MONTREAL — You wouldn’t expect to see history unfold between teams that have played against each other for more than a hundred years, but it happened Saturday night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Canadiens from three goals down for the first time in Montreal history. The match was turned around when Christian Dvorak fired a shot over the crossbar behind Joseph Woll and started the game off Bobby McMann’s finish When it was good for the team, they were snuffed out in their path and they never looked back.
McMahon’s goal at 9:32 of the second period was the first of the Maple Leafs’ seven-game winning streak in a 7-3 victory that immediately shocked and confused the Canadiens.
But that’s really how it is for them, and that’s really how it should be for them.
After watching the Canadiens play more than half the game and any other in the previous 20 games, the idea that the Canadiens should learn some kind of big-picture lesson from this game feels a bit far-fetched. They played very well in the previous 20 games and achieved a record of 14 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss.
However, the Canadiens just weren’t good enough in the final 30 minutes of Saturday’s game, costing them valuable points in the standings and hurting their pride.
But it’s certainly not broken.
“I think sometimes it’s good to throw a punch and remind us how good every team in this league is,” Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson said. “(We) haven’t lost confidence or anything like that, though. I think we can realize we’ve been playing some really good hockey and know we just have to get back to that.”
In less than 24 hours, the opportunity presents itself, as the New York Rangers visit the Bell Center for a game on Sunday night.
Saturday’s game was an outlier, though it was partially similar to some of the games the Canadiens played earlier this season.
We say that in part because they played close in other games until the third quarter when they struggled, putting them on the wrong side of some lopsided scores.
But the Canadiens languished in these games, doing nothing but taking on the Maple Leafs even as the scoreline grew increasingly out of reach.
Every time they pressed and pushed, they were blocked by Wall.
Just as Cole Caufield had a chance to make it 4-0 early in the second period, just before Dvořák whipped a pipe out of his pipe and sent McMahon flying into Samuel Montebio’s In front of the net.
The Montreal goalie was beaten by a great shot on that play. He had little chance when Nick Robertson’s high tip-in brought the Maple Leafs within one before the end of the second quarter. He then exaggerated William Nylander’s game-tying goal 24 seconds into the third period, missing Oliver Ekman Larsson and Auston Ma. Auston Matthews’ shot gave the Leafs a 5-3 lead.
“I should have been better at certain moments in the third inning to help us keep the lead or keep us in the game,” Montebault said.
Considering his performance after being named to Canada’s roster for the upcoming Four Nations tournament, we know he can.
Nick Suzuki has been hot since not making the team, but was far from his best heading into Saturday’s game. While Matheson said there might be some value in getting punched in the teeth by the Maple Leafs, we suspect Suzuki felt the same way about Matthews smashing his top chocolate bar with a stick in the first quarter.
We know that Ryan Hutson didn’t particularly enjoy ending the night with a minus-5 point rating after 18 of his previous 20 games were tied or +, but that’s just what this game did for him and his A microcosm of how weird it is for the team.
But coach Martin St. Louis isn’t worried about the Canadiens from the incident, and he doesn’t seem worried about Hutson either.
“I’m not worried about Ryan,” St. Louis said. “Ryan plays. Ryan is probably glad we have a game tomorrow so he can go out and compete. I think that’s what he’s going to do.”
The Canadiens were expected to do the same thing after allowing the Maple Leafs to make history against the Canadiens on Saturday night.
They feel frustrated afterwards, but certainly not discouraged.
