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Carey Price appeared human for the first time since trade deadline…well actually a little less than human as the San Jose Sharks picked him apart from the opening minute until the closing one. Patrick Marleau opened the scoring just 56 seconds into the game. Marleau turned the puck up ice and worked a give and go with Devin Setoguchi, which made Mike Komisarek and Andrei Markov look like a pair of pylons. Price will still shoulder some of the blame as the Marleau shot was definitely of the stoppable variety. Less than 90 seconds later Montreal equalized as Tomas Plekanec gathered the rebound of a shot taken by Andrei Kostitsyn. 24 seconds later the Sharks re-took the lead as Joe Thornton banked in his 18th of the season off the back of Carey Price whom was lying prone on the ice thanks to Bryan Smolinski.
Shortly after the Canadiens 2nd power play expired Ryan O’Byrne scored his first NHL goal leaving Josh Gorges as the only Canadiens player to have not scored this season.
At the 3:38 mark of the second period the Canadiens headed to their 3rd power play of the evening; unfortunately just a minute later they would find themselves attempting to kill a 4 on 3. Lady luck appeared to be on the Habs side early on as a Joe Thornton shot which eluded Price sat on the goal line for what seemed like hours was flicked away at the last second by Roman Hamrlik, but as luck comes it also goes just 5 seconds later the puck was back on Thornton’s stick and promptly deposited into the back of the net. Plekanec and Jody Shelley nick named “007” traded late goals to close out the 2nd period.
3:25 into the 3rd period Gorges got his pants wrapped around his ankles by Jonathan Cheechoo who went top corner for just his 20th goal of the season. The former Rocket Richard trophy winner his slumped all season long. Less than a minute later Maxim Lapierre gave the Canadiens some false hope scoring his 6th of the season.
Three goats of the game.
1. Carey Price – after 3 wins in a row he just did not have his “A” game if he even has an average game the Habs win for sure.
2. The entire defensive group excluding the Hamrlik O’Byrne paring- they just were not in the game Markov and Komisarek looked like Bryan McCabe.
3. Bryan Smolinski – how has this guy stuck in the line up over Kyle Chipchura?
Fun Facts
1. San Jose has won 4 consecutive home games against the Canadiens.
2. Tomas Plekanec had his 5th multi goal game of the season last year he had only 3, it was also the 19th multi point game of the season for him last year he amassed just 9.
3. The Sharks have only score 6 goals one other time this year (against Phoenix, on November 15th)
