Montreal Canadiens Dominate New York Islanders in 6-2 Win

The Montreal Canadiens visited the New York Islanders on Tuesday night looking to win their second straight game and did just that in a convincing victory against the New York Islanders.

Recent Events

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin gave head coach Claude Julien a vote of confidence for the 2020-21 regular season. This should not come as a surprising as during his presser at the trade deadline, Marc Bergevin stated wanted the Canadiens to compete for the playoffs next season and perhaps he believes keeping Claude Julien in the mix may help them do that. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is the case

Three Goals in the First Period

The best chances on offence came from the New York Islanders in the first half the period, although the shots on goal for both teams being tied at four.

After some even play by both teams, Brendan Gallagher gave the Canadiens the first lead of the game at the 6:24 mark for his 22nd goal of the year. With over a month remaining in the season, there’s still a chance for Gallagher to get his third straight 30+ goal season.

Quickly after, Charles Hudon almost set up Max Domi for a one-time but it did not look as if Domi could get enough control over the puck. Missed opportunity aside, Jeff Petry was able to extend the Canadiens lead to 2-0 with some great vision on a tight angle goal that was able to squeak thanks to some traffic created by the Islanders players, preventing Thomas Greiss from being able to see where the puck was coming from. Philip D

A fight broke out between Islanders captain Anders Lee and Canadiens defenceman Christian Folin where Lee made contact on every punch making Folin unable to counter.

Charles Hudon demonstrated precision accuracy in a shot that gave the Canadiens a 3-0 lead. This is arguably the game where it looks to be like Charles is starting to fit into the Canadiens lineup since his call-up from the Laval Rocket.

If he can continue to build on this and further translate his strong AHL play to the NHL, Hudon may be a mainstay for the remainder of the season and next fall.

Second Period

The Islanders made the decision to have Semyon Varlamov replace Thomas Greiss in net to start the second period.

The Canadiens would have to play the remainder of the game without their top forward, Tomas Tatar who he missed a few shifts in the first but did not return for the second due to an upper body injury.

Charles Hudon had an opportunity on a two on one to further extend the Canadiens lead but opted to pass to Dale Weise instead who was unable to lift the puck for a proper shot.

Max Domi was sent to the penalty box for tripping to put the Islanders on the powerplay but Paul Byron (from Joel Armia) had plans of his own, scoring his 3rd goal since coming back from his injury to give the Canadiens a 4-0 lead. Byron now has 6 points in 7 games since coming back from his knee injury.

Third Period

The 20 minutes of the game began with an Anders Lee goal being called back due to a distinct kicking motion. This however should not take away from the push the Islanders were making to try and cut the lead.

Brock Nelson (from Josh Bailey) scored to cut the Canadiens lead down to 4-1 which Carey Price should visible towards.

A scary sight unfolded in third when Artturi Lehkonen fell awkwardly leading to his skate making contact with Johnny Boychuk’s face.

Without a closer look, it’s hard to see exactly where Lehkonen’s skate made contact with Boychuk’s face at the time being. We’re all hoping for the best for Boychuk.

Jordan Weal scored on a two-on-one to build on the Canadiens lead late in the game to give them a 5-1 lead which contributed to many in attendance to walk out in the final minutes of the game.

Due to two penalties, the Islanders went on a 5 on 3 powerplay that saw that Ryan Pulock bring the final score to 5-2 but Joel Armia quickly responded with an empty net goal that brought the final score to 6-2 for the Montreal Canadiens.

Looking Ahead

The Montreal Canadiens will making the trip to Tampa to play the Lightning on Thursday at 7:00 pm where they will have a chance to extend their win streak to three games.