Tweaked lineup tonight against the Blues, with Brett Kulak rejoining the action and landing with Jeff Petry on the second pairing, Ben Chiarot dropping down to the third, and Mike Reilly back in the pressbox with Cale Fleury. (Let's send the kid to Laval for a few games, instead of sitting games.)
Also, Paul Byron vaults to the second line with Max Domi, while Nick Suzuki takes his place on the fourth line. Claude Julien, knowing a good thing when he sees it, leaves the Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Armia line alone.
La formation projetée du match de ce soir.— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 12, 2019
The projected lines for tonight's game.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/O7pnLmtMSB
The Sportsnet stooges start the game by mentioning it's the 67th anniversary of Hockey Night in Canada, or more precisely, 'La Soirée du Hockey' on Radio-Canada, with NHL hockey shown for the first time on TV, described on-air by the venerable René Lecavalier.
The Canadiens open the scoring with Tomas Tatar getting the goal off the draw, and it's all kinds of malarkey that Phillip Danault, who won the faceoff, and Brendan Gallagher, who shoveled the puck to the front of the net and to Tomas, don't get credited with assists on the goal, at least initially. I expect this to be corrected, it makes no sense, that two players who happen to be in my hockey pool get stiffed like that.
After another early-season coverage breakdown in the Canadiens' zone allowed Brayden Schenn to waltz into the slot on a rush and wire a wrist shot past Carey Price to tie the game, Jonathan Drouin scored right back on a similar kind of play, taking a long lead pass from Ben Chiarot and lasering the puck past Binnington off the post and in. It kind of took the sting out of the Schenn goal, just as Gary Galley was nattering on about late-period goals being the bane of the Canadiens so far in October.
Good start to the season from Jonathan, and really, that's the kind of play we should expect from him, the level of intensity and production, from a third-overall draft pick who's the highest-paid forward on the team. A point a game from him all season long would be very welcome.
The see-saw battle continued to the end of the second period, with Vince Dunn notching an easy goal for the Blues on the powerplay, strolling in unmolested to receive a pass and wrist it into the open net, answered by Phillip Danault, on a great hustle play from Gally.
Some of the negative nellies in the media who've been pointing out the confusion in the defensive zone, all the shots against, and good scoring chances allowed, they're kind of getting to me, because I had a feeling of dread rather than optimism as the third period started, but I shouldn't have worried. Artturi Lehkonen gave the Canadiens the lead with a wraparound, followed shortly thereafter by a Brendan Gallagher goal, on an assist by a furious Max Domi. The latter closed out the game with a diving swat at a puck to score the empty-net insurance goal, a play on which Jonathan Drouin earned an assist.
After the game, Jonathan was awarded the player-of-the-game sword by captain Shea Weber, which I guess replaces the sweaty Game of Thrones cape the unlucky recipient had to put on last year. I admit I'm getting old, but the first thing that leaped to mind was the hope that the thing is quite dull, because how much would it suck for someone to get maimed because of highjinks?
[EDIT: Further reading: Strong start to season has Canadiens’ Drouin brimming with confidence ]
And the Brett Kulak-Jeff Petry duo just works. As much as on paper, in theory, according to hockey wisdom, it made sense to put Ben Chiarot, a New Age no-nonsense tough physical defensive defenceman, with offensive-minded Jeff Petry, it just didn't quite get airborne, they were still searching for that elusive chemistry. There was much tangential talk in the media this week about systems, about breakouts, with Ben talking about how the Canadiens want to pass/rush the puck up the middle quickly, while in Winnipeg they were playing more of an old-school puck control slower-pace system. He said how his first instinct is still to look to pass the puck across to his defence partner, or up the boards, where with the Jets his winger would be waiting. Now on the Canadiens, he said it takes him a second longer to remember to look up the middle and find his outlet there.
Tonight, Brett Kulak and Jeff Petry were engaged, working well with each other, skating freely. Each finished +2 and garnered an assist, while Ben Chiarot formed a physical third pairing with Christian Folin, which isn't a bad idea when facing a big team like the Blues.
And Victor Mete looks like he's gunning for that first goal. He's putting pucks on the net, jumping up on the play on line rushes, he came close (sigh...) again tonight. I have to believe it'll come. Soon. Like, this season or something.
So a big 6-3 win that should calm the waters a little, until the next tempest in the fandom.
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