William Nylander scored 48 seconds into the season, and the Canadiens looked like they were about to give one away in Toronto. They did not. Josh Anderson, Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Carrier scored three straight, and Montreal opened its season with a 3-2 win at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday night. It was not a pretty game. It was a win built on depth, a calm goalie and a strong penalty kill.
The Depth Line Did the Damage
The three goals did not come from the names most fans expect. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky did not score. The best line on the ice for Montreal was Jake Evans, Anderson and Bolduc: two goals, one assist, six shots on net and a combined plus-4. Kirby Dach, who played just over 11 minutes, set up the tying goal.
Anderson was the engine. He tied the game at 10:53 of the first period when he deflected an Alexandre Carrier point shot and then swatted his own rebound out of the air at the top of the crease. He finished with a goal, an assist, three shots and four hits, playing the depth role about as well as it can be played. It was also his 13th goal against Toronto as a Canadien.
Bolduc gave Montreal the lead at 4:52 of the second. Mike Matheson drove the net, the puck came loose, and Bolduc beat Sergei Bobrovsky on the glove side.
Carrier then scored at 13:12 of the third with a long shot through traffic. It stood as the game-winner after Nylander made it 3-2 at 15:46.
Dobes Was the Dobes We Know
Toronto outshot Montreal 28-24. Jakub Dobes stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced for a .929 save percentage. Bobrovsky, in his first game as a Leaf, stopped 21 of 24 for .875.
Dobes allowed a goal on the first shot he faced, at 48 seconds, and then bounced back. He stopped a one-timer from Auston Matthews in the first, and he shut down Kirill Marchenko with a glove save 17 seconds into the second period. What stood out to me was the way he played. He looked square to the puck, more balanced, and he controlled his rebounds better. In the past he has fought the puck at times. On opening night he was calm and confident.
Special Teams: The Kill Won It
The Canadiens killed all three Toronto power plays. The Leafs had a group with real firepower on the ice, and Montreal gave them very little room. Phillip Danault was excellent on faceoffs during the kills and made several plays that ended Toronto possessions.
The Montreal power play did not score. It went 0-for-2 with three shots, and Slafkovsky hit the post on one of them. That unit needs to be sharper, but the kill more than made up for it.
Coach’s Take
Montreal did enough to win a road game on opening night. Martin St-Louis said afterward that the team did not play its A-game, but it had its B-game. He added that early in the season players are still finding cohesion and chemistry, and that doing enough to win was what mattered.
I agree, and I liked how St-Louis managed the game. No forward played more than 20 minutes and none played fewer than 11, so he rolled all four lines and kept everyone involved. That is smart in game one, when legs and timing are not fully there. The result showed why it works: the Evans line, one of the lower lines by ice time, was the one that decided the game.
One more detail we have to pay attention to is the faceoffs. Montreal finished at 60.4 percent, and surprisingly Alex Newhook was the best of the group at 77.8 percent, followed by Jake Evans and Nick Suzuki at 58 percent each. That is a strong number against a Toronto team that was one of the best faceoff teams in the NHL last season, third overall at 54.2 percent. Winning those draws early in the year, when lines are still learning each other, is a good sign.
The next step is on the power play. Three shots in two chances is not enough for a group with this much talent, and Slafkovsky’s post was close. If the penalty kill keeps working like it did in Toronto, the power play only has to catch up.
Three Stars of the Game
- Jakub Dobes: 26 saves on 28 shots, .929
- Alexandre Carrier: game-winning goal and an assist
- Josh Anderson: one goal, one assist, two points
Lineup Notes and What’s Next
Montreal dressed 17 of the same 20 players as last year’s opener, a game Toronto won. Florian Xhekaj and Adam Engström sat as healthy scratches, and Oliver Kapanen remains out with a lower-body injury. On the other side, Gavin McKenna made his NHL debut for Toronto and finished minus-2, and Marchenko had an assist in his first game as a Leaf.
The Canadiens now get three days off and will hold a semi-retreat together before they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night at 7:00 PM.
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