Kale Clague ruins first impression with Canadiens

If there is one place in the National Hockey League where you want to make a great first impression, it’s in Montreal. Canadiens fans are passionate and ruthless and you better look good and play well.

And so it wasn’t the start defenseman Kale Clague was looking for on Tuesday night when the Habs hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Canadiens claimed the 23-year-old off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and he practised with his new teammates for the first time Monday on the third defence pairing pairing with Brett Kulak. Clague also practised on the power play.

He wore number 43 as he stepped on the ice in Montreal for his first game as a Canadien. But then, he made a huge mistake that led to the Bolts’ first goal of the game.

Clague turned the puck over as it slipped on his stick and he could not control it. The disc eventually ended up on the tape of Pat Maroon, who scored the first goal and give the defending champions the lead.

As many were quick to point out on social media, this is not the way you want to kick things off in Montreal with the Habs’ jersey on….

And unfortunately for Clague, the Canadiens lost in the last minute of the period after gaining the 2-1 lead back. The Lightning scored two goals in 91 seconds, the tying goal by none other than Corey Perry. 

Debut with the Habs, bad first impression and a 3-2 loss to top things off...