GLEN METROPOLIT MAIGHT PLAY IN GAME 3

Today in Montreal, the Habs announced that Glen Metropolit might be back in the lineup for game 3.Glen has been out since March 27 when he suffered a tear in a shoulder. If Metropolit comes back in the lineup, then the Habs will only have 1 injured player. And that's Paul Mara who will be out for the rest of the Playoffs with a shoulder injury."Glen brings experience and gives us depth," said Martin. "He's a centre who can take faceoffs and he's done well for us on the power play. "Martin also said that Glen will be game time decision.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

WHICH GOALTENDERS WILL PLAY IN GAME 3?

Today in Montreal, the Canadiens announced that Halak will start for Montreal. As for the Capitals, they have not yet announced which goaltender will start(it will be either Theodore or Varlamov)."I think we said before this series started that if we were to go anywhere in this we would probably have to use both goalies," Boudreau said. "I'm sure we're still going to use both goalies, whether[Varlamov plays Monday or Theodore plays Monday, I think they're both going to play again." Varlamov entered game 2 with the Capitals trailing 2-0 (on 2 goal allowed on 2 shots that Theodore faced). Varlamov lead the Capitals to a 3 goal comeback and a 6-5 win in o.t. So I think it's no doubt that he will start in game 3.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

HABS BLOW A 4-1 LEAD AND LOSE IN OVERTIME BY THE SCORE OF 6-5

Last night in Washington, the Montreal Canadiens got off to a good start, by getting 2 goals on 2 shots (from Gionta and Kostitsyn) which lead to the Capitals making a goaltending change (Theodore out, Varlamov in). The change sparked the Caps, as Fehr scored to put them within one going into the intermission. Then just 10 minutes into period number two, Andrei Kostitsyn put home his second of the night to put Montreal up 3-1. Just a little while after that it was Andrei Kostitsyn with the hat-trick on the powerplay to put Montreal up three goals. So it's over right? The answer is no. As the Capitals came back the other way and Backstrom scored to put them within 2. In the third period, Bradley took a shot right on Halak and Halak had it. But Ovie came in and took a poke at the pads and it went in for Ovechkin got credit for the goal. But the Caps weren't done there. As Backstrom scored again to tie it at 4-4.

Then with 5 minutes to go, Plekanec scored to give Montreal the lead again at 5-4. But with a minute 21 to go, Carlson tied the game with a simple wrist shot that I think Halak should have had. But once more we were off to overtime. Just 30 seconds in Backstrom scored to get the Capitals a 6-5 win and he gets himself a hat-trick."We just need to play our game," Ovechkin (who after a game with no shots he came right back and got 4 points) said. "It doesn't matter how they're going to play, if we play our game and finish checks, shoot the puck, go to the net, we're going to win. If we play the same way we played in the third period, we're going to be successful." But even though Montreal lost they think they got the job done."We came here for one and we got our one," said winger Michael Cammalleri, who had three assists. "Now it's time to go home and play. I liked our team, I think we did a lot of good things."

Game 3 will be on Monday at 7:00pm E.t/ 4:00pm P.c on TSN, Versus and RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo



Series
tied 1-1

"WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT"

Friday after the Capitals practiced, Mike Green talked about Jaroslav Halak not playing against his team until game 1 (when Halak made 45 saves in the 3-2 Overtime victory)."We didn't know what to expect from him," Green said. "We hadn't faced him, we didn't know his habits and we didn't expect him to come out and play that well." In other words, he is pretty much saying that because the Habs finished in 8th he didn't think that Montreal had good goaltending.

I can tell you something about this series, if the Habs win it's because they shut down Ovie, if they score when it's five on five and if Halak can make 35-45 saves a night."This year’s playoffs are a perfect example of the parity that exists in the game today,” explained Martin. “I mean, seven games all decided by one goal tells you all you need to know. Every game is a battle. I think a lot of series are going to go the distance and that’s good for the fans and good for hockey."Martin also talked not getting too carried away with just one win.

“You can’t be satisfied or let up after one game. You need four to win a series,” reminded Martin. “We can’t kick up our feet and relax now – especially not against a dangerous team like the Capitals. They just have so many ways to hurt you. We also can’t play on our heels, either. He have to be even hungrier to win Game 2.” Game 2 will be tonight at 7:00 pm E.t on TSN, VERSUS and RDS.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

PRICE UNDERSTANDS HIS ROLE

Today in Washington, Carey Price talked about his role on the Montreal Canadiens."I kind of understand the situation and I do see a bigger picture," Price said of his backup role. "What I do now can lead to my next step, so all I can do is stay humble and keep working as hard as I can. When he's playing well it makes me want to play better, and when I'm playing well it makes him want to play better. That's just how it is. If you have that healthy relationship, it just pushes you to be better." In my opinion, Carey Price didn't play bad when he played. But then again when you look at the stats, Carey Price hasn't won for more than 2 months. Then if you look at Halak, he has won as of late and the Habs do play better in front of him.

