The Montreal Canadiens released the latest episode of the Canadiens Embedded docuseries on Friday night and it was a good one.
There hasn’t been a new season of the Crave hit show The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens this year. Still, the organization did take fans behind the scenes with the Canadiens Embedded docuseries, which the team released throughout the season. The latest episode, which premiered on Friday night, showed fans what happened on the Canadiens mentors' trip, which took place from December 11 to December 13 as the team visited the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers.
The episode shows us that this time around, former alternate captain Brendan Gallagher elected to take his brother Ian on the trip, something that was long overdue after the diminutive winger’s mom, dad and sister all had a turn on the team’s trips over the years. Gallagher’s brother provided some entertainment when he took a turn at batting practice at the Pittsburgh Pirates' home, PNC Park, and sent the bat flying on camera. Why was the team there? Well, simply because the trip isn’t just about watching the team play, the 21 mentors were lucky enough to visit both PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, during their time in Crosby town.
The trip to Pittsburgh was also Jacob Fowler’s first career NHL game, a 4-2 win in which he made 36 saves. Starting one’s career against the Penguins has become a tradition for the Habs’ goaltenders over the years; Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Carey Price all played their first game against them.
That wasn’t the only first on that trip, though; that game was also the one in which Alexandre Texier scored his first goal as a member of the Sainte-Flanelle. Cole Caufield, Oliver Kapanen and Gallagher also found the back of the net in the game, great timing for the veteran who only found the back of the net seven times in his last season with the Habs. As for Caufield, he got to show off in front of his older brother, Brock.
The second game of the trip took the team to New York, where they enjoyed a tour of Yankee Stadium. Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle, who were injured at the time, still took part in the trip, and the defenseman told the camera he was glad to be back with the boys and out of his apartment. The Habs quickly took a 3-0 lead over New York but couldn't hold it and eventually lost 5-4 in overtime as the Rangers scored the game-winner on the power play.
Overall, it was an entertaining episode and a good way to get a quick hockey fix in the dog days of summer.
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