MONTREAL — It was a win that pushed the Vegas Golden Knights to 6-5 on their season.
They’ve been without leading scorers Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone for nine of their 11 games. Their best two-way centre, William Karlsson, broke his foot three games ago. One of their most versatile players, Alex Tuch, was traded to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday for a superstar, in Jack Eichel, who won’t be available for at least three more months, and regular defenceman Zach Whitecloud missed his seventh game of the season on Saturday.
But the Golden Knights have still found a way to be on the right side of .500 so far.
On Saturday, they looked like they brought the Vegas Flu with them to Montreal. After touching down in the city early on Friday and cancelling practice at the Bell Centre, they stepped back onto the ice in this building for this game and started with one shot to the Canadiens’ 20 and zero goals to their two before first intermission rolled around.
The Golden Knights began the second period by taking a penalty. They gave up many quality chances and relied on Robin Lehner to turn miracles in their net, and then they got a power play and immediately scored to get on the board.
Jonathan Marchessault made it 2-2 five minutes later, and Dylan Coghlan scored his first of the season to make it 3-2 Golden Knights with eight minutes to go in the frame.
They added two empty-net goals late in the third to win 5-2. They were out-shot 38-18 in the game and, as Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme accurately noted, out-chanced 23-7.
The Golden Knights found a way to win because that’s what good teams do.
“I think when you have a two-goal lead like that, good teams find a way to lock it down,” said former Golden Knight draft pick Nick Suzuki, who is now Montreal’s top centreman.
What does it say of the Canadiens that they found a way to lose?
They’ve been without top goaltender Carey Price since the season started. They’ve been without captain Shea Weber, who’s too injured to continue his career. Joel Edmundson, another pillar on defence, suffered an injury right at the onset of training camp and won’t be available for another couple of weeks. Speedy winger Paul Byron is out until late December or early January, top two-way centre Phillip Danault and key leader Corey Perry play for other teams now, and everyone understood they were going to be in tough to make it work without all of them.
But the expectations were that they still had enough good pieces in place to remain somewhat competitive until Price, Edmundson and Byron could return.
The Canadiens haven’t found a way to win more than three of 13 games, though. They haven’t even found a way to get to overtime or the shootout in any of their 10 losses.
And somehow, Saturday’s game must have felt worse than any of them. It was completely demoralizing.
Under different circumstances, it was a game that could’ve inspired a lot of confidence in the process.
We asked backup-turned-starting goaltender Jake Allen how differently the Canadiens might have viewed this loss had it occurred with the team hovering around .500.
“One hundred per cent it changes everything,” he said. “(But) to be 3-10, it’s a little bit different. If we were right there on the .500 mark, or right around that where we’ve won some good games, played some good hockey… But it’s tougher to take right now when you look at all the teams ahead of you and you’re 3-10.”
When contemplating how his team might take the positives out of its performance and feel good about things going into the next one, Allen said, “It takes balls to do that, to be honest right now.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Neither was Ducharme when he said, “nine times out of 10, the win would be on our side.”
But whether or not the Canadiens can build on the way they played to finally generate the result they so desperately need is completely up in the air and frustration lingers.
Suzuki, who started out with zero points over his first four games but has turned it around with 12 in his last nine — including a goal and an assist against Vegas — was feeling it.
“We’ve got to find a way,” he said.
Those were the same words uttered by Brendan Gallagher, who had Montreal’s best chance to tie the game 3-3 in the dying seconds of the second period and is stuck on just two goals and three assists in his 12 games.
He also said, “We understand it’s early (in the season), but we also understand the hole we’re in.”
The Canadiens just haven’t found a way to tackle adversity the way the Golden Knights have.
Vegas came into the game with zero goals on 19 power plays and managed to break the ice with two against a Canadiens penalty kill that went from not allowing a goal in 13 consecutive playoff games at one point last summer to allowing 16 goals on the opposition’s first 47 attempts this season. They’ve managed to score 2.73 goals per game despite the gaping holes they’re dealing with up front, while the Canadiens have averaged just two goals per game. And they started off losing four of their first five before winning five of their next six.
The Canadiens didn’t, and their season is quickly turning into a lost cause.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
