Habs Make History Starting Season With 5-0-0

It was a night of sweet home-ice victory and history as the Montreal Canadiens took down the New York Rangers in a 3-0 win and became the 1st team in franchise history to start the season 5-0-0.

The 1st period started off looking positive for the Habs, until the 5 minute mark where the Rangers started to dominate possession. However, the Rangers hit a speed bump and ended up trailing behind in shots on net.

More from Editorials

Both sides of the ice ended up turning the period into a penalty fest, with both the Rangers and the Habs dishing out 3 penalties each and every power play not doing anything for both sides. The upside, besides Henrik Lundqvist not giving up any easy goals, is that the Habs were able to create some great scoring opportunities and end the period leading 10-7 in SOG.

Tomas Fleischmann opened the scoring for the Habs 8 minutes and 46 seconds into the 2nd period, grabbing his 1st home-ice goal of the season. Meanwhile, the 4th Montreal PP a minute later almost proved to be successful but there was a struggle to beat Lundqvist once again.

The old “dump and chase” routine had made a comeback, as the Rangers made it difficult for any line to generate speed through the neutral zone. Halfway through, the Habs were down 8-2 in shot attempts 32-17 overall.

2023-24 Florida Panthers Divisional Opponent Preview: Montreal Canadiens

The Rat Trick

Is the NHL making a mistake with the Hawks opening road trip?Blackhawk Up

NHL 24: Predicting the highest rated players at every positionApp Trigger

Penguins: Grading how each team did in the Erik Karlsson tradePuck Prose

Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings make a decent tradePuck Prose

Montreal Canadiens: Is New Acquisition DeSmith the Answer in Goal?Puck Prose

The period was starting to lose it’s energy, becoming very sluggish while the Habs (with most of the credit going to Carey Price) were still able to keep their 1 goal lead. However, they were able to generate some pressure in the Rangers zone, which was the cream of the crop throughout the 40 minutes played.

Montreal were outshooting the Rangers 8-4 by the time they got down to the 9 minute mark in the 3rd period, but the Rangers still had an advantage over the Habs for most of the last 20 minutes by making it hard for the team to keep the puck in their zone.

Oct 15, 2015; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban (76) reacts next to linesman Pierre Racicot (65) after getting a penalty during the first period against the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The last few minutes of the period showed the Habs making a solid effort to keep the puck in the NY zone, even though their shots on goal weren’t getting through.

Luckily, Dale Weise was able beat Lundqvist cleanly with 2 minutes and 5 seconds left of the period, with David Desharnais‘ excellent shift being a contributing factor. Tomas Plekanec also grabbed an empty net goal with 36 seconds left, with the Habs’ final score being 3-0 over the Rangers.

While the Habs has a successful home opener and made some history, the PP problems we’ve seen all last year just seems to keep getting worse, or maybe it’s the same but feels just as bad.

The Habs have a lot of talent on their roster, so it’s really hard to wrap your head around why it’s so bad even with J.J. Daigneault running the PP. It now feels as if the PP has a curse, killing itself before it has a chance to embarrass itself again.

Don’t get me wrong, goals are great. They’re just as good as those sweet shot attempts that almost get in or those special saves Price makes that makes you wonder how he’s human. However, it’s just not enough. We’re only 5 games into the season, but the summer training should have already shown us some positive change.

What are your thoughts on the Habs’ power play tonight? How did you feel the game went overall? Let us know in the comments below!

More from A Winning Habit