getting a juicy sound byte for their report than the truth.

Lastly, the whining and the indignation by all media about Bob Gainey choosing not to ‘tell all’ about his line-up decisions was both pathetic and humorous.

[Source: AllHabs.com]

1. Does Montreal have a better game than the one it displayed in Game 3?
The short answer: no. The longer answer (of course) is that the Habs’ best effort of the series produced the same result as the first two games — a defeat. Now that they’re down 0-3, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to muster enough energy for 60 minutes that’ll be strong enough to take down the Bruins. And while I find fault in a lot of the Habs’ roster as it’s constituted, you can’t really blame the team’s construction for its failures when you consider some of Montreal’s top players are on the shelf. Without Andrei Markov, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider and Alex Tanguay — or similarly skilled skaters — no team could be expected to win a playoff series against one of the deepest teams in the league. With unrestricted free agency waiting in the wings for 10 of these Habs, plus a chance that the team will be sold and/or head coach and general manager Bob Gainey will be shown the gate, Game 4 has the makings of a potential funeral and a bitter end to the 100th anniversary season of the most celebrated franchise in the NHL.

2. Now that Milan Lucic is back, who sits?
Head coach Claude Julien admitted he has a tough decision on his hands now that Lucic is back from his suspension and Byron Bitz has proven his nerves are as steel-strong as his play on the forecheck. There’s some media talk that maybe Blake Wheeler gets the seat in the press box. But that’s just nuts. Wheeler, who lacks the grit Bitz brings, still adds so much to the Boston cause with his speed and skill. He paid his dues for 81 games in the regular season and has done nothing to hurt his cause in this series. If anything, the only lineup alteration I would make from Games 1 and 2 is leave Wheeler on his Game 3 line alongside David Krejci and Michael Ryder, put Lucic on Marc Savard’s line and drop P.J. Axelsson back to the fourth line. But status quo works too.

3. Who gets the start in net for Montreal?
It might be hard for “kings of overreaction” here in Montreal, but Carey Price has not cost the Habs this series. And there have been glimmers of the championship-caliber goaltender Montreal thinks it will have in a couple years here and there against the Bruins. Most goaltenders would look bad playing behind an injury-ravaged, under-talented club like the Habs have right now. It’s time for the Habs to look toward the future, and one of the few players that will be back for years to come is Price. So to not let him finish what he has started in this series would be an unnecessary blow to his confidence. Even in defeat, Montrea has the chance to establish Price as its ‘man’ in the crease.

4. Does Manny Fernandez get the start in Game 4?
One reporter mentioned this to me today, and I won’t reveal his name for fear his inbox would be barraged with hate mail (not to mention the guys in the white coats would probably accompany him across the border tomorrow). Tim Thomas is in a groove. And if he wins Game 4, there’s a chance the Bruins won’t play again for as long as nine days. That would mean nearly two weeks without activity if he sat for Game 4. Fernandez has been practicing hard, keeping his head up and staying ready. He had plenty of practice preparing without playing in the regular season. So the bench is where he should stay. Basically, he should be behind glass that read ‘break, only in case of emergency.’ Thomas gives the Bruins the best chance to win regardless of the game differential in the series. Enough said.

5. Will Montreal try to physically leave the type of mark on Boston that could hinder the Bruins’ chances in future rounds?
Outside of the play between the whistles, I wouldn’t think so. Even though there were plenty of cheap shots in Boston, the Habs showed more restraint in Game 3 on their home ice. I have a feeling Gainey talked to his team about staying on the right side of that fine line between physical play and dirty tricks. If you’re around a guy like Gainey, some of his class has to rub off sooner or later. I suspect there will be hits galore for 60 minutes or more. If the Bruins win, as always, the post-series handshake will be cordial. And in a weird way the Habs might want Boston to succeed in future rounds because of the respect the Bruins have earned in this series.

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

They are the Boston Bruins. The number one team in the East; a team with tremendous depth up front, a good combination of size and speed on the blueline, a consistent and reliable goaltender, effective special teams, a great coach, some scorers, some playmakers, some grinders, some speedsters etc.

