The Canadiens lose to the Hurricanes (and their goalposts)

Tonight, the Canadiens were in Raleigh to take on the Hurricanes.

For the occasion, no Habs player was left out for transaction reasons. In other words, Martin St-Louis had all his (healthy) soldiers at his disposal.

Samuel Montembeault was in net.

For their part, the Hurricanes were without Michael Bunting, who will most likely be involved in a deal for Jake Guentzel in the coming hours.

Here’s the home team’s lineup, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi on the fourth line:

In the first period, Joshua Roy reminded everyone that he’s an NHL-worthy player.

The Quebecer now has six points in his last nine games.

A great shot

1st goal of the game goes to Roy! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/eQ2Qte10uQ

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) March 8, 2024

A few minutes later, however, Brady Skjei brought both clubs back to square one with a complete mockery of Kaiden Guhle.

This allowed him to foil Samuel Montembeault afterwards.

After 20 minutes, therefore, the score was 1-1.

For those who wanted to hear from Jesperi Kotkaniemi, we saw him get a great scoring chance in the second period.

However, he seems to have been inspired by Josh Anderson: his shot missed the target, and not just a little.

But despite a strong second period from the Habs, it was the Hurricanes who headed back to the locker room with a lead.

With 25 seconds left in the period, Stefan Noesen gave the home team the lead.

After 40 minutes, the score was 2-1 in favour of the Hurricanes.

Early in the third period, Joshua Roy scored his second of the game… but his goal was eventually disallowed due to goaltender interference.

Alex Newhook, who had received an assist on Roy’s goal, was the culprit.

And as the Habs tried to push forward late in the third period, the Hurricanes took advantage of a 4-on-4 situation to double their lead.

Brady Skjei, a defenseman, broke free… and he got his hands out on Sunday.

OH MY BRADY SKJEI pic.twitter.com/aPy5xHYjpY

– B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 8, 2024

Andrei Svechnikov completed the scoring in an empty net, confirming the Hurricanes’ victory.

The Habs end their four-game road trip with a 1-1-2 record.

Final score: 4-1 Caroline

The Habs return to action on Saturday night, when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre.

Overtime

– The Habs didn’t have a bad game overall, far from it. However, a major lack of opportunism, bad penalties and a ton of posts really hurt the club. These things happen, but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s good to come out of this game: the Habs really held their own against a good team.

– Martin Necas got off to a whimsical start.

– It’s been tougher for Juraj Slafkovský defensively in recent games. And in terms of offensive production, he has just one point (one goal) since February 17 (eight games).

– He looked a little bad on the Habs goal, but overall he was pretty good for a guy coming back to the game after such a long absence. It’s a pretty reassuring performance for the Hurricanes, who’ll need Andersen between now and the end of the season.