Blue Jackets – Canadiens

L'attaquant québécois du Canadien de Montréal Rafaël Harvey-Pinard a réussi son premier tour du chapeau en carrière dans la LNH.

Il s’agit du deuxième triplé cette saison par un joueur du CH, après celui de Christian Dvorak le 29 novembre dernier. • À lire aussi:

Overall, the Canadiens foundation is strong and on the way to getting much stronger. This was an excellent season for development.

It is unlikely that he would sign a contract that sends him immediately to the AHL. The expectation is he will be offered a three year contract as a 21 year old. Farrell has earned the NHL three-year offer and the Canadiens know that as well. Cup winners have strength down the middle, and one of them has to elevate just a bit more to show they have 80 to 90 points in them. That’s a little late in the game to offer a forward a contract for a rebuilding team. Draft picks are needed to get the best players at the top of the draft. It was a shame that we didn’t get to see him play the second half of the year. Caufield was on pace for a 47-goal season when he was removed to repair the torn labrum in his shoulder. The improvement of Suzuki is a win as well. There were years that Matheson wasn’t even a regular in the NHL. Even Jonathan Drouin is making a case in the last year of a long contract that he may win an offer for one season this summer. The Canadiens went from only having Nick Suzuki as a top-six centre to having a second centre that may be equal to or even better than Suzuki one day.

Captain Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach have already set career highs this season with the Habs.

Johnny Gaudreau leads the Blue Jackets in scoring with 17-48-65 totals, followed by Patrik Laine (22-30-52) and Boone Jenner (24-17-41). He has an .853 save percentage during that span and his record this season is 14-24-3 with a 3.57 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. Dach has already set career highs in goals, assists and points after posting 9-17-26 totals in 70 games last season with the Chicago Blackhawks. Suzuki was the only Canadien to play in all 82 games last season, when he posted 21-40-61 totals, setting a career high in points. The Carolina Hurricanes will be the visitors next Saturday, while the Canadiens will play their last Saturday game the following week in Toronto against the Maple Leafs. Article content

After an entertaining first period for the Blue Jackets, the wheels came off in the second period en route to an 8-2 thrashing at the hands of the Montreal ...

He skated the puck in the zone, and had Bayreither backing up and providing a perfect screen on his shot that beat Hutchinson. Upon a second look, it was actually Andrew Peeke who put the puck into his own net trying to break up the cross-crease pass. It was all Montreal at this point, and the Jackets were struggling to keep up with the pressure. Not many stoppages at all and a lot of neutral zone play kept the clock running. The Jackets had energy out of the gate tonight, and didn’t look like they were on the latter half of a back-to-back...yet. Before I could even sit back down for the start of the second period, Montreal scored and it was all downhill from there. The Jackets managed some shots, but none were really much of a threat to get behind Montembault. Once again it took just another minute and a half for another goal to be scored, this time for the Canadiens. Johnson faked shot and slid a backhand pass to Lane Pederson who just had to put the puck into the empty cage. Mike Matheson carried the puck into the offensive zone and dropped a pass to Mike Hoffman. In his first game back from his leave of absence, Elvis Merzlikins left in the second period due to injury. The tired legs in the back-end of a back-to-back caught up to them as they allowed a second period hat trick to Raphael Harvey-Pinard.

Écoutez Martin McGuire et Dany Dubé décrire et analyser ce match entre les Blue Jackets de Columbus et le Canadien, présenté au Centre Bell.

Le capitaine du CH s'amène dans le territoire ennemi et utilise le défenseur comme écran. Le jeune joueur freine au cercle gauche avant de battre - à son tour - le gardien des Blue Jackets avec un tir du poignet. Or, dans son déplacement, le gardien fait sortir le filet de ses amarres. Il déjoue le gardien d'un tir du poignet, c'est 8-2. Lane Pederson, qui s'amène sur le flanc gauche, accepte une belle passe de Kent Johnson pour compter son troisième but de la saison. Kirill Marchenko surprend le gardien Montembault avec un tir provenant du coin de la patinoire. Le CH a remporté 28 matchs, en a perdu 38 et a 6 revers en temps supplémentaire. Jesse Ylönen profite du bon travail de Brandon Gallagher un peu plus tard en première période. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard a connu le meilleur match de sa carrière, samedi au Centre Bell. Harris a également retrouvé Kovacevic, son partenaire régulier pour une bonne partie de la saison. Les Blue Jackets, forts d'une victoire la veille, sortent en lion et dirigent les quatre premiers lancers sur la cage défendue par Samuel Montembeault. Alors que Mike Matheson s'amène en territoire ennemi, il repère Hoffman en retrait.

As expected, Jordan Harris is ready to re-enter the lineup this evening, spelling Chris Wideman and reuniting a pairing with Johnny Kovacevic that has proven to ...

Right Wing Left Wing Jesse Ylönen is also back in after being a healthy scratch versus the Boston Bruins.