Pacioretty Bites Back

Ryder returns, Pacioretty scores two as Habs down Leafs in LeafLand 5-2

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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

Habs Make Leafs Look Like Cup Contenders

Embarrassing performance by Canadiens at home against Leafs leaves team looking for answers

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Wha happen?

Huh?

Err... is this the Mongolian bar-b-q!?

Last night's game in Montreal against the Leafs -- was it one big "wake up and find Bobby in the shower" type dream!?

No. Unfortunately not.

But was it reality? Not entirely...

The Habs were looking to bounce back after two disappointing losses this week and maybe get some revenge for their opening night loss against the Leafs; instead they laid one very large egg in front of their hometown supporters, losing 6-0, their worst home loss since 1996.

Embarrassing is one way of looking at it. But it isn't the time just yet to push the panic button.

The Habs came out flat and lost faceoffs, puck battles -- you name it. And the Leafs to their credit came out with a lot of speed and pounced on Montreal's errors right off the bat.

Are the Habs that bad!? No sir.

Are the Leafs that good. Definitely not.

As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

In this lockout-shortened season, weird things are going to happen. Last night was definitely weird. The Canadiens couldn't establish any flow or net presence and made Leafs starter James Reimer look like Ken Dryden. Or maybe his brother Dave. Whatever, Reimer didn't have to work that hard to get his shutout, even if he stopped 20 shots in the second frame alone. He might have been tested five times all night.

Then the weird stuff happened in the third. The game was out of reach and Prust et al tried to at least send some messages for the next time. But when Colton Orr ran viciously towards Tomas Plekanec's knee, or when Mikhail Grabovski apparently bit Max Pacioretty's forearm in a scrum, things downright turned from the surreal to the nasty. Grabovski is set to have an NHL hearing Sunday afternoon.

But I'll tell you something. That was a major mistake by the Leafs moving forward against the Habs. You know why? Because the classic rivalry between the Habs/Leafs just hasn't been as strong from Montreal's perspective for a long time now. That's why for the last 10-15 years the Leafs seem to better the Canadiens, no matter how bad the buds are. They just get up for these games much more than the Canadiens, like they do for the Bruins.

But next time might be different. Next time the Habs have something to fight for, to get up for, to play for...

And that's all what Habs nation has right now after a loss like last night. Next time...

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24CH -- Entertaining but a bit soff

Like pretty much all of Habs nation I've seen the first two episodes of the HBO 24/7 type series 24CH which gives us an insider's view of the Montreal Canadiens like never before. This would've never happened under Pierre Gauthier's watch, that's for sure.

And it is entertaining, though a bit on the superficial side. Unlike the HBO series, the show doesn't seem to build on any storylines except that the Canadiens as a franchise are moving forward from last year's disaster. Maybe it's still a bit early, or maybe it's because it's only focused on one team, whereas the HBO had two teams to play off of. For me as in the HBO series it's the locker room stuff that I really enjoy. And probably the most evocative image -- for me at least -- was that of a Molson Centre staffer removing a picture of Scott Gomez from a wall.

The French version on RDS is also just a bit different than it's English counterpart on TSN, so I recommend watching both. Obviously the language of the players is English, so there's more footage of the players shown in the English version. And the music is different. The French version's soundtrack really was pretty cheesy. Glad to see they toned that down in the second installment which unfortunately only ran for a half hour. Doesn't seem long enough. In any case, 24CH is worth watching if you're a diehard Habs fan but as a show it doesn't bring as much of that sports documentary feel that HBO does so well. Maybe it needs Liev Schreiber narrating.

Follow me on Twitter: @HabsFanLeafLand