Canadiens' Harris deserved better in loss to Stars

MONTREAL — It was an unfortunate play — perhaps the only one young defenceman Jordan Harris was a part of all week — and it ended with a chef’s kiss.

When veteran Joe Pavelski took advantage of a strange bounce to cap a hat trick and put his Dallas Stars up 5-2 over the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Saturday, that motion he made away from his lips appeared to be a thank you to the hockey gods.

Had they been on Harris’ side, none of that ever would’ve happened. He’d have gone from deep in the offensive zone to breaking up a breakaway chance for Pavelski at a critical moment of the game, and that would’ve rubber stamped his most impressive night in the NHL to date.

Instead, right when the 22-year-old was extending his stick to poke the puck off Pavelski’s, teammate Jake Evans interfered. It wasn’t intentional — Evans was making the same effort Harris was to stop a goal, but he stabbed at the puck and he and Harris tripped over each other and ended up on suddenly on their backs, watching Pavelski pucker up.

“Crappy bounce,” said Evans.

And he felt bad it came at Harris’ expense, too.

“He played a great game,” Evans said.

Make that one of three this week for the young rearguard from Haverhill, Mass.

Sure, Harris was also victimized by Pavelski on the opening goal of this first loss at the Bell Centre for the Canadiens this season, but no defenceman in the league was stopping that play — a quick one that saw Pavelski receive a pass to the lower slot and shovel it into the roof of Jake Allen’s net with his backhand to put the Stars up 1-0 on the power play at the 4:24 mark of the first period.

But he was also a big part of the push the Canadiens had to tie the game and turn an 8-2 shot deficit into an 14-12 surplus by the end of that frame.

Long after Pavelski iced this one off that weird bounce 6:53 into the third period, Harris skated the last of his 23 shifts and finished as the most used player on his side (22:17). He pushed the pace at both ends, made some beautiful passes, kept his stick active to break up plays, and quietly went about his business without anyone really noticing.

It was in the shadows where Harris thrived this week, left there by 20-year-old Kaiden Guhle playing a dominant, wise-beyond-his-years role in a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday, by 18-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky scoring his first NHL goal in a 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes, and by 21-year-old Arber Xhekaj tuning up heavyweight Zach Kassian before helping Slafkovsky score against the Coyotes and then notching an assist and his first NHL goal against the Stars.

But to see Harris play as he did against Dallas — a team Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis accurately described as “a veteran team” that goes “north-south pretty quickly” and is “heavy and fast” — is to know he deserves a bit more spotlight than he’s received since this season began.

Asked about Harris’ underlying numbers after the game, Canadiens director of hockey analytics Chris Boucher said something that lined up precisely with what any who have watched from the player since early October has seen.

“They’re excellent,” Boucher said. “He’s got great feet, his stick is really active, and he’s making good plays all over the ice.”

Boucher noted Harris has improved a lot from the 10 games he played last season and the handful he skated through in exhibition this fall in generating shot attempts in the offensive zone by stepping out of blocked lanes and directing pucks on net, and that’s reflected in the numbers.

On Saturday, the 5-foot-11, 189-pound defenceman helped the Canadiens control 65.52 per cent of the 5-on-5 shot attempts when he was on the ice. He had two shots on net and three directed at it, bringing his totals to 15 shots on net and 23 shot attempts through six games.

That Harris leads Canadiens defencemen in the first category and is tied with partner Johnathan Kovacevik in the second might come as a surprise to people who haven’t noticed him quite as much as Guhle and Xhekaj. That he leads the entire team in 5-on-5 shots on net and is tied with Kovacevik and Brendan Gallagher in the second is worthy of a descriptor that’s slightly more flattering than “solid,” as St. Louis referred to Harris’ play through the three games the Canadiens had this week.

“I thought he’s been pretty solid,” said St. Louis. “He used his feet to defend, but also to join. I’ve been happy with Jordan.”

In truth, Harris can’t ask for much more.

He will be most effective when he’s considered as “solid” and his play is subdued, in control and totally under the radar to the untrained eye.

But Harris’ teammates see what he’s doing every day.

“He’s just so sound,” said Jonathan Drouin. “Sometimes you won’t see his game. I think (injured Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson) Mikey said it at the beginning of the year that sometimes, as a defenceman, it’s a good thing to be unseen.

“I think he has good gap and good skating. You don’t notice him because he’s doing the right things. He may not be as flashy as some of the other guys, but he’s doing a lot of good stuff.”

Or as Evans put it: “He’s just a little bit more quiet. Seems like just a really smart kid.”

It was tough to see both players involved in such an unlucky play to put Saturday’s game out of reach, considering both helped the Canadiens stay in it up until that moment.

But it was particularly unkind to Harris, who likely would’ve had more people talking about the way he played had he not finished with a minus-1 next his name on the scoresheet.

Harris skated a career-high in this game and really stood out at both ends, and he’s emerging as the reliable defenceman the Canadiens hoped he’d be when they drafted him 71^st overall in 2018.