About Last Night: Dach and Monty lead Habs to second straight win (2024)

The injury-depleted Montreal Canadiens played one of their best games of the season on Tuesday, taking care of the Western conference-leading Winnipeg Jets 4-1 at the Bell Centre.

Goalie Sam Montembeault continued his run of excellent play with a 25-save performance. Now centring his own line away from Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach is playing his best stretch as a Hab. He added another two assists to his season total.

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Prior to puck drop, the team announced Juraj Slafkovsky, Jake Evans and Joel Armia were all placed on injured reserve. Then Jonathan Drouin was a late scratch due to injury. That meant Jesse Ylonen was upgraded to the top line, while Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick were recalled on an emergency basis.

It was also a battle of the Barrons: defenceman Justin on the Habs and forward Morgan for the Jets. Parents were in attendance, but couldn’t take sides.

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After a scoreless first, sniper Kyle Connor opened scoring on the power play at 1:24 of the second.

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The Habs countered with a stretch of three goals in under six minutes. Dadonov played like a man possessed on his offensive shift, eventually sending home a one-timer off a pass from the Montreal Barron. Game tied 1-1.

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Then it was another slumping forward who awakened, this time Mike Hoffman. His top corner snipe gave Montreal the 2-1 lead. Barron got his second assist and Dach had the primary setup.

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Dadonov struck again for his fourth on the season. He was in the right place to bang home the rebound off a Christian Dvorak shot. The Habs led 3-1 after two periods, but not before Caufield received his first minor penalty of the season. You read that correctly: his first penalty of the season. Hopefully it doesn’t affect his Lady Byng chances.

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In the third, Dach continued to stake his claim for the second line centre job, nearly beating Connor Hellebuyck on a wraparound. Josh Anderson was there to pounce on the rebound to extend Montreal’s lead to three goals.

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It seemed inevitable, and sure enough, in the game’s final minute, Arber Xhekaj and Adam Lowry dropped the gloves. Xhekaj handled himself against the more experienced Lowry, and pounded the CH on his sweater after the fight.

The crowd cheered like it was a series clincher, and the liveblog commenters were in a positive mood, as well. There’s still some bad blood from the playoff series two years when Mark Scheifele ran Evans, so the commenters put aside the tank for a day to settle an old score.

More importantly, the Canadiens have potentially found some integral pieces for the future, and they’re already on the roster. Dach has five points in his last four games and after years of Montreal shoehorning players into the centre position, Dach is currently thriving up the middle with Sean Monahan and now Jake Evans out. Then there’s Montembeault, a fan favourite among a number of liveblog commenters. He has an above .500 record on the season and has lifted his save percentage over the .910 mark. He has outplayed Jake Allen, and even though coach Martin St. Louis was quick to assert Allen’s role as No. 1 earlier in the season, when Allen returns from injury soon, will the coach do it again?

3. “As well got to love X man tapping the Habs logo after is fight, Habs rebuild with a strong fondation.” — Hunter Muskoka

2. “The trade for Dach is looking better every game. We may have won the Kirby Derby.” — Mike Sampson

1. “I’ve loved Monty since day ONE! I don’t care if he let in the first two shots against him as a HAB. Ha! I also saw him settle down immediately and have a decent game, and then have to face 50 shots a night for multiple games after that. I got boooed and hisssed all of last year. Didn’t bother me a bit. I’m telling ya. There’s a reason Florida was so ticked off that we claimed him off waivers. Maybe they shouldn’t have let him go. Too bad … so sad.” — Carin Latzel

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