I can’t figure out why people are so surprised at the dominance shown in the first two games of this series. Look at the San Jose Sharks. They have been arguably the best team and have lost the first two games to a Ducks team that has struggled with consistency all year. That’s surprising. The Habs-Bruins series is playing out the way it should. I thought it was very obvious that even if the Canadiens would play their very best, that is not good enough because the Bruins are just better. They need the Bruins to play below their potential in order to have a chance. Someone texted me Saturday night after the game “I now understand why you predicted the Bruins to win the series.” I thought to myself; “I assumed a number 1 team would beat a number 8 team, that’s not exactly a bold prediction…”

Montreal being down 2-0 does not surprise or disappoint me as a fan.

It disappoints me that people keep blaming Carey Price. First of all, if you are going to blame a loss on a goalie, score more than 1 goal! Lose the game 6-5, then blame it on the goalie. The kid is 21, most goalies don’t become starters until they are much older than that. Give him a break.

It disappoints me that it took almost 5 periods for Gainey to realize “maybe I shouldn’t have broken up Tanguay – Koivu – Kovalev!” This is the line that had it not been put together, the Habs would not even be playing in the playoffs. Get Laraque off of the number one line! He had 2 points in just around 35 games this year!

It disappoints me that Tomas Plekanec was scratched. The playoffs is not the time to send messages, it’s the time to win games. As bad as Plekanec has played recently, benching a 20-goal scorer when you only have 3 on your roster is not exactly the brightest move. Send a message by benching him or demote him to the 3^rd or 4^th line. Sending him to the press box really does not make much sense.

It disappoints me that Gainey fired Carbonneau because the team was not “emotionally engaged”, and now I would argue that they lost the first 2 games, mainly because they were overly engaged emotionally. The players take stupid penalties and are too focused on the Bruins physical style of play that they are completely disregarding the style of play that helps themselves succeed.

The Canadiens are at home tonight for Game 3. The lines, d-pairings and starting goaltender will only be revealed close to game time. My money is on Halak starting and Plekanec back in the lineup. If the Habs want a chance to win tonight; they will need to play a more conservative game defensively to limit Boston’s scoring chances, they need to stay out of the box, they need to get Kovalev on as much as possible with Chara on the bench, they will need a solid performance from their goaltender and they will need to be more effective on special teams.

Can’t afford to lose this one. It’s do or die, so the players better not forget to bring their game.

[Source: SportsTalkBuzz.com]

Despite finishing the regular season with the league’s best record, the Sharks have watched the Ducks take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series that will continue tonight at Honda Center.

The Sharks averaged 39.5 shots to the Ducks’ 21.5 in the first two games.

The Sharks have spent large chunks of time in the Ducks’ zone, turning the sport of hockey into something resembling a lopsided, half-court pickup basketball game.

The Sharks have been on the power play 12 times in this series. The Ducks have had the man-advantage six times.

“If we keep working and putting another 45 shots on net (the Sharks had 44 on Sunday), something good is going to happen,” center Joe Pavelski told the Associated Press after Monday’s practice in San Jose.

Some of Pavelski’s teammates don’t think that testing fate, or simply assuming that something good is bound to happen, is the way to go. Not when another stand-on-your-head performance by Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller could be hours away.

“It’s a desperate time for us,” said Sharks right wing Devin Setoguchi. “We need a win. The guys know that.

“I think we can play a little cleaner. If we stick to our game plan, use our strengths and maybe limit those couple of turnovers or the couple of mental lapses…

“They’re a good team. You’ve got to give them credit. They’re going to score goals when you have those breakdowns. You can’t give them those opportunities otherwise they’ll wind up in your net. We’ve got to clean up our play a bit and keep going the way we have.”

Jonathan Cheechoo, who has scored half of the Sharks’ playoff goals this season (one) also admitted that there were areas in which the Sharks could be better and not just on the scoreboard.

