This NHL is really pumping out its “History will be made” commercials and promos right now. Fleury’s “History Stops Everything” after his shutout in game 1 against the Bolts was good. But James Neal has now gotten one just because he finally scored a goal. What a reward! Come on, not that I am not happy for Neal for salvaging game 4 in double OT, but has Double AA, Arron Asham, aka The Chief, who has already scored 3 goals and tallied an assist gotten a commercial yet? How about Tyler, that’s Mister Kennedy to you, Kennedy who has 2 goals and help carry the team down the stretch? What about these guys?

Anyway, congrats to Neal. Take a look at his commercial. Now here’s hoping he fills the net a little more in coming games.

This NHL is really pumping out its “History will be made” commercials and promos right now. Fleury’s “History Stops Everything” after his shutout in game 1 against the Bolts was good. But James Neal has now gotten one just because he finally scored a goal. What a reward! Come on, not that I am not happy for Neal for salvaging game 4 in double OT, but has Double AA, Arron Asham, aka The Chief, who has already scored 3 goals and tallied an assist gotten a commercial yet? How about Tyler, that’s Mister Kennedy to you, Kennedy who has 2 goals and help carry the team down the stretch? What about these guys?

Anyway, congrats to Neal. Take a look at his commercial. Now here’s hoping he fills the net a little more in coming games.

Messaged delivered to the Montreal Canadiens – the Pittsburgh Penguins are not the Washington Capitals.  Everything about game 1 last night at the old Igloo was a contrast to how the Canadiens had succeeded to down the “best” team in the NHL.  At least the “best” team based on record anyway.

In their previous series the Canaidens blocked shots, shut down the power play and Jaroslav Halak stoned the Caps to rebound from a deficit of three games to one and win the series.  Last night however the Penguins were methodical in their shot selection, picked the canadiens apart on the power play and chased Halak from the net.  Although it did not start out that way.

PK Subban (1) scored not even five minutes into the game to give Montreal a 1-0 lead and Canadiens fans were over joyed.  But the Penguins took control by picked apart the Habs defense, drawing penalties and converting on the chances they were given on the power play.  Gonchar (1), Staal (2) and Letang (3) each scored with the man advantage in the first and second period to put the Penguins up 3-1.

Michael Cammalleri (6) cut the deficit to one late in the second but Craig Adams (2) extended the score to 4-2 even later in the same period taking a pass from Pascal Dupuis across the front of the net and beating Halak.  Alex Goligoski (2) added yet another power play goal early in the third to make it 5-2 and chase Halak from net in favor of Carey Price.  Price made several saves and the Penguins missed golden opportunities to stretch the lead even further before Brian Gionta (3) scored for Montreal on the power play to make it a 5-3 contest.

Late it was Billy Guerin (3) putting in an empty net goal to end it all at 6-3.

The game was a wake-up call for the Canadiens who basically had their way with a high powered Capitals lineup previously.  But the game should not be taken in and of itself that this series will be a cake walk for the Penguins either.  Montreal did not succeed in shutting down the Pens in game 1 but game 2 will tell whether or not Montreal learns from the experience and adjusts.

Marc-Andre Fleury was able to hold down the fort with several great saves at times against the Canadiens and had any of those found the net this game could have been a lot different.  In fact Montreal out shot the Penguins 31-24 on the night and netted 12 shots in both the second and third periods; way too many.  Pittsburgh will have to hone its defense to prevent that from happening again.  But they may have to do so without Jordan Staal who is as far as I am concerned the premier shut down center in the NHL.  Staal was injured in a collision with Montreal’s PK Subban.  Staal hobbled to the bench and later left the arena on crutches.  As of this morning the injury was still undisclosed as nothing other than a lower body injury.

Notes:

Where was the Penguins power play during the regular season?  Last night was just another dominating perfromance for a unit that couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of the barn during the regular season.  The power play went 4 for 4 in game one against Montreal.

Three of Pittsburgh’s four power play goals were scored by their blue liners.

Jaroslav Halak faced only five shots when the Canadiens were down a man.  He stopped only one.  Marc-Andre Fleury also faced five shots on the penalty kill.  He stopped four.

Jordan Staal logged 8:49 of playing time before being injured with one goal and was a -1.

The Penguins scored six goals.  Each goal was scored by a different player.  Crosby and Malkin had none of them but had two assists and one assist respectively.

Three games ago the Capitals were in command of their series against the Montreal Canadiens leading three games to one.  Tonight they are thinking about what tee times they would like to start setting as they lose to the eighth seed in the east four games to three.  Jaroslav Halak shut down Alexander Ovechkin and Washington while shining in net behind a Montreal defense that blocked shot after shot.

Both teams had goals waved off.  For Washington a potential goal that would have tied the game at one was ruled no good after Halak was interfered with.  For Montreal a goal that would have made it 2-0 was called back.  But in the end the long and short of it is that Washington could not find ways to score needing only one win to close out the series and the Capitals folded earning them a new nickname in my book – the Washington Collapsibles.  The team with the best record simply could not finish off an underpowered Montreal squad that limped into the playoffs.

Despite being out shot 42-16 the Canadiens netted the only two goals of the game as Marc-Andre Bergeron (1) and Dominic Moore (2) scored.  The win sets up a second round match up versus the Pittsburgh Penguins and bringing up questions about whether or not Montreal can shut down a Penguins team much deeper than Washington.  Ottawa proved that they could do it sporadically but not over the course of a full series.

Game 1 between the Penguins and Habs will be Friday night and a quick turn around for Montreal while Pittsburgh has been off since last Saturday.  Whether or not Montreal can be giant killers yet again remains to be seen.