First period
- Four minutes into the game, the Canadiens are beginning to find their legs. It’s been a lethargic start for both sides.
- The Devils just had eight players on the ice, but the officials’ desire to call a penalty is about as high as that from the two teams so far.
- Caufield falls and takes a few seconds to get to his feet. He just isn’t right.
- Jake Evans sends a perfect pass across the crease to Josh Anderson, who just slings it off the end boards from eight feet away.
- Five total shots through 10 minutes. It’s a real doozy so far today.
- I hope this isn’t the first experience of NHL hockey for some of those people:
- This is like one of those Habs-Devils games from before Jack Hughes was drafted that were dreaded when they approached on the schedule.
- Montreal’s top line shows a bit of life with a couple of good chances for Nick Suzuki.
- The period is over!
Second period
- Someone enjoyed that enough to start another 20-minute countdown.
- The good news is Jake Allen’s value is rising with every minute that goes by without a Devils shot.
- A goal! Brendan Gallagher winds up a slapshot from the top of the circle and the puck goes off the post and in.
- Devils fans are booing. And they really should. Their team has five shots in 24 minutes.
- A Hughes for Gallagher trade might give them a better chance of making the playoffs.
- Allen is getting bored, so he hands the puck to a Devils forechecker and makes a blocker save off the pass.
- Timo Meier gets a tap-in at the side of the net after being left completely unmarked. Not much Allen could do on that one.
- At least the games has some life now.
- The teams have also starting hitting. We’re seeing a hockey game now.
- Mike Matheson boxes out his man from the front of the net and gets called for interference. That just looked like a good defensive play to me.
- Guhle gets goo body position and knocks down his man heading to the net. This time the ref doesn’t raise his hand when a Devils player falls.
- Suzuki just had his stick lifted by Nico Hischier to prevent a scoring chance. Using the captain’s tricks against him.
- Timo Meier sticks his leg out to trip Guhle at the blue line, and that leads to a domino effect of three Habs players getting taken out. The Devils don’t even get a shot on the play.
- Suzuki pulls the puck into his hip then fires a short-side shot over the glove if Nico Daws.
- The boos are back.
- Jesse Ylönen makes the same move from the same spot on the ice but goes far side, and clangs one off the post. I wish we could see that shot more.
- Gallagher is going to the room. Probably not for a mid-game trade for Hughes.
- He is back, so maybe just an equipment tweak.
- Both Jordan Harris and Johnny Kovacevic set a screen in front of their own goalie, and Allen has no chance of seeing the shot that makes the game 2-2.
- A four-goal period was much more interesting than the opening 20 minutes.
Third period
- The first big moment of the third period is a good entry by the top line to set up Guhle, but the defenceman leaves the puck behind. It allows a breakaway the other way, but the Devils forward hits the post.
- Suzuki follows up with a breakaway of his own, but thinks he has more time than he does and gets chased down by Kevin Bahl to prevent a goal.
- Jake Evans goes to the room, bu quickly returns. The replay shows he took a skate in the mid-section, and was probably worried about a cut.
- The crowd has found ways to entertain itself, giving some of the loudest cheers of the afternoon to fans catching pucks that go out of play.
- Suzuki goes off for hooking in one of the rare moments of offensive-zone pressure for the Devil in this game. A similar stick-poke to the one his breakaway was disrupted by.
- Hischier drives to the net right through the defence and scores toward the end of the power play.
- Anderson gets a breakaway and hits the net this time, but literally. It’s off the post.
- Mike Matheson gets completely walked by Jesper Bratt on a one-and-two,and that’s going to do it for this game.
- Or is it? Suzuki scores after great blue-line keep by Matheson.
- Again, Matheson is good at the difficult attempts to clear the zone, terrible at the automatic ones.
- And seconds after I type that, he bobbles a puck out of the zone.
- Montreal has a late flurry, but couldn’t find the fourth goal. The Canadiens lose a fifth in a row, 4-3.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) This was my look after that first period
1) Yes
1) Grapefruit League action is under way!
