Montreal Canadiens honour Andrei Markov in shootout win over Winnipeg Jets

The Montreal Canadiens honoured Andrei Markov, one of the more underrated defencemen of his generation, before puck drop against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night. Markov spent his entire 17-year career with the Canadiens, finishing just 10 games shy of 1000, recording 119 goals and 572 points. Some may still hold a grudge against the former management group for not re-signing Markov for one final season so that he could reach the 1000-game mark, but it all seems to be water under the bridge now between the player and the organization.

Markov walked out to a standing ovation that felt like it could have gone on all night if he had not finally grabbed the microphone to deliver his speech. The Russian-born defenceman thanked some of his former teammates for helping him over the years and finished the speech off by telling the crowd “Merci,” which only fired them up even more.

The Canadiens shuffled their lines once again, moving Juraj Slafkovsky back up to the first line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Newly signed Alexandre Texier takes Slafkovsky's spot on the second line, and Zachary Bolduc moves from the top line all the way down to the fourth line, playing alongside Joe Veleno and Jared Davidson, who replaced Florian Xhekaj in the lineup.

The first period was back and forth, with both teams finishing the period with 11 shots on goal. With the fans already fired up for the game after honouring Markov, Arber Xhekaj tried to fire up his teammates following a big hit from Adam Lowry on Alexandre Carrier. The Jets captain and Xhekaj dropped the gloves, with the Canadiens defenceman looking to have gotten the better of Lowry, ragdolling him to the ground. The heavyweight tilt did not work as planned, with the Canadiens falling behind 1-0 after some sloppy backchecking, leaving Mark Scheifele alone in front, who fires home his 14th of the season.

With how well Slafkovsky has been playing on the second line, it was confusing to see him back on the first line. He has looked like a different player playing alongside Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, and the last thing the Canadiens need right now is for the Slovakian winger to go back into his shell. Instead, Slafkovsky has not missed a beat reuniting with his former linemates, tying up the game halfway through the second on the power play.

After finding themselves trailing once again, thanks to a weird scenario with a broken stick, the new-look second line answered back two minutes later with Kapanen scoring his eighth goal of the season, tying him with Matthew Schaefer for the lead in rookie goals.

After a scoreless third period, the game was off to overtime.

After a rough outing in his last appearance, Jakub Dobes rebounded with a strong performance against the Jets. He stopped 29 out of the 31 shots he faced, but none were bigger than the one he made in overtime against Vladislav Namestnikov to keep the Canadiens in the game.

The Habs had some big chances of their own in overtime, none bigger than Mike Matheson’s one-timer opportunity, but thanks to another broken stick, the score remained tied after the five minutes were up.

The Canadiens were able to avoid another shootout loss thanks to Caufield beating Eric Comrie five-hole for the winner. Comrie caused the Canadiens problems all night, but they were finally able to get one by him and get back to winning ways.

A night that started with honouring a fan favourite ended in a Canadiens win.