First period
- David Savard gets called for a trip as a Panthers player falls over his foot. So expect a whole lot of power plays for Montreal when they get into Florida’s end.
- Florida didn’t do a lot with their power play. like they embarrassed to even have one.
- This isn’t exactly the desperation I was expecting from Florida given their recent record.
- It’s a pretty sleepy start from both sides. A perfect chance for Josh Anderson to just go out and decide now is the time to end his goal drought.
- There’s a celebrations for Linesman Jonny Murray’s 1500th game. His gift is getting to pick up the pieces of Colin White’s shattered stick on the next faceoff. Not the most thoughtful gift.
- Savard isn’t going to let some silly tripping penalty change his game. He dives to break up a stretch pass and thwart a potential breakaway.
- A couple of good scoring chances for Montreal’s Fab Five.
- The crowd is coming alive with some good shifts for Montreal.
- But Florida scores first as Josh Anderson moves out of the way to allow Anton Lundell in alone on Montembeault in the slowest mini-break you’ll see in game action.
- The second line makes up for Anderson’s gaffe first with a two-on-one chance, then mid-change Joel Armia deposits the puck into the net from the top of the crease.
- Shots are now 10-6 Montreal.
- The mid-period commercial break must have come with some comments from head coach Paul Maurice. The Panthers get five shots in quick succession, and the fifth is an open look for Aleksander Barkov for a goal a Kaiden Guhle didn’t see him approaching the net.
- Montreal’s power play goes to work as Armia draws a hooking call. He’s been the best player on the ice so far.
- It will be a five-on-three for 58 seconds as Eetu Luostarinen knocks a mid-air pass out of play. I really don’t think those types of plays should count (I think it should just be the same as an icing, but in any case).
- Juraj Slafkovský goes after a loose puck, and Aaron Ekblad wrestles him to the ground. Slafkovský gets a roughing penalty along with Ekblad, solely because the ref didn’t want to give Montreal more power-play time.
- The Canadiens can’t score on their advantages, and Cole Caufield missing the net twice from his spot is a bit concerning. Something isn’t right there.
Second period
- The Canadiens don’t get a shot with their final 50 seconds of power-play time.
- Montreal just got a nice shift from the third line. Anderson came very close to hitting the net a couple of times.
- There’s a review to see if the puck ever crossed the goal line in that sequence.
- It didn’t look like the puck crossed the line on the overhead angle.
- Surprisingly, the ref has deemed it a good goal. So we’ll take that.
- Now the ref comes back to say that it wasn’t a goal after all. So I suppose we’ll give it back.
- Cole Caufield gets grabbed rather obviously on his way into the zone, but the Panthers give the puck right to Nick Suzuki in the slot, and he has a pretty easy time of scoring his 31st goal, and 70th point.
- Anderson just missed the net on another shot. He should have had that category added to his contract for a performance bonus.
- Whatever is ailing Caufield isn’t affecting his work on the boards to win battles. Just his release.
- Guhle jumps up into the play and attempts to pull the puck to his forehand to score. It’s already great to see him exploring his offensive side.
- Florida has been targeting Caufield all game, and now Sam Bennett goes to the box for interfering with him.
- Make that 32 goals for the captain with a little reverse tip of a wide shot to send it off the post and in.
- That’s 72 points in 74 games. He can make this point-per-game season happen.
- A long sequence of cycling by the Panthers ends in a hooking penalty for Jesse Ylönen.
- The best chance goes to the penalty-killing duo of Colin White and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard.
- That was a very good period from Montreal, outshooting Florida 13-7, with Suzuki making it count with a couple of goals.
Third period
- RDS shows a graphic that Montreal is already close to its season average of offensive-zone time versus the Panthers.
- Slafkovský makes a quick shift of his hands to get the puck on his backhand on a zone entry to create a more lateral pass fro Caufield a few feet in front of him. Caufield carries the puck all the way around the net and wraps it inside the post before Stolarz can get there.
- All the players are just picking up from where the left off before the Hurricanes game. Guhle has goals in his last four games as well with the secondary assist on Caufield goal.
- Suzuki flips the puck up, but it hits again off the toe of his stick and gets knocked out of play.
- He just wants to cap his hat trick with a dramatic breakaway out of the penalty box.
- Brandon Montour does his best Mike Matheson impression at the offensive blue line, and Jake Evans is free to break away for a short-handed chance. He beats Stolarz to make it a 5-2 game.
- Florida ends its own power play with an offensive-zone hook. This is one of those games that ends with a players-only meeting. Florida is not playing well and hasn’t for about three weeks.
- Slafkovský and Arber Xhekaj both land a hit on Steven Lorentz at the same time at centre ice. That was 686 pounds of human colliding there.
- Pezzetta is off to the box with about 11 minutes to play.
- San Reinhart deflects a pass off the post.
- Alright, Anderson actually made a proper offensive play, going to his backhand at full stride, but his shot went off Stolarz’s blocker.
- Nick Cousins lands a hit on Evans well after the whistle on an offside, and Evans goes right after him.
- It’s a power play for Montreal as Cousins gets an extra two for roughing.
- Matheson gets hounded at centre ice, and that’s a hooking call on Florida. Another five-on-three. This is Suzuki’s chance for his first hat trick.
- Florida gets upset with Slafkovský again for going after a loose puck. Maybe the players should put Stolarz in a headlock until he learned some rebound control.
- The Panthers keep doing dumb things, and the refs keep calling them for it. As it should be.
- Colin White comes out for a power-play shift. I don’t know, if I were an opposing team, I’d be more embarrassed about that than a team just running its top unit in a blowout.
- The crowd’s “Olé!” chant lasts about 10 seconds before Florida scored to make it 5-3. They just wanted to have some fun.
- That’s the way this one finishes; a fourth win in five games.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Everything still works great but for his shot
2) It was all a part of his master plan
1) This night deserves a binary star
