Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins

Musings and In-Game Scribbles

My English is as good as yours, I just write these in a stream-of-consciousness mode that I insist excuses me from small things like rules of grammar or general etiquette. Let’s call it conversational English, hopped up on beans. You know what kind of beans (no, Carl Mellesmoen, not the magic ones).

Montreal Canadiens (36-23-7) host Boston Bruins (38-19-8)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Game Sixty-Seven (score posted following scribbles)

Missed it? Musings capture the game in writing. A written transcript typed during the game, posted and edited about thirty minutes afterward.  Based on the RDS French telecast of the Montreal Canadiens game, Musings take about 20 minutes to read. More detailed than an article, fresher than a looping highlight and good with morning coffee. Or late-night chocolate.  A unique way to re-experience the game.

click here to expand post (it looks prettier)

How has Carey Price snuck into the discussion for Vezina, I’d like to know.  Alain, Joel and Marc add to the discussion, supporting his candidacy.  Tim Thomas is clearly the man for the trophy.  A cheapo way to solve the problem would see Thomas win the Hart and Price, the Vezina.

Vezina Trophy is for the most valuable goalie of the season and is made subjectively by the general managers.  The Hart is the most valuable player of the season and is also a subjective decision (Professional Hockey Writers’ Association).  These trophy votes are just as vulnerable to all sorts of bias and poorly thought (read: bad sports science) positions as in other leagues.

The Price “debate” is as laughable.

It’s Boston, they say revenge but we say; give us skill.

Golf commercial.  What a non-sport and utter waste of time.  It’s gotten a cache simply through repetition.  Repetition as a television event, repetition as a “to do” between corporate humanoids.  Like a lot of things North American.  Eating processed foods comes to mind.

The Molson Cup is on the blue carpet.  Presented to the Canadiens’ player who gets the most three-star selections (as selected by the fans), this month it goes to Carey Price.  Last month was Tomas Plekanec.  And the previous months was also Price.

Tuukka Rask starts.  Surprise.  Price for Montreal.

Eric Furlatt and Bill McCreary are the refs.

First Period

Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Max Pacioretty.  Early entry.  Gomez over the blue and crawling like a bug over the middle; looking for Pacioretty on a vertical.  Can’t be had.

Canadiens re-enter.

Roman Hamrlik is in deep.

His entry is turned away.

Tomas Kaberle starts out the Bs with a chorus of boos.

Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec nearly wheels into a Milan Lucic pass from his hash, a dangerous horizontal.  Can’t reach it.

Lars Eller line.  Andrei Kostitsyn and Travis Moen along with him.  Moen makes an extra effort by sticking out a blade.  Puck lolls to the slot.  Pinked to the blue.  Pinqued?  It’s a sound.

And out again.  Canadiens ice.

Alexandre Picard, Yanick Weber and once-speedy Tom Pyatt are all out of the lineup.

More robust lineup says play-by-play impresario Pierre Houde.  Benoit Brunet immediately proclaims this a good decision.

Get tough is not the solution.

Hal Gill and PK Subban low.

Gill around his net.  To Gomez.  To Gionta on the right.  Across for Pacioretty.  Wrister. Save.

To the hash.

Chris Kelly from Michael Ryder.  Dumped in.

A Hab is tripped.  Subban is across.  Tripped.  White drops the gloves.  It’s a very long fight.  Ryan White gets the better of Boychuk.  White nods and pats Boychuk after the fight.  What a joke.

And it was a real fight.   If it isn’t personal, why have it?

Boychuk didn’t even touch Subban.  So says Houde on the replay.

Five minutes each.

Should be five years to each coach.  Hmm.  Or something.  GMs?

Deep right faceoff.

Two minutes extra for Montreal.  For starting assumedly.

Bruins power.

Kaberle on the left point.  Chara on the right.  The frightening Zdeno Chara.  Strongest shot in the NHL.  As measured by all the right equipment at the NHL All-Star game.  He generally wins it.

One possession.  Wide shot.

Second possession.  Price is stuck at the post.  Can’t get free.  Wrap-around is stopped by Halpern.  Was Lucic holding Price?  Or was his left leg stuck in a Hab leg?

