Blocked shots, lack of conditioning bring Habs to 2-5
Habs vs Sens, always a good rivalry, the team i love the most vs. the team that i dislike the most (I don’t have to be unbiased, yet). The Habs showed many things this game.
1. They showed that they could compete with the much improved Sens. This was proven in the first period when they exploded out of the gate and outshot Ottawa 13-3. Montreal would have had double that if 13 of their shots didn’t get blocked, including the 6 at least that were blocked on the 2 man advantage. Montreal dominated the first period, using their speed and grit to forecheck and draw penalties, but eventually falling to 1-0 on a snipe by Chris Neil, on only the Sens 3rd shot.
2. They showed that they have inferior conditioning and defence. No matter how tough you compete, or how talented you are, what really wins games is your conditioning. I don’t think that there is any point in questioning the heart that any of the Habs players have, they all want to win, it’s just tough when you can’t play consistently for 60 minutes because your conditioning is poor. The Habs played a solid 20 minute game. The effort was there, you could tell by watching them, but frustration and tired legs overwhelms effort every time no matter what you say. The Habs defence is slow, and lacking Markov, in need of a puck mover. They also need Hal Gill to start playing like an NHL player, or at least maybe an OHL player, enough of this peewee garbage.
3. Kovalev is a betrayer, a talented betrayer. Potting 1 goal and a beautiful assist on the Alfredsson goal, he proved what he can do and made every Habs fan green with envy.
4. The reffing was again inconsistent, although it was better than a few nights ago against Colorado, they didn’t show anything close to the leniency they did in that game, and that frustrates me as well. Call everything or call nothing, it’s pretty simple.
