Hockey

The Habs beat Quebec City by a landslide
Michaël Petit
The Habs beat Quebec City by a landslide
Credit: DansLesCoulisses.com

The Montreal Canadiens took on the Ottawa Senators in their fifth pre-season game on Tuesday evening. It was a very special game, because it took place at the Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City, and was the Habs' penultimate pre-season game before the start of the 2025-26 season. Jakub Dobes got the start for this game, while Leevi Merilainen was his opponent in net.

Here are the two lineups:

It didn't take long before there was a brouhaha. Right from the first stoppage of play, there was a scrum after Dobes' net was dislodged. Moments later, Oliver Kapanen was well placed in front of the net to thread the needle on an Alex Newhook pass. Although he didn't pick up an assist on the play, Ivan Demidov got the ball rolling.

The first period went by very quickly with very few stoppages in play. Ivan Demidov is really an incredible player. He didn't get any points in the first period, but we saw some great plays from him. With just under seven minutes to play, he decided to mock his opponent by rapidly changing direction twice.

At the end of the period, fans were treated to a furious battle between Florian Xhekaj and Jan Jenik. Arber's little brother had the upper hand with several big punches,

So after 20 minutes of play, the Habs were leading 1-0.

Patrik Laine certainly has flaws in his game and we're trying to find the positives. He had a great opportunity early in the second period, but it's always on the powerplay that we'll see the best version of the Finn. On a man-advantage opportunity, Demidov was extremely patient to find Laine with a beautiful pass and the latter drew on the catch.

These two will be very dangerous together on the power play.

And just over two minutes later, Quebec City-born Alexandre Carrier made himself happy by tripling his team's lead with a surgically precise shot.

As we'd all expected, the game was fiercely contested with lots of big checks and scrums. At the end of the second period, there was a lot of ruckus. It all started with tough-as-nails Hayden Hodgson slamming a check into Newhook's back. Carrier was close to the action and rushed over to Hodgson to give him a message, but Hodgson didn't hesitate to throw down the gloves and throw several big punches at Carrier, who still had his gloves on. And following that, there was some big talk including Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, Zack MacEwen and Jan Jenik. Struble swung a stick in Jenik's face and they fought. Struble soundly stunned his opponent, who bent his knees. Xhekaj, meanwhile, settled MacEwen's account (for the second preseason in a row),

There were several penalties on the sequence, but basically, the Habs got away with a full two-minute five-on-three, plus another three minutes on the powerplay due to a five-minute major penalty.

This powerplay lasted into the third period, but the Habs were unable to capitalize, but had other opportunities to do so with the man advantage. And with just over four minutes elapsed in the final frame, Lane Hutson scored on the powerplay. Demidov and Dach were complicit,

Kirby Dach had no intention of stopping success on the massive forward as he joined the festival midway through the final period.

So it was 5-0 for the Habs. Three powerplay goals. The Senators weren't done playing dirty, as late in the game, Nick Cousins gave Ivan Demidov a vicious stick chop for no reason (other than frustration).

Demidov played the next sequence, but eventually had to leave the game, probably to get him out of this crazy game, since the Senators simply didn't want to play any more hockey in this game.

And afterwards, Donovan Sebrango went after Kirby Dach for free…

Result: seven minutes of powerplay for the Habs, but the game ended 5-0.

The Habs' next (and final) warm-up game is next Saturday, when the Senators visit the CHs at the Bell Centre

'Prolongation'

– Kirby Dach was physically involved from the start of the game, which was encouraging to see. He also committed a turnover, giving away a great opportunity at the end of the first period, but he recovered very well by diving with all his height to take the puck away from the opponent. I also noticed that the vast majority of the Habs players were very physically involved. I

– Many saw the fact that Demidov was playing with Newhook and Kapanen as a “punishment”, but the three of them brought something very interesting to the table.

– It's all very well having a good game like this, but unsightly gestures like Cousins' and Sebrango's simply have no place, especially in preseason. There really needs to be a change here, because serious injuries could have happened. Demidov had to leave the game, let's hope it's only as a precautionary measure.

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