Mitch Melnick on Erik Cole's Habs debut: "Eric Cole got about 1 minute of power play time, less than Mathieu Darche and Desharnais. Spare me his low PP goal totals the last couple of seasons. He should be in front of the net creating open space for others to score."

PHOTO CREDIT - Canadiens.com

Montreal Quebec - Oct. 9, 2011 - I know it's early but I'm trying to start a trend. To update this site following each Habs game (the ones that I see anyway). With time at a premium, please forgive the Coles Notes - like version of these post game wraps. For a more flowery approach, there's always Mike Boone or Arpon Basu or Francois Gagnon.

So here we go.

In honor of Lee Van Cleef.

THE GOOD
- Habs dominated the first period. So much so that Joe Bowen's voice did not leak into John Bartlett's TSN Radio 990 broadcast booth.
- Carey Price made every save he could.
- Thomas Plekanic & Scott Gomez won the majority of their face offs.

THE BAD
- Toronto boys Mike Cammalleri & PK Subban were a combined -3.
- David Desharnais looked over - matched, especially in the face off circle ( 27%).
- Andreas Engqvist? Really?
- Andrei Kostitsyn cannot play to his potential in a Jacques Martin system. The Habs must be showcasing him.

THE UGLY
- Erik Cole had a forgettable Montreal debut except when Jay Rosehill almost ran him into the Gold seats at the ACC. Cole spent the rest of the night wondering where Tim Gleason was to respond.
- Chris Campoli had a future "Battle Of The Blades" moment.
- Montreal forwards, from Brian Gionta to Travis Moen, made Mike Komisarek look like a nasty, vicious, Chris Pronger - like all star (except when he handled the puck).
- Montreal forwards made a shaky James Reimer, especially in the first period, look like Carey Price.
- Price was run into three times. As long as the power play without Markov remains suspect, Price and company will begin to drop like pieces of the Mercier Bridge.
- The power play was 0-6 while allowing a shorthanded goal.
- Erik Cole got about 1:00 of power play time, less than Mathieu Darche and Desharnais. Spare me his low PP goal totals the last couple of seasons. He should be in front of the net creating open space for others to score.
- Down by two goals with less than two minutes to go Carey Price was still in goal slamming his stick on the ice. Perhaps getting a forward ready to jump on. But more likely to wake up Perry Pearn.
- When Price finally got off the ice, Josh Gorges was among the six skaters who were on.
- Already killing a penalty, the league's leader in bench minor penalties took another one. Jacques Martin, while blaming his players for the loss by saying they didn't win battles, also blamed Gionta for the too many men on the ice penalty. Additionally Martin failed to explain why Desharnais played 18:16 to Cole's 14:38 and explained away the Leafs running of Price by saying it's up to referees to make those calls and for his power play to take advantage or else...his team will do the same to opposing goalies. Just For Laughs CEO Bruce Hills is taking notes.

Consensus Clint says the season opener was an ugly loss. Got to believe it's getting better (Can't get much worse).