This was the worst choke in recent NHL history, and the jersey that owns it has the CH on the front.
Montreal led the Winnipeg Jets 4-0 with 2:39 left in regulation on Tuesday night in their own building. They lost 5-4 in overtime. Dylan Samberg buried the winner at 3:30 of the extra period, and by the time the Jets finished emptying the tank they'd set the record for the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history, starting the rally at 57:21. The previous mark belonged to the 2007 Kings, who began theirs at 52:46. This lead was supposed to be over.
Credit Winnipeg for not folding; folding was the easy option. This team had lost nine straight before puck drop, got run 7-0 by Carolina two nights earlier, and traded away its Vezina-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck less than two weeks ago. It's looked like a mess ever since. Tyrel Bauer scored his first NHL goal to make it 4-1. Morgan Barron made it 4-2. Kyle Connor scored twice, the second on a power play with 33 seconds left after an Alexandre Carrier tripping penalty, and the game that looked decided wasn't anymore. Four goals in the final 2:39 is an incredible stretch of hockey. Scott Arniel called it right: "We needed something to happen, some kind of crazy thing to happen, and four goals in 2:06, that doesn't happen very often, if ever."
But "greatest comeback" implies the team coming back was good enough to deserve the word. This Jets team was a wreck that stumbled into four goals because the other side stopped checking them. Montreal left this game sitting on the table, and Winnipeg picked it up.
The Canadiens said it themselves. Martin St-Louis admitted they were winning but weren't beating the Jets, and that his team got what it deserved. Cole Caufield, who scored twice and still walked out furious, put it bluntly: "Listen, a four-goal lead, there's no excuse for this." When your best scorer stands at his stall and says there's no excuse, there isn't one.
Jacob Fowler had nothing to do with the collapse. He stopped the first 37 shots he faced and finished with 42 saves, two minutes and thirty-nine seconds from a shutout. He was outstanding. The collapse happened in front of him, when five skaters decided a 4-0 lead could coast and the clock would run itself out. It didn't. Winnipeg outshot Montreal 47-22 on the night: the pressure was there the whole time, and the Canadiens treated the third period like the handshake line.
The kindest read going around says this was a character-building night for a young Montreal roster that ran into a more experienced group. That's wrong. A desperate, last-place-feeling team with nothing left to lose outworked a club that already had the two points counted and spent them before the buzzer. The lesson here is about respecting a lead until it's actually safe. Montreal was without Nick Suzuki for a sixth straight game. Being down your captain explains a tight loss. It doesn't explain surrendering four goals in the time it takes to tie your skates.
Winnipeg gets a great story and a snapped losing streak, built on four names that earned their night: Bauer, Barron, Connor, Samberg. The headline belongs to Montreal. The Canadiens gave this game away.
