Montreal Canadiens: Three Stars From Hard Fought Loss To Winnipeg Jets

Montreal Canadiens fans are quickly becoming sick of seeing the reverse retro jerseys that the team is using this year.

Maybe it’s because they are fairly ugly, maybe it is because the NHL is just fulfilling a marketing ploy they came up with during the pandemic shutdown. But most likely it’s because the team has played some of its worst hockey of the season with the predominantly blue jerseys on.

Now, I’m not here to suggest that the blue jerseys actually affect the way that the Habs play, but did you see how last night’s game started?

The puck dropped and the ice immediately tilted into the Habs zone. The Winnipeg Jets had two excellent chances to take an early lead in the first two minutes and were outshooting the Canadiens 4-0 before the first whistle.

The Canadiens were able to hold the Jets off the board for half of a period, but with 9:21 to go in the opening period a Blake Wheeler centering attempt banked in off of Paul Stastny’s skate to open the scoring.

Five minutes later, a Tyler Toffoli turnover to Mathieu Perreault quickly ended up in the Habs net and it was 2-0 Jets after the opening period.

The Canadiens bounced back in the second period with their suddenly dangerous power play getting them on the board first. It was Corey Perry getting the puck to the front of the net where Tomas Tatar had a whack at it before Brendan Gallagher hammered it home.

Before the end of the period, Tyler Toffoli tied it up when a Jonathan Drouin shot ricocheted off Nick Suzuki and then went in off of Toffoli’s skate to tie the game.

The third period saw an errant pass attempt from Jake Allen to Shea Weber lead to the Jets third goal. Allen moved the puck around the boards and Weber missed it. Then, for some reason, Weber followed Suzuki up the boards as Suzuki tried to chase the loose puck down.

Neither Habs player could catch it but Weber left Stastney wide open down low. When Mark Scheifele picked up the loose puck he quickly fired it to Stastney who then beat Allen over the shoulder with a great wrist shot.

The score remained 3-2 until a Jeff Petry point shot was tipped by Jonathan Drouin in the high slot and then redirected in front by Corey Perry to tie the game with just over a minute left.

An entertaining overtime period saw several chances at both ends of the ice with Allen and Hellebuyck making great saves. A costly error that saw Joel Armia bump into Petry in the defensive zone left Pierre-Luc Dubois wide open in the slot and he fired a pinpoint wrist shot over Allen’s glove to give the Jets the win.