“I think we’ve played better in the past,” Cheechoo said. “I think we’re playing pretty good right now but we’ve got to do a lot of the little things a little bit better. Certain passes we make that create turnovers are easy five-foot passes where if you make the pass it speeds up your game

“Hopefully we can tire this goalie out. And tire their lines out. Their first line plays a lot so hopefully we can get our lines going. If we can get pucks in and force them to play in their end, we’ll tire them out a little bit.

[Source: Ducks.FreedomBlogging.com]

I suspect that the Canadiens were listening to their coach and following the game plan for the first ten minutes of the game. The Habs were skating, forechecking and carrying the play. Shots on goal were 8-to-2 for the Canadiens. Tim Thomas looked beatable.

The Bruins then got their first of five power-play opportunities. Metropolit failed to clear the puck and Marc Savard scored for Boston.

After that, the wheels fell off for the Canadiens. The last half of the period, the Bruins outshot the Canadiens 13-to-3. Carey Price made several spectacular saves just to keep the team in the game.

Chuck Kobasew scored to give the Bruins a two goal lead. Roman Hamrlik, who struggled all game, was caught roaming high in the slot.

Georges Laraque delivered a blow up hit to Milan Lucic before the period ended.

The Canadiens showed some signs of life with a goal in the first minute of the second period. It was a weak goal for Tim Thomas who seems to lose all confidence when Kovalev has the puck.

The poor play continued for the Lapierre line. They look completely lost in the series. Lapierre, Latendresse and Kostopoulos got caught up ice, and Hnidy scored on the resulting 3-on-2.

Boston got their second power-play goal on a cross-ice pass to Marc Savard. Lapierre needed to get his stick in the passing lanes.

The Bruins scored their third power-play goal in five chances with only 2.3 seconds left in the second period. Dandenault was caught chasing which setup a 2-on-1 for the Bruins.

Jaroslav Halak came in to start the third period. Bob Gainey said it was simply a measure “to regroup as a team in the third period.”

Halak started the period with a solid pad save but only faced four shots the rest of the period, none of them difficult.

The Habs just played out the third without mounting a threat. Josh Gorges surprisingly lost a fight to Patrice Bergeron in his first NHL tilt. Even more surprising, Laraque stood by and watched without engaging anyone.

In the final minutes, Lucic continued his thuggery. He began with stickwork on Mathieu Schneider and then crosschecked Lapierre in the head. He skated away when Mike Komisarek arrived.

Given the timing and circumstances, expect Lucic to receive at least a one game suspension for a blow to the head.

The Canadiens finally received their first power-play of the night with less than five minutes in the game.

The Canadiens were beaten by special teams play. Three Bruins goals were scored on the power-play.

Saku Koivu was the only Canadiens player with success on faceoffs at 59%. Lapierre won only 27% and Metropolit won 19% of the draws.

Alex Kovalev was the Canadiens’ best forward with a goal on six shots.

Sergei Kostitsyn had some good shifts with his brother and was the co-leader in hits with four, including one on Lucic.

Francis Boullion played just over a minute and a half before retiring to the dressing room for the night. Presumably his groin injury was aggravated.

After the first ten minutes of the game, the Canadiens did not compete and they hung their goalie out to dry. As Komisarek said “I don’t think the responsibility falls to one guy, especially Carey. We lost tonight because we weren’t good enough as a group.”

The Habs’ special teams simply have to be better starting Monday night when the series shift to Montreal.

Pre-game

Starting lineup: Koivu, Tanguay, Kovalev, Dandenault, Gorges

Carey Price and Tim Thomas started in goal.

O’Byrne, D’Agostini, Plekanec, Brisebois and Stewart were scratched from the line-up. Markov was out with an injury. Lang is on injured reserve.

Lines:

Koivu-Kovalev-Tanguay
Sergei Kostitsyn-Andrei Kostitsyn-
Lapierre-Latendresse-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Laraque-Higgins

Defense:

Hamrlik-Komisarek
Schneider-Weber
Gorges-Dandenault
Bouillon

Rocket’s three stars:

1. Marc Savard
2. Michael Ryder
3. Chuck Kobasew

[Source: AllHabs.com]

Billy Guerin. I always loved Billy Guerin as a hockey player and hoped some day he would play for the Pens. He’s not quite the player he was in his prime, but he certainly fits the bill for what the Pens needed right now.

