Carbonneau obviously consulted a season's woth of domes to figure out his first line. Over the season, the Higgins, Koivu, Kovalev combination won out for the honours.
My player of the game was Higgins. He takes the lead from Koivu. If you want to watch how the ice was opened for the second, pivotal goal, you'll see Higgins do something we hadn't seen to that point in the game: exert patience. His turn back (thereby keeping possession) and pass to Komi opened all kinds of seams and allowed for those two fresh-legged players to startle the Bruins.
An honourable mention has to go to Carey Price who pulled off no small feat in earning a shutout in a Game 7. My only question is: why did he shake hands with his mask on?
What he didn't consult was our miserable record with Brisebois in the lineup. Until we scored goals 3-5, I was going to say that a positive to come out of this game was that Brisebois had been totally exposed for the gimp that he is. His play in the defensive end was shocking, even for him, and his play on the PP renders it a 4 on 4 (well nobody passes to him do they, while he he pinches far to deep neglecting to cover his point). I don't mean to cast a shadow over the win, but I really feel that we won this game in particular despite Brisebois, not with Brisebois. And, since it was a game seven, that means the whole series despite Brisebois. His cheesy goals are nothing but a smokescreen, even if he deserves some credit for average play in the earlier games.
Against a team like New York (our likely opponent), can we afford to carry Brisebois? Ask yourselves that question...
I would rather play Philly in the next round.
I liked Carbo's line shuffling tonight. You realize how much depth we gain in two top lines with Saku back. Plekanecs - Kostistyns line lacks a bit of size but they make up for it in speed and skill.
Way to go Carey. What an immense amount of presssure on him last night. The true test. I continue to be impressed by this 19 year old.
GHG
Commenting by HaloScan
