PASSING THE TORCH
Canadiens captain Shea Weber puts the final touch on last night’s opening ceremony before Montreal’s home opener against the Kings. Pat Hickey and Stu Cowan report
Let there be no more talk about sending rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi back to Finland.
Forget any suggestion he could use some time with the Laval Rocket.
And there’s no reason to give him a Christmas vacation at the world junior championship in British Columbia.
Kotkaniemi is an NHL player and he proved it again Thursday when he was one of the Canadiens’ most effective players in a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
There might have been some butterflies for the home opener, which was preceded by a salute to the players who won the Canadiens’ last Stanley Cup. But with his mother among the sellout crowd, the 18-year-old Kotkaniemi displayed the poise of a grizzled veteran.
This might have been his stiffest test of the young season because the Kings are a veteran team with some size. On a night when the Kings dominated the faceoff circle, winning 62 per cent of the draws, Kotkaniemi won six of his 11 faceoffs and finished with a teamhigh five shots on goal.
The Canadiens outshot the Kings 40-29 and Jack Campbell outplayed Carey Price.
Not that Price was bad. It took a perfect shot to beat him for the first goal, Michael Amadio had too much time in the slot on the second goal and Price was screened on Jeff Carter’s third-period goal. Carter also assisted on the first two goals for a three-point night.
It took two video reviews to preserve Campbell’s shutout. Andrew Shaw knocked a loose puck past the goaltender during the third period, but it was waved off because the referee ruled Shaw directed the puck with his hand. The replay showed it was a good goal, but L.A. coach John Stevens challenged the play and the goal was wiped out a second time when Shaw was found guilty of goaltender interference.
With three days of practice before this game, the Canadiens were able to work on their power play and the results were evident early in the game. The Canadiens failed to score on their first advantage, but managed to test Campbell with three shots. That gave the Canadiens an early 6-0 edge in shots, but things changed in a hurry when Adrian Kempe came out of the penalty box and scored.
This wasn’t one of those cases where the Canadiens were caught sleeping. Mike Reilly was back to defend, but Kempe found an opening high on Carey Price’s blocker side.
The Canadiens’ power play wasn’t effective in the second period. Montreal had the man advantage for 5:10 of the final 6:25, but had one shot on goal. The question raised by this dismal showing is why is Jonathan Drouin on the power play? He tried unsuccessfully to stickhandle through two defenders on one occasion and an attempt to keep the puck in the offensive zone failed when he tripped and fell.