Good morning MN-Nation. I presume all is well is HABS land today and we're all starting the day with smiles ear to ear (cue the Viagra "good morning" song...not for the same reason obviously...well maybe for some :D)
Three games on the road to start the season, and we accumulate 5/6 points. Not too bad in my books. Furthermore, Price has made his debut in the NHL...and what a debut it was. The first goal scored on him wasn't his fault and should not have counted and the second goal was an NHL calibre play and shot. He kept us in the game during the first where the Pens (rightfully so) bombarded the poor kid long and early to shake him up. And finally, he won the game for us by pulling out the "No Admittance" sign in net for the later stages of the third (something Huet was unfortunately incapable of doing in TO). Price showed us that his skills and bag of tricks extends across the whole spectrum of a net minder’s duties by stick handling the puck behind the net to help his defensemen. This effectively changed our slow, fragile and often costly transition play into a lightning fast and efficient exit out of our zone, with 2 or 3 opposing jerseys stuck behind the play, leading to beautiful scoring chances.
Fleury on the other hand seemed to be playing solid as well. However shots from his left seemed to be thrice as hard to stop (first two goals were undeflected shots from his left). I hope the coaching staff made a note of that giant gaping hole on for next time.
Speaking of giant holes, let us talk about the refs quickly. I'm not even going to get into all the missed high sticking calls against the Pens, but let's get straight to the nasty stuff. The first goal against price was scored with Sydney Crosby dry humping him on the on the opposite side of the net. How is it that a penalty was not awarded for that! He was tapped by Hamrlik and went straight at the goalie, never ever making an attempt to avoid Price. Unless I forgot to take my brain medicine and was hallucinating on Saturday, I thought Plecks got a penalty for being pushed into Toskala, even though he clearly tried to avoid the goalie at a cost of running into the net. This was a major failure on the part of the refs, and yet another VIP pass for
One more honorable mention goes to Higgins. Poor guy did everything but score. As long as he keeps his work attitude and intensity up (and there is no reason to assume he will not), he'll keep getting his chances and will score his fair share.
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