Price saves/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — The Bruins might not be panicking yet, but the NHL standings should be more of a source of distress now that they’re on the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
Carey Price made 29 saves in Montreal’s 2-1 win over the Bruins at TD Garden, which dropped Boston to a conference-worst 3-6-0 on the season.
Tomas Plekanec and Erik Cole scored Montreal’s goals, while the Bruins’ lone goal was credited to Patrice Bergeron despite it getting shot in by Plekanec against Price.
Bruins head coach Claude Julien was disgusted with every facet of his team’s play after the loss.
“I need to look further than just missed opportunities,” he said. “If we want excuses, they’re out there for us, and the one thing it won’t do for us is get us going in the right direction. I think what we have to look at is, what is the issue. Yes, we’re not scoring, that’s certainly one of them, but it’s only part of the problem right now. The execution is not there. We’re not moving the puck from the back end to the front end and making plays like we know we can, so there’s more to the issue that just not scoring enough.”
If you can stomach it, you can look back at the Habs win with this photo gallery courtesy of Sharon Bradley Photography.
I have always supported size up front in front of the net. i agree also that Looch must play with a right handed curve cause he can not get the puck in the air. But in regards to size I was screeming all last year to put Charra in front of the net on power play it just does not happen on a consistant level, which with the level of our puck movers on a pp baffles me. How ever if you look at what recchi did or what Marchand does in front of the net a small guy can certainly succed and perhaps draw penalties by being “kicked” around. The last player I am going to watch then I will shut up is horton. I think deep down with that concussion he got he is not one hundred percent committed to the physical stuff like he showed in the playoffs. So in my opinion we might not get that fire back and in all honesty it’s Hortons descion alone if he wants to get physical which is when he plays the best
I was putting my neck on the cutting board with a Lucic trade last year as well. I really think he is overrated – but the question is, is he as overrated league wide as he is in Boston?
My dream scenario last year was Looch and a number one for a guy like Nash. Now that we have Dougie – I’m not sure I pull the trigger on that one any longer, but I’m totally on board with exploring it.
Let me say – it isn’t entirely about shipping Looch out of town – Its very much about the lack of options the Bs have for obtaining more offense. After Looch, you could move DK, but that’s about it.
I wasn’t nervous about this club until last night – No Goals against that mish-mash on D? Scary like Halloween!
Trade Lucic? Come on now, I think he’s been getting better every game this year.
And am I the only one not freaking out about this team? I think any major moves would be a huge mistake at this point. I’m not so quick to forget that they WON THE CUP last year! So why move any major piece of that team after 9 games? That seems completely ridiculous to me.
Pouliot isn’t doing much for you guys right now but he’ll always have this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxQ_sJcchPo
I think its time to get Lucic back with Horton and Krejci and and move Seguin up with Bergeron and Marchand. Peverly back down with Kelly and Caron. Drop Pouliott and leave the 4th line alone. Corvo has been horrible and McQuaid did have a bad game last night but that might be rust. I do like the way Boychuk is playing and Chara has been good as well. The defence and goaltending isn’t the problem. They better figure out something quick because the hole is only going to get deeper. They’ve been pretty lucky so far because there are only a couple of dominant teams so far in the east. Turn it around boys, I know they can do it.
I am completely on board with trading Lucic. I have been for about a year now. He should not be above a third line winger. Now is the perfect time to trade him. Pouliot has not shown one, not one, drop of skill. Even in one game a prospect can drop a hint towards a career. Pouliot is Paille.
Hey RD…yeah it made no sense to me either so I called my cable provider and they explained that because the game was being televised by RDS it wasn’t being broadcast by anyone else within the Quebec/Atlantic provinces area. There is a TSN/MTL feed that just shows the games but my cable provider doesn’t carry it. I know what you mean about RDS but its not worth paying for it to just watch the games between the Habs and Bruins.
As far as the “cup credit” comment I in no way meant CJ should be sacked I just meant PC and CN will let him tinker with what he has instead of making a move to try to bring in some scoring.
Hey PatrickD,
I didn’t even realize Montreal ever blacked out matches. Usually clubs black out matches because they can’t fill a stadium. I’d understand for the smaller American hockey markets but Montreal has sold out the stadium for several seasons on end. To boot, the game wasn’t even in Montreal so I don’t understand why a Montreal blackout would be in effect. Did you mean a Boston Blackout? Anyways, I’d be interested in understanding this one…
Second, I can understand why you don’t subscribe to it but RDS has by far the best coverage for Montreal games (just about every game). If you don’t understand French, just mute it and play the radio broadcast. The English broadcasters have always put too much focus on the maple leafs. It can only get worse now that they’re winning games.
I’m thinking cup credit goes a long way. Don’t like Julien? Tough. You ‘were’ going to fire him last year and he ended up getting the cup. This gives him a free pass for a long time.
Corvo needs to put a shot on goal! He is also a defensive liability, but giving up 2 goals is not the teams problem right now.
McQuaid should not have been playing and perhaps a few games in Providence to get his head on straight!
Elevate the 4th line to 3rd. Make Kelley, Pouliot, Paille, Horton, Peverley etc earn their playing time. Gi with three lines with te 4th working PK.
Give Caron a chance, he can’t do any worse than Pouliot (zero) right now.
