Montreal Canadiens Pull Away From Toronto Maple Leafs – Much To Garry Galley’s Dismay

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time this season. Once again, a strong third period was the catalyst for a win over their oldest rival.

The Montreal Canadiens headed into last night’s contest with their oldest rival looking to improve upon their 4-4-2 record to start the season. They have been inconsistent to say the least, and their “fake .500” record is a little deceiving. Their pair of overtime losses give them ten point in ten games, but they’ve only won four out of ten.

They started great last night against the Maple Leafs. The Habs top line of Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar spent the first minute of the game pinning the Auston Matthews line deep in the Maple Leafs zone.

The Canadiens were able to keep up the pressure and it led to Gallagher scoring his fifth of the season. Like usual, Gallagher was crashing the net and got a pass from Tatar in front. Gallagher banged away a few times at the loose puck until it ended up it in the back of the net.

It was around this time that the Canadiens were leading the Maple Leafs 10-3 in shots. Sportsnet announcer Garry Galley was doing colour commentary for the game and pointed out the Leafs were in control of the play, but sometimes a team gets a lucky break and takes a 1-0 lead.

Ummmm, I guess he was watching a different contest than the rest of us.

Shortly afterward, the Habs were able to pull ahead 2-0. Joel Armia almost turned the puck over inside his own blue line but quickly got it back and fed a perfect backhand pass up the middle of the ice to a streaking Jonathan Drouin. Drouin deked to the backhand and slid the puck through the open five hole of Leafs goaltender Michael Hutchinson.

The Habs continued to dominate the play and with less than 30 seconds to go in the period, Galley began to lay out the excuses for why the Maple Leafs were having a bad period. I mean, it can’t be that the Montreal Canadiens are a fast, deep team that can skate with the Maple Leafs on the same ice surface and have success for 20 whole minutes. No, it can’t be that.

As Galley began to explain that the Leafs played last night and had to fly all the way from Toronto to Montreal on their luxury private jet, Jake Muzzin interrupted him with a snap-shot one-timer into the back of the net to pull the Leafs within one with just 16 seconds to play.

The score was 2-1 after twenty minutes, but the shots on goal were 19-5 in favour of the Habs. It was the most dominant period the Canadiens played this season.

The Maple Leafs showed some life to begin the second period. A scramble in front of the Canadiens goal had a puck sitting at the top of the crease. Three or four sticks got to the puck at the same time and it hopped over Carey Price’s shoulder into the back of the net to tie the game less than six minutes into the second.

Galley was so excited and proud, I thought he was going to shed a tear as he explained how brilliant and amazing Andreas Johnsson is and how smart he was to find that loose puck. He didn’t mention the puck was only loose because Johnsson fanned on it when he had an open net and then get some help to push it over the line.

Galley just called Cale Fleury, Cal Fleury. Why can’t Bob Cole do this anymore?

Say what you want about the first two goals against Price, but halfway through the second Joel Armia and Jesperi Kotkaniemi left Alex Kerfoot all alone in front of the Habs net. He fired a one-timer and was robbed by Price to keep the game tied.

Galley just referred to Drouin as Max Domi three times in a raw as Drouin got called for slashing. Oh! He got it right the fourth time. Seriously, they forced Cole out for this?

Great kill by the Canadiens to keep the game tied late in the second. Galley tried to convince us that Matthews almost scored from behind the net. He did not.

Domi gets run from behind by Kerfoot in the corner. Hit straight in the numbers. Power play coming up for the Habs. Galley’s not so sure it should be a penalty. If running a guy from behind isn’t a penalty, what is? Oh yeah, hitting a guy with a blue and white sweater on is a penalty.

The second period comes to a close with the game tied 2-2. The Habs weren’t firing quite as well as they did in the first. They were outshot 14-10 in the middle frame and Johnsson scored the lone goal of the period.

The Leafs played last night against the San Jose Sharks and could be a little tired heading into the third period. Hopefully the Habs can keep up the pressure on Hutchinson and score a few in the final frame.

Galley begins the third period by absolutely pumping the tires of Jake Muzzin. If he had a few more seconds, I think he was going to compare him to some sort of combination of Jean Beliveau and Bobby Orr. However, he didn’t have time to finish his thoughts as Armia stole the puck from Muzzin, danced around him like he was a peewee player and fired a wrister by Hutchinson to give the Habs a lead seven seconds into the period.

Instead of giving credit to the has winger for making a great read off the opening draw and stealing the puck and undressing the Leafs best defensive defenseman, Galley spent time making excuses for Muzzin and saying this is not the way he usually plays.

With 12:20 to play in regulation, Drouin pounced on a mistake by Tyson Barrie at the Habs blue line. When Barrie mishandled a pass, Drouin stole the loose puck and headed in all alone, burying a shot over the blocker of Hutchinson to restore the Canadiens two goal lead.

I thought Price should have easily stopped Muzzin’s goal late in the first period, but he did make some big saves in the third period. Jason Spezza and Trevor Moore were left all alone in front of Price shortly after Drouin’s goal but Price stopped both of them in tight. Just past the halfway mark of the period, Johnsson had another chance  as he cut to the net and had Price moving across the crease. Price didn’t open up any holes and made the save look easy.

This gave the Canadiens the opportunity to add to their lead and they did just that. With just over eight minutes to play, Kasperi Kapanen turned the puck over at the Habs blue line. Instead of throwing his stick at the puck like he did the first time these teams met, he just coughed it up to Nick Cousins.

Cousins fed it ahead to Nate Thompson who went in on a 2 on 1 with Nick Suzuki. Thompson made a great pass across the ice and Suzuki, who looks more and more comfortable every game, made no mistake firing a one-timer in to make it 5-2.

Galley actually sounded deflated after this puck went in. Go back and listen to him talking after this goal and compare it to the Johnsson goal. His tone is so strikingly different you’d think he was currently playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Once again, Galley is going on about how the Leafs are missing so many key players and that is the reason for their struggles lately. Can’t just give the Habs a little credit on Hockey Night In Canada? Drouin scored two beauty goals, why not mention that? Armia has looked great, can’t bring that up in the final minutes of the game? Price had a strong game, Habs D shutdown Auston Matthews and William Nylander, but Sportsnet doesn’t want to talk about that stuff.

The game ended with a 5-2 score and an encouraging effort from the Canadiens. That’s ten goals in two games against the Maple Leafs and more importantly, four points in the standings in those two games.