Stu Cowan: The Habs put on a good show in the annual Reds-Whites fight

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The Canadiens’ annual Reds-Whites fight at the Bell Center is always a fun afternoon.

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The Canadiens had to cancel the event last year due to COVID-19, so it was great to see so many young children with their parents in the stands Sunday afternoon cheering and dancing to the music during breaks from the action. Capacity was limited to 7,500 due to provincial government regulations during the ongoing pandemic and all fans had to show their vaccine passport to enter the building and masks were mandatory. From now on, it will be the same for the Canadiens’ preseason and regular season games at the Bell Center.

Tickets to the game are $ 10 and include a complimentary snack and soda with all proceeds divided 50/50 between the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation and The cooks table, whose mission is to feed people in need and develop culinary education for young people.

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The cheap tickets provide an opportunity for parents, who would normally never be able to afford a game at the Bell Center, to allow their children to see the Canadiens up close.

The Canadiens put on a good show in a fight that had a surprising amount of body checks with Red Team defeating White Team 5-2. The game included two 30-minute run-time periods and a three-on-three five-minute period, followed by an exhibition shootout. Joshua Roy scored two goals for the Red Team, while Danick Martel, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Joel Armia added singles. Lukas Vejdemo and Ryan Poehling scored for White Team.

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After practice, Roy learned that he was one of three players, along with Xavier Simoneau and Joe Vrbetic, who had been eliminated from training camp.

Cole Caufield was supposed to dress for the white team, but was scraped after the warm-up, much to the disappointment of many children, and adults, who wore new number 22 sweaters or T-shirts with his name on the back. Caufield felt uncomfortable during the warm-up and was withdrawn as a precaution. Head coach Dominique Ducharme told RDS the injury is not believed to be serious and that Caufield is on the day-to-day list.

On Saturday, Ducharme announced that Mike Hoffman will miss up to four weeks with a lower-body injury suffered during the offseason after the Canadiens signed him as a free agent.

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Christian Dvorak, acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on Sept. 4, skated for the first time at the Bell Center on Sunday in a Canadiens sweater.

“I didn’t get here long ago so there were a lot of moving parts and everything,” said Dvorak, who has been at the center of a line with Jonathan Drouin and Josh Anderson since the start of training camp. “But I feel like I’ve adapted pretty quickly and the guys have been great. I’m having a lot of fun here so far.

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“There are definitely some different things here than in Arizona,” he added. “So I try to learn that as quickly as possible. It’s good to have some games like today and also the preseason. Try to make sure I have all the systems down and know where to go so that when the regular season comes around I’m not thinking, I know what to do. “

The best part of this afternoon was hearing fans cheer for Drouin every time he played the record and when it was shown to them on the giant screen. Drouin was also applauded for his shooting attempt, despite not scoring. He raised his cane to greet fans on his way back to the bench.

“I think it was really cool to watch,” Dvorak said. “It seemed like there were 20,000 fans screaming every time (Drouin) played the record or whatever. So it was really cool … they gave it a warm welcome and obviously it was well deserved. “

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Drouin left the Canadiens near the end of last season and missed the entire playoff run to the Stanley Cup final due to anxiety and insomnia issues that sometimes caused him to go three nights in a row without sleep.

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For some of the young people cheering on Drouin and the Canadiens this afternoon, it was probably their first time seeing them up close. Dvorak, who grew up in Illinois, was asked if he remembered the first NHL game he attended as a child.

“Not exactly … I’m sure it was a Blackhawks game in Chicago,” the 25-year-old said. “I don’t think they were too good when I was young and they probably didn’t have too many fans either. I don’t remember exactly, but I think it’s great that the kids can go to the game. “

Who was the favorite player of the Dvorak Blackhawks?

“I’d say probably Jonathan Toews,” he said. “When I was 10-14 years old I watched him a lot and they won three Cups (between 2010 and 2015). So I looked at it a lot. A two-way centreman, so definitely a guy I saw a lot as a kid. “

On Sunday afternoon, it was certainly fun to watch the little kids cheer on the Canadiens again.

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