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After a 10-day break that seemed to go on forever, the Canadiens were finally back in action this afternoon at the Bell Center. Prior to the game, a minute of silence was held for the victims of this week’s tragedy in Laval, a somber reminder that hockey is just a game and that there are many more important things in life. As we saw a police car covered in stuff toys’ my significant other’s 5-year-old asked me: what’s a victim? And once I explained he said; “Ok, so the stuffed toys are going to bring them back to life right?” I then explained that it’s not how it works and that there was no bringing those kids back, to which he replied: “Well, maybe at least the Canadiens can win for them?” I bit my lips not to say that that would be a miracle in powder blue, but in the end, the Canadiens did it, the curse was over.
These depleted Habs don’t give up, without Caufield, Slafkovsky, Gallagher, Edmundson, Byron and Price, to name a few, Martin St-Louis’ men showed that they can battle back. Surprisingly, there was no rust in the Habs’ game after their long break, they came out strong and dominated puck possession in the first. Suzuki, who has struggled to fin the back of the net of late, finally got some twine, capitalizing on a great Harvey-Pinard set-up. Unfortunately, Montreal couldn’t hold on to the lead for long and Brock Nelson tied things up a couple of minutes later.
If the first was a solid period of hockey, the second was almost boring with not a lot of exciting play, still, New York managed to take the lead in the dying seconds of the frame when Horvat scored from behind the goal line, a goal Montembeault would certainly like to get back.
In the third, Justin Barron sniffed an opportunity and joined in the attack before picking his spot and bringing everyone back to square one with a wicked wrister. Martin then probably thought he was giving the Isles the win, but Kirby Dach decided that it wouldn’t be so, tying things up with just over 3 minutes to go.
The Habs had to kill a penalty in OT and Mike Matheson managed to get the rebound of a Mike Hoffman shot to give the Canadiens the win for the first time in their reverse retro threads. In the end, the Habs got 3 points out of the possible 16 they could have had in those powder blue jerseys.
My takeaways from the game? Harvey-Pinard carried on where he left off, getting a primary assist on Suzuki’s goal and blocking 5 shots, 3 of which were off his ankles. There’s no denying that his dedication and commitment to the game are reminiscent of Brendan Gallagher, it will be interesting to see what he can do long term with the Canadiens. Strong game for the blue liners are well, Justin Barron showed how comfortable he looks in the show now, recognizing his opportunity to join the rush and getting his first goal of the season. Mike Matheson had perhaps his best game so far as a Hab, not only because he got the game-winning goal, but because he spent nearly 26 minutes on the ice, took 5 shots, landed 2 hits and finished his day of work with a +3 rating.
This was also Alexander Romanov’s first game back in Montreal and the young defenseman looked genuinely touched when he was welcomed back by the crowd. Not so long ago, he was a fan favorite in la belle province, but with the way the Canadiens’ young blue line has been playing and Kirby Dach’s play constantly improving, fans have all but forgotten Romy. The former number 27 did manage to get an assist in the game, while the new number 27, Jonathan Drouin was held off the scoresheet in his return to play. At the risk of repeating myself, Drouin looked to just be gliding out there, he got a shot on net there’s not much else to say about his performance.
Meanwhile, Evgenii Dadonov missed a brilliant chance for a goal but he did get an assist in the game while Mike Hoffman had 3 assists, perhaps if they keep producing, Kent Hughes will be able to work his magic before the deadline and get some dead wood out of town…
The Habs will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they’ll welcome the Oilers and Connor McDavid to town for the second game of this back-to-back.
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