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Hockey Hainsight
No, the title doesn’t refer to Kent Hughes’ latest trade (don’t panic, there hasn’t been one), but to last night’s game in Montreal. After two losses at home over the weekend including a 7-2 trumping by the Blues on Sunday, the Canadiens put up a great show for the fans last night. Cayden Primeau, who was playing in only his 12th game of the season signed the first shutout of his young career against the Ducks. To be fair, it wasn’t a particularly demanding game for the youngster, the Ducks only managed to put 13 shots on net. That right there tells you just how bad the Ducks are…only getting 13 shots against such a young and weak defense corps is quite a feat. The poor Primeau hadn’t been in net for a month and was probably eager to finally get some shots in a game setting. According to captain Nick Suzuki, in the third, the team was really “playing for Preems”, they wanted to help him get this first shutout and it showed, Primeau only faced four shots in the last frame, mission accomplished for the team!
What was the other first? It was Brandon Gignac’s long-awaited first career goal. It’s not as if the speedy forward has played a ton of games in the NHL though, last night was only his fifth NHL game, but it came five years after he had played his first game with the New Jersey Devils in 2018-2019. Gignac scored the last goal of the game when a turnover allowed him and Kaiden Guhle to go alone to the Ducks’ net. The young defenseman sent him the puck and Gignac placed his shot perfectly to beat Lukas Dostal who allowed a fifth goal on 38 shots.
On the power play, the top line is joined by Mike Matheson and Alex Newhook fills the void left by the Monahan trade and so far, it’s working like a charm. The five players work as a sound unit and really take control of the puck and keep possession of the puck creating plenty of chances. Just last night they scored two goals, one by Slafkovsky and the other from Suzuki (who had two goals on the night). The Ducks are the most punished team in the league, and they provided the Habs with plenty of opportunities to practice.
The Canadiens will be back in action on Thursday night when they take on the Rangers in New York. Until then, they’ll practice this morning at 11:00 before taking off for New York.
More importantly though, Juraj Slafkovsky shone very brightly. The 1st overall pick at the 2022 draft had himself an interesting year. In the preseason, he looked very good playing alongside Kirby Dach, but since Dach fell to injury in just the second game of the season, many wondered if he would regress and for a while, plenty of fans thought that he had and wanted to see him loaned to the Laval Rocket, but not Martin St-Louis. The coach knew what he had in his hands and how long development the right way can take.
Now, Slafkovsky is a mainstay not only on the Canadiens’ first line, but also on the team’s first power play unit. The young Slovak was quoted as saying the game as slowed down for him and it really shows, he’s now got patience on the ice and he waits for the right time to pass the puck to an open teammate. He’s also started taking a lot more shots on net, and now on the ice, the opponent cannot just cover Caufield to prevent the shot, all tree players of the top line are a threat.
On the power play, the top line is joined by Mike Matheson and Alex Newhook fills the void left by the Monahan trade and so far, it’s working like a charm. The five players work as a sound unit and really take control of the puck and keep possession of the puck creating plenty of chances. Just last night they scored two goals, one by Slafkovsky and the other from Suzuki (who had two goals on the night). The Ducks are the most punished team in the league, and they provided the Habs with plenty of opportunities to practice.
The Canadiens will be back in action on Thursday night when they take on the Rangers in New York. Until then, they’ll practice this morning at 11:00 before taking off for New York.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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