Craig Adams, picked up off of waivers from the Blackhawks — I was so happy with Bylsma’s decision to keep him in the lineup after game one. The guy is an outstanding penalty killer, he loves to hit people, and he makes the fourth line - a unit that Bylsma can be confident in when he puts them on the ice.

Not an actual deadline trade, but the return of Gonchar at that same time has been a major plus. This is not the same team that Therrien was fired from coaching.

Game 2, trailed twice and responded. The Flyers gave all that they had, and played a tremendous hockey game. The Pens equaled them in grit and determination and the game truly deserved an overtime period. In the end, the Flyers’ penchant for taking penalties cost them the chance to even the series. This was only the second time in NHL history that a playoff game was won on a 5-3 goal. Both penalties had to be called and Billy Guerin ended it. So we head to Philly up 2-0, looking for at least a split. At worst we end it at home on Thursday.

[Source: PenguinPoop.com]

With his team preparing to take on the San Jose Sharks in Sunday night’s second game of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion, Coach Randy Carlyle halted Saturday afternoon’s proceedings to deliver some choice, and colorful, words.

Asked about it afterward in his meeting with reporters, Carlyle came clean.

“I yell everyday,” Carlyle said. “Just the building got quiet.”

Carlyle changed that in a hurry. No one at the Sharks Ice practice rink could possibly have failed to hear the message he sent players — all of whom have been on the receiving end of similar tirades many times before.

“For the same reason I yelled yesterday,” Carlyle said. “Our expectation is that every day we come to the ice surface, we have to accomplish something. We weren’t in our routes and we weren’t moving the puck effectively. You can’t have that in practice. We won’t tolerate it. Our expectations of our group are higher than that.”

Thanks largely to a 35-save performance from goaltender Jonas Hiller in his NHL playoff debut, the Ducks took the early series lead with a 2-0 triumph Thursday. Another victory Sunday would put San Jose in a deep hole with action shifting to Honda Center in Anaheim for Game 3 on Tuesday.

“The process we talk about, and we’re talking about focusing on that, versus the result,” Carlyle said. “Part of our process is making sure we’re committed to improving on a day-to-day basis in practice, making sure we’re rock-solid.

“When we ask you to do a drill, a forechecking drill or a defensive-zone drill, we understand it’s not game-like conditions, but you have to be in proper position, make sure you’re committed to doing it daily. That’s what we’re going to ask.”

[Source: Ducks.FreedomBlogging.com]

Lapierre skated at Lucic in front of the Montreal goal after Lucic and Habs defenseman Mathieu Schneider exchanged pleasantries. You can see the hit in the clip below, but Lucic seemed to catch Lapierre in the head with either his glove or his stick. Either way, he is definitely still holding his stick when he hits him. And what was originally announced as a fighting penalty was changed to a match penalty. That means Lucic is suspended upon review.

While Lucic was unavailable to the media after the game, Bruins head coach Claude Julien defended his player.

“I think in Looch’s situation, obviously he might’ve lost his composure a little bit in that area. But what you’ve got to remember is he got elbowed in the head and then high sticked by Schneider. And then Lapierre comes in — Lapierre, who’s been an instigator throughout the whole series and even during the regular season. And what Looch did is react to him coming at him. It wasn’t premeditated and in reviewing it, he hit him with his glove. He had his stick in his hands, but the glove hit the helmet,” said Julien.

“Had the stick hit him in the head, I think Lapierre would’ve been down. But Lapierre stayed up and kept going at Looch,” the coach continued. “If there’s one thing I know, it certainly wasn’t premeditated. We all saw the (Calgary’s Mike) Cammalleri incident and nothing happened there. So I just think that it was certainly not premeditated and was more about protecting himself. And in reviewing the glove is what hit him in the helmet.”

Publicly, at least, the Habs didn’t seem to be chomping at the bit for justice from the league.

