Another night, another crucial game for the Montreal
Canadiens, who were taking on the New York Islanders on Thursday night in Long
Island. After an emotive day for the Habs, in which Brendan Gallagher revealed
he had recently lost his mother, Della, to cancer, it was time to get back to
business to keep chasing a playoff spot.

A Tight-Knit Group

While Gallagher only announced his mother’s passing late on
Wednesday night, we found out today that it happened some time ago when the
Canadiens were in Calgary. Speaking to the media before the game, coach Martin
St-Louis revealed it happened during the Canadiens’ trip out west earlier this
month. He praised his team for how they stuck together to support their
teammate in his hour of need and explained he did what he could to help the
veteran get through the challenging event.

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St-Louis had lost his mother during the playoffs with the
New York Rangers back in 2014 as they were facing the Canadiens. While it did
bring back some memories for him, he explained not everyone deals with death in
the same way, adding Gallagher felt like playing helped him cope with the
ordeal.

The man himself looked at peace speaking about it with the
media. Asked if tonight’s game would be a challenge, he explained that it had
been since he found out, but the Ottawa game was the last one before the
funerals, which were held on Wednesday. As “luck” would have it, her passing
happened while the team was out west, and Gallagher said the whole team
took a bus and came to the Gallagher family home to spend time with them, which was an appreciated unannounced visit. 

The Need To Separate Yourself

No matter how good an opposing goaltender is, when you
dominate in shots as the Canadiens did on Thursday night, you must convert some
of those opportunities. This might just be one of the topics touched on the
most by St-Louis in the post-game pressers: his team’s inability to separate
itself from the opponent when dominating.  

No scoring is one thing, but when you feed a monster like Ilya
Sorokin, shoots, and he eats them all, his team’s confidence grows exponentially.
When you have a goaltender like that behind you, you’re not panicking because
you’re not scoring enough; you have “the man” back there.

Montreal’s dominance in the middle frame was evident, but
they couldn’t score a single goal (that wasn’t called back for offside, that is),
and as a result, the Islanders, full of confidence, were able to score a second
power-play goal on the night. It’s no small feat for the team with the worst
power play before Thursday night’s game.

Some Saves Have To Be Made

On Tuesday night, when Samuel Montembeault gave Travis
Hamonic a questionable goal, his teammates bounced right back and bailed him
out, but on Thursday night, there were two questionable goals.

No one’s perfect, but a goal near side like the one in the
first frame and a gut punch through the goaltender in the third will always be challenging
to overcome for any team. On a contender, the goaltender is better than
that. The coach has said he doesn’t want to overwork his starter in the past,
so could we see Jakub Dobes on Saturday? It’s not out of the question,
especially since the youngster beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 in the shootout back
in January.

Thankfully for Montembeault, there might just be a new ghost
in the rafters who travels with the Canadiens as well. For the second game in a
row, Gallagher scored a goal and pounded his heart hard, dedicating an other lamplighter to Della, his mother.

The goal sent the game to overtime, but as a hockey game is
not a Hollywood script; when Lane Hutson turned on the jets and lost the puck
deep in the offensive zone in extra time, the Islanders got an odd-man rush, and Bo Horvat
scored the game-winning goal. While the loss will be disappointing for St-Louis’
men, none of the Habs’ rivals in the playoff race won tonight, so the point
lost doesn’t hurt too much.

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