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In Hainsight: All by Himself |
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Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey
Normally, a Canadiens – Leafs match-up on a Saturday means a great fight no matter where both teams are in the standings, but last night was the exception that confirms the rule. In game 80 of an 82-outing marathon, the depleted Canadiens just couldn’t be bothered, and it showed. By the time the Habs took their first shot, the Leafs had already tested Samuel Montembeault 18 times and the night was still young.
By the end of the first period, Toronto only led 2-0 and early in the second, Jonathan Kovacevic cut the lead in half with what would turn out to be the Canadiens’ only goal, regular contributor Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki got the helpers on the goal. By the end of that frame, the Leafs added another 2 goals though and 3 more in the last period. Final score Toronto: 7 Montreal: 1. On the Leafs’ last goal, Samuel Montembeault who was understandably frustrated broke his stick on the net and nobody can blame him for that, he stood on his head all night facing a barrage of 46 shots with next to no help.
Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe the look on Martin St-Louis’ face when he turned up for his post-game presser, he was positively fuming. He spoke for 67 seconds top chrono and all he could manage to say was that his team just wasn’t there and that he expected better next game. There was not much point asking him any other questions at this stage.
One could have asked why he left Samuel Montembeault in net all game when he had no support whatsoever from his teammate, but it seemed clear to me, even though the netminder didn’t deserve to be left out to dry, he knew that disaster wasn’t on him, and a goaltending change wouldn’t have fixed anything. Throwing Cayden Primeau to the wolves would have done very little to improve the team’s fortunes and could have hurt the young goaltender’s confidence, there was just nothing to be gained.
Chris Wideman was also frustrated by the team's performance but even more so by the fact that the Leafs dared to put their back-up in net when there was a little over a minute left to the game. University goalie Jett Alexander had been signed on the day to an amateur tryout contract as the Leafs needed someone to back-up Samsonov with Matt Murray being injured and Joseph Woll having been returned to the Marlies following his emergency recall. Speaking about the Leafs, Wideman said: "They'll get what they deserve in a few weeks". Clearly, the Habs' defenseman doesn't see the Leafs going very far in the playoffs...
For the first time this season, Carey Price had travelled with his teammates to Toronto even though there was no way he could play. While some believe this was good for the morale of the team, I think this was one last hurrah for him, a farewell trip to say goodbye to his professional hockey player career before he and his family move back to Kelowna for good this summer. To me, this is the final confirmation that Carey Price is done and will never play again. Call it LTIR if you want, but the result for the fans is the same, the face of the franchise for the last 15 years is done and will never play again, he’s retired for all intents and purposes.
If you want to see the bright side of things, while the Canadiens were getting destroyed by the Leafs, the Coyotes were signing an overtime win, getting 2 points for their trouble, and leapfrogging the Habs in 27th place. Now, the Canadiens have 2 games left, one against the Islanders on Wednesday who are still battling for a playoffs spot and will be desperate for a win and another one against the Bruins who are trying to set a new high for wins in a single season. With 3 games to go, Boston already has 62 wins to its name, tying a record held by the Lightning and the Red Wings, but both teams did it in 82 games, Boston needed 79 to reach the milestone and could set a new mark. Something tells me they’ll do everything they can to do so, and I’d be surprised if they decided to rest many of their regulars before the end of the season.