“It is not my business to give someone a suspension,” said Lapierre. “In the playoffs you give some and you receive some. It was my turn. Like I said, it is not my business to give out suspension. They have the video and they are going to take care of it.”

Montreal head coach Bob Gainey said: “I’ll just wait for the NHL to look at it. There’s a lot of pushing and shoving, and I’ve got confidence they’ll see it and they can judge from the situation.”

While the Cammalleri incident that Julien referred to — the Flames winger nailed Chicago’s Martin Havlat with a right hook while his hand was still on his stick — was egregious, it came in a 1-1 game in Game 1 of that series. The lopsided nature of the Bruins’ victory might inspire the league to issue some sort of discipline.

Here’s a look at the play in question:

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

Asnis said the procedure went “very uneventfully.” As for the other major thing you’re worried about as you read this, Hunwick is out indefinitely based on his recovery time.

“He is out and his return date will be determined based on how he does,” said Asnis. “There’s no answer. It is possible, depending on his recovery, that he could be back. But that’s something to be determined.”

Here’s a quick time line of how things went down for the valuable Bruins backliner, according to Asnis. In retrospect, Hunwick probably suffered the injury on a check during the second period Thursday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with Montreal. After the game, however, Hunwick did not report anything unusual. He practiced Friday and after practice complained of abdominal and shoulder pain. He went to the hospital and after blood work and a CAT he was stable, so he was sent home under close observation. At that point he’d already been ruled out of Game 2.

Today, when Hunwick left Ristuccia Arena via ambulance, he again felt severe abdominal pain. Upon being reimaged, the decision was made to operate. The procedure was performed at Mass. General by Dr. David Berger.

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

The Ducks landed Pronger in an off-season trade in 2006, two weeks after he had been in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers, only to come up short in Game 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Eleven months later, Pronger and the Ducks drank from the Stanley Cup.

“We’ve both been through the pain of losing in the Finals,” Whitney said Saturday. “Luckily, the next year he got the thrill of winning. Hopefully, I get to experience that.”

Whitney came agonizingly close to achieving hockey’s biggest prize last season, with the Pittsburgh Penguins, only to fall to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. Now, Whitney is playing alongside Pronger with the Ducks, having been obtained in a Feb. 26 trade that sent left wing Chris Kunitz and junior prospect Eric Tangradi to Pittsburgh.

The Ducks are nowhere near the Stanley Cup Finals, but they took the first step with Thursday night’s 2-0 victory over the top-seeded San Jose Sharks and will attempt to go up by the same margin when the opening-round playoff series continues Sunday night at HP Pavilion.

“I know how hard it is to get there, how it takes a lot of intense and hard work,” Whitney said. “In Game 1, I thought we showed that. It’s a long road, but I want to get back there and be on the winning side.”

The acquisition of Whitney, along with several other late-season personnel moves orchestrated by General Manager Bob Murray, put the Ducks in position to even be in the Stanley Cup dance. Whitney contributed 10 assists and was plus-1 in 20 late-season games with the Ducks, and helped set up team captain Scott Niedermayer’s decisive third-period, power-play goal Thursday against San Jose.

While Whitney downplays it, the trade required him to undertake a significant challenge, both in adjusting to the system favored by Ducks coach Randy Carlyle and in being paired with Pronger, which often results in facing the opposition’s top offensive threats.

“We didn’t want to take away his No. 1 asset, his skating ability,” Carlyle said. “He’s a puck-moving, skating defenseman. We just wanted him to adjust some things, from a standpoint of playing the middle of the ice, not being the guy that’s going to lead the rush. He’s going to come late on a rush. Not to take chances at the offensive blue line — that kind of stuff.

“He hasn’t done any of those things in a while, so if that’s what you call progress, he’s progressing.”

The one thing Carlyle continues to preach is for Whitney to use his “big-time shot” more often. Whitney has put only 29 pucks on net, an average of 1.4 per game, since joining the Ducks.

“Obviously, sometimes I’m looking to pass, so you want to make sure you’re thinking shot first,” Whitney said. “There have been a few instances where he’s kind of gotten on me about being in the slot and looking to pass instead of just firing it.”

