Canadiens-Rangers: Montreal Gets Its Payback, Shuts Out New York 6-0

Not much to say after tonight's debacle other than that the Montreal Canadiens sure got their payback against the Rangers after last Sunday's game.

The Blueshirts actually came out flying with a ton of energy to begin this one, but that faded rather quickly as the first period progressed. With this loss, New York has now been shutout in two straight and in four of their last seven.

The tilt started off physical and had a great pace to it, but former Blueshirt Scott Gomez buried a rebound in front of the net and that deflated the Rangers' momentum. This goal is on defenseman Michal Rozsival for not taking out Gomez as he should have. It was a tightly played period from that point on and you thought the Rangers would have a chance at battling back from the one goal deficit in the second.

Well, unfortunately, that was not the case by any means. Two goals by Mike Cammelleri and one by Maxim Lappierre saw Henrik Lundqvist being pulled early in the second and gave back-up Matt Zaba his National Hockey League debut. Henrik's struggles at the Bell Centre really cannot be explained.

It is The King's house of horror and his goals against average while playing there is over four. It was not Lundqvist's fault, though, as the defense in front of him was failing him yet again. Zaba came in cold but heated up quickly, making a few great saves. Benoit Pouliot would eventually deflect one past the rookie netminder and at that point, the score was 5-0 entering the second intermission.

While the scoring was not as frequent for the Habs in the third, the offense for the Rangers was absolutely invisible. They were being kept to the perimeter and when they did move the puck towards the middle, they missed the net more often than not. Give credit to Jaroslav Halak for playing a tremendous game making 32 saves, but the rebounds he gave up were not capitalized on by the Rangers.

Finally, Plekanec was left wide open on the side of the net where he scored on a beautiful backhander that went over the shoulder of Matt Zaba.

I guess the one good thing coming out of tonight is that when Marian Gaborik was bumped by the Canadiens' Andrei Markov, both Aaron Voros and Sean Avery immediately came to his rescue, unlike in Philly on Thursday. I thought Gaborik played well tonight and was definitely focused. Unfortunately, none of his seven shots on goal were able to beat Halak.

Once again, when Gaborik isn't scoring, neither is this team and recently, Gaborik has struggled greatly and the overall scoring on John Tortorella's squad has gone down.

The fourth line of Sean Avery, Brian Boyle, and Aaron Voros was the best for the Blueshirts on this night, no question. While that may seem pathetic, it is not surprising, at least in my eyes. These three work harder than anyone on this team and that is what leads to the generation of scoring chances. If only the rest of the team can play with the attitude that those three play with.

Despite allowing two goals, Matt Zaba was fantastic in net for New York. This is the second time this season that Tortorella has elected to give a rookie his first taste of the NHL in the middle of a blowout. Zaba looked extremely calm and poised out there and he made some stellar saves. I was very impressed with Matt's 14 save effort tonight in Montreal.

Defensive mistakes certainly hurt the Rangers in this game, as they were too soft in front of their own net, they left players open, they did not clear rebounds and turned the puck over numerous times. The blueline for the Blueshirts has been a negative all season long, and that starts with veterans Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival. It is sometimes embarrassing to watch this defensive group run around like a bunch of pee-wee's.

Things will not get easier from here as the Rangers will be hosting the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Goal scoring continues to be a problem on this team and is hurting them in a major way in the standings. At times tonight, I debated whether or not I should just head to bed to try and get rid of this viral bug, and after watching the 6-0 mess unfold, I regret not doing so.