Live Blog: Isles in Montreal; First period

2:01--We are live in Montreal. It's Hockey Night (afternoon) in Canada. It just feels like a bigger deal to be on Hockey Night in Canada. Old friend Kelly Hrudey thinks the Isles don't think our boys are very good. He's polite about it but with the flu ravaging the team and with the Islanders not scoring goals, Kelly and Ron MacLean think it's going to be an easy one for the Canadiens this afternoon.

2:03--Jim Hughson and Greg Millen are the broadcasters. Am I the only one who thinks of Hughson and the EA NHL games when you hear his voice?

2:07--Brendan Witt with a penalty less than a minute in. Whoo. Montreal spends over a minute peppering DiPietro. Not good...

2:17--The crowd is sick! Freddy Meyer takes a hold. Isles PK unit is gonna be tired...

2:19--Bruno Gervais blocks a shot. Must be cool for him to be playing in Montreal...

2:26--Big saves by Ricky as the Isles seem to have found their legs. Unreal leg save on a redirection by DiPietro's training partner, Christopher Higgins. The Canadiens seem to be playing at a different speed than the Isles are...

2:31--Why can't US TV stations mic the crowd like the CBC does? Too often it comes off like church on TV. Here, the crowd is so into every little thing...

2:32--Comeau is skating on the top line with Miro and Comrie. Comrie leads the team in scoring with 37 points and that is the lowest team-leading total in the NHL. Again, not good...

2:35--Martinek gets a hold. Third penalty in a row for the Isles...

2:38--Another penalty. Comeau levels Higgins from behind into the boards. He is down on the ice and Berard comes to help out when the rookie gets jumped. We got us a scrum in Montreal...

2:41--Higgins clearly turned and saw him coming. He knew he'd get pounked. Still, you hate to see that. Higgins is back on the bench and Comeau is in the box...Plekanec bumps Freddy as the Isles enter the zone and gets a trip. We are 4-on-3 right now with 2:15 left...

2:42--One-timer by Bill Guerin hits the crossbar...

2:43--Komisarek and Comrie are going at each other...Komisarek gets a hook at 18:44...Ted Nolan calls a TO to settle the boys down. The Isles have been badly outplayed in the first 15 minutes of the game and are lucky to be tired at zero right now...

2:47--Canadiens survive a frenzy of activity by the Isles to end the period.