Whitney, 26, has attempted to take full advantage of his working relationship with Pronger, whose 15-season career includes a Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player and a Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.

“He talks a lot on the ice,” Whitney said. “He’s real good at communicating with me. I think we’ve meshed pretty well together.”

Pronger, whose outstanding late-season play was another big reason the Ducks reached the playoffs, has also benefited from the stability of generally being teamed with Whitney at even strength. Pronger had played with a number of partners since the training-camp trade of his former sidekick, Sean O’Donnell, to the Kings.

“You get accustomed to how a guy plays,” Pronger said. “You’re comfortable. I think he (Whitney) is starting to get a lot more comfortable in this system, with the way we play. It’s an adjustment period. I know when I first got here, it was a big adjustment.

“Those are things that take time, take repetition, take playing together and take learning on the job.”

[Source: Ducks.FreedomBlogging.com]

And Montreal Canadiens head coach Bob Gainey, whose team now trails the best-of-seven series two games to none, doesn’t know if he’ll go back to Price for Monday’s Game 3 in Montreal.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked if he’d start Price, who allowed five goals on 26 shots in the defeat.

Gainey said that switching goalies wasn’t necessarily an indictment of Price.

“I think it was more of a situation in the game,” the coach said. “After two periods, we were down, 5-1, and the last goal coming so late in the period, I just felt it would be better to let him come out of the game and put (Jaroslav) Halak in. We needed to regroup as a team in the third period … putting your second goalie in the game at that time does that.”

Montreal defenseman Mike Komisarek didn’t throw Price under the bus.

“I don’t think the responsbility falls on one guy, especially Carey (Price),” he said. “We were not good enough as a group. Carey likes to put a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. It is not just one guy. It is not his fault. It is everyone as a group.”

One other note on the Habs. Defenseman Francis Bouillon was scatched for Game 1 with lower body injuries. He returned to the lineup tonight but was only able to make it through four shifts. Gainey said after the game it was the right decision to reinsert the veteran but before the game Bouillon had said he was surprised to get a call from Gainey, while in Montreal, to come down and play in Game 2.

[Source: TheBruinsBlog.net]

Specifically, it gives San Jose plenty to ponder what went wrong after its 2-0 loss to the Ducks.

And, as if it needed a reason to jump on star center Joe Thornton, media in San Jose are pointing to Thornton’s one shot on goal in Game 1.

Thornton (below) is perhaps the most scrutinized player of these 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs because of his perceived inability to both produce and take a team deep into the postseason.

Thornton has 11 goals and 48 points in 71 playoff games, well off his career point-per-game pace in the regular season (842 points in 836 games).

He has 30 points in 36 playoff games with the Sharks but is saddled with second round exits in his three appearances.

The stigma takes root from 2004, when he was pointless for Boston in a seven-game quarterfinals loss Montreal, although Thornton did play hurt in that series.

Thornton is often accused of not shooting enough when he could use his big frame (6-foot-4, 235 pounds) to bully his way to the net.

There appeared to be some truth to that notion during Game 1 as Thornton and linemates Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi were limited offensively against the Ducks’ top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan.

Thornton and Marleau had 6:40 and 5:51 minutes of ice time, respectively, on the power play and still had one shot apiece for the night.

Sharks coach Todd McLellan said he might reconsider his strategy of using the Thornton line against the Getzlaf line.

Asked about Thornton and Marleau, McLellan told the San Jose Mercury News that ”Most of our offense this year has run between those two players. And if we’re going to move on, they have to produce offensively.”

That means converting on the power play after an 0-for-6 performance. They outshot the Ducks, 35-17, but most of those shots were from a safe distance.

So much off time, so many questions. Will they be answered in Game 2?

“We felt we had the majority of the play, but that’s just hockey,” Thornton told reporters after Game 1.

“We go in front of the net and get more shots. Eventually they’ll go in. We’ll be better on Sunday.”

