Montreal Canadiens Rookies Suffer Growing Pains In Wild Game vs Toronto Maple Leafs

The Montreal Canadiens faced the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time this season. The two teams have played hundreds of times over the years, but might not have ever played a game this wild.

The Montreal Canadiens faced their oldest rival in the second game of the 2019-20 season. They have 80 more to play, but will probably not have a more eventful contest this year.

The game started fast and furious as the Maple Leafs had two breakaway chances in the opening five minutes of the game. Both Alex Kerfoot and Auston Matthews broke in on Carey Price and fired pucks over the crossbar.

Though the Leafs had the chances, the Canadiens would strike first. Victor Mete made a great play as he took a hit behind his own net from the speedy Kasperi Kapanen. As he was facing huge pressure, Mete was able to knock the puck around the back of his own net to Shea Weber. Weber immediately fired it up ice to Brendan Gallagher who spun and hit Artturi Lehkonen to send him in on a 2 on 1 with Max Domi.

With Leafs defenseman Cody Ceci unsure whether to put pressure on the puck carrier on or focus on the streaking Domi, Lehkonen took advantage of the hesitation and fired a perfect pass across which Domi knocked past goaltender Michael Hutchinson to give the Habs a 1-0 lead.

The lead didn’t last long as a Cale Fleury mistake in his own zone resulted in the puck hurtling past Price. Fleury mishandled the puck and then chased William Nylander around the net to no avail. Nylander stepped around him and moved the puck to the front of the net. It eventually went back to the point where Morgan Rielly gathered it in and moved deep into the Habs zone before finding Matthews in the slot with a perfect pass. Matthews made no mistake hammering a one-timer to tie the game.

Fleury, a 20 year old rookie playing his second ever NHL game may have been stapled to the bench by many coaches around the league and a few former Habs coaches as well. Claude Julien had him back on the ice less than a minute after the Leafs goal, showing tremendous trust in the young defender and certainly giving him a confidence boost in the process.

The Canadiens took a penalty midway through the first period and though there were hardly any scoring chances during the two minute penalty kill, it was interesting to see Nick Suzuki, another rookie, jump on the ice with Joel Armia to kill off the final 30 seconds of the penalty. That is two huge votes of confidence in 20 year old players that show the organization’s philosophical shift toward a youth movement.

Suzuki had his own rookie moment a few minutes later though. With less than five minutes to play in the opening frame, Suzuki completely whiffed on a pass right behind his own net and then had his pocket picked by Trevor Moore. Moore fed Alex Kerfoot in front of the net who snapped a one-timer past Price to take a 2-1 lead.

Again, Julien could have decided to have a young player sit on the bench for an extended period, but he did not. After a couple of penalties were called shortly after the Kerfoot goal, Suzuki was out there for a defensive zone face-off in a four on four situation.

Again, without naming names, a certain Habs coach in recent memory would have sat a rookie Alex Galchenyuk for a long, long time if he turned the puck over behind his own net and it led to a goal against.

Early in the second period, an odd decision to pinch by veteran Jeff Petry quickly led to a 3 on 1 for the Leafs heading the other way. Trevor Moore, who apparently is awesome at hockey, fired a shot past Price to give the Leafs a 3-1 lead. The beehive of activity that was the first 22 minutes of this game came to a screeching halt after the Leafs took a two goal lead. The Canadiens were able to finally get some sustained pressure late in the period, but the buzzer sounded with the score still 3-1.

The Canadiens took their fifth penalty of the night early in the third period and the Leafs finally made them pay. Matthews was absolutely robbed by Price, but shortly after Nylander walked into the slot and fired a wrister through the five hole of Price to make it 4-1. Eleven seconds later Jonathan Drouin dropped a pass in front of the Leafs goal that Morgan Rielly kicked into his own goal to immediately make it a two goal game again.

What was notable about this goal was that Drouin was on the ice with Domi who set up the play to begin with and Paul Byron. That means Byron was bumped up from the fourth line with the team trailing and the rookie, Suzuki was moved down to play with Nate Thompson and Jordan Weal. Fleury also did not get a regular shift with the team trailing in the third period.

Just over a minute later, Phillip Danault won a draw after an icing, Weber fired a shot that was blocked in front and Brendan Gallagher pounced on the rebound for his first of the season. This pulled the Habs within one with about 15 minutes to play. They were facing a team that played last night and had their backup goaltender in net, so you would have expected them to keep pushing.

The Habs did keep pushing and it led to the Leafs, well, not exactly pushing back right away but more like angrily throwing broken hockey sticks. I have been watching, reffing, playing and briefly coaching hockey over the past 30 years and never have I seen a player, especially an NHL player throw his broken stick at an opponent.

The referees correctly called a penalty shot thanks to Kasperi Kapanen firing half a hockey stick at Jeff Petry while the Habs were set up on a power play. Petry made no mistake walking in on Hutchinson and firing a quick wrist shot past him to tie the game.

While everyone watching the game looked away to google the rules of who has to take a penalty shot when someone fires half a hockey stick at them, Phillip Danault pounced on a rebound in front and gave the Canadiens a 5-4 lead with less than minutes to play. It was the Habs fourth goal in less than ten minutes of the third period.

With the goaltender pulled for the Maple Leafs, Nate Thompson blocked a shot in front but it bounced right to Matthews who collected the puck and beat Price for his second of the night to tie things at five.

Then came overtime. A couple of good chances from Domi right away, then Price robbing Mitch Marner on a clear breakaway followed immediately by Hutchinson robbing Petry in close. So, you know, just the run of the mill stuff with scoring chances coming every seven seconds or so.

John Tavares took a slashing penalty on that Petry scoring chance. Seven or eight Weber blasts later and the Leafs killed it off. When they did, Tavares took a pass as he left the box and had a breakaway. I do teach math for a living, but I have lost count as to how many breakaways that is at this point. Anyway, once again Price stopped it.

For the second time in two games the Habs were off to a shootout. Price stopped Matthews and Marner, you know those two guys who make like $21 million this year. Paul Byron sniped for the Habs and Jordan Weal was the second shooter for some reason and was stopped.

Price stopped Tavares in the one on one competition (didn’t I just say that?) and the Canadiens were winners in game that they trailed 4-1 in the third period. Phew!