The Montreal Canadiens have never been accused of being a boring franchise. This series is a look back at the moments that made you throw your hands up, lose your mind, ugly cry, hold your breath, scratch your head, and cheer so loudly you scared the dog…sometimes all at once. If you were there the first time around, you know. If you weren’t, hop in the DeLorean cause we’re going back in time.

57 Seconds

It was June 2, 2021, Game 1 of the second round against the Winnipeg Jets, and the Canadiens were in front 4-3 after Kyle Connor’s goal at 18:18 of the third had cut their lead to one, which, last we checked, is still a lead. With the Jets’ net empty and under a minute to play, Montreal was looking to see out an opening victory. Then Jake Evans, celebrating his 25th birthday, chased down the puck, circled the cage, and tucked it into the open net to put the game out of reach, notching his first career playoff goal in the process. Celebrations all around! 

But not on Mark Scheifele’s watch. The 6’3″, 207-pound Jets centre came in at full speed and levelled the unsuspecting Evans at the goal line. He lay face-down for about six minutes, surrounded by medical staff, before he left on a stretcher.

If you watched it live, you were part of the collective who felt the drop in your stomach, your hands flew to your mouth, the bargaining with the universe started while you waited for any news at all. First came the relief that he was conscious and moving his arms, then that he’d spent the night at the team hotel under observation instead of in hospital, and then that it was a concussion and not a fracture of some sort. 

Clean, Dirty, or Predatory?

Scheifele was handed a major for charging and a game misconduct, and the hockey world split into camps almost instantly. On the Montreal side, Jesperi Kotkaniemi called the hit “disgusting,” Joel Edmundson called it dirty adding, “If he gets back in the series, we’re going to make his life miserable.” Interim coach Dominique Ducharme called it “vicious” and “useless,” while Jets coach Paul Maurice defended it as “a heavy, heavy hit for sure, but it was clean,” pointing out that Scheifele’s feet stayed on the ice and his arms stayed tucked in (not sure what hit Maurice was watching). Andrew Copp added that with the Jets down a goal, Scheifele was simply trying to stop Montreal from scoring.

But the league wasn’t buying this poppycock. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety called it “a high, predatory hit,” said Scheifele made no real effort to defend, noted that the outcome of both the play and the game had already been decided, and slapped him with a four-game suspension.

Scheifele was adamant that he was only trying to stop a goal and never meant to hurt anyone. He reached out to a few Canadiens players, including his friend Brendan Gallagher, to check on Evans, but he pushed back hard on the punishment itself more than once, calling the four games excessive and disagreeing with the league’s “predatory” label. Though he did take the ban without appealing, he said his family was being bullied online and by phone, which nobody deserves, no matter how they feel about the hit. 

Win it for Jake

The Habs’ answer to the hit was simple, and Paul Byron put it best when he said the way to respond was to “win hockey games so Jake can come back.” With the Jets’ scoring leader out, they did exactly that, sweeping Winnipeg in four games, outscoring them 14-6, and never trailing once along the way. Scheifele, who couldn’t return until Game 6, spent the rest of the season on the sidelines with one game of his suspension still left to serve.

The Canadiens made their way to the Stanley Cup Final, the Habs’ first since 1993, and there, on the fourth line with Eric Staal and Corey Perry, was Evans, back for Game 1 nearly a month after he’d been carried off the ice in Winnipeg. The Habs lost that night, 5-1, but he logged 11:55 with three hits and a shot on goal, and when reporters brought up the hit afterward, he said he’d rather talk about what was ahead.

What was ahead was a four-year extension that runs through 2028-29, and then two more trips back to the post-season: a first-round exit to the Washington Capitals in 2025, and a 2026 run all the way to the Eastern Conference Final before the Carolina Hurricanes shut the door.

As for Scheifele, he set out to stop a goal, and the only thing he ended up stopping was his own playoff season. If we ever do get our hands on that DeLorean, we know exactly where we’re setting the dial: Winnipeg, June 2, 2021, 57 seconds left on the clock, to politely inform one Jets centre that the puck was already in the net.