— 1,000 for Weber: Shea joins rare NHL club
MONTREAL — Led by Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson, the Montreal Canadiens’ offseason acquisitions are paying big dividends 10 games into the 2020-21 season.
Toffoli and Anderson each scored twice on Tuesday as the Montreal Canadiens celebrated captain Shea Weber’s 1,000th game with a 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Toffoli and Anderson, as well as other newcomers including veteran forward Corey Perry, backup goaltender Jake Allen and defenceman Joel Edmundson, have fit like a glove so far with a Habs team looking to build on an unexpected post-season run last year.
Toffoli, whose second goal was a highlight reel-worthy backhander, continued to haunt his old team as the Canadiens swept a twogame series with Vancouver and improved to 7-1-2 to move a point ahead of idle Toronto into first place in the North Division. Eight of Toffoli’s nine goals this season have come against the Canucks.
Toffoli added an assist on Jeff Petry’s emptynet goal to cap the scoring.
Montreal forward Nick Suzuki had two assists. Weber had an assist on Toffoli’s second goal, giving the 35-year-old defenceman two goals and five assists in 10 games.
Antoine Roussel, Elias Pettersson and Tanner Pearson scored for the Canucks (6-7).
Allen made 36 saves for Montreal, while Thatcher Demko stopped 28 shots for Vancouver. Montreal, which kicked off the two-game series between the teams with a 62 win on Monday, improved to 4-0-1 against the Canucks, outscoring them 28-15 over those five games.
Vancouver was 1-for-3 on the power play, while Montreal was 0-for-4.
Weber’s 1,000th game was acknowledged at a stoppage in play halfway through the first period. Players from both teams tapped their sticks on the ice and Weber waved as crowd noise was piped into the empty Bell Centre.
Weber was toasted by members of the Canadiens and his former team, the Nashville Predators, in video messages during breaks in the action, and posters created by his daughters were on display.
“Maybe it’s a little unfortunate that his family and friends couldn’t go to the game with the situation going on, but I thought they did a tremendous job,” Anderson said.
“It was such a special night just to be a part of it.”