Montreal Canadiens Game Reactions: Gone in 97 Seconds

The Montreal Canadiens end their seven game losing streak defeating the Florida Panthers at the Bell Center Tuesday night 5-1.

Golf claps everyone, golf claps. The losing streak is over and the Montreal Canadiens are finally back in the win column. It didn’t feel that way at first. The game started similar to how they’ve started over this stretch with poor and sloppy play. Fortunately the team was able to dig in and bounce back from a disappointing first period.

It’s good to finally have some positivity around the team for a change. Who knows what would have happened if they lost this one. All their problems wont be solved after one night though. Although they got the win, the Montreal Canadiens are still last in the Eastern Conference with five points. On the bright side, that goal differential looks a little better than before.

This could be the spark that the Habs need to go on a run here. One win won’t cut it for them to get back into a more favourable position. The team will get a chance to have revenge from the California road trip as they will take on the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. If they can duplicate the good things from Tuesday night’s game, Montreal should have no problem getting the win against them.

Thoughts and Observations

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97 seconds. All it took was 97 seconds for the Montreal Canadiens to turn that game around in their favour. They wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to being in the position for this if Carey Price wasn’t on his game early on.

The Florida Panthers had two point-blank chances in the first period to score but Price stopped them both. Although he gave up that Keith Yandle goal early in the second, he gave the Habs a chance to win even when they were struggling, and boy were they struggling.

They couldn’t complete a pass, didn’t look engaged, and the power play was dreadful. It’s funny to critique the power play, because it was the man advantage that triggered the comeback.

Goals, Goals, GOALS!!!

It was the Habs’ third attempt of the period, and Jonathan Drouin send a beautiful stretch pass to Brendan Gallagher who got a shot on net. Alex Galchenyuk drove to the front of the net and was able to get the rebound past James Reimer to tie the game with his second goal of the season.

Montreal’s next power play had the same result, a goal. Andrew Shaw won the faceoff and Drouin ended up with the puck (bad idea for the Panthers). He got the puck over to Shea Weber (another bad idea) for the patented Weber-Blast and the Canadiens got the lead. As powerful as a shot it was, Artturi Lehkonen screening Reimer was a large part of fit as well.

Then something spectacular happened, the Montreal Canadiens scored again! A strong forecheck by Paul Byron caused the Panthers to turn the puck over in their own zone. Gallagher ended up with the puck and with great patience, waited out Aaron Ekblad roofing one for the third goal of the game. The Panthers had the lead, and it was gone in 97 seconds (if you haven’t seen Gone in 60 Seconds, it’s a great movie).

What made the rest of the game even better was that the team didn’t let up scoring another two goals in the third period. The fourth came from another Weber-Blast.

The final goal of the game started with a great rush up ice from Phillip Danault. He ended up getting the warp around but was stopped from Reimer. However the rebound trickled out to Max Pacioretty who was left alone in front to score.

Fans have been talking about players who needed to step up offensively. The players who needed to get on the score sheet did.

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The Call Ups

Both of the young prospects had good games, but Nikita Scherbak stood out the most. The 2014 1st round pick was skating well and using his speed to generate some chances. Additionally, he was rarely caught out of position on the defensive side of the game.

Michael McCarron wasn’t as flashy but he had a couple of decent hits and was good to have on the ice as a net front presence. There was a period of time in the game where that whole line, along with Galchenyuk, was the best on the ice.

Scherbak and McCarron deserve another look or two with the team after this one. In fact, if they keep this up, they could stick around for the remainder of the season.

As much as fans were calling for a Drouin, Scherbak, Galchenyuk line for next game, the best thing for Claude Julien to do would be to leave things as they are. It’s like the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Hopefully what we saw in this game wasn’t a fluke.

Next: A Potential Trade With the New York Rangers

What did you make of the game? Can the Montreal Canadiens keep this going? Let us know your thoughts down below.