What a Gong Show, Habs Must Win Game 4

You are either behind the Canadiens or you are not and after that stinker, many Habs fans looked like they were not. It is understandable to want to win and to be upset when things do not go well. However, there are those who go over and beyond what they should and look quite crazy in the process. It is easy to sit back and type away on Facebook, Twitter and other avenues about what you felt went wrong and where the blame should go. Is it worth having your heart race and pulling your hair out though? Breathe, have a drink, eat some chocolate or take a hit from the bong your mom does not know about. Whatever you need to do but make sure it relaxes you.

The Canadiens did not look good from the get go and that’s a fact. The Sens were hungry, on the puck first and dishing out hits left, right and centre. When you thought the Habs would respond because of how they played in 40 minutes of game one and all of game two, they didn’t. Pacioretty took a stupid, selfish penalty during the Canadiens powerplay to wipe it out. Shortly after, the Sens were on a 5-on-3 where they would open the scoring. Price almost had it but surely the “blame” can’t be placed on him at all. His effort was there. I would’ve given Max some choice words on the bench for taking an unnecessary slashing minor. The Habs tied it up later in the period on the powerplay with a goal from Bourque that just crossed the goal line. There was hope.

In the second frame, Pageau would make it 2-1 for the Senators and he can thank all those standing still at the blue line so that he could walk right in and get a decent shot behind Carey Price. I am not really sure what Andrei Markov in particular was doing on that play but he was completely flat footed and took a lazy swing with his stick. That’s not doing anything helpful. The rest of the period was not very good for Montreal as a whole, however, it could have been worse on the scoreboard if it was not for Price. He made the stops to keep it close, all that was needed was for his teammates to create some chances and bury at the other end. It didn’t happen.

Third period, the gong show. Pageau pots his second of the night just over a minute into the final 20 minutes. While Tinordi did create somewhat of a screen, I’d say this is the goal in particular that Price would want back. The nail in the coffin came at 7 minutes as the Habs thought it would be fun to allow a 3-on-1 and have Turris score when the puck came back out in front. The very next shift is where the line brawl occurred. Then more crap happened and lights out. Embarrassing.

The Habs left their goaltender out to dry most of the night on these goals. Toss in the undisciplined behaviour and that’s a recipe for disaster. So you look at when the 4th goal is scored. There is a ton of time left on the clock where you can have a time out, tell your boys to step it up and try to chip away at the lead. You get one on the board, make it 4-2 and you push momentum in your direction. You may bury another chance and then it is a one-goal game. Instead, the Canadiens made themselves look foolish and took a poor route to finish out the game. Now they are down in the series.

Some chances by the Habs would have changed the game perhaps. I look at Plekanec’s wide open net opportunity where he puts it high and it grazes the cross bar. Galchenyuk’s chance coming down with good speed but can’t put it beyond Anderson. Lastly, Gionta’s one-on-one moment with Anderson where it looked like he tried to go five hole but the Sens netminder closed it quickly. You score one of these or two out of three and things change. They didn’t and the Habs lacked the overall effort to really try to swing the game play to their favour.

If the Habs want to even up the series, they have to basically scrap how they played in this game and come prepared to work. The effort or lack there of was inexcusable and should not be tolerated by the players and the staff. Whatever needs to be done to get these boys going for game 4 needs to be figured out quick.

The series is far from over. Let’s bring it Tuesday.