Habs Run Into A Hot Tender-Bolts 3, Habs 1

The story of the game was lots of chances, yet only 1 goal. The Canadiens came out on the losing end of a 3-1 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Antero Nittymaki was stellar in goal for the Bolts stopping 36 shots. The Habs fell behind early and went into the first intermission down by 2. Despite dominating the 2nd and 3rd periods, outshooting the Lightning 30 to 11 over that time, the Canadiens could only put 1 by Nittymaki, a power play goal by Brian Gionta in the 2nd. The Lightning restored the 2 goal lead late in the middle frame and held on for dear life in the 3rd. Carey Price stopped 18 shots in the Canadiens goal. CBC mouthpiece Greg Millen thought the Bolts played just a bit better than the Habs on this night...wow....just wow. Maybe I was watching a different game. Don Cherry then was ranting about Big Tits knocking 2 Bolts to the ice during a race to a puck on an icing. Both Tits and Walker of the Lightning hit each other, Tits was just stronger. Get a life Cherry, you too Mclean (who said he could have killed both guys). Maybe they should have "protected themselves" just like Mclean said players need to do on the hot stove. The Canadiens killed 2 of 3 Lightning PP's and scored on their SINGLE PP opportunity. Regardless, TB won. Some other thoughts:

>Newcomer Ryan White moved onto a line with Pleks and Tits after period 1. All 3 played well. Lappy and Lats were demoted after starting the game with Pleks and didn't see the ice in the 3rd.

>Metro, Pacs and Moen played hard again, had lots of chances but nothing to show for it.

>The defence was pretty good, but overall everyone (forwards included) could have done a better job at getting the puck out....again. Hitting the net with point shots is also something that needs work.

>Pleks was in Vinny Lecav's face all night, I loved it. Crowd was booing him as well, nice to see them giving him some normal opposition treatment.

With the loss the Habs drop back below .500 at 8-9. Just needed to put away some of their many chances to win this one. The Silver Wolf Whiskey Hab of the Game tonight goes to Glen Metropolit. Metro had a great game, lots of good chances and solid as usual in his own end. Consideration was also given to Gomez and Moen. The Flames invade the Bell Centre on Tuesday. It will be a tough one, but hopefully they can get a win.