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Canadiens Tame Red-Hot Oilers |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Connor McDavid rolled into town with 97 points to his name in 52 games and plenty of hockey fans were hoping to see him it the 100 points mark against the Habs, but for once, he was actually held off the scoresheet altogether and finished the game with a -3 rating. Still, the Canadiens’ faithful got to see some McDavid magic with beautiful bursts of speed and magical stickhandling, but Jake Allen was solid and stop his 7 shots, just like he denied Zach Hyman’s 7 efforts as well. Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane were the only ones to get the puck past Allen who racked up 29 saves and had a .935 save percentage.
If Allen was great, so were the rest of the Habs, Jordan Harris scored 2 goals, Alex Belzile scored the first goal of his career, Josh Anderson got his 15th of the year, further raising his stock as the trade deadline approaches and Evgenii Dadonov looked pretty good out there, getting a couple of assists for his trouble. As for Rafael Harvey-Pinard, he got another goal, his 6th of the season in 9 games, giving him 8 points since being recalled. Harvey-Pinard has got no interest in Connor Bedard, the young Quebecer is grabbing this opportunity with both hands and making the very best of it. Sure, when the team is healthy, he won’t get top line minute, but he’s showing his got the offensive instincts needed to produce in the big league and you can bet the Habs’ brass is taking notice.
At the other end of the ice, David Savard blocked 7 shots and as is often the case, Arber Xhekaj got the crowd pumped up with a fight, unfortunately, he had to leave the game afterwards as it looked like his shoulder came out of its socket. Hopefully, Xhekaj isn’t out long-term as he’s been quite entertaining to watch this season and as wins are few and far between, the fans always get excited with Xhekaj’s tilts.
In the end, the Canadiens signed a 6-2 win, 24 hours after downing the Islanders 4-3 in overtime making family weekend at the Bell Centre a rousing success, at least for those who are still routing for the Canadiens to win, for team tank though, this was as bad a weekend as could be. Fear not pro tanking fans, with 29 games to go, Montreal will drop plenty of points and should be in a good position come draft day.
What really stuck with me today though as I watched the game at the Bell Centre was how much the building was rocking in a meaningless game, purely because the team on the ice was giving its all and being entertaining. Not so long ago, the Canadiens would have been playing on their heels, skating backwards and trying to contain McDavid with smothering defense, but this is no longer the case. Martin St-Louis’ Canadiens want to score goals and the fans are loving it.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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