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Photo by Dave-Sidaway / jpg

The review from the Toronto War Room, predictably, took forever. Memories of Babcock’s sour attempt to spoil the moment will last even longer.

It won’t always be like this for Poehling, but he’s big, strong, involved and he has a scoring touch. In one game, he spent more time in close proximity to the goaltender than Max Pacioretty will spend in his entire NHL career.

All in all, a dazzling debut. It was the perfect way to end a season that saw the Canadiens restore some lost pride, deliver more entertainment value than they have at any time since the 2014 playoffs and improve in the standings by 25 points.

All that is well and good. If they want the smiles to remain, Bergevin and owner Geoff Molson are going to need to try a little harder. As Global’s Brian Wilde pointed out this weekend, enough with pocketing nearly $10 million a year in unused salary-cap space. That’s fine when you aren’t overpaying for free agents who can’t get you to the promised land anyway — but when you get close, it’s time to put that cash to work.