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Canadiens Postgame

Habs Highlights: Xhekaj Fights Rempe, Canadiens Resiliency

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montreal canadiens juraj slafkovsky

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the New York Rangers on Sunday night, the second leg of back-to-back games at the Bell Centre.



Coming off a frustrating loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, Montreal was looking to regain the momentum they had established in late December.

There was a fresh face in the lineup, as Owen Beck was recalled from the Laval Rocket prior to puck drop. He replaced Michael Pezzetta, lining up on the fourth line alongside Jake Evans and Joel Armia.

The Canadiens played well, but faced four different one-goal deficits, overcoming them with their usual dose of resilience that has powered their recent surge up the standings. A late goal pushed the game to overtime, where Patrik Laine scored his fourth goal in five games, earning a 5-4 win for the Habs.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Rocky Start

The Rangers only took five shots in the first period, and yet they still managed to score twice, but you’d be hard-pressed to suggest Jakub Dobes was at fault for either goal.

The first goal took place after a weird bounce led to the puck landing on Alexis Lafreniere’s stick, while the second was on the heels of a giveaway by Arber Xhekaj, who was given no outlet options by his forwards, as they had already started flying the zone.

Fortunately for Dobes, Brendan Gallagher managed to put the Canadiens on the board by doing what he does best, outworking a much bigger opponent in a prime scoring area. It was Gallagher’s 11th goal of the season, and his first since December 29.


Gallagher would go on to assist on Christian Dvorak’s second period goal, which tied the game for a brief moment. It was just Dvorak’s fourth goal of the year. It was a rather lucky play, but the Habs were owed a little luck considering how the Rangers scored their first two goals.


Fight Night

All eyes were on Arber Xhekaj and attempted hockey player Matt Rempe, as both players met at centre ice prior to puck drop to discuss their inevitable fight.

They weren’t the only players who engaged in physical play, as Josh Anderson tussled with Brandon Schneider, while the rest of the players on the ice delivered as many hits as they could whenever the opportunity arose.

Xhekaj was caught off-guard at the start of the fight, but he recovered nicely to earn a clear win over his bigger opponent. And let’s be clear, there was only one hockey player involved in that fight, and he wasn’t wearing a Rangers jersey.

I do feel bad for Rempe, to a certain extent. He’s a media creation who looks incredibly awkward every time he fights. I’m yet to see him win a fight, either, but it’s clear that fighting is the only thing keeping him in the NHL for a few minutes every odd night. His skating is also rather poor, giving all his opponents an edge when the fight gets underway.

Quick Thinking

Once the temperature cooled a little, the hockey picked up, leading to Nick Suzuki’s 14th goal of the year. It was a good example of what good anticipation and positioning can do on the forecheck.

With the goal, Suzuki maintained his point-per-game pace, while also extending his scoring streak to three games.

Exciting Finish

With the game 4-3 in favour of the Rangers, defenceman Lane Hutson did what he does best, quickly driving the play up the ice to generate a high-danger scoring chance.

This time around it was Juraj Slafkovsky who finished the play, not to mention ate a little iron for his efforts. As a reminder, the talk of Slafkovsky’s ‘terrible season’ has been overblown significantly. That being said, he will have to score more often, and Sunday was a good start.

With the assist, Hutson extended his point streak to eight games, the first Habs rookie to do so since forward Stephane Lebeau (1989-90).

The play secured at least one point for the Habs, a fitting situation as they were clearly the better team on Sunday.

The goal set-up yet another Laine scoring play, and if we’re being honest, Laine’s powerplay goal was even more fitting than the tying goal by Slafkovsky. Montreal deserved two points, there’s no way around it.


