It’s hard to drum up a lot of excitement for a Friday night in Raleigh when the building is about 60% full. The ravenous Montreal media descended on PNC Arena for the Hurricanes morning skate, sending about a two dozen reporters and three camera crews into the locker room. Kurt Dusterberg, an NHL.com correspondent who covers the Hurricanes, told me that the average morning skate has only a handful of attendees. Such is life under the francophone microscope.
The game’s developments, however, would provide top notch entertainment for many Blues fans with somewhat long memories. As this profile of Montreal on the road unfolds, keep the following in mind: Andrew Shaw is now a Canadien, and Andrew Shaw can only and will always do the things that Andrew Shaw does.