The Montreal Canadiens honoured the player from their 1970s dynasty tonight at the Bell Centre before taking on the New York Rangers, but it failed to inspire the team.
The Montreal Canadiens had a tall order tonight: get back on the road with victory by beating the near-perfect New York Rangers. Thankfully, there was extra help on hand: players from their many championship teams from the 1970s. Of course, the legends couldn't get on the ice, but still, it was hoped their presence would inspire. Before the game, the former players were made available to the media.
Decorated goaltender Ken Dryden was asked what he thought about this year's team, and he said:
This team knows where it's going and it's starting to head in that direction. Some of the special players are showing themselves to be special and watching Martin St-Louis, he looks like he's going to be one of those special people as well. His interview that he did after the injury to Patrik Laine, it was fantastic, just the way he spoke, he understands, he knows that his job here and anybody's job here is to be special, it's not to be good, it's not to be great, it's to be special. That's the standard, that's what you have in your mind.
Unfortunately, the Rangers were not impressed and were merciless, taking advantage of every mistake. The Habs started well with a menacing first shift on which Lane Hutson nearly scored. Still, when the play went the other way, less than a minute in, Mika Zibanejad made the most of a bad defensive coverage and beat Samuel Montembeault on a one-timer in acres of space to put New York ahead 1-0. Coach Martin St-Louis had this to say about the start of the game:
It was a funny first, if you look at the first shift, until the end of that shift, it was a good shift for us. Zibanejad gets out of the bench, beats us on a change, gets there late and Lane was on the play, in the offensive zone, making the play, almost scored. It's hard for a defenseman to think about the second wave going back into your zone, as a defenseman, you go back to the net. It was a good shift and it ended badly.
A minute and a few seconds later, Montembeault thought an icing would be called, he signalled it, Logan Mailloux stopped playing and before Homer Simpson could have said "D'OH!" is was 2-0. There's obviously a lesson to be learned there, you play until the whistle but in the end of the action, sometimes, you react in a different manner.
After 4 minutes of fairly error-free hockey, Lane Hutson tried to deke around Reilly Smith, who reminded him that he is an NHLer. He picked his pocket and made it 3-0 Rangers. As the coach said in his post-game press conference, it's hard to win a game when you're down by three before the first TV time-out.
After Josh Anderson was sent to the box for cross-checking, Filip Chytil beat Justin Barron's coverage to make it 4-0 on the power play and send Montembeault off to an early shower. Needless to say, a fully pumped Bell Centre after the opening ceremony was subdued, to say the least.
Still, some players kept on trying. Jake Evans, who is never deflated come hell or high water, worked tirelessly, had two shots, two hits, a roughing penalty, and won 60% of his faceoffs in that first frame.
Anderson, freshly out of the penalty box, battled with purpose behind Igor Shesterkin's net and was spotted by captain Nick Suzuki, who changed courses to go to the front of the net rather than change, and he managed to cut the lead by one with his first goal of the year.
St-Louis didn't punish his young defensemen, even with the juicy turnover; Hutson saw over seven minutes of action in the first and was right back on the ice for the start of the second frame alongside Mailloux.
Brendan Gallagher drew a penalty when he forced Adam Fox to hook him as he headed in all alone on Shesterkin five minutes into the second frame, waking up the Bell Centre crowd. With Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Mike Matheson, and Alex Newhook on, the Habs managed to cut the visitors' lead down to two thanks to a fantastic effort from the captain, who scored his second of the night and the season.
The Rangers were still hungry, however, and less than four minutes later, Braden Schneider took advantage of Primeau's glove hand to score high and give New York a 5-2 lead back.
Unfortunately, much of the second frame was spent wondering how the Rangers didn't extend their lead even more. It pains me to say, but Primeau has confidence issues, and when something goes wrong, he seems to be unable to put it behind him and move on. There were numerous occasions tonight where he lost sight of the puck, and it miraculously stayed in the blue paint until it was retrieved by a friendly stick.
After 40 minutes, the visitors had a 25-18 edge in shots, and that's without the many posts they hit up to that point. It's honestly hard not to be impressed by the visitors' passing play. Their attack really is a very well-oiled machine, which St-Louis called a "circus offense" and one full of picks, which I thought was a pretty accurate description.
Things went from bad to worse in the third period. The Canadiens kept trying, and Evans drew a penalty, but the power play was unable to convert. Slightly frustrated, Brendan Gallagher was having a bit of a tussle in the crease with Jacob Trouba after the whistle when Chris Kreider jumped on Gallagher. Both were sent to the box, leaving Trouba free to roam the ice.
Unfortunately for Justin Barron, he took full advantage of his freedom, backing into the Canadiens' defenseman with a shoulder hit to the head, which went unpunished by the refs, at least since Matheson jumped on him. Of course, the alternate captain received a 5-minute penalty for fighting, a 2-minute penalty for instigating, and a 10-minute penalty for misconduct, adding insult to injury. After that, the Rangers added two more goals to skate away with a 7-2 win.
Evans, who has been on the receiving end of more than his fair share of hits to the head, had this to say after the game:
I just, I hate seeing that, I didn't like the hit...yeah, I just hate seeing it and I'm hoping JB can recover quickly and it's not too bad, we're just thinking about him. We got a really tight group in here, that's one thing that's going well [...] No one on the bench liked the hit and for him to step up, it says a lot about how close we are and how good of a teammate he is [Matheson].
The Canadiens will have plenty of time to lick their wounds as the next game is on Saturday, and tomorrow's practice is scheduled later than usual in Brossard at 11:30 AM.
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