MONTREAL — It was the kind of bounce the Montreal Canadiens seemingly hadn’t gotten in any one of their first 10 games, en route to limping out to their worst start to a season in seven and a half decades.
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty corralled the puck on his strong side along the left half-boards in his own zone, he picked his head up, and he threw a pass right through the middle of the ice that was bound to be intercepted by New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh.
It should’ve been a break towards Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, but the puck magically slid through McDonagh and onto Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber’s stick and it eventually ended up behind Rangers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec after Phillip Danault completed a textbook setup from Andrew Shaw.
That goal, scored at the 13:15 mark of the first period, gave the Canadiens a 3-0 lead and ended up being their only lucky break in a game that finished 5-4 in their favour.
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"When I saw that, that was a very strange play," said Pacioretty. "I’ve never seen a defenceman step up in that situation. It would’ve been a great play by him but he had tons of pressure around him. That was a play that caught me completely by surprise."
It was a play that proved essential to the outcome—especially when you consider that the Rangers got goals from Pavel Buchnevich, Rick Nash and Mika Zibanejad before catching the luckiest break of their night.
They too have had their fair share of bad luck through a 3-6-2 start to the season. Practically nothing has gone their way in losses to Colorado, Toronto, St. Louis, Columbus, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Jose and the New York Islanders.
So when former Canadien David Desharnais scooped up the puck with just over 14 minutes left in the third period and delivered it to Kevin Shattenkirk, who slid it over to Brady Skjei, they couldn’t have predicted what was coming next.
The shot that came off Skjei’s stick made it through a mess of bodies and was going at least two feet wide before it hit Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec’s posterior and slipped by Price’s outstretched arm.
Just like that, the game was tied 4-4. It could’ve been a back-breaker for the Canadiens. It proved not to be.
And maybe that’s because the Canadiens didn’t leave the rest to chance. Look at the goals they scored in this one for the evidence.
There was Paul Byron in the slot at the 7:51 mark of the first period, burying the puck after Jonathan Drouin won a battle in the corner and set him up for his third goal of the year. Alex Galchenyuk scored his third on a power play and pointed at 5-foot-9 Brendan Gallagher to give him credit for his work digging a puck away from 6-foot-2 defenceman Brendan Smith before setting him up by the goalmouth. Danault’s first of two goals, which was borne of the lucky bounce Pacioretty’s pass attempt generated, was the product of an all-out effort to get into position to bury Shaw’s shot-pass. Pacioretty made it 4-2 at the 14:38 mark of the second period by breaking free of three Rangers defencemen and tapping in a rebound off a Weber shot.
And Danault’s second goal, scored at 9:37 of the third period, would’ve never happened without Shaw’s dogged work in the corner. He stole the puck, set up Brandon Davidson for a shot in the slot, and Danault beat his man to the net to deposit the rebound.
"We were more hungry today," said Danault, who finished with a career-high four points in the game. "We got pucks and bodies to the net and had that confidence and put some home," said Pacioretty. "Even with the (eight) losses, we felt we deserved better at times.
"Most of the time the bounces tend to even themselves out," he added.
The Canadiens came out even on that ledger on Saturday night, so they have to believe they’re still owed a few as the season moves along. They’re hoping they come in games versus the Ottawa Senators, Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets scheduled for this upcoming week, as they intend to dig themselves out of the hole their terrible start has put them in.
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