MONTREAL — Alexandre Texier stood at his stall wearing a smile from ear-to-ear after posting his first NHL hat trick.
But it was something else Texier was wearing on his face that told the story of this night for him and his Montreal Canadiens.
A mark beneath his eye signified the extent to which he and his teammates embraced the challenge the Florida Panthers presented them. Anton Lundell’s reckless — if not intentional — high stick left Texier and the Canadiens with that souvenir. For now, it’s a cut, but some bruising will develop and continue to remind both him and them that they can hold their own in the type of hard games the second half of the season and playoffs are made of.
This one was going to be a slog through the mud because the Panthers always make it one.
Even without Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand and Seth Jones, who are all experts at dragging opponents through the thick, dirty slop, they force you to trudge your way to a win.
If you don’t get your knees — and elbows — up, you’ll drown against them.
“You know playing against Florida, it’s a man’s game,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “We responded well.”
Indeed.
After putting on the burners for a high-flying, 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, the Canadiens mucked it up against the hobbled-but-well-rested Panthers for a 6-2 win that pushed them to the top of the Atlantic Division standings Thursday. Texier was at the heart of both games.
The 26-year-old had never scored three points in a game before doing it in style against the Flames, but the way he earned his three points against the Panthers seemed that much more satisfying.
All of them came from less than seven feet away from the net, where most goals must be scored from this point forward.
“I think that’s kind of playoff hockey, especially against that team,” said Texier. “You’ve got to play hard, finish your hits, there’s going to be some battles in front of the net. I think we all like that kind of game…”
No one loves it more than the Panthers, who have won consecutive Stanley Cups with their bullying brand of smash-mouth hockey.
Before the Canadiens beat them a little over a week ago in Florida, St. Louis referred to their game as “riskless.”
“They dump a lot of pucks in, they flip a lot of pucks out, I don’t think it’s a possession team in the neutral zone, so it’s going to be a game that’s played in the trenches,” he said.
“You’ve got to expect that, we’ve got to make it hard on them, hold them up a little bit to try to disrupt their forecheck to not let them come in straight lines to our Ds, making them skate longer routes. Can we buy four, five feet for our Ds? If we do, it’s going to help us. But they’re going to make it hard on you, and we know it’s coming. Xs and Os are part of it, but for me it’s just an attitude you’ve got to bring tonight. It should feel like a playoff game.”
It should feel like a simulation for most of the games the Canadiens will play moving forward, giving them the type of experience they need ahead of the playoffs.
They remain the youngest team in contention, but their maturity is becoming more and more evident with each passing day.
It’s obvious in the way the Canadiens play; in their consistency; in how recognizable their brand has become despite how many key players are missing from their lineup.
Without Kaiden Guhle, without five regular forwards in Josh Anderson, Jake Evans, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Patrik Laine, it is Texier, among others, maintaining that brand.
“I was hoping to get there at some point,” said St. Louis. “I feel like we have a lot of young guys but have a lot of experience and are really understanding the way we want to play…”
It’s the way Texier played, and we’re not just saying that because he scored and used his strong hockey sense and skilled hands.
Texier scored his first goal from practically in the crease. Right after that, and right before he was marked by Lundell’s swinging stick, he parked himself in front of Sergei Bobrovsky and made the Panthers’ goaltender scramble to find a shot directed his way. And then Texier charged his way straight back to the blue line and belted Sam Reinhart with one of the heaviest hits of the night right as the Panthers winger was in the process of clearing the puck out.
That was the stuff this Canadiens win was made of.
It was made of Noah Dobson taking and giving hits in front of his own net after scoring from 55 feet away from Bobrovsky’s. It was made of Alex Carrier blocking six shots at one end and setting up Texier’s first goal at the other.
Oliver Kapanen blocked four of his own and also scored from 12 feet out after linemates Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky completed a hard, two-man forecheck.
It’s what the Canadiens need.
“We need to be able to play these games, and I think we can,” said St. Louis. “I feel like we’re versatile in the sense that whatever kind of game you want to play, I feel we can play it, and I think that’s important.”
He said these games demand “a physical commitment” at a bare minimum, and a mental engagement.
It’s one thing to have that at the start of a second game in as many nights, but the Canadiens also had it at the end against the Panthers. As they were trying to lock down a two-goal lead.
You could see it from 22-year-old Kapanen, who pushed the puck deep in the corner instead of passing it through the middle of the neutral zone to a wide open Slafkovsky on a two-on-two rush with under four minutes to play. You could also see it from 33-year-old Phillip Danault, who’s still chasing his first goal of the season but wouldn’t risk an icing in the final minute just for a shot at an empty net.
These are the habits that must be reinforced, with the standings leaving almost no margin for error and the games coming fast and furious.
And when those habits lapse, your goaltender must stand tall, like Samuel Montembeault did against the Panthers.
They’re his former team and Thursday’s win, which was his third in three starts since returning from an AHL conditioning stint, was his sixth in a row — and Montreal’s seventh in a row — against them.
“Monty played great,” said Carrier.
The gritty defenceman did, too.
Carrier played bravely, and so did Texier.
He’s got the mark to prove it.
