First period
- A good start for the Habs, which is becoming quite common for them.
- Tanner Pearson, back in the lineup, rips a shot off the crossbar.
- Montreal is getting a lot of shots off versus some lenient defence from Toronto.
- Sheldon Keefe has William Nylander on the third line. I’m sure Martin St-Louis would have him in his top six.
- Suzuki whacked a pick out of mid-air and forced Ilya Samsonov into a good save.
- We’re seeing a lot of Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie early on, usually when the Canadians are cycling the puck.
- Suzuki pounces on another Leafs defensive breakdown, firing the puck off the elbow of the net.
- Montreal is winning the majority of the puck battles.
- Montreal’s top line is looking great. I bet we see Mitch Marner back on the Leafs’ top line to start the second period to try to slow them down.
- Bobby McMann hits the post from the slot. Both teams are playing the pipes.
- Montreal finishes the period with nine shots and two posts versus the Leafs’ four and one, and that two-to-one margin feels about right for that period.
Second period
- Toronto is tied for first in second-period goals, so let’s hope this period is better than Thursday’s.
- A slapshot from Ilya Lyubushkin goes in off the stick of Domi to open the scoring.
- Auston Matthews scores his 64th seconds later. So about having a better period….
- It was also the right move to keep Matthews and Domi together apparently.
- Montreal’s top line responds with three scoring chances, but no response goal.
- The Leafs aren’t having to play much defence so far, and that’s when they look like a contending team.
- Matthew Knows makes it 3-0. It’s the Lightning game all over again.
- Ryan Reaves and Michael Pezzetta drop the gloves. That will be an easy decision in Reaves’s favour.
- 4-0 as McMann adds to the totals. This one’s getting ugly.
- Despite there being another game tomorrow night, Cayden Primeau comes in for Montembeault. We’ll find out what that means for tomorrow’s match versus the Rangers.
- Tyler Bertuzzi slashes Josh Anderson in the chest, so there’s a chance to get one goal back.
- Thanks to an excellent spinning backhand pass across the ice from Juraj Slafkovský, they do. Suzuki connects on the other end with his 33rd goal of the season to make it 4-1.
- Jake Evans takes a puck in the mouth. That poor head of his.
- A skirmish between Brendan Gallagher and Jake McCabe sends the game to four-on-four
- Justin Barron does a nice job of activating with the top line on the ice, and it eventually leads to a Cole Caufield goal to make it 4-2.
- It’s a two-poimt game for Suzuki as he continues his quest for 82 points. He has 74 in his 76th game.
- Two goals down, two more to go in the third.
Third period
- It’s an odd-numbered period, and that means Montreal is looking good through about five minutes. They’re still looking for the third goal, however.
- Josh Anderson whacks at Samsonov, but the puck wasn’t free. This might be Anderson’s last chance this season to score a goal, versus a team that he finds success against.
- Armia goes to the box for hooking, though it may have prevented a goal against.
- Rafaël Harvey-Pinard just misses a pass from Evans on a short-handed rush.
- Toronto makes some good passes on the power play, but nothing clicks. Good news for the Habs’ comeback bid.
- The pull Primeau with a couple of minutes to play, but can’t get any closer than 4-2.
- It’s another one of those games that the Leafs win but makes you wonder how they’re going to fare in the playoffs versus a non-rebuilding team not missing its second-line centre and two of its best defencemen.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) I think he gets there
2) We did note this in our Slack channel when it happened. A nice development for next year
1) They’ll get them next year in games that matter.
