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Montreal Canadiens

Drouin and Barron Shine In Canadiens Shutout Win

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Justin Barron Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the tank-obsessed Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, emerging from the relatively sleepy matchup with a 4-0 win, their third win in a row.



Full marks to the Blackhawks for ensuring they’ll have good odds of drafting a phenom this summer, but it’s difficult to ignore they’re providing little to no entertainment for their fans this year.

We all know the Draft rewards failure with the greatest gift possible, but the Blackhawks are pushing the idea of sports integrity to the limit. It’s a shame when a team doesn’t bother pretending they’re going to ice a competitive roster.

But Chicago’s thinly veiled tank was the Canadiens’ chance to shine, and shine they did.

The shutout was Jake Allen’s 24th in his NHL career.

Setting The Tone

When Nick Suzuki got rocked by a clean hit from Connor Murphy early in the first period, two things stood out.

Suzuki quickly stood up, which has become a common occurrence whenever someone manages to land a hit. I can’t remember the last time he did not immediately bounce back up after a huge body check.

But it was Josh Anderson’s insistence on defending his captain that stole the spotlight.

For the most part, a fight after a clean hit is rather useless.

However, on Tuesday night, Anderson’s tussle, which ended in a one-sided decision for the power forward, set the tone for the evening.

The instigator penalty was invented for those types of situations, and Anderson clearly deserved the extra penalty, but he also sent a message that the Canadiens would not go quietly into the night, which is important for a team that has lacked motivation at times through the final stretch of the season.

 

Justin Time

The Canadiens opened the scoring on Tuesday with a power play goal, which, despite their overall lack of efficiency on the man advantage this season, has improved significantly in recent games.

It may simply seem like a boring goal resulting in a quick shot from the point, but there was something very important about this particular power-play goal.

It came from a defenceman.

Barron’s goal was just the third time defenceman scored on the power play for the Canadiens this year.

What’s more, Barron is just the second defenceman to score with the man advantage and the only defenceman in the current lineup to do so, seeing as Arber Xhekaj is the only other defenceman to find the back of the net on the powerplay.

Barron only receives an average of 30 seconds worth of power play usage per night, but seeing as he’s one of the few defencemen with power play quarterback potential, the Canadiens may be wise to quickly increase his usage.

As an aside, Jonathan Drouin’s assist was his seventh point in his last six games, indicating that he picked up exactly where he left off before his injury.

Beyond his potential as a power play quarterback, Barron’s emergence is crucial for several reasons.

Not only does he play on the right, one of the most sought-after positions in the NHL and a positional weakness in the Canadiens organization, but the defenceman also excels in two very important aspects of a healthy team.

He’s great in transition and can quickly retrieve pucks.

Due to the expectations following the Artturi Lehkonen trade, it’s often easy to forget the Nova Scotia native is just 21 years old.

He had a relatively disappointing training camp, but his development into a bonafide NHL defenceman is on track, aided by a very successful stint in the AHL with the Laval Rocket and an uptick in responsibilities once he earned his way back to the NHL.

Drouin Double

Drouin earned his second assist of the night on Joel Armia’s third-period goal, a smart play that saw the entire line come together to complete a fantastic passing sequence.

Don’t look now, but Drouin happens to be one of the hottest Canadiens from an offensive standpoint.

Regardless of what happens at the trade deadline and beyond, it’s rather enjoyable to see Drouin have fun on the ice again.

The Canadiens padded their lead in the third period, thanks to goals from David Savard, as well as Christian Dvorak.

Savard’s goal was assisted by one of my favourite players, Alex Belzile, who now has six points in eight games while playing on the Canadiens’ fourth line.

As for Drouin, he earned his third assist of the night, putting an exclamation point on one of his best games of the season.


The Canadiens are back in action on Thursday, facing Jesperi Kotkaniemi and the Carolina Hurricanes. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM ET.