[Source: Ducks.FreedomBlogging.com]

Fortunately, for though of us who support the Penguins, they made the Flyers pay for their undisciplined hockey last night.  The  Pens capitalized on two power plays.  One to tie the game with less than five minutes remaining, the other (a two man advantage) in overtime.

The Pens came out hitting hard and often.  The Pens were credited with 50 hits to the Flyers 29.  Again, some of the hits were bone crunchers.  Brooks Orpik was a one man wrecking machine, registering 14 hits by himself.  He looked as though he was on a mission to smash everything.

Notes:

• Petr Sykora was again held off the score sheet.  It is time for Sykora to turn it up a notch.  We need him to score some goals, perhaps one of those “big” goals we’ve come to count on.
• Marc-Andre Fleury made a save in the second period that could be on the level of Frank Pietrangelo’s “the save”.  This could have been the single biggest factor in the Pens win.
• Though there were not nearly the “cheap shots” in this game compared to game 1, I thought the officiating was worse.  The referees seemed to blatantly overlook some things.  I am not just saying things the Flyers did.

Game 2 was a very hotly contested game.  It looks as though this series is going to be a good one.  I don’t think there will be any 6-0 games.  We can all look forward to watching an intense series.

[Source: PenguinPoop.com]

Guerin

While the Pens during the trade deadline went with savvy and CUP experience, the Flyers pressed by salary cap concerns went with…

youth. So far, not only have their youth played like they are on the beginning part of the learning curve but their vets looked to be completely exhausted and dumbfounded when Guerin buried the game winner.

The Flyers youth, such as (20 year-old) Giroux’s slash giving us the 5 on 3… and having to move (19 year old, defenseman) Sbisa to forward combined with their veteran brain camps is the biggest difference between the two teams.

It’s the Are You Experienced in the first two-games and that’s why we are heading to where the Governor of Philadelphia resides up 2 to ZIP.  To the land where those maggot fans boo’d the Flyers off the ice during their last game like they were Santa Claus.

Ray Shero (regardless of how things turn out) is a genius. His assistant Chuck Fletcher has been to the FINALS three times with three different teams. It’s winning from top to bottom… from MARIO and Burkle both of whom hide in the background to those in the locker room all ready preparing for the trip to Philadelphia – this organEYEzation has class written all over it and it’s represented very well on (and off) the ice by the players.

Win (or lose) and somewhere along this long voyage 15 of these teams do lose…  the class displayed by our Penguins is top shelf. We do reserve the right to criticize them but let’s face it… since Disco DAN has come on the scene this has been nothing but trip to Electric Ladyland for us fans.

WOOHOO.

[Source: PenguinPoop.com]

I had a feeling this could happen… St. Louis just cannot solve Roberto Luongo! The Canucks’ captain is currently playing on a different universe. The red pipe has been favorable for him, but he’s made some monstrous saves in the first 2 games of this series. Andy McDonald is especially wondering how he hasn’t beaten Luongo yet. Every time the Blues think they’re about to get one, he’s a step ahead and in position to make the save. Luongo is just unbelievable right now. Since Vancouver’s home loss to the Avs a couple weeks ago, the brick wall in net has given up just 2 goals in the 5 games (3 shutouts).

Chris Mason has been good, but not good enough. For the Blues to have a chance in this series, he has got to outplay Luongo. With St. Louis in a 2-0 deficit, they basically have to win 4 of 5 to move on. Mason has to be dynamite, and not let pucks slip through that could’ve been stopped. At this point, I don’t see the Canucks losing 4 of 5 to these guys.

Whatever way you look at it, though, the Blues have to get more pucks on Luongo when it’s 5-on-5; most of their prime chances are coming on the man advantage. Their power play is good, but it’s gone 1/11 in these first 2 games. The Canucks have outscored them 4-0 at even strength, and just suck all the offense out of St. Louis. Paul Kariya’s return has to be much-anticipated by the Blues at this point. It’s still up in the air whether he’ll come back in this series, but St. Louis desperately needs him! Maybe he’s the one who could finally solve Luongo…

[Source: RedLightD.Blogspot.com]