Faceoff.

Montreal’s David Desharnais gets free on the right.

Crowd reacts unreasonably.  Crazed.  Weak backhand does nothing.  Covered.

Penalty ends with the Bruins releasing some wild and wide shots.

Action is a bit choppy.  Tyler Seguin trips Subban but there is no call.  Mild booing.

Rask stops bowling pin entry.  Slow.  Holds it.  Faceoff to his right.  Rask is very low.  Looks like a poised Chinese vase.  I dunno.

Seguin trips again.  This time it’s called.  Houde says that this time they’re not going to let it go.

Montreal power.

Desharnais, Kostitsyn, Plekanec and Michael Cammalleri.  With Wisniewski as the lone defender.

One possession.  Failed.

Second.

James Wisniewski fires from the left point.

Just wide of the target.   Le Sible, en Francais.

Rich Peverley carries briefly for Boston.  How irritating.  How and when did he become a Bruin.  Yeah, I know.  Just didn’t like being reminded.  Bruins are more ready for the playoffs than most other teams.

Eller line.

Pressure.  To the corner.  Moen in the slot.  Long shot.  Kostitsyn passed it to the left point.  Long wrister.  Rebound.  Travis Moen misses.   Eller swoops in.  Bats it.  It’s in the net.  Black dot on white.  His sixth.  He allows himself a small smile.

Montreal 1, Boston 0

Brunet starts jabbering and the moment is sullied.

Commercial.

Paul Mara was on the ice.  For the goal.

Faceoff to Price’s right.  Bob?  No, the sleazy one.

Out of the zone.  Along the boards.  Offside.  Pacioretty has the right side of his jersey tucked up into his pants.  Is it the usual?  Not sure.

Another stoppage.

Patrice Bergeron is back in the lineup.  He has missed a fair number of games in recent years.  He played only 10 in 07-08, 64 in 08-09 and 73 last season.  Eighty-two games makes a season.

Eller wipes out Dennis Seidenberg on the neutral zone boards.  He’ll pay a price for the rest of the game.  Almost immediately he is hit in the corner in Montreal ice.  On one knee he appears ok.

Boston hitting increases, Montreal avoids the attempts for now.  Subban dodges a blow following an outlet pass.

Jeff Halpern turns and loses the handle on a good set-up from Plekanec at the high slot.  Boston exit follows and what appears to be good space is wasted by a long, looping, wide shot.

Ryder leads the next decent exit.   Ryder crosses Subban.  And is taken down, legit.  Loses the puck.  Was knocked off-balance.

Price is snowed into and a Bruin falls into his crest.  The goalie manneredly (pas un mot) scoops the puck and no hostility ensues.  Canadiens keep their cool and perhaps the fall-in was unintentional.

Yes.  I am looking for revenge.  Hey.  I’m on a couch.  I can dream of revenge.

Commercial.

Salute to army people.  Houde says it.  Do we need to hear this?  Hmm.  If troops refused to report en masse, there would be no need to salute them.

Along the boards.  Brent Sopel.  To Mara.  Up for Pacioretty.  Loses the disc.  It goes long.  Seidenberg touches us first.  Houde assures us.  Some booing.

Faceoff to Price’s left.

Joel is wearing a red dress shirt and a black jacket.  A bit ninth level Fonz.

Boston’s talented Patrice Bergeron.  Big, unusual rebound.  And a second shot stays harmless.  Haven’t seen Price do that very often.  Was some odd quality of shot.

Fonz talks to Muller.  He has an about-to-drink expression.  Fonz, I mean.  My living room affiliate doubts the efficacy of the analogy.  She can write her own musings.

Under five.

Long puck.  This one is waved off.  Desharnais, Pouliot and White.  Sopel and Mara underneath.  Gionta hops on.

Price leaps like a standing rabbit.  Can’t control.  Closed arms on nothing.

Habs push it out.

Halpern line.

Bruins ain’t looking for trouble.  So there will be no big donnybrook.  Of course the last one came when Boston was leading 5-3 past the midway point of the game.

This first period is much like the last game’s.  Skill, passing, defence and speed.

