Hidden Game: An early goal sends the visiting Blues to a lopsided win against the Canadiens

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Super Bowl weekend means one thing in Montreal – Canadians traditionally play home games, and this time they hurt the young, impressionable fans whose parents paid their hard-earned money for the exercise.

Sunday's 7-2 drubbing by the St. Louis Blues at the Bell Center marks another lost weekend for Montreal hockey fans. It was the second time in three seasons — after Saturday's 3-2 loss against Dallas — that the Canadiens lost both games, but they swept the pair in 2023, when they weren't competitive.

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This marks the seventh straight time the Canadiens have lost twice on Super Bowl weekend. Eight times, on the other hand, Montreal has captured back-to-back affairs.

It's worth noting that there are record wins in Montreal this weekend. The Canadiens are 17-11-2 with three games tied on Saturday, and their record falls to 17-13-1 on Sunday with one tie.

There were no Super Bowl games on the weekend in 2005 and no Sunday game in 2021.

Worst start: The Blues needed just 25 seconds and one shot to open the scoring. Alexey Toropchenko easily nicked defender Jayden Struble before sliding the ball past goalkeeper Jake Allen. There's no telling what's going to happen this afternoon.

“He hit me hard and had a good game,” Struble said. “Obviously, I could have continued to skate more and I could have done more.”

We thought the CFL referee was weird: Where do we begin with the inconsistency shown by referees Garrett Rank and Kyle Rehman? The teams combined for 67 penalty minutes — 38 for the Blues, including 10 minutes of foul play. But three things jumped out at us:

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Late in the second period, Michael Pezzetta's boundary tackle on Kevin Hayes left the Montreal forward concussed in the box, followed by Mike Matheson's free kick on Brandon Saad. Matheson lost the puck and was knocked down, but recovered and made a sliding stop to Saad. Initially, the free kick was flagged for a minor. In the end, Pezzetta's late goal was disallowed after video review. It turns out the fight started before the goal, which doesn't change the outcome, but we beg to differ.

“I think referees are human,” Matheson said. “I've made enough mistakes to tell. I think it's unfair to assume that every call will be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes in the game. It is certainly frustrating when you think something is wrong. If we leave it there and don't let it affect us, we can do better.”

Medical update: Rafael Harvey-Pinard, who was injured against Dallas, is out for four to six weeks with a lower-body injury. Quarterback Jordan Harris, who appeared to suffer a concussion on Sunday, is day-to-day. Quarterback Kaiden Goulet was still being evaluated after the game, after Marco Scandella was caught hard on the boards late in the game, but may have bruised ribs.

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Hit of the game (Part I): Tanner Pearson on Jake Neighbors in the third minute.

Game Hit (Part II). Pezzetta, who continues to surprise us with little time, officially has three hits. We're guessing his third-period collision with Jesse Ylonen wasn't included in that roundup. Ilonen rose slowly.

Two-thirds does not work: A few sportswriters are mathematically gifted, but the Canadiens' three-goal system isn't fair and doesn't work. Allen remains a wonder man and will be moved before next month's trade deadline, but who will take him? With 29 stops, he had a .806 save percentage against St.Louis. Allen now has a 5-10-3 record with a 3.63 average and .895 save percentage.

He just looked unsure on Sunday and was guilty of some poor positioning.

Gameplay: Juraj Slafkowski on Nick Suzuki for the Canadiens' first goal.

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Clubhouse leader: Canada's Josh Anderson, minus-4. Both Pearson and Jake Evans were minus-3.

Against the attack: The Canadiens have scored 11 goals in their last four games, including five against Washington last Tuesday. Suzuki and Slafkowski have four of them, meaning the rest of the team has scored three times. Not surprisingly, Montreal's record is 21-23-8, including 10-14-3 on home ice.

Sometimes coaching changes really work: When Craig Berube, who had led the team to its lone Stanley Cup title, was fired on Dec. 13, the Blues were 13-14-1 and on a four-game losing streak. Since then, under interim head coach Drew Bannister, the team has gone 15-7-1 and won seven of its last eight. Does the organization seem to need to remove the temporary name?

One Canadian win: Jonathan Kovacevic scored a unanimous decision against Neighbors late in the game.

They said: “I think we played as bad as the score showed,” Suzuki said. “It's obviously not the way you want to start the game, but we can't let it affect the rest of the game.”

“It was tough for me, of course,” Struble said. “It was definitely my most frustrating game.”

“We took too many penalties and didn't take advantage of our opportunities,” Canadiens coach Martin Saint said. “I thought we played a better first period than the score (shown).”

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It depends

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