Montreal Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty (67) celebrates his goal with teammate Dale Weise (22) during second period National Hockey League action Thursday, November 13, 2014 in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
There he stood afterward draped in a garment that fit the occasion, well, perfectly.
It happens that said article of clothing is a red-and-blue satin boxer's robe – with the words Championship Habits emblazoned on the left lapel – and it is awarded to the Montreal Canadiens player who is adjudged by his teammates to have been the key contributor to a game.
There can be little dispute that Dale Weise earned the champeen's cape on this occasion, literally and figuratively.
The speedy winger scored on a second-period penalty shot, added an assist, and had a scrap with rugged Boston centre Gregory Campbell on his first shift (after crunching him with a bodycheck).
He's completed the so-called Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, helper, donnybrook) in the minors, "but it means a little bit more in the NHL."
It's worth pointing out Weise was a healthy scratch the last time the Habs played the Boston Bruins on Oct. 16.
No bets on that happening again any time soon.
Much will surely be made of the fact the Habs beat their hated rivals both on the scoreboard and in the fisticuffs department (in the second period defenceman Nathan Beaulieu, playing on the wing this night, laid a pummelling on Matt Fraser – who retreated to the dressing room and played only three more shifts).
It's surely more significant that Weise's goal was the first this season from any regular member of the Habs' fourth line (Beaulieu, bumped off the blueline by newly-acquired veteran Sergei Gonchar, had the primary assist on the last goal in a 5-1 blowout).
Combine that with the two goals provided by the third line and you have a lineup that becomes devilishly hard to defend – Lars Eller scored his third goal in as many games, linemate Jiri Sekac assisted on that and scored one of his own late in the game, snapping an 0-for-28 power-play drought (Eller picked up an assist).
The Habs, as Sekac's agent helpfully pointed out on Twitter, are now 9-1 with the powerful young Czech in their lineup.
There is an unknowable quality to the affinities that develop between hockey players, Eller isn't in any particular rush to pinpoint why it is he's so effective with Sekac.
"Most of all it's playing on your instincts . . . he's a smart player, he competes and he can beat guys one on one. He had a little adjustment period in the first couple of weeks of the season where we maybe weren't on the same page, but now we are," Eller said.
What's certain is that Brandon Prust's directness and Sekac's ability to round defenders with speed have made Eller a more dangerous player.
That, in turn, presents a tactical puzzle to opposing coaches, and a further match-up headache: send out a tougher defence pair or checking line against the Eller unit, risk being beaten up by the Habs' main scoring lines (20-year-old phenom Alex Galchenyuk, in particular, seemed to benefit from the situation, he could have scored a hat trick).
"When we have all lines being dangerous out there not only does it help our energy and the flow of the game, it messes with the other team a little bit," said winger Max Pacioretty, who scored a pair of goals, including the winner. "When that line is dangerous they might get a little bit harder matchups and that takes some of the pressure off the other two lines. You want everyone pitching in, but it does a ton for your team."
Pacioretty elaborated on the thought: "You look at all the top teams in the league and their scoring is spread out . . . having everybody feel that they can step up and be the hero on any night not only helps on the ice, but I think it helps with the team chemistry and camaraderie as well. You don't get guys moping, you don't get guys mad about their roles. Everyone has an important role and it's acknowledged."
That includes Weise, who has bounced around the lineup, occasionally seeing duty on the offensive lines.
Plenty of Montreal's players have taken prominent roles in continuing the decades-old enmity with the Bruins – Pacioretty, P.K. Subban and Alexei Emelin won't be getting any free rounds sent to them in Beantown – and Weise can safely be added to the list.
He memorably flexed his arm at Boston's fearsome Milan Lucic in game seven of the second-round playoff series between the teams last year (Lucic had done likewise earlier in the series).
In the handshake line after Boston was eliminated, Lucic is reported to have told Weise that "I'm going to (expletive) kill you."
Well, there wasn't any nefarious intent on display in this game – Lucic did lay out Sekac with an open-ice hit, but didn't bother engaging when Subban skated up the ice and gave him a couple of hearty cross-checks.
When Weise was asked after the game whether he'd had any interactions with the burly Lucic, he said "I think we had one faceoff, and I don't think we even looked at each other."
After the game, Lucic allowed that perhaps the Bruins' determined attempt to maintain their composure was a little too successful.
"We're a team that thrives on playing with emotion and maybe you're right we needed to play with emotion and more bang. It wasn't there tonight. The next time we play them hopefully we come with that emotion that gives us success," he said.
In fairness, the Bruins were playing for the second time in as many nights, having suffered a 6-1 pounding in Toronto on Wednesday ("that's a tough back-to-back," Weise said), and started the game strongly.
Despite their 12-4-1 record the Habs are not without vulnerabilities, Boston was able to thwart the Montreal fore-check in the early going and dominate possession.
Broadly speaking, Gonchar played well, but like his other teammates he looked a step behind the play in the early going as the Bruins hemmed the Habs in their end for significant stretches and dominated the play along the walls.
Indeed, the visitors mostly controlled the first period and took the lead on a Dougie Hamilton power play point shot. The Habs' only scoring chance of note came on a Pacioretty breakaway which Niklas Svedberg saved – the Swede was filling in for regular starter Tuukka Rask, who probably didn't need the pressure of playing in a rink where he has a 3-6 career record a night after being yanked in Toronto.
"The first period was very good, I thought we got the results we wanted to get, but to make a long story short we weren't able to sustain it," said coach Claude Julien.
Sustainability is also a question that will dog the Canadiens, who have won four straight – for once goalie Carey Price only had to make a couple of key saves (including a memorable theft of a goal from Seth Griffith with his blocker in the first) rather than bail out his teammates with his heroics.
A more reliable power play would make the Habs' case as a top team in the East more convincing.
So will a long string of periods where they dictate the play in the manner of the second and third on Thursday.
Their next opportunity arrives on Saturday when Philadelphia comes to the Bell Centre.