Canadiens @ Maple Leafs Top Six Minutes: Drouin Returns

For our new readers and members, the Top Six Minutes is a continuation of the discussion in the game thread. We try to keep it light and entertaining. Full recaps are up the morning after every game.

I have honestly no idea what to expect from this season...or this TSM to be totally honest. I will tell you though, I look forward to everything Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher do.

But at the end of the day, all that matters right now is that there’s hockey, it’s against the Leafs, and it counts!

Jake Allen’s helmet looks sharp. Here’s to hoping the team does too.

First Period

• Well, that was fun! Definitely the kind of start you want to see!
• Anderson cut his hair and gained even more speed.
• Montreal has fulfilled my wish. Hopefully they keep it up!
• I should have paid more attention during camp. I have no idea who is wearing what number.
• Six shots in the opening five? Not bad Montreal, not bad.
• Do NOT give up a power play goal after all that.
• COULD IT BE ANY MORE PERFECT??? DROUIN COMES BACK AND THEN DOES THAT?
• ...sure...call Romanov, but not the other guy. Who shoved just as much, but happened to fall over.
• Long suffering sigh
• Gotta say...there is a distinct lack of masks in these crowd shots...
• Please stop playing like that in your own end, Habs.
• This game needs more Gallagher. Not in the he needs to do more kind of way...but in the I want to see him on the ice more often way?
• anxiety
• More hockey in the Leafs’ zone please.

Second Period

• Ok Montreal, definitely gonna need you to come out in the second with the play we saw in the beginning of the first rather than the end...
• Hi Gally, I missed you.
• This is not the start I was hoping for.
• Oh lord. Montreal, it is excellent that Allen is doing so well. Please help him out more.
• That power play did not inspire a lot of trust.
• At least the shots are evening up...a little..a very little...
• This whole period did not inspire a great deal of trust.
• That play from Wideman and that chance from Anderson helped though.
• That was better!

Third Period

• Ooof. That Nylander goal.
• There have been good and bad things in this period so far. Which I suppose is to be expected in the first game of a season.
• Please have a better power play this time.
• Ok, now it’s 5-on-3, so you really have no excuse boys.
• Well, I guess they got chances? sigh
• Much better pressure after the two man advantage that did nothing.
• Please do something with this power play.
• The puck movement was pretty good. Too bad it didn’t go anywhere. Hopefully that will come? Maybe? Can you tell, my confidence is super high about this?
• There’s Gally doing Gally things, pissing people off in front of the net, and then grinning about it!
• Well, I’m not sure I have many thoughts of use, but Drouin looked good, and Suzuki and Caufield are entertaining.
• ....how did only Anderson get a penalty after that. Really?
• I am astounded that the puck did not end up in the back of the empty net there.
• Habs lose 2-1, but it for all my moaning about things, it certainly could have been worse.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) And we do this all again tomorrow (hopefully with more goals)

2) Cheering is hard

1) That off-ice relationship turning into better on-ice chemistry