THE COB WEBS ARE OFF

OK so the goaltending did not live up to its hype. Concern? Problem? Not at all. As Carb put it so perfectly last night, it is more than normal that both goaltenders wee a bit edgy and nervous. Price has had all this media attention and expectations, whilst Halak was outperforming everyone in training camp and no one was talking about him.

In my opinion it is blessing in disguise that the “heebee geebeezz” got left on the ice last night. Now they can get back to doing what they do best.

Remember the epic moment in Rocket Richard’s career when the team pulled in to New York after being notified that the home team would ensure Maurice would leave the game in a stretcher. He took matters into his own hands and made a clear statement that “we will not be pushed around”. Well I couldn’t help but think of that event when I watched Latandresse cream a Pens jersey on to the boards behind their net, following a head hunter hit on him in his previous shift. Not that I comparing a grand and majestic moment in Rocket’s career to a pre-season game event, but the attitude Guillaume brought to the ice last night shows a promises that the upcoming young corp might provide this attitude of “not being physically intimidated” to a team who has desperately lacked it in the past decade or more. I’m not advocating having goons on a team to push the other guys around, but a clean retaliation like the one Guillaume dished out following a shoulder to the head will make a team think twice about getting into a physical battle with our HABS. As we all know this has been a down fall for our team, and last year we lost most of our games when the opposing team was fore-checking hard and hitting our D behind the net. If Latandresse, Cote, Lapierre, Begin, Komisarek, and others begin to lay a few solid and legal hits in response, I recon any offence will be more hesitant in entering the game with a sense of physical superiority resulting in less confidence. Like Kirk always like to yell across the ice “STOP AND GO BOYS!! STOP AND GO!!”