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Game 20: Canadiens vs Devils AKA An Hellish Experience

November 17, 2019, 9:43 AM ET [162 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
I started off my day by attending the Habs Summit at the Bell Centre Cage aux sports and we were treated to a speech and a question and answer session with Stu Cowan from the Gazette. If some of you do not know, he was one of the most vocal opponent to the Subban-Weber trade and yet, yesterday when asked who won the trade, he was forced to congratulate Bergevin on an astute move but stated that it was more than just about the play on the ice. He spoke of Weber's impact on the team off the ice as well and the fact that he stepped right into a leadership role. He told us that when Mete first joined the team, Weber showed up at practice and said to him: "Kid, you're coming to my house for a BBQ tonight. And bring him along (pointing to Lehkonen)." The man looms large and for Cowan, it would have been the right move to take the C away from Pacioretty and give it to Weber since Pacioretty was so affected by so much stuff. When asked if Drouin will still be a Hab at the end of the season, he replied that he thought he would but that was very much up to Jonathan Drouin and how much he was willing to work. Turns out that when Drouin was a kid, he would go on the ice and just score goals wearing boots. Until he was 6 or 7, he had never skated and when his dad told him that he had to put on skates to play properly, he threw the mother of all tantrums. But then, he realised that with his talent, he didn't have to work much anyways and took to it like a fish to water. Cowan says that Drouin never had to work as hard as a Brendan Gallagher for instance and that his future with the Habs very hung on his ability to keep working. Finally, Cowan also mentioned how much of a leader and how respected Nate Thompson now is in the room. You see, uncle Nate has now been 3 years sober and has gone through a lot in his life making him a great role model. He strongly believes that this type of player is essential to a team. After those few anecdotes, the charity raffle took place with the biggest winners taking away a team signed stick, tickets to a game and a vintage Mitchell and Ness Habs jacket.

At 5:00, the doors were opening to the M2 area of the Bell Centre and I decided to check it out. This is part of the extended selection of concessions available at the arena and between 5:00 and 6:00 PM there are special prizes. You can eat a regular poutine for 6$ (taxes included - regular price 12.99$ plus taxes) and a can of beer (Coors Light ok when can argue that's water not beer but anyhow, you can get that for 6$ taxes in as well). You read correctly, dinner and a drink at the Bell Centre for 12$, it's been a while since that was a possibility. At 17:45, I made my way upstairs to go and meet the Habs legend on hand, Guy Lapointe. Took the traditional photo and got him to sign a puck. After that, I swung by Tricolore Sports since my cousin is going to have a baby soon and what better place to get a baby gift right? Angela Price and Julie Petry were actually at the strore last night as it was the launch of their CHic collection and spent hours meeting fans and taking pictures with them.

Now on to the serious stuff. On tap was a duel between the Canadiens and the Devils. Both teams had played the night before and I must say that it was the Canadiens who looked worst for wear. There were a couple of changes to the line-up as Jonathan Drouin has now been put on injured reserved with an upper body injury (which the Habs say is unrelated to the Ovechkin hit - whether you believe that or not is up to you). Also missing in action was Paul Byron who's health with be re-evaluated on a day-to-day basis. Filling in for them were Kotkaniemi and Charles Hudon freshly called back from Laval. Julien had come up with new lines for the occasion:



While the 4th line of Cousins-Thompson-Weal had been great in Washington, itr soon became apparent that Julien wanted Weal on the third line to take important face-off he didn't want to entrust Kotkaniemi with. Also new last night, Suzuki was centering a line with Domi and Armia, probably in a bid to wake up Domi's currently diminished offensive production. Finally, Drouin's injury meant that Tatar could reclaim his spot on the first line.


During the first period, the Devils took 20 shots on Kinkaid's net, they weren't all threatening shots but still that a lot of shots. Surprisingly though, the Habs took the lead on their 8th shot when Gallagher admirably deflected a Jeff Petry shot to beat MacKenzie Blackwood. The Bell Centre's elation was short lived though as a minute later, Nikita Gusev tied things up and brought everyone to square one with less than a minute to play. This habit of giving up late goals really must stop, that is no way to win.



Thankfully, the Habs didn't look too shaken up by that ending. While the Devils still dominated the first half of the period bring their total to 30 in 30 minutes, it's Cale Fleury who found the back of the net for his first career goal and quite dazzling fashion. The Young d-man skated deep in the slot and showed off some silky mitts before beating Blackwood. The Tricolore even managed to get another goal 11 minutes later and for the shortest of time, it felt like perhaps they had turned the corner and would be fine thanks to Suzuki on the power play but it wasn't to be... With the end of the period looming and even though the Habs were still on the man advantage, they gave up a goal with 1.1. seconds to go in the second frame. Never had I seen a goal take so much air out of the building.



With a 3-2 lead, the Habs had to tighten up and stick to their game but they didn't. Instead, they took way too many penalties and that's never a recipe for success. While Max Domi had not gotten a single penalty minute until last night, he got himself 6 minutes yesterday...tripping, holding and unsportsmanlike conduct...it really wasn't his finest hour and it's during his penalty that the Devils came back on level term. One could say that some of the calls were puzzling at best, like the hit to the head one against Fleury but that's the game, you win some calls and you lose some. In the last minute of the game it looked like the Habs might just have won the contest but Philip Danault's goal was waived off after it was determined that Danault had kick the puck in...because yes, everyone kicks with their hips don't they? With both teams deadlocked at 3-3 after 60 minutes, it was time for OT....

New Jersey won the draw, controlled the puck and Taylor Hall used his speed well forcing Philip Danault to take a penalty. The rest is history, 44 seconds after the start of OT, the Devils were skating away with the 2 points. At least the Canadiens salvaged one point.

Quick notes:
-It's impossible to blame Kinkaid for this loss, the Devils had 43 shots and he stopped 39 of them. Had he not been sharp in the first half of the game, this one would have gotten away from the Habs in a hurry;
-Julien was in ice-time of his blue line management mode, Weber, Petry and Chiarot all played over 24 minutes last night while Mete had 19 and the third pairing had to make do with just Under 14 minutes. Of course the fact that special units were used so much does explain this in part;
-While PK subban was welcomed like a king when he first came back with Nashville, there was Nothing but boos for number 76 last night. It's safe to say that the page has definitely been turned.
-I'm not sure moving Domi to the wing had the desired effect, he looked a bit lost and frustrated out there...it will be interesting to see if that line remains intact for the next game.

Speaking of which, the Habs will be taking on the Blue Jackets on Tuesday in Columbus one can only hope that Julien's men will make a better job of it than they did last Tuesday in Montreal.
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