Great Night For A Breakout

Greetings Habs Addicts,

What a great night in Montreal last night. The Canadiens retired Hall of Famer Guy Lapointe's #5 in an emotional pre-game ceremony then went on to beat the Minnesota Wild pretty convincingly in a 4-1 victory. For those wondering the significance of retiring Lapointe's number prior to a game against Minnesota, it should be known that Lapointe is currently the coordinator of amateur scouting for the Wild, a post he has held since the teams inception. Thomas Vanek had an assist on the lone Wild goal in his return to Montreal, but was otherwise in fine playoff form as he was rather invisible as he floated around the ice. No word on whether he lost money on the game, either. Carey Price stood on his head in the first period and kept the Canadiens in the game before they took over and dominated from the second period onward.

Photo Credit: NationalPost.com

First off, Guy Lapointe's jersey retirement was long overdue. A brief history lesson about the man affectionately known as "Pointu" for those who never saw him play begins with the fact he was a six-time Stanley Cup winner with the powerhouse Canadiens squads of the 1970s. As a member of the 'Big-Three' with fellow Hall of Fame defencemen Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, Lapointe holds the Canadiens record for goals in a season by a defenceman (28) and by a rookie defenceman (15). Savard and Lapointe were key members of the 1972 Summit Series against Russia. Lapointe put up big points, laid thunderous body checks and kept the locker room loose with his notorious pranks. Among those pranks is the story of Lapointe coating his own hand in Vasoline prior to shaking the hand of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada during a visit to the Canadiens locker room. For his career, Lapointe scored 171 goals and 622 points in 894 career NHL games. He shares his #5 in the rafters with the great Bernie 'Boom-Boom' Geoffrion. This honour is a long time coming. Credit to his daughter, Stephanie Lapointe (Twitter: @RavenMontreal) who spent many long hours working and rallying for this honour. Stephanie made appearances on MontrealHockeyTalk.com last year to gain support for a petition she started and the hard work paid off. Congrats to Guy Lapointe and family. Well deserved honour and we hope you enjoyed the moment!

This high profile game was also used by Jiri Sekac for his breakout performance as a Canadien. Sekac was a highly-touted off-season signing by Marc Bergevin after a solid performance in the Russian KHL last season. Sekac played in the first six games of the season before spending seven straight in the press box as a healthy scratch. Fans were clamouring for Sekac to return to the lineup, especially with veterans such as Rene Bourque and Travis Moen seeing undeserved ice time. Sekac returned to the lineup against Buffalo this past week and last night had a dominating performance on a line with Lars Eller and Brandon Prust, scoring a goal and adding an assist while being named First Star of the game. It was a great time for the Czech forward to step up into the spotlight. Hopefully this is the breakout game needed to get himself and the under-performing Lars Eller going. Eller is notoriously streaky and on a line with a gritty forward like Brandon Prust could spark the beginning of good things for the trio. One cannot forget how youngsters Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher started their careers strong on a line with Prust during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

Sekac has a ton of talent and has a great opportunity in Montreal. Spending time in the press box while Rene Bourque and his $3.3-million dollar cap hit went game after game contributing nothing to the offense was a waste of his talent and frustrated many fans. Here at HabsAddict, my own article 'Should #AlmostBourque be #AlmostBenched?' sparked some controversy with the listeners and fans at our affiliate MontrealHockeyTalk.com early on, however the analysis proved to be true as the next ten games played out and Bourque's on-ice effort continued to deteriorate. HabsAddict editor Fred Poulin's 'Jiri Sekac in Michel Terrien's Doghouse' echoed what was a growing sentiment among fans and media that Sekac was somehow being punished by Michel Therrien for his lack of offense through the first six games. Well, his replacements contributed nothing at all and Sekac finally returned to the lineup this week and hopefully will use this Saturday performance to get on a roll with Eller and Prust. There is just too much talent and potential there for him to spend the season watching the games from the rafters. The rafters that now hold another deserving legend's retired number.

---

Nick Malofy is a transplanted Montrealer, currently living in evil LeafLand. He is a contributor here at HabsAddict.com and give him a follow, as he can often be found rambling on Twitter.

Posted in: #AlmostBourque,fred poulin,guy lapointe,habs,habs addict,Jiri Sekac,marc bergevin,michel therrien,montreal canadiens,nick malofy,rene bourque,stephanie lapointe