Rose coloured glasses

I'm wearing mine tonight because frankly I've become a little sick of writing negative stuff about the Habs, even though I have every reason to.

Admittedly, it goes against every fibre of my being to be the least bit positive about a shutout loss in Atlanta, by far the worst defensive team in the league. But I just have to, and I apologize in advance to everyone who is seething over this 2-0 loss.

But to me, the loss was a positive only because Carey Price looked something like Carey Price. That is almost worth a loss to see happen.

Price made the saves that needed to be made, and more importantly he made them in somewhat of a pressure situation, if any game in Atlanta can be described that way.

"We've been waiting for a performance like this," Guy Carbonneau said. "Unfortunately on a night he plays well we can't score a goal."

Otherwise, Carbonnneau talked about his team's 60-minute effort and how if they continue playing the way they played against the Thrashers they'll be OK.

"I think for us this is a starting point," he said, "not just for Carey but for the whole team."

Well, that's not exactly the proper way of seeing this game if you're the coach of a contending team. Being sick of blogging about negatives and trying to find a positive is one thing for me, but for the coach of any self-respecting playoff-bound club you can't find positives out of zero points in Atlanta.

That simply shouldn't happen, let alone in March.

If you can't score in Atlanta, how on earth will you score in Dallas on Sunday? That would have been my question if I were Carbonneau, but thankfully I'm not. So I will focus on the positive, and that's the first solid outing from Price in at least three months.

No matter how pathetic this team is playing right now, the Habs are likely to make the playoffs and once there who knows what a hot Price can do? So watching Price play the way he can should be encouraging to Habs nation.

As long as you don't lose any sleep over being shutout by the worst defensive team in the league.