Montreal controlled the pace of play from its blue line, with Noah Dobson, Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle and Mike Matheson controlling entries and placing the puck where the forwards could retrieve it easily on the forecheck. Toronto barely delivered any resistance at the net-front, as Montreal's Oliver Kapanen converted on a nifty passing sequence from Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov for the game's opening goal.
I think that Milan does not have the urgency to win the championship, which Inter has. This could be an advantage. Sure, it depends on how many points you get. But there is no doubt that if they were to arrive more or less with these points [to the derby], an Inter victory would clearly mark the end, a Milan victory would undoubtedly bring the others closer, if you look at it from this point of view.
The problem is we aren't consistent in our play, we have to fix that, you can't have one day [playing well] and another not, a champion team does not do that, Mbappe told reporters. We deserve to be in this situation today. Benfica were better. Now we have to play two more playoff games. It hurts to have to play those. We wanted to have the time in February to work on our game.
We want to get back out there, but we have to have a better version of ourselves in terms of mentality, passion, connectivity. All that stuff that's put us in position to win games this year. Every team goes through it. Look at what's going on (in) both conferences. Except for the handful of teams at the top, everybody else is trying to figure out the consistency. We're in that boat too. We're trying to figure it out.
A win for Chelsea, a much-needed once after four games without, and in many ways a routine one and yet it was also a game that highlighted the oddity of Enzo Maresca's side. He has a squad packed with extraordinary talent, capable of passages of exceptional football, but they are also wildly inconsistent, even within individual games. They won easily, could have won more easily, and also had spells when the game threatened to slip from their grasp.
Boy, the Falcons have really done it to themselves yet again. After a high energy win against the Buffalo Bills which reinvigorated the fanbase was followed with a disappointing defeat in San Francisco, Atlanta laid an absolute egg against a porous Dolphins team that had seemingly nothing going right for them. Now, the Birds sit at 3-4, in the middle of a highly competitive NFC, with their season in danger of slipping away right as the first winds of cold have arrived at our doorstep.
