Another night, another crucial game for the Montreal Canadiens, who were taking on the New York Islanders on Thursday night in Long Island. After an emotive day for the Habs, in which Brendan Gallagher revealed he had recently lost his mother, Della, to cancer, it was time to get back to business to keep chasing a playoff spot.
A Tight-Knit Group
While Gallagher only announced his mother’s passing late on Wednesday night, we found out today that it happened some time ago when the Canadiens were in Calgary. Speaking to the media before the game, coach Martin St-Louis revealed it happened during the Canadiens’ trip out west earlier this month. He praised his team for how they stuck together to support their teammate in his hour of need and explained he did what he could to help the veteran get through the challenging event.
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St-Louis had lost his mother during the playoffs with the New York Rangers back in 2014 as they were facing the Canadiens. While it did bring back some memories for him, he explained not everyone deals with death in the same way, adding Gallagher felt like playing helped him cope with the ordeal.
The man himself looked at peace speaking about it with the media. Asked if tonight’s game would be a challenge, he explained that it had been since he found out, but the Ottawa game was the last one before the funerals, which were held on Wednesday. As “luck” would have it, her passing happened while the team was out west, and Gallagher said the whole team took a bus and came to the Gallagher family home to spend time with them, which was an appreciated unannounced visit.
The Need To Separate Yourself
No matter how good an opposing goaltender is, when you dominate in shots as the Canadiens did on Thursday night, you must convert some of those opportunities. This might just be one of the topics touched on the most by St-Louis in the post-game pressers: his team’s inability to separate itself from the opponent when dominating.
No scoring is one thing, but when you feed a monster like Ilya Sorokin, shoots, and he eats them all, his team’s confidence grows exponentially. When you have a goaltender like that behind you, you’re not panicking because you’re not scoring enough; you have “the man” back there.
Montreal’s dominance in the middle frame was evident, but they couldn’t score a single goal (that wasn’t called back for offside, that is), and as a result, the Islanders, full of confidence, were able to score a second power-play goal on the night. It's no small feat for the team with the worst power play before Thursday night’s game.
Some Saves Have To Be Made
On Tuesday night, when Samuel Montembeault gave Travis Hamonic a questionable goal, his teammates bounced right back and bailed him out, but on Thursday night, there were two questionable goals.
No one’s perfect, but a goal near side like the one in the first frame and a gut punch through the goaltender in the third will always be challenging to overcome for any team. On a contender, the goaltender is better than that. The coach has said he doesn’t want to overwork his starter in the past, so could we see Jakub Dobes on Saturday? It’s not out of the question, especially since the youngster beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 in the shootout back in January.
Thankfully for Montembeault, there might just be a new ghost in the rafters who travels with the Canadiens as well. For the second game in a row, Gallagher scored a goal and pounded his heart hard, dedicating an other lamplighter to Della, his mother.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 21, 2025
The goal sent the game to overtime, but as a hockey game is not a Hollywood script; when Lane Hutson turned on the jets and lost the puck deep in the offensive zone in extra time, the Islanders got an odd-man rush, and Bo Horvat scored the game-winning goal. While the loss will be disappointing for St-Louis’ men, none of the Habs’ rivals in the playoff race won tonight, so the point lost doesn’t hurt too much.
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