Boston Series Game Three, Musings and In-Game Scribbles
April 20, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
First Period
Price is not the man. But he starts.
Montreal will hit a lot. But there is no correlation between hitting and winning. There is a correlation between desperation and hitting.
Kovalev, Kostitsyn (senior) and Koivu are together. They get the team’s best pressure of the series. How did the puck not get in?
Lapierre line’s first appearance. Lapierre is knocked down away from the play and it goes uncalled.
Boston error leads to another screaming still chance. The crowd is unbelievably loud compared to the rest of the season. Loudest and most reactive.
Boston is giving the puck away two or three times per shift. And always around their own net. This is like getting early chances inside the opponent ten-yard line. Score or die later.
Laraque gets one of these free chances now.
Koivu line on and the captain drives in one-on-one and fires a shot.
Montreal takes a slashing call. Same old pattern. Andrei Kostitsyn. Boston scored three power-play goals in their 5-1 win on Saturday. Montreal had no power-plays that night.
Not a Stanley Cup-winning rate of exchange.
Price makes a marvelous save. Thirty-five ticks left in the PK.
Plekanec is working to make something happen. It’s hard to understand why his numbers are weak. He works so hard every game.
Montreal kills the penalty.
Boston squirts the puck through the crease. Parallel to the goal-line. Good thing Price didn’t touch it.
Two-on-one. Price makes the stop. Did he see it?
The lines come on and off. The home-team pace decreases at times but Montreal keeps remembering and notch it back up. They really need to score and get the crowd into the game. It will bolster them. But they are no longer creating quality scoring chances.
It’s Boston’s turn.
Greg Stewart is a new character in this series. He is on with Dandenault and Plekanec. Stewart forces his way down and makes sure he comes in contract with Tim Thomas. No call. Should have been. We’re back to Ontario rules thug hockey reffing. And they wonder why they can’t graduate to NBA or NFL status.
Yelle finds Bitz but Price stops it. Great save. Doorstep stop. Almost certain goal. Bitz is in the lineup for the one-game suspension on Milan Lucic. His late-game hit on Maxim Lapierre on Saturday.
Koivu now takes it and gets it down to AK46. Chara breaks it up.
The NHL refs are too much in line with the old guard point of view.
Higgins comes down on a three-on-two. Just shoots. Beats Thomas. Scores.
1-0, Montreal.
Wrister.
He is on the bench, helmet off, short tufts out and game face on. Leaning forward casually. If the young guys can keep it sharp for the remainder of this period, this game, this series, this decade… well, hey.
Because Boston hasn’t won a championship they lack the true sense that they can win. They can be had. They can be all shook up.
Plekanec line puts some early-period style pressure on, now. Plekanec himself. Refs are letting a lot go. How bush league.
No man from Ontario should be trusted to ref a key Montreal game. Check it. I’m sure I’ll be right.
Koivu is the captain. Bringing the tempo the team needs. Maintaining it.
Boston can’t get or keep the puck. Montreal has to bury these guys. They can deep six them emotionally right here, right now.
Because Boston is still young, still unsure of their abilities. Because they don’t know if the success, the 53 wins from the regular season will translate, if that really means anything in the playoffs.
Problem is, Montreal is still young. Still unsure of their abilities. Too many of those players on both side to expect a consistent robust pace. It will be more like a Super Bowl landslide where the team that takes early control can often roll and undulate like an avalanche.
Pace slows. Becomes thoughtful. It has a positive effect on the Montreal passing game. More accuracy on the passes.
Gainey opted to have the team forego the practice and had a meeting instead. And off-ice workout. What was said? More important, what was heard (retained and remembered)?
Kovalev in trying to make something happen forces a bad pass. Boston comes down and jams it against the rear boards. For a time. But Montreal exits without incident. Kovalev takes a shot from his office. Thomas has some difficulty with it. Freezes.
Higgins is swarming. I’ve never said or thought that before about Higgins. Can one man swarm?
Back down to the Montreal zone. Boston gets some time and control. But it’s the golf-shot desperate kind. Just over a minute and a half. Montreal needs another goal to sign this period.
