VIDEO: Poor Len reviews last night's Canadiens vs Senators game (?)

You know the old Henny Youngman joke: "I went to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke out!" Here's our National Sports (as long as it's hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, with his take on last night's tilt in North America's most beautiful second-tier (state/provincial) capital.

Tank youse, Hed! Hockey fans in Québec (the city) are still pissed at Gary Bitchmann, the non-skating Jew who is czar of the so-called National Hockey League. It is he, and he alone, who stands in the way of the return of NHL hockey to Québec City, former home of the much-missed Québec Nordiques, who fell victims of wee Gary's drive to make "National" mean "American", and American only. Perhaps he's one of those behind President Trump's constant allusions to making Canada "the 51st state"?

But I digest. NHL hockey was played last night in the fine Centre Vidéotron, where the Ottawa Senators, the home team for the night, received the Montréal Canadiens in a thrilling match which delighted the multitude of Habs fans in attendance... Sens fans not so much.

       

Interviewed after the game, Habs D-man Alexandre Carrier said, "Rendu en troisième, on ne jouait plus vraiment au hockey." True enough. Between them, the teams racked up 152 penalty minutes in a fight-filled 5-0 victory for les Glorieux.

At the centre of the mêlée were the Xhekaj brothers, Arber and Florian, with two fights each. Florian fought Jan Jenik in the first period, and Arber and Jenik traded blows in the second. Then, in the third, both brothers fought on the same shift when Arber took on Zack MacEwen and Florian battled with Carter Yakemchuk near the Habs' bench. The brothers combined for 31 penalty minutes and were both ejected from the game, along with MacEwen, after those third-period fights. 

Also in the third period, Senators forward Nick Cousins was penalized for an egregious slash on tiny but terrible Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov, who, along with Lane Hutson, put on a skating and stick-handling clinic that deserved a standing O.

For the record, the Canadiens' goals were scored by Oliver Kapanen, Patrik Laine, Alexandre Carrier, Lane Hutson and Kirby Dach, three of the goals coming on the power play. Assist went to Dach, Demidov, Hutson and Laine, as well as Alex Newhook, Mike Matheson, and Brendan Gallagher.

The victory was largely due to the fine work of the young players, but the contribution of the old pros should be noted. It was good to see Dach figure in the scoring. We hope doing so will help him regain his self-confidence. And Brendan Gallagher... what can we say except "We love ya!"

Last night was perhaps the last opportunity for players who are "on the bubble" to show that they deserve to stay with the Big Team when final cuts are made after Saturday's last pre-season game at Ottawa. Owen Beck, Joe Veleno, Samuel Blais and Zach Bolduc were present last night but did nothing in particular to help or hurt themselves.   

The best of the prospects, IMHO, was Kapanen, whose goal last night was the icing on the cake of a strong performance. My money's on him to be in the starting line-up for the first regular season game, along with maybe Beck. The season opener is October 8th, at Toronto.

We leave you with a pic from last night's game: Jayden Struble on top of Jan Jenik.

If you like your hockey like a good steak... bloody... this was your kind of game!

Footnote added at 1235 FMT: The blatant attempts of certain Ottawa players to inflict serious physical damage on the smaller and better Canadiens did not go unnoced by the NHL Department of Player Safety. Nick Cousins has been fined $2148.44 -- the maximum permitted under the agreement with the players -- for his vicious slash on the arm of Ivan Demidov. Hayden Hodgson was fined $2148.44 for boarding Alex Newhook. The money goes to the NHL Players Emergency Fund.