Montreal Canadiens Defeat Connor Bedard In Home Opener

The Montreal Canadiens kickstarted their 2023-24 regular season schedule on Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they lost in a shootout. They showed great character in the loss, and are hoping to build on the performance going forward. Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks are the next opponents on the schedule, set for a duel on Saturday night for the Canadiens Home Opener.

This game will mark the start of the Bedard-led Blackhawks era, and while they are behind the Habs in terms of rebuild timeline, this could be fun. Former Hab Corey Perry adds some veteran presence for the Hawks alongside Nick Foligno and 2010 first-overall selection Taylor Hall. Anyway, moving on, let’s dive into how the game went down.

Canadiens VS. Blackhawks

Before the puck dropped, the Bell Centre faithful welcomed their 2023-24 Canadiens, starting with the defence, and Arber Xhekaj earned the loudest cheer. of the players. Captain Nick Suzuki earned the loudest of the captains. And it was no surprise who got the loudest cheer of all, Cole Caufield, with Mike Matheson, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook’s names over the PA system by announcer Michel Lacroix had the crowd fired up for the game to start.

The loudest cheer of all has to go to Martin St. Louis, when his name was announced over the Bell Centre PA system, the crowd let out a massive round of applause. The energy was palpable, and it set the momentum in the Canadiens’ favour. It can be argued that the opening night ceremony was dull compared to past years, however, the fans showed their appreciation for the 2023-24 Canadiens and sparked the teams’ adrenaline.

First Period

Cole Caufield got bullied with two big hits from Hawks defender Alex Vlasic who hammered from behind into the boards. Josh Anderson, Suzuki and Xhekaj rushed to his defence. Luckily for Vlasic, the referees stood between him and Xhekaj’s mammoth fists. Most importantly Caufield was fine, and the Habs came out with a power play, but couldn’t capitalize.

Dach got crushed by Jarred Tinordi when he tried to rush the puck across the Hawks blueline. He was visibly shaken on the bench, being tended to by the Habs athletic therapist. Dach was seen during the commercial break heading to the locker room for some work, which TVA Sports Renaud Lavoie reported. He didn’t return, and Sean Monahan slotted into the middle of Newhook and Slafkovsky. He was downgraded to out with a lower-body injury.

Second Period

The scoring didn’t start until almost four minutes into the second frame. First, Caufield danced around Hawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Then he opened the scoring for the Canadiens, with a sweet backhand top shelf that he tapped past Petr Mrazek with a second effort to put them up 1-0.

Tanner Pearson padded the lead with a quick snipe in the slot under Mrazek’s arm. Kaiden Guhle laid a nice backhand two-foot saucer pass to Pearson. He did the rest, and earned his coveted first as a Hab, in the best place to do it, on home ice.

Rafael Harvey-Pinard almost made the roof blast off the arena with a penalty-kill breakaway. He flew into the zone and tried to open up the pads of the goaltender. It didn’t work, but he has put together a nice period and a half with a handful of high-danger opportunities.

On the penalty kill, Harvey-Pinard made a great play, to get the puck out of the zone. He then set up Sean Monahan, who went in on a breakaway and made no mistake sniping a snapshot past the Hawks goaltender to put the Habs up 3-0. Two very smart players paired together on the PK unit proved to be a wise deployment decision.

Perry and Xhekaj got tied up behind Montembeault’s net, and the latter was in no mood. He hit him against the boards, and the two wrestled. Perry then sucker punched Xhekaj, who responded with a punch, Perry exaggerated the impact and staggered to his knees, and the pair got offsetting minor penalties.

Third Period

The final frame was pretty back and forth, with the Canadiens in the penalty box for the better part of it. There was a bit of chippiness, but since Xhekaj went after Tinordi, nothing has escalated too far. Guhle had a big hit, and Monahan took on the lion’s share of the minutes available because of Dach’s injury.

With five minutes to go, the Canadiens held a 3-1 lead and seemed satisfied rolling all four lines. The fourth line played especially well, cycling the puck in the offensive zone, and using their speed on the forecheck to force turnovers. The veteran line of Brendan Gallagher, Monahan and Pearson played a great game as well wearing down the opposition with smart puck play and tenacity on the backcheck.

Juraj Slafkovsky and Newhook had solid nights, but they missed their centerman, and the chemistry couldn’t be replaced. Slafkovsky showed another game with consistent strong positioning, and he used his shot throughout the night. Matheson and David Savard were solid on the backend, defensively and Matheson’s skating gave him tons of space to exit the zone and transition the puck into the attacking zone.

There was a late flurry of chances at the end, with the Blackhawks trying to force overtime. Seth Jones hammered a shot toward the net, and Matheson got in front of it, wincing in pain afterward. Jones got the puck back, and Suzuki blocked his final shot to seal the win.

Three Stars

First Star – Sean Monahan

Second Star – Kaiden Guhle

Third Star – Cole Caufield

The Canadiens are off until Tuesday night, when they will host Kirill Kaprizov and the Minnesota Wild for a 7 pm. puck drop at the Bell Centre.