Canadiens vs Hurricanes Top Six Minutes: Five more to go

For our new readers and members, the Top Six Minutes is a continuation of the discussion in the game thread. We try to keep it light and entertaining.

Pre-game

Tonight’s top line… Drouin-Suzuki-Ylönen. No, it’s not an April Fools’ joke.
This is what happens when you have half your roster on the injured list.
Six games left.

First period

Gurianov races down the ice for the best chance so far but not it’s so good that he’s able to find the back of the net.
It’s Evans’ turn to make his way down the ice but is stopped. The Canes seem to be giving the Habs some of space so far. This could actually not be a disaster.
Hmmm… perhaps I spoke too soon (I do that on occasion) as Skjei walks in, takes his sweet time setting up, and opens the scoring.
It may have something to do with shots being 14-3 for the Hurricanes with seven minutes left.
Evans goes down during the faceoff and takes the puck off the elbow. He’s grimacing on the bench. May as well just head on up to the press box now, Jake.
Well, that was a period. An eventful one? Nope. An exciting one? Nope. But that’s 20 minutes down.

Second period

Matheson off the goalpost.
He follows it up with another shot and it’s blocked. Give the poor guy a break.
So, Carolina clinched a playoff spot, hey? Aside from the fact that they have 4x the amount of shots we do (28-7… we’ll make it to double digits eventually), they don’t look any better than us.
Gally blocks a shot and gets hit in the chest with the puck. Given this season and the fact that Gallagher is partly made of glass now, that’s probably going to end in an upper-body injury.
Since they’ve spent the majority of this period in the Habs zone, it’s no surprise that Burns gets one past Monty.
We get the first power play of the night after Pezz is on the receiving end of a crosscheck. Now’s as good a time as any to get on the board, fellas.
Or, you know, we can wait until the third period if that’s part of your master plan.
Burns goes for his second of the period but Monty’s friend the goalpost helps him out.
Monty doesn’t get any help when Aho takes a shot on the power play though.
Belzile was down for the count during that play after blocking a shot and shows his frustration by breaking his stick off Monty’s crossbar. Don’t hurt the crossbar, Alex. It’s been a big help.

Third period

If you’re watching the game tonight, let’s hope you didn’t turn down a more exciting invitation.
Armia weasels his way through and almost squeaks one past Raanta.
That makes shot number 40 for Carolina and… 12 for Montreal.
Evans gets a stray stick (literally, nobody was even holding this stick) to the face (because Evans’ head is a magnet) and he’s headed off down the tunnel. I told you that you should have just headed for the press box after the puck to the elbow.
Monty loses his stick, but makes a nice glove save on the Canes’ 47th SOG.
Five more games to go. Hang in there everyone.