Pateryn hit gives Habs emotional boost
Fifteen minutes into a somewhat sleepy first period, Greg Pateryn woke the Bell Centre crowd Saturday with a hit that seemed to briefly dislodge his opponent from reality.
The Canadiens defenceman was skating backward into the neutral zone, slowly converging toward Florida Panthers forward Jimmy Hayes when he cut briskly into the boards. Pateryn drove his hip into Hayes forcefully, plastering him against the wall.
Hayes’ helmet whiplashed onto the composite plastic board. The impact flipped it off the forward’s skull before the lid bounced across the ice. He regained his footing and — clearly still a little stunned — smashed his stick in half, earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the process.
“Getting a hit like that, it gets you in the game. I wasn’t looking for it, but the opportunity presented itself and I stepped up on him and I got good contact,” said Pateryn, following the Canadiens 3- 2 win over the Panthers. “It gets your adrenalin going, it picks you up a little.”
The Pateryn hip check raised the emotional stakes in a game Florida already desperately needed to win to keep its playoff hopes alive. During the power play that followed Hayes’ stick smash, Panthers and Habs players nearly came to blows every time Florida goalie Roberto Luongo settled the puck.
After Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher hacked his stick at the goalie, trying to push a rebound into the net, Erik Gudbranson hauled him to the ice. That triggered a melee where Panthers defenceman Dmitry Kulikov pulled Max Pacioretty’s helmet off and the two traded short punches.
Only a minute later, Gudbranson was at the centre of another scuffle by the Panthers net. This time, he rag- dolled Montreal’s Alex Galchenyuk, who — in turn — swung wildly at the much larger player.
With the Hayes penalty expiring, Montreal defenceman Jeff Petry delivered a shot that bounced off Luongo’s pads and onto Lars Eller’s stick. Luongo dove across the crease, but Eller’s wrist shot beat the goalie, putting the Canadiens up 1- 0.
“There were a lot of emotions in the first with that huge hit from ( Pateryn),” Eller said. “I think you have to have that ( emotional edge) all the time but that’s the challenge as a player, to sustain that for 82 games. It’s hard but those who master it, they’re at the top of the standings.”
In times where Montreal has struggled this season, it seems they’ve picked their play up by appealing to the emotional side of their game. A few weeks ago, after a listless 30 minutes that saw the Tampa Bay Lightning pull ahead 3- 0, Habs forward Brandon Prust ran into goalie Ben Bishop, instigating a brawl in the process. Montreal nearly came back in that game and won the following three matches.
After Eller’s goal Saturday, the rest of the game tilted back and forth with the Panthers holding a brief 2- 1 lead over the Canadiens in the second period. And while goals by Galchenyuk and Habs leading scorer Pacioretty cemented Montreal’s comeback win, it was the play of grinders like Pateryn and Eller that truly stood out Saturday.
Eller, who seemed to always begin his shifts in the defensive zone, constantly moved the play forward, forcing the Panthers on their heels on nearly every shift. Before his goal, Eller retrieved a puck that Pateryn dumped behind the Panthers net, made a give- and- go pass play with linemate Jacob De La Rose before getting a quick shot off. De La Rose and Luongo wrestled for the puck as the referee whistled the play dead.
In the second period, Eller intercepted a Florida pass as it sailed at waist level, set up a rush into the offensive zone whereby he nearly banked a shot off teammate Brian Flynn and into the net.
Meanwhile, Pateryn kept the physical play alive, stamping Kulikov into the Bell Centre glass with a hip check that rattled the Panthers forward. This time, the crackle of the impact carried its way to the arena’s rafters. Though Pateryn was only credited with three hits, he spent much of his 14: 46 of ice time bouncing Florida’s players around.
“This is what we like about him ... he’s a demanding guy to play against, he’ll make you pay at the right time,” said Montreal coach Michel Therrien of the rookie defenceman.
“I don’t want to be running around out there, but if a hit presents itself and I get a chance to finish a guy, I mean, by all means I’m going to take that opportunity,” Pateryn said. “Your first few games ( in the National Hockey League) your just trying to get accustomed to the speed ... the more games you play, you move the puck better, positionally you’re better. I don’t want to be reckless out there, but I want to play with an edge.”