About last night: Did Fix You fix the Habs on Saturday night?

Ryan Poehling scored two goals in the victory. Matt Duchene scored a natural hat-trick in the third period.

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“The lights will guide you home and ignite your bones and I will try to heal you” -Chris Martin

The Montreal Canadiens have been stuck in reverse for much of the 2021-2022 regular season, and maybe it’s because they replaced their intro music at the Bell Center? At the urging of injured defender Joel Edmundson, he was traded back to Coldplay’s Fix You, and lo and behold, the home team won 6-3 against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Did your bones light up with a certain song or was it just a coincidence?

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Taking out seven defenders probably wasn’t what made the difference, but that’s something else they tried on Saturday. Chris Wideman returned to the lineup and had two assists. Michael Pezzetta stayed outside.

Snake-bitten Artturi Lehkonen finally ended his season-long goal drought at 2:41 in the first. Brendan Gallagher backed into the area and dropped the puck to David Savard, while Lehkonen carried the net. After a trade between Savard and Jake Evans, Lehkonen was up front to pocket the rebound for an early 1-0 lead. The Habs were outscored 15-9 in the opening draw, but starter Sam Montembeault held firm.

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Offensive floodgates opened for Montreal in the second. Just over a minute, Josh Anderson connected with Christian Dvorak on a precise backhand pass. From one knee, Dvorak hit the puck for a time and edged Juuse Saros for a 2-0 lead.

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Just over two minutes later, and nine seconds after a power play, Brendan Gallagher was left alone up front to redirect a Jonathan Drouin one-touch pass into the open cage to make it 3-0.

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The midpoint of the period was the Ryan Poehling show. He scored his first of two at 9:31, after Wideman at the point found him coming down the left side. Poehling’s shot from the point beat Saros to extend Montreal’s lead to four.

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Just 37 seconds later, Poehling did it again. Tyler Toffoli entered the area, stayed behind, and found Poehling streaking in. The one-time goal scored us chicken wings and sent Saros in favor of substitute David Rittich.

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Mathieu Olivier sought to get a squad of listless Predators in motion by skidding into Montembeault’s kitchen and provoking Anderson’s ire before the end of the second. The couple dropped the gloves. More punches followed, with Mark Borowiecki and Dvorak getting equal minors and 10-minute misconduct. The period ended with the Habs up 5-0.

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Matt Duchene scored a natural hat-trick in the third period to avoid child’s play in Montreal. The first was in the power play with Toffoli in the area. His quick shot hurtling through Ben Chiarot as a screen ended Montembeault’s shutout offer.

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The Predators returned to the power game when a bloodied Lehkonen was sent into the area after losing his stick and holding the Predator player. Eight seconds later, Duchene scored his second with the men’s advantage, this time with a single timer in the slot. The Habs returned to the death penalty after Chiarot was recalled for an ambiguous decision. That grief was assassinated.

Duchene scored his hat-trick from the side of the net with less than four minutes to go and his goalkeeper headed to the bench for an extra attacker.

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With 90 seconds remaining, the Habs closed the break when Toffoli scored on an empty net to make it 6-3. The potentially terrifying third period aside, the Canadiens rallied from their worst loss of the season with at least 40 very convincing minutes. They have a break until Wednesday, when they hit the road to face the Washington Capitals. Liveblog commenters are to be commended for sticking with the Habs through thick and thin this season, and they breathed a collective sigh of relief after the Habs held out to beat the Preds. Before your thoughts, I leave you with another Coldplay Fix You couplet that may remind some general sports fans: “When you love someone, but it goes to waste. It could be worse?”

3. “Much better effort. The first 40 were good. Last 20, not so much. Luckily we have a 5 goal advantage. It shows you, this team still needs to play a full 60 minutes. Nice to see Poeling get a pair, and a good fighting game from Leks. I think MB’s talk helped. One game at a time. It’s just a game, but there were good signs tonight. Nashville might have been a little tired in the last game of the road trip. Let’s see what the next game brings, hopefully they can take advantage of this victory. At least management called the players for a change. “-Chris James

2. “The call to the Lekhonen was a total joke. Chiarot doesn’t call much better. That said, I have to kill the penalties. Thank goodness Poehling blew up the 2 which turned out to be the margin. Good for Sam M who has had a very bad time. “-Chris and Schooley

1. “It’s good to get a different result. They deserved this victory. Take a day to enjoy it and get back to work. “-Kelly Morgan

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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