Once again, I preamble this with an apology for my absence. This is what happens when you get sent on travel for your work and are supplied with a laptop that is so security-restricted that it disallows any logon onto any Internet site that requires a login (as my blog does). A buddy of mine could probably crack through that. I personally have no idea how to do that.



So here's my delayed Montreal game opinion, with 20/20 hindsight, having had the chance to check other blogs and the press. People are being really hard on the Sens who tried everything against Montreal short of throwing spit balls. I have to give it to the Habs, they shut us down but good, and Halak was marvelous for them in nets. Not only was he great (against Peter Regin, for example), he was also lucky. Daniel Alfredsson, who beat Halak fair and square is probably still wondering how that one didn't go in.

Not so hot was the defensive play and goaltending. The Sens allowed too many goals for the number of shots on net the Habs got. For once, Brian Elliott  was out of the blue paint and challenging, only at the wrong time, which allowed the cross ice pass and the Cammalleri goal. Although he couldn;t do much on the double-redirect of the Bergeron goal, he did allow a gigantic and perfectly misplaced rebound on Bergeron which permitted the Kostitsyn goal.  Filip Kuba made a disastrously lackadaisical attempt to break out of the zone with the net empty and got robbed. Erik Karlsson was a totoal and unequivocal non-entity. I have to echo what's being said everywhere else: what the f*ck were they thinking bringing him up from Bingo and sending Brian Lee back down?

The Sens seem to remain a lukewarm defensive team at best. But, you couldn't ask for much better offense with 46 shots on goal, not counting all the ones that were blocked by a superbly positioned Habs defense. In the end, the Canadiens put up a wall, and all the Sens' weapons weren't enough to breach it.