The playoffs are coming.

Over three minutes.  Deep corner to Price’s left.  Plekanec takes an outlet pass, crosses the blue and is pushed off-balance.  Houde says that this gave time for the lines to fully change.  Halpern leaves.

Eller line.  Moen steals.  Whaps.  How.  Eller.  What.  Alone.  Changes handedness.  And it’s in.  His second.

Montreal 2, Boston 0

Eller shows moxie and flair.  His confidence is flame in bloom.  Down the left.  A move.  Great acceleration.  Brakes.  Untouched.  Stands straight up and backhands a pass.  What an emergence for the youngster.  Only in his first full season in Montreal.

And two unexpected, welcome goals.

Missed open net for Gionta.  Houde exclaims.  The crowd groans, twenty-thousand great grey raisins cringe in delight and doom.

Stoppage.

And a second stoppage.  High stick.  What.  Penalty?  Houde thinks so.  But we stay at fives.

Seventeen seconds left in the period.

Cammalleri is in on the left.  Halpern from under the end-line.  To the low slot.  No.

Period ends.  Officials are in place.  Quick to it.  No animosity ensues.

Boston led on shots 11-9.

Was there an order from on high?  The fights, bench-clearing in their demeanour if not in their occurrence attracted great negative attention.  The odd fight?  I think they’re ok with it.  Ugly, damaging headlines?  To be avoided.

It’s a guess.

It’s strange to see the thuggier Bruins wandering the ice in varied states of shock and zombie.  They’re not in the same mood.  Perhaps in the second.

First Intermission
Montreal 2, Boston 0

Francois et Alain.  Alain asks about the missing goalie duel with the replacement of Thomas by Rask.

Thomas may have been hurt this morning.   His hand.  Or?  Francois suggests it may have been something else.

More Vezina talk.  Wins are the only area that Price has an edge (31-29) compared to Thomas.  Of course, Price has had the benefit of many more starts.  Thomas has the better save percentage, the better goals-against average and the better highlights.   Price has seven shutouts to Thomas’ seven.

               GP     W     L     PCT
Price         58     31    21    0.534
Thomas     46     29     8     0.630

There really isn’t a comparison.

Price started 56 while Thomas started 44.  Both came in twice in relief.

Ok, Price is 2.34 (19th) and 0.923 (18th) and Thomas is 1.97 (first among starters) and 0.939 (first among starters).  Also no comparison.  Some of those numbers are a bit oddified by one game wonders.  Oddified.  Like it?  Thought not.

Price will get a chance in these debates partially because he is perceived as “one of us” by certain members of the hockey media.  You can guess who.  He’s from out west, a cowboy from BC.  He’ll be talked up.  And his pedigree will be cited.  Calder Cup, gold medal and so forth.

Just be glad he’s not a Leaf.

Fourth straight game that Montreal has taken a 2-0 lead, we are told.

Second Period
Montreal 2, Boston 0

Dump in Boston.  From the corner.  Bounce pass.  Off the wrong leg.  Any leg would have been wrong.  Boston can’t create a chance.  To the neutral zone.

Recchi has it.  Down the column.  Bumped and shoots.

Lucic is on his seat.  Tripping?  Knee on knee.  Plekanec.  Houde says that this kind of contact is always dangerous.  Replay shows it wasn’t a knee on knee.  Brunet recites his “these are all accidental” mantra.  Plekanec takes a sip of water in the box.

Thirty seconds killed with no Boston danger.

Horton.   Along the deep boards.  Draped by a Hab.  Uses his good balance and strength to send the puck the other way along the boards.  But it’s out after a brief poke by David Krejci.  Remember when that cab driver said Krejci would be as good as Jagr?

We’re waiting.

And so are Boston fans.  Another clear.

Something water-logged about Boston tonight.  Floating in brine.  Like those alien embryos.

Penalty ends.

Moen along the left.  Neutralized.  Puck bounces forward.  Eller can’t get to it.

Eller makes one pretty play.  Then another.  One-touch pass from the circle to the blue, was the second.  Great posture, head up, shoulders squared with the feet and the stick follow-through was nice.

Stoppage a moment later.

