It was as though I was watching the Habs from last year.  Go, go, go for the first bit of the first period, and then effort and time in the attacking zone dropped way off.  With 6 minuntes gone in the third, the Habs were being outshot 31 - 19 and it didn't get a whole lot better from there.  I'm not sure what the final SOG were, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 40 something to 25 or 26. 

For a while, it looked as though only Price had shown up for tonight's game, and then he went away.  Oh, final score was TO 6 - Habs 5 in OT.  I have to say that 4 of the six were quite savable (is that even a word?  It is tonight).  He seemed to have caught a common ailment for Canadiens goalies, "Parishiltonitis".  Dropping to knees as fast as possible.

Like I said, the Habs started off great.  They were digging in corners and along the boards, hustling back into defensive zone, making crisp passes.  All of a sudden, their energy dropped right off the map.  Sure, they scored 5 goals, but the goals were just brief moments of brilliance.  I was quite surprised to see so many of the players appear as though they showed up to camp out of shape, absolutely no endurance.

Some of the notables:

Grabovsky:  Hat trick.  He was the one that really showed moments of brilliance.  Each of his goals was different.  One break-a-way where he was hooked, but managed to score anyway.  One where he just cut to the net and was able to move in and score a dandy.  The other some would call a garbage goal.  I don't, I call it an opportunistic goal, he followed his teammate to the net, and hammered in the rebound.  He wasn't however very quick in getting to defensive coverage, you know, the coast into your own zone style that we may have seen on the Habs before.  All in all, he looked good, but definately not in the NHL this year.

Latendresse:  He was the guy back in OT when the Buds scored the winner.  He played the 2 on 1 well, he took away the pass twice, before Earl scored an opportunistic goal(see above).  Problem was, it wasn't a 2 on 1, it was a 2 on 2 and he could have taken the shooter, he just didn't have eyes in the back of his head to see his teammate.  He didn't do anything to stand out tonight, good or bad.  Did not show he was capable of NHL this year.

O'Byrne:  If this guy is going to play in the NHL, he needs to put on some bulk.  He is shaped like Chara (not quite as tall) but doesn't seem to have the strength to match.  A lot of smaller guys were quite willing to mix it up with him and wound up pushing him around in the corners.

Chipchura:  Another guy that really didn't do anything to stand out.  Not quite what you would expect from the guy that was wearing the 'C' (don't do it Ando).  Played on the PP and PK (I think he was first line PP and second line PK, correct me if I'm wrong).

Price:  Like I said, he seemed to be down way too early on at least 3 goals.  However, in the third, he was showing some speed, as his team was allowing the Leafs to tee it up at will.  He was getting square to shooters (like we saw Huet do last season) and cutting down angles.

Picard-Hooper:  This guy brings up a question I've had for quite some time.  As I said in a previous post, he had 100 points last year in the Q.  Sounds like a real point getter, right?  He played fourth line tonight, and saw most (I think most) of his time on PK.  Why is it that some guys, regardless of their talents (ie. scoring) get pidgeon holed into being a role player?  I am thinking of the likes of Steve Begin.

Gleed:  He was the first one I noticed the fatigue in.  He got burned for a couple of opportunities, I don't know if he stayed on too long, or couldn't get off the ice (let the coaching staff decide that), but he had some tired legs.

Over all, I thought they didn't look too good and no one showed they were ready to make the jump, but in fairness, they only got together for physicals on the 8th, and 1 practice on the 9th before playing a full fledged game later on the 9th.  It is only one game, a scrimmage at that.  Also, there were a lot of penalties called both ways, so it was difficult to get any rythm going.  The really strange thing was that 4 or 5 penalties would be called against one team in a row, then the other team would get 3 or 4 called against them.  It didn't matter what time of the game, or how many were in the box.

Before everyone thinks that I only want to dump on these guys, there is more.  My sons and I were sitting front row, beside the door where the Zamboni and the Habs entered and exited the ice.  We were fortunate enough to make our way to where the players went to get on the bus.  Every single guy that my oldest was able to ask signed an autograph (15 in all - Price, Chipchura, Kostisyn, hell Grabovski even signed the book right after he went out for the second star announcement).  The highlight was all three of them getting their jerseys signed in permanent marker by Kirk Muller and Guy Carbonneau.  I wasn't able to get many photos, long story, and the ones I do have have to be developed (FILM?!?!!?! what the hell is film?!???), but I do have some decent ones and I will post them when I get a chance.