Habs win and spoil Patrick Roy’s return to the Bell Centre

After three inglorious defeats, the Canadiens were in front of their fans tonight to welcome the Islanders… and their coach, a certain Patrick Roy.

Needless to say, it spiced up a Thursday night game.

For the occasion, Lucas Condotta(recalled last night) played his first NHL game of the season. He took the place of Joshua Roy, who was sent back to Laval yesterday.

For the Islanders, Matt Martin was unavailable due to illness.

Here’s the lineup Patrick Roy sent into the fray, with Semyon Varlamov in net.

It was expected that Patrick Roy would get a nice tribute from the Montreal crowd… and the Tricolore found the best way to do it: Roy was honored on the giant screen during the Canadian national anthem.

The Islanders’ coach tried to stay focused, but his emotion was palpable – and rightly so.

All love for No. 33 in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/GAWI2m9CAh

– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 26, 2024

But after that, it was time to play hockey, and the Habs understood that. The club took advantage of Samuel Montembeault’s huge saves early in the game to get some gas, and got off to a hot start.

It started with a Nick Suzuki goal on the power play. Nice passing play on the sequence.

That passing game

Suzy on the power play! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/nsPUE6VVAz

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) January 26, 2024

Then Cole Caufield brought the crowd to its feet with a beautiful play that led to a goal.

Eight straight games with a point for Ti-Cole, now.

And finally, Sean Monahan tripled his team’s lead with his second power-play goal (in two attempts).

Patrick Roy called a timeout afterwards to try to change the pace of the game.

We’re trying to provide

give us a sec#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/RXmm2l8EDN

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) January 26, 2024

We were then treated to some friendly breaststroke at the end of the period, and Juraj Slafkovský was particularly involved.

I don’t know what the Islanders said to him, but he clearly didn’t take it… and we got a good look at his “mean” side.

After 20 minutes, it was 3-0 to the Habs.

In the second period, the Tricolore’s play was much more disjointed. The club shot itself in the foot on more than one occasion, finding itself in a 3-on-5 situation.

And as fate would have it, Bo Horvat put his side on the scoreboard.

After 40 minutes, the score was 3-1 in favor of the Habs.

As the two sides played out a fairly uneventful third period, a rather bitchy hit to the head by Brendan Gallagher on Adam Pelech resulted in the #11 being ejected from the game.

At the same time, it gave the Islanders a five-minute power play…

And once again, what had to happen happened: the visitors scored two goals to tie the game.

However, the Habs managed to get away with “only” two goals allowed, so that the score was 3-3 late in the third period.

And Sean Monahan, who had an outstanding game, scored the winning goal on a fine pass from Josh Anderson.

Samuel Montembeault stood tall in front of his net late in the game to fend off countless opposing shots and secure victory for his side.

Gallagher owes Montembeault a debt of gratitude.

Final score: 4-3 Montreal

The Canadiens return to action on Saturday night, when they take on the Penguins in Pittsburgh. This will be the club’s last game before the All-Star break on February 6.

Extension

– Great Patrick.

– Still.

– Arber Xhekaj didn’t have a great game, taking two stupid penalties. We’ll see if that costs him his spot in the lineup next game, but I expect Jordan Harris to be back to replace him.

– Samuel Montembeault had a spectacular game (which must have been good for him, having underperformed against the Bruins in his last start), and he wasn’t even named one of the game’s three stars. Strange.