The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

For those that missed the Bruins/Canadiens game tonight, you missed, without hyperbole, probably the best game of the season to date.

Despite being an essentially meaningless mid-January game (insofar as the Bruins and Habs ain’t exactly jockeying for position in the standings), this matchup had all the drama, pace and excitement of last year’s outstanding playoff series. The Garden was packed and rocking from the time the first puck dropped to the final whistle when the Bruins emerged with a fairly convincing 3-1 victory over the hated and red-hot Habs.

Tim Thomas and Jaroslav Halak were both outstanding, making 34 and 26 saves respectively, but the true star of the game was Zdeno Chara, whose big, power play point shot beat Halak twice and who ate up nearly 32 minutes of ice time for Boston.

There was a fight, pretty little passing plays and there were hits. Lots of hits. On paper, the Habs actually won the physical battle, outhitting the Bruins 28-23 thanks to Mike Komisarek’s ridiculous 11 checks.

I don’t know if there’s a way to watch the entire game online through some kind of NHL game archive, but this is a game you need to see. It was so good that even Jack Edwards was tolerable.

If this had been Game 7 of a late-round playoff series, people would be raving about this game for years to come.

Elsewhere…

New York Rangers 2, New York Islanders 1

In September, could you have imagined a world in which Rangers fans would be actively happy to eke out a 2-1 win over the worst team in hockey? It’s totally crazy. P.S. The Rangers gave up 34 shots to the Islanders let’s point and laugh at them now.

Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2

Evgeni Malkin has three more goals this season than Jordan Staal. Malkin’s got 17, Staal has 14. I don’t know if that’s good for Staal or bad for Malkin or both. Seems like both, doesn’t it? Does this win, by the way, mean that everyone gets to keep their job one more day or is it (hopefully) like that Chicago situation from earlier this year where they won and Denis Savard still got tossed out on his ass?

Edmonton 5, Washington 2

Look at all these rivalry matchups! Boston/Montreal, New York/New York (the rivalry so nice they named it twice), Battle of Pennsylvania and of course the fabled Edmonton/Washington rivalry. Good to see the NHL keep it going. And f’n Jose Theodore, man. I figured he’d be good for a couple fantasy hockey wins if nothing else, but this BUM can’t give up less than five goals to the freakin’ Oilers. Memo to Jose: Get your Propecia-takin’ ass the hell outta my fantasy roster. You are no longer welcome.

Columbus 4, Colorado 3

Steve Mason’s really in the weeds now. Cancel the Calder Trophy engraving. He almost got outdueled by Andrew Raycroft in a 4-3 game. He gave up a goal to Chris Stewart. He probably doesn’t even know who that IS! What’s more surprising, though, is that the Jackets were able to score four goals without help from either Rick Nash or Nikita Filatov. Hey, speaking of Nikita Filatov, whatever happened to that guy the Bolts had Nikita Alexeev? Wasn’t he like a first-round pick or something? He always used to turn out good a few years down the line in like NHL2003. Okay, that’s enough about this stupid game and how it barely tangentially relates to video game hockey prospects.

Nashville 2, Toronto 0

Steve Sullivan got his first assist after returning from a back injury which kept him off the ice since the time of Christ. The Leafs really went out of their way to keep Pekka Rinne busy, too. A whopping 17 shots in the shutout. Jeepers.

Ottawa 5, Carolina 1

Imagine my surprise when I found out that not only had this game taken place, but the Senators (or, if you’re like me and lack the ability to type, “Sentaros”) had won, AND done so handily. Was there anyone that wasn’t on either team that was aware this game was taking place tonight? Certainly not me, and I consider myself fairly plugged-in to this whole hockey thing. Nicklas Wallin and Matt Cullen were both -3. Keep reaching for that rainbow, boys.

Minnesota 6, Phoenix 3

Had an interesting conversation about this game, kinda. My friend Mike said that Phoenix struck him as an eminently likeable team and he was sad that they were a failure both financially and on the ice (I’m paraphrasing). I had to agree. Apart from Ed Jovanovski there isn’t a single player on the Coyote roster for whom I have any great dislike. That’s a considerable accomplishment. Also Mike informed me that Derek Morris is wildly popular among Phoenix fans. I can’t imagine why that would be.

Calgary 3, St. Louis 1

Another barnburner in the vein of that Montreal/Boston game (don’t believe me? Lookit the photos!). These teams flat don’t like eachother. Makes for fun hockey to watch, let me tell you. Mike Cammalleri, by the way, is a beast. Not to be trifled with. Too bad he’s not going to re-sign in Calgary.

New Jersey 5, Vancouver 3

When the hell did Alex Burrows get to 10 goals already? Are we really living in a universe in which Alex Burrows is on pace for 20 goals? Jesus. Oddly, the game’s only goalscorer who is not in double-digits as far as goals go was Brian Rolston, who has eight. I found that interesting. ‘Course, Rolston’s only played 25 games so what’s that? Like a 30-goal pace for him if he’d played a full 82? He’s one of those guys everyone takes for granted, I think. You never hear about Brian Rolston and you should. He’s pretty rad.

San Jose 7, Tampa Bay 1

Yeah that sounds just about right. Funny story: Steven Stamkos scored the only Tampa goal and finished the game a plus-1. Weird how things work out.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 4:51 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.