Carey Price played in 41 games and he had 13 wins 20 losses and 5 overtime losses with 0 shutouts for the first time in his 3 season career. Then if you look at Jaroslav Halak, he has played in 45 games and he has 26 wins, 13 losses and 5 overtime losses with 5 shutouts (his career high). Now lets look at playoff stats. In just 4 playoff games, Halak has 1 win (latest win v.s the Caps) and 1 loss. As for Price, he has played in 15 games and he had 5 wins and 10 losses with 1 shutout. So Price has more experience but the Habs play better in front of Halak. So I think Martin made the right decision by putting Halak in net for the playoffs.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

PLEKANEC WINS GAME 1 FOR MONTREAL IN OVERTIME

Last night in Washington, it was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals. There has been many predictions from Broadcasters saying that Montreal doesn't have a chance to win. But guess who won last night. It was the Montreal Canadiens by the score of 3-2 in overtime with a goal by Tomas Plekanec."That's a huge goal for our team," Plekanec said. "It doesn't matter who scored the goal in the playoffs, everybody just has to do their jobs and that's what we did." Thought the game the Montreal Canadiens stuck to there game plan.Which was to shutdown Ovechkin. They did that alright. They didn't even let him get 1 shot on goal.

"When you have 50 shots on goal and Ovechkin doesn't have any, and you've got four power plays there's something (wrong)," Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau said. "They took him away pretty good, but I don't think he played very well tonight." In the victory, Plekanec, Cammalleri and Scott Gomez scored and Jaroslav Halak made 45 saves."Jaro was Jaro, he's been so solid for us all year," Cammalleri said. "He has to be that way, it really isn't an option. It's funny, there's been times this year when we've asked him if he wants more shots because he seems to do so well under that barrage." As for the Capitals, Corvo and Backstrom scored and Jose Theodore made 37 saves in the loss.

In my opinion, Montreal got the job done. They played with confidence, were finally able to score when the teams were even at 5 skaters a piece (2 of Montreals goals 5 on 5) and Halak played great. So now lets wait until Saturday night to see if Montreal can extend there lead going back to Montreal.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

THEODORE LEFT PRACTICE AFTER OVIE TOOK A SHOT THAT HIT HIM IN THE ARM

Just after a day that Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau announced that Jose Theodore will be the starter in this series, Theodore saved a hard shot from Ovechkin in the arm and he had to leave the ice." He just got a stinger from being hit by Ovechkin's shot," Boudreau said." I believe that Theodore should be fine and that he will play in game 1." But the funny thing about this story is they didn't say which arm got hurt. So the question is which side do you shoot on the left or right. If I were the Canadiens coach, I would watch the Capitals pre-game warm up and try to find out which arm Theodore is having trouble moving fast. But I think Theodore's arm that's hurt is his left due to when you watch Ovie shoot he's always shooting to the goalies left. We shall see if I'm right or wrong when you see Theodore's performance.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

PLAYOFF PREVIEW: BERGERON KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES

Today in Montreal, Bergeron talked about what it takes to be create a upset.“I know there are people who are saying we won’t last long in the playoffs, but I really am confident we can win this,”Bergeron said.“In 2006, before we played the Red Wings, I didn’t have this kind of faith.Before that series, I thought maybe we could battle and play with them, but I never would’ve believed it could have gone the way it did. Eventually, we just took control and beat them. I know now that anything really is possible.” The year Bergeron is refering to is when he was on the Oilers and finished in 8th and went all the way to the Stanley Cup final. But unfortunately they lost to the Hurricanes in 7 games.

So in my opinion, if Montreal plays with the amount of confidence that they sound like they have I think they will win the series against the Capitals.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

PLAYOFF PREVIEW: TIME TO PLAY SPOILER

Today R.J Umberger talked about the Canadiens v.s Capitals series and he said be prepared for a upset.They play the wrong way," said Umberger. "They want to be moving all the time. They float around in their zone, looking for breakaways and odd-man rushes. A good defensive team is going to beat them (in the playoffs). If you eliminate your turnovers and keep them off the power play, they're going to get frustrated because they're in their zone a lot." To be honest I think R.J's right. If you compare Montreal to Washington you can see that the Caps are overly powered in offense with no goaltending and the Habs have great goaltending and are great at defense. So think about 1 team JUST have offense and the the other team has everything else so think about it. Who will win? I think Montreal will play spoiler and win in 7 games.

Now on to the starting goalies.Expect Jaroslav Halak to start for Montreal in this series."Our goaltenders did the job for us all year," said Martin. "Tonight against the Leafs was maybe not (Halak's) best performance, but they got us into the playoffs." As for the Capitals, they did not announce their starting goalie."Theo hasn't been named our starter yet," Boudreau said Monday. "If I don't deny it then you're saying it's a truism so I wanted to make a point of saying that. They'll (the goalies) will know and you won't (until Thursday). If I tell you now you'll be asking these guys, digging in for the questions, so if they don't know then how can they tell you. But I can tell you one thing he's not a English speaking person."

