A week ago, the Habs were finishing off an 8 game win streak which inflated people's perceptions as to how good the team is and how far they could go in the post season. Those victories came predominately at the expense of non playoff teams. Since then the Habs have lost 3 of 4 to playoff teams. The Habs are building in the right direction, but this team at present fully deserves its 14th position out of 30 teams.

     45 shots on goal and only 2 goals to show for it. Once again the pop gun nature of the Habs offense was on display. The Canadiens forwards have a talent for making opposition goalies look good, in part because the team does not have a game breaker, like a Kovalchuk, etc etc. In the last minute,Souray was employed as a forward and that was because the Canadiens are lacking a power forward.

     The Sabres could go deep into the playoffs because they have some qualities the Habs don't: a balanced attack from three lines. In fact the Sabres third line of Afineganov,Connelly and Kotalik dominated the Habs. Jay McKee is a shot blocking machine on defense which nullifed many of the Habs chances.

     The Canadiens got themselves back into playoff contention mainly due to Huet's great goaltending, not because of an abundance of talent in other positions. The Habs have some good young talent but the team has holes to plug. To blame Gainey for his decision to use Abby last night and thus jeopradize the teams playoff chances is not looking at the bigger picture. At present there is a reson why the Habs have the 14th best record in the league, they are still two to three quality players away from creating noise in the playoffs.