- It shouldn’t be a surprise that they could find a good singer in Nashville, but the anthems tonight were quite pleasant to listen to.
First period
- After 16 shots against on Tuesday and 13 on Thursday, what can the Canadiens do in this opening period?
- The first line gets stuck in its own zone (maybe more fitting to say the top pairing did), but the second one gets some zone time and a shot.
- A better job from the top line on the next shift when Nick Suzuki knocks the puck out of mid-air and sends Juraj Slafkovský in a breakaway. Slafkovský tries to shoot against the direction he’s heading across the crease, but Juuse Saros makes the glove save.
- Two more scoring for the second line following an Ivan Demidov takeaway in the neutral zone.
- Some excellent work from Demidov once again as he hunts down the puck in the neutral zone and relaunches the attack.
- A few games ago we heard Suzuki yell at Demidov that was coming off the bench with speed and open ice. The reverse of that situation results in the opening goal as the rookie calls to his captain for the puck, races into the zone with speed, and fires a shot off the post and in. A very impressive period from Demidov gets rewarded.
Neutral zone turnover gives Ivan Demidov time to work, and he rips one off the post and in. 1-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 8:37 PM
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- The only dangerous moments are coming with Nashville’s top line on the ice.
- Luke Evangelista decides to change how things are going for his team by skating straight through Jacob Fowler. Lane Hutson defends his goalie, but it will still be a power play for Montreal.
- Montreal gets one good shot in the 15 seconds they have to work with. I think one shot every 15 seconds should be the mandate that group.
- After a couple of late starts to games, the Habs lead in shots by a 9-3 margin after 20 minutes. They didn’t allow the Predators any space in the neutral zone to build their attack, and there were only about four dangerous moments all period for Fowler to prepare for.
Second period
- Well the power play is going as poorly as it possibly could, unable to get over the blue line.
- Slafkovský gets a late redirect of a Hutson shot, but that’s as close as they come.
- Demidov once again does some good work along the wall with the game back at five-on-five, but it’s Alex Newhook and Oliver Kapanen who combine for the goal. Saros leaves a big rebound off a routine shot, and that caught his teammates off-guard as they then had to scramble. Newhook’s rebound was collected by Kapanen and returned to the Newfoundlander, who found Kapanen again with a pass from behind the net around Saros to Kapanen’s stick for an empty-net goal.
Another turnover in the neutral zone, and this time it's Alex Newhook with some great patience to gift one to Oliver Kapanen in front. 2-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 9:19 PM
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- Evangelista gets in on Fowler once again, and Joe Veleno goes over to grab him. Jake Evans joins in on the scrum, and he’s the one who gets the penalty.
- Suzuki launches two short-handed rushes on the same shift, one with Veleno, one with Kapanen. At least Montreal’s period-opening power play wasn’t that bad.
- Erik Haula sends the puck off the post in the dying seconds of the power play as Habs get mesmerized by the puck movement.
- Struble goes after Evangelista and gets a penalty. They need to pay Evangelista much less attention for the rest of this game.
- Another short-handed rush, but it’s a breakaway for Veleno.
- The Predators were under constant pressure in the offensive, and didn’t generate anything that tested Fowler.
- Caufield toe-drags the puck around Nicolas Hague, then zips a wrist shot off the post.
- He may have dropped one of them, but these open shots to Saros’s glove are essentially turnovers.
- Caufield gets another one-on-one look at Saros after barrelling through his man on the forecheck and fighting through a slash, and goes blocker-side for his 45th goal.
Cole Caufield just takes this puck off the wall and rips one. Mr. Saturday night's 45th goal puts the #Habs up 3-0.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 9:44 PM
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- Commence the wave.
- The second line has just been amazing tonight, and now its third member has a goal. Demidov’s shot hits the post, but he sticks with and sends a perfectly weighted backhand pass through traffic right onto the tape of Newhook to extend the lead to 4-0.
Ivan Demidov hits the post on his first try, then dangles and sets up Alex Newhook to make it 4-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 9:49 PM
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- Slafkovský loses his stick, but leads the rush up ice anyway. Someone gets him a stick on the bench, but it’s not his, and he’s unable to finish off the best play he helped set up.
- Every time the puck is frozen by Fowler, a scrum is breaking out. The Canadiens don’t like players being anywhere near Fowler tonight. Kaiden Guhle and Hague get offsetting roughing minors.
- Martin St-Louis isn’t thinking defence, He has Caufield out at four-on-four with Suzuki looking for a fifth goal.
- They get a two-on-one, but there isn’t enough time on the clock to get anything more than a long-range shot.
- Another good period from Montreal even though they had to kill two penalties. Fourteen more shots (to Nashville’s 12) and three more goals. Now to lock things down efficiently in the third period to save energy for tomorrow.
Second intermission
- The Sportsnet panel is realizing how much more fun it is to talk about the Canadiens than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Third period
- Suzuki gets a good chance in the opening moments of the period as he and Caufield create another look at four-on-four.
- The Habs fans who made the trip are beginning the usual serenade.
- Hutson is forced to the wall and just tosses the puck at the net to get a whistle. I think that might be the difference between his play at home and that on the road that was highlighted in today’s Habs Headlines.
- Struble does the same thing on a later shift. The plan is to just keep the puck in Nashville’s zone, and the Predators aren’t doing much to spoil that.
- Caufield tries to bust through Nashville’s defence for another shot from the slot, but a stick-check denies him at the last second.
- O’Reilly gets a rare dangerous look as he just goes to the net and hopes for a pass, and ends up testing Fowler with a deflection.
- Another neutral-zone takeaway for Demidov leads to another chance. Saros stops him this time.
- The first moment you could call bad from the second line comes as they take off on a rush without first securing the puck, and that lets Nashville spend more time in the offensive zone. They need to just concern themselves with getting it over the blue line first.
- Caufield gets a shot from point-blank range, but Saros makes another save.
- The fourth line looks like the Harlem Globetrotters right now, so I think this game might be over.
- Zachary L’Heureux slashes Evans. Evans slashes L’Heureux. Between those two actions, it became a penalty, and Evans is off to the box. The refs want the home crowd to have a goal to celebrate I guess.
- The Canadiens getsa two-on-one short-handed, but the pass goes to Veleno.
- Ah, yes. The Predators deserved a bounce after getting completely outplayed in this game. A dump-in goes off the glass and falls to Fowler’s left, and L’Heureux knocks it in. The ref’s plan worked in the end.
- Dobson’s helmet is knocked off by L’Heureux, he gets a minor and a misconduct.
- They try to set up a goal for Caufield, but Montreal will have to settle for a 4-1 win.
- Montreal has won four games in a row, and this one was quite comfortable.
- The Habs complete their season schedule versus the tough Central Division with an 11-4-1 record. The only team in the Eastern Conference that can do better than that is New Jersey.
- Now for a night’s sleep and a quick turnaround with a game tomorrow at 5 PM ET versus the Carolina Hurricanes.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Not the second-line centre he hoped for, but this trade might just work out for Kent Hughes
2) An ode to a Rat
1) So “poetry” is the real top Family Feud answer to why everyone visits the site
