What a weekend.
Even on this compressed NHL season with the Winter Olympics looming, this one was on quick ahead, begin to end.
It started late Friday evening with a commerce that Canadiens GM slipped in simply forward of the vacation roster freeze,
bringing Phillip Danault again from Los Angeles
for a second-round draft choose.
Saturday night, with the commerce nonetheless the first subject within the sizzling range league, younger Jacob Fowler took the ice on the Bell Centre in opposition to Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby and
stoned the Pens in a 4-0 shutout
that included a few gorgeous, highlight-reel saves.
Josh Anderson had two objectives, Owen Beck acquired his first after scoring for the third time (it’s the NHL, people) and Fowler cemented his standing as the very best goaltender within the group, if not the precise beginning goalie for the steadiness of the season.
Even this triumph couldn’t cross with out an harm to Jake Evans on a knee-on-knee hit that will negate the impact of the Danault commerce earlier than he slips on his No. 24 jersey to take the ice in Boston Tuesday. It makes the most recent Hughes transfer appear frighteningly prescient.
Then it was on to Pittsburgh for the second half of the home-and-home duel, with Crosby nonetheless needing a degree to tie Mario Lemieux’s franchise report at 1,723 factors.
Crosby shortly acquired that enterprise out of the best way
with a aim and an help to interrupt Lemieux’s report.
(It could appear churlish to level this out, but it surely took Sid the Child 472 extra video games to achieve the identical degree, which is a reasonably correct measure of the gulf between him and Tremendous Mario.)
Again to Sunday evening, with Juraj Slafkovsky, Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov meshing like top-flight veterans to provide two good passing performs for a pair of objectives. That may have been sufficient for the win if not for some egregious errors and goalie Jakub Dobes (the tallest of the three netminders on the roster) making himself small on the mistaken time.
So Boston looms after which the Canadiens get a break till Sunday evening, once they resume the season in Tampa. Win or lose, they’ve to be ok with the place they’re after 36 video games that included long-term accidents to at the very least 4 and maybe 5 (relying on the extent of the Evans harm) key roster gamers and the close to
full meltdown of goalie Samuel Montembeault.
The Canadiens are 19-12-5 for 43 factors, good for second within the Atlantic. A yr in the past, they’d simply accomplished a home-and-home sweep in opposition to Detroit, with Patrik Laine scoring his fifth power-play aim in three video games to enhance their report to 14-16-3 for 31 factors.
Now, they plug Danault into the lineup, a shift I didn’t see coming as a result of Hughes has tended to shrink back from costly veterans. However this workforce is clearly shifting into a unique part of the rebuild and, by any honest reckoning, they’re manner forward of schedule.
If we guessed mistaken on the potential of a commerce for the veteran Danault, it’s as a result of the sport has modified. Now, it’s about
successful
. Not that elusive twenty fifth Stanley Cup, let’s not get forward of ourselves, however
studying
to win. Danault will help most in these video games the place the Canadiens have held a one- or two-goal lead and may’t maintain it.
With Danault within the fold, the goaltending stabilized and gamers returning to the lineup for the stretch run, the Canadiens are poised to do some successful. First, they will want some luck with the accidents. They’re overdue.
Schmoe-lympics:
It’s a preferred subject, the truth that American GM Invoice Guerin has dissed Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson, whereas Canadian GM Doug Armstrong has but to sign his enthusiasm for Nick Suzuki on the Milano-Cortina Olympics.
I perceive these younger males need to play for his or her international locations — in the event that they didn’t, you wouldn’t need them in your workforce. However for the sake of the Canadiens, I hope Caufield, Hutson and Suzuki spend most of February on a seaside.
Suzuki appears particularly weary and battered. My first thought after I heard in regards to the Danault commerce was that he can raise a few of the burden from Suzuki, whose consecutive-games streak stands at 491 — the variety of video games he has within the NHL.
The Canadiens play on the highway in Winnipeg on Feb. 4, then shut down for the Olympics and don’t have one other sport till they meet the Islanders at dwelling on Feb. 26. That’s an excellent, lengthy stretch for Suzuki and everybody else to get rested and wholesome.
Joyful holidays, people. If you happen to can’t be with the one you’re keen on, love ‘em anyway — and discover a method to allow them to know.
Heroes:
Sidney Crosby, Lane Hutson, Oliver Kapanen, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, Zachary Bolduc, Owen Beck, Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, Marie-Philip Poulin, Dara Greig, Sandra Abstreiter, Reece Howden &&&& final however not least, Jacob Fowler.
Zeros:
Jake Paul, Andrew Tate, Carter Hart, Enhanced Video games, playing advertisements whereas play goes on, Dillon Brooks, Wayne Gretzky, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& final however not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and perpetually.
@
jacktodd.bsky.social
jacktodd46@yahoo.com
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