On a day that market the 64th anniversary of Maurice "Rocket" Richard's retirement, the sun was out in Montreal and the mercury had already reached 25 Celsius by the time over 20,000 dedicated fan took over the Bell Centre. The building slowly filled up with families as Diane Bibaud warmed up at the organ just like the players, making for a festive atmosphere.
Along the boards, young fans had numerous signs, the best one reading: "Lane's talent is insane". This fanbase is ready for Hutson to make the NHL and so is he by the looks of it.
The Montreal Canadiens prospect knew this was the last game of the rookie camp and their last opportunity to make an impression. True to his reputation, Owen Beck was in the Bell Centre bright and early, stickhandling by the dressing room at 10:40 AM. The alternate captain impressed the bench boss over the camp:
While the Toronto Maple Leafs took an early one-goal lead, the Canadiens dominated much of the first frame, but just couldn't solve Arthur Akhtymatov. They might have had a better chance at it had they been more inclined to shoot. There were long sequences at even strength when the Habs set up camp in Toronto's zone, but none of the players seem to want to shoot, preferring to defer to their teammates. It was especially true when Adam Engstrom, David Reinbacher, Luke Tuch, Florian Xhekaj and Tyler Thorpe bottled up the Leafs in their zone but only took one shot.
Still, by the end of the period, the Canadiens had a 15-8 edge in shot, but the visitors were ahead 1-0. Lane Hutson was once again spectacular, showing he could stickhandle out of a phone booth, if only they still existed.
While his skills are impressive, it's easy to understand what Pascal Vincent meant yesterday when he spoke of the energy he brings on the bench. You can actually see it on the ice as well, there's no quit in Hutson, he's relentless. It's the kind of player that can jump start a team when needed, just by playing an impressive shift. In a weird way, even though he is much more skillful than Brendan Gallagher, he reminds me of him when it comes to leading by example.
The Canadiens failed to score in the two power play opportunities they had in the first frame, but it was interesting to see how Vincent was deploying his man-advantage, it was identical to how the Habs used to set up last season. There was always a player hovering in front of the net and moving to the side trying to make themselves forgotten at times.
The second session was more intense and physical than the first, the Canadiens being unable to establish as much possession as they did ealier on, and the Leafs showing more fight. Early in the frame, Hirvonen got his second of the game to make it 2-0 Toronto but the Canadiens soon came back.
On the power play, Heineman jumped on a Mailloux rebound after the blueliner unleashed a bomb from the faceoff dot. The goal seemed to wake up Montreal and Jared Davidson completed a nice passing play by Reinbacher and Savoie to tie up the game.
The teams weren't level for long however as a booming shot from the point bounced off the board and was knocked in by Sam McCue, giving the Leafs a one-goal lead, which they preserved until the buzzer called time on the frame.
It was a good period for Reinbacher who managed to hit Fraser Minten solidly, sending him back to the bench limping. The Leafs young gun wasn't the only one to get rocked, Hutson also got a lesson in keeping his head up, which sparked a bit of rough stuff. Speaking of rough stuff, Logan Nijhoff who took Israel Manscum's spot in the lineup dropped the gloves against Rhett Parsons, but wasn't as successful as Xhekaj was yesterday, clearly losing the tilt.
When Hutson was rocked by a hit and Logan Mailloux immediately jumped in to defend his partner, that got him a 10-minute misconduct, but it went a long way to show the kind of teammate he is. He's had a very good weekend overall, landing three shots on net this weekend and scoring the goal that nearly got the Canadiens to overtime.
With 20 minutes to go, the young Habs were trailing 3-2 while still leading shots wise. Montreal started the frame on the attack and the third line formed by Luke Tuch, Florian Xhekaj and Typer Thorpe was rewarded for its hard work when the latter score a beauty of a goal. Laval Rocket coach Pascal Vincent was clearly impressed by the 19-year-old's work over the weekend:
Some seven minutes later, a clearing attempt from Adam Engstrom found its way right on Matthew Barbonni's stick and an instant later, Marshall Finnie was scoring Toronto's fourth goal. The Canadiens didn't give up though and they got their own lucky break when a Charles Savoie shot missed the net, bounced off the board and came right to Mailloux who one-timed it past the goaltender. That was a breathtaking shot and Vyacheslav Peska who came in mid-way through the game for the Leafs stood no chance.
Unfortunately for the Canadiens, they gave a power play late in the game when Parsons jumped Tuch to start his second fight of the game after the Montreal winger sent an opponent in the boards. Florian Xhekaj immediately came in as the third man and while Parsons was the instigator of the tilt, the end result was a penalty kill for Montreal.
With a scored tied at 4-4, Easton Cowan wasn't going to pass on a power play opportunity, he took a shot that Drobac partly stopped, but in the end, it trickled in and Toronto signed a 5-4 win. In his post game comment, Tuch acknowledge that the ill-timed penalty had hurt the team and I'd venture a guess that he's learnt his lesson.
While the Canadiens lost both games, the weekend allowed the fans to get a glimpse of what should be a very bright future and judging by what we saw over the two games, we're in for yet another blueline battle when the main camp starts later this week.
