You wouldn’t have known that the St. Louis Blues were one of the top teams in the NHL while the Montreal Canadiens sit well outside a playoff spot by watching the start to last night’s game. In the first match since the All-Star break for both teams, the visiting Habs were zipping all over the ice, playing the first period nearly exclusively in the Blues’ end.
A good shift from Jonathan Drouin’s line in the opening minutes came close to opening the scoring, with the centreman and Nicolas Deslauriers putting a few pucks on goal but none able to beat Carter Hutton.