Tighter defence, opportunistic attack, productive, massive attack – the Canadian has fulfilled many requirements. Slowly but surely he was heading towards a well-thought-out win against Patrick Roy's Islanders. Then, with just over eight minutes left, almost everything changed.
• Also read: Sean Monahan saves the CH from Patrick Roy
• Also read: Roy passing through Montreal: in a box to watch Grandpa coach
• Also read: Martin St-Louis, ready to deal with the risks that Brendan Gallagher's style brings: “I understand Gally”
The reason? A stupid punishment from Brendan Gallagher after a dangerous gesture. The veteran elbowed Adam Pelech in the head and was thrown out of the fight. A gesture that will undoubtedly earn him a hearing before the NHL Disciplinary Committee.
While they waited to see what fate the league had in store for their teammate, the Canadian players had to make do with one man less for five minutes. The Islanders took advantage of the opportunity to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 3-3 draw.
Monahan increases his value
Sean Monahan showed opportunism by scoring the winning goal. That capped off a three-point night for Monahan.
As colleague Dave Lévesque, standing to my left on the bridge, pointed out, every point Monahan collects increases his value in the transaction market.
The best part is that in Monahan's case, it's not just about points. On Thursday he was a constant threat near Semyon Varlamov. In addition to five shots on goal, he played the role of a real general in the slot.
It was a little more difficult in the faceoff circle, but that's an exception to his habits.
Eight massive attacks
Gallagher isn't the only red-clad skater preaching indiscipline. The Habs offered Roy's team six power plays. Of all of them, Arber Xhekaj received two questionable penalties.
He needs to be careful because that is one of the criticisms leveled against him when he was traded to the Laval Rocket in December.
Furthermore, we would have complimented Montreal's defensive work if it hadn't been for these multiple numerical inferiorities. The Islanders had a total of 47 shots on goal. Sixteen of them were killed while playing with the man advantage.
Montembeault suffered an injury in Boston and allowed eight goals on 30 shots. However, he recovered very well.
A good start
Since the start of the season, the Canadian has often been criticized for being rather boring in the early stages of the game.
“The start of a game is always important, but recently that is no longer a problem,” the Canadian head coach said this morning. The first four or five minutes are good. Only then does it hurt us.”
On Thursday against the Islanders, the Habs players made sure their performance didn't slow down. They took advantage of every scoring opportunity in the first third and showed opportunism that hadn't been seen for a long time.
If King Charles, Pope Francis or Taylor Swift had been on the Islanders bench, the result would have been the same. The Canadian arrived at the Bell Center with the intention of not being impressed.
Fire in the skates
Roy made it so clear to his players that they needed to focus on the team and not on the return of their new head coach to Montreal, which might have put them off.
Because if we expected a frenetic start to the game from the visitors, it was Martin St-Louis' troops who had the fire under their skates.
Roy even had to call a timeout after the Habs took a 3-0 lead.