Predators

Not even in the home of country music will you find a song sad enough to describe the pitiful situation of your Montreal Canadiens.

Love Hurts comes close. Just apply lyrics of the Boudleaux Bryant classic to what this hockey team is doing to your achy-breaky heart:

Love hurts, love scars, love wounds
And mars, any heart
Not tough or stong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud
Holds a lot of rain
Love hurts... 

Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves I guess
They're not foolin' me

Are the Canadiens still foolin' you?

We're 20 games in; and to mark the quarter-pole, the team played their worst game of a long season.

The scary part is: 62 to go.

Carey Price: Brilliant

18 other players: SUCK OUT LOUD!

The latest scouting report from Steve Kerley, aka 24 Cups:

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

After ten years in the league, that basically sums up the plight of the Predators.  Fighting to build a fan base while staying well below the salary cap, this never-ending dilemma seems to be the main focus for the franchise.  The team certainly seems to be wary of taking chances after making the failed Peter Forsberg deadline trade in 2007, and have been stuck in neutral ever since.  Suffice to say, if you don’t risk anything, you won’t gain anything.

If the dream Stanely Cup final is Canadiens-Red Wings, the nightmare scenario would match Nashville against Florida.

The TV ratings would be the lowest ever .... and not just because the finalists were two of Gary Bettman's ridiculous Sun Belt teams.

It's the style – or lack of same.

Grinding defensive hockey. Rapid line changes. Hard-working, tight-checking players who won't be in the All-Star game.

In his superlative The Game, Ken Dryden wrote that defensive hockey was the easiest to coach, as long as players were dedicated and bought into the system.

Easy to teach; but man, it was hard to watch last night.

But a W is a W.

How boring was it?

Canadiens Express should be on CPAC. 

Radek Bonk leads the Nashville Predators with 10 goals.
John Russell, NHLI via Getty Images

For two seasons, the Canadiens employed centreman Radek Bonk as a defensive specialist. This year, having signed in July with the Nashville Predators as an unrestricted free agent, the 31-year-old has rediscovered his scoring touch.

Now, instead of being used solely as a checker and a penalty-killer, Bonk is on the power play, and has a team-leading 10 goals to show for his new role. Bonk scored the tying goal in the final seconds of Saturday's Bell Centre game against the Canadiens, then scored again in the shootout to help pace the Predators' win. And how couldn't you feel good for an honest worker who always did what was asked of him in Montreal?

Dave Stubbs visited with Bonk after Saturday's game and found a player who had only good things to say about his time in Montreal, and who's enjoying being a little off the radar in Music City, not a town known for its hockey fanaticism.

Former Canadien Radek Bonk (helmeted, facing camera) celebrates his game-tying goal.
Phillip MacCallum, Getty Images

UPDATED at 9:15 am by Kevin Mio 

Lineups | Preview | Carbonneau Press Conference | Game Story | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Boone's Blog

Nothing is easy for the Canadiens. Like, a 3-0 lead.

Up by three on the Nashville Predators tonight with 7:34 left in regulation time, the Canadiens imploded, watching their visitors roar back and tie the game at 4-4 with 46.8 seconds to play on a goal by former Hab centreman Radek Bonk. According to Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau, his key players aren't getting the job done far too often, The Gazette's Pat Hickey writes.

A spirited overtime, featuring a brilliant glove save by Nashville goalie Dan Ellis on Alex Kovalev, and J.P. Dumont ringing one off Cristobal Huet's post on the rush back up ice, failed to decide matters.

So it went to a shootout. Bonk, again, and Martin Erat scored for the Predators, only captain Saku Koivu for the Canadiens, giving Nashville an improbable, crowd-deflating 5-4 victory. And they were deserving winners, having outshot the Habs 44-26.

OK, fans, let's hear your thoughts on tonight's lines as pencilled out by Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau:

First line: Higgins-Plekanec-Kovalev
Second line: Kostitsyn-Grabovski-Ryder
Third line: Streit-Koivu-Smolinski
Fourth line: Latendresse-Chipchura-Dandenault

Bracing for the speed of the Nashville Predators, Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau scratches forwards Steve Bégin and Tom Kostopoulos and inserts forward Mikhail Grabovski and defenceman Josh Gorges. The versatile Mark Streit moves back up front.

Canadiens blew 3-0 and 4-1 leads and a wild, 70-shot 4-4 game went to a Shootout that Nashville won.

Guy Carbonneau told his players this was the low point of their season.

Cristobal Huet, bombarded with 44 shots in regulation and OT, then beaten twice in the shootout, said the Canadiens were "fragile between the ears right now."

In a somber dressing room where the only sound was tape being pulled off and flung away, Christopher Higgins described the loss as "embarrassing."

"We can talk all we want," Higgins said. "We've got to get the job done on the ice.

"We have to play with passion and with pride. How are we going to enjoy a day off (on Sunday) after blowing a 3-0 lead in our own building?"

Carbonneau took a while to amble over to his postgame press conference, and the coach looked good and pissed when he got there.

"It was a bit like our 10 last games," Carbonneau said. "We play a decent first half of the game and then the second half is a total disaster."

Without naming names, Carbo said the loss was attributable to weak play by "guys who are supposed to do the job at the end of the game."

Roman Hamrllik, Mathieu Dandenault and Mike Komisarek were on the ice for the third and fourth Nashville goals.

Carbonneau bristled when asked about Saku Koivu centring the third line tonight.

"Where do you get Saku on the third line?" he demanded. "Did you see my board. I don't see where you guys get that."

Carbonneau maintained that the Koivu line was his first line – which means Mark Streit and Bryan Smolinski are on the wings of the number one line of the Montreal Canadiens.

As if ...

Huet was more candid.

"I feel responsible," the goaltender said. "I didn't finish the job.'

He had plenty of company at the low point – to date.