Kamis, 03 Juni 2021

In the Habs' room: Canadiens' Game 1 win overshadowed by charge on Evans - Montreal Gazette

"We want to be playing hard, the Jets want to be playing hard. That's part of the playoffs, but I don't think that was that kind of play."

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Jake Evans’s 25th birthday ended Wednesday with a visit to a Winnipeg hospital emergency room.

Evans scored an empty-net goal to cement the Canadiens’ 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets in the opening game of the best-of-seven North Division final but he didn’t get a chance to celebrate.

As Evans looked up after scoring on a wraparound, he was met by a hard-charging Mark Scheifele. Instead of trying to prevent the puck from going into the net, Scheifele made a beeline for Evans and sent him flying. Evans, who has a history of concussions, landed hard on the ice. Medical personnel from both teams attended to Evans and the good news is he was he was moving his limbs as he was taken off the ice on a gurney.

Scheifele received a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct and will face supplementary discipline when the NHL department of player safety reviews the hit.

Defenceman Joel Edmundson didn’t mince words when he said he thought it was a dirty hit.

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“If (Scheifele) gets back in the series, we’re going to make his life miserable, but I think the league’s going to do a good job with that,” Edmundson said.

Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme also expects the league to come down hard on Scheifele.

“If you look at the incident, we’re confident that the league is going to take the right decision,” said Ducharme. “We want to be playing hard, (the Jets) want to be playing hard. That’s part of the playoffs, but I don’t think that was that kind of play.”

The Canadiens started this series on a high note as they took a 2-0 lead in the first period and didn’t show any signs of residual fatigue after a hard-fought seven-game seres against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It’s not easy coming off a Game 7, the high, and getting ready for Game 1 in a new series with a new  opponent only two days later,” said veteran Corey Perry. “I thought we came out strong  in the first 10, 15 minutes. We got some early goals and that kind of set the tone for us.”

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The Canadiens opened the scoring when Jesperi Kotkaniemi redirected Jeff Petry’s pass from the point. In the Toronto series, the Montreal defencemen had two assists over seven games. Petry and Erik Gustafsson collected assists on the Kotkaniemi goal and the defencemen finished the night wth six assists.

“That’s how we want to play,” said Perry, who set up Eric Staal for the second Montreal goal.  “You need five guys playing as one. If you look at the KK goal from Petey, that was just a heads-up play. As the season evolved, we’ve talked about having our defencemen involved in the offensive zone.”

The most extreme example of that came in the third period when the Canadiens scored a power-play goal that started with Shea Weber taking a stretch pass and getting a breakaway. Connor Hellebuyck made the save but Brendan Gallagher scored off the rebound for what proved to be the winning goal.

The series resumes Friday with Game 2 in Winnipeg.

phickey@postmedia.com

twiter.com/zababes1

  1. Canadiens centre Nick Suzuki (14) scores a goal against Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) in the first period in Game 1 of the second round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg on June 2, 2021.

    Habs win Game 1 against Jets, but lose Evans to nasty hit

  2. Montreal Canadiens interim head coach Dominique Ducharme watches play against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on May 31, 2021.

    Stu Cowan: Canadiens well served by belief in coach Ducharme's system

  3. Screenshot taken from Doug Ford twitter account.

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes good on bet with Legault, wears Habs jersey

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2021-06-03 12:00:19Z
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