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Yesterday’s game was anything but a masterful hockey display but at the final buzzer, the Canadiens were victorious thanks largely to Jeff Petry’s 2 goals. It’s been an awful season for the Michigan native and chances are he’ll be plying his trade elsewhere next season if the front office manages to accommodate his trade request, but seeing him get back to form is good news for the Habs brass. After all, it’s much easier to trade a player who’s performing well than someone who looks like they’ve forgotten how to play hockey and Petry has 10 points in his last 10 games.
Without taking away from last night’s win, it has to be said that the Rangers were resting Nika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba while Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp were also missing. Furthermore, back-up goaltender Georgiev was also in net and there’s probably a couple of Canadiens’ goals he’d like to take back. Still the Canadiens did enough to finally grab a win which will no doubt be good for the troops’ moral.
Meanwhile, the Coyotes win over the Dallas Stars last night sealed the deal, Montreal, who was a Stanley Cup finalist last season will finish dead last this year. It might not be something to brag about, but there’s at least a consolation price at the end of this nightmare of a season for Marty St-Louis’ men. By finishing 32nd, the Canadiens have an 18.5% chance of speaking first at this summer’s draft which will be held at the Bell Centre. Furthermore, they can pick no lower than 3rd and the odds that they end up with the 1st pick are at 25.5%, 18.8% for the 2nd pick and 55.7% for the first pick. There’s no guarantee that they’ll grab the top prize but even the 2nd or 3rd pick should yield a great asset and help the Habs in their reconstruction.
I’ve made it a habit of late of not being overly critical of the Canadiens’ players since there is not much point at this stage, but I can’t hold back anymore about Mike Hoffman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more predictable player on the power play. His passes are so obvious that they often lead to turnovers and even worst, to shorthanded goals. Next year, when games actually matter, that issue will need to be fixed. In fact, in would be even better if it was fixed in the offseason but I’m not sure HuGo can manage to make someone bite on his $4.5 million cap hit for 2 more years.
This morning, the Canadiens announced that Cayden Primeau had been sent back down to Laval. Don’t rejoice too fast, I don’t think this means Carey Price got the all-clear knee wise. The Rocket is playing this evening and there will be plenty of time for the Habs to recall him to back-up Montembeault at the Bell Centre tomorrow night for the last game of the season.
Petry en ajoute!
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 28, 2022
Petry adds another!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/goCDKFrEc0