Plekanec, Cammalleri and Halpern.  Watching Halpern with these two is watching a shark flow with dolphins.  His rhythm is territorial, distinct.  The dolphins are pretty in a less dark way.  Goals are fish.  Turnovers are blood.

Net is off again.  Same net Price had trouble with last period.

Gill is in mild disagreement with an official.  Skates off.  Not sure what it was.  Houde and Brunet make no remark on it.

Sopel is on.  Works on the low boards left. Wins it.  Passes out.  Job done.  Simple.  Efficient.  What a good addition.

Sopel steps into a rebound near the Boston blue.  Desharnais’ entry turn was stopped at the goalpost.  Sopel’s shot is wide.  Crowd aahs.

Gomez behind the net, a sequence later.

Looking for Gionta.  They begin to control.  Boston is in trouble.  Gomez from the deep left corner.  To the blue.  A shot.  Boston crowds the low slot.  Puck bounces away.  And moments later the Bruins push out only to hear the whistle as they cruise the neutral zone.

Ryan White is shown.  He looks like a healthy young witch with his hair tufting out from under and his bright goblin eyes.  He’s a gamer.  And he has energy to burn.

Mara falls to the ice, holding his face.  Rises.  No blood.  He double-checks.  Took an accidental stick from Kelly.  Another Boston acquisition.

Montreal power.

Gionta.  Over the blue.  Screened shot.  Everything is frozen.  Rask.  Spread legs.  The puck keeps moving.  Rask can’t see it.  He falls.  Krejci, Chara and two others rush to stop it.  Gionta watches the back of the net.  Points and exults.  The refs follow suit.  Just the pointing.  Crowd awakens.  Robust and rough, rallying and red.

Montreal 3, Boston 0

We resume.

Krejci enters.  Tripped.  No call.  A Bruin fan stands, arms up, irate.  Or maybe he was a justice-minded Montreal fan.  He was wearing a non-descript striped shirt.

Ole ole chant starts.  This building is a bit much.

Very loud.  Very party.

Shawn Thornton is getting his gloves and bullying stare ready.  He’s on the Bruin bench after combining with a teammate in knocking down Andrei after a pass in the neutral zone.

Penalty to the Canadiens.  McCreary calls tripping.  Hamrlik.

Tone and volume calm and lessen.

Boston power.

Deep right faceoff.

Early control.

One long shot.  Kaberle.  Wide.  They retain.  Seidenberg at the hash.  Kaberle alone on the blue.  Seidenberg retreats.  A shot.  Whistle.

Julien is not happy says Houde.  Bouchard says he agrees.  Some blather.

We resume.

Mara blocks a shot.  Puck is lofted to the other end.  Kaberle exits.  Keeps as he crosses.  Cruises left and sends it to the hash.  Around the boards.  And out again.

And another clear from the blue.

Chara retrieves.  Booing.

Gill. Behind his net.  Has to chase after turning it over.  Stays on the boards.

Bergeron and Ryder are on the left.  Moen and Subban right there.  Slog and suffer, push and punish.  Montreal moves it out.

Penalty ends.  And Montreal is called for too many men.  Martin is chewed tongue and open mouth.  Up a glance and down a baleful glare.  He recovers his facial glacial quickly and prepares for another penalty-kill.

Montreal is one of the most penalized teams in the league.  In the area of minor penalties.

The Roy-Carbonneau game is tomorrow.  Chicoutimi and Quebec City Remparts.  QMJHL.  Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.  Former Montreal stars behind the bench; Patrick Roy and Guy Carbonneau.  Roy will be coaching in the NHL within the next five years.
Boston power continues.  One fifteen.  There wasn’t much in the first forty-five.

Halpern and Cammalleri.  Halpern’s stick is gone but he manages to cover anyway.  He keeps his gloves low and creates his own stick.  Halpern is canny.  What an addition.

Defensive players.  Love em.

Stoppage.  Price is shoved into his net.  But the whistle had gone.

Price is nearly beaten cutting right to left and then reaching right.  Just wide.  The shot.

Penalty ends.  Just over six.

Boston is pressing.

