On Thursday in their season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Montreal Canadiens’ top line of Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar, and Brendan Gallagher did not have a great game.
Tatar scored on the power play, but at even strength the three forwards who were so dominant at even strength a year ago were on the ice for under 32% of shot attempts in 10:32 of ice time together.
And that’s alright.
The Canadiens forced overtime and then a shootout against a Carolina team that was also very good on Thursday.