Ontario and Maurice Richat weren’t enough: the Habs were their own undoing

Maxime Truman
Ontario and Maurice Richat weren’t enough: the Habs were their own undoing
Credit: The game could have been summed up by a coach’s challenge that changed everything and (yet again) Alex Newhook’s brilliance, but that’s not the case. What we’ll remember from Game 4 between the Sabres and the Canadiens is a glass panel that needs replacing, an anemic power play (especially during Bowen Byram’s four minutes), inconsistent […]

The game could have been summed up by a coach's challenge that changed everything and (yet again) Alex Newhook's brilliance, but that's not the case.

What we'll remember from Game 4 between the Sabres and the Canadiens is a glass panel that needs replacing, an anemic power play (especially during Bowen Byram's four minutes), inconsistent and incompetent referees, a stupid penalty by Jake Evans in the third period, and a team that got off to another bad start. It was 2-0 before Martin St-Louis took his challenge, and the Sabres were out-shooting the Canadiens 8-1!

Except that this morning, I clearly get the impression that both the players and the fans took Game 4 too lightly; we were already seeing ourselves up 3-1 in the series. We had counted our chickens before they hatched—written off the Sabres too soon. There was neither a sense of urgency nor a killer instinct among the Habs yesterday… and that sank the team.

I really feel like it was the Habs who lost by handing the game to the Sabres, rather than the Sabres playing a big game to come beat the Canadiens at home. I kept telling myself throughout the game: it looked like the Montreal players came out to play a regular-season game, not a playoff game. It looked like they weren't ready to suffer and that they therefore beat themselves.

You'll understand that I don't agree with Cole Caufield…

Please, stop saying that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was solid: he looked shaky in front of his net. It was the Montreal players who made his job easy by not shooting enough… and by firing weak shots from the blue line on the power play.

The result: the Canadiens and the Sabres will now face off in a best-of-three series with home-ice advantage going to the Americans.

At the end of the first period yesterday, the Canadiens had a 74% chance of advancing to the third round, according to Polymarket. This morning, it's 50-50.

A .500 team

For the past few weeks, the Canadiens have been a .500 team. Like, really .500!

Glass half empty: The Canadiens can't seem to string together wins.

Glass half full: The Canadiens haven't gone on a losing streak, knowing how to bounce back after every setback.

Montreal, Ontario

The Videotron Centre is likely to be packed tomorrow for the broadcast of Game #5. There must be a few former Nordiques players with heartache this morning or even turning in their graves, but oh well…

In Ontario, it's worse in my opinion.

The Niagara Falls were lit up in blue, white, and red, and Mark Carney recently called the Canadiens “Canada's team”… and that's perfectly fine: he is the Prime Minister of Canada. Except that Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, went and said “Go Habs!” yesterday! Now that's something!

Doug Ford blurted out those two words when he was accused of waging a fear campaign against Quebec.

Imagine if François Legault had started rooting for the Maple Leafs during his years as the province's leader. That would (really) not have gone over well!

At least Doug Ford didn't name his dog Maurice Richat.

Seriously, in what kind of world is an Ottawan naming his cat Maurice-Richat news?

It must get clicks, as they say. We've come to this…

Goal awarded, then disallowed: nearly identical sequence in the QMJHL

The goal that nobody saw, which was awarded, then challenged, then disallowed… you don't see that often in hockey.

Yet a nearly identical sequence occurred yesterday in Chicoutimi, except in that case, the goal was allowed, and it turned out to be the game-winner. It must be said that there was no ambiguity—and no interference—on the play:

I know I'm repeating myself, but when are they going to start embedding microchips in the center of game pucks?

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