Any goalie with a good level of concentration will always swing his stick on the ice to signal to his teammates that an opposing player is about to leave the penalty box.
Jeremy Swayman did it Saturday, as the 11:41 mark on the clock approached in the third period. At that moment, it was not one, but two Canadian players who came out of the dungeon simultaneously. Except that the Bruins goalie could very well have taken care of his stick. The crescendo of the Bell Center crowd led to a deafening roar when Brendan Gallagher and Alex Newhook were released.
“It was loud tonight,” noted defenseman Kaiden Guhle, scorer of the winning goal in a spectacular 3-2 victory for the Canadian against the Bruins in overtime. They even cheered when they scored, and it lights a certain fire in you when you see that fans of the other team are there. It makes you want to come back stronger the next time you come. It looked like a playoff game. »
This experience is not trivial. Guhle is one of nine CH players in uniform in this game who have established themselves permanently in the NHL after the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. These players like Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky, Arber Xhekaj and Justin Barron therefore mainly experienced a moribund team, which was excluded from the race for the playoffs before the season even began.
Experiences like the one on Saturday, they haven’t had many in the NHL.
“When we face Boston, it’s one of the best atmospheres in the NHL,” noted team captain Nick Suzuki. Both teams gave everything. It’s quite a rivalry. In recent years, we often played without a challenge in the rankings. It’s good to play high-stakes matches. »
As part of the very committed reconstruction process, Martin St-Louis necessarily inherited a very clear mandate for player development. Should we remember that last season, eight rookie players played at least 30 games with the Habs?
That said, the very broad concept of development is not simply about pushing young people into the lion’s den and letting them learn from their mistakes. Slafkovsky, the baby of the group, did not set foot on the ice during the last eight minutes of the game.
St-Louis began to juggle its trios at the end of the match. He often sent two centers into the fray, a left-hander and a right-hander, sometimes even when changes were made during the game, simply to ensure he had a center capable of taking a faceoff in the defensive zone on one side either of the surface.
And if the young people were able to win this match, to live this experience of beating the Bruins in a tough duel, at a time of the year when the ranking still counts, it is because veterans showed the path to follow. Sean Monahan, even without getting points, was again in all the fights. If Suzuki was able to score in the third period, it was because number 91 parked himself in front of Swayman.
Brendan Gallagher, whose contract was bought by thousands of GMs at home, continued his strong start to the season by delivering a performance like he did at 27. He scored in his favorite position: on his stomach near the blue paint. And he made the opposing goalkeeper lose his temper, another of his specialties.
“Since the start of the season, Gally has looked a lot alike,” said St-Louis. The success he has on the scoresheet, I’m happy. But everything he brings that isn’t on the sheet is even more important. »
And how can we not think about the effect of the currently injured David Savard on Guhle and Johnathan Kovacevic, who were throwing themselves in front of Bruins shots like their lives depended on it?
“It hurts even more when the puck goes by you,” Guhle assured.
On this Saturday night, blocked shots led to victory. And victory, in good humor. “Guhle loves to throw himself in front of shots, just to show me his bruises the next day! “, joked Juraj Slafkovsky.
As a development atmosphere, it certainly beats a silent locker room after a defeat.
It just won’t fit for him. But he got chances, helped his club control the puck on the power play. And he very well could have gotten an assist on the winning goal.
By multiplying the mix-ups and bad decisions, he quickly made us forget his three-point performance on Thursday.
This is the number of days that have passed since the Canadian’s last victory against the Bruins. It was November 5, 2019. Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia (left out Saturday) are the only survivors from that era.
The Canadian finished the game with five defensemen as Jordan Harris left the game at the end of the second period and did not return to the game. After the game, the Habs announced that he was suffering from an upper body injury . No further details are known. On his last appearance, with six minutes to play in the second period, he was awarded a hit on Trent Frederic. CH only had six defenders on its roster, with two attackers and a goalkeeper as backup. However, the Rocket is in Winnipeg to face the Moose on Sunday and Monday. If Harris has to miss Sunday’s game, the recalled player will likely have to take a three-hour flight back to Montreal, before facing the Canucks.
David Pastrnak is one of the most skilled shooters in the NHL and he clearly understands his role. The Bruins star winger attempted 19 shots (!) towards Samuel Montembeault. The Canadian goalie blocked six, three missed the target (including one on the post) and the Montreal skaters blocked 10. Kaiden Guhle alone threw himself in front of four shots from the Czech. He concluded his match with an assist on Brad Marchand’s goal, but it was he who was in the penalty box when the Habs scored at the start of the third period…
On this subject, Pastrnak was punished for a high stick, a gesture he made in the offensive zone. We talked at length about the famous culture of the Bruins on Saturday morning, but the fact remains that this veteran team is not free from bad habits. Thus, these penalties in the opposing zone, which hurt the Canadian so much at the start of the season, came to haunt the Bruins this time. Pastrnak and new captain Brad Marchand were therefore both chased on sequences that took place 150 feet from their net. Seems like it happens even to the best.
