CANADIENS
Montreal

6-4

BRUINS
Boston

Game Recap:

Perfect pregame. It’s evidently clear that the unspoken captain of your Montreal Canadiens is Carey Price. Kicking off the opening ceremonies Habs legendary goaltender Ken Dryden passed the torch to Price. It was a moment that gave Habs fans chills.

First period improvement. The Canadiens played a better first period of this young season picking up a power-play goal to earn a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes. That said, Montreal spent too much of the period shorthanded allowing the Bruins a 13-7 shot advantage. Alexei Emelin set the physical tone early laying out Boston’s Milan Lucic with a solid hit.

Defense. Through the first four games, Canadiens defensive zone play has been atrocious.  That continued, at times tonight, with Carey Price having to make some big saves to make up for his team’s shortcomings. Turnovers were again a problem with Tom Gilbert leading the giveaway parade.  But Alexei Emelin helped to turn the tide playing solid first pairing minutes.  Emelin was effective with an active stick to disrupt passes and delivered four hits.  Jarred Tinordi played more than 15 minutes of mistake-free hockey and added two hits.

Power play. It was a game that featured two teams that had struggled on the power-play going into this game.  In fact, the Bruins had trouble scoring period with only six goals in four games.  The Bruins were 1-for-3 with the man advantage while the Canadiens picked up two power-play goals.  For Montreal, there was in increased willingness to go to the net from all three forward lines much to the frustration of Tuukka Rask. The Bruins number one goalie was pulled midway through the third period after giving up his fifth goal of the night.

Jiri arrives. After an eye-opening training camp, Jiri Sekac has been mostly invisible in his first four NHL games. But he chose the Canadiens home opener in front of family as his coming out party. With linemates Lars Eller and Rene Bourque creating chaos in front of the net, Sekac buried his first NHL goal. Sekac’s dad was jubilant in the stands pumping his fists in the air and kissing his son’s girlfriend on the cheek.

Leftovers. It’s clear that Milan Lucic remained preoccupied with Alexei Emelin especially after he was flattened in the first period. It was a selfish play by Lucic with only 1:20 left in a one-goal game that sealed the win for the Canadiens. Lucic took a bad penalty for boarding when he went after Emelin with a dangerous hit. After the Canadiens scored an empty-netter, Lucic angrily exited the penalty box and was given a 10-minute misconduct.  The NHL is considering supplementary discipline for Lucic after he made indecent gestures to the Bell Centre fans.

Bunny is right. The CBC website featured All Habs own prognosticating bunny, Puck, and his prediction for the Canadiens home-opener. Puck was correct again making the Habs his pick.

Plus / Minus

▲   Brendan Gallagher, Alexei Emelin, Max Pacioretty, Jarred Tinordi, Jiri Sekac, P.A. Parenteau, David Desharnais, Lars Eller

▼   Tom Gilbert

1.  Brendan Gallagher  MTL 
2.  Max Pacioretty  MTL
3.  David Desharnais  MTL

Coach Michel Therrien

• “The power play was good. Finally we capitalized on our power play, but I liked the spirit. I liked that we were more aggressive to the net and we got some chances.”

Max Pacioretty

• “It’s nice to get everybody on the scoresheet. We have a lot of depth on this team, and you want everybody feeling good about themselves offensively, and that’s definitely the case tonight.”

Jiri Sekac

• “I was really calm back home and really happy that my whole family was here. I want to dedicate my first goal to my whole family. My grandpa just turned 70 years old today so it would be nice to dedicate it to him.”
• “It was one of the best moments of my life. It’s hard to describe. It feels unreal. I just can’t stop smiling.”

Bruins coach Claude Julien

• “There were a lot of mistakes where guys should know better. They were trying to do a little too much or not focused enough. We’ve got to make sure we fix those things.”