RALEIGH, N.C. — The record will show that 20-year-old defenceman Cale Fleury finished minus-one in his first-ever National Hockey League game, a 4-3 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Consider that just one more example out of thousands we already have to suggest plus/minus can be misrepresentative at times.
Here’s another statistic that defies what we actually saw from Fleury, who was probably Montreal’s second-steadiest defenceman behind Jeff Petry on Thursday: When Fleury was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Hurricanes dominated the shot attempts by a count of 16-9.
Again, not so flattering.
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But the composure the Calgary native showed while the game around him developed at break-neck speed was something to behold.
“He was naturally nervous at first, and then he settled down, and then he was good,” said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. “He made some good decisions, he was poised, and I think he continued to show us what he showed us in the pre-season.”
This game was a massive departure from everything else we saw in the pre-season. It was played on turbo mode, and it looked more like the type of game you see in April and much less like one you’d expect in early October.
“I’m glad you guys saw it that way, too,” said Julien. “I was impressed honestly with the pace of this game. From both teams. It was a fast-paced game, it was hard-fought, there was battles along the walls and there was a lot of battles in front of the net. No doubt, both teams were trying to make a point here tonight and at the end of the day you like the effort of your team and you’re disappointed that a point slipped away. But it’s a hard-earned point against a good hockey club.”
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Lucas Wallmark and Martin Necas. Then Montreal’s Tomas Tatar made it 2-1 with a power-play goal.
Just over a minute later, 19-year-old Canadiens centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored the first road goal of his NHL career.
And then a three-way passing play finished by Jordan Weal gave Montreal a 3-2 lead with 3:24 remaining in the second period.
The response from Carolina?
A full-out onslaught in the third period, with the tying goal coming off Erik Haula’s stick right as a Montreal penalty was expiring in the seventh minute.
“Once they get the puck in their D-zone it seems like they fly one or two guys and they send the puck in the air or off the boards and create foot races,” Petry said. “And then when they do dump it in, they’re on top of you pretty quick with their D pinching in. For us it was to try to get back and make quick plays and try to keep the puck off the wall because their D were pinching and they were doing a good job at clogging up the boards.”
It was the difference in this game. The Canadiens couldn’t contain Carolina’s forecheck, and most of their defencemen struggled to execute clean breakouts as a result.
“We had some Ds that really had a hard time tonight with making some good first passes,” Julien said.
Top guys Shea Weber and Victor Mete managed very few. Ben Chiarot and Brett Kulak didn’t fare much better.
But Fleury? He moved the puck as well as he skated with it, which is to say he did both at a very high level.
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Fleury played 17 shifts and a total of 14:52, made a great move and came up a centimetre short of burying his first shot in the league on a third-period breakaway, and had four hits, including one punishing belt on six-foot-four, 220-pound Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal.
He was confident, strong and looked exactly like the player who won his spot out of camp outright over seasoned NHLers Mike Reilly and Christian Folin.
“He played very well,” said Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, who made 40 saves and stopped two-of-three Hurricanes in the shootout. “That’s not an easy team to come in and play against in your first game. They provide a lot of pressure on their forecheck and I thought he handled himself very well.”
It’s one of many positives the Canadiens can take out of this one.
They have to be happy that Jonathan Drouin was their best forward after the 24-year-old had a pre-season that left Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin saying: “We need more from Jonathan.”
Kotkaniemi’s play was excellent, too. And completing the line was Joel Armia, who dominated along the boards throughout and came close to scoring in overtime.
That the Canadiens battled back from the early two-goal deficit, scored a power-play goal on their second of three opportunities after finishing 30th in that department last season and kept pace all night was good stuff.
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Sure, it was a disappointing outcome for them after Dougie Hamilton scored and his Hurricanes teammate Petr Mrazek stopped Paul Byron, Drouin and Nick Suzuki in the shootout. The Canadiens could have avoided playing extra time altogether had they handled themselves better coming up the ice, and they probably could have done more to alleviate the pressure they faced on the penalty kill.
But they have to feel good about what they got from their youngster on the blue line, even if he finished the game as a minus-one.
“I thought it went pretty good,” Fleury said. “Made some solid plays. Obviously have some things I want to clean up, but I felt pretty good for the first game.”
