Hockey

Rookie party: Ivan Demidov leaves an interview to avoid the subject
Mathis Therrien
Rookie party: Ivan Demidov leaves an interview to avoid the subject
Credit: Twitter screenshot

The Montreal Canadiens earned two points in the standings with last night's 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks, but the outcome could have been a lot different.

The Habs really didn't play a great game, and if it hadn't been for Ivan Demidov, the Habs might be 6-4-0 instead of 7-3-0.

The 19-year-old Russian forward took matters into his own hands, serving up two superb powerplay assists and scoring the winning goal, the Habs' fourth.

Demidov was excellent yesterday, even though he said it wasn't his best game.

The Russian forward is very critical of his own game, and that's what makes him so good and allows him to constantly progress.

The fact remains that, despite this little personal criticism, Demidov gave his team a win, and that's something to celebrate, especially when combined with the rookie party.

In fact, when asked if he was going to have a drink after the game, Demidov simply smiled, took off his helmet and left the interview.

It gave us a rather comical moment, which made us appreciate the 19-year-old prodigy even more.

It's easy to see why the guys had planned to hold their rookie party in Vancouver, and now they were able to celebrate all the more thanks to this victory over the Canucks.

What's more, a rookie party like this when the Canadiens are in first place in their division is really great, and let's just say it's been a long time since that's been the case.

The party bill will clearly be higher, which will hurt the rookies' finances.

Besides Ivan Demidov's excellence and talent, what else can I take away from this match?

1. Mike Matheson is truly indispensable to the Habs.

The veteran defenseman is playing some excellent hockey this season, and it really does seem that he's playing fewer minutes, because there are far fewer errors in his game and more consistency.

Once again yesterday, Matheson was excellent, and what's more, he scored a very important goal for his team with a beautiful deke and a perfect shot.

The Québécois has six points, including three goals, in ten games, and is making the best of his contract negotiations.

2. Arber Xhekaj pulls out all the stops.

It was a tough, complicated game for #72 of the Habs, as he took two very bad penalties in the second period.

This cost him the remainder of the game, when he played a total of just 6:37, the lowest on the team, and just over half of Jayden Struble's 12:45.

Xhekaj will have to find a better rhythm and better consistency, because if not, when Kaiden Guhle returns, it will be him, not Struble, who will suffer.

3. The powerplay finally seems to be clicking, thanks to Ivan Demidov.

We've been asking since the start of the season to see Demidov on the first power-play wave, and now Martin st-Louis has finally done it.

And as luck would have it, the Habs are now better on the powerplay, as evidenced by the two goals on three chances last night.

In short, it was an important victory for the Habs last night, who will now conclude their Western trip with a game against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night at 10:30pm.


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