It was fun while it lasted.
The Senators blew the game open in the second period while Ryan White was serving a double-minor for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct.
PP goals by Habs-killer Daniel F. Alfredsson and Mika Zibanejad made it 3-1.
Then Chris Phillips capped off a period of total dominance by the Chris Neil line to give the Senators a three-goal lead.
Three goals on Peter Budaj in 3:35, and the Canadiens never recovered … although there some quality shots on Craig Anderson.
Chris Neil iced the cake with a wraparound late in the third period.
The game included two first-period fights and a parade to the penalty box that sabotaged any rhythm or flow to the action.
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Here’s some fun facts to liven the spirits after an ugly loss. The Habs lead the NHL in 9 categories so far this season.
Points by a Dman: Markov, Diaz-8
Goals by a Dman: Markov-4
PPG by a Dman: Markov-4
GWG by a Dman: Markov-3
Assists by a Dman: Diaz-8
PIMs by a Player: White-42, Prust is 2nd with 41.
PIMs by team: Habs-132
Hits by a player: Emelin-32
Blocked shots by a player: Gorges-21
Not too shabby, except for the PIMs by team. That needs to drastically get better.
The Habs smallish D got manhandled and the Refs should hand tonight’s pay back”some of the worst calls EVER!” HABS ARE ONE BIG MOFO”THAT CAN ALSO PLAY THE GAME” and who can beat-up any teams Neil when challenged away and Blunden ain’t it. Eller is the most well built big marshmellow in pro hockey and it’s turning out to be ONE BIG BAD TRADE!
How good would Seth Jones look in this lineup, eh? Damn… I’ll stop dreaming right now.
“turning out to be a bad trade”?!….that trade was bad from the second it was made
Even though i don’t think it’s right to judge Eller on how Halak turned out, don’t forget who made that trade. Eller’s a good kid but because he was traded for by a bad GM for a Starlet here in Montreal, he’s always gonna end up being scrutinized for something he had no control over.
With that said, for someone who looked absolutely ripped this summer i dont see that added strength doing anything. In fact at times, he looks slower than last year.
In all fairness, I think St. Louis is not over the moon with Halak, as well. They are paying him big bucks and he hasn’t impressed.
We got fair value… Both players are a bit disappointing.
I know it’s cliche to go on about the reffing — and it’s certainly no excuse — but hoo boy was it bad tonight, for both teams.
We’re all (rightly) quick to jump on silly calls against our boys, and there were a few tonight to be sure, but how about Colby Armstrong hopping over a Sen’s stick to clobber Zach Smith who was nowhere near the puck, in an unpenalized brutalizing that led directly to Smith’s fight with White?
Or how about that mega borderline call on Phillips in the first, as Moen tried to get by him? Eight times out of ten, the refs won’t call that.
Which is exactly the problem: the players don’t know which rulebook is being used any given night — from game to game or even minute to minute. There’s always going to be some human error, but man, you’ve got to have some kind of standards. Brutal all around.
Mike Boone: “With Gainey at my side, I’d walk into any dark alley in the world.”
Normally you’d be right Cautious about it being a cliche but tonight clearly the officiating was bad for both teams.
Man, i couldn’t believe that Bourque got called for roughing on that PP. he literally gave the Dman a smack in the pants with his stick and not even that hard to boot. Under this logic, every time the play stops, we’re going to see 2 guys going to the box.
Against a team that brings it, the Habs are going to have some growing pains. An in-form Subbidoo logging major minutes would have made a difference tonight.
But with Patches and Subban out on a back to back, you knew the odds weren’t going to be great.
That said, this team is still a massive improvement with tons of upside. In two weeks, with Max back in the fold who knows. I’m sure glad PK is on deck. We’d be nuts not to suit him up against Buffalo. Surely PK at 30% is better than Kabs at this stage.
This website is literal proof that the majority of Habs fans are the dumbest of any major sports league team. Congratulations morons, that is quite the accomplishment. You make some premier league fans look like Mensa candidates.
