Montreal Canadiens: Eric Staal Completes Dramatic Comeback in Habs Debut
Montreal Canadiens centre Eric Staal didn’t have much time to acclimate himself to his new teammates, but he finished his first game as the hero.
The Canadiens were taking on the Edmonton Oilers at the Bell Centre last night. Staal joined his teammates yesterday morning for the morning skate. He skated on his own on Sunday, so Monday morning was the first time he joined his new teammates on the ice.
He was playing on a line with Josh Anderson and Jonathan Drouin, giving him the opportunity to provide offence with his new team.
Unfortunately for the Habs, there wasn’t much offence to be found early in their contest with the Oilers. The Habs carried the play in the first period, outshooting their opponent 15-5 and creating some chances, but they somehow found themselves trailing when the buzzer sounded to end the opening period.
It was Devin Shore that one-timed a puck in with just 21 seconds to go in the first period. The news went from bad to worse when it was announced Brendan Gallagher wouldn’t return to the game after being hit in the hand by a puck.
The Canadiens took three penalties in the second period, and though they killed off the first two, it finally cost them late in the middle frame. Leon Draisaitl won a faceoff deep in the Habs zone and got it back to Darnell Nurse. The Oilers defender ripped a slap shot past Carey Price to extend the Oilers lead to 2-0 with just 11 seconds to go in the second period.
The Canadiens faced a big hole heading into the third, but they quickly evened the score.
Josh Anderson converted a nice pass from Corey Perry at the goal mouth just 1:45 into the period and then Tomas Tatar ripped home a wrist shot with 14:37 to play to tie the score.
The game remained tied and headed to overtime where the Canadiens have really struggled this season. In ten games that needed extra time, the Habs had won only one of them. They decided to start Paul Byron, Phillip Danault and Jeff Petry to go head to head with Connor McDavid, Draisaitl and Nurse.
The Canadiens lost the faceoff but were able to shut down McDavid and Draisaitl who stayed on the ice for about a minute and a half before changing. There weren’t a whole lot of chances at either end of the ice until Byron found Eric Staal with a cross ice neutral zone pass.
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Staal had a head of steam as he picked up the puck and quickly jumped into the Oilers zone before firing s wrist shot just off the inside of the far post to give the Canadiens their second consecutive extra time win.