The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Tuesday, facing the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre (7 pm ET). All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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Tony

Nice bounce-back win by the Habs. And Arber. What can you say? That guy is so valuable to this team.

jb1565

Clearly the better team tonight. Resilient in the face of Quick playing out of his mind and officials not having a good a night. This was a character building win that in key after what happened against Toronto.

habbernack

MSL tried to make Slaf a net front presence . That’s not his game. He’s a play maker and he has a shot . That’s how he excelled last year. Good on the boards, good ice vision and will go to the net will the time is called for. He’s 20 yrs old . An apprentice

Last edited 25 days ago by habbernack
Dana

The sheriffs job is protection and he keeps the peace until he doesn’t. I was mystified that he was caught off guard. They chatted before the game, battled throughout and then came face to face at a whistle. Fighters know…I wonder what he said to Rempe during the scrap as they went from behind the net to the boards, Xhekaj was clearly talking.

Beck was subtly good. He saved a goal getting back on a 2:1 but the announcer didn’t mention it.

Caufield has filthy hands lately. The moves and stick handling have leveled up- his hands are quick like mcdavids. Dach was good again, Guhle too. Suzuki took a hard hit from Fox, rare that the captain gets stood up and put down. Dobes looked human, but I liked the battle in him. Nice win

Mike Barnes

The fighter’s “code” implies they WAIT until both have dropped their gloves. Lowlife rempe didn’t but based on his past conduct, Xhekaj should’ve expected as much
Says a lot about Ranger fans that rempe gets louder cheers than Panarin, Fox or any of their other top players

GHG55

“Attempted hockey player” lol

I saw so many predictions before this year started that Slaf was going to be a point per game player. Many people figured since he nearly played like that in the last half of last season that it would automatically continue/improve. But as many people say, including all the Habs staff who’ve spoken on the subject, development isn’t linear. Obviously it would’ve been nice for him to at least maintain what he was doing but people just didn’t get that he’s still super young and progression simply doesn’t work the way they expected most of the time. That’s why I think so many think his season has been so bad – they expected too much.

I’ll keep the same goal I had for him at the start of the season: 60-65pts (prob 60 at this point, which is fine). He started “slow” in terms of overall production, but is still nearly on pace to match last year, but he’s picking it up a bit now. Hopefully he keeps picking it up and gets there. But even if he’s only at the 50pt mark by the end, that’s still good for a player that young, especially considering his playmaking/assist improvements and the fact big guys generally take longer to peak. Caufield and Laine can apparently handle scoring all the goals lol (I’d expect slaf gets to be a yearly 30g guy at some point though…. Hopefully)

morrisk

You can say what you want about Slaf, but so far he is starting to worry some Habs fans…and I’m one of them.

Although its well documented that the 2022 draft was a rather weak one, still, there comes certain expectations of the #1 pick in the entire draft. Unfortunately “hoping and expecting” have zero to do with the reality. And a side note to this, Logan Cooley has 41 pts in 44 games so far this season…on the top line which produces less with the other two top forwards than do Cole and Nick.

The reality is he is actually on pace for fewer points than last season, albeit just a couple or so. But that’s somewhere in the upper 40s in pts. As far as playing better lately, which everyone seems to be pointing out, he has 5 pts in his last 10 games. That’s actually slightly BELOW his entire season pace.

I see nothing in his game and with the eyeball test that shows me he will reach 60-something pts this season. We are lucky if he hits 50. And hardly worthy of being on a top line every night. He should be switched with Laine.

I am not hoping or expecting with Slaf. I live in the reality. And the reality is that the Habs should have waited to extend his contract until this year or during this coming offseason. They jumped the gun on him and gave him $7.6M x 8 years. Right now, he probably could have been signed to about $6M per year…which is actually very fair. Because the reality is his ceiling may very well be a second line winger…..HOPEFULLY.

Last edited 24 days ago by morrisk
Mike Barnes

He’s 20 years old! RELAX!!! Was LaFleur a star right from the start? Geez, give the kid a break!

morrisk

Ah, yes, actually. Guy had 64 pts in only 73 games his rookie year with Habs. That’s star material in the making right there…

Mike Barnes

“Laine’s powerplay goal” Did I miss something? I saw him get the OT winner if THAT’S what you’re referring to!

David

Slafkovsky is improving his play without the puck. For example on the game tying goal he
was gliding very slowly towards the net and arrived there at the exact same moment that the puck arrived for him to put into the net. He does a lot of subtle things which lead to good things happening sometimes.

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