It was an early Christmas offering from Marco Sturm and his Boston Bruins, no gift receipts required.
When the coach of the Bruins issued a challenge for goaltender interference that he had no chance of winning after Zachary Bolduc scored in the third period on Tuesday, he gave the Montreal Canadiens their first of three straight chances to finish their last game ahead of the holiday break well before the final buzzer sounded.
There was no way they were giving them back.
Tanner Jeannot generously offered the Canadiens a five-on-three advantage 1:10 after Sturm’s benevolent blunder, and that’s when Cole Caufield scored his first goal in six games to make it 4-2.
Hampus Lindholm then followed Jeannot to the box before Nick Suzuki took advantage of a second consecutive five-on-three advantage to make it 5-2 Canadiens.
And by the time Juraj Slafkovsky made it 6-2 in the 53rd minute of play, his teammates had already exhaled — somehow without coughing.
The Canadiens, riddled by a virus that’s been bouncing around the dressing room, had the opportunity to cruise to victory in their third game in four nights.
It was the Canadiens’ fifth game in eight nights and their 13th through the first 23 days of December, and you could see them running on fumes by the end of the first period.
But by the end of the third, the Canadiens were able to walk their way through the checkered flag. And while that was “a Christmas gift come early,” as coach Martin St. Louis referred to it when speaking with reporters at TD Garden afterwards, the 7-4-2 record they cobbled together through their most treacherous portion of the schedule to date was fully earned.
The Canadiens sprinted through four sets of back-to-backs — three of them involving travel — to take 11 of 16 points over that stretch. Down Patrik Laine and Kaiden Guhle since the middle of October, down Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach since the middle of November, they lost Jake Evans in the fourth minute of Saturday’s game and still beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then they lost Alex Texier in the final minute of Period 1 in Boston and dismantled the Bruins from that point forward.
It revealed the character of the team — and something more.
With nearly half the season banked, despite adversity that came with injuries, illness, a goaltending crisis and one particularly bad run of play, the Canadiens have remained on the path they wanted to be on from the start. Their goal was progress after the first playoff berth of the rebuild, and they have made some so far this season.
The addition of Texier, after his contract was terminated by the St. Louis Blues in the third week of November, helped. The trade for Phillip Danault, whose first game back with the team after four years with the Los Angeles Kings came in Boston, is bound to pay immediate dividends.
Those gifts from the Bruins already did.
“It gave us a chance to separate and manage the game,” said St. Louis. “It’s rare you get to score four goals in the third period.”
Once three of them got behind Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman from 7:04-10:09 of the frame, it gave the Canadiens a head start on rest they must weaponize coming out of the break.
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They’re 20-12-5, with 45 points, owning the fourth-best points percentage in the Eastern Conference and eighth-best in the league, and they’ve got more than three days to catch their breath before attempting to build on their success.
They’ll practice Dec. 27 and hopefully be refreshed and ready once play resumes with games in Tampa and Sunrise, Fla., to close out December.
There’s a chance Dach could be back for those. Texier, too. And there’s hope for Guhle to help the Canadiens through at least part of their 16-game January.
The wait could be longer for Evans, whose timeline to recover hasn’t yet been advanced by the Canadiens. Sources informed us the worst was avoided when he collided knee-on-knee with Justin Brazeau, but it’s still expected — even if unconfirmed — he could miss up to six weeks.
It’ll likely be at least that long before Laine can return from core-muscle surgery, and Newhook isn’t scheduled to be back from surgery to repair a broken ankle before the middle after the Olympic break, which runs from Feb. 5 through Feb. 25.
There’s a lot of hockey to be played before then, but the way the Canadiens have played to this point offers reason to believe they can handle it.
Jacob Fowler, whose win in Boston gave him a 3-1-1 record and a .918 save percentage through his first five games in the league, has helped stabilize the goaltending. If his work in tandem with 24-year-old Jakub Dobes hasn’t given 29-year-old starter Samuel Montembeault enough time to sort out his game, we’ll find out soon enough.
Regardless, the Canadiens appear to have at least two goaltenders they can rely on for now.
They also have seven defencemen in health, which is a major bonus at this stage of the season.
The performance from the top players on the blue line has been exemplary. Lane Hutson’s three assists Tuesday gave him 35 points on the year. Noah Dobson’s three got him up to 23 without any time spent on the team’s top power-play unit and nearly all his five-on-five ice time spent in the most difficult matchups. And Dobson’s partner, Mike Matheson, has been a horse, logging a team-high 25:02 on average.
The bottom three defencemen have held up while Adam Engstrom, who was scratched from Tuesday’s game, has provided quality depth.
As have several young forwards — and even a couple of the older ones, like Sammy Blais, who scored his first goal as a Canadien in Boston. His first assist was notched Sunday, in his first game since being re-claimed off waivers from Toronto.
That depth is valuable. It’s what the team will need moving forward.
The Canadiens won’t say no to a few more gifts, either.
