Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs Top Six Minutes: Off to a good start

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.

Pre-game

• Pre-season didn’t really go in our favour but that cool. Clearly the plan is to save all the wins for the regular season. Solid plan if you ask me.
• Our defence tonight will consist of two players making their NHL debut, another who played four NHL games, and another who has a whopping 10 under his belt.
• Let the 2022-23 season... BEGIN!

First period

• While I always love seeing Carey Price (always), seeing him in the tunnel and waving to fans filled me with a sense of dread. Excuse me while I grab a tissue box of tissues.
• Off to the first power play of the season we go.
• Hasn’t changed much, I see.
• Allen makes the save on Matthews at point-blank range. Good. Good.
• Great play on another power play, Caufield lets loose but Murray makes the save.
• Is it just me, or is this power play looking better?
• Slaf gets a good first chance.
• The Habs are fast. This is a pretty darn fun start.
• That is, until Bunting opened the scoring. Dude, you scored a goal in the first game of the season, not the Stanley Cup Final. Tone down the celebration.
• As things start to pick up in the Habs third power play of the period, Wideman decides it’s time to try a little four-on-four instead.
• The Leafs must have really worked on their penalty-killing during pre-season since they seem so eager to show it off.

Second period

• Thirty-three seconds in, Caufield picks up a slick pass from the Captian to tie it up! Now, we’re talkin’!
• One of the best parts of that play is how Anderson flattened Rielly to get the play started.
• Matthews hits the crossbar (well, the puck, not Matthews himself this time) and just when you think Allen won’t find the puck, he makes a nice save.
• Suzuki flies by Malgin who taps one in to give the Leafs back the lead.
• Caufield snipes another one to tie it up once again!
• Dach tries his best for a sneaky wraparound goal but Murray sprawls out and stays put.
• Huh, it’s being reviewed. As much as I want this to count, this is a waste of time.
• As suspected.
• Kerfoot gets a penalty shot because Xhekaj barely interfered with his shot.
• Luckily, Kerfoot isn’t a good shot anyway.

Third period

• Monahan heads to the box for high-sticking off the faceoff.
• The Leafs break out an old Habs classic power-play move... keep passing back and forth at the blueline waiting for the perfect shot that never comes.
• With a burst of speed, Gallagher wins a foot race, gets a partial breakaway, takes the shot, misses, and slams himself into the boards.
• Gally was channeling the old Gally there and looking pretty good. Maybe, juuust maybe, he’s all fixed up and good to go.
• Guys, control your sticks. With six minutes to go and this could easily backfire. Harris is the next one to sit for high-sticking.
• Birthday boy, Sean Monahan picks the perfect time to notch his first goal as a Hab and we’re in the lead!
• Nylander sucks all the fun out of the room and ties it up less than a minute later.
• Possible offside? St. Louis calls a timeout to check the video. Clever, Martin. No challenge.
• ANDERSON with the game-winning goal with a mere 18 seconds left on the clock! That’s my boy!

EOTP 3 Stars

3) Nice to see some new faces. Welcome to EOTP!

2) And he probably should have had a couple more

1) The rebuild was fun