We should be following the Chicago model to rebuild; lower your expectations this season because our glorious 4 game winning streak had not run into Boston yet. Another high draft pick might give us the top young talent to compete in the long term. At any rate, 4-2 to start the season and I’m reading the general mood we should be in first. It’s that rosy outlook that’s kept us from actually sustaining a high level of competition instead of waiting for a Hero Halak to lead a terrible team to a miracle.
I happen to be a proud Habs fan before you claim me a Leafs.
I got as far as you calling us all dumb, then stopped. I suspect I’m not the only one.
Mike Boone: “With Gainey at my side, I’d walk into any dark alley in the world.”
Can we call a spade a spade!
-Refs were absolutely terrible tonight.
-Team looked a bit tired and it showed that it was their second game in as many nights. The legs weren’t moving very much.
-Prust and White lost their fights but by no means was that a thrashing.
-Anderson came up huge in the 3rd. That could of been a lot closer then score dictated.
-Budaj didn’t get to much help on most of the goals but didnt have a good game either.
-The Sens played a better all round game and capitalized. They also got some lucky bounces go their way.
The Habs deserved to lose this game but I am in no way panicking. After a 4 game winning streak, i’m ok with the team having a bad game. If they continue to play like they did tonight on the other hand……..
An eminently reasonable post. And bad as 4-1 looks, the Habs were right there in the game until that silly double minor. This was a bad game, but it wasn’t a catastrophe.
Mike Boone: “With Gainey at my side, I’d walk into any dark alley in the world.”
I was at the game tonight and whole-heartedly agree with each of your comments.
——–
Use it up, use it all up / Don’t save a thing for later, yeah / If there’s music out there laying in wait / To pounce and drain every ounce if you wait or hesitate, yeah
TRAGICALLY HIP – USE IT UP
Nice call. Spot on.
Glad to see that cooler heads are prevailing for at least SOME people here in HIO.
My only beef with how the Habs played tonight is that they seemed totally punchless after Ottawa scored those 3 quick ones in the 2nd. Would have been nice to see more push-back. Doubt it would have changed the end result, but would have been a positive sign nonetheless.
- Honestly yours
Twitter: @de_benny
Yeah I agree. I would have loved to see some more push-back. Although to be fair, they did play better in the third, Anderson was just ridiculous.
They did play better in the 3rd, but they didn’t dominate at all and that’s what I would have liked to see.
Anderson made some crazy saves for sure. That one on Prust that he stopped with this stick was nuts.
- Honestly yours
Twitter: @de_benny
It’s gotta be disheartening to go down three goals in three minutes, and then get robbed by fantastic saves a few times in a row. I would have liked to see them battle too, but I bet that combination of bad reffing and bad luck would have been enough to take the wind out of a lot of teams’ sails.
That’s not to remove responsibility from the team — this loss is on all of them — but the way they’d battled in the previous four games should give us reason to be optimistic that this may just be a blip.
Mike Boone: “With Gainey at my side, I’d walk into any dark alley in the world.”
and if my previous posts seem a little off: I switched to tequila after the sens 3rd goal and am in a pretty sorry state at the moment…….
Seth Jones is a tad underrated, D-men rarely go 1st overall, the last was erik johnson and we all know how well he turned out……..
Eller should fight Neil on Sunday.. That would help his mojo and Mike would like it too.
how about white and neil?
that at least would be interesting……
…I would have placed Russia’s Nichuskin in the Top 5
…would be nice to be in a position to get a homeboy like Drouin though
after tonight’s game, it amazes me that people think that Droin would be good for this team…….
I agree, Drouin as talented as he may be is not what the Habs need moving forward, especially wth our main forward prospects in the pipeline being Gallagher, Collberg and Kristo
Put my boy Subban into the lineups, this is it.
They lost, big deal gotta move on and think of saturday.
White’s penalty was super weak, I don’t blame him for being pissed, ref power tripping. He made a bad call take the heat.
Armstrong…why do we pick up ex laffs?
Prust, keep doing what you re doing.
Can’t wait till PK is back.
Rest of the team looked tired.
Tough night, but not the end of the season, everyone in habs land lets just relax a bit. This site is like a see saw sometimes..hate them, love them, hate them love them…
Comon boys and girls support the team!
