About Last Night: The regular season begins! Habs end preseason with loss

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Say it with me: it’s just the preseason, it’s just the preseason, it’s just the preseason …

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With the regular season on the horizon, the Montreal Canadiens fell 5-4 in a shootout to the Ottawa Senators Thursday night at the Bell Center in their final exhibition game. Sens forward Josh Norris scored twice in regulation time before defeating Habs goalkeeper Jake Allen on penalties. The Habs open the 2021-22 regular season next Wednesday in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.

It was an eventful day for the Canadiens organization. In the morning, the team announced that goalkeeper Carey Price had voluntarily entered the league’s player assistance program. The team thanked the fans for their support.

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Then before the puck dropped at night, Jonathan Drouin didn’t go skating before the game. The team announced that the contest would be lost due to a “non-COVID-related illness.”

The Canadiens flew out early. Josh Anderson activated his thrusters 10 seconds into the game and beat Sens goalkeeper Anton Forsberg with a quick shot to make it 1-0 at Habs.

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At 3:41, Jeff Petry finished a one-time pass from Tyler Toffoli to give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead. Alexander Romanov assisted in both goals.

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With David Savard in the box to snag, Norris halved the lead with a shot from a timer through a clubless Allen.

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Jake Evans came off the ice in pain after an awkward collision across the boards, but was back by the second. The Habs took another penalty to close out the first period when Christian Dvorak held down a headstrong Shane Pinto.

At the start of the second, Pinto nailed the net again, tying the game just as Dvorak’s minor penalty expired.

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With Savard in the box for the second time in the game, the Senators’ power play was again capitalized. Norris scored a pass from Alex Belzile that passed Allen to give his team their first lead.

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The procession to the penalty area continued as Ryan Poehling received a minor double for Andrew Agozzino’s high post and for drawing blood. Joel Armia received his own penalty before Poehling’s expired, followed by equalizing minors at Norris and Dvorak. Otherwise, the most notable play during this stretch was strong Petry arming Tim Stützle.

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Once both teams were back to five-on-five, Chris Tierney completed a sequence of tic-tac-toe passes to give Ottawa a 4-2 lead before the third period.

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The third opened with more lengths in the area, but it was a Connor Brown penalty at 2:01 that gave Montreal the boost they needed. Cole Caufield’s shot from afar found its way to Nick Suzuki’s stick up front, who hit it to cut Ottawa’s lead to 4-3.

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After Allen went to the bench for an extra skater and precisely one minute remaining in regulation time, Petry fired through a double screen from Brendan Gallagher and Anderson to beat Forsberg and send the game into overtime.

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Overtime didn’t solve anything, so he went into a shootout. After six consecutive stops, Armia and Brown exchanged goals before Norris finished it for good.

The Habs are hoping to be in good health in the coming days as they prepare for Wednesday’s opening night against the Maple Leafs. Could the Habs see a lineup without Shea Weber, Carey Price, Paul Byron, Joel Edmundson, Mike Hoffman, Cedric Paquette and Jonathan Drouin to start the season? Better not think about it. In a shameless self-promotion, Habs Liveblog will return this season to capture all the action as it happens, while About Last Night will be there for the early risers. And of course, the best of your comments will also appear in this space.