Montreal Canadiens–New York Islanders: No Luck for Habs

O’Byrne's goof was only one of the most obvious mistakes in many games to come. But, unsurprisingly, there were many other mishaps which did not favour the Montreal Canadiens last night in their shootout loss against the newly born New York Islanders. Here is my take on this game where many good things failed to come our way.

Very Lucky First

Right off the bat, the Canadiens allowed the first goal to be scored against them on power play, the 10th time this season.  Not a good sign.

17 seconds later, Steve Bégin pounced on a lose puck coming from Joey MacDonald’s big rebound. The fourth line was solid and looked like they were not improvising at all, they did what was asked of them. In addition, the slapshot by Josh Gorges for a goal with the man advantage was lucky enough to escape everyone and end up in the end of the net. Okay, so after that everything should have shaped up well...right? Right...only until the end of the period.

Unlucky second...

The referee Chris Lee was quite special. He called "almost" fairly to both sides although a little late sometimes. But the biggest mistake he made was to blow the whistle to early thinking that Joey McDonald froze the puck when it was clearly lose. Had that been fair, Andrei Kostitsyn’s goal would have been legitimate. The first event that showed the unluckiness of the Habs.

O'Byrne's lucky third

Ryan O'byrne's first goal in a Montreal Canadiens uniform was a beauty (sarcastically speaking!). A nice shot directed right at the net and it went in. The crowd was going nuts. Not because they were happy but because it was towards Carey Price’s net that he took the shot.  The 24-year-old’s inability to follow the play and recognize the delayed penalty. I mean...it was a blind pass but when you do not see everyone coming back to defense, a light should go off in your head. Unfortunately, the short lapse of time lead to an stupid and avoidable mistake.

Unbelievable overtime

Unbelievable is the right word. For the number of open nets and chances the Canadiens missed in the five-minute sudden death. Alexei Kovalev was in front of Joey MacDonald, who, once again, gave up a BIG rebound. So much for being a star player, Kovy could not bury it and did not strike the right corner (he preferred the middle for some reason)Next, it was Andrei Markov’s turn to screw up. Literally! With the commendable shot that he has, Markov was maybe a meter away from the crease and decided to try and make a pass  instead of shooting. Result: giveaway!

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