Play Kampfer on PP point.
Fire Geoff Ward and hire the fire Montreal PP coach.
I didn’t see the game as I live within the Montreal blackout area (how is fourteen hours away within the blackout area?) and the TSN/MTL English feed is only available to dish subscribers and not to digital cable. Last night I was fuming mad…however this morning I’m glad I didn’t have to watch.
I’m not sure PC will trade Lucic but something has to happen soon. My fear is that CJ and the team earned enough “cup credit” last year that management will take too long to push the panic button. We will have to wait and see I guess.
My game notes:
McQuaid looked like he is not well and should not have been on the ice last night.
Chara had a bad game.
Thornton had a good game.
Lucic was HORRIBLE early in the season, but has looked much better the last few games, he is moving and hitting people to knock them off the puck.
Bergeron makes amazing little one-on-one plays that go largely unnoticed every game. Anyone see where he backchecked and reached out to knock the puck off the attacker’s stick back to the Bruins defender?
Time to try Lucic – Bergeron – Seguin? Berg is smart and quick enough to be ready and convert Segz passes.
They need a finisher on that line for Seguin to pass to. If not Bergy, trade Krejci for one? (how about that Kessel guy?)
Just kidding about Kessel.
Sides is a beast.
Corvo is a good puck-moving defenseman but will not be a shut down defender. I like what he brings, though.
Lucic – Bergeron – Seguin
Horton – Krejci – Marchand
Peverley – Kelly – Pouliot
Paille – Campbell – Thornton
Pouliot looks like he has some talent, hope he can convert that into production.
At least there’s no NBA.
That looked like ’09-’10 all over again last night. Trouble getting out of their own end & no flow at the other end.
Settle down everyone. No need to trade anybody. It’s still early and this team is built for the playoffs. Easy solution is to sit people and call up some players from Providence. That will light some fires.
So let me get this straight. Trade Lucic…the hulking power forward for more speed? What team are we talking about here?!?
Go ahead, trade Lucic. I’m just wondering if dumping size for speed is what the Bruins are about. Afterall, even if Lucic had a horrible playoff run, wasn’t size a major factor in wearing down the opposition in those long 7 game series?
Not sure what happened last night. No offense, but the Bruins weren’t even as good as the stats suggest. The Canadiens were taking many stupid penalties and the Bruins powerplay was pretty weak. Hell, Pleks scored your goal even.
Must be the Stanley Cup hangover. You roster is virtually identical to last year. Only a few minor tweaks here and there should not have changed much. Then again, on paper, the habs were supposed to be better too and they are having trouble. Weird season.
@John
The guys that can’t lift the puck aren’t moving their legs enough. If you’re lunging or out of position, it’s going to stay on the ice. Lucic has mobility problems so I’d think it’s something basic like that.
@McTeagle- I think McQuaid was a little worse than not sharp. He was AWFUL in his own end. In know hindsight is 20/20, but I would have much preferred seeing Kampfer in there.
As for Seguin, he looks like he was trying to do too much sometimes in the early part of the game, and should have just focused on trying to get shots on goal, which he did towards the end, and that is when his play improved.
@Terry- I think its a bit premature to talk about trading Lucic, but I cant for the life of me figure why he cant lift the puck when he shoots on goal.
Man, where to begin. I felt like there were a few players who helped: Seidenberg mostly looked good to me, TT (as usual), and for the most part Seguin too–except for one or two errant passes. I kept wishing toward the end that Seguin had himself to pass to instead of Lucic and Kelly, who like most of the others seem to have a heck of a time finishing.
Meanwhile, was it me, or did it look like Chara greased the blade of his stick before the game yesterday? Looked like he had a tough time handling the puck. Corvo and McQuaid also did not look sharp (the latter understandably, he gets a recent-injury pass).
Haven’t seen CJ this ‘peeved’ with the B’s after a game…EVER.
Something tells me that CN and PC aren’t going to “sit tight” too much longer with some B’s.
I mentioned trading him a while back. Apparently he’s a superstar and I don’t know much about hockey. So that makes two of us Terry.
I watched every minute of this game and hve a few thoughts. First we are a very good hockey club much better than montreal and a lot of other teams we just have not found our stride yet. Panic time no just a few changes I would not mind seeing. How much longer are the B’s faithful going to be chanting looch, my guess is very soon it will go to boo’s. Please trade him now! His stats last year should have a lot of teams after him. Now people will hate me for it but what does this cement shoe glove punching guy really do. He is completly hampering the robust talent of Seguin because quite simple he can’t keep up. Ship him out for more speed and some one to compliment that line. To many times in a game Looch is non existant he’s really a shift to shift player and I just don’t see what he can do differently he over achieved last year in my mind. there is talent out there and he would prove to be very marketable. Marchand is worth every cent they pay him and his legend will only grow. Looch is always compared to Mr. Cam and it’s just an insult. Cam showed up for every shift had speed and pressance. Looch has this habitt of getting angry with 20 sec in a game punching players with his gloves on and thats just not Bruins style and by no means Cams. Great attack by fourth line last night in all honesty thornton with his skills and the rest of the line seemed the most focused last night. The D is solid as well as goal so lets go get some one who can put it in the goal. For those who disagree with me no problem but I don’t think I am alone on this.