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But These Go To 11: Canadiens 2 – Hawks 5

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Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

I was thinking tonight right before the 3rd period that at this point, the lack of drama Hawks games have when they lead going into the 3rd have. They haven’t lost one in a the past season and a half, and when they’re taking a two-goal lead into a 3rd, you basically know it’s over. This would be the very definition of hockey 1st world problems, because this is what every fandom wants. The Hawks weren’t particularly spectacular tonight, but they didn’t have to be. But at this point, no team is better at knowing exactly what it takes to get two points out of a game, and once they bunched two goals at the end of the 2nd, it was basically over.

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Habs Q&A With Andrew Berkshire And Laura The Active Stick

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Andrew Berkshire is on Twitter @AndrewBerkshire. Laura is @TheActiveStick.

So the Habs, at the time of writing, have won 5 of 20. People are panicking. Has fans think the team is falling apart. We can’t help but see the best goalie in the world hurt, a terrible shooting percentage and other bad luck. Which is true or is it a blending of the two?

Berkshire: What’s going on right now with the Habs is very weird. Montreal has been one of the best possession teams in the NHL this year, the whole season. The shooting percentage is obviously not reflective of their play, and eventually they will bust out of this slump, but the longer it goes the harder it is to believe it’s just luck.

There are little things about the Canadiens’ system that you can identify fairly easily as problem areas that hurt them. Their breakout is terrible, the worst in the league in terms of keeping possession while exiting their own zone. Their tendency to dump the puck off the wall to clear the zone leads to a ton of turnovers and scoring chances against. Combine that with very little east-west movement in the offensive zone and you have a team that plays well in terms of shots for and against, but give up more goals and score less than league average.

Laura: From my perspective, it’s a blending of the two. Initially, the team was playing well and was getting burned by the goaltending. The Habs didn’t abandon the process at that point, but were hit by some really bad luck, so it turned into what I call “not winning” as opposed to losing (sometimes badly). Then they started playing badly. In the last two games (vs Chicago and St.Louis) they seem to have been playing well and running into bad luck again, but the coach is unfortunately showing signs of his patented inexplicable line-blending. We shall see.

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No Man, Seven Minute Habs: Hawks at Canadiens Preview/Leech Application

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250px-Ozymandias vs. 15452729736_ffba7f9e29_b

PUCK DROP: 6:30pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN for the locals, NBCSN for the outer rim, WGN Radio

THE QUEBECOIS: Habs Eyes On The Prize

Habs Stats

Habs War On Ice

The Hawks will take their scorching performance art piece on the road the next two nights, and into the cradle of hockey. If you don’t believe it is, just ask the citizens of Montreal and Toronto. It’s an Original 6 week for the Hawks. What they’ll find when they get to “The Keg” is a team and fanbase that’s been pulling it’s hair out for so long and so aggressively parts of their brain are flicking out of their scalps. No one does panic quite like the Canadiens.

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They're A Bit Spiky, They're A Bit French: Hawks at Canadiens Preview/Pregame Thread/Cheap Trick Impersonation

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oldschool vs. rv7fl3w

FACEOFF: 6:30pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio

WE’RE GONNA HAVE A SANDWICH: Habs Eyes On The Prize

The traveling Viagra promotional caravan stops in Montreal tonight (because they can’t score, see?), as the Hawks invade what used to be The Keg but is now the…Ringtone? Hardline? I don’t know, communications companies don’t make for great nicknames for arenas.

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They’re A Bit Spiky, They’re A Bit French: Hawks at Canadiens Preview/Pregame Thread/Cheap Trick Impersonation

By 949 0

oldschool vs. rv7fl3w

FACEOFF: 6:30pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio

WE’RE GONNA HAVE A SANDWICH: Habs Eyes On The Prize

The traveling Viagra promotional caravan stops in Montreal tonight (because they can’t score, see?), as the Hawks invade what used to be The Keg but is now the…Ringtone? Hardline? I don’t know, communications companies don’t make for great nicknames for arenas.

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Tuning Up: Habs 3 – Hawks 1

By 1252 0

Have to clean up the stuff from last night’s game, so let’s do that.

-The first thing that was obvious is that last night’s bottom pairing of Michal Rozsival and Kyle Cumiskey absolutely drowned against what was basically Montreal’s bottom six and a bunch of Hamilton Bulldogs. No Gallagher, Galchenyuk, Desharnais, Patches, Plekanec, and yet whoever was out against this pairing had their way. Look, I know Rozsival will never look fast, and especially in training camp, but it was hard to not be alarmed. Yes, the games he does play, which won’t be all of them obviously, will be weighted with easy zone starts and opposition. But that doesn’t make me feel better right now, especially with the strong chance that Leddy isn’t going to be around to push the play the other way and save him.

They keep telling me Cumiskey is the surprise of camp, and I see that he can skate pretty well, but he’s playground recess in his own end. His gap to Drayson Bowman was simply awful while Rozie was getting beat to the front of the net, and had it been better maybe that pass is never made. Maybe they’re pumping Cumiskey to soften the blow of any Leddy trade, and he plays the same side unlike Rundblad. But based on what I’ve seen this preseason, that’s not an answer to any question I’m asking.