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

CANADIENS V.S CAPITALS

Round 1 Schedule:

Game 1:Thu, 15 Apr 2010	Canadiens	Capitals	7:00 PM	VERSUS, TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 2:Sat, 17 Apr 2010	Canadiens	Capitals	7:00 PM	VERSUS, TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 3:Mon, 19 Apr 2010	Capitals	Canadiens	7:00 PM	TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 4:Wed, 21 Apr 2010	Capitals	Canadiens	7:00 PM	TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 5 (If necessary):Fri, 23 Apr 2010	Canadiens	Capitals	7:00 PM	VERSUS, TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 6( If Necessary):Mon, 26 Apr 2010	Capitals	Canadiens	7:00 PM	VERSUS, TSN(HD), RDS(HD)
Game 7 (If Necessary):Wed, 28 Apr 2010	Canadiens	Capitals	7:00 Pm	TSN(HD), RDS(HD)

PLAYOFF PREVIEW: CANADIENS TO PLAY THE CAPS IN ROUND 1

Today in Philadelphia, the Flyers beat the Ranagers 2-1 in overtime to make the playoffs and finish in 7th which means Montreal has dropped to 8th and will face the Capitals in the playoffs. The Habs are going in as underdogs of course since the Caps finished in 1st and the Habs finished in 8th.But some good news for Montreal is that they won 2 out of 4 meetings this season against the Capitals.."We did well against the top teams in the East, so hopefully that works out," forward Brian Gionta said.

I think the Habs have played good against the Caps all year.I think they will go with Halak due to his great play as of late. But hey never count out Price since he has won 2 games this year against the Caps. But then again, even though Price has played good as of late. The Habs do not play well when he's in net. But when Halak's in net they play better. So I think Halak will get the start.Anyway the biggest key to beat the Capitals is to shut down Ovie. If they do that they will win. If they don't they will lose. Am I right or wrong? You decide.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

P.s: This series will go to 7 games

2009-2010 Montreal Canadiens vs Washington Capitals

@ Montreal Canadiens

Date	Score	Game Winning Goal	Winning Goalie
10/02/2010	WSH 5 @ MTL 6 (OT)	Tomas Plekanec	Carey Price
28/11/2009	WSH 4 @ MTL 3 (SO)	Nicklas Backstrom	Semyon Varlamov

@ Washington Capitals

Date	Score	Game Winning Goal	Winning Goalie
05/01/2010	MTL 2 @ WSH 4	Alexander Semin	Michal Neuvirth
20/11/2009	MTL 3 @ WSH 2	Michael Cammalleri	Carey Price

HALAK WINS THE 2009-2010 MOLSON CUP AWARD

Last night in Montreal, Jaroslav Halak won the 2009-2010 Canadiens Molson Cup Award for the best Habs player of the season. Last season(2008-2009), Carey Price won the Molson Cup award. But this season their was no doubt that it would be Halak due to his amazing play as of the past 3 -4 months. In 45 games this season, Halak has 26 wins,13 losses, 5 overtime/ Shootouts losses and he has 5 shutouts. He will be big part of the Habs playoff run this year.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

Josh Gorges Wins the 2009-10 Jacques Beauchamp-Molson Trophy

Last night in Montreal, Josh Gorges Wins the 2009-10 Jacques Beauchamp-Molson Trophy award. He was award this trophy because he played the biggest role on the Habs this season. In 82 games this season, Josh Gorges had 3 goals and 7 assist for a total of 10 points. Josh Gorges took this award away from Maxim Lapierre who won the trophy last season. But Gorges deserves this award in my opinion because he's been the Habs most Consistent player.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo

HABS MAKE THE PLAYOFFS WITH OVERTIME LOSS AGAINST THE LEAFS

Last night in Montreal, the Montreal Canadiens clinched a playoff spot with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. But their has been a concern about the momentum going into the playoffs since the Montreal Canadiens have lost 3 straight."That's a good question," added Cammalleri. "We haven't been a league-leader all year.If we did a panel of you guys (reporters) now, no one would pick us to win a Stanley Cup, but we know that when we play a good game, we can beat anyone. And you never go in thinking you can't win." In the loss, Brian Gionta, Andrei Markov and Marc-Andrei Bergeron all scored for the Habs and Jaroslav Halak made 24 saves in the overtime loss that got Montreal into the post season.

In my opinion, this was the best game the Canadiens have played this hole season by getting chance after chance. But once again the story in this one was that Montreal couldn't score. You can say that they had 3 goals. But the reality is that they out chanced the Leafs and the Leafs were able to grab the win. The Habs hit a total of 3 post's and 2 cross bars."You get in and you go from there," Gionta (who leads Montreal in scoring with 28 goals) said. "Now we have four or five days off to get ready.I like our chances if we play consistent and play hard." The Canadiens make the playoffs and will finish in either 7th or 8th depending on the result in the Ranagers and Flyers game. Who ever wins that game will make the playoffs.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo