Montreal Canadiens lost 2-7 against the Edmonton Oilers

I don't know where to start and I don't know who to put the blame for this lost. Carbo's line composition wasn't good. Carey was terrible. Once again the powerplay got scored on. They play with complete lack of confidence and their defensive coverage was awful. When things goes wrong, the bounces aren't on our side.

First of all, please look at Carbo's line composition :

Pacioretty – Koivu – D’Agostini

Kovalev – Plekanec – Dandenault

Kostitsyn A – Higgins – Kostopoulos

Gorges – Lapierre – Laraque

I mean, even if we had a top superstar on our team, put him on one of those lines and he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. When I first saw them, I said what the hell was Carbo thinking. He better hope he wins, if not, it would be his fault. Well there you have it, we lost. How are you suppose to win with a 4th liner on every line? Also, putting 2 rookies with Saku won't help much. Carbo should've put his best players together in two lines and give them more ice time. In desperate times, you use desperate mesures. Rolling four lines with random linemate won't get you any wins especially when the confidence is low. I think Carbo should rethink his game plan.

Carey Price has completely lost his game. He has lost all confidence in himself. It isn't the same goaltender who won the gold metal, Calder cup and MVP anymore. He seems to not be able to keep the rebounds and stop a routine save. We can see that he gives up too easily after allowing a few goals. We often hear that the goaltending position is very tough to play because it is all between the ears and it is even more when you play in Montreal. We are having a very good example of it right now. We all know Carey Price is excellent technically, but mentally, he still have lots to learn. Patrick Roy have said it before, if he had to choose any player to build his team around, it would be Price. But he is still young and he will give in bad goals. Consistancy comes with maturity.

The powerplay got scored a third time within two games. What happened? How come we give so many breakaways now? As I said it before in my last post, the Habs are making complicated plays on the powerplay which often lead to turnovers and breakaway. Andrei Kostitsyn keep giving away the puck in their zone. Kovalev looks for the perfect plays. No one in front to screen the goaltender. No one goes into the corner to get the puck out. The number one powerplay of the league for the last two years can't get their powerplay going anymore. Sometimes you wonder if we should just get Mark Streit back from the Isles in a trade. The powerplay is what kills the Habs momentum each game.

The defensive coverage was very bad. Komisarek have been playing very bad the last few games. He has been creating turnovers over turnovers and making very costy mistakes that make us lose the game. He should've covered his guy better on the Oiler's first goal. The communication between the defensemen and forwards is bad. The players don't know who to cover anymore and gets confused. Ryan O'byrne keeps getting out of position and taking penalties that eventually ends up as goals for the opponent.

On top of everything else, the bounces aren't on our side. For example that breakaway goal that hits the lineman. A few goals that got tipped or that hit a skate. Goals that usually goes in last year, don't go in. Kovalev's open net shot that got robbed by Roloson.

I am starting to think that this trip could be the worst thing that could possibly happen to the Habs right now. With one of the worst schedule of the season in the worst possible time could be devastating for this fragile team. Everyone else is winning as the Canadiens slide down to 6th position in the Est. I just hope that they will still be in the playoff after this 6-games trip.