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In Hainsight: The Panthers Are Still on the Hunt

March 31, 2023, 4:40 PM ET [87 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow me @KarineHains for all updates about the Montreal Canadiens and women's hockey

Last season ended with the Canadiens trashing the Panthers 10-2 in what will likely go down in history as Carey Price’s last career game. On that day, the Bell Centre was rocking and the fans were having a blast, but the Panthers weren’t and it looks liked they decided the same wouldn’t happen this year, in 4 games between the two teams, Florida has scored 27 goals while Montreal only scored 11 so it should come as no surprise that Habs were unable to claim a single win. With their 5-2 triumph last night, the Panthers remain only 1 point behind the Penguins in 8th place and with 6 games to go, they could still squeeze into the playoffs, although Pittsburgh does have a game in hand.

The game started well for the Tricolore as Sean Farrell scored his first career goal in his first shift at the Bell Centre on what turned out to be his first career shot. To be fair, Alex Lyon definitely should have made the save, but it still counts and Farrell, Evans and Gallagher celebrated it just like it had been a masterpiece of skills. To be fair, that joy and team spirit is what kept me watching this season, seeing that even through all those injuries and ups and downs is a testament to what Martin St-Louis is building with this team and it looks promising.



Matthew Tkachuk had himself quite a night yesterday, a day after his father Keith called the Panthers “too soft”, he stepped up in a big way, scoring a hat-trick and adding an assist for good measure. There’s no denying that even though Florida has struggled this season, Tkachuk has delivered all the way through, he leads the team with 101 points and has been a great fit with his new team. If the Panthers had issues beating some teams during the season, last night, once again, they completely dominated the Canadiens, and the result was never in doubt. The Habs only managed to get 20 pucks to the net and most of those in non-threatening fashion, in fact the Canadiens had 4 more giveaways that they had shots turning the puck over 24 times, that’s rarely going to end well.



The courageous fans that were still in the building towards the end of the game got a bit of a consolation prize when they saw Rafael Harvey-Pinard score his 14th of the year on the power play with less than a minute and a half to go. The rookie masterfully deflected a Hoffman shot and it squeezed behind Lyon who couldn’t see a thing with Brendan Gallagher acting as a screen. Speaking of Harvey-Pinard, it was announced this morning that he now has a new agent, he’s joined Quartexx Management, Kent Hughes’ former firm, something tells me the negotiations shouldn’t be too hard this offseason.



Meanwhile, there is some chatter about Cole Caufield’s contract extension being announced shortly, apparently, there’s nothing official yet but most expect an announcement to come before the end of the season. Hopefully, the two sides manage to reach a long-term deal that will be friendly to the team salary structure and which will allow it to have some flexibility on the cap and add other dangerous pieces when they team is ready to contend.

The Canadiens held a practice this morning, Harvey-Pinard was missing as he was receiving treatment while Joel Armia was present for a second day in a row, but this time wearing a regular jersey. David Savard, who missed last night’s game, was also absent. The Habs will be back in action tomorrow night against the Hurricanes at the Bell Centre.
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