Stu Cowan: Another Richard shines for Canadiens at Bell Centre

Anthony Richard scores two goals and adds an assist to lead his team to victory in annual Red vs. White scrimmage.

Author of the article:

Stu Cowan  •  Montreal Gazette

There are two banners hanging from the rafters at the Bell Centre with the name Richard on them.

The legendary Maurice “Rocket” Richard had his No. 9 retired after winning eight Stanley Cups with the Canadiens and there’s also a statue honouring him outside the Bell Centre, along with fellow Hall of Famers Jean Béliveau, Guy Lafleur and Howie Morenz.

Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard — Maurice’s younger brother — had his No. 16 retired after winning a record 11 Stanley Cups as a player with the Canadiens.

On Sunday afternoon, there was another Richard on the ice at the Bell Centre, this time wearing No. 90 for the Canadiens in their annual Red vs. White scrimmage.

Anthony Richard scored two goals and added an assist to lead his Red team to a 7-2 win over the White team.

“For sure, it’s special for me and for my family,” Richard said about playing for the first time at the Bell Centre. “They’re big Canadiens fans my whole family and my friends are watching pretty much every game.

“When I signed this summer, it was a special moment for me and my friends.”

The 25-year-old Richard has played only two career NHL games with the Nashville Predators, who selected him in the fourth round (100th overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft after he posted 43-48-91 totals in 66 games with the QMJHL’s Val d’Or Foreurs.

The 5-foot-11, 183-pound centre from Trois-Riviéres had 17-21-38 totals in 71 AHL games last season split between the Milwaukee Admirals and Syracuse Crunch. In July, the Canadiens signed Richard to a one-year, two-way contract that will pay him US$750,000 in the NHL and US$300,000 with the AHL’s Laval Rocket, where he could become a key player.

Richard said his favourite Canadiens player growing up was Richard Zednik because he wore No. 20.

“I used to wear No. 20 in my youth, so he was one of my favourite players ever,” Richard said.

Juraj Slafkovsky, the No. 1 overall pick at this year’s NHL Draft, now wears No. 20 for the Canadiens. But fans who were hoping to see Slafkovsky in action on Sunday were left disappointed since he didn’t dress for the scrimmage. He is expected to be in the lineup Monday when the Canadiens play their first preseason game at the Bell Centre against the New Jersey Devils (7 p.m., RDS, TSN2, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).

Alex Green, Joel Armia, Jared Davidson (wearing P.K. Subban’s old No. 76), Xavier Simoneau and Arber Xhekaj also scored for the Red team on Sunday, while Brendan Gallagher and Lucas Condotta scored for the White team.

The game was sold out with tickets costing $10 and there weren’t a lot of empty seats. Ticket sales raised $184,540, which will be split evenly between the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation and the Tablée des Chefs.

The fans had a great time with a lot of families and children in the crowd.

There was one forward line on each team that could also be together when the regular season starts on Oct. 12 at the Bell Centre against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On the Red team, Jake Evans was at centre between Jonathan Drouin and Armia, while the White team had Christian Dvorak between Evgenii Dadonov and Gallagher. Those two lines have been in place since training camp started and they were matched up against each other throughout the scrimmage.

“Nothing is set in stone and all those decisions go back to Marty (St. Louis),” assistant coach Stéphane Robidas said when he spoke with the media after the scrimmage instead of the head coach. “He’s the one that’s making the final calls. But I think what I see with Jake is he’s just a smart player with good energy, good speed. Jo’s a highly skilled player and Army’s just a big guy that can make plays also, strong on the puck. I think they’ve been good so far and who knows what’s going to happen in the future. But so far, so good.”

As for the other line, Robidas said: “They’ve been good at scrimmages the last few days. Good energy, smart players that compete. So I think they could be a very good line for us.”

For Dadonov, it was his first time wearing a Canadiens sweater at the Bell Centre after being acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in June in exchange for Shea Weber.

“We were wearing white jerseys, so I was staying on the same side of the bench as before,” the 33-year-old veteran said with a grin.

“I heard it was going to be a lot of people, but I didn’t expect that much,” Dadonov added. “It was almost sold out. Actually, I think there were less people last season when I played with Las Vegas here.”

Sunday was a day for the Canadiens and their fans to try to forget last season, when they finished with the worst record in the NHL.

The scrimmage ended with fans doing the wave and chanting “Go Habs Go!”

It was a day Anthony Richard won’t forget.

scowan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StuCowan1

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