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Game 32: Canadiens vs Senators AKA Better Late Than Never |
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When the puck dropped at the Bell Centre tonight, it looked like somehow the Canadiens had forgotten to play. At one stage, the Senators were outshooting the Habs 8-1 in the first. Thankfully, while the skaters looked asleep the young Cayden Primeau was very much awake and kept them in this game. Without his efforts, the game could have been over before the Canadiens had even started playing. About 13 minutes in, Goloubef took a tripping penalty and Nick Cousins, that well-known power play specialist, managed to put the Tricolore ahead by one thanks to a nice play from Max Domi while Weber got the secondary assist. By the time the buzzer rang, the Habs had almost caught Ottawa up shots wise since the Sens had 12 to their 11.
The star of the second period wasn't a player but the refs as no less than 8 penalties were dished out in the second frame. That being said, neither team managed to get a power play marker and the second ended with the same score. Ottawa having taken 14 shots on Primeau in that period while Nilsson faced 9.
What should have been the last period had more action, Tatar made it 2-0 with assists from Gallagher and Danault 29 seconds in. 4 minutes later though, Brady Tkachuk, he who we all love to hate, cut the Habs' lead in two with a power play goal. The message was clear, the game was far from over. Just under 10 minutes later, Connor Brown equalized for Ottawa and brought everyone back to square 1. The last few minutes were tightly contested as both teams were wanted to put at least one point in the bank
The overtime wouldn't last for long though, as none other than Ben Chiarot scored the game-winning goal on an odd man rush with Max Domi. It was a weird game from Domi... Turnovers, mistakes, bad decisions and a penalty but 2 assists. Let's hope he builds on the positives from tonight because the Canadiens desperately need to get last year's Domi back.
Cayden Primeau made 35 saves on 37 shots to earn his first NHL career win with a .946 save percentage and was even named the first star. The kid looked quite emotional and impressed in his post game interview with Marc Denis and it was great to see:
Once more tonight, the Habs' main 3 defensemen played an insane amount of minutes Chiarot (25:50), Weber (26:28) and Petry (24:32) had huge workloads and judging by the number of turnovers they made (4 each) this could catch-up to them. Leskinen played just over 12 minutes while both Fleury and Kulak had over 13 minutes of ice-time. While the Habs have won their last 3 games, this can of d-men deployment cannot go on forever.
The Habs will be back on the ice on Saturday night when the league's worst team, Detroit, will be in town. We all know what that means, it will be a challenging game for the Canadiens. They have a way to struggle against bad teams...Tonight's win allowed the Canadiens to move back in 3rd place of the Atlantic but the Panthers and Lightning are hot on their tails with game in hands... At this stage, Montreal can barely afford a single mistake.
Edit: About Tkachuk
I'm trying to check the source on this but this tweet caught my attention this morning:
If this is true, Brady Tkachuk is really something else...Who does that? Young goaltender just got his first NHL win and you're trying to steal the game puck? Come on...Wouldn't expect that from a a guy who was a rookie last season, scored his first NHL goal and was all too happy to collect his first goal puck. It does seem to be true though, if you look at the video of Price congratulating Primeau, you can see him dash towards the Sens to get the puck:
Yes the younger Tkachuk, he appears to be turning into quite the player, but that was downright disrespectful. Trying to get under your opponent's skin during the game is one thing but when the game is over, you're meant to back off and let the kid celebrate his first win. That's my take on it anyways...
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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