I am pissed the f**k off
Semin could kick neil’s ass and prust gets ragdolled, what a shame, brings back memories of poor jr. Butch……..
That ref was a disgrace to the human race,
I was waiting for White to rip his whistle off and shove it down his throat but ces’t levis…………..
Budaj played like a guy who has been off for 10 months, no surprises there……..
Chucky had better grow some balls fast or he’ll be out of the NHL in a year, he looked like a poor man’s Turgeon out there……….
Gally was good though………..
most of my co-workers are Sens fans, I’m probably gonna kick some serios ass if I get gloated at tomorrow, the Lord knows i’ll be hungover as hell…………….
I am in a pissy mood right now, but if Emelin or White can cause serious injury (preferably of the career ending/altering variety) on one or more of the Bruins players on the 7th, then I might CHeer up………….
lol
deep breath…
serenity now
I don’t give a crap what kind of message Therrien and company is trying to send Subban..Get the freaking kid in the game..He is a game breaker and I’m sure the boys would have appreciated his ability in this one..
We sign our top defense man and sit him in the press box..Not one of our best moves..Can he be any worse than Kaberle, FFS? At least he would have helped set the tone whether it be on the PP or with a booming check..Our PK has been horrible without him, as well..
He better be in there, this Saturday..
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Yes, I’m a Hab fan..Wanna fight about it?
You’re missing a few points here. For one, he had to pass the team physical first. Secondly, he hasn’t had even one practice with the team yet. Putting him in the game tonight would have been borderline impossible and clearly stupid.
Most importantly, we would have lost tonight’s game even if he had played….and you can see how that would have played out. Here’s the headline for ya: “4-game Habs win streak ends upon Subban return.” Queue the hysteria, controversy, jumping off of bridges, and full out pandemonium.
- Honestly yours
Twitter: @de_benny
I think it was well timed. Putting him in tonight with a loss would have been like sending raw meat to a pack of wolves.
With the loss tonight timing could not be better
Enter PK now
…MacKensie ‘announcing’ Seth Jones now Top-rated number one projection for this summer’s draft
…really ? …I think My Grandmother, long gone, could have stated that 3 months ago
…WHY ??? can’t I get My own TSN show to have announced this 2 months ago ???
…I work cheap too
4-2-0 is great, so I’m definitely not complaining. But when, oh when, will the Habs ice a truly complete lineup? We didn’t get one game last year.
I know, I know, every team has to deal with injuries. But it seems like with the Habs, it’s always an impact player. Markov forever, then PK, now Patches. Bad luck I guess. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this team can do at full steam.
Looks like the honeymoon is over!!!!! I noticed M.T was getting a little upset with some of the questions he was getting!!! M.T verbal melt down round 2 around the corner soon.
Losing is bad enough, but the refs made an already lackluster game even more boring. They made bad calls on both teams, and way too many calls in general sapping all the flow away from the game.
In an NHL that *might* be worried about losing/retaining fans, officiating like this needs to be stopped.
- Honestly yours
Twitter: @de_benny
A game like tonight’s was more or less inevitable.
It just shouldn’t snowball into a losing streak.
Brendon Prust on Neil:” I hope he’s going to give me that fight in our building
He wants payback cuz’ he knows his ass got kicked tonight. Neil’s just like Cooke IMO.
Hitting Chucky at the buzzer? He deserves a beating.
We Need Sweet Hands Blunden ! . Lars should drop his mitts to get his juices going.He should have beat up La La for hitting DD.
I saw the first and the puck was bouncing allover the place, there was a constant parade to the penalty box and both teams were left wondering what the heck was going on?
The refs send White to the box and I’d imagine he said this is a F^%king joke, they give him an extra two, the Sens score two more and the game is over.
Can’t read too much into tonight’s game, the refs decided it.
I actually saw part of the game on TSN, listened to another part of it on Ottawa radio and also part of it on Montreal radio. It was unanimous that the refs were a joke and ruined the game.
Forget about it and move on.
Yep. thats happening too often these days. It’s like they need to be part of the show.
Where’s Huet playing?
