MONTREAL — Artturi Lehkonen was standing at the same end of the ice where he scored the Canadiens’ most important goal of this century. That goal, the Game 6 overtime winner that sent Montreal to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, played above him on the Bell Centre jumbotron.
Lehkonen is a vicious forechecker who keeps to himself and rarely allows his focus to stray while on the ice. But he craned his neck to relive this. Nathan MacKinnon playfully slapped Lehkonen with his stick as the crowd went wild. Lehkonen tapped his heart, saluting his old home.