On Tuesday night, rivalry night at the Bell Centre, as the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Ottawa Senators. With the hosts sitting in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and the visitors in the first wild card spot, the tilt had huge playoff implications, just like the Calgary Flames vs. New York Rangers, New York Islanders vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit Red Wings vs. Washington Capitals matchups.

Just like Saturday night, the Bell Centre crowd was very vocal. It erupted in cheers when Patrik Laine made Linus Ullmark drop his stick with a hard shot and even more when Christian Dvorak scored to give Montreal the early lead.

Former Canadiens Goaltender Gives Montreal A Hand In Playoffs Race
Kent Hughes ‘Won’t Spend Like a Drunken Sailor’ in Free Agency
The Canadiens Hits Leader May Not Be Who You Think

The Canadiens Have Become Harder To Play Against

Back in Marc Bergevin’s days, the Habs had several hard-hitting defensemen, which the former GM liked to say made them hard to play against. Montreal still has some hard-hitting blueliners, but there are also hard hitters up front, and it makes a difference.

In the first period alone, Thomas Chabot backed off the puck twice to brace himself for contact. Once because of a Jayden Struble hit and once because of Josh Anderson. That was one of Anderson’s five hits in the first 20 minutes.

Montreal dished out 13 to Ottawa’s nine. While we often speak of the Canadiens being more offensive under Martin St-Louis, the physical aspect of the game is getting increasingly important.

At the end of the game, the Canadiens had 27 hits, the Senators only 13, and captain Brady Tkachuk didn’t have a single one. I asked Martin St-Louis why his players were so physically dominant during the game:

I think it’s part of the game, and when you bring pace to the game, you have an opportunity to be physical. We put good pucks in the zone, and it allowed us to be close enough to them to be able to be physical. We talk a lot about the strategy of where to put the pucks, and we have players who are able to play a physical game.

– Martin St-Louis on his team’s physical game

Double Whammy

Failing to score on a power play is one thing, but conceding inside what should have been the two minutes of the power play hurts that much more. In the middle frame, while Drake Batherson was in the sin bin, Juraj Slafkovsky was found guilty of holding on Artem Zub. Michael Amadio gave the Senators the lead on the ensuing four-on-four sequences and deflated the Habs and the building momentarily.

Slafkovsky didn’t play a bad game, but that penalty was costly, when it happened. Still, on the Sens’ second penalty of the frame, he prevented two clearing attempts in the nick of time. After 40 minutes, the big Slovak had 3 of the Canadiens’ 17 shots and was doing more than his fair share offensively.

Thankfully for the power forward, the Habs bounced back in the best of ways in the third frame. 

Winning As A Team

After Lane Hutson leveled the score in the third frame, Travis Hamonic scored from far out, a goal Samuel Montembeault probably would have liked to get back. Earlier this season, this could have been it; it could have sucked out the energy from his teammates but not on Tuesday night the Canadiens rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

Anderson, who had worked so hard all game long, was rewarded when he scored the Canadiens’ second game-tying goal of the frame. Montreal was still hungry, though, and when Shane Pinto tripped Anderson, he opened the door wide for the Habs to put the finishing touch on that game.

Nick Suzuki, who once again played on both powerplay units, scored the game-winning goal with two seconds to go to the man advantage, but he never would have been able to do it had Brendan Gallagher not gotten it away from Ullmark after Emil Heineman’s rocket of a shot. The alternate captain got three points, and even though he didn’t get a star, he did everything else. It was a dominant performance from the third line since center Dvorak scored four points, and they were the line who capped the win off with a couple of empty-netters.

With this hard-earned win, the Canadiens leapfrog the Rangers and take sole possession of the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. With 15 games to play, the Habs are squarely in the mix, and right now, this group believes it can do anything.

Canadiens stories, analysis, breaking news, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News, never to miss a story.  

Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.

Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens’ page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens.

Read the full article here