I Guess This is What Coach Meant by “Puck Possession”?

Habs beat New Jersey!    3-1!   In New Jersey!

What?

How did that happen?

* Great and SUSTAINED forechecking, greatly assisted by…

* Hamrlik, Markov and Spacek joining the rush. I was surprised by this, seeing how conservative Coach likes to play things, but those three were VERY aggressive in New Jersey’s zone, setting up passes, getting to the net and almost acting like a 4th forward. And they skated back HARD at the first sign of trouble. Whatever mistakes they did make (and there were a few), were committed in their own end.

* Gomez played what seemed like 56 minutes, and boy was he on mission.

* Halak returned with a solid start, making lightening-quick saves when a Devil was left open in front (though this win was a total team effort, everyone credited Halak with the win – interesting, no?)

Les Boys deserved this one.  And for a change, coach’s ad-nauseam mantra of pock possession was on full display.

Not a perfect game, but pretty darn close.