| Game Thread- CANADIENS vs FLAMES ---19/01/06---

Johab · Guru

| Game Thread- CANADIENS vs FLAMES ---19/01/06---

SpiderManNL · Guru

SpiderManNL · Guru

-- Edited by SpiderManNL at 18:29, 2006-01-19

Jay1982 · Guru

Ryder needs to shoot more, he has the same # of goals as Iginla, however shoots way less. And Ignila is known as a goal scorer, Imagine how much more Ryder could do

barry33 · Guru

Jay1982 wrote:

Ryder needs to shoot more, he has the same # of goals as Iginla, however shoots way less. And Ignila is known as a goal scorer, Imagine how much more Ryder could do

You may see Ryder do that more now on the first line with Kovy and Koivu as set up men.

SpiderManNL · Guru

http://www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=4682

Game Preview: Canadiens vs. Flames

CALGARY – After two convincing home wins over San Jose and Dallas, the Canadiens hit the road for six, beginning tonight in Calgary. With two consecutive victories for the first time since Nov. 8 under their belts, Bob Gainey’s squad will look to snap a four-game road slide. The Canadiens have put the “power” into the power-play in their last two games, converting on three of seven opportunities against Dallas, and putting together a nearly-perfect effort against San Jose, going 4-for-5 with the man advantage.

The Flames will be well-rested when they take to the ice, having last played Saturday in Minnesota, where they closed out a four-game road trip with a 4-1 win over the Wild. With a 1-3 record on their road trip, Darryl Sutter’s charges are likely happy to be back at the Saddledome, where they’ve won four straight. Calgary is second in the league in goals-against (2.47) and has allowed just 44 goals in 22 home games this season. Runner-up for the Vezina Trophy in 2003-04, Miikka Kiprusoff is making his case once again, with a 16-3 record and a 1.73 goals-against average on home ice so far in 2005-06.

Tonight’s matchup is the only meeting between Montreal and Calgary this season. The teams split their two games in 2003-04, with each club winning on home ice.

Monday against the Stars, Jan Bulis assisted on both of Mike Ribeiro’s goals, extending his points streak to seven games. With three goals and eight assists during that stretch, the Czech forward will look to become the first Canadiens forward string together an eight-game point streak since Saku Koivu realized the feat from Dec. 28, 2002 through Jan. 13, 2003, tonight in Calgary.

Life begins at 30: In the win over Dallas, four Canadiens players reached the 30-point plateau this season, including Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder, Alex Kovalev and Andrei Markov. The quartet has now joined captain Saku Koivu, who picked up his 30th point Jan. 5 in New Jersey. With five players reaching the mark, Montreal finds itself in a select group in the Eastern Conference, with the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs all having at least five players with 30 points or more at this point of the season.

Road, sweet road: The start of the Canadiens’ current road swing marks the 11th time since the NHL’s major expansion in 1967-68 that the club has played at least six straight on opposing ice. Despite the long trip away from home, Montreal has come out on top more often than not. On five occasions, the team has won more games than they’ve lost, including in 1968-69, when the Canadiens played their first eight games of the season away from the Forum, posting a 6-1-1 record. The club has returned with a .500 record twice and has posted a losing record three times, including 2002-03 when they were held winless in seven straight on the road. Despite the empty win column, Montreal was able to pick up three points thanks to a tie and two overtime losses.

Tall order: On this road trip, the Canadiens will face five division leaders. Calgary and Vancouver share the lead in the Northwest Division, while Ottawa, Philadelphia and Carolina are atop their respective divisions; Toronto is third in the Northeast. All six clubs boast records above .500, but that hasn’t scared the Canadiens this season, as they are 15-11 in those meetings

Former Vezina Trophy winner Jose Theodore and 2004 runner-up Miikka Kiprusoff will go head-to-head tonight in Calgary.

Desi · Senior Member

The Road Trip from Hell starts tonight... or maybe it's the road trip TO Hell. Yes, Les Boys are playing with more urgency since BG brought his whip right behind the bench. (Can you believe that Hab players were actually going down to block shots vs. Dallas!!!???) But this road trip is going to hurt and there's not much anybody can do about it.

Calgary, Vancouver, Carolina, Philly -- these are all teams that have been better than ours all year long. They've been fighting hard all year, and are still fighting hard to get to the top. That's a different mentality than fighting to make the playoffs.

I expect that BG's kids will beat up on the Laffs when they get to Toronto -- that one's been coming for a long time and T-to is starting to play its usual Laffably bad hockey again of late. But these other games are going to be very tough to win or even take to OT.

It would be one thing if the Habs were solidly in 5th or 6th place in the conference as they should be (at worst) at this point in the season. Then the team could recover from a road trip like this and still have a chance to be playoff-bound. But I'm afraid there are losses on the horizon no mattter how well our newly motivated group of guys play.

If we can snag seven points out of the next six games, we'll be lucky. Our shots on goal have got to increase dramatically and it better start tonight or Kipro and the other netwminders we're about to go up against will shut us down but good.

God, I hope I'm wrong!

Les Canadiens Sont La

AB Habman · Guru

Hey Habs...look out for Phaneuf!!! The kid will hurt you!

This guy is smooth offensively and Scott Stevens tough defensively!

He's the steadiest and most solid D-man for years to come!

Jonny G · Senior Member

Any word on whether Zednik is suiting up?

Serge C · Newbie

He game time decision according to rds.

SpiderManNL · Guru

Habhead · Veteran Member

Well this should be an interesting test for BG and his Habs. The Canadiens have won only 1 of the past what, 12/13 road games? Calgary is a very good team, this is a real test for the Mtl tonight.

Go Habs!

Habtastic · Guru

I guess Souray got the extra penalty for punching him too hard? I wonder why McCarty didn't get an instigator penalty when he threw the initial elbow and taunted him. So far it is the refs who are deciding this game.

Habtastic

SpiderManNL · Guru

1st Intermission

Kevin Pollock 2 1

Shots on Goal: 12 5

Habhead · Veteran Member

Yup, pretty damn disgusting when the ref's have to screw up games like they have so far tonight. Good start for the Habs, they gotta play smart though, as it sure looks like the ref's are looking for anything to call against Mtl.

davidb · Guru

Say what you want, but Souray knows markov is out so why would he risk getting a penalty anyway. That is just my general though since i was not able to see the first period so I do not know what instigated the penalty

SpiderManNL · Guru

Flames lead 3-1 after two periods of play.

davidb · Guru

Well we tried hard but to no avail. This is a very long hard road trip. I wanted as many of the 12 pts as we could get. I dare say it does not look good considering the schedule. We are now in the fight for a playoff spot. Boston won again and they are moving up. However, if the coaches can get them up for th next game that would be a plus. I have one question Did anyone else notice that one minute ribs is out with his line. The next minute hes out there with Saku. What line is he on?? Was he staying out late again??

Positives :Theo made some good saves, Streit played well

I think we could have taken this game if not for their PP

plouf · Guru

davidb wrote:

Say what you want, but Souray knows markov is out so why would he risk getting a penalty anyway. That is just my general though since i was not able to see the first period so I do not know what instigated the penalty

Good point. Definitely a dumb penalty by Souray.

Desi · Senior Member

davidb wrote:

Streit played well

Streit did look better than his usual inept self for most of the game, but you may have noticed that on the all-important third goal against, it was Streit who was standing in the crease with Theo's stick wrapped around his legs, preventing Theo from using it to stop the shot from the Calgary player — to whom Streit's backwas turned...

Les Canadiens Sont La