As if the Montreal Canadiens didn’t have enough troubles with poor play, high expectations and an injury list of 10+ players, the news came that top sniper Cole Caufield was done for the season after shoulder surgery. The positive (if there were any) is that Montreal now becomes a more serious contender for the Connor Bedard Sweepstakes. Leading the way currently are the Columbus Blue Jackets with just 28 points followed closely by the Black Hawks at 30, Anaheim with 31, Arizona at 33, San Jose 37 and Vancouver 39. With Les Habs at 41, they’re right in it.
Tonight’s visitors to the Bell Centre were the Toronto Maple Leafs and they didn’t waste any time in taking the lead just :53 seconds in. Marc Giordano made himself available on the Leafs first line rush and sure enough William Nylander passed it back for a nice under the arm snipe for the veteran d-man. Calle Jarnkrok tapped in a wonderful feed from Connor Timmins to make it 2 Zip. AM34 was also in on the first and his little buddy Marner assisted on the second Leafs goal.
Les Canadiens got off to a quick start in the second when Josh Anderson scored his 14th from Suzuki and Pitlick just 1:46 in. It didn’t stop there as Samsonov had to be excellent in surviving a 3-4 shot blitz to hold the Leafs lead to one. Typically, the second is Toronto’s strongest period but by the end, they were out shot 19-8 by the surging Habs. Further proof was on display as Harvey Pernard (who ?) tied things up scoring in just his 3rd game.
It was a pretty even-Steven game in the third even though the Leafs came back to outshoot Montreal 14 to 4. Ilya Samsonov was getting knocked around in crease a lot on the few chances the Habs did get. A 4 on 4 turned in to a 4 on 3 to Montreal’s advantage in the last 2-3 minutes to no avail. It was off to OT. Brent Pitlick put in his second to win the game for the Canadiens – a guy who had been waived through the league on 2 occasions this year.
HOPPER NOTES: A 22 point differential between team points never seems to have an effect when these two squads faceoff….it’s always good, old-fashioned hard nosed hockey…even back in the ‘80’s when the Leafs sucked the big one, they’d always show up for a game at the Forum…speaking of which, a shameless plug for Sunday night’s documentary called OFFSIDE: The Harold Ballard Story on the CBC – 8 pm I believe….it should bring back some hostile memories for Leaf fans of a certain vintage…I told you that I have been reading Bryan Trottier’s book…he never really apologizes for switching colours to play for the Americans…he only regrets having to play against his best pal Mike Bossy…had the complete pleasure of watching a U16 AAA game here in P-Dot today…my old pal Alynn Smith asked me to come out and watch her son play for the London JR Knights…look for #2, LD with B. Clark on his back – a BRIGHT future and he’s only 15 ! WOW, what a high calibre of hockey…what a bright future we (Canadians) have in our game – the skill, the breakouts, the (clean) hits, the skating and passing skill – a true hockey experience…if you get a chance to watch this calibre of hockey in your community, don’t miss out ! Alynn, BTW had been the Team Manager for the past 4-5 years…she has got to a candidate for “Hockey Mom of Year”…her son and most of his team mates have been together 7-8 years….talk about team building and the great Canadian pastime – CHEERS !
Funny what happens to the Leafs when they face the Habs. Glad you got to see Alynn and B.
Leafs always seem capable of playing down to Montreal’s level…”B” has a very bright future on hockey – high IQ, strong on the puck? Great vision !