Before tonight’s game, the Montreal Canadiens had only five games left in their season.
In the first of these, Martin St-Louis faced his good friend John Tortorella, as the Habs hosted the Philadelphia Flyers.
Earlier today, the Tricolore announced some bad news: Arber Xhekaj’s season is over.
The Xhekaj family was able to console themselves with some good news, as Arber’s little brother Florian signed his entry-level contract with the Sainte-Flanelle.
Here’s the Habs line-up for tonight’s game:
Tonight’s lineup
Tonight’s lineup#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/VcdJjXnsvm
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 9, 2024
Samuel Montembeault was back in net after being pulled from Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Christian Dvorak was also back in the lineup, while Colin White was out for tonight’s game.
It only took a minute of play to see the game’s first goal.
Juraj Slafkovsky deflected in Mike Matheson’s shot for his 17th of the season.
Cole Caufield also picked up an assist on the goal.
Slaf’s deflection, finally!
turns out it bounced off Slaf! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/3KkqW2HYPM
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 9, 2024
After 20 minutes of play, the score was 1-0 in favor of the Habs.
Get ready for the rest of the game.
Slafkovsky decided to pick up where he left off in the first period.
The young Slovak scored his second goal of the game, completing the fine play of Matheson and Nick Suzuki.
No. 8 
No. 14 No. 20 
#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/5IMDiuoVQO
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 10, 2024
Minutes later, Brendan Gallagher added to his club’s lead with a deflection of Johnathan Kovacevic’s shot.
Martin St-Louis’ team wouldn’t stop there: 36 seconds later, Slafkovsky scored the first hat trick of his career to make it 4-0.
SLAF’S FIRST NHL HAT TRICK
SLAF’S FIRST NHL HATTY 
#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/C1yHhrdlaN
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 10, 2024
It was the 19th goal of his season. The 20-goal plateau is getting dangerously close for the Slovak.
You thought the Habs were done with their offensive festival?
Josh Anderson scored his first goal since March 2.
Samuel Ersson was sent off after the Tricolore’s fifth unanswered goal. Ivan Fedotov took over.
And it didn’t make much difference.
Christian Dvorak celebrated his return to the line-up in the best possible way, with a goal:
A goal in his first game back!
Dvo in his first game back! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/TZTmuDWu54
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 10, 2024
Jordan Harris picked up his third assist of the game on Dvorak’s goal.
This time, the first goal of the third period was not scored by the Canadiens.
Former Bleu-Blanc-Rouge Ryan Poehling cut the deficit to five goals.
It was his 11th goal of the season.
Halfway through the final period, Dvorak made the most of his return to action with his second goal of the game.
And no, the Habs weren’t done slaughtering.
Brendan Gallagher scored his second goal of the game – and not the way you’d expect – on a breakaway, beating defenseman Nick Seeler to the net.
The little warrior is on the rampage
Filthy 
#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/AB47YDmqxB
– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) April 10, 2024
Another player with at least two goals in the game.
Joel Farabee gave Flyers fans something to cheer about by making it 8-2.
Poehling quickly scored the Flyers’ 3rd goal and his second of the game, with just under three minutes to play.
Joel Armia decided the Flyers had had enough with his 17th goal of the season and his ninth of the game.
Gallagher and Alex Newhook picked up assists on the goal.
The game ended 9-3.
The Habs’ next game is on Thursday, April 11, when Patrick Roy welcomes the Glorieux to Long Island.
Extensions
– The Tricolore have been struggling in the face-off circle lately. With the return of Christian Dvorak, we expected to see an improvement in this area. The Habs still trailed, but posted an efficiency of 46%, while Dvorak posted his club’s worst efficiency at 40%. Jake Evans led his team with 58% of face-offs won.
– Mike Matheson is getting dangerously close to the 50-assist plateau this season, now at 49 assists. If he reaches that plateau this season, it would be his second since 1990. Andrei Markov was the last to reach it, and if not, we have to go back to the 1988-89 season, when Chris Chelios collected 58 assists that year.
– Despite the big difference in the final score, the shootout was very close between the two teams. The Flyers still led 35-30.
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