I’m looking at Galchenyuk in this game and boy, he seem to get a reality check on how tough NHL teams play – More crash n’ bang style! Gallagher saw this before so he knows what’s going on. If I were MT, he would really need to make this guys play a more rough approach. They’re fast but they need to have grit since they are at this level.
patience is a virtue
I have to say, it annoys me slightly to read everyone praising the team one day, and then saying how horrible they are the next…
The Habs played 3 days in 4 nights. They were on the road. They had Budaj in net, who hasn’t played an NHL game in 10 months, and they have won 4 straight and were due for a loss.
It isn’t the end of the world.
—-
Newfoundland’s biggest Habs fan. Hands down.
Now, how do you expect people to panic properly if you’re walking around talking sense.
Y’know?
—Hope Springs Eternal—
Right on. Alot of people that were all aboard the bandwagon a day ago must have hurt themselves jumping off so quickly.
I agree. I think the team just needs time to reflect and get it back together. Nothing dramatic.
Not complaining after a loss is like going to a restaurant and not ordering dessert.
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Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
The complainers are out already. no changes need to be made. they got beaten by a better team tonight. Till patches gets back they have the best balance lines they can put together.
When patches gets back they could try pleks on the 1st line and split the 2nd line with DD/Eller.
I think Eller has proven he’s not a winger and who knows. he may not pan out at center. the worst scenario. we could make a trade…..
White’s problem. He thinks he’s a fighter. He’ll loose more than he wins and hurt the team in doing so.
My only comment… I still think Blunden is a better all around player than White and should be on the team.
Sounds like it was a good call to watch my daughters Volleyball game instead of the Habs…
How were the Gallys tonight?
Big saves at one end big rebound at the other!
Yann Denis available and an upgrade!
=================================================
The cerebral insight of PJ Stock:
“Le problem est Markov n’a pas jouer un seul game cette annee”
“Louis Leblanc est un kid locale”
” I have a pet peeve”
I missed the game, did Eller play that badly again?
Nope. Eller is playing like he WAS Eller. He’s also playing like DD.
Eller didn’t play badly at all. He didn’t stand out either though. Unfortunately, he still seems to be getting the short end of the stick….or at least more so than he deserves.
- Honestly yours
Twitter: @de_benny
He needs to make his last name french. Its working for DD
Yeah well both of them weren’t visible tonight. The two Galy’s are understandable since they’re both rookies.
All i’m saying is Eller gets demoted to the fourth line throughout the game. DD has played just as bad as Eller, in my opinion worse and has never been deomoted and still gets powerplay time.
Yeah. Clever comment.
Take that nonsense somewhere else.
—Hope Springs Eternal—
meh my opinion. everyone protects DD but he isn’t playing good and never gets demoted. Eller is constantly being demoted and he isn’t playing worse than DD
And it’s a Francophone vs. Anglophone thing, eh?
Doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he was extremely productive and consistent last year, while Eller did nothing to make anyone pay any attention to him at all, save for one 4-goal game.
Three coaches have had the same opinion of him. We don’t see him in practice.
But yeah, it’s all about French language vs. English language.
‘Meh’ is right.
—Hope Springs Eternal—
Eller isnt english. His first language is Danish
Not sure how Anglos were brought into this.
On that subject, funny that The Dude can get away with comments about Anglophone fans not knowing anything about Habs hockey though. Just sayin’
I think Eller needs to through his weight around a bit and get a little nasty. It will give him more room out there.
The minus in this game are both on White and Prust. This wasn’t their night.
Prust played well i thought just couldn’t finish
If you are counting on Prust and White to win you hockey games you might wanna rethink a few things in life?
Bingo. any offense from either player is a bonus
My comment about the minus was White and Prust got beaten up at this game. I have no problem with their offense nor am I counting on them both only for winning hockey games.
I don’t know what Therrien’s plan the next game they play the Sens. But I’m hoping both these guys are ready b/c they’ll be targeted the most.
Kaberle is lost out there without the puck in the d zone.
But he always has been. I guess the Goat couldn’t see that.
funny i didn’t think Kaberle was any worse than any other dman on the team. Thought he played a decent game
I must have mistaken him for someone else then.
Not watching FrankieB are you ?
Hey….leave Frankie out of it.