Monday night’s 4-3 overtime win for the Montreal Canadiens was just another example of how difficult things have been for them in the month of February.
Playing against a New Jersey Devils team that had lost four straight and won just five games in their home rink since getting off to an 8-0-2 start to the season there, the Canadiens had to fight off three separate deficits to capture their first back-to-back wins since the first week of January.
It was but the second time the Canadiens managed more than three goals in a game this month, and after being outscored 1-0 and outshot 22-16 through the first 40 minutes, they appeared to be well on their way to being shut out for a fifth time in their last 10 games.
When Devils defenceman John Moore blasted a shot by Canadiens backup Al Montoya less than three minutes into the third period to give his team a 2-0 lead, the visiting side looked dead to rights.
But Alexander Radulov scored his 15th goal of the season 11 seconds later, and after the Devils responded with a power play goal to restore their two-goal lead at the 7:54 mark, Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty did what he’s been doing since the beginning of December.
Watching him take over the game, one couldn’t help but think about the baggage Pacioretty carried into this season. His Canadiens wilted in the 70-game absence of top goaltender Carey Price last season, going from the NHL’s pole position in the standings in early December to choking on the fumes of 21 other teams by season’s end. A sizeable portion of the blame for their collapse fell at his feet.
Starting this season with two goals in 14 games was hardly the new chapter Pacioretty was hoping to author as captain.
But since healing from a broken foot that plagued him throughout the month of November, no player on the team has helped keep the Canadiens on top of the Atlantic Division to the degree that Pacioretty has.
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When he faded off to a dead zone of the ice by Devils goaltender Cory Schneider’s crease and found a loose puck to cut New Jersey’s lead to 3-2, it was hardly surprising. It was Pacioretty’s 30th goal of the season, making it four consecutive years he’s hit the mark, putting him in the company of legends Maurice Richard, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt and Yvan Cournoyer as the only Canadiens to have ever accomplished that feat.
When the Canadiens pressed with the extra man while Montoya looked on from the bench in the dying moments of the game, it wasn’t remotely shocking that the puck which trickled through Schneider and just barely found its way across the goal line had come off Pacioretty’s stick.
When you looked at the shifts the captain took in overtime, recording two of his eight shots on the night and coming oh-so-close to registering a hat trick before doing the majority of the legwork that led to Alex Galchenyuk game-winning goal, you had to acknowledge how desperately he wanted to make the difference.
Before the Canadiens hit the road for wins in Toronto and New Jersey, it was Pacioretty who said, “every time you’re on the ice, you got to want to change the game. Whether that comes with confidence — I’m not sure how to get it, but everyone’s got to have that mindset and it’s obvious that that’s not the mindset.” He was far from being off-base.
It’s a fact that made the process for the Canadiens more than arduous over the 26 days leading up to Monday’s game.
Pacioretty had accounted for five of the team’s 16 goals, with only three other forwards scoring through 11 February games. There he was again on Monday, dragging his teammates into the fight. If not for him, general manager Marc Bergevin’s incentive to ease the team’s burden via trade might have evaporated weeks ago.
Instead, the GM jumped into action on Monday afternoon, acquiring defenceman Jordie Benn from the Dallas Stars in exchange for beleaguered blue-liner Greg Pateryn and a 2017 fourth-round pick.
“We get an experienced NHL defenceman,” Bergevin said via press release of the 29-year-old who had appeared in 302 games with the Stars. He called him “a player who will solidify our defensive group.”
Bergevin left himself a day and change ahead of the March 1 trade deadline to bring in some help up front for a team that sorely needs it.
But no matter how big a coup Bergevin can pull off, things won’t get any easier for the Canadiens. Knowing that is half the battle.
If that knowledge leads to exhibiting the desperation required to face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday at the Bell Centre, to close out this torturous month, it could go a long way towards putting this team back on the right path as it approaches the final 18 games of its season.
