EC Round 2: Montreal Canadiens vs Boston Bruins

[JagrBomb]

signing Vanek to whatever he wants would be a bad move in the long Run. Gotta use that money on centres and d first. But regardless, I don't see him coming back.

obviously not to whatever he wants, but 7M seems reasonable for what he brings to the table, habs are a much different team with him in the lineup.

[BDog]

Full props to the Bs for keeping the pressure on the jungular after they made it 3-2 but you're allowing what happened in the last 10 mins to color the entire game

The Habs played a better in game two but let's be honest. They were outshot 13-6 in the first period and Price channeled his inner Patrick Roy or it could have been 3-0 Bruins going into the second. Bruins shat the bed in the 2nd (like they seem to do all season) letting the Habs get some momentum which was carried over with the power play marker early in the third. Scoreboard the 3rd. My opinion was not solely based on the final 10 min but the entire game. Your post makes it sound like the Habs dominated the whole game save the last 10 minutes of the third but that clearly wasn't the case.

[BDog]

......in fact if not the stellar play of Price the Habs are going home down 0-2.

[mister_mcgoo]

The Habs played a better in game two but let's be honest. They were outshot 13-6 in the first period and Price channeled his inner Patrick Roy or it could have been 3-0 Bruins going into the second. Bruins shat the bed in the 2nd (like they seem to do all season) letting the Habs get some momentum which was carried over with the power play marker early in the third. Scoreboard the 3rd. My opinion was not solely based on the final 10 min but the entire game. Your post makes it sound like the Habs dominated the whole game save the last 10 minutes of the third but that clearly wasn't the case.

#1)I certainly never came anywhere close to using the word 'domination'...I said they were the 'better team' for the majority of the game, and they were
#2)Equating 'success' with shots on goal is foolish. Even more foolish is pretending that the goalie is somehow not part of the team. Great goalies win games, period. I would think that someone who cheers for a team with Tukka Rask in goal would have figured that out by now

[BDog]

#1)I certainly never came anywhere close to using the word 'domination'...I said they were the 'better team' for the majority of the game, and they were
#2)Equating 'success' with shots on goal is foolish. Even more foolish is pretending that the goalie is somehow not part of the team. Great goalies win games, period. I would think that someone who cheers for a team with Tukka Rask in goal would have figured that out by now

Never mind. BigEv was right.

[mister_mcgoo]

Never mind. BigEv was right.

Big Ev is an imbecile, but that's neither here nor there. If you wanna make a counter argument then have at it, but I'm still not sure what point you're trying to make other than 'rah rah rah, GO BRUINS!'

Your team got outplayed most of the game but then completely dominated (see that's the proper use of the word!) the last 10 mins of play, and that's why they won.

[MXHockey]

Epic choke, that was painful. Going home up 2-0 would have been an amazing feat, now the series will be over in five.

[newfcollins]

Epic choke, that was painful. Going home up 2-0 would have been an amazing feat, now the series will be over in five.

I agree that the Habs will win the next three games as well.

[MXHockey]

I agree that the Habs will win the next three games as well.

LOL, well played.

[JagrBomb]

Big Ev is an imbecile, but that's neither here nor there. If you wanna make a counter argument then have at it, but I'm still not sure what point you're trying to make other than 'rah rah rah, GO BRUINS!'

Your team got outplayed most of the game but then completely dominated (see that's the proper use of the word!) the last 10 mins of play, and that's why they won.

most of the game the habs were on the powerplay. still think habs should have won game 2 and bruins win game 1. doesn't really matter though, series is tied 1-1, both teams deserved a win.

[doulos]

#1)I certainly never came anywhere close to using the word 'domination'...I said they were the 'better team' for the majority of the game, and they were
#2)Equating 'success' with shots on goal is foolish. Even more foolish is pretending that the goalie is somehow not part of the team. Great goalies win games, period. I would think that someone who cheers for a team with Tukka Rask in goal would have figured that out by now

"The goalie is a part of the team as well." Famous last words of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. While it is true, when the goalie has to be THE determining factor in a game on a regular basis, it's a sign that the team overall is not good enough to win games and will, when all is said and done, end up a net loser overall.

There are very few exceptions to this, like teams with Patrick Roy and Dominic Hasek, the two greatest goalies of all time, and even then only one of those goalies was able to win a Stanley Cup.

This is not a comment on the particular game that just happened as I was only able to watch pieces of it with other stuff going on today so can't give a fair comment.

[mister_mcgoo]

"The goalie is a part of the team as well." Famous last words of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. While it is true, when the goalie has to be THE determining factor in a game on a regular basis, it's a sign that the team overall is not good enough to win games and will, when all is said and done, end up a net loser overall.

There are very few exceptions to this, like teams with Patrick Roy and Dominic Hasek, the two greatest goalies of all time, and even then only one of those goalies was able to win a Stanley Cup.

