Montreal Canadiens Game Reactions: Mighty Mete but a Frustrating Fall

The goal scoring slump continues for the Montreal Canadiens as they lose Monday’s game to the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 5-1.

After all these years, the streak is over. The Toronto Maple Leafs finally managed to beat the Montreal Canadiens! Well not really, it was just a preseason game, but another loss is nothing to be proud of, especially one with such a deficit offensively.

Did someone on the team step underneath a ladder or break a mirror? Before the game, we all thought that Jonathan Drouin and Charlie Lindgren would be playing. That all changed when it was announced that Drouin is dealing with an upper-body injury and would miss the game. Additionally, not too far from puck drop, Lindgren was pulled out because of a lower-body injury.

Montreal didn’t even have a back-up for a portion of the first period. That wasn’t until they brought Jake Hildebrand in as an emergency call-up. The 24-year-old was predominantly an ECHL goaltender, but played three games in the AHL last season. It’ll be a funny story for him in the future that’s for sure.

Despite all that, it’s still concerning to see the Montreal Canadiens have a result like this. They may have a chance to redeem themselves as they’re set to face to Leafs again in Quebec City on Wednesday.

Thoughts and Observations

The weird thing is that the Habs didn’t necessarily play badly Monday. Of course there were some players that made some goal-costing mistakes, but as a whole the effort was much better.

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Victor Mete again had another fantastic night. It’s incredible how well he’s been playing lately. He doesn’t look scared or nervous like some young defencemen may be in their first stint in the NHL. Mete has been very confident and steady for the Habs.

There were two plays that he made that really stood out to me. The first was a turnover he had at the near the end of the first period. Montreal was spending time in the Leafs zone and Mete was in position to prevent the puck from leaving the zone. A shot he took after was blocked by Auston Matthews and he in turn sent the puck over Mete’s stick to a streaking William Nylander.

What was amazing about Mete then was that he quickly hustled back and prevented Zach Hyman from receiving the pass on the two-on-one. Then there was also his role in the Jeff Petry goal which was a beautiful one-time pass on the power play.

We can talk about the obvious errors of the game such as Matthews being left un-contested for his second goal of the game, Jordie Benn having another turnover that led to a goal, or how shakey Al Montoya looked at times.

The bottom-line is that the Montreal Canadiens haven’t found a way to score more. It’s not like they didn’t have their chances either. Both Max Pacioretty and Paul Byron hit posts, but besides that, Frederik Andersen made his saves.

It’s still a little too early to judge Montreal yet. Fans we’ll have to wait and see what the entire line-up looks like, including Drouin. No offence to Torrey Mitchell, but he has no place being on the top line for the Habs.

The leeway period that the Canadiens have had is slowly coming to an end. It won’t be long before these defensive issues and lack of goal scoring get close to the regular season. If that happens, then it will be time to panic.

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What did you make of the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.