Montreal two on one.  Desharnais.  Carrying.  Has Mara.  Opening.  Bergeron dives to break the passing lane and deflect the puck.  Brunet exaggerates the contribution.

But it was a great play.  Bergeron is certainly one of my favourite Bruins.  I have in some weird pool that I’m in.  That I never check.  I think I’m in last.   Well?  What did you expect.  I can’t be bothered with 27 or so of the other teams.

Maybe 25.

Commercial.

Johnny Boychuk.  Tripping.

He seems apologetic.  The age of the text message has affected the players, as well.  Harder to hate when everyone is sharing the same electrical social spaces.  Now isn’t it.

Boychuk was a bit more mechant last time.

On the hash.  Chara works.  Cammalleri digging.  Kostitsyn.  Cammalleri finds it.  To Wisniewski.  Blasts it.  In.

A banshee exists for a moment on this couch.

Montreal 4, Boston 0

Under five.

Desharnais, White and Pouliot.

Brief control.

Not enough support from Pouliot.  Use your size.

Stoppage.  Ole, ole chant gets loud.  One chorus.  Two.  Three.

Thornton doesn’t deserve Begin’s number 22.

Choruses come to an end.

That’s how you get revenge.  Win.  Outperform.  Grace.  Skill.  Finesse.  Form.  Dignity

Gionta.  To Gomez.   Whapping.  No.  Pacioretty can’t jam it.  Poor Scott Gomez.

Ah me.  Ah moi.

His burdensome paycheque is the thing most cited.  But he is valuable to the team in many underrated ways.

The rink tilts, the players are puppets, sugar is salt and the crowd heckles and urges with vinegar and delight.

Subban.  Waits behind his net.

To Eller.  One arm.  Outside his blue.  One downs his man.

Boston crosses.  Ryder.  Kostitsyn pushes him off the puck.  Follows.  Slaps him up against the boards.

Bouchard says it’s a good game for Montreal.  Low turnovers.  Running the tempo.  Suggests it might be the best game from the team this season.

About two as the whistle goes.

Eller takes a drink of water.  Halpern lets his mouthguard slip out like a cigar.

Eller skates back to the faceoff dot.  Loses it.  Kostitsyn chases it.  Where is all this verve coming from?  How did they tap it?

Stoppage after a long Montreal puck.

Gionta says something to the coach.  Martin responds.  Says something.

Lucic down the left. Shot.  Off a stick.  Up into the air and crowd.

Lucic.  Tranquillized.  I never know which version we’ll see.

Faceoff deep left for Boston.

Chara takes Pacioretty out.  Absolutely vicious, says Houde.

This is payback for two games ago.

Pacioretty is out cold.  Eyes closed.

Replay.

Awful.

Two games ago, Pacioretty celebrated a late win by bumping Chara after the game siren went.  It was disrespectful but this response was not the deserved one.

His eyes are moving.  But still closed.  I don’t like Pacioretty but this kind of hit, being sent into the side board protector, unsuspecting, is abominable.

Chara is going to be vilified for this.

Brunet says that it’s a matter of time before something disastrous happens on the ice.  Pacioretty is on the ice.  Four guys.  A doctor.  A Bruins trainer.  Another guy in a suit.  They strap the kid in.  He’s unconscious.

Some booing.  But it ends.  Mostly it’s silence and concern.

I feel ill.  This isn’t any good.

A good forward is out of the lineup, to boot.

But worse, this didn’t have to happen.  Chara has been kicked out of the game.  And once again, a Boston game is going to go well over my word limit.

Gionta and two other Habs are on the ice to help lift the stretcher.

Why couldn’t Chara do something different?   Booing now.

Pacioretty’s eyes are still closed.  Price comes over.  Sopel can’t believe it.  But is accepting nonetheless.

I sigh.  There is no room for this.  The rest of the players leave the bench area.

Montreal led on shots 11-6.  They lead 20-17, overall.

The kid deserved something.  But not that.

This is your NHL.  Your league.  Your game.

Police it.  Don’t let the players.