This is not a comment on the particular game that just happened as I was only able to watch pieces of it with other stuff going on today so can't give a fair comment.

Let me put to you this way? Have you ever seen a team win a cup with poor goaltending? I haven't.

So discounting the play of a talented goalie who is making big saves as somehow 'not counting' towards part of the overall team is just ridiculous...even more so when you happen to be cheering for a team who also has a talented goalie who is making big saves (Rask). He was trying to say it could have been 3-0 Bruins heading into the 2nd period...coulda shoulda woulda, it's nonsense, I could just as easily flip that around and say were it not for Rask it would 6-1 Montreal heading into the 3rd if we're going to resort to that line of argument.

For ****s sake enjoy the series for what it is already, this is what great hockey is all about!

1)huge, long standing rivalry
2)two of the best goalies in the entire NHL making huge saves and going H2H
3)both teams are deep and roll 4 lines, how much do you love seeing that 4th line come on well rested against a tired 2nd line?
4)Bruins have advantage in size, grit and toughness, Habs have advantage in speed and excellent passing
5)Bruins have the advantage in veterans (Iggy, Chara) and cheap shot artists (Marchand), Habs have the advantage in youth (Subban, Gallagher)

[JagrBomb]

i also think you can't just say "without goaltending habs suck". price is part of the team, just as kessel is part of the leafs. maybe without kessel the leafs would be drafting 1st this year. however, i think the point trying to be made is, if you take out the excellent goaltending, the habs are just an average team with very good powerplay (at least when lined up against the bruins). take out rask, and the bruins still have excellent 5 on 5, size, speed, special teams etc. price is the main reason the habs could actually win this series, and IF they do make it far, he is easily their conne smythe winner at this point.

for example, take out rask and replace him with me. you get replaced with price. who do you think would win? assuming one of us doesn't have an inner patrick roy that decides to come out to play, the bruins would likely steamroll the habs.

i agree it is one of the best matchups we've seen so far, and i do agree with points 1-4. but if you're going to talk about marchand, then why not bring up gallagher? he's pretty well known for embellishing as well. i don't even see marchand's embellishing as an advantage for the bruins, considering the habs have like double the powerplays the bruins have had so far.

[metaldude26]

Let me put to you this way? Have you ever seen a team win a cup with poor goaltending? I haven't.

How do you feel about MA Fleury winning the Cup? His .908 save percentage during the playoffs that year was exactly league-average.

Or how about Antti Niemi the following year? His .910 save percentage was one point below the league average.

Neither example is of "poor" goaltending but when you consider that save percentages go up as scoring declines in the playoffs these are a couple of mediocre performances for Cup winners.

[mister_mcgoo]

i also think you can't just say "without goaltending habs suck". price is part of the team, just as kessel is part of the leafs. maybe without kessel the leafs would be drafting 1st this year. however, i think the point trying to be made is, if you take out the excellent goaltending, the habs are just an average team with very good powerplay (at least when lined up against the bruins). take out rask, and the bruins still have excellent 5 on 5, size, speed, special teams etc. price is the main reason the habs could actually win this series, and IF they do make it far, he is easily their conne smythe winner at this point.

for example, take out rask and replace him with me. you get replaced with price. who do you think would win? assuming one of us doesn't have an inner patrick roy that decides to come out to play, the bruins would likely steamroll the habs.

i agree it is one of the best matchups we've seen so far, and i do agree with points 1-4. but if you're going to talk about marchand, then why not bring up gallagher? he's pretty well known for embellishing as well. i don't even see marchand's embellishing as an advantage for the bruins, considering the habs have like double the powerplays the bruins have had so far.

Not quite, I'm not arguing that Boston isn't one of the best teams in the league top-to-bottom, I said as much in the predictions pre-playoffs in fact, but Montreal is still a good team, they match up well against Boston and the strategy they employ against them takes a lot of discipline to pull off but they're doing it.

If you remove Price from the equation then of course they don't stand much of a chance of beating Boston. But are you actually going to try to argue that the Bruins are still favored if you remove Rask from the equation? If the Habs can beat the B's in game 1 (and lets face it, had they kept their shit together in game 2 they good have won that too)...if they can do that WITH Rask in nets then what could they accomplish without him?

As far as Marchand vs. Gallagher goes, who said anything about embellishment? I said Marchand was a 'cheap-shot' artist, if you think Gallagher is that then you should take up a different sport, cause hockey ain't your thing. But even if we were just want to focus on embellishment, I challenge you to show me even 3 good videos showing Gallagher clearly diving, that will take you a while, meanwhile I can throw together a 'Best of Brad Marchand' series in about 2 mins flat. I can't imagine two players less alike, your hatred for the Habs has really muddled your brain.