from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

From Max Pacioretty’s opening goal (who says the Habs don’t score in the first period?) to Alexei Emelin’s comet that pinged off the post to seal the deal, the Canadiens flat owned the Penguins. Pittsburgh got its only goal from David Perron, who still counted his Steel City tenure in hours when he scored to celebrate his release from the train wreck that used to be the Edmonton Oilers.

That was it for the mighty Penguins, though Sidney Crosby did do some world-class whining all night long. For once, whoever picked the three stars got it right: 1) Tom Gilbert; 2) Alexei Emelin; 3) Carey Price.

With that, the Canadiens wrapped up a holiday road trip that has been their Bermuda Triangle for as long as I can remember with five straight wins. They had taken a good Islanders team, Carolina, Florida, New Jersey and Pittsburgh in succession — and won what turned out to be the toughest game of the trip by beating the Panthers with Dustin Tokarski in goal....

Cut to the HNIC panel with George Stroumboulopoulos (still looking acutely uncomfortable in his new role) Kelly Hrudey (still bitter about 1993) and Elliotte Friedman. Friedman is, with the possible exception of TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the best hockey broadcaster in the country — but on this night he went astray.

Friedman said he has a Hart Trophy vote and if the season ended now, his vote would go to Price. No problem there, except I wouldn’t vote for a goaltender to win the Hart on principal — like baseball pitchers with the Cy Young.

The problem was Friedman made it clear his vote would go to Price because he’s winning with an inferior team. Hrudey, who would rather drink a glassful of tacks than give the Canadiens any credit, said he would give the nod to Nashville’s Pekka Rinne — an ironic choice, given Rinne had just wrapped up a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

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