The Montreal Canadiens won their first game of the season. It wasn't perfect, but it was a team win.
It was a full house in the press gallery at Scotiabank Arena to watch the Montreal Canadiens take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was not only the season opener for both teams, but also Kirill Marchenko’s debut in Leafs colors and the start of rookie sensation Gavin McKenna’s NHL career. Toronto also hoped to remain unbeaten in home openers with captain Auston Matthews in the lineup (they were 10-0 since drafting him in 2016), while the Habs just hoped to ruin everybody’s party. Interestingly enough, it looked like Sergei Bobrovsky wanted to be the first to ruin a party; the superstitious netminder insisted on going on the ice first, stealing McKenna’s thunder on his rookie lap. Funnily enough, he did that after taking McKenna’s number 72.
Dobes Picked Up Where He Left Off
Granted, Jakub Dobes didn’t look great when he allowed a goal on the second shot he faced on the night, but he more than made up for it later. He made a couple of big saves on Matthews, and at the start of the second frame, with the score tied 1-1, it looked like Montreal was falling back into its bad habit of sitting back in the second. Not Dobes, though; he was locked in and started the frame with a great glove save on new Leaf Marchenko.
That’s the kind of statement save that gives a team confidence, that says “fear not, I’ve got your back,” and five minutes later, Zach Bolduc was giving Montreal its first lead of the game. By the end of the second frame, Toronto only had six shots, five of which came in those first five minutes.
At the start of the third frame, the same pattern emerged, and Dobes flashed the leather at Nylander. The Leafs’ winger would score another goal later, but it was too little, too late.
New Look PK
Starting the season against the Leafs’ big guns while trying to implement a new penalty-killing system may sound daunting on paper, especially after the Habs struggled down a man in the preseason. Still, Montreal didn’t have its full lineup then. With a full NHL roster, the Habs rolled up their sleeves, put on their work boots, and got to work.
In the first two-minute penalty, six forwards saw some ice time: Phillip Danault, Josh Anderson, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook, Nick Suzuki and Chris Kreider. Arber Xhekaj also saw some ice time down a man, 1:29 of the 6:00 minutes the Habs were shorthanded, and he played well.
Full marks to Alexandre Carrier, however, who frustrated the Leafs on his knees, blocking the puck along the boards for precious seconds, before scoring the game-winning goal on his next shift.
More Of That Dach
On the Canadiens’ first goal, Kirby Dach made a great play. He dispossessed Darren Raddysh, held onto the puck, found Carrier in space, and that eventually allowed Josh Anderson to bat the puck out of the air and behind Bobrovsky. Great patience by the alternate captain to wait for that puck to drop low enough before hitting it, but without Dach’s play, that doesn’t happen.
That’s the kind of Dach the Canadiens need. A big player who can pressure the defence on the forecheck and hold the puck long enough to build an attack. The 6-foot-4, 221-pound winger showed urgency tonight, something we didn’t see in the preseason. If any scouts were in Toronto tonight to see Dach, they saw some good things.
Patience Needed
Some will be quick to criticize the first line's play, but Chris Kreider just arrived and has had little time to learn the Canadiens’ system. Unlike the rest of the Canadiens’ players, he’s not yet familiar with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield’s game, and that’s hardly surprising. Caufield didn’t find the back of the net, but he had three shots, and the line had six total on the night.
It wasn’t perfect, but the Canadiens do skate away with the two points, largely thanks to goaltending and their bottom-six, not unlike what we’ve seen in the playoffs, really. Winning games without your top-six finding the back of the net is something teams need to do if they want to be contenders. Of course, the big guns will have to step up eventually, but Montreal will be glad to have put an end to the Leafs’ opening-night streak and to have put that game away in regulation, something they struggled with last season.
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