Carey Price made 36 saves and the Montreal Canadiens beat Toronto 3-1 on Wednesday night in the season opener, spoiling Mike Babcock coaching debut with the Maple Leafs. Meanwhile the Toronto Maple Leafs (0-1) will be seeking their opening win of the season on the road now as they travel to Joe Louis Arena to take on the Detroit Red Wings (0-0).
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No doubt a lot of Torontonians would enjoy the trek to see that trio play – especially in the winter.
“They definitely played a strong game”.
Montreal opened the scoring at 3:09 of the first period on a goal by Pacioretty, whose shot bounced off Bernier’s right shoulder before trickling over the line.
“I think we’re going to be better, yeah”, said Lupul.
“We’re used to that”, said captain Max Pacioretty, who scored on the team’s first shot of the game and added an empty-netter.
He was helped on a couple of occasions by the pipes, but showed great strength of character where last years’ Maple Leafs may have given up.
Price racked up an impressive haul of awards after leading the National Hockey League in save percentage (.933), goals-against average (1.96) and wins (44) last season.
The Leafs put defencemen T.J. Brennan and Andrew Campbell and forwards Sam Carrick, Matt Frattin and Byron Froese on waivers Sunday to try to get them to the Marlies.
“It’s been great with Lou, ” Babcock said. “I worked on my shot quite a bit in the summer”, Galchenyuk said. “I thought we controlled the puck for a good chunk of the game”. Everybody contributed. (Price) is not a bad goaltender. Canucks goalie Ryan Miller made 29 saves. “Just be patient. Keep doing good things, you’re going to get your chances”.
Galchenyuk, a center, shot home a rebound from the slot after a shot by defenseman Andrei Markov at 12:02 to end a 1-1 tie.
The rebound chances were still occurring for the Habs as they were all over the net pressuring the Leafs netminder. At 4 on 4 Montreal took more shots and the Leafs were left with only one shot on goal for over ten minutes after Montreal scored.
“Max played a good game, the line played a good”, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said.
Toronto Maple Leafs’ Shawn Matthias (23) drives around his net as Montreal Canadiens’ Tomas Plekanec (14) chases during the first period of an NHL preseason hockey game, Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Toronto.
Daniel Sedin restored Vancouver’s two-goal lead with 5 seconds left in the period.
P.K. Subban was simply masterful on Wednesday night, not only on the defensive side of the puck, but also via his three assists.
Gallagher started the second period off on the wrong foot by getting a goalie interference penalty for snowing the goaltender in the first minute.
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Toronto’s breakout looked a lot better under Babcock and his staff than Carlyle and Horachek. “In the third period I didn’t like that when we started pushing, we got a little carried away at times”. The Leafs relentlessly pursued the puck, quickly breaking out of their zone and making effective passes as they won most of their one on one battles. In saying all that, I’d like us to score better and I thought we could’ve been tighter at times in our own zone and through the neutral zone. Again, it’s the first game and they won’t be contenders for a little while, but it’s just something to think about. If the Blue Jays get lit up in Game 1 on Thursday you know who to blame.
