Bottom Six Minutes Game 1: Canadiens played by their own power play

We are no longer talking about practice, folks. Your Montreal Canadiens took to the ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a rematch of their last meaningful game, which of course ended in a handshake line and a trip to the golf course for one team. In fact, the Habs were on a three-meaningful-game winning streak over their Toronto rivals coming into this game.

Welcome to your first official Bottom Six Minutes of the regular season, in which the Habs did not extend said streak.

The Habs had a great start, and dominated the better part of the first period, but only mustered one goal. That will rarely be enough to beat a high-powered team like the Leafs, and it ultimately was not on this night. They did get some glorious chances to generate the necessary goals, however, and completely blew those chances.

I am of course talking about the power play, which is the only thing they can truly blame for the loss. I’ll talk about why they were so bad in the embedded episode below, and how frustrating it was to watch them. Hopefully they can fix it quickly, because if that’s the best they can do, it will be a serious problem for them all season.

Elsewhere, there was a very encouraging performance from the second line of Jonathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak, and Josh Anderson. They were arguably the best line on either team for the night, and if this is a sign of what they can do, they should be a lot of fun to watch this season.

Click the play button below to hear my ramblings, and there will be little rest before the next episode, as the Habs are right back in action tonight against the Buffalo Sabres.