No Title Will Do That Beating Justice-Preds 2, Habs 0

I often wondered what it would be like to see 1 team out hustle, out muscle and out think another team for a whole game at the NHL level. Tonight was probably the closest I will come to seeing that. The Nashville Predators dominated from the opening faceoff and came away with a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens. If this was the Penguins or the Wings or the Sharks, you can see them getting outplayed by a top team. But the Preds, wow, just wow. I am usually a pretty positive guy about my Habs, hence the name of the blog. I can take mistakes, those happen. But when a team shows no effort, no hustle and no fight for a whole game, that is unacceptable. I would say every Predator outworked every Hab tonight, with the exception of the goalie. The rest of his teammates should be buying Carey Price drinks and giving him back rubs all the way home for putting him through that massacre. Price was unreal, stopping 53 shots, including 23 of 24 in the 1st alone. Pekka Rinne made 20 saves, and I can't believe the Canadiens got that many shots. The Habs were only down by a goal until the Preds capitalized on a 5 on 3 with just over 7 minutes to go in the game. Brian Gionta did not play, meaning Lats was back in after being announced as a healthy scratch. Some other thoughts before I go pour a stiff drink:

>Without Gionta, Ryan White played with Gomez and Cammalleri. Listen Martin, White is a 3rd line player, put a guy with a little more skill on the big line for the love of god (nothing against White, but he was a little behind the play with those 2).

>The defence turned the puck over many, many, many times. Gorges had probably his worst game I have ever seen and Spacek wasn't much better.

>The whole team got beat to pretty much every puck. The rare instances when they were able to get it out of the defensive zone, it was usually turned over in the neutral zone instead.

So that is that. Probably the worst game I have seen my Canadiens play in....well.....it might be ever. Other than Price, there were no bright spots in white jerseys tonight. The Silver Wolf Whiskey Hab of the Game goes to Carey Price. Not much more to say, he stopped breakaways, 2 on 1's, point blank chances...you name it. No real honorable mentions but I feel obligated to give them out since I have in every blog up until this time. So I will say Moen and Mara weren't as bad as the rest. Next up, the Canes on Tuesday. Things can't go any worse than they did tonight....right......right?!?!?