Feb 16 Why Last Night Bugs the Hell Out of Me

I went to bed last night with a bad taste left in my mouth and woke up with the same thing. For some reason, the loss against Buffalo has really bothered me so I got to thinking this morning about why it's bothering me so much more than a regular loss. It isn't the first time the Habs have blown a 2-0 lead. It might be the first time they've blown a 2-0 shootout lead, but that's not it. A shootout, for the most part, is a crap shoot, a roll of the dice. Anything can happen and seeing as it went ten rounds, pretty much anything did happen.

It isn't that the loss really affected the standings. The Canadiens wake up this morning alone in 5th place and are nine points up on Buffalo, who sit just outside the playoff picture. The fact that the Canadiens have now lost four out of five games bothers me a little bit. You like to see the team playing well as the games get tougher and over the last handful, the only Habs win came against a Toronto team that never really showed up. But that isn't quite it.

The Habs started last night skating circles around Buffalo. They were on another level and looked like they were full of piss and vinegar. They out-shot the Sabres 18-7 in the first period but only came away with a 1-0 lead. It was frustrating in the sense that for most of the season, the Habs have had trouble finishing and given that Buffalo had a scrub named Jhonas Enroth in nets as opposed to all-world goalie Ryan Miller, the Habs should've gone into the dressing room up by at least a field goal. But that was nothing new. They could've and should've kept at it but instead of pressing a wobbly Sabres team and putting their collective foot on Buffalo's throat, they decided to accumulate 13 shots over the final two periods against Enroth, a goalie whom the strategy from the get-go should have been "fire at will".

I know Buffalo is a decent team but I really don't have much respect for them. Montreal is CLEARLY a better team and they've shown that this year both in the standings and in the fact that prior to last night, they had held a 3-0-1 season record against the Sabres.

Buffalo isn't an explosive team. If you play smart against them, you take away their ability to come back from two-goal deficits. But that requires hard work, tenacity and perseverance because a trademark of all of Lindy Ruff's Sabres teams has been their work ethic and right there why last night's loss bugs me so much. The lack of desire to work. In the third period, 36-year-old Rob Neidermayer won a battle for the puck quite easily against the significantly younger Travis Moen and that was pretty much the final two periods in a nutshell.

It isn't the first time the Habs have fallen asleep after a strong first period thinking their opponent will just lay down and die. But this team has a chance at having a pretty good playoff run but do they really have that in them if they let a team like Buffalo come back and steal a win on their home ice during an important game in mid-February? Throw the excuses out the window. I know the Habs were playing with a patchwork defensive corps but all told, they allowed 29 shots in regulation and played as well as could be expected. Debunking the popular "why we lost" excuse in this city, the referees certainly weren't out to get them, calling only two penalties on Montreal all night. The Habs hadn't played since Saturday and even then, Toronto certainly didn't show up to the point where Montreal had to play a strenuous, exhaustive game.

Quite simply, Buffalo outworked the Habs and that bugs the hell out of me. Sure they're hurting right now but the trademark of the Habs over the last few years has been the ability of the team to overcome those injuries and, for the lack of a better term, play over their heads. That wasn't the case last night and I really don't know why. The Montreal Canadiens have 24 games to fix that.

About Will Martinez

Will Martinez runs the 'Hey, My Name is Will' blog and is a contributor for TheFranchise.ca. You can follow Will on Twitter @heymynameiswill

Tags: Buffalo Sabres \ habs \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL