When he was young in his native Wisconsin, Cole Caufield religiously followed the career of Joe Pavelski, a friend of the family. Saturday evening, he had the opportunity to see him at work up close.
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To his 1173e game in the NHL, the 38-year-old forward recorded the sixth hat trick of his career, in addition to setting up Jason Robertson’s goal. This evening of four points from the American contributed greatly to the Canadian’s 5-2 loss.
In the morning, Martin St-Louis had been there for the following warning about the former Sharks player.
“Joe is a pro. He did not know this career by chance. He has a strong work ethic and pays attention to a lot of details. You always have to know where he is on the rink. »
A few hours later, Pavelski became the oldest player in history to score a hat trick against the Canadiens.
Undefeated in its last two games, the St. Louis squad suffered its first loss of the season at the Bell Centre. For a rare time since the start of the calendar, the Canadian has experienced a few shorthanded failures. Effective 14 times in 15 occasions in its first five games, the Habs saw the visitors take advantage of two of their three chances.
Xhekaj’s turn
No, the Stars were not easy customers. We were far from the Coyotes. They left Montreal undefeated in regulation time this season.
The Montrealers can boast of having achieved a tour de force: that of having deceived the vigilance of Jake Oettinger twice during the same match.
It was the first time this campaign that the Stars goaltender, at .935, was so “generous”.
After Slafkovsky on Thursday, it was Arber Xhekaj’s turn to score his first NHL goal. This time, however, no swear words were shouted at an opponent.
At least, the 21,105 spectators will have been entitled to this moment of rejoicing. This success had the effect of raising the crowd, and, by extension, the Canadiens players.
During the minutes that followed, we felt a renewal of life in the tricolor camp. However, Esa Lindell’s goal, scored with 17 seconds left in the second period, dampened everyone’s enthusiasm.
What we noticed…
SLAFKOVSKY INJURED
With an upper body injury, Juraj Slafkovsky gave way to Rem Pitlick, who had been sidelined in the previous three games. The Habs said the rookie’s state of health would be reassessed daily. Without speaking of certainty, we can think that the check that Josh Brown served to him, just before he scored his first NHL goal on Thursday night, had more consequences than it seemed. .
STICK OF DREAMS
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Bad luck seems to want to stalk again Brendan Gallagher. The Canadian forward fell heavily against the ramp while skating on the stick that Nick Suzuki had been ripped from his hands. He got up painfully visibly injured in the left knee. Seconds earlier, Evgenii Dadonov had lost the puck to the same stick as he was about to outrun the Stars defenseman. Gallagher made just one more second-period shift, but returned to his regular role in the third.
GUHLE AND HARRIS PLENTY
In the morning, Joel Edmundson and Joel Armia trained with their teammates for the first time this season. The eventual return of Edmundson will pose a great problem in St. Louis. Which defender will score? Certainly not Jordan Harris (22 mins 17s) and Kaiden Guhle (21 mins X06s), the two defenders most used by the head coach of the Canadiens.
HOFFMAN BRAND
Mike Hoffman was the other scorer for the Canadiens. He took advantage of an overcrowding attack to grab a return throw from Jake Evans. Arber Xhekaj got the other assist.
+
Arber Xhekaj
He still has to learn to choose the right moments to distribute the hard-hitting shoulders and come to grips with his opponents He still played a strong game In addition to his goal and his assist, he distributed seven checks
–
Evgenii Dadonov
Dadonov got some playing time in the Canadian’s first massive attack We thought Martin St-Louis was about to give him a big night’s work Finally, the Russian was once again discreet The only time we noticed him, during the 13 minutes and 8 seconds he spent on the ice is when he dropped the puck due to the stick of Nick Suzuki
First period
1-DAL: Joe Pavelski (2) (Benn, Robertson)AN-4:24
2-MON: Mike Hoffman (1) (Evans, Xhekaj)15:35
Penalties: Glendening (Dal) 1:35, Gallagher (Mon) 3:11
Second period
3-DAL: Joe Pavelski (3) (Hintz)0:18
4-DAL: Jason Robertson (2) (Benn, Pavelski)AN-4:31
5-MON: Arber Xhekaj (1) (Monahan, Suzuki)15:58
6-DAL: Esa Lindell (1) (Dellandrea)19:43
Penalties: Hakanpaa (Dal) 1:26 Dach (Mon) 3:06
Third period
7-DAL: Joe Pavelski (4) (Hintz, Lundkvist)6:53
Penalties: Hakanpaa (Dal) 3:49, Hakanpaa (Dal) 7:52, Monahan (Mon) 8:28
Shoot to the net
DALLAS 12 – 11 – 7 – 30 MONTREAL 14 – 13 – 7 – 34
Guardians:
DAL: Jake Oettinger (G, 4-0-0) MON: Jake Allen (P, 2-2-0)
Numerical advantages:
DAL: 2 in 3, MON: 0 in 4
Referees:
Marc Joannette, Brandon Blandina
Linesmen:
Julien Fournier, Devin Berg
ASSISTANCE:
21 105
Joe Pavelsky
★
Arber Xhekaj
★★
Jason Robertson
★★★