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Gorton’s first move at the helm of the Canadiens was to claim Kale Clague off waivers from the Kings and today, he made another one, claiming Rem Pitlick off waivers from the Wild. Pitlick is a 24-year-old forward that can play at center or right wing and who’s contract expires this season. Come July 1st, he’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. In 20 games with the Wild this year, he’s gathered 11 points (6 goals and 5 assists – including a hat trick game in November). Interestingly, the Canadiens also have his brother Rhett Pitlick in their system, having drafted him in the 5th round in 2019. The younger Pitlick is unsigned to this day and currently plays for Minnesota in the NCAA.
Rem Pitlick portera le numéro 32!
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 12, 2022
Rem Pitlick will wear number 32!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/ypkEeeLj5e
This morning, Dominique Ducharme confirmed that Jake Evans and Alexander Romanov wouldn’t be dressing for the game against Boston since neither of them had skated in 10 days thanks to their equipment only reaching them on the day they were meant to leave to join the team in Boston. Unsurprisingly, it was Jake Allen that was called upon to defend the Habs’ net, his first game since December 14th, having tested positive for Covid shortly after. Unfortunately for Allen, that was the shortest comeback in history as he injured himself on the first goal of the game when Brad Marchand was left alone on the doorstep and had no trouble tapping the puck in. Poor Allen who hadn’t played in a month clearly overstretched and though he tried to stay in, he came out after the Bruins’ and Marchand’s second goal which came 15 seconds later. Everyone’s favorite Bruin completed his hat trick on a short-handed sequence. Scoring a hat-trick wasn’t enough for Marchand though, in the third, he thought it would be fun to lay a dangerous hit on Suzuki who was nowhere near the puck. Thankfully, Suzuki was unharmed, but the Canadiens were unable to capitalize on the resulting power play. To be fair, the Habs weren’t as clean as can be either, minutes later, Chris Wideman headbutted Erik Haula who was holding him from behind.
Brad Marchand goes for the big hit on Nick Suzuki and all hell breaks loose: pic.twitter.com/A0e6rQWyov
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) January 13, 2022
Chris Wideman is going to hear from the league about this one. pic.twitter.com/fyOwG8xY24
— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) January 13, 2022
I’ll be honest, I started writing this blog this afternoon after the waiver claim, I just knew that the Bruins would win, there was never any doubt about it, but what I didn’t expect was the feel-good story of the game, Michael Pezzetta. He scored in the second on one of the hardest working shifts we’ve seen from a Canadiens’ player this season and earned himself a spot on the power play, thanks to his own efforts and Armia’s lack of (he finished his night on the 4th line). That was Pezzetta’s second goal and his second at the TD Garden, while he might not be the most talented guy, the Habs can sure use a hard worker who can score in Boston as well. Furthermore, he’s found a way to get under the Bruins’ skin and irritate them, looks like he could be useful in the future rivalry meetings…
The Habs will have a quick turnaround as they play again tomorrow night in Chicago and chances are, Jake Allen won’t be there, and Cayden Primeau will get to either back-up Montembeault or be thrown right in the fire.
That's a deer in the headlight if I ever saw one... #GoHabsGo https://t.co/qKSe1aqbqx
— Karine Hains (@KarineGHG) January 13, 2022