One look at the lineup made it easy to suggest this game shouldn’t happen, but one glance around Amalie Arena revealed why it absolutely had to be played.
Even with nine Montreal Canadiens and four members of the Tampa Bay Lightning in Covid protocol, there were 19,092 fans in attendance. It was expected to be a sellout — a save-the-date affair for a team in the Sun Belt, a Christmas bonus delivered thanks to Quebec snowbirds joining Lightning fans in piling through the turnstiles with an insatiable appetite for hockey, junk food and beer — and those expectations were met.
Postponing wasn’t an option.
Never mind that the Canadiens, through no choice of their own, dressed a lineup that just barely would’ve qualified them to play a pre-season game. The revenue likely couldn’t be equalled if this event got pushed to a later date. And right now, even with Omicron spreading like California forest fires in mid-July, that’s the thinking ruling all decisions in the NHL.
The NHLPA, 50-50 partners with the league on hockey-related revenue, is on board. That’s why, with Montreal locked down for the foreseeable future and the Bell Centre closed to fans, it was also announced earlier on Tuesday that the next four Canadiens home games will be postponed.
The league moved the Jan. 12 game against the Bruins to Boston, and it won’t hesitate to delay games scheduled at the Bell Centre on the 15th, 27th, 29th and 30th if it means filling seats and collecting more money later on.
The concern, with the Canadiens dressing more AHL players than NHL players for this game against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions on Tuesday, was that fans wouldn’t get their money’s worth.
But they got it, and then some.
Lightning fans saw Brayden Point return from an 11-game absence to score two goals and an assist and lead their team to a thrilling 5-4 overtime win.
If the game was exciting, it had everything to do with what Canadiens fans saw from their team. Montreal fought hard to defy three-to-one betting odds. Kale Clague and David Savard scored their first goals in bleu, blanc et rouge, Cedric Paquette notched his first point, and the team’s excellent effort was punctuated by the impressive NHL debut of two players who were probably the happiest people in the arena that the game went on as scheduled.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Corey Schueneman live the dream
Consider the paths these two players took to arrive at this destination.
Harvey-Pinard was passed over in two NHL drafts before seeing 200 players called ahead of the Canadiens selecting him in 2019. He blew the doors off at his first rookie camp and was sent back to the QMJHL without even getting to participate in main camp.
Harvey-Pinard then had a great year in junior and was “compensated” with a one-way deal in the AHL. And then he had a great rookie season with the Rocket to finally earn his entry-level contract.
Schueneman, 26, went undrafted, played four seasons at Western Michigan, and played 106 AHL games from 2018-December of 2021, with a brief stint in the ECHL in between.
He never gave up hope of one day playing in the NHL.
“The minute you start letting yourself think that (you won’t make it), you’re kind of shutting yourself down,” Schueneman said on Tuesday morning. “It can be a grind at times. It’s tough. It’s frustrating at times. But you just put your head down and you keep working.
“I was hoping for this day and I knew it would come eventually,” Schueneman added. “So, I just kept working and here it is.”
It went by with Schueneman skating 11:36 against the Lightning.
The big defenceman was steady, finished plus-1, and notched his first NHL assist on Harvey-Pinard’s first NHL goal.
“There was a lot of emotion,” the 22-year-old said of seeing the puck cross the goal line after he parked himself in front of the net and shovelled in a shot under the bar to tie the game 2-2 in the third minute of the second period.
“I had a lot of shivers,” Harvey-Pinard added. “Always fun to score a goal, but to get your first in the NHL is a truly incredible feeling that left me with a lot of emotions.”
He had a lot of time to think about the journey to this point and all the obstacles along the road.
“It’s an unusual path that I took. And when I got drafted, I said I want to show them that I’m more than a seventh-round pick,” Harvey-Pinard said. “That’s my mentality since I’m in junior, and I was really happy to play my first NHL game tonight. It’s huge for me, and I have to keep working.”
He will, and so will Schueneman, and both will have more chances to play in this league.
The Gallagher Rules
This game turned on a Montreal challenge to overturn a horrible call made by on-ice officials that robbed Brendan Gallagher of a goal.
On the play, Gallagher took a route outside the crease and was pushed into Tampa goaltender Maxime Lagace by Lightning forward Boris Katchouk. Gallagher’s stick made contact with Lagace’s pad as the puck went off his own rear end and into the net.
The goal would’ve made it 3-2 Canadiens.
Instead, Montreal was assessed a delay-of-game penalty for an unsuccessful challenge and Ross Colton scored one second after the Tampa power play expired to give the Lightning the lead.
If it was someone other than Gallagher, perhaps the goal would’ve been called appropriately on the ice. There would certainly be hope for the bad call to be corrected by the people in the NHL’s situation room thereafter.
But the Montreal winger, who makes his living straddling the blurred line of goaltender interference, never seems to get the benefit of the doubt.
Welcome back #Habs Brandon Gallagher where all questionable calls will NEVER go his way ..EVER!! pic.twitter.com/A1xKf5JybM
— JeSuisCHBleuBlancRouge (@HabsHappy) December 29, 2021
Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme has seen enough of it.
“He was clearly pushed towards the goalie,” Ducharme said in French after the game. “So, it’s certain that if it wasn’t No. 11 on his back, it’s probably a goal.”
“For sure it’s frustrating,” Ducharme continued in English. “He makes a pretty good play creating a turnover, gets a chance at the net, gets pushed from behind. I think the contact with the goalie with his stick and his body is because of the push from behind.
“And, obviously, he’s been in the league for a long time, he’s been a guy going at the net every night, and I think he’s got that reputation that he’s going to be taking an extra whack.
“But I think he’s a fair player. And if we challenge, it’s because from what I saw, (from what) video guys (saw), we all agree that that should’ve been a goal.”
Quick Hits
• Lukas Vejdemo finished a great play by Michael Pezzetta and Paquette to score what was his second NHL goal in his eighth NHL game. That this trio lined up for a few shifts against Point, Alex Killorn and Mathieu Joseph really magnifies how much of a mismatch this game was supposed to be, but they played hard and were rewarded.
• Savard made a tremendous play against his former team to give the Canadiens the lead with less than seven minutes to play. It must’ve been tough seeing it evaporate with seconds left in the third period, with former Canadien Corey Perry scoring the tying goal.
• Nick Suzuki made a great block in those dying seconds. His stick broke, and he was trying to get to the bench when the clearing attempt hit him and bounced to the Lightning. Tampa held the line and Perry scored immediately after, capping a play that essentially encapsulated Montreal’s season.
• This game ended with a blatant trip from Brett Kulak, uncalled, and a crosscheck to Jake Evans giving Tampa a 3-on-1 opportunity in the slot. Long break for the players, but it was the officials who proved rustiest in this one.