Second Intermission
Montreal 4, Boston 0

Pierre Boivin is the guest.  They have to cover the incident.  Pierre says that when he sees hits like this, he wonders about … you know … what it’s all worth.  He talks about a foundation.  Kids.  Excellent partners.  And so forth.

The hit and its result are both disquieting.  Is Pacioretty going to be able to play again?  Talk?  Eat soup?  And Brunet is right.  A disaster is waiting to happen.  The way the league is going.

And think of the brutal publicity at that point.  It won’t matter if small-town Canada is mollified by the deaths and maimings of players by one six-minute green-suited sermon.  The league, its international and particularly the American component it so covets will be damaged even more long-term.

I don’t believe the average Canadian sports fan realizes the difference in perception and how American sports-fans are more sophisticated as a group and come to their damning conclusions about our game without our pulpit preachers.  Many have never heard a Canadian telecast.  And I doubt they would be swayed.

Hockey player Don Sanderson died in 20009 and it got buried in an avalanche of apologism, triumphalism and denial.

More deaths will occur.  Some accidental.  Others not.  The league will only change when the authorities and the public’s behest, are called in.  Sure it’s possible.  There’s precedent.

Faces can be inflated by testosterone.  Watch for it.  Just look at the pictures.  Then the PIM totals.  There’s something to it, y’all.

Marc, Joel and Alain are all subdued and concerned.  Joel talks about the size difference.  The danger of the situation.  It hurts the heart to see it, he says and this resonates with me.  It’s hard whether or not you’re a hockey fan, he adds.

Marc adds to the point.  It’s certain that Chara knew how vulnerable Pacioretty was on the play.

I don’t believe in blaming the victim.  But about ten percent of this is Pacioretty’s fault.  Ninety goes to your buddy.

How does this stuff come to an end?  Or lessen?  Tougher penalties for all punishable elements of the game.  Pacioretty’s unsportsmanlike bump should have called for a public apology and a two minute penalty against Pacioretty the next time the two played.  Or.  If a penalty takes place at the end of the game, two minutes can be added on and the game continues.

There are solutions if the league can shut up its cavemen long enough to be able to implement them.

Third Period
Montreal 4, Boston 0

Nice way to ruin the feeling.  I’m blaming the NHL general managers for what happened.  And every time out from this point on.

Price fields it.

Makes a save off a horizontal shot.

They played the last few seconds of the second to open the third.  Siren.  They cross the ice.  Price chats a bit with Plekanec.  Plekanec nods and talks in that quick way of his.

Faceoff.  Desharnais loses the draw.

Major penalty against Chara.

Four and a half minutes.  Thornton is in the box to serve it.

Chara is done for the night.  Brunet surmises that Chara may receive a huge suspension.  Maybe the NHL should be dealing with a huge lawsuit instead.  Filed by the NHLPA.  Failure to create a safe workspace.

Could work.  Hasn’t been done.  And with fewer Republican blockades to justice in the current U.S., perhaps now is a good time.

Yes, it’s fanciful.  But some lawyers might be nodding.

Booing continues throughout.

Cammalleri is talking with a Bruin.  Bruin bumps him.  Camera leaves the area.

Montreal power continues.

Not much threat yet.

Home team is still in shock.  It’s hard to concentrate, hard to find the right mood after something like that.  Players think about what might have happened had it been them.  Or about consequences.  They, too, are aware of the texturings, what was deserved, what appeared to be deserved.  It’s different from player to player.  And it’s divisive on a micro level.  Unfathomable.

And a game loses its mood.  And perhaps gains another.

One chance.  Pass to the crease.  Gionta waits.  Pokes at it.  A good chance.  No.

Kostitsyn is the most single-minded of the players.  He somehow finds the forgotten.  Forgets the shadow.

Marchand is in.  Tripped by Wisniewski.  Into the post.  Penalty shot is called.

He’s from Halifax.

Asks for his skate to be sharpened.  A leg up on the bench.   The stone is brought out.  It’s small.

Shot.

Marchand.  Elects to shoot.  From about eight feet.  Wrister.

Easy save for Carey.  Replay gives us a rare look at Price’s eyes on a save.  One-eye squint got more pronounced.  And then the left pad.  Marchand doesn’t have a dangerous wrister.

