Under the circumstances ...

Scott Gomez: "That's one of the best teams we've faced."

I almost forgive him for getting Claude Julien fired in New Jersey. 

Poor Hamrlik.

Great all night, then that.

At least eight points of a possible 12 on the road.

Excellent. 

Bad time for Hamrlik to start making mistakes. Gotta play for the point.

This might be Ryder's best game of the season.

Funny how momentum goes. Rangers are a good team. Dangerous forwards.

No doubt about that one. Chris Drury wins the draw and then ties the game.

3-3 

This is torture. Should have cashed that 2-on-1.

No goal. What took so long? RDS called it right away.

Pierre Houde: "Maybe the line is busy."

Pedneault asks "Why does it take so long to make a decision in Toronto?"

Under review. Didn't look like a goal. And the Rangers had six skaters on the ice.

Shots are 5-1 Rangers. Hanging on here.

Markov is coming back on. The end of the game is going to be medieval.

Markov got hurt blocking a shot.  Carbo has done well on match-ups in a road game.

Fourth line pluggers give the Canadiens trouble

Good time for Huet to get hot.

That was the Rangers' third shot since the first period.

Bad ice, tired Rangers ... could be interesting.

Another no call, Shanahan on Higgins.

Anothewr solid night for Max.

Penalty killed. What a gut check effort tonight.

Stand by for brilliant insight: Big PK here.

How good is Chris Drury on faceoffs? He's 12-1 ... The Pleks line has seven of the Canadiens' 17 shots and all three goals ... Roman Hamrlik: 14:58 and he's been a monster ... No matter how this ends, the Canadiens have played a huge character game. No Koivu, facing a red-hot team, they've skated, hit and worked the puck deep on every shift.

BAD penalty for Tom the Bomb, given the situation. Instinctive, as the RDS guys said.

What a sequence: delayed penalty, Bouillon makes a helluva play, as do the K brothers and Pleks makes it 3-2

The PP is alive

And so is Andrei K.

2-2 

Another PP. For whom?

Lundqvist felt that Ryder blast. The 30-goal guy is showing signs of life.

Corey Locke is in the building. He was stuck in traffic.

This is anyone's game if it stays close. Big IF, though.

Rangers have no shots in this period. Roman Hamrlik is just a joy to watch on D.

Line combinations are getting hard to follow.

Lundqvist is on fire. Great that the Canadiens are getting all these chances.

The camera operator can't follow the Canadiens. Hamrlik made a perfect pass to Higgins, who hit the post.

Kovy centring Kostopoulos and Dandenault (who were on, with Chipchura for both Rangers goals). And Ryder, working hard, draws a penalty.

Christopher Higgins' high-school sweetheart must be in the crowd. He's flying tonight.

RDS guys are enjoying the game. Pedneault says refs are "letting the players express themselves."

Canadiens were 4-14 on faceoffs. Max is 2-7. It's tough when you spend the game chasing the puck .... That wasn't the best 20 minutes of Josh Gorges' career .... Not the best 20 minutes of Huet's season. Maybe he's a bit fatigued: three games in four nights, and the Rangers will have him hopping ... Plekanec played 7:46, Kovy 7:18 .... RDS guys are doing a year-end review. Again, Brière. I'm sick of it. Bring on 2008

Good period.

The tie didn't last long.

Jagr.

2-1 

Streit makes a big check behind the net, Pleks feeds Andrei K and bingo!

1-1 

Ah, the bounes got used up in Florida. That 2-on-1 should have been the tying goal.

Wow! Gorges and Bouillon both pinched deep. Then Ryder takes an idiotic penalty. Did anyone tell him the Rangers PP was great last night?

That goal changed everything. The Rangers are suddenly energized. Jagr very nearly made it 2-0.

Here's the test. Will Canadiens fall apart?

Not the earlyu scoring explosions we saw in Florida, but undermanned Canadiens are hanging in.

And just as I type that, Dan Girardi scores on a ridiculous shot from the point.

Looks like Chipchura will be double-shifted. He's well-rested ... and young.

Not going to be easy. The Rangers are just loaded ... Corey Locke's equipment didn't make it, so Canadiens will dress 19 .... In his Journal de Montréal column, Jacques Demers compared Guilaume Latendresse to Steve Shutt. A bit of a stretch, the more so because Gui! is not playing with Guy Lafleur and Jacques Lemaire ... Benoit Brunet says he'd take Sean Avery on his team in a minute ... In 1998-'99 the Canadiens got eight of a possible 10 points ... Luc Gélinas interviews Guy Carbonneau in a chaotic corridor of MSG. What's the bet someone nicks the RDS background banner

Captain Kovy tonight ... Scott Gomez looks like the lone fast Ranger.

Refs' cnspiracy continues. Two penalties ignored ... and counting.  Big skating edge for Canadiens so far. Chipchura centres Latendresse and Sergei K.

Streit and Hamrlich. Good shift by fourth line.

Nice rush by Chris Higgins. He'll play big minutes tonight.

Knicks played an afternoon game, so the ice will be bad. Kovalev tells RDS the ice was lousy in Florida also. Hey, is the whole team growing road-trip beards?

Renaud Lavoie says they're playing it safe, remembering how flu ravaged the club last year. So the Captain stayed at the hotel. Unless Corey Locke arrives on time, Canadiens won't have enough players.