Best of National Hockey League: Canadiens beat Maple Leafs, improve to 9-0

On Tuesday night, the Montreal Canadiens will compete for a major league honor: A pristine 10-0-0 start. The 31 year old has played for five teams since 2010 and has only been able to score more than 36 points in one of those five seasons (2011-12 for the Florida Panthers). Even though the offense had a big night goalie Carey Price might have been the deciding factor with a hefty 49 save performance to give the Habs their 9th straight win.

Winnik was the on the ice for both Montreal power play goals, though he wasn’t really alone in his errors.

“I know people will talk about records and all that stuff, but we’re not focused on going 10-for-10… we’re not going to be the ones leading that parade”, said Subban.

More likely, Montreal finishes second in the Atlantic behind Tampa Bay and enters the playoffs with a few hope but also a few question marks. Toronto’s success on the PK helped out their confidence and earned a power play of their own.

Toronto had a 23-11 shots advantage in the second but fell behind 5-2.

It was the first loss at home for the Predators, after four straight victories to open the season. “In my contract, I have a no-trade clause so they would have to go through my agent and ask me to waive it. And then there’s a process that needs to be triggered (for me to) think: “Am I going to move on” or am I going to say no and then we get in an argument?” Derek Roy, Thomas Vanek, Danny Briere, Chris Drury and Jason Pominville were all playing at their peak, they had Brian Campbell making plays along the blue line and Ryan Miller was just starting to become one of the NHL’s best goalies.

And more importantly, we are just nine games into the season. The additions of Tomas Fleischmann and Alex Semin were good signings for the Canadiens, and they fit nicely into the middle six. Jonathan Bernier, too, was still smarting that the puck didn’t ping off his shoulder, instead rolling off it and into the back of the net. Montreal has trailed for less than three minutes for the entire season and allowed more than two goals for the first time in Saturday’s 5-3 victory over Toronto. An unfortunate play, indeed, especially since the Leafs wound up scoring again on a great shift from the Kadri line, that saw the Leafs dominate Galchenyuk’s line until van Riemsdyk cashed in on a rebound off the boards. He gained his third of the season with Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf picking up his fifth assist.

Toronto hit two posts in the first period and could have had at least two more goals past star goalkeeper Carey Price in that period alone. Pacioretty, along the left wall, fed Subban at the top of the right circle and the defenseman wired a shot that bobbled past Bernier for his first of the season. It was his fourth of the season that came 14 seconds before the end of the second.

They literally did a montage of sad Leafs faces after the 2nd period ended. They had a brick wall in between the pipes and solid enough defensemen and defensive minded forwards that they didn’t “need” to score goals.

Buffalo tied it 6 minutes later, with Franson navigating a diving shot-blocker and sliding the puck to O’Reilly for a one-timer that beat Condon low.

They did well to hold their lead despite Toronto pulling Bernier from the net.

The Canadiens, who are off to the best start in franchise history with eight consecutive wins, continued their stellar run by hammering the Buffalo Sabres 7-2 Friday night on the road.

The Flames are averaging less than two goals a game with just 16 goals in nine contests.