What a difference a game makes.
Ever since the Canadiens were thrashed 7-2 by the New York Rangers on Tuesday, there’s been no small amount of angst amongst Habs fans. Loads of supporters and journalists began to wonder if the team’s rebuild was really on-track, given the team had a 2-4-1 record after seven games and had lost four straight. Even coach Martin St. Louis started to feel the heat, with some wondering if he was steering this young team in the right direction.
St. Louis’s team needed a big game Saturday night at the Bell Centre and that’s exactly what they delivered, beating the visiting St. Louis Blues 5-2, with a lot of help from supporting players who hadn’t been in the limelight in earlier games this season.
Kirby Dach was named first star of the night and with reason. He scored his first goal of the season and added an assist on Alex Newhook’s goal. It was Dach’s first goal since March 23, 2023. He missed almost the entire season last year with a torn ACL.
“We played with a lot of confidence,” said St. Louis at the post-game press conference. “There were no passengers. We were harder than usual to play against.”
And they were. It wasn’t a perfect game for the bleu blanc rouge. The defence still looks rough around the edges. Logan Mailloux made a number of mistakes and he and Mike Matheson fumbled it completely on the second St. Louis goal. But there was much to like for Habs fans.
The good stuff began with Jake Evans opening the scoring in the first frame, with a beauty of a shot that went top shelf.
Then came Dach’s first of the season. He banged it in from real close and then went flying. But he looked mighty happy afterward, clearly getting a big monkey off his back.
The Blues rather quickly tied it up with goals from Jake Neighbours and Colton Parayko, and it was hard not to think the Canadiens were about to blow it … again.
But then Newhook scored on the power play to put Montreal back in the lead, putting it into the net on a nice cross-ice pass from Dach.
Cole Caufield then continued his hot streak, scoring his seventh goal of the season early in the third, on a wrister that easily beat Blues goalie Jordan Binnington.
The deal was sealed when Joel Armia, after pulling a spinorama (I know, I was shocked, too), scored on the empty net late in the third.
One of the storylines this week was Arber Xhekaj being benched for two games and St. Louis calling him out publicly. But all’s well that ends well — Xhekaj had a good game Saturday and the coach noticed.
“I thought he was excellent, throughout the game,” St. Louis said. “Tonight, I thought he was very engaged.”
Here are a few comments from readers:
Edward Mahilum: Good game boys! Solid effort. Defended well. Won a lot of puck battles in own end. Monty was solid. Nice to see both Dach and Newy score. Nice snipe from CC. Mailloux played bad, he pinched too often, and both STL goals are on him. And, yes, Arber is just fine, thank you.
Tony Nicolas: The boys played good tonight. Not great. But worth price of admission.
Alex Polidoro: Seems like this Saturday night the pizza will taste good!