But Boston gets a fluke goal instead.
1-1, tied. In this most unfair of unfair games. Hockey, I mean, not game three specifically.
What a joke. A bully’s sense of humour. God probably played in the AHL. Bullies and low-talent guys win far too many battles and games.
First Intermission
Julien looks pleased as he steps off the bench to return to the visitors’ dressing room. Sure. Boston survived the worst sustained test Montreal will offer them this series. And they are tied 1-1.
Only fortune can help Le Tricolore now.
I want to say this once. A team can dominate and lose 5-1. People who thought the Earth was flat thought the round-earth folks were stupid. Just consider it.
Boston gets dominated this period and get out with a 1-1 tie. Boston (penalties aside) get dominated on Saturday and walk out with a 5-1 win. Science does not belong in the hot stove lounge, I’m sure. But I can prove it. Just get me those in-game reality numbers, Tim.
Demers says the team must forget the outcomes of the first period and just play with the passion and intensity they showed from the beginning of this game.
It’s too bad Jacques Demers couldn’t have been given five two-hour motivational sessions with the team this season.
They interview Higgins and bring up the fact that Tanguay and Schneider are missing. Higgins talks a bit about the crowd and how they can be a plus factor.
Second Period
I twittered the second period.
Second Intermission
I have an infected nerve in my tooth and it is deeply affecting my abilities to concentrate. I am waiting for the medication to kick in. I must be some kind of hero for typing like this.
Demers remains optimistic in his tone. I guess he should. After all, luck is now in charge. Hockey cannot be controlled by video, by good game-planning. Nor even by hustle, emotion or intimidation. Nope. It’s all of those things and none of them. But luck presides at all times.
And that, my friends, is how the Carolina Hurricanes won the 2006 Stanley Cup. The least-deserved Stanley Cup win of the modern era. One example; conference finals against Buffalo; four Sabre defencemen go down to injury. Four. Four. Yeah. Whatever.
Hockey is the home and hallmark of the unskilled athlete. In no sport (except perhaps baseball) can the pugilist non-athlete survive for so long. Granted things have changed, are changing and certainly look very different from 1975. Hell, from 1995.
It’s been a while since I’ve heard Michael Ryder talk about anything. They interview him and he sounds like the same good guy. He seems pleased to have done an interview with an RDS guy after so long.
Third Period
This could be the end of the competitive phase of the series.
Still twenty seconds left in the power-play for Montreal. Bad pass from AK46. Ends the power-play.
It’s 3-2 for Boston. For those of you who missed my tweet.
Axelsson gets a wild shot off. Hit Price’s mask again. Play keeps going.
At the other end, Laraque deflects one in front of Thomas. But it goes high.
Faceoff. Some back and forth. Pace is faster than the contemplative but not near the frenetics of Montreal’s first five minutes.
Plekanec is shoved off the puck.
Montreal. Pride and poise. Will they be rewarded? Latendresse, Kovalev and Lapierre each show excellent work on this shift. A shame there is no clear scoring chance. Latendresse manages to shove someone off the puck. It looked unlikely.
Kovalev is split and double-shifting. Just as in last game.
Just over ten minutes left. My medicine is not kicking in and I have to leave the room in pain. I can’t even think for the pain. I try ice and prayers.
And things improve somewhat.
Price freezes and Montreal goes to the powerplay. This pain is worse somehow than the last time. I hate it.
Nothing for the first minute. This has to work. But nothing so far. Too many missing quality players.
Just over four minutes. This could, effectively, be the last four minutes of the Gainey era.
Montreal works hard. But Boston is up to the task. And they are forechecking. Just over two and a half minutes.
Just over two minutes. Lapierre line is on for now. Refs are letting things go. More bush league.
Minute and a half. Boston won’t let Montreal get out. Ryder is a big factor.
Montreal gets it down, finally. They start creating. But Boston clears. And Kobasew scores. Empty net.
HDS Stars: Maxim Lapierre, Saku Koivu, Carey Price
RDS Stars: Dennis Wideman, Phil Kessel, Yanick Weber
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