Just like every year, the Montreal Canadiens held their Hockey Fights Cancer on Saturday night, and I’ll admit that I struggled to hold back the tears when they introduced the kids currently battling this awful disease. Not just because of the kids, but because it hit closer to home this year with my dad currently fighting the big C. Hopefully, the themed night prompted a lot of people to donate to cancer research and one day, we’ll have a cure.
Several Canadiens players chose to dedicate their fight against cancer to the coach consultant Roger Grillo, who is currently battling the disease, as announced by the organization this morning. The ceremony came to a close when a youngster who had just beaten the disease rang the bell that symbolizes his victory, to the cheers of 21,000 fans, an inspiring moment, to say the least.
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While a goaltender’s first job is without a doubt to stop the puck, anybody who’s ever manned the net will tell you that another one of their roles is also to inspire confidence. Allowing a goal on the second shot of the game hardly inspires that, and while I don’t want to keep hitting on Samuel Montembeault when he’s down, it’s hard not to mention it.
The first goal came off a rebound he allowed on the first shot he faced from the Utah Mammoth, and while the goal wasn’t entirely on him (Joe Veleno completely lost his man on the play), the result remains the same: a shaken goaltender who struggles to inspire confidence.
A few minutes later, on a shot that wasn’t all that threatening, Montembeault spilled the puck after making a save, and it was slowly trickling into the net when Jake Evans came to his rescue to save the day and prevent the Habs from being down 2-0.
Montembeault bounced back spectacularly, however, stopping 15 of the 16 shots he faced in the second frame and making some key saves in a third period he called the best the team had played this season. Right now, it seems like the goaltender needs to build his confidence all over with every game. While that’s not ideal, it’s better than not having any confidence at all. By his own admission, Montembeault stated that the deeper the game got, the more comfortable he felt.
Like it or not, referees are mere mortals, and, like every human, they will make some mistakes. Granted, mistakes seem to happen a lot these days, but whatever happens on the ice, players must keep playing.
Early in the second period, Josh Anderson fell to the ice and felt that he had been interfered with. Instead of jumping up and keeping on playing, he wasted some time staying on the ice looking at the ref. As a result, the Mammoth got a three-on-one and scored a go-ahead goal. After the goal, Anderson was looking at the ref as if to say, “Look what you’ve done”. It’s not the first time this has happened this season, and the last time it did, he got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in a game the Canadiens ended up losing against the Edmonton Oilers. Lessons need to be learned. Thankfully for Anderson, Cole Caufield was on hand to tie the game right back.
Minutes later, as the Bell Centre crowd was loudly booing because Jayden Struble had been tripped, Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook took off with speed on the wing. The young Finn fed Newhook, who cut inside and scored, making it 3-2 Montreal before the boobirds had even stopped voicing their displeasure. Without a doubt, the much better way to react to a disappointing call or no call in this instance.
Frustration is understandable, but you lose nothing by continuing to play if there’s something you think warrants a penalty. Worst-case scenario, you’ll give a few seconds of unnecessary effort, but it’s much better than costing your team a goal.
At the time of writing, the Canadiens have the league’s top goal scorer and the rookie top scorer as well, a rare feat for this team. Cole Caufield has 12 goals in 15 games, on pace for 66 goals, that’s a Rocket Richard Trophy-winning pace. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to keep it up, but it’s impressive, nonetheless.
The more he plays, the harder Caufield makes it for Team USA to ignore him for the Olympics. The Americans want to play a rugged game like they did in the 4 Nations Face-Off, but Olympic hockey is a different animal, and it won’t be called the same way. Leaving behind a player who can not only score but also do it in clutch moments could be a tremendous strategic error.
As for Oliver Kapanen, the youngster now has six goals and four assists for 10 points in 15 games, which might be a surprise to some, but not to Martin St-Louis:
He’s such an intelligent player; he does all that without cheating. He does it without just going to get those things (offensive production). I think Kappy has great qualities. He plays the game that’s in front of him, does what the game dictates, and as I said this morning, it’s rare that you don’t get rewarded offensively when you have the skills. And he has the skills, with the computer he has and the skills, I’m not surprised, but I’m happy about how he goes and get those things offensively, he doesn’t do it at the expense of his defensive work.
– St-Louis on Kapanen
At the time of writing, the Canadiens had two of the top three rookie scorers in the league. Ivan Demidov has the lead with 13 points, two points ahead of Matthew Schaefer, who stands on 11, while Kapanen trails him by a single point. I don’t think many believed that would be the case when the puck dropped on the season.
In the end, the Habs won this one 6-2, and the locals went
home happy after an excellent show.
The Canadiens will enjoy a day off tomorrow before getting back to work with a practice in Brossard on Monday morning. Their next game will take place on Tuesday night when they’ll host the Los Angeles Kings.
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Dans le cadre des initiatives #LeHockeyPourVaincreLeCancer de cette année, Nathan de Leucan a été invité à sonner la cloche à un match des Canadiens pour souligner la fin de ses traitements contre le cancer!
As part of this year’s #HockeyFightsCancer initiatives, Nathan from
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