MONTREAL – The Canadiens defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 6-2 Sunday afternoon at the Bell Centre. Here are our observations.
Nice goal, Belzile!
There are those stories to which we cannot remain insensitive, these guys to whom we can only wish the best. Alex Belzile is one of them. In his fourth stint in the National League, the 31-year-old veteran was still looking for a first goal. “By continuing to work hard, I am confident that it will come,” he repeated for a few weeks when he saw Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, like him a recent reminder from the school club, fill the nets.
Belzile, who had four assists in six games before the visit of the Oilers, had his much-deserved moment of glory in the first period. The sequence that preceded him was typical of the game he has offered since we got to know him in the Habs organization: his relentlessness caused confusion in the semi-circle of goalkeeper Stuart Skinner, who was unable to control a loose puck. After a few seconds of chaos involving his mates Michael Pezzetta and Jesse Ylönen, Belzile retrieved the disc and got his hands out of the major leagues, pivoting on himself before lodging a shot at the intersection of the post and the bar transverse. The infectious smile that appeared on his face was worth the price of admission.
Alex Belzile is a junior career that only started at age 18, more than 200 games in the ECHL and precisely 334 games in the American League. He’s a guy who broke into the NHL at 28 and, for all his perseverance, now has an invaluable puck to display in his basement.
A heavy whistle of consequence
Rough game apologists will be tempted to take this opportunity to sell you their salad. They will argue that by engaging the fight against Josh Anderson and Arber Xhekaj, respectively, Evander Kane and Vincent Desharnais changed the pace of the match by giving the wind at their backs to their team. We would reply to those that the three minor penalties that the Canadian received after this rise in testosterone probably has more to do with the visitors’ renewed life in the second period.
The Canadian led 3-0 when Jonathan Drouin, Jordan Harris and David Savard were successively sent to jail in the space of two and a half minutes. Leon Draisaitl’s goal came as Drouin finished serving his sentence. Then the CH had just successfully passed a 3-against-3 of 1:28 when Kane surprised Jake Allen with a long shot.
It was starting to feel hot for the Montrealers, who were however saved by the same instrument that almost led to their collapse: the referees’ whistle. During a minor at Evan Bouchard, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard deflected a shot from Mike Matheson to score his sixth goal in nine games this season.
Xhekaj banged up
In volume, it might well happen one day. Xhekaj found his client in the person of Desharnais, a short 6-foot-6 man. Not that the colossus of the Canadian was spanked, far from it. But his shoulder, in the altercation, seems to have paid the price. After being knocked down, Xhekaj returned to the locker room pointing his right arm. He was later seen with his arm in a sling.
In such a rich learning season, it could be a fourth young apprentice that the Canadian loses along the way. This is valuable experience that Xhekaj, if our fears turn out to be justified, will not be able to buy back later in pro shop from the neighborhood.
It only remains to hope that he will get away with it better than Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield who preceded him at the clinic. We will have to see if, in the event of a prolonged absence, the Canadian will simply dress Chris Wideman or if he will issue an SOS to Nicolas Beaudin or Corey Schueneman in Laval.
Big Harris
Beginning of the third period, face-off to the right of Jake Allen. The forces seem unequal. Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft reunites Connor McDavid and Draisaitl and their transplant Zack Hyman, Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci. On the other side, Jordan Harris and Johnathan Kovacevic are supported by Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin.
The sequel perfectly sums up the form displayed by the two rivals on this Super Bowl day. Dvorak wins the face-off and in time to tell, Drouin carries the puck out of the zone. Armia transports her to the neutral zone, sets her back to Harris who takes the space granted to him, throws and counts.
We will focus here on Harris who, two days after signing a new two-year contract, probably had the match of his life. The goal was his second of the game, which he finished with a plus-4 differential. In Xhekaj’s absence, he was on the ice for 23 minutes 15 seconds, his second busiest game of the year.
The most impressive is yet to come. Harris is the Canadiens defenseman who has spent the most time on the ice (7:25) against McDavid tied in numbers. The Oilers only generated six shot attempts in this matchup.
Harris and his partner Kovacevic had been good the day before against the Islanders. They were even better against the Oilers.
McDavid Bleached
Before leaving the visitors’ locker room for the bus that was to transport his team to the airport, McDavid grabbed a game sheet, stared at it for a few seconds and rolled his eyes as he let it fall back onto the table where he had taken it. The Oilers star ended his day the way he started it: frustrated.
The Oilers hadn’t lost in regulation in their previous eleven games and McDavid’s production lived up to that streak of excellence. Twenty-five points in his last fifteen games. He had not been cleared since December 31.
It is therefore a small feat that the Canadian has achieved by erasing him from the score sheet on Sunday. McDavid directed eleven shots at the net, seven of them hitting the frame, but Allen denied them all. It was only the fifth time this season that the NHL’s leading scorer went out of a game without a point.
