This edition of the Hidden Game is dedicated to Josh Anderson.
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Say what you will about fighting in hockey and the frontier justice mentality that exists, but the Canadiens’ veteran forward wasted little time Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden settling a five-week-old score. And credit Anderson for taking the law into his own hands; someone had to.
Before the game was two minutes old, Anderson put a beating on Rangers’ captain Jacob Trouba, landing right hands, repeatedly, on the New York defenceman. They briefly separated and Anderson, 6-foot-3 and 226 pounds, pounded the crap a second time out of Trouba, no Caspar Milquetoast at 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds.
In World Wrestling Entertainment, they would have called this two out of three falls.
Trouba, you’ll remember, delivered a clean — albeit vicious — hit on Canadiens’ defenceman Justin Barron when the teams met at the Bell Centre on Oct. 22. Barron suffered an apparent concussion on the play, although that was never confirmed by the organization, and defenceman Mike Matheson subsequently fought Trouba that night.
The teams will meet a third time Jan. 19 in Montreal. Canadiens fans might want to circle that date, given the hate these two clubs seem to have for each other.
News you need (Part I): The Rangers ended a five-game losing streak — their longest in four seasons — with Saturday’s 4-3 victory. Montreal, idle since Wednesday, should have taken better advantage of a team that played in Philadelphia Friday afternoon. It was New York’s first set of back-to-back contests this season. Last season in the second game, the Rangers’ record was 11-1-0.
News you need (Part II): When New York’s Artemi Panarin opened the scoring nine minutes into the game, it was the Rangers’ first power-play goal in nine games, dating back to Nov. 12, against Winnipeg.
News you need (Part III): The Rangers continue to beat the Canadiens like a rented mule. New York is 5-0-1 in its last six against Montreal and 9-2-1 dating back to February 2020.
News you need (Part IV): The win was the 1,700th in Rangers history on home ice.
News you need (Part V): New York has won 13 games this season and has allowed two or fewer goals in all but two of those victories.
Another Cy Young candidate: Rangers’ forward Chris Kreider, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with back spasms, has a 9-0 stats line — the differential between goals and assists. The 33-year-old, who has been with the team since 2012-13, has been the subject of trade speculation.
Another $400 stick down the drain: Panarin was at the point in the game’s seventh minute when his stick shattered.
Some penalties are good: Kreider would have had a good scoring opportunity off a rebound one minute later — until he was held by Emil Heineman.
Some penalties are not: Kreider was guilty of holding Kaiden Guhle in the offensive zone nearly 13 minutes into the game.
He doesn’t score much, but …: Credit Christian Dvorak for his screen on goaltender Jonathan Quick, allowing Matheson to snap the puck past him at 11:47 of the opening period.
Late goals are killers: The Canadiens played a decent first period — until Vincent Trocheck scored New York’s second goal with 3.1 seconds remaining in the period.
Until they’re not: Montreal came out quickly in the second period, generating three shots in the opening two minutes.
NHL officiating at its best (Part I): Kreider blatantly interfered with Anderson early in the period. Nonetheless, no penalty was assessed.
Dumb penalty: Seconds later, Sam Carrick was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, with Arber Xhekaj — of all players — unwilling to drop the gloves. This one would have been a mismatch, considering Carrick is four inches shorter and outweighed by 38 pounds.
Swedish sandwich: Late in the middle frame, Trouba and Trocheck delivered a one-two punch on Heineman.
NHL officiating at its best (Part II): It certainly looked like a routine check to us. Nonetheless, Anderson was penalized for roughing against Ryan Lindgren in the second period. Mika Zibanejad scored on the ensuing power-play — his first goal in six games.
News you need (Part VI):Cole Caufield is on pace for 50 goals after scoring his 14th from a tight angle at 4:16 of the third period.
Hit of the game: Brett Berard, playing only his fourth game this season, left favouring his right shoulder after being crunched against the boards by Kirby Dach in the third period.
Pass of the game: Lane Hutson to Nick Suzuki on the Canadiens’ third goal, with six minutes remaining in regulation time.
Karma is a bitch: It might have been an unfortunate break, but players must control their sticks. The struggling Dach, with one goal this season, took a double minor for high-sticking Zibanejad at 17:20 of the third period. With 23.3 seconds remaining, Kaapo Kakko scored the winning goal.
Next time, decline the penalty: Montreal went 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
Quick stats: Matheson had four shots, was a plus-3 and logged a team-high 26:07 of ice time. Dach also had four shots. Samuel Montembeault faced 28 shots for a save percentage of .857.
They said it: “I loved everything about our game, but I’m not going to talk about the refs,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis told reporters in New York following the contest.
“I thought we deserved better, obviously,” Suzuki told the media in New York. “I thought we played better than them. It’s a tough way to end the game like that, giving up a goal that late.”
“I thought we answered how we had to in the third period,” Alex Newhook said in New York. “It would have been nice to get one more. We had enough looks to get one more.”
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