The Tortoise and the Hare.

The Montreal Canadiens waited way too long to start playing to the desired level of intensity and the Florida Panthers got out of Montreal with a 3-2 victory.

The Habs were nowhere to be found during the first two periods yesterday. After one period they were only able to register 3 shots on goal. Jozef Stumpel, Brett McLean and Olli Jokinen scored to install the Panthers in front by 3-0.

With just 10 minutes to go to the third period, the Canadiens started to be more intense and more dangerous around Tomas Vokoun's net. Andrei Markov scored 2 goals to reduce the Panthers lead to only a single goal but it was too late.

''Inexcusable.'' was Guy Carbonneau's way to describe the general team effort into yesterday's game. There is no way in explaining why the players lacked of playing intensity. If the players thought that they were in for an easy one then they have another example that you cannot win a NHL game against anyone without a sufficient level of effort and intensity.

The Canadiens are now looking at a 6 game road streak coming up until the end of the year. This trip will either force the team to regroup or it will break them into bits.

(Picture: Getty images.)