In the Habs’ Room: ‘I’ve had to prove myself all my life,’ Harvey-Pinard says

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Rafaël Harvey-Pinard stated he has spent most of his life attempting to show himself as a hockey participant.

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The seventh-round draft selection has been taking full benefit of his most up-to-date call-up to the NHL and he scored two third-period targets Tuesday night time to maintain the Canadiens within the recreation earlier than Brady Tkachuk scored at 18:42 to offer the Ottawa Senators a 5-4 win on the Bell Centre

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“I’ve needed to show myself all my life,”‘ the 5-foot-9 Harvey-Pinard stated. “I performed Midget Espoir and I used to be drafted within the eighth spherical of the (QMJHL) draft.”

Harvey-Pinard put up first rate numbers in his junior profession with Rouyn-Noranda, however was ignored the primary 12 months he was eligible for the draft after which went to the Canadiens within the seventh spherical in 2019. He felt his probabilities of being drafted had been slim and he and his household didn’t hassle go to Vancouver. On the time, the choice was seen as a nod to critics who felt the Canadiens weren’t concerned about Quebec gamers.

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At 24, Harvey-Pinard is hoping to impress the Canadiens brass and he took a step in the precise path when coach Marty St. Louis promoted him to the highest line after a lacklustre first interval for the Canadiens.

“You realize what you get from H-P,” St. Louis stated. “There’s a consistency within the particulars of his recreation, his angle. For me it wasn’t a lot what he was doing within the first interval, I simply felt as a group, we had been form of flat. One of many items of recommendation I obtained with this job is go along with your intestine and I did that.”

The consequence was a robust effort from Harvey-Pinard, who performed a career-high 18:34. He had 5 photographs on objective and had a few hits. For a participant who’s on the small facet, he’s not afraid to go to the soiled areas and each of his targets had been scored inside spitting distance of Senators goalie Anton Forsberg.

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The Canadiens performed higher after St. Louis shook up his strains and Ottawa normal supervisor Pierre
Dorion summed up the sport by saying: “We had been fortunate. (The Canadiens) labored their asses off tonight.”

Suzuki, whose manufacturing has tailed off over the previous 5 weeks, picked up two assists for his first multi-point recreation since Jan. 7 and he gained 15 of his 22 faceoffs for a hit fee of 68 per cent. He famous the sport represented a reunion of types with Harvey-Pinard. They had been each within the Vegas Golden Knights improvement camp in 2018 earlier than Harvey-Pinard was drafted.

St. Louis stated he wasn’t overly involved about Suzuki’s current lack of manufacturing.

“For those who take a look at him below a microscope on a regular basis, you’re going to see variations right here and there, that’s the season,” St. Louis stated. “I’m attempting to watch out with that, give him some respiratory room and let him right himself. Generally, you need to over-coach and typically you will have let him determine it out. I believed he performed an excellent recreation tonight to enter the break with an excellent feeling.

“There’s a number of strain on him, however from the start of the season to now, there’s much more good than dangerous,” St. Louis added. “I’m not fearful about him.”

The Canadiens’ different two targets had been scored on the facility play by Kirby Dach and Mike Hoffman.

phickey@postmedia.com

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