Originally Posted by
ericdaoust
General thoughts
Lots going on in the opener. The big story is George Parros being stretchered after hitting his face on the ice. It sucks big time but that is the nature of dropping the puck. Parros had a great game up to that point and won a lot of new fans. He is better than the typical goon.
Team-wise it was an up-and-down game. A few stand-outs and a few no-shows. I felt the team was not good at all defensively (more on that later).
I don't mention this often but that was horrible officiating down the stretch. Prust somehow gets a fighting major with his gloves still on? And then they put away the whistles at the convenient time when the game was on the line? No conspiracy here, just a really bad night on the job.
That said, the Habs hurt themselves with the early penalties. They tend to lose their focus and take penalties in bunches. They must stop this to win. Plain and simple.
Carey Price
The numbers were not great (34/38 - .895). But it was one of those nights where he couldn't do much about it. The only one I can maybe question is the breakaway. I'm not sure why goalies drop their blockers like that. It's just asking for trouble. He made a bunch of great saves over the course of the game.
Galchenyuk-Eller-Gallagher
By far the best line. They carried the team. Eller was especially all over the place and scored twice. Also, it looks like Galchenyuk bulked up a bit. He looks stronger out there.
Bourque-Plekanec-Gionta
They didn't do much aside from Plekanec/Gionta having some good shorthanded shifts. Bourque was especially bad but not enough effort here from the veterans.
Pacioretty-Desharnais-Briere
Briere was especially good setting up plays and getting his nose dirty along the boards. I found that Pacioretty and Desharnais were below-average overall. Pacioretty was playing through pain after getting hurt earlier in the game.
Moen-Prust-Parros
They were surprisingly good. They were able to sustain possession time in the offensive end and had several chances to score.
Markov-Diaz
They were awful. Too many turnovers, too many coughed-up pucks, too many missed shots. They need to be better. When puck-moving dmen are not moving the puck well it hurts.
Subban-Gorges
I liked the way both played. Solid at both ends for the most part.
Bouillon-Tinordi
Decent play. Bouillon is overmatched on the power play. He is a defensive defenseman. Tinordi looked a tad slow out there but his reach makes up for it.
I was at Bell centre, and the kids line was really nice. Pleky line hard to tell, but may be a bit rusty ... that 4min penalty for high sticking in the neutral zone is that kind of penalty we dont need from Pleky. Diaz and Desharnais have to be way better then what I saw. It is an average game from an average team !
NHL Caphit(79.5M),pts only keeper league,16 Teams,Weekly H2H,Start 6F 4D 1G
F:Backstrom,Matthews,Giroux,Kessel,Barzal,Bailey,S tone,Labanc,Steel
D:Klingberg,Krug,Vatanen,Letang,Girard,Liljegren
G:Bobrovsky,Murray,Ullmark,Hart,Parsons