There was no shortage of action in this game and the fans even held their collective breath a few times. The Tricolore came out strong in the first, playing a Canucks team that was in action against Ottawa just last night, they clearly intended to strike fast. The Canadiens dominated the first with 10 shots on goal to the Canucks' 5 but more importantly, the score was 1-0 when the buzzer indicated the end of the 1st. Believe it or not, the goal came from Jordie Benn's stick after Armia did all the work in his first game back from injury. This first frame was not all about the scoring though, at one point, Brendan Gallagher blocked a shot with his right hand and this was eerily reminiscent of his costly shot block against Johnny Boychuk in 2015:
As soon as the puck hit him, he grimaced, headed straight for the bench and then for the locker room, throwing his stick in the process. It all looked too familiar but thankfully, it was a false alarm as Gally was back on the ice before the end of the first period. Perhaps the custom gloves he now wears did the trick:
Unfortunately, this wasn't the only scary scene in this Canadian battle. Trying to get back to his own end, Jesperi Kotkaniemi held Elias Pettersson causing the two players to get tangled up and when they fell, Pettersen's leg got stuck underneath him. If you have trouble handling legs twisting the wrong way, I would advise you not to watch the following video:
Pettersson left the ice on his own two feet but did not come back in the game. Canucks fans are understandably upset given the fact that he is without a doubt one of their best player but claiming that Kotkaniemi should be suspended is going overboard. There should have been a holding call yes, but there was no intent to injure.
The second period was better for Vancouver, the shot on Price 17 times and they could have scored at least a couple of goals had Carey Price not been playing his best but thankfully for the Bleu, Blanc, Rouge, he was. Price's positioning was on point, he tracked the puck very well and made spectacular saves look easy. The Canadiens were able to double their lead through Jonathan Drouin who scored on a breakaway off a Max Domi feed. This was Drouin's 13th goal of the season in 41 games. Last year, he had 13 goals during the whole year. It's safe to say that the Drouin-Domi tandem works heck of a lot better than the Drouin-Pacioretty one.
Price was just as dominant in the 3rd frame and made 33 saves in total to get his second shutout of the year (the other one happened in Boston when he blanked the Bs 3-0). There were some scary moments in the dying minutes and the fact that the Habs seemed very attracted to the penalty bench did not help but he hung on to the Bell Centre's crowd pleasure.
In his post game comments, Claude Julien said that he used Brendan Gallagher less towards the end of the game, choosing to err on the side of caution given the fact that Gally had already injured that same hand twice in the last few years. Speaking of caution, it was also announced today that Andrew Shaw suffered a neck injury in Dallas which caused him headaches. Since Shaw as already had a few concussion, he's undergoing the concussion protocol even though it hasn't been rules a concussion so far.
The Habs will be back in action on Saturday against the Predators for the Tomas Plekanec bobble head night, which many had rightly guessed would occur after Pleky's departure from the team.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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