Price (25 saves) made five tough saves on a Blueshirts two-man advantage late in the second period, followed by a stretching glove save across crease on Rick Nash shortly after, to send the Bell Centre into bedlam in disappointing but entertaining 3-0 Rangers loss to the undefeated Canadiens.
Advertisement
Montreal Canadiens’ Tomas Fleischmann (15) scores on Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist as Rangers Dan Boyle defends during the second period Thursday, October 15, 2015 in Montreal.
“You can pick any night, any game so far, and Hanky given us a chance to win”, said No. 61, still scoreless on the season despite an admirable work ethic.
The parade to the penalty box started early in this game for both teams as the Rangers and Canadiens combined for six total penalties in the opening 10 minutes. While they enjoy the milestone the Canadiens will get ready to host the Detroit Red Wings who like them, are on a similar winning streak and will try to break that and much more on Saturday. Coach Alain Vigneault shuffled his lines in the third, moving Nash off the Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello unit onto the line with Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan.
Price has been all-but unbeatable at home against the Rangers, posting a 9-1-1 record in their last 11 visits, allowing only nine goals. They outplayed us in every area of the game.
There was playoff-like speed and intensity in the meeting of last season’s two top regular season clubs.
“(The start) is rewarding, but I’m more happy about the way the team’s playing.
“It was a high-level match, like a game in April”, Montreal coach Michel Therrien said.
“I don’t really celebrate (goals), but I did this time because 20,000 people got me going”, said Fleishmann, who scored his first goal as a Canadien Tuesday in Pittsburgh. David Desharnais kept a puck in at the blue line and then saw his shot go off Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The Swede then kept the Rangers in the game in the third by stopping Brian Flynn on a breakaway and robbing a wide-open Desharnais from close range.
Montreal has been on fire out of the gate and has been a team that’s owned the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre. Fleischmann batted the bouncing puck past Henrik Lundqvist on the shot side.
The penalties continued in the second period as both teams traded power play opportunities once again, but nothing came of the chances.
“Once again the Rangers played very well”, said Price. After the goal, New York went and pulled Lundqvist from the net but in their desperate attempts, the sixth man went against them as Tomas Plekanec scored his fourth on the empty that ultimately gave Montreal a new record in their long standing history. “That’s an excellent hockey club over there”. “It’s not that we didn’t want to last season, but we hadn’t reached that step yet as a team”.
While the Habs has a successful home opener and made a few history, the PP problems we’ve seen all previous year just seems to keep getting worse, or maybe it’s the same but feels just as bad.
Advertisement
Hockey players may be fans of the game and many of their peers, but they also watch what happens on the ice more closely than the average punter.
