Canadiens Lineup

Jonathan Drouin – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Tyler Toffoli – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

 Tomas Tatar – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Joel Armia

Paul Byron – Jake Evans – Corey Perry

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak – Alexander Romanov

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Victor Mete, Artturi Lehkonen

Alex Belzile, Cale Fleury, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren

None

Game Report

“In my opinion, I thought it was a good goal,” said Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The Canadiens 20-year old centre was reacting to his disallowed goal on Saturday night as Montreal lost to the Maple Leafs. Habs fans obviously agreed.

Kotkaniemi poked a loose puck under Frederik Andersen’s pad. The NHL war room disagreed. A mistake perhaps by the officials, but these things have a way of balancing themselves out. Don’t they?

Brendan Gallagher‘s game-winning goal with less than three seconds left in the third period was inexplicably disallowed after review by the league war room.

Gallagher was taken down by Ottawa defenceman Nikita Zaitsev in a battle near the crease. As Gallagher was going to the ice his skate caught goaltender Matt Murray’s skate. Murray spun in place, a full 360 degrees.

While Gallagher was down Colin White rolled over him for good measure. Gallagher got back to his skates to deflect a Ben Chiarot point shot past Murray. 

Gallagher’s first contact with Murray occurred with 7.1 seconds left in the third period. Murray had completed his spin and was resetting himself with 4.6 seconds on the clock although he was obviously taking his time. Brendan Gallagher was back to his feet with 3.8 seconds remaining. 

Gallagher made contact with the point shot at the 3.2 second mark. The puck crossed the goal line with 2.9 seconds left, more than four steamboats since the contact between the two players.

No consistency

Disallowing the goal was a bad call. Clearly. And for several reasons. Zaitsev steered Gallagher into Murray for the initial contact. Murray was purposefully slow in recovering but was reset before the point shot.

So where is the balance? The lack of consistency from the on and off-ice officials is hurting the NHL’s product in the opinion of Gallagher. 

It’s worse when one considers the lack of discipline for Tyler Myers hit on Joel Armia and Dillon Dube’s head shot on Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Both Montreal players suffered concussion symptoms.

That’s not to say that we buy the theory of league bias against the Canadiens. But incompetence is even a worse sin.

All of the controversy obscured the fact that the Canadiens are in a tailspin. The head coach made some questionable decisions and they didn’t work out. 

Up Next

Plus / Minus

▲ Carey Price, Shea Weber, Tyler Toffoli, Brendan Gallagher

▼ Brett Kulak, Ben Chiarot, Paul Byron, Tomas Tatar, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki

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