The Rangers gave their all last night, they put up quite a fight but fell to the Jackets in the shootout after they had lead the game 1-0 for the better part of the match. The Blue Jackets, who had put all their chips on the table on trade deadline day, finally got an X next to their name and the Panarin, Bobrovsky, Duchene and co. will try to win the ultimate prize before leaving Ohio.
As for our Habs, they will be playing one last time tonight when the puck drops at 19:00 for their match-up against the Leafs. This game will be meaningless not only because the Habs are out pf the playoffs but also because the Bruins-Leafs match-up is the only confirmed one in the east and the Bruins are already guaranteed home-ice advantage.
Hopefully, our boys manage to make us proud tonight and finally beat the Leafs who have won the last 7 meetings between the 2 rivals. We have to go back to February 26,2017 to find the Canadiens last win against Toronto. On top of that, the players will have one last chance to improve on what is already a career year for many of them:
-Max Domi already has 71 points, that's 19 more that what was his best total at 52 in his rookie year; -Tomas Tatar is 2 points over his previous career best season in which he had gathered 56 points; -Philip Danault has also improved his best season by 13 points so far; -Gallagher needs 2 points to tie his total from last year at 54 points but has a career high in goals with 33; -Andrew Shaw bested his season high by 6 points; -Jeff Petry has 45 points compared to his career high 42 from last season and has gone from a -30 last season to a very respectable -6 this year; -And last but not least, Price became the winningest goalie in the Canadiens' history.
Speaking of Petry, Mrs. Petry took to Twitter last night to say:
Ugh. Nothing worse than going out that way. Sad it's over. Especially because you know your husband (& his team) weren't ready to be done yet. This one is going to sting for awhile...#gohabsgo
— Julie Petry (@petryules) April 6, 2019
Don't worry Julie, none of us were ready....Tonight, we might get to see Ryan Poehling wear the Habs' bleu, blanc, rouge for the first time. Claude Julien might see it fit to give one last start to Antti Niemi since he'll more than likely not be back next year.
So tonight, be ready to cheer on your team for one last time this season and remember that none of us thought they'd be in the playoffs mix until the 81st game of the season. Be proud and if you are at the Bell Centre, be loud! We can all be proud of what this team accomplished this season and there will be plenty of time in our looooooooooong off season to discuss what could be improve and how. So tomorrow, expect a post mortem on this season to took us to tremendous highs and made us believe almost until the very last day.