Recapping Season 2 Episode 5 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens

This moment of Gallagher playing through tragedy led us to a Saturday night game at the Bell Centre against the Ottawa Senators. However, this wasn’t just a regular game as the Canadiens had been playing well since the Four Nations break ended, and with a win that night, they would get themselves into the 2nd Wild Card spot for the first time since early January. Ahead of this game, you get to see the city vibing with the potential of seeing the Habs getting into a playoff spot that night.

With how hard the Habs have been pushing at that point of the season, the team seems to be running on adrenaline, but the gas was running out. After the 2nd period, the Habs are down 2-1. During the intermission, we get to hear head coach Marty St. Louis hype up the team, telling them that they have been in this situation before and there is still plenty of time to go out there, win the period and walk away with two points.

The period started, and Lane Hutson is seen scoring a beautiful goal to tie it up. However, the Sens came back and got a goal of their own. This is where we start hearing management and media personalities talking about how good the Josh Anderson-Christian Dvorak-Brendan Gallagher has been as of late. They mention how, despite adversities like Anderson playing hurt (we learned he played half the season injured at the end of the season pressers) and Gallagher dealing with personal tragedy, this line has been the embodiment of keeping the team in the fight. The Canadiens ended up tying the game at 3, with a goal scored by Anderson.

Soon after, Anderson also draws a penalty, which leads to a Nick Suzuki power-play goal. Not too long after that, Anderson scores an empty-netter from the defensive zone. Then, finally, Gallagher ices the game with a breakaway empty-netter goal, which was his first goal since the passing of his mom, so it was a very emotional moment for him. The Canadiens get a 6-3 win and get back into a playoff spot.

Meanwhile, the sales and marketing teams are both prepping for the possible scenario of the playoffs returning to the Bell Centre for the 2024-25 season. The Sales team is about sending information out to the season ticket holders, giving them advance notice that playoff tickets are slowly getting prepped. Whereas the Marketing team is discussing various designs for the playoff, such as towels and various types of banners. They both mention that they want to keep this work quiet outside the office, not to be a jinx for the Habs.

Following the game against the Senators, the Canadiens go through a streaky pattern where they lose 5 straight, but then go on to win 6 consecutive games, which leads them to be one win away from clinching a playoff spot with 3 games left. The first game is in Toronto against the Maple Leafs, where they end up getting massively outplayed despite goaltender Jakub Dobes standing on his head. Dobes mentions that he performs better under pressure with some big ones on the line. This is why he managed to help the Habs force overtime, but it ended with them losing 1-0. Even though the Canadiens got a point, they still needed a win to officially clinch their spot.

Next, we go to the next game against the Chicago Blackhawks, but there is a gift from St. Petersburg waiting to play his first NHL game, Ivan Demidov. Before the game, we get to hear the excitement from both management and fans about how good Demidov could become someday. Then that’s when we see Demidov’s first period in the NHL, where he scored a goal and an assist. Unfortunately, that’s as good as the game got as the Canadiens lost in a shootout. Which meant that their playoff was going down to the last game.

The final game is against the Carolina Hurricanes, and a mini storyline is that David Savard is preparing in case it could be his last NHL game. He brought his kids on the bench for warmups to give them a special experience for his possible last-ever game as a Hab. It seems like the team as a whole is motivated to perform for Savard and help him extend his NHL career a little longer. The episode cuts before the end of the game, leaving it on a cliffhanger.

However, at this point, we already all know how the game ended, so I think they should have just ended the episode right as the final buzzer sounded. Anyway, next week we will actually see the behind-the-scenes of the Habs playoff games. Stay tuned for that episode’s analysis next week.