NHL: Montreal Canadiens at New York Rangers
Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

The Montreal Canadiens visited Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, in a classic Original Six matchup with the New York Rangers.

Of course, to be accurate, the Canadiens are the only Original Six team still in the NHL. Even then, technically, when Ambrose O’Brien sold the franchise after just one season, he actually sold the Haileybury Comets—which means there are no Original Six teams left in the NHL.

But I digress.

Head coach Martin St-Louis once again turned to rookie netminder Jacob Fowler as his starter, in a desperate bid to instill some semblance of confidence and stability among Canadiens goaltenders.

It was an exciting game that featured a bevy of lead changes, and a frustrating result for the Habs, as the Rangers emerged with a 5-4 overtime win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Wild Start

It appeared the Canadiens were going to avoid taking any shots on Saturday night, as evidenced by the fact that they were held without a shot by the midway point of the period.

Ivan Demidov, in particular, had a great shooting opportunity, but opted to make an extra pass which failed to connect. It’s an issue the young Russian will have to improve upon as he gains confidence in the NHL.

And then it happened.

It all happened.

The Canadiens scored on their first shot of the game, yet another road goal for Zachary Bolduc, who apparently keeps all his good stuff for when the Habs are away from the Bell Centre.

As per tradition, it was Nick Suzuki who was at the centre of the action, setting up Bolduc with a perfect pass.

Arber Xhekaj then picked the perfect time to score his first goal of the year, while maintaining Montreal’s perfect shooting percentage.

It was a nice reward for Xhekaj, who, if we’re being perfectly honest, probably shouldn’t be removed from the lineup at the drop of the hat. He’s playing well enough to be given some semblance of confidence from the coaching staff, which isn’t the case for every defender this season.

Jake Evans made it 3-0 with a great shot, though it must be said that phenom Lane Hutson‘s aggressive approach once again paid dividends. Statistically speaking, Hutson isn’t the best defenceman in the NHL, but he’s younger than all those playing above his level, and he’s quickly catching up.

Falling Apart

That’s when things stopped going perfectly for the Canadiens, a normalization of results, all things considered.

First, the Rangers scored because three players decided to fly the zone, despite being on the penalty kill.

The change in momentum led to a penalty shot for Artemi Panarin, who made no mistake. Believe it or not, it was the first time the Rangers managed to score on a penalty shot since 2015.

To Hutson’s credit, he did his best to stop the flow of Rangers goals, by setting up Josh Anderson after carving precious ice in the offensive zone due to his excellent skating and fantastic hand-eye coordination.

There’s no metric to measure how much time and space certain players create, but if there was, Hutson would definitely be near the top of the list.

The Rangers weren’t fazed by the highlight-reel assist by Hutson, and would go on to score two goals in a little more than 30 seconds, punctuated by J.T. Miller’s eighth goal of the year, which featured less-than-stellar defending from all involved.

At that point in the second period, the teams had scored eight goals on just 25 shots, a testament to the defence-optional approach to the game.

Final Frame

The referees mostly let the teams play, which was a very nice change of pace. People will complain regardless of how the referees handle a game, we have ample evidence to support this truth, but Saturday night featured fairly reasonable officiating, all things considered.

Unfortunately for the Canadiens, they were outplayed by a gigantic margin, the real story of the night.

The Rangers held an 12-3 advantage in high-danger chances, with the Habs failing to produce one quality scoring chance at 5v5 for a 50-minute stretch.

This, of course, was probably somehow the fault of the officials, but if we’re being realistic, it was a recipe for disaster authored by the Canadiens.

The Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, and Oliver Kapanen line barely touched the puck during the game, allowing their opponents to take 18 shots, while they only generated two. It should also be noted they were unable to create a quality chance at 5v5, while their opponents had six.

In other words, it was a second-line massacre, and the Canadiens were fairly lucky to push the game to overtime, where the Rangers completed the comeback, winning 5-4.

The Montreal Canadiens will be back in action on Sunday, facing the Oilers in Edmonton. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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By Marc Dumont
Marc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The ... More about Marc Dumont

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