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In Hainsight: Too Good to Tank |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
If those who advocate for tanking thought that injuries would mean the Canadiens would lose more, they were sorely mistaken. With Caufield, Slafkovsky, Monahan, Guhle, Gallagher, Dach, Xhekaj, Armia and Evans all missing, the Habs keep on winning. Why? Well, probably because all of those AHL call-ups want to leave their mark, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron have been particularly impressive of late and last night, Jesse Ylonen stepped up with a goal and an assist. In his first game as a Montreal Canadiens, waiver pick-up Chris Tierney also found the back of the net, he clearly knows how to make friends.
Last night’s win wasn’t all down to the kids though, the on and off Mike Hoffman was the first star of the game with 2 assist and Jake Allen made 24 saves and had a save percentage of .923, but more than anything else, what stood out was the contribution of the blue liners. Four of the rearguards got on the scoresheet, David Savard opened the score and Barron, Kovacevic and Matheson all got an assist, with the latter taking 5 shots on net as well.
Josh Anderson also took 5 shots and made an impact every time he was on the ice scoring his 17th of the year in a game in which he shone, great timing with the trade deadline being less than a week away.
There’s no guarantee that Kent Hughes will decide to move the power forward but if he still wants to get another 1st round pick for the next draft, moving Anderson might be the only way to do it. However, it’s been reported that Hughes has already turned down a first round pick for the big winger and that he feels he’s worth more than that.
While some may think that’s a dangerous game, Hughes showed last year that he has nerves of steel when the stakes are high, holding on to Lehkonen until Joe Sakic finally relented and gave him the right shot D prospect he wanted and a second-round pick in this year’s draft. Outwaiting Joe Sakic is no small feat given how long he dangled Matt Duchene league wide before finally trading him.
For those who are disappointed with the Canadiens’ current successful run, take solace in the fact that it’s much more entertaining to watch a team battling injuries that still gives it all than it is to watch a team who plays like the Flyers did last night. Furthermore, Martin St-Louis was given a mission when he was put in charge of this team, he was told to develop his players and build a winning culture, two things he’s been able to do remarkably well even in a season where there’s been many loses.
Tonight, the Habs will be taking on the Senators in Montreal and Samuel Montembeault will be in goal. This should be the only change in the line-up, given both the lack of options and the fact that the team performed so well in Philadelphia. This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams, the Sens having won the first 3. The Ottawa outfit has got a 6-3-1 record in its last 10 games and has lost its last 2.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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