Call of the Wild: New Jersey beat Montreal Canadiens 5-1 – Montreal

The New Jersey Devils are in first place in the Metropolitan Division. Bell has won 9 of his last 10 games heading into his center visit.

The Montreal Canadiens were also hot. There is no bigger test for Montreal right now than the Devils.

Montreal got their bearings and put up some good competition, but it was a convincing 5-1 Devils win.

wild horse

Brendan Gallagher’s career rejuvenation continues. The numbers aren’t good enough yet, but the game is definitely improving.

Head coach Martin St. Louis indicated that he wanted Gallagher to be a more intelligent player in his first season at the helm of the Canadiens. Gallagher is known as the largest small bulldog in hockey. As soon as he dominated the offensive zone, Gallagher headed to the net.

It’s worked well in his career and now he’s adding more elements. In his first period, Gallagher was the Canadiens’ best player. He created chances for himself and gave Cristian his Dvořák a great feed. It was gorgeous.

In the second period, Gallagher made a one-off head man pass in the neutral zone. A truly gorgeous play that Mike Hoffman could not convert with a clean look.

It’s not just being more cerebral that Gallagher is back in better times… it’s healthier, too. Gallagher entered the season rested and strong for the first time in a long time. Everyone was impressed as he had his offseason strength and conditioning regimen.

Its strength never takes a toolbox’s worth of screws out of his hands, but it makes him feel empowered and confident in his play.

It feels like it’s only a matter of time before the floodgates open for Gallagher on the scoresheet. He’s been playing his best hockey under a new head coach since losing center Philippe Danneau.

The confidence that Kirby Duck is playing is a revelation. to win the zone.

Dach will be an NHL center at some point. He simply has too many skills for the position. He rushed as a winger in the second period and won the zone. On one shift, he seemed absolutely determined not to give up the pack until he won the zone.

It’s been said here before, and I’ll say it again and again, this deal is complete theft. Alexander who hit the ceiling as a 3 defender or his 4 defender it matters whether he wants to compare trades to Romanov or Frank who like Nazar he could have finished 13th overall not.

Neither of those two results, the 13th pick or Romanov, is a better result than Dach. You can’t win hockey without centers, and the Chicago Blackhawks gave them away. They gave him the 3rd overall pick at the age of 21 when he was injured in a full season.

It’s amazing. Dach has point potential per game as a center. Last season’s league match was 18 people. That’s a small number, and the Canadiens may have two people who could claim the talent level to get there.

When Duck moves to center, if he can click with two wingers like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caulfield, Hub is in business of winning with two strong NHL lines led by two point-par gaming centers. I’m in.

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The rest is filler. Fillers are relatively easy. Throw in six capable forwards in there, led by arguably very intelligent third-line center Owen Beck, and that’s the recipe for 12 wins.

With the advent of Kirby Dach, all of this feels very close to W-row sustainability. Restructuring has a foundation.

wild goat

A league-leading 10th minor penalty against Arbor Jekai in the first period. While you shouldn’t suggest that he doesn’t deserve most of them, on the other hand, putting this under the magnifying glass as his tenth minor causes problems.

It’s either Zekai or someone in the National Hockey League. The penalty was called boarding, and the only thing that was boarding about it was player Jesper Bogvist hitting the board.

Xhekaj has spent as much hitting his friend as pushing a glass of water across the table, and Xhekaj seems to have strength issues. He doesn’t seem to know how much he can use to keep players from crumbling like double-crusted apple pies.

seriously.

Xhekaj cannot maintain such underage muscle strength. This hit did not affect his stick at all. He never attacked the player. He only pushed with one hand on play. I don’t know what to suggest to Xhekaj. Watch Bocvist off the board from where he is three feet away, offensively he can’t let him wrap free around the zone.

I hope nothing comes of this too strong issue, but that’s already 10 minors.

Shea Weber was doing this one-handed push about 60 times per game. Forward he knocked down about 60 times per game. Weber said he was called 0 times per game. In fact, Weber almost had to pull out a ballpeenhammer to take the penalty. He was highly respected by the authorities.

And that may be the conclusion of this, Xhekaj is not getting any respect. For Xhekaj’s sake, let’s hope it’s an official.

Wildcard

It was a great interview with Executive Vice President Jeff Gorton on the Chic Podcast with Tony Marinaro on Monday night. be careful in that case.

General Manager Kent Hughes has typically been the spokesperson for the club in the last year, but he and Gorton have been working hand in hand to achieve a better turnaround, and the communication from Gorton has been excellent.

There was general sentiment from interviews and specific news.

Specifically, Gorton has promised that a long-term deal with sniper Cole Corfield is in the works. For those fans out there, Gorton says Corfield will sign in Montreal.

Gorton also hinted that Kirby Duck would one day become the club’s second-line center. For the first time in his career, he has an offensive outburst.

Gorton also revealed that the organization considers Suzuki the number one center and cornerstone for the future. I admit that I feel

The general sentiment from interviews is that the club doesn’t want to rise from this as a middle-of-the-pack team, but rather a team that can achieve sustained success at the top level of the NHL. This sounds like a sign that the club feels the need to achieve more of the highest quality production.

Call of the Wilde is like that too. The depth of the top 6 forward positions and the depth of the top 4 defensemen will ensure sustained success. The club still needs talent.

Montreal has two picks in the first round of this year’s draft. They want a third of him shown. Somewhere along the line, the team needs a bonafide puck-moving defense with the talent of the first pair.

Judging by Gorton’s comments about Duck, they feel he already has the 2C talent to make the position strong for a sustainable future… more options for the future.

Gorton’s overall sentiment in the interview was one of confidence that this restructuring is on track. It’s not up for debate here.

Montreal-based sports writer Brian Wilde brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.