I wonder if it’s harder to stop an unexpectedly weak shot.

Julien is shown.  Arms folded.  Is he thinking of the hit and what he’ll say after the game?  He alternates between in-game and post-game facial expressions as his hand cradles his chin.

The game is not a game anymore.  It’s a survival of emotion.

It’s also a place to hide for some.  The game is the answer even as it raises its own demonic questions.

Under fourteen.

Marchand down the right.  Can’t lift it over the stick.  It’s deflected easily.

Marchand tries a nice move down the middle and gets partially through.

White on the right now.  Accompanied.  Two and two.  Shot is blocked and a glimpse a bright red.  No.  Orange.  It’s Youppi down in the corner.  He’s just watching.  Huge idiot muppet.

My living room affiliate expresses sympathy for “poor Youppi”.

Hitting has increased.  White delivers a couple.

Subban down the left.

Eller down low.  Sopel joins on the boards.  Montreal ice.  To the blue.  Sopel interrupts this nonsense, steps into the lane, captures and clears.  That’s a defenceman.

There are others.  On this team, too.  A good bunch, in fact.  Underrated.

Don’t ask a Leaf.  Most don’t know how to evaluate a defenceman.

I’m not feeling particularly fair. Gomez with a sudden snake-bite reach.  Under the end line.  Pass to Gionta.

Just over seven minutes.

Gill intercepts a pass.  Clears.  Boychuk retrieves.

Horton, right side.  Long knuckler.  Price whaps it away.

Boston re-enters.  Lucic.  A shot.  A goal.  High wrister.

Montreal 4, Boston 1

What’s the opposite of love again?

A smile on Lucic’ face is like a smile on Harper’s.  Unwanted.

Five and a half.

Crowd starts to cheer.  Go Habs Go?  Do I hear Boston fans?

Pace increases.  I hope that Pacioretty is ok.  I wonder if Joel or Francois have gotten us a scoop.  Pacioretty must be on his way to the hospital.  Must be there already.

Four minutes.

Along the perimeters.

I wait for Pierre to say “on joue pour la forme”.  Just playing for show.  Not quite the exact translation.  English doesn’t permit.

Three minutes.

Ambulance shot.  Brunet says that he never would have thought Chara could deliver a blow like that.  We’re shown again.  The doctor is shown on the phone.  His cellphone.

Faceoff to Price’s right.

Subban.  Around the net.

A Bruin bumps Pouliot.

Long Montreal puck.  Pouliot and Lucic are jawing.  Gill is in there.  Easy to pick on Pouliot.  Now Horton tries to intimidate Subban.

Lucic is escorted to the penalty box.

Lucic was hooking and shoving Pouliot who ignored him.  Most of the way down the rink.  Horton effects a tough cock-of-the-walk pose as he takes the bench.  Both should be cold cocked.  In the Chara manner.

That’ll change a guy’s demeanour.  Now won’t it.  Now wouldn’t it.

Montreal power.

Under the end line.  The dinks are off the ice and the Bruins PK unit is on.

Recchi on the first wave.  Some good work from the two.  Two push-outs and the Canadiens aren’t able to set up til there are forty seconds left.  About a minute in the game.

They work the perimeter.

Subban shoots.  Advances to get the puck in the corner after a rebound can’t be had.

Subban.  Advancing.  Circling the net.  To Gomez on the point.  Subban again.  To Gomez at the point.  Free-styling.

Eleven seconds.

They look for it.  Subban spins.  Not much more.

Siren goes.

Final Score
Montreal 4
Boston 1

HDS Stars: Lars Eller, Jeff Halpern Andrei Kostitsyn
RDS Stars: Lars Eller, Carey Price, Max Pacioretty

Boston thugs:  Shawn Thornton, Nathan Horton

Chara, oy yoy, yoy.

Pacioretty gets a pause and a mild ovation for getting the third star.  They let it go on for a while.

Joel suggests an independent committee, not the players, not the league but a group with the league’s best interests in mind to review all the rules.

Great idea, Joel.

Related posts:

1. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
2. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
3. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
4. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
5. Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
6. Don’t Be Shocked If…