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After the Canadiens dominated the Ducks on Tuesday, most everyone agreed they had won a game against a disinterested team. How else could one explain their meager shot total? But last night, they played a team which is ruling the Metropolitan and the difference was painfully obvious. The Habs had no answer for the Rangers’ powerful attack lead by Kris Kreider (every Hab fan favorite player) who scored New York’s first goal and went on to score a hat trick in the 7-4 walloping.
Samuel Montembeault did what he could, but there was no stopping the Blue Shirts who signed a sixth consecutive win. If you want to see the silver lining though, the Canadiens scored twice as many goals as they did against St-Louis and Cole Caufield got on the scoresheet with goals instead of assists. It’s reassuring to see the Habs’ first line can still produce against that kind of opposition. On top of Caufield’s two goals, Juraj Slafkovsky also scored his 12th of the season which is three times as many as he had last season. Furthermore, both Suzuki and Slafkovsky extended their point streak, the young Slovak’s now up to seven games, more than any streak ever from a teenager with the Canadiens.
With 28 games to go in the season and having traded their only highly sought-after trade chip in Monahan, there’s not much of an upside in putting ticks in the win column for the Canadiens. Montreal is currently 24th in the league and according to Tankathon, the team had got a 6% chance of winning the first overall pick. All of the teams that are behind the Canadiens in the standings hold game in hands on them, aside for the dead last Chicago Blackhawks, but there’s no catching the Hawks who are 21 points behind the Sainte-Flanelle. Still, miracles do happen when it comes to the draft lottery, I only needed three tries this morning for Montreal to land in first place.
A rumor was making the rounds on social media yesterday that Jake Allen would reportedly be traded to the Colorado Avalanche. While it would make sense for the Denver franchise to acquire another goaltender to manage Georgiev’s workload better, as I wrote in my February 9th blog, it’s hard to believe any team would come knocking after Allen’s performance on Super Bowl Sunday. If Allen does find a new home, it most certainly won’t be as a team’s first choice. If he moves, it will be as a team’s plan B or C, so likely much closer to the deadline.
The players have a day off today before taking on Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals tomorrow in Montreal. The Capitals have lost their last two games, but at least, the great eight as started scoring again which no doubt came as a huge relief to his team.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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