For the second time in as many nights, the Montreal Canadiens were in action against an Atlantic Division rival, this time the Boston Bruins. While home openers are always high-octane affairs, so are bleu, blanc, rouge vs. black and gold games.
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After the Bruins had a goal waived off because of goalie interference, the Canadiens scored a second power play goal in as many games and it was all thanks to Lane Hutson. The kid is everywhere on the ice and dances around with such unpredictability that it’s hard to keep up. Boston’s defense probably agrees about that one.
The Bruins came right back with a man-advantage lamplighter of their own through Charlie McAvoy less than two minutes later. The game kept its frantic pace though and Cole Caufield scored his second of the year a little over a minute later to make it 2-1 Habs. It’s worth nothing that Hutson notched another assist on that one, holding onto the puck until some space appeared in Boston’s zone.
Boston scored two more before the end of the first though and took a 3-2 lead going into the intermission. If Samuel Montembeault was flawless yesterday, Primeau definitely wasn’t today. His life was made much harder by the Canadiens being unable to win draws, holding on to the puck only 30% of the time.
The big bad bears added two unanswered goal in the middle frame and by the time the buzzer rang, it was 5-2 Boston. The Maine outfit had 11 shots on goal in the middle frame while the Canadiens could only manage to get 5 through to Swayman. Who said you couldn’t ease your goalie in by putting him in the second game of the season when he missed the whole training camp? 40 minutes in, the netminder had barely broken a sweat.
Martin St-Louis tried to wake his charges with some lineup tweaks, bringing Anderson on the first line with Caufield and Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook in the second line.
Josh Anderson found the back of the net halfway through the final frame to make it 5-3, a most respectable loss. On the play, Oliver Kapanen got an assist, a first NHL point in his first NHL game.
Halfway through the last frame, Hutson had already skated in 18 minutes, not bad at all for a rookie and with five minutes to go, he had made it over 20 minutes. At the final buzzer, he had played 22:46 second only to Mike Matheson on the Canadiens’ blueline.
Related: Canadiens: What to Expect From Lane Hutson
Gallagher gave Habs fans a bit of hope scoring his second of the game, but it was too little too late as the Bruins scored a sixth goal. Final score:6-4 Boston.
Related: Canadiens: What to Expect From Brendan Gallagher
The Canadiens’ defensive coverage got better as the game went on and in the end, the Bruins “only” had 29 shots, a number pale in comparison with last night’s 47 seven shots surrendered to the Maple Leafs.
The Canadiens will now have a day off before hosting the Ottawa Senators Saturday at 7:00 PM. Ottawa was also in action tonight, beating the Cup Champions Florida Panthers 3-1.
