No more showcases for the trade deadline/ What does this mean for Martin St-Louis’s lines tonight? I’m curious to see if anything changes over the course of the game.
Also, Scott called two goals for Jonathan Drouin in this game.
First period
- … Well there’s one Drouin goal.
- The trainer comes out quickly to check on Gibson after that play. A knee injury is not something the Ducks want for their franchise netminder.
- The game is soon tied as Jayson Megna capitalizes on a poor clear from Montreal.
- Apart from the goal, the Canadiens have control of this one, which should be case given the rosters.
- Montreal gets a power play and has a few chances, but the game remains tied.
- Chris Tierney blocks a shot and he’s wincing in pain on the bench. Does he wish he was still a healthy scratch? I’m sure the answer is ‘no.’.
- Anaheim isn’t getting many shots, but they are getting in close to the net when they do.
- RDS just pointed out that the Habs’ last eight goals have come from eight different players. There was a time when Cole Caufield was the only hope for a goal.
- The Ducks are starting to press and rack up some shots now.
- And Kaiden Guhle just left the ice favouring his right shoulder. Two-and-a-third games will be as long as his return will last I fear./
Second period
- My fear was unwarranted, because Guhle has returned to the bench, laughing as he inhales the ammonia from his smelling salts to prepare for another period of action. Maybe it was just some momentary dead-arm.
- Regardless, I’m glad I didn’t have to post that injury report.
- Joel Edmundson trips up his man on a semi break, but he got the puck first, so that’s a good defensive play. Keep that in your notes for this summer, league GMs.
- Anaheim is actually playing quite well now, preventing the Canadiens from building speed through the neutral zone. It’s resulting in some icing calls as Montreal tries to dump pucks past them.
- Trevor Zegras gets left all alone. Fortunately for Montreal, he decided on a slapshot rather than some of the dangles that made him famous at last year’s skills competition.
- Drouin goes to the box because a Ducks player fell over in his vicinity I think. Anyway, a chance for him to get a breakaway out of the box.
- Drouin gets his revenge as a Ducks player breaks his stick on him, sending Montreal to the advantage.
- I think we can all agree the performance isn’t as crisp in this game as the last two, but everyone’s still trying.
- Things heat up at the end of the second period out of nowhere, just as the had in San Jose. Nothing develops from it./
Third period
- There’s a meeting at the blue line between the Suzuki line, Mike Matheson and David Savard before the period begins. I bet they have something big planned off the opening draw.
- Icing.
- Josh Anderson just misses setting up a goal with a pass from the boards.
- Samuel Montembeault turns aside a breakaway. Both teams seem to want this second point.
- Matheson checks Zegras and he goes down, Zegras retaliated with a chop. It’s a Montreal power play.
- Gurianov made a pass on the man advantage and no one was expecting it.
- Matheson hits the post.
- Anderson hits the post.
- Zegras is freed.
- Tierney crumples after blocking a shot. I bet now he’s wishing he was eating some popcorn in the press box.
- Gurianov dashes in, but drops the puck back to a trailer. I’d rather him shoot that.
- He then connects with Gibson while skating through the crease, and Nathan Beaulieu puts him in a bear hug. That’s probably for the best for Gurianov, because we once watched Beaulieu punch a man’s visor clean off his helmet.
- Tierney now goes to the bad box, not the one with popcorn and hot dogs.
- Mason MacTavish slings the puck into the net with an exceptional shot. How does he only have 14 goals this season?
- Anderson goes to the box for some interference that wasn’t quite sneaky enough.
- Nick Suzuki nearly scores seconds into the penalty kill, but Gibson just gets a toe on the puck.
- Jakob Silfverberg scores on Anaheim’s second straight power play, and now Drouin needs three goals to get this game to overtime.
- Nick Suzuki scores a late one, but that’s as close as it gets, a 3-2 defeat./
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Well the finish was fun, if you stayed up that long
2) A nice moment for Drouin
1) We’ll find out what they have in store for round 2 soon enough.
