Hard to take...

Well it wasn't a blow-out like I thought it might be. The Canadiens have been playing very well and the Islanders have been on a losing streak. I thought that there was a chance that these circumstances could collide and the result could be ugly. I was wrong.



For some reason though, I don't take a whole lot of comfort in that.

It's not that I wish that the result had been lopsided - that would be weird. I don't think though, that a blow-out would have hurt like that game did on Saturday. I mean they were playing great. They scored some really nice goals. Nielsen's goal was awesome! They were up by three in the third for crying out loud!



Then it all fell apart like a kid's magic act. We're left to applaud the effort but no one was fooled. Least of all the Habs. They kept coming - confidently, persistently, and they got the result. They got a little lucky for sure. Higgins' goal, where he got left all alone in front, resulted from a couple of strange bounces that had all the Islander defenders looking at the puck and not at the man in the slot, and the winning goal went in off a defenceman's (Pock I believe) skate but it was sickening nonetheless.



It's another hard loss to take for a young team trying to find it's way but on the bright side Scott Gordon (aka the GATE keeper - see previous post), will have no problem finding positives and avoiding the 'captivity of negativity'. They really played well in the first two periods and no doubt Gordon will focus on that. Sooner or later though you figure he's just going to lose it from sheer frustration if they keep losing close games like this.



Of course this is all made worse by the fact that it was the Habs that came back to win. There is nothing worse than a Habs fan in all of sports - especially when their team is good.

Saturday was made worse by the announcement that Rick Dipietro will be out 4-6 weeks after having surgery on his knee. DP's leadership will be missed just as much as his minutes, if not more.

NFI