Todd: Resilient young Canadiens need to shake off gut-punch of a loss
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Bad bounces. Puck luck. A mistake or two, because hockey is a game of mistakes. A comeback, a lead lost.
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And bad refereeing, worse refereeing, terrible refereeing.
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Tom Wilson freely exercising his licence to create mayhem without consequences.
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Among many other things, how do you send Josh Anderson off for a face-to-face hit on Wilson but not punish Wilson for an almost identical hit, except that his was delivered to David Savard's back?
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How does Wilson get away with a hit in the general direction of the head that not only leaves Alexandre Carrier stunned and wobbly but also leads to the goal that shifts the momentum? Jeff Gorton has seen this movie before — the plot never changes.
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How does Alexander Ovechkin, who looks like he's paid in poutine, get away with hits that would earn ordinary humans an in-person hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety?
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All in all, a witch's brew of a loss, on a night when the splendid rookie Ivan Demidov picked up two assists in his sixth game in the NHL.
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These very young Canadiens are, if nothing else, resilient. As someone said on social media, 'they're as relentless as my mother-in-law trying to find out how much money I make.'
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Don't write them off. Remember they were down three games to one against the mighty Leafs in 2021 and we know how that one turned out.
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Win or lose Wednesday, the Canadiens have been playing with house money since the first puck was dropped in Game 1. They were not supposed to be here at all, yet every game in the series so far could have gone either way and Friday's Game 3 was an exercise in total dominance in every way — hits, shots, goals. They may lose this series yet but there is no question they belong, they can go toe-to-toe with the best team in the conference.
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The Fab Five on the power play — Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson and 19-year-old Ivan Demidov — is as promising a bunch as you will find in the game. Swap a forward for Kaiden Guhle 5-on-5 and the same goes.
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