Connor Bedard couldn’t spoil Montreal’s home opener in a 3-2 Canadiens win over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday at the Bell Centre.
The first overall pick from last June’s draft had one assist in the final minutes of the game. Sean Monahan lead the way on offence for the home team with a goal and an assist. Cole Caufield scored his second goal in as many games.
It was a scoreless first period. Bedard was booed every time he touched the puck, while Paul Byron and his family were greeted with cheers by the Bell Centre faithful. Byron retired in the off-season and joined the front office in a player-development role.
The Liveblog commenters suffered through a procession of trips to the sick bay last season, so they’ll be forgiven for not being chill about Dach’s LBI.
Another solid performance by the young players, but there are whispers in the Liveblog comments about veteran Brendan Gallagher’s worrisome performance in the preseason and now two regular season games. Other than Dach, Gallagher played the least among the Canadiens’ forwards at just over 10 minutes. Another veteran, Monahan, was considered the most impactful Hab on the night according to Hockey Stat Cards.
3. “Important to the win: Habs in the faceoff circle were 36-12 lead by Monahan (14-2), Evans (11-3), and Suzuki (6-2). Even Newhook, a historically bad performer at the dot, was 4-2.” – Michael Way
2. “It looks like MSL’s message of wanting a team to work hard every game and be a hard team to play against is getting through to the boys. Everyone has put forth a strong effort tonight. Some, of course, more than others; but nobody has stunk out the place.” – Bob Taylor
1. “With all the penalties the Habs are taking, we could have one of the best pk units in the league, certainly, one of the most experienced anyway.” – Michael Paul {“_id”:””,”type”:”raw_html”,”shortcode_tag”:”related_links”,”shortcode”:”[related_links /]”,”content”:”
