Wild-Canadian: first night

Two Canadiens players scored their first NHL goal last night at the Bell Center, helping Montreal to defeat the Minnesota Wild 4-0.

Jean-Francois Tremblay
The Press

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

Analysis: the goal of Mete, the reaction of Weber

It happened.

On October 17, 2019, it finally arrived. Victor Mete scored the first goal of his career, at his 127^e match. Circle the date. Imagine, 127 games, an unfortunate record at the Montreal Canadiens, which will finally worsen.

And Mete did it in a 4-0 win over the Minnesota Wild, in a Bell Center that did not run out of reasons to celebrate.

>>> Check the summary of the match

A word on the Wild. His new chief executive, Bill Guerin, has his work cut out. Eric Staal smashed his stick on the bench in the third period, the only possible reaction to this pitiful performance.

Everyone woke up when Mete scored on the bench and in the stands. The cheers were deafening. All of his teammates, with a smile split to the ears, warmly banged the relieved defender.

Weber the most demonstrative

In the celebration, however, a player stands out, and not least: Shea Weber, demonstrative as we have rarely seen. It was he who went to get the puck. He was the last to congratulate Mete, with conviction. He felt almost happier than his partner. And that's where it becomes significant.

The Mete-Weber duo has become an unavoidable conservation topic, and with good reason. For some, Weber did not have enough mobility to help his partner. For others, Mete, too small, lost too many battles and hurt the duo. The truth lies somewhere in between, as we wrote earlier this week. When Claude Julien pronounced the heavy words Wednesday ("We are looking for a left-handed defender"), instinctively, the spotlight turned to the duo. Mete and Weber would they still long pair?

Yesterday, they responded well to the attention. Mete got help from his teammates when it got along with the gangs, and forced his rivals to stay out. He also allowed himself some interesting offensive incursions. Weber took the opportunity, perfect, to offer a long advocacy for his partner.

"He was very good, very fast to end the games when the opponents entered our zone. It forced them to push the puck into the bottom and it allowed us to do a raise. He skated very well (yesterday) tonight to cut the games quickly, and we did not have to chase pucks. "

In the locker room after the match, Mete was talking like it was a little ordinary Thursday. Nobody is fooled. It was much more than that. For him, first, for his teammates too, who were hoping for that moment.

"Everyone was happy," said Mete. Everyone was patting me on the back. I was asked to continue to score (laughs). I did not see her come in, honestly, I only heard the crowd. People have gone crazy! The partisans had been waiting for a long time, I was happy to give them this goal. "

And was Mete more satisfied with his defensive brilliance or his goal?

"The defensive game! The goal is a plus. "

The politically correct answer.

Mete scored while throwing the net, as he had done so often in vain, after a good effort from Nate Thompson in check before, and Nick Cousins ​​to intercept a pass behind the net of the Wild. Cousins ​​got the pass and he expects an appropriate reward from the young defender.

"I like my half bleeding steak. We'll make arrangements in St. Louis. Of course he pays. "

Suzuki too, by the way

There is Nick Suzuki too who scored his first goal, much earlier in his career than Mete, that said. He took advantage of a loose puck near the net and made a very accurate reverse shot.

"It was great," said Suzuki. I saw how crazy the fans were when Vic scored, so I talked to myself, I thought I wanted to be next. The roof exploded. "

For him too, it's a moment of great relief, after falling from the second to the fourth trio and have been criticized by Claude Julien. The head coach reproached him for not showing the combativity that had allowed him to win a job at the camp. With teammates able to navigate the heavy traffic, he looked good, with this goal in the key.

"The last three games have been my best, recognized the new number 14. I want to continue to build my confidence. I feel more comfortable day by day. This goal is a weight less on my shoulders. I can play as I have always done. "

Obviously, this goal of Suzuki, important though it is, will pass in the shadow of that of Mete. For Gallagher, it's almost logical.

"He will score many more in this league. He will have some attention at that time. Tonight, it's Meat! "

They said

"It's a special moment! "

In details

Trio of observations on the game between the Wild and the Canadian

The end of two awkward sequences

No, we are not talking about Victor Mete's, but rather special units. Joel Armia's goal yesterday was the Canadian's first five-on-three goal since March 13, 2018. As a result, the CH was blanked out during the previous season in this situation. The Habs had spent a total of 7 min 5s last year without touching the target, and yesterday he will have only 14 seconds to score. Max Domi, who lifted Ryan Suter's stick, allowed Jonathan Drouin to join Armia on the edge of the enclave. The other troublesome sequence? For the first time this season, Montreal did not award a shorthanded goal. The Wild has been cleared on five occasions with only five shots. "We cleared the pucks when we had the chance and we were good to get the pucks free," said Claude Julien.

Courage or madness?

There are no doors in Joel Eriksson Ek's house, only walls he smashes. Well, we admit: we just recycled one of the many jokes that circulate about Chuck Norris, but still: the Wild striker had to gain the respect of the entire league by placing in front of THREE shots hit by Shea Weber. From the first, Eriksson Ek wriggled in pain and looked like a guy who wanted some clearance to get back to the bench. But there was only a partial release, and as we were in the second half, the bench was too far to make the change. The Swede was ovationed after blocking the third shot, which allowed Marcus Foligno to clear. "It takes courage to block shots, especially when the first hits you hard. But you have to do the right thing for the team. Hat. He stayed there, "said Weber.

First test for Cousins

This is the first to go unnoticed, far behind the goals of Victor Mete and Nick Suzuki. Nick Cousins ​​was playing his first game with the Canadiens, and he took the opportunity to get his first point, a pass on the goal of Mete. A nice piece of play, as he intercepted a soft Kevin Fiala hand-over, and found Mete in the slot. It was the best sequence of Cousins, which seemed to be out of sync at times, to see his clumsiness. In his defense, he had not played since the last preseason game on 28 September. "I thought too much in the first period, he admitted. That's what happens when you do not play for three weeks. The further the game progressed, the better I felt. I found my legs and I played my way. Cousins ​​played 13:19.

The match at a glance

On the rise: Nate Thompson

He's not going to fill in sports bulletins with highlights, but he's often in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what the Canadian went for.

Down: Paul Byron

Claude Julien said he had another level to his game. He has not yet found it. He has one pass in seven games.

The number of the match: 5124

Number of days since the last time two Canadiens players scored their first career goal in the same game. It was Chris Higgins and Alexander Perezhogin, October 6, 2005.