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The Canadiens have had quite a few delayed starts this year, games in which they found themselves down 0-2 early on because they weren’t ready to compete when the puck dropped, but yesterday wasn’t one of those days. When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a tripping call 46 seconds in, the Habs were ready to pounce on the power play and they did. Martin St-Louis had done his homework and adjusted the way his team deployed its man advantage unit in light of Edmonton’s penalty kill. Result? Cole Caufield scored his 12th of the year assisted by Suzuki and Matheson at 1:43.
Fully aware of the Oilers’ speed, St-Louis had also made some adjustments to his blueline, he scratched Justin Barron to insert Jonathan Kovacevich back in the line-up and paired Kaiden Guhle with Mike Matheson. Guhle who hadn’t been playing his best hockey of late, faced the though task of being systematically opposed to Connor McDavid, the best player in the world. Furthermore, the youngster had to do it playing on his off side on the right, and he certainly rose up to the challenge. Mc David was only able to get one point on the night, an assist on the overtime game winning goal, but he did it on the power play. At even strength, Guhle was nearly flawless, this game should do wonders for his confidence.
Anyone who went to the Bell Centre expecting an offensive duel will have been sorely disappointed, but the Canadiens’ head coach certainly wasn’t, feeling his team had played one of its best defensive game of the season. While Kent Hughes has said he wants to ice a fast team which plays an offensive brand of hockey, no one can argue the Canadiens would beat the Oilers in that department and it was therefore wise of the coach to adjust his strategy to the opponent.
Even though the coach said his team played one of its best defensive game, 39 shots still made their way to Samuel Montembeault who was able to stop 37 of them, earning the first star of the game mention. In front of him, Mike Matheson blocked five shots and David Savard three just like Rafael Harvey-Pinard and rookie Joshua Roy. In the first NHL game of his young career, Roy skated for over 13 minutes, including a minutes and 22 seconds of ice time on the man advantage. He was employed on the third line, taking a regular shift, even seeing some action in the last few minutes of regulation. The coach explained that he wanted to give the young man some “reps” and see how he would handle it. For me, Roy passed the test with flying colors on the greatest stage of them all, the Bell Centre ice on a Saturday night with the best player in the world playing on the other side.
The Oilers were finally able to beat Montembeault early in the third, on a controversial goal as the keeper felt he was interfered with. St-Louis’ challenge fell on deaf ears though and the game was tied at 1-1 thanks to Leon Draisaitl. Brendan Gallagher took a hooking call late in regulation, but the Canadiens were able to kill it. They couldn’t do the same for the Matheson overtime high sticking call though and Evan Bouchard scored the game-winning goal at the two-minute mark in overtime.
It really was an overtime kind of day in Montreal, hours before the Canadiens fell 2-1 to the Oilers in extra-time, the PWHL Montreal team suffered the same fate in its home opener at the hands of the PWHL Boston team. Courtney Kessel’s players came to town hoping to spoil the party and that’s exactly what they did when Amanda Pelkey scored the game-winning goal in overtime. Boston left the city with two points in the standings while Montreal had to make do with the sole consolation point. Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton, John Sedgwick and France Margaret Belanger were all in attendance to watch the game.
Still, the day wasn’t completely spoiled according to captain Marie-Philip Poulin who had a goal waved off in the overtime period. When she put the puck being Aerin Frankel in overtime, the building erupted in cheers as the fans believed the most clutch player to ever play the women’s game had struck again, but their joy was short lived. For Poulin though, it would have taken much more than an overtime defeat to spoil the day they had all been waiting for, for so long. Just like many of the top players in the league, Poulin had been playing in the PWHPA from 2019-2020, just like Erin Ambrose, Laura Stacey and Ann-Renée Desbiens, for them, the day was about much more than just the win. It was about finally seeing what they had dreamed of for so long come to life at home, in Montreal. The ceremonial faceoff done by Danielle Goyette, France St-Louis, Kim St-Pierre, Caroline Ouellet, her two daughters and general manager Daniele Sauvageau brought tears to the eyes of some fans and goosebumps for others.
The sold-out crowd at the Auditorium in Verdun included many young girls wearing their own hockey jerseys and you could almost see the dream in their eyes. Yesterday was a historic day for young girls in the province. Now, they can dream big as Elvis Gratton would say and their mom can’t just shut down their request to play hockey by saying: “No, that sport is for boys”, there’s a professional league to aspire to. In your face mom…this may or may not be a real-life story.
While this 3-2 overtime loss was quite entertaining, the Montreal team still has quite a few issues to work on. The number of turnovers in their own zone was astonishing and they certainly didn’t make Ann-Renée Desbiens’ life any easier. They also struggled a bit on zone entries, unless one of their key forwards was in control of the puck and skating it in. Blueliners often tried the long pass and missed their target causing an icing, when they weren’t just intercepted by Boston. One thing’s for sure though, a new rivalry is born. Boston coming to Montreal and taking the win probably stung the fans as much as the players. As coach Kessel said it herself: “You guys love your team so much that it just makes us want to beat you that much more”. Montreal's next game will be Tuesday at the Place Bell in Laval when they take on New York, there are still tickets available so how about it? Come and see history being made.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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