I thought Boston played a better game and should have won. Montreal wasn't skating, especially the first two lines. The habs top lines didn't seem to capatilize on the elimination of the red line. They played the same style up along the boards and dump it in. Which results in the habs having less puck possession and resulted in them not controlling the game. I thought the 3rd and 4th line played a good game and Jose Theodore had a great game. I thought Boston played a discipline game until the end of third period, my opinion was that Boston tried to play a little more agressive with the thought that the ref wouldn't call the penalty. (i.e. During the critical points like overtime, end of the third period, playoffs before the ref wouldn't have called some many penalties and would let the players decide. But with the new rules that didn't work.)
If the habs want to score more goals and win more games they have to have more possession of the puck especially in the neutral zone and carry it in to the opposition zone).
Nice analysis of the game. I can't disagree with you. The habs need to make use of their speed but it looked like the new rules haven't helped the habs as they are the ones hooking and grabbing. Julien needs to make sure he coaches with the New NHL in mind not the old NHL...
Some wins are going to be ugly. Let's hope that we learn from this. Expect it to take 4-6 weeks for most teams to really get a grip of the new rules. I mean, we're talking about changing the way they've played since they were kids. It's up to the coach to drive that home. So, my question is do we trust CJ as the guy to get this ship sailing?
Unfortunately only the Rangers@Flyers game was telecasted here in Switzerland. Did the Habs really play that bad? Seems to be a lucky win! What did happen to Zednik? Something severe? Btw. the Rangers played damned good, came back from a 1-3 to win 5-3, Jagr outstanding, and Hossa scored the last goal ....