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What did that crime dog MacGruff used to say?
Take a bite outta crime!?
Well luckily there wasn't any biting going on, but there was a dose of revenge for the Canadiens as they marched in to Toronto and dominated the Leafs 5-2 at the ACC.
Max Pacioretty continued his tear of late with his first goal of two on the night helping the Habs to a 5-2 win against the Leafs in Toronto. AP
Newly acquired Michael Ryder was not a factor, but newly minted #11 was: Brendan Gallagher gave the veteran sniper his #73 and grabbed Captain Koivu's old number (which he wore with the Vancouver Giants), then proceeded to score the game winner on a nice deflection from a shot from the point.
One game with #11, one goal. I think it took Gomez over 80 games, right? Way to exorcise those demons kid.
The Leafs were up in arms as Tyler Bozak blew the faceoff for reasons that he thought the faceoff was going to be restarted. I say he gave up on the play, and David Desharnais did not.
The Canadiens dominated on the scoreboard and shots on goal; Max Pacioretty potted two and continues to have the hot hand.
This game should have been out of reach earlier than the third period, but Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens made a few good saves, notably on Brendan Gallagher.
Carey Price didn't have to be great in this one, but I'm sure he would have liked to have back MacArthur's goal. Even if it was a nice passing play, he could have sucked that one up.
But he did excel on Mikhail Grabovski's penalty shot when the game was only 2-1 Habs; had Grabovski scored the game might have turned in another way.
Credit the Canadiens for being very disciplined and not getting pulled into the goonish play of the Leafs like the last time. Honestly now that I look at it, the Leafs look like the poor man's version of the Bruins. They want to play tough and with skill, but they're just goons with flashes of talent.
And I'm still not that sold on their goaltending, whoever is between the pipes. Scrivens was a bit soff on a few of the Habs tallies.
The Habs were a motivated team last night and have yet to lose in regulation since their 6-0 drubbing at the hands of these very same Leafs. It might have been all about getting "the two points" but this game proved my point in an earlier post that the Leafs made a big strategic error in embarrassing the Habs in Montreal a few weeks ago. They awoke the beast in the Habs -- now Montreal has something to play for against Toronto. The flame has been re-ignited for the Canadiens in this classic rivalry.
Well now that the Leafs had their rears handed to them in their barn, will they respond and go on a tear like the Canadiens responded after their drubbing??? I wouldn't bet on it.
No ifs and buts about it: the Canadiens are a much harder team to play against this season -- exactly what Coach Therrien wanted. They keep limiting their opposition to under 30 shots a game and are now starting to dominate in the faceoff circle. It's all in the little details. Winning, that is.
Habs have a tough weekend which could say a lot in where they stand in the conference next week. Back home to face the Penguins on Saturday, then off to Boston to play the Bruins on Sunday.
As always: SHOULD BE FUN!!!
You know that Twitter thing? Yeah, I'm on it: #HabsFanLeafLand
If you are into discussing numbers, #11 is not a bad number:
ReplyDeleteYvon Lambert wore it in the 70s
Ryan Walter in the 80s
Koivu most recently
Hopefully Galla-gaga will enjoy its legacy!