RANGERS BLOW-OUT THE CANADIENS 7-2 IN GAME 1

         Yesterday afternoon in Montreal, the Canadiens were coming off an emotional Game 7 win against the Boston Bruins and were looking to make that emotion carry over into Game 1 against the New York Rangers. Just 4 minutes in, Dominic Moore centred the puck to Martin St.Louis and he scored. 1-0. 2 minutes later, McDonah centred the puck to Zuccarello and he scored 2-0. The Habs came out flat in the first and were down 2-0 and were being outshot 12-6. Early in the second, Chris Kreider had a breakaway, he lost control of the puck and then ran into Price "accidentally on purpose." Price stayed down for several minutes, he would finish the period. There was no call on the play. Shortly after that, Gionta centred the puck to Bourque and he scored to cut the lead to 1. The Habs dominated the second, but Lundquist made several saves to keep the Rangers in front. With 1 minute to go in the second, Kreider had a breakaway and he scored.

         With under 20 seconds to go in the period, Richards scored. Price allowed 2 goals on 2 shots since being run into. The shots were 10-8 Montreal in the second, but the Ranger lead 4-1. Peter Budaj was in net to start the third after Price allowed 4 goals on 20 shots. The first shot he faced was a slap shot from the slot from McDonah and he scored. 5-1. Stephan would score to make it 6-1. Then Nash scored his first of the playoffs to make it 7-1. All 3 of the goals on Budaj, came on the powerplay. Eller would score a late goal as the Rangers would win 7-2. In relief, Budaj made 5 saves. In the win Lundquist made 20 saves."I reviewed the incident," Therrien said about Kreiger running into Price.  "Obviously, it was an accidental contact, but let's put it this way, he didn't make much effort to avoid the contact.

       "I'm sure the intention of the player was not to hit the goalie, but you have to try to do everything in your power to avoid contact and it's tough to say if he tried everything to avoid that contact." The Habs played a good 12 minutes out of 60 in this game. But once the Rangers made it 3-1, it looked like the Habs just threw in the towel as some fans were doing. "Good thing it’s a seven-game series because we have a chance to get back into it," said Bourque. "We have to be better from the puck drop. We had a little bit of an emotional letdown after the Boston series. We talked about that going into the game. Obviously it didn’t click. We have to just forget about this game." Game 2 goes Monday night at 8